Create a Game Plan to Implement Cloud Backup the Right Way

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  • Parent Category Name: Storage & Backup Optimization
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  • Cloud adoption is frequently driven by hype rather than careful consideration of the best-fit solution.
  • IT is frequently rushed into cloud adoption without appropriate planning.
  • Organizations frequently lack appropriate strategies to deal with cloud-specific backup challenges.
  • Insufficient planning for cloud backup can exacerbate problems rather than solving them, leading to poor estimates of the cost and effort involved, budget overruns, and failure to meet requirements.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • The cloud isn’t a magic bullet, but it tends to deliver the most value to organizations with specific use cases – frequently smaller organizations who are looking to avoid the cost of building or upgrading a data center.
  • Cloud backup does not necessarily reduce backup costs so much as it moves them around. Cloud backup distributes costs over a longer term. Organizations need to compare the difference in CAPEX and OPEX to determine if making the move makes financial sense.
  • The cloud can deliver a great deal of value for organizations who are looking to reduce the operational effort demanded by an existing tape library for second- or third-tier backups.
  • Data security risks in some cases may be overstated, depending on what on-premises security is available. However, targeting backup to the cloud introduces other risks that need to be considered before implementation is given the green light.

Impact and Result

  • Understand if cloud backup is the right solution for actual organizational needs.
  • Make an informed decision about targeting backup to the cloud by considering the big picture TCO and effort level involved in adoption.
  • Have a ready strategy to mitigate the most common challenges with cloud adoption projects.
  • Develop a roadmap that lays out the required step-by-step to implement cloud backup.

Create a Game Plan to Implement Cloud Backup the Right Way Research & Tools

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

1. Understand the benefits and risks of targeting backups to the cloud

Build a plan to mitigate the risks associated with backing data up in the cloud.

  • Storyboard: Create a Game Plan to Implement Cloud Backup the Right Way

2. Determine if the cloud can meet the organization's data requirements

Assess if the cloud is a good fit for your organization’s backup data.

  • Cloud Backup Implementation Game Plan Tool

3. Mitigate the Challenges of Backing Up to the Cloud

Build a cloud challenge contingency plan.

4. Build a Cloud Backup Implementation Roadmap

Perform a gap analysis to determine cloud backup implementation initiatives.

Infographic

Workshop: Create a Game Plan to Implement Cloud Backup the Right Way

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 Evaluate the business case for targeting backup at the cloud

The Purpose

Understand how cloud backup will affect backup and recovery processes

Determine backup and recovery objectives

Assess the value proposition of cloud backup

Key Benefits Achieved

A high-level understanding of the benefits of moving to cloud backup

A best-fit analysis of cloud backup in comparison to organizational needs

Activities

1.1 Document stakeholder goals for cloud backup

1.2 Document present backup processes

1.3 Document ideal backup processes

1.4 Review typical benefits of cloud backup

Outputs

Documented stakeholder goals

Current backup process diagrams

Ideal backup process diagram

2 Identify candidate data sets and assess opportunities and readiness

The Purpose

Identify candidate data sets for cloud-based backup

Determine RPOs and RTOs for candidate data sets

Identify potential value specific to each data set for targeting backup at the cloud

Evaluate organizational readiness for targeting backup at the cloud

Key Benefits Achieved

Documented recovery objectives

Recommendations for cloud backup based on actual organizational needs and readiness

Activities

2.1 Document candidate data sets

2.2 Determine recovery point and recovery time objectives for candidate data sets

2.3 Identify potential value of cloud-based backup for candidate data sets

2.4 Discuss the risk and value of cloud-based backup versus an on-premises solution

2.5 Evaluate organizational readiness for cloud backup

2.6 Identify data sets to move to the cloud

Outputs

Validated list of candidate data sets

Specific RPOs and RTOs for core data sets

An assessment of the value of cloud backup for data sets

A tool-based recommendation for moving backups to the cloud

3 Mitigate the challenges of backing up to the cloud

The Purpose

Understand different cloud provider models and their specific risks

Identification of how cloud backup will affect IT infrastructure and personnel

Strategize ways to mitigate the most common challenges of implementing cloud backup

Understand the client/vendor relationship in cloud backup

Understand the affect of cloud backup on data security

Key Benefits Achieved

Verified best-fit cloud provider model for organizational needs

Verified strategy for meeting the most common challenges for cloud-based backup

A strong understanding of how cloud backup will change IT

Strategies for approaching vendors to ensure a strong footing in negotiations and clear expectations for the client/vendor relationship

Activities

3.1 Discuss the impact of cloud backup on infrastructure and IT environment

3.2 Create a cloud backup risk contingency plan

3.3 Document compliance and security regulations

3.4 Identify client and vendor responsibilities for cloud backup

3.5 Discuss and document the impact of cloud backup on IT roles and responsibilities

3.6 Compile a list of implementation intiatives

3.7 Evaluate the financial case for cloud backup

Outputs

Cloud risk assessment

Documented contingency strategies for probabe risks

Negotiation strategies for dealing with vendors

A committed go/no-go decision on the value of cloud backup weighted against the effort of implementation

4 Build a cloud backup implementation roadmap

The Purpose

Create a road map for implementing cloud backup

Key Benefits Achieved

Determine any remaining gaps between the present state and the ideal state for cloud backup

Understand the steps and time frame for implementing cloud backup

Allocate roles and responsibilities for the implementation intitiative

A validated implementation road map

Activities

4.1 Perform a gap analysis to generate a list of implementation intiatives

4.2 Prioritize cloud backup initiatives

4.3 Assess risks and dependencies for critical implementation initiatives

4.4 Assign ownership over implementation tasks

4.5 Determine road map time frame and structure

4.6 Populate the roadmap with cloud backup initiatives

Outputs

A validated gap analysis

A prioritized list of cloud backup initiatives

Documented dependencies and risks associated with implementation tasks

A roadmap for targeting backups at the cloud

Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools

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  • Parent Category Name: Mobile Development
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  • Organizations see the value of mobile applications in improving productivity and reach of day-to-day business and IT operations. This motivates leaders to begin the planning of their first application.
  • However, organizations often lack the critical foundational knowledge and skills to deliver and maintain high quality and valuable applications that meet business and user priorities and technical requirements.
  • Mobile technologies and trends are continually evolving and maturing. It is hard to predict which trends will make a significant impact and to prepare current mobile investments to harness their value of these trends.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • Mobile applications can stress the stability, reliability, and overall quality of your enterprise systems and services. They will also increase your security risks because of the exposure of your enterprise technology assets to unsecured networks and devices.
  • High costs of entry may restrict what built-in features your users can have in their mobile experience. Workarounds may not be sufficient to offset the costs of certain built-in feature needs.
  • Many operating models do not enable or encourage the collaboration required to fully understand user needs and behaviors and evaluate mobile opportunities and underlying operational systems from multiple perspectives.

Impact and Result

  • Establish the right expectations. Understand your mobile users by learning their needs, challenges, and behaviors. Discuss the current state of your systems and your high priority non-functional requirements to determine what to expect from your mobile applications.
  • Choose the right mobile platform approach and shortlist your mobile delivery solutions. Obtain a thorough view of the business and technical complexities of your mobile opportunities, including current mobile delivery capabilities and system compatibilities.
  • Create your mobile roadmap. Describe the gradual rollout of your mobile technologies through minimal valuable products (MVPs).

Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools Research & Tools

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

1. Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools Storyboard

This blueprint helps you develop an approach to understand the mobile experience your stakeholders want your users to have and select the appropriate platform and delivery tools to meet these expectations.

  • Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools Storyboard

2. Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template – Clearly communicate the goal and approach of your mobile application implementation in a language your audience understands.

This template narrates a story to describe the need and expectations of your low- and no-code initiative to get buy-in from stakeholders and interested parties.

  • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

Infographic

Workshop: Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools

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

1 Choose Your Platform and Delivery Solution

The Purpose

Choose the right mobile platform.

Shortlist your mobile delivery solution and desired features and services.

Key Benefits Achieved

A chosen mobile platform that meets user and enterprise needs.

Candidate mobile delivery solutions that meet your delivery needs and capacity of your teams.

Activities

1.1 Select your platform approach.

1.2 Shortlist your mobile delivery solution.

1.3 Build your feature and service lists.

Outputs

Desired mobile platform approach.

Shortlisted mobile delivery solutions.

Desired list of vendor features and services.

2 Create Your Roadmap

The Purpose

Design the mobile application minimal viable product (MVP).

Create your mobile roadmap.

Key Benefits Achieved

An achievable and valuable mobile application that is scalable for future growth.

Clear intent of business outcome delivery and completing mobile delivery activities.

Activities

2.1 Define your MVP release.

2.2 Build your roadmap.

Outputs

MVP design.

Mobile delivery roadmap.

3 Set the Mobile Context

The Purpose

Understand your user’s environment needs, behaviors, and challenges.

Define stakeholder expectations and ensure alignment with the holistic business strategy.

Identify your mobile application opportunities.

Key Benefits Achieved

Thorough understanding of your mobile user and opportunities where mobile applications can help.

Level set stakeholder expectations and establish targeted objectives.

Prioritized list of mobile opportunities.

Activities

3.1 Generate user personas with empathy maps.

3.2 Build your mobile application canvas.

3.3 Build your mobile backlog.

Outputs

User personas.

Mobile objectives and metrics.

Mobile opportunity backlog.

4 Identify Your Technical Needs

The Purpose

Define the mobile experience you want to deliver and the features to enable it.

Understand the state of your current system to support mobile.

Identify your definition of mobile application quality.

List the concerns with mobile delivery.

Key Benefits Achieved

Clear understanding of the desired mobile experience.

Potential issues and risks with enabling mobile on top of existing systems.

Grounded understanding of mobile application quality.

Holistic readiness assessment to proceed with mobile delivery.

Activities

4.1 Discuss your mobile needs.

4.2 Conduct a technical assessment.

4.3 Define mobile application quality.

4.4 Verify your decision to deliver mobile applications.

Outputs

List of mobile features to enable the desired mobile experience.

System current assessment.

Mobile application quality definition.

Verification to proceed with mobile delivery.

Further reading

Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools

Maximize the value of your mobile investments by prioritizing technology decisions on user experience, business priorities, and system quality.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Analyst Perspective

Mobile is the way of working.

Workers require access to enterprise products, data, and services anywhere at anytime on any device. Give them the device-specific features, offline access, desktop-like interfaces, and automation capabilities they need to be productive.

To be successful, you need to instill a collaborative business-IT partnership. Only through this partnership will you be able to select the right mobile platform and tools to balance desired outcomes with enterprise security, performance, integration, quality, and other delivery capacity concerns.

This is a picture of Andrew Kum-Seun Senior Research Analyst, Application Delivery and Application Management Info-Tech Research Group

Andrew Kum-Seun
Senior Research Analyst,
Application Delivery and Application Management
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

  • Organizations see the value of mobile applications in improving productivity and reach of day-to-day business and IT operations. This motivates leaders to begin the planning of their first application.
  • However, organizations often lack the critical foundational knowledge and skills to deliver and maintain high quality and valuable applications that meet business and user priorities and technical requirements.
  • Mobile technologies and trends are continually evolving and maturing. It is hard to predict which trends will make a significant impact and to prepare current mobile investments to harness the value of these trends.

Common Obstacles

  • Mobile applications can stress the stability, reliability and overall quality of your enterprise systems and services. They will also increase your security risks because of the exposure of your enterprise technology assets to unsecured networks and devices.
  • High costs of entry may restrict what native features your users can have in their mobile experience. Workarounds may not be sufficient to offset the costs of certain native feature needs.
  • Many operating models do not enable or encourage the collaboration required to fully understand user needs and behaviors and evaluate mobile opportunities and underlying operational systems from multiple perspectives.

Info-Tech's Approach

  • Establish the right expectations. Understand your mobile users by learning their needs, challenges, and behaviors. Discuss the current state of your systems and your high priority non-functional requirements to determine what to expect from your mobile applications.
  • Choose the right mobile platform approach and shortlist your mobile delivery solutions. Obtain a thorough view of the business and technical complexities of your mobile opportunities, including current mobile delivery capabilities and system compatibilities.
  • Create your mobile roadmap. Describe the gradual rollout of your mobile technologies through minimal valuable products (MVPs).

Insight Summary

Overarching Info-Tech Insight

Treat your mobile applications as digital products. Digital products are continuously modernized to ensure they are fit-for-purpose, secured, accessible, and immersive. A successful mobile experience involves more than just the software and supporting system. It involves good training and onboarding, efficient delivery turnaround, and a clear and rational vision and strategy.

Phase 1: Set the Mobile Context

  • Build applications your users need and desire – Design the right mobile application that enables your users to address their frustrations and productivity challenges.
  • Maximize return on your technology investments – Build your mobile applications with existing web APIs, infrastructure, and services as much as possible.
  • Prioritize mobile security, performance and integration requirements – Understand the unique security, performance, and integration influences has on your desired mobile user experience. Find the right balance of functional and non-functional requirements through business and IT collaboration.

Phase 2: Define Your Mobile Approach

  • Start with a mobile web platform - Minimize disruptions to your existing delivery process and technical stack by building against common web standards. Select a hybrid platform or cross-platform if you need device hardware access or have complicated non-functional requirements.
  • Focus your mobile solution decision on vendor support and functional complexity – Verify that your solution is not only compatible with the architecture, data, and policies of existing business systems, but satisfies IT's concerns with access to restricted technology and data, and with IT's ability to manage and operate your applications.
  • Anticipate changes, defects & failures in your roadmap - Quickly shift your mobile roadmaps according to user feedback, delivery challenges, value, and stability.

Mobile is how the business works today

Mobile adoption continues to grow in part due to the need to be a mobile workforce, and the shift in customer behaviors. This reality pushed the industry to transform business processes and technologies to better support the mobile way of working.

Mobile Builds Interests
61%
Mobile devices drove 61% of visits to U.S. websites
Source: Perficient, 2021

Mobile Maintains Engagement
54%
Mobile devices generated 54.4% of global website traffic in Q4 2021.
Source: Statista, 2022

Mobile Drives Productivity
82%
According to 82% of IT executives, smartphones are highly important to employee productivity
Source: Samsung and Oxford Economics, 2022

Mobile applications enable and drive your digital business strategy

Organizations know the criticality of mobile applications in meeting key business and digital transformation goals, and they are making significant investments. Over half (58%) of organizations say their main strategy for driving application adoption is enabling mobile access to critical enterprise systems (Enterprise CIO, 2016). The strategic positioning and planning of mobile applications are key for success.

Mobile Can Motivate, Support and Drive Progress in Key Activities Underpinning Digital Transformation Goals

Goal: Enhance Customer Experience

  • A shift from paper to digital communications
  • Seamless, omni-channel client experiences across devices
  • Create Digital interactive documents with sections that customers can customize to better understand their communications

Goal: Increase Workflow Throughput & Efficiency

  • Digitized processes and use of data to improve process efficiency
  • Modern IT platforms
  • Automation through robotic process automation (RPA) where possible
  • Use of AI and machine learning for intelligent automation

Source: Broadridge, 2022

To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Define Your Digital Business Strategy blueprint.

Well developed mobile applications bring unique opportunities to drive more value

Role

Opportunities With Mobile Applications

Expected Value

Stationary Worker

Design flowcharts and diagrams, while abandoning paper and desktop applications in favor of easy-to-use, drawing tablet applications.

Multitask by checking the application to verify information given by a vendor during their presentation or pitch.

  • Reduce materials cost to complete administrative responsibilities.
  • Digitally and automatically store and archive frequently used documents.

Roaming Worker
(Engineer)

Replace physical copies of service and repair manuals with digital copies, and access them with mobile applications.

Scan or input product bar code to determine whether a replacement part is available or needs to be ordered.

  • Readily access and update corporate data anywhere at anytime.
  • Expand employee responsibilities with minimal skills impact.

Roaming Worker
(Nurse)

Log patient information according to HIPAA standards and complete diagnostics live to propose medication for a patient.

Receive messages from senior staff about patients and scheduling while on-call.

  • Quickly and accurately complete tasks and update patient data at site.
  • Be readily accessible to address urgent issues.

Info-Tech Insight

If you build it, they may not come. Design and build the applications your user wants and needs, and ensure users are properly onboarded and trained. Learn how your applications are leveraged, capture feedback from the user and system dashboards, and plan for enhancements, fixes, and modernizations.

Workers expect IT to deliver against their high mobile expectations

Workers want sophisticated mobile applications like what they see their peers and competitors use.

Why is IT considering building their own applications?

  • Complex and Unique Workflows: Canned templates and shells are viewed as incompatible to the workflows required to complete worker responsibilities outside the office, with the same level of access to corporate data as on premise.
  • Supporting Bring Your Own Device (BYOD): Developing your own mobile applications around your security protocols and standards can help mitigate the risks with personal devices that are already in your workforce.
  • Long-Term Architecture Misalignment: Outsourcing mobile development risks the mobile application misaligned with your quality standards or incompatible with other enterprise and third-party systems.

Continuously meeting aggressive user expectations will not be easy

Value Quickly Wears Off
39.9% of users uninstall an application because it is not in use.
40%
Source: n=2,000, CleverTap, 2021

Low Tolerance to Waiting
Keeping a user waiting for 3 seconds is enough to dissatisfy 43% of users.
43%
Source: AppSamurai, 2018

Quick Fixes Are Paramount
44% of defects are found by users
44%
Source: Perfecto Mobile, 2014

Mobile emphasizes the importance of good security, performance, and integration

Today's mobile workers are looking for new ways to get more work done quickly. They want access to enterprise solutions and data directly on their mobile devices, which can reside on multiple legacy systems and in the cloud and third-party infrastructure. This presents significant performance, integration, and security risks.

Cloud Solutions: Can I use my existing APIs?. Solutions in Corporate Networks: Do my legacy systems have the capacity to support mobile?; How do I integrate solutions and data from multiple sources into a single view?; Third Party Solutions: Will I have a significant performance bottleneck?; Single View on Mobile Devices: How is corporate data stored on the device?; What new technology dependencies must I account for in my architecture and operational support capabilities?

Accept change as the norm

IT is challenged with keeping up with disruptive technologies, such as mobile, which are arriving and changing faster and faster.

What is the issue? Mobile priorities, concepts, and technologies do not remain static. For example, current Google's Pixels benefit from at least three versions of Android updates and at least three years of monthly security patches after their release (NextPit, 2022). Keeping up to date with anything mobile is difficult if you do not have the right delivery and product management practices in place.

What is the impact on IT? Those who fail to prepare for changing requirements and technologies will quickly run into maintainability, extensibility, and flexibility issues. Mobile applications will quickly become stale and misaligned with the maturity of other enterprise infrastructure and applications.

Continuously look at the trends, vendor roadmaps, and your user's feedback to envision where your mobile applications should be. Learning from your past attempts gives you insights on the opportunities and impacts changes will have on your people, process, and technology.

How do I address this issue? A well-defined mobile vision and roadmap ensures your initiatives are aligned with your holistic business and technology strategies, the right problem is being solved, and resources are available to deliver high priority changes.

To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision blueprint.

Address the difficulties in managing enterprise mobile technologies

Adaptability During Development

Teams must be ready to alter their mobile approach when new insights and issues arise during and after the delivery of your mobile application and its updates.

High Cybersecurity Standards

Cybersecurity should be a top priority given the high security exposure of mobiles and the sensitive data mobile applications need to operate. Role-based access, back-up systems, advanced scanning, and protection software and encryption should all be implemented.

Integration with Other Systems

Your application will likely be integrated with other systems to expand service offerings and optimize performance and user experience. Your enterprise integration strategy ensures all systems connect against a common pattern with compatible technologies.

Finding the Right Mobile Developers

Enterprise mobile delivery requires a broad skillset to build valuable applications against extensive non-functional requirements in complex and integration environments. The right resources are even harder to find when native applications are preferred over web-based ones.

Source: Radoslaw Szeja, Netguru, 2022.

Build and manage the right experience by treating mobile as digital products

Digital products are continuously modernized to ensure they are fit-for-purpose, secured, insightful, accessible, and interoperable. A good experience involves more than just technology.

First, deliver the experience end users want and expect by designing the application against digital application principles.

Business Value

Continuous modernization

  • Fit for purpose
  • User-centric
  • Adaptable
  • Accessible
  • Private and secured
  • Informative and insightful
  • Seamless application connection
  • Relationship and network building

To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Modernize Your Applications blueprint.

Then, deliver a long-lasting experience by supporting your applications with key governance and management capabilities.

  • Product Strategy and Roadmap
  • External Relationships
  • User Adoption and Organizational Change Management
  • Funding
  • Knowledge Management
  • Stakeholder Management
  • Product Governance
  • Maintenance & Enhancement
  • User Support
  • Managing and Governing Data
  • Requirements Analysis and Design
  • Research & Development

To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Make the Case for Product Delivery blueprint.

Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools

Maximize the value of your mobile investments by prioritizing technology decisions on user experience, business priorities, and system quality.

WORKFLOW

1. Capture Your User Personas and Journey workflow: Trigger: Step 1; Step 2; Step 3; Step 4; Outcome
2. Select Your Platform Nine datapoints are arranged on a graph where the x axis s labeled: User Centric Needs; and the Y axis is labeled: Enterprise-centric needs. The datapoints are, in order from left to right, top to bottom: Hybrid; Cross- Platform; Native; Web; Hybrid or Cross- Platform; Cros-s Platform; Web; Web; Hybrid or Cross- Platform.
3. Shortlist Your Solutions A quadrant analysis is depicted. the top data is labeled Complex Mobile Features; the right side is labeled Organization-Managed Stack; the bottom is labeled Simple Mobile Features; and the left side is labeled Vendor-Managed Stack. The quadrants are labeled the following, in order from left to right, top to bottom. Vendor- Hosted Mobile Platform; Custom Native Development Solutions; Commercial-Off-the-Shelf Solutions; Custom Web Development Solutions. In the middle of the graph are the following, in order from top to bottom: Cross-Platform Development Solutions; Hybrid Development Solutions

Strategic Perspective
Business and Product Strategies

1. End-User Perspective

End User Needs

  • Productivity
  • Innovation
  • Transformation

Native User Experience

  • Anytime, Anywhere
  • Visually Pleasing & Fulfilling
  • Personalized & Insightful
  • Hands-Off & Automated
  • Integrated Ecosystem

2. Platform Perspective

Technical Requirements

Security

Performance

Integration

Mobile Platform

3. Solution Perspective

Vendor Support

Services

Stack Mgmt.

Quality & Risk

Mobile Delivery Solutions

Make user experience (UX) the standard

User experience (UX) focuses on a user's emotions, beliefs, and physical and psychological responses that occur before, during, or after interacting with a service or product.

For a mobile application to be meaningful, the functions, aesthetics and content must be:

  • Usable
    • Users can intuitively navigate through your mobile application and complete their desired tasks.
  • Desirable
    • The application elements are used to evoke positive emotions and appreciation.
  • Accessible
    • Users can easily use your mobile application, including those with disabilities.
  • Valuable
    • Users find the content useful, and it fulfills a need.

Enable a greater experience with UX-driven thinking

Designing for a high-quality experience requires more than just focusing on the UI. It also requires the merging of multiple business, technical, and social disciplines in order to create an immersive, practical, and receptive application. The image on the right explains the disciplines involved in UX. This is critical for ensuring users have a strong desire to use the mobile application, it is adequately supported technically, and it supports business objectives.

To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Implement and Mature Your User Experience Design Practice blueprint.

A Venn diagram is depicted, demonstrating the inputs that lead to an interactive design, with interactive elements, usability, and accessibility. This work by Mark Roden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

Source: Marky Roden, Xomino, 2018

Define the mobile experience your end users want

  • Anytime, Anywhere
    • The user can access, update and analyze data and corporate products and services whenever they want, in all networks, and on any device.
  • Hands-Off and Automated
    • The application can perform various workflows and tasks without the user's involvement and notify the user when specific triggers are hit.
  • Personalized and Insightful
    • Content presentation and subject are tailored for the user based on specific inputs from the user, device hardware, or predicted actions.
  • Integrated Ecosystem
    • The application supports a seamless experience across various third-party and enterprise applications and services the user needs.
  • Visually Pleasing and Fulfilling
    • The UI is intuitive and aesthetically gratifying, with little security and performance trade-offs to use the full breadth of its functions and services.

Each mobile platform has its own take on the mobile native experience. The choice ultimately depends on whether the costs and effort are worth the anticipated value.

Mobile value is dependent on the platform you choose

What is a platform?

"A platform is a set of software and a surrounding ecosystem of resources that helps you to grow your business. A platform enables growth through connection: its value comes not only from its own features, but from its ability to connect external tools, teams, data, and processes." (Source: Emilie Nøss Wangen, 2021) In the mobile context, applications in a platform execute and communicate through a loosely-coupled API architecture, whether the supporting system is managed and supported by your organization or by third-party providers.

Web

Mobile web applications are deployed and executed within the mobile web browser. They are often developed with a combination of web and scripting languages, such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Web often takes two forms on mobile:

  • Progressive Web Applications (PWA)
  • Mobile Web Sites

Hybrid

Hybrid applications are developed with web technologies but are deployed as native applications. The code is wrapped using a framework so that it runs locally within a native container. It uses the device's browser runtime engine to support more sophisticated designs and features than to the web approach.

Cross-Platform

Cross-platform applications are developed within a distinct programming or scripting environment that uses its own scripting language (often like web languages) and APIs. The solution compiles the code into device-specific builds for native deployment.

Native

Native applications are developed and deployed to specific devices and OSs using platform-specific software development kits (SDKs) provided by the operating system vendors. The programming language and framework are dictated by the targeted device, such as Java for Android.

Start mobile development on a mobile web platform

Start with what you have: begin with a mobile web platform to minimize impacts to your existing delivery skill sets and technical stack while addressing business needs. Resort to a hybrid first. Then consider a cross-platform application if you require device access or need to meet specific non-functional requirements.

Why choose a mobile web platform?

Pros

The latest versions of the most popular web languages (HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript) abstract away from the granular, physical components of the application, simplifying the development process. HTML5 offer some mobile features (e.g. geolocation, accelerometer) that can meet your desired experience without the need for native development skills. Native look-and-feel, high performance, and full device access are just a few tradeoffs of going with web languages.

Cons

Native mobile platforms depend on device-specific code which follows specific frameworks and leverages unique programming libraries, such as Objective C for iOS and Java for Android. Each language requires a high level of expertise in the coding structure and hardware of specific devices. This requires resources with specific skillsets and different tools to support development and testing.

Other Notable Benefits with Web Languages

  • Modern browsers in most mobile devices can execute and render many mobile features developed in web languages, allowing for greater portability and sophistication of code across multiple devices. However, this flexibility comes at the cost of performance since the browser's runtime engine will not perform as well as a native engine.
  • Web languages are well known by developers, minimizing skills and resourcing impacts. Consequently, changes can be quickly accommodated and updated uniformly across all end users.

Select your mobile platform

Drive your mobile platform selection against user-centric needs (e.g. device access, aesthetics) and enterprise-centric needs (e.g. security, system performance).

When does a platform makes sense to use?

Web

  • Desire to maximize current web technologies investments (people, process, and technologies).
  • Use cases do not require significant computational resources on the device or are tightly constrained by non-functional requirements.
  • Limited budget to acquire mobile development resources.
  • Access to device hardware is not a high priority.

Hybrid / Cross-Platform

  • The need to quickly spin up native-like applications for multiple platforms and devices.
  • Desire to leverage existing web development skills, but also a need for device access and meeting specific non-functional requirements.
  • Vendor support is needed for the entire mobile delivery process.

Native

  • Developers are experts in the target programming language and with the device's hardware.
  • Strong need for high performance, security, and device-specific access and customizations.
  • Application use cases require significant computing resources.

Nine datapoints are arranged on a graph where the x axis s labeled: User Centric Needs; and the Y axis is labeled: Enterprise-centric needs. The datapoints are, in order from left to right, top to bottom: Hybrid; Cross- Platform; Native; Web; Hybrid or Cross- Platform; Cros-s Platform; Web; Web; Hybrid or Cross- Platform.

Understand the common attributes of a mobile delivery solution

  • Source Code Management – Built-in or having the ability to integrate with code management solutions for branching, merging, and versioning. Debugging and coding assistance capabilities may be available.
  • Single Code Base – Capable of programming in a standard coding and scripting language for deployment into several platforms and devices. This code base is aligned to a common industry framework (e.g. AngularJS, Java) or a vendor-defined one.
  • Out-of-the-Box Connectors & Plug-ins – Pre-built APIs enhance the solution's capabilities with third-party tools and systems to deliver and manage high quality and valuable mobile applications.
  • Emulators – Ability to virtualize an application's execution on a target platform and device.
  • Support for Native Features – Supports plug-ins and APIs for access to device-specific features.

What are mobile delivery solutions?

A mobile delivery solution provides the tools, resources, and support to enable or build your mobile application. It can provide pre-built applications, vendor supported components to allow some configurations, or resources for full stack customizations. Solutions can be barebone software development kits (SDKs), or comprehensive suites offering features to support the entire software delivery lifecycle, such as:

  • Mobile application management
  • Testing and publishing to app stores
  • Content management
  • Cloud hosting
  • Application performance management

Info-Tech Insight

Mobile enablement and development capabilities are already embedded in many common productivity tools and enterprise applications, such as Microsoft PowerApps and ERP modules. They can serve as a starting point in the initial rollout of new management and governance practices without the need to acquire new tools.

Select your mobile delivery solutions

  1. Set the scope of your framework.
  • The initial context of this framework is based on the mobile functions needed to support your desired mobile experience and on the current state of your enterprise and 3rd party systems.
  • Define the decision factors for your solution selection.
    • Review the decision factors that will influence the selection of your mobile delivery solution for each mobile opportunity:
    • Stack Management – Who will be hosting and supporting your mobile application stack?
    • Workflows Complexity & Native Experience – How complex is your desired mobile experience and how will native device features be leveraged?
  • Select your solution type.
    • Mobile delivery solutions are broadly defined in the following groups:
    • Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) – Pre-built mobile applications requiring little to no configurations or implementation effort.
    • Vendor Hosted Mobile Platform – Back-end and mid-tier infrastructure and operational support are managed by a vendor.
    • Cross-Platform Development – Frameworks that transform a single code base into platform-specific builds.
    • Hybrid Development – Tools that wrap a single code base into a locally deployable build.
    • Custom Web Development – Environment enabling full stack development for mobile web applications.
    • Custom Native Development – Environment enabling full stack development for mobile native applications.
  • A quadrant analysis is depicted. the top data is labeled Complex Mobile Features; the right side is labeled Organization-Managed Stack; the bottom is labeled Simple Mobile Features; and the left side is labeled Vendor-Managed Stack. The quadrants are labeled the following, in order from left to right, top to bottom. Vendor- Hosted Mobile Platform; Custom Native Development Solutions; Commercial-Off-the-Shelf Solutions; Custom Web Development Solutions. In the middle of the graph are the following, in order from top to bottom: Cross-Platform Development Solutions; Hybrid Development Solutions

    Optimize your software delivery process

    Mobile brings new delivery and management challenges that are often difficult for organizations that are tied to legacy systems, hindered by rigid and slow delivery lifecycles, and are unable to adopt leading-edge technologies. Many of these challenges stem from the fact that mobile is a significant shift from desktop development:

    • Mobile devices and operating systems are heavily fragmented, especially in the Android space.
    • Test coverage is significantly expanded to include physical environments and multiple network connections.
    • Mobile devices do not have the same performance capabilities and memory storage as their desktop counterparts.
    • The user interface must be strategically designed to accommodate the limited screen size.
    • Mobile applications are highly susceptible to security breaches.
    • Mobile users often expect quick turnaround time on fixes and enhancements due to continuously changing technology, business priorities, and user needs.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Modernize Your SDLC blueprint.

    How should the process change?

    • Cross-functional collaboration – Bringing business and IT together at the most opportune times to clarify user needs and business priorities, and set realistic expectations given technology and capacity constraints. The appropriate tactics and techniques are used to improve decision making and delivery effectiveness according to the type of work.
    • Iterative delivery – Frequent delivery of progressive changes minimizes the risk of low-quality features by containing and simplifying scope, and enables responsive turnarounds of fixes, enhancements, and priority changes.
    • Feedback loops –Mobile application owners constantly review, update and refine their backlog of mobile features and changes to reflect user feedback and system performance metrics. Delivery teams proactively prepare the application for future scaling based on lessons and feedback learned from earlier releases.

    Achieve mobile success with MVPs

    By delivering mobile capabilities in small iterations, teams recognize value sooner and reduce accumulated risk. Both benefits are realized as the iteration enters validation testing and release.

    This image depicts a graph of the learn-build-measure cycle over time, adapted from Managing the Development of Large Software Systems, Dr. Winston W. Royce, 1970

    An MVP focuses on a small set of functions, involves minimal possible effort to deliver a working and valuable solution, and is designed to satisfy a specific user group. Its purpose is to:

    • Maximize learning.
    • Evaluate the value and acceptance of mobile applications.
    • Inform the building of a mobile delivery practice.

    The build-measure-learn loop suggests mobile delivery teams should perpetually take an idea and develop, test, and validate it with the mobile development solution, then expand on the MVP using the lessons learned and evolving ideas. In this sense the MVP is just the first iteration in the loop.

    Gauge the value with the right metrics

    Metrics are a powerful way to drive behavior change in your organization. But metrics are highly prone to creating unexpected outcomes so they must be used with great care. Use metrics judiciously to avoid gaming or ambivalent behavior, productivity loss, and unintended consequences.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Select and Use SDLC Metrics Effectively blueprint.

    What should I measure?

    1. Mobile Application Engagement, Retention and User Satisfaction
      1. The activeness of users on the applications, the number of returning users, and the happiness of the users.
      2. Example: Number of tasks completed, number of active and returning users, session length and intervals, user satisfaction
    2. Value Driven from Mobile Applications
      1. The business value that the user directly or indirectly receives with the mobile application.
      2. Example: Mobile application revenue, business operational costs, worker productivity, business reputation and image
    3. Delivery Throughput and Quality
      1. The health and quality of your mobile applications throughout their lifespan and the speed to deliver working applications that meet stakeholder expectations.
      2. Example: Frequency of release, lead time, request turnaround, escaped defects, test coverage.

    Use Info-Tech's diagnostic to evaluate the reception of your mobile applications

    Info-Tech's Application Portfolio Assessment (APA) Diagnostic is a canned end-user satisfaction survey used to evaluate your application portfolio health to support data-driven decisions.

    This image contains a screenshot from Info-Tech's Application Portfolio Assessment (APA) Diagnostic

    USE THE PROGRAM DIAGNOSTIC TO:

    • Assess the importance and satisfaction of enterprise applications.
    • Solicit feedback from your end users on applications being used.
    • Understand the strengths and weaknesses of your current applications.
    • Perform a high-level application rationalization initiative.

    INTEGRATE DIAGNOSTIC RESULTS TO:

    • Target which applications to analyze in greater detail.
    • Expand on the initial application rationalization results with a more comprehensive and business-value-focused criteria.

    Grow your mobile delivery practice

    Level 1: Mobile Delivery Foundations

    You understand the opportunities and impacts mobile has on your business operations and its disruptive nature on your enterprise systems. Your software delivery lifecycle was optimized to incorporate the specific practices and requirements needed for mobile. A mobile platform was selected based on stakeholder needs that are weighed against current skillsets, high priority non-functional requirements, the available capacity and scalability of your stack, and alignment to your current delivery process.

    Level 2: Scaled Mobile Delivery

    New features and mobile use cases are regularly emerging in the industry. Ensuring your mobile platform and delivery process can easily scale to incorporate constantly changing mobile features and technologies is key. This can help minimize the impact these changes will have on your mobile stack and the resulting experience.

    Achieving this state requires three competencies: mobile security, performance optimization, and integration practices.

    Level 3: Leading-Edge Mobile Delivery

    Many of today's mobile trends involve, in one form or another, hardware components on the mobile device (e.g., NFC receivers, GPS, cameras). You understand the scope of native features available on your end user's mobile device and the required steps and capabilities to enable and leverage them.

    Hit a home run with your stakeholders

    Use a data-driven approach to select the right tooling vendor for your needs – fast.

    Awareness Education & Discovery Evaluation Selection

    Negotiation & Configuration

    1.1 Proactively Lead Technology Optimization & Prioritization 2.1 Understand Marketplace Capabilities & Trends 3.1 Gather & Prioritize Requirements & Establish Key Success Metrics 4.1 Create a Weighted Selection Decision Model 5.1 Initiate Price Negotiation with Top Two Venders
    1.2 Scope & Define the Selection Process for Each Selection Request Action 2.2 Discover Alternate Solutions & Conduct Market Education 3.2 Conduct a Data Driven Comparison of Vendor Features & Capabilities 4.2 Conduct Investigative Interviews Focused on Mission Critical Priorities with Top 2-4 Vendors 5.2 Negotiate Contract Terms & Product Configuration

    1.3 Conduct an Accelerated Business Needs Assessment

    2.3 Evaluate Enterprise Architecture & Application Portfolio Narrow the Field to Four Top Contenders 4.3 Validate Key Issues with Deep Technical Assessments, Trial Configuration & Reference Checks 5.3 Finalize Budget Approval & Project
    1.4 Align Stakeholder Calendars to Reduce Elapsed Time & Asynchronous Evaluation 2.4 Validate the Business Case 5.4 Invest in Training & Onboarding Assistance

    Investing time improving your software selection methodology has big returns.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Not all software selection projects are created equal – some are very small, some span the entire enterprise. To ensure that IT is using the right framework, understand the cost and complexity profile of the application you're looking to select. Info-Tech's Rapid Application Selection Framework approach is best for commodity and mid-tier enterprise applications; selecting complex applications is better handled by the methodology in Info-Tech's Implement a Proactive and Consistent Vendor Selection Process.

    Pitch your mobile delivery approach with Info-Tech's template

    Communicate the justification of your approach to mobile applications with Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template:

    • Level set your mobile application goals and objectives by weighing end user expectations with technical requirements.
    • Define the high priority opportunities for mobile applications.
    • Educate decision makers of the limitations and challenges of delivering specific mobile experiences with the various mobile platform options.
    • Describe your framework to select the right mobile platform and delivery tools.
    • Lay out your mobile delivery roadmap and initiatives.

    INFO-TECH DELIVERABLE

    This is a screenshot from Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    Info-Tech's methodology for mobile platform and delivery solution selection

    1. Set the Mobile Context

    2. Define Your Mobile Approach

    Phase Steps

    Step 1.1 Build Your Mobile Backlog

    Step 1.2 Identify Your Technical Needs

    Step 1.3 Define Your Non-Functional Requirements

    Step 2.1 Choose Your Platform Approach

    Step 2.2 Shortlist Your Mobile Delivery Solution

    Step 2.3 Create a Roadmap for Mobile Delivery

    Phase Outcomes

    • User personas
    • Mobile objectives and metrics
    • Mobile opportunity backlog
    • List of mobile features to enable the desired mobile experience
    • System current assessment
    • Mobile application quality definition
    • Readiness for mobile delivery
    • Desired mobile platform approach
    • Shortlisted mobile delivery solutions
    • Desired list of vendor features and services
    • MVP design
    • Mobile delivery roadmap

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

    DIY Toolkit

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

    Guided Implementation

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

    Workshop

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

    Consulting

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Phase 1 Phase 2

    Call #1: Understand the case and motivators for mobile applications.

    Call #2: Discuss the end user and desired mobile experience.

    Call #5: Discuss the desired mobile platform.

    Call #8: Discuss your mobile MVP.

    Call #3: Review technical complexities and non-functional requirements.

    Call #6: Shortlist mobile delivery solutions and desired features.

    Call #9: Review your mobile delivery roadmap.

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

    A typical GI is 6 to 9 calls over the course of 2 to 3 months.

    Workshop Overview

    Contact your account representative for more information.
    workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

    Module 1 Module 2 Module 3 Module 4 Post-Workshop
    Activities Set the Mobile Context Identify Your Technical Needs Choose Your Platform & Delivery Solution Create Your Roadmap Next Steps andWrap-Up (offsite)

    1.1 Generate user personas with empathy maps

    1.2 Build your mobile application canvas

    1.3 Build your mobile backlog

    2.1 Discuss your mobile needs

    2.2 Conduct a technical assessment

    2.3 Define mobile application quality

    2.4 Verify your decision to deliver mobile applications

    3.1 Select your platform approach

    3.2 Shortlist your mobile delivery solution

    3.3 Build your feature and service lists

    4.1 Define your MVP release

    4.2 Build your roadmap

    5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days.

    5.2 Set up review time for workshop deliverables and to discuss next steps.

    Deliverables

    • User personas
    • Mobile objectives and metrics
    • Mobile opportunity backlog
    • List of mobile features to enable the desired mobile experience
    • System current assessment
    • Mobile application quality definition
    • Verification to proceed with mobile delivery
    • Desired mobile platform approach
    • Shortlisted mobile delivery solutions
    • Desired list of vendor features and services
    • MVP design
    • Mobile delivery roadmap
    • Completed workshop output deliverable
    • Next steps

    Phase 1

    Set the Mobile Context

    Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools

    This phase will walk you through the following steps:

    • Step 1.1 – Build Your Mobile Backlog
    • Step 1.2 – Identify Your Technical Needs
    • Step 1.3 – Define Your Non-Functional Requirements

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    Step 1.1

    Build Your Mobile Backlog

    Activities

    1.1.1 Generate user personas with empathy maps

    1.1.2 Build your mobile application canvas

    1.1.3 Build your mobile backlog

    Set the Mobile Context

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    • User personas
    • Mobile objectives and metrics
    • Mobile opportunity backlog

    Users expect your organization to support their mobile way of working

    Today, users expect sophisticated and personalized features, immersive interactions, and cross-platform capabilities from their mobile applications and be able to access information and services anytime, anywhere and on any device. These demands are pushing organizations to become more user-driven, placing greater importance on user experience (UX) with enterprise-grade technologies.

    How has technologies evolved to easily enable mobile capabilities?

    • Desktop-Like Features
      • Native-like features, such as geolocation and local caching, are supported through web language or third-party plugins and extensions.
    • Extendable & Scalable
      • Plug-and-play architecture is designed to allow software delivery teams to explore new use cases and mobile capabilities with out-of-the-box connectors and/or customizable REST APIs.
    • Low Barrier to Entry
      • Low- and no-code development tools, full-stack solutions, and plug-and-play architectures allow non-technical users to easily build and implement applications without direct IT involvement.
    • Templates & Shells
      • Vendors provide UI templates and application shells that contain pre-built native features and multiple aesthetic layouts in a publishing-friendly and configurable way.
    • Personalized Content
      • Content can be uniquely tailored to a user's preference or be automatically generated based on the user's profile or activity history.
    • Hands-Off Operations
      • Many mobile solutions operate in a as-a-service model where the underlying and integrated technologies are managed by the vendor and abstracted away.

    Make user experience (UX) the standard

    User experience (UX) focuses on a user's emotions, beliefs, and physical and psychological responses that occur before, during, or after interacting with a service or product.

    For a mobile application to be a meaningful experience, the functions, aesthetics and content must be:

    • Usable
      • Users can intuitively navigate through your mobile application and complete their desired tasks.
    • Desirable
      • The application elements are used to evoke positive emotions and appreciation.
    • Accessible
      • Users can easily use your mobile application, including those with disabilities.
    • Valuable
      • Users find the content useful, and it fulfills a need.

    Enable a greater experience with UX-driven thinking

    Designing for a high-quality experience requires more than just focusing on the UI. It also requires the merging of multiple business, technical, and social disciplines in order to create an immersive, practical, and receptive application. The image on the right explains the disciplines involved in UX. This is critical for ensuring users have a strong desire to use the mobile application, it is adequately supported technically, and it supports business objectives.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Implement and Mature Your User Experience Design Practice blueprint.

    A Venn diagram is depicted, demonstrating the inputs that lead to an interactive design, with interactive elements, usability, and accessibility. This work by Mark Roden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.

    Source: Marky Roden, Xomino, 2018

    UX-driven mobile apps bring together a compelling UI with valuable functionality

    Info-Tech Insight

    Organizations often over-rotate on the UI. Receptive and satisfying applications require more than just pretty pictures, bold colors, and flashy animations. UX-driven mobile applications require the seamless merging of enticing design elements and valuable functions that are specifically tailored to the behaviors of the users. Take a deep look at how each design element and function is used and perceived by the user, and how your application can sufficiently support user needs.

    UI-Function Balance to Achieve Highly Satisfying Mobile Applications

    An application's UI and function both contribute to UX, but they do so in different ways.

    • The UI generates the visual, audio, and vocal cues to draw the attention of users to key areas of the application while stimulating the user's emotions.
    • Functions give users the means to satisfy their needs effortlessly.

    Finding the right balance of UI and function is dependent on the organization's understanding of user emotions, needs, and tendencies. However, these factors are often left out of an application's design. Having the right UX competencies is key in assuring user behaviors are appropriately accommodated early in the delivery process.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Modernize Your Corporate Website to Drive Business Value blueprint.

    Focus your efforts on all items that drive high user experience and satisfaction

    UX-driven mobile applications involve all interaction points and system components working together to create an immersive experience while being actively supported by delivery and operations teams. Many organizations commonly focus on visual and content design to improve the experience, but this is only a small fraction of the total UX design. Look beyond the surface to effectively enhance your application's overall UX.

    Typical Focus of Mobile UX

    Aesthetics
    What Are the Colors & Fonts?

    Relevance & Modern
    Will Users Receive Up to Date Content and Trending Features?

    UI Design
    Where Are the Interaction Points?

    Content Layout
    How Is Content Organized?

    Critical Areas of Mobile UX That Are Often Ignored

    Web Infrastructure
    How Will Your Application Be Operationally Supported?

    Human Behavior
    What Do the Users Feel About Your Application?

    Coding Language
    What Is the Best Language to Use?

    Cross-Platform Compatibility
    How Does It Work in a Browser Versus Each Mobile Platform?

    Application Quality
    How are Functional and Non-Functional Needs Balanced?

    Adoption & Retention
    How Do I Promote Adoption and Maintain User Engagement?

    Application Support
    How Will My Requests and Issues Be Handled?

    Use personas to envision who will be using your mobile application

    What Are Personas?

    Personas are detailed descriptions of the targeted audience of your mobile application. It represents a type of user in a particular scenario. Effective personas:

    • Express and focus on the major needs and expectations of the most important user groups.
    • Give a clear picture of the typical user's behavior.
    • Aid in uncovering critical features and functionalities.
    • Describe real people with backgrounds, goals, and values.

    Why Are Personas Important to UX?

    They are important because they help:

    • Focus the development of mobile application features on the immediate needs of the intended audience.
    • Detail the level of customization needed to ensure content is valuable to and resonates with the user.
    • Describe how users may behave when certain audio and visual stimulus are triggered from the mobile application.
    • Outline the special design considerations required to meet user accessibility needs.

    Key Elements of a Persona:

    • Professional and Technical Skills and Experiences (e.g., knowledge of mobile applications, area of expertise)
    • Persona Group (e.g., executives)
    • Technological Environment of User (e.g., devices, browsers, network connection)
    • Demographics (e.g., nationality, age, language spoken)
    • Typical Behaviors and Tendencies (e.g., goes to different website when cannot find information in 20 seconds)
    • Purpose of Using the Mobile Application (e.g., search for information, submit registration form)

    Create empathy maps to gain a deeper understanding of stakeholder personas

    Empathy mapping draws out the characteristics, motivations, and mannerisms of a potential end user.

    This image contains an image of an empathy map from XPLANE, 2017. it includes the following list: 1. Who are we empathizing with; 2. What do they need to DO; 3. What do they SEE; 4. What do they SAY?; 5. What do they DO; 6. What do they HEAR; 7. What do they THINK and FEEL.

    Source: XPLANE, 2017

    Empathy mapping focuses on identifying the problems, ambitions, and frustrations they are looking to resolve and describes their motivations for wanting to resolve them. This analysis helps your teams:

    • Better understand the reason behind the struggles, frustrations and motivators through a user's perspective.
    • Verify the accuracy of assertions made about the user.
    • Pinpoint the specific problem the mobile application will be designed to solve and the constraints to its successful adoption and on-going use.
    • Read more about empathy mapping and download the empathy map PDF template here.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Use Experience Design to Drive Empathy with the Business blueprint.

    1.1.1 Generate user personas with empathy maps

    1-3 hours

    1. Download the Empathy Map Canvas and draw the map on a whiteboard or project it on the screen.
    2. Choose an end user to be the focus of your empathy map. Using sticky notes, fill out the sections of the empathy map in the following order:
      1. Start by filling out the goals section. State who the subject of the empathy map will be and what activity or task you would like them to do.
        1. Focus on activities and tasks that may benefit from mobile.
      2. Next, complete the outer sections in clockwise order (see, say, do, hear). The purpose of this is to think in terms of what the subject of your empathy map is observing, sensing, and experiencing.
        1. Indicate the mobile devices and OS users will likely use and the environments they will likely be in (e.g., places with poor connections)
        2. Discuss accessibility needs and how user prefer to consume content.
      3. Last, complete the inner circle of the empathy map (pains and gains). Since you spent the last step of the exercise thinking about the external influences on your stakeholder, you can think about how those stimuli affect their emotions.
    3. Document your end user persona into Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template.

    Input

    Output
    • List of potential mobile application users
    • User personas
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    1.1.1 cont'd

    This image contains an image of an empathy map from XPLANE, 2017. it includes the following list: 1. Who are we empathizing with; 2. What do they need to DO; 3. What do they SEE; 4. What do they SAY?; 5. What do they DO; 6. What do they HEAR; 7. What do they THINK and FEEL.

    Download the Empathy Map Canvas

    Many business priorities are driving mobile

    Mobile Applications

    • Product Roadmap
      • Upcoming enterprise technology releases and updates offer mobile capabilities to expand its access to a broader userbase.
    • Cost Optimization
      • Maximizing business value in processes and technologies through disciplined and strategic cost and spending reduction practices with mobile applications.
    • Competitive Differentiation
      • Developing and optimizing your organization's distinct products and services quickly with mobile applications.
    • Digital Transformation
      • Transitioning processes, data and systems to a digital environment to broaden access to enterprise data and services anywhere at anytime.
    • Operational Efficiency
      • Improving software delivery and business process throughput by increasing worker productivity with mobile applications.
    • Other Business Priorities
      • New corporate products and services, business model changes, application rationalization and other priorities may require modernization, innovation and a mobile way of working.

    Focus on the mobile business and end user problem, not the solution

    People are naturally solution-focused. The onus isn't on them to express their needs in the form of a problem statement!

    When refining your mobile problem statement, attempt to answer the following four questions:

    • Who is impacted?
    • What is the (user or organizational) challenge that needs to be addressed?
    • Where does it happen?
    • Why does it matter?

    There are many ways of writing problem statements, a clear approach follows the format:

    • "Our (who) has the problem that (what) when (where). Our solution should (why)."
    • Example: "Our system analysts has the problem that new tickets take too long to update when working on user requests. Our approach should enable the analyst to focus on working with customers and not on administration."

    Adapted from: "Design Problem Statements – What and How to Frame Them"

    How to write a vision statement

    It's ok to dream a little!

    When thinking about a vision statement, think about:

    • Who is it for?
    • What does the customer need?
    • What can we do for them?
    • And why is this special?

    There are different statement templates available to help form your vision statements. Some include:

    1. For [our target customer], who [customer's need], the [product] is a [product category or description] that [unique benefits and selling points]. Unlike [competitors or current methods], our product [main differentiators]. (Crossing the Chasm)
    2. "We believe (in) a [noun: world, time, state, etc.] where [persona] can [verb: do, make, offer, etc.], for/by/with [benefit/goal].
    3. To [verb: empower, unlock, enable, create, etc.] [persona] to [benefit, goal, future state].
    4. Our vision is to [verb: build, design, provide], the [goal, future state], to [verb: help, enable, make it easier to...] [persona]."

    (Numbers 2-4 from: How to define a product vision)

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    A vision shouldn't be so far out that it doesn't feel real and so short term that it gets bogged down in minutiae and implementation details. Finding that right balance will take some trial and error and will be different depending on your organization.

    Ensure mobile supports ongoing value delivery and stakeholder expectations

    Success hinges on your team's ability to deliver business value. Well-developed mobile applications instill stakeholder confidence in ongoing business value delivery and stakeholder buy-in, provided proper expectations are set and met.

    Business value defines the success criteria of an organization, and it is interpreted from four perspectives:

    • Profit Generation – The revenue generated from a business capability with mobile applications.
    • Cost Reduction – The cost reduction when performing business capabilities with mobile applications.
    • Service Enablement – The productivity and efficiency gains of internal business operations with mobile applications.
    • Customer and Market Reach – Metrics measuring the improved reach and insights of the business in existing or new markets.

    See our Build a Value Measurement Framework blueprint for more information about business value definition.

    This image contains a quadrant analysis with the following labels: Left - Improved Capabilities; Top - Outward; Right - Financial Benefit; Bottom - Inward. the quadrants are labeled the following, in order from left to right, top to bottom. Customer and Market Reach; Profit Generation; Service Enhancement; Cost Reduction

    Set realistic mobile goals

    Mobile applications enables the exploration of new and different ways to improve worker productivity and deliver business value. However, the realities of mobile applications may limit your ability to meet some of your objectives:

    • On the day of installation, the average retention rate for public-facing applications was 25.3%. By day 30, the retention rate drops to 5.7%. (Source: Statista, 2020)
    • 63% of 3,335 most popular Android mobile applications on the Google Play Store contained open-source components with known security vulnerabilities and other pervasive security concerns including exposing sensitive data (Source: Synopsys, 2021)
    • 62% of users would delete the application because of performance issues, such as crashes, freezes and other errors (Source: Intersog, 2021).

    These realities are not guaranteed to occur or impede your ability to deliver valuable mobile applications, but they can lead to unachievable expectations. Ensure your stakeholders are not oversold on advertised benefits and hold you accountable for unrealistic objectives. Recognize that the organization must also change how it works and operates to see the full benefit and adoption of mobile applications and overcome the known and unknown challenges and hurdles that often come with mobile delivery.

    Benchmarks present enticing opportunities, but should be used to set reasonable expectations

    66%
    Improve Market Reach
    66% of the global population uses a mobile device
    Source: DataReportal, 2021

    20%
    Connected Workers are More Productive
    Nearly 20 percent of mobile professionals estimate they miss more than three hours of working time a week not being able to get connected to the internet
    Source: iPass, 2017

    80%
    Increase Brand Recognition
    80% of smartphone users are more likely to purchase from companies whose mobile sites of apps help them easily find answers to their questions
    Source: Google, 2018

    Gauge the value with the right metrics

    Metrics are a powerful way to drive behavior change in your organization. But metrics are highly prone to creating unexpected outcomes so they must be used with great care. Use metrics judiciously to avoid gaming or ambivalent behavior, productivity loss, and unintended consequences.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Select and Use SDLC Metrics Effectively blueprint.

    What should I measure?

    1. Mobile Application Engagement, Retention and User Satisfaction
      • The activeness of users on the applications, the number of returning users, and the happiness of the users.
      • Example: Number of tasks completed, number of active and returning users, session length and intervals, user satisfaction
    2. Value Driven from Mobile Applications
      • The business value that the user directly or indirectly receives with the mobile application.
      • Example: Mobile application revenue, business operational costs, worker productivity, business reputation and image
    3. Delivery Throughput and Quality
      • The health and quality of your mobile applications throughout their lifespan and the speed to deliver working applications that meet stakeholder expectations.
      • Example: Frequency of release, lead time, request turnaround, escaped defects, test coverage.

    Use Info-Tech's diagnostic to evaluate the reception of your mobile applications

    Info-Tech's Application Portfolio Assessment (APA) Diagnostic is a canned end user satisfaction survey used to evaluate your application portfolio health to support data-driven decisions.

    This image contains a screenshot from Info-Tech's Application Portfolio Assessment (APA) Diagnostic

    USE THE PROGRAM DIAGNOSTIC TO:

    • Assess the importance and satisfaction of enterprise applications.
    • Solicit feedback from your end users on applications being used.
    • Understand the strengths and weaknesses of your current applications.
    • Perform a high-level application rationalization initiative.

    INTEGRATE DIAGNOSTIC RESULTS TO:

    • Target which applications to analyze in greater detail.
    • Expand on the initial application rationalization results with a more comprehensive and business-value-focused criteria.

    Use a canvas to define key elements of your mobile initiative

    Mobile Application Initiative Name

    Owner:
    Parent Initiative:
    Updated:

    NAME
    LINK
    October 05, 2022

    Problem Statement

    Vision

    The problem or need mobile applications are addressing

    Vision, unique value proposition, elevator pitch, or positioning statement

    Business Goals & Metrics

    Capabilities, Processes & Application Systems

    List of business objectives or goals for the mobile application initiative.

    List of business capabilities, processes and application systems related to this initiative.

    Personas/Customers/Users

    Stakeholders

    List of groups who consume the mobile application

    List of key resources, stakeholders, and teams needed to support the process, systems and services

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision blueprint.

    1.1.2 Build your mobile application canvas

    1-3 hours

    1. Complete the following fields to build your mobile application canvas:
      • Mobile application initiative name
      • Mobile application owner
      • Parent initiative name
      • Problem that mobile applications are intending to solve and your vision. See the outcome from the previous exercise.
      • Mobile application business goals and metrics.
      • Capabilities, processes and application systems involved
      • Primary customers/users (For additional help with your product personas, download and complete to Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision.)
    2. Stakeholders
    3. Document your findings and discussions into Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template.

    Download the Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    Input

    Output
    • User personas
    • Business strategy
    • Problem and vision statements
    • Mobile objectives and metrics
    • Mobile application canvas
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    1.1.2 cont'd

    Mobile Application Initiative Name

    Owner:
    Parent Initiative:
    Updated:

    NAME
    LINK
    October 05, 2022

    Problem Statement

    Vision

    [Problem Statement]

    [Vision]

    Business Goals & Metrics

    Capabilities, Processes & Application Systems

    [Business Goal 1, Metric]
    [Business Goal 2, Metric]
    [Business Goal 3, Metric]

    [Business Capability]
    [Business Process]
    [Application System]

    Personas/Customers/Users

    Stakeholders

    [User 1]
    [User 2]
    [User 3]

    [Stakeholder 1]
    [Stakeholder 2]
    [Stakeholder 3]

    Create your mobile backlog

    Your backlog gives you a holistic understanding of the demand for mobile applications across your organization.

    Opportunities
    Trends
    MVP

    External Sources

    Internal Sources

    • Market Trends Analysis
    • Competitive Analysis
    • Regulations & Industry Standards
    • Customer & Reputation Analysis
    • Application Rationalization
    • Capability & Value Stream Analysis
    • Business Requests & Incidents
    • Discovery & Mining Capabilities

    A mobile application minimum viable product (MVP) focuses on a small set of functions, involves minimal possible effort to deliver a working and valuable solution, and is designed to satisfy a specific user group. Its purpose is to maximize learning, evaluate value and acceptance, and inform the development of a full-fledged mobile delivery practice.

    Find your mobile opportunities

    Modern mobile technologies enable users to access, analyze and change data anywhere with native device features, which opens the door to enhanced processes and new value sources.

    Examples of Mobile Opportunities:

    • Mobile Payment
      • Cost alternative to credit card transaction fees.
      • Loyalty systems are updated upon payment without need of a physical card.
      • Quicker completion of transactions.
    • Inventory Management
      • Update inventory database when shipments arrive or deliveries are made.
      • Inform retailers and consumers of current stock on website.
      • Alert staff of expired or outdated products.
    • Quick and Small Data Transfer
      • Embed tags into posters to transfer URIs, which sends users to sites containing product or location information.
      • Replace entry tags, fobs, or smart cards at doors.
      • Exchange contact details.
    • Location Sensitive Information
      • Proactively send promotions and other information (e.g. coupons, event details) to users within a defined area.
      • Inform employees of nearby prospective clients.
    • Supply Chain Management
      • Track the movement and location of goods and delivery trucks.
      • Direct drivers to the most optimal route.
      • Location-sensitive billing apps such as train and bus ticket purchases.
    • Education and Learning
      • Educate users about real-world objects and places with augmented books and by pushing relevant learning materials.
      • Visualize theories and other text with dynamic 3D objects.
    • Augmented Reality (AR)
      • Provide information about the user's surroundings and the objects in the environment through the mobile device.
      • Interactive and immersive experiences with the inclusion of virtual reality.
    • Architecture and Planning
      • Visualize historic buildings or the layout of structural projects and development plans.
      • Develop a digital tour with location-based audio initiated with location-based services or a camera.
    • Navigation
      • Provide directions to users to navigate and provide contextual travelling instructions.
      • Push traffic notifications and route changes to travelling users.
    • Tracking User Movement
      • Predict the future location of users based on historic information and traffic modelling.
      • Proactively push information to users before they reach their destination.

    1.1.3 Build your mobile backlog

    1-3 hours

    1. As a group, discuss the use and value mobile already has within your organization for each persona.
      1. What are some of the apps being used?
      2. What enterprise systems and applications are already exposed to the web and accessible by mobile devices?
      3. How critical is mobile to business operations, marketing campaigns, etc.?
    2. Discuss how mobile can bring additional business value to other areas of your organization for each persona.
      1. Can mobile enhance your customer reach? Do your customers care that your services are offered through mobile?
      2. Are employees asking for better access to enterprise systems in order to improve their productivity?
    3. Write your mobile opportunities in the following form: As a [end user persona], I want to [process or capability to enable with mobile applications], so that [organizational benefit]. Prioritize each opportunity against feasibility, desirability, and viability.
    4. Document your findings and discussions into Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template.

    Input

    Output
    • Problem and vision statements
    • Mobile objectives and metrics
    • Mobile application canvas
    • Mobile opportunities backlog
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    Manage your mobile backlog

    Your backlog stores and organizes your mobile opportunities at various stages of readiness. It must be continuously refined to address new requests, maintenance and changing priorities.

    3 – IDEAS
    Composed of raw, vague, and potentially large ideas that have yet to go through any formal valuation.

    2 – QUALIFIED
    Researched and qualified opportunities awaiting refinement.

    1 READY
    Discrete, refined opportunities that are ready to be placed in your team's delivery plans.

    Adapted from Essential Scrum

    A well-formed backlog can be thought of as a DEEP backlog

    • Detailed Appropriately: opportunities are broken down and refined as necessary
    • Emergent: The backlog grows and evolves over time as opportunities are added and removed.
    • Estimated: The effort an opportunity requires is estimated at each tier.
    • Prioritized: The opportunity's value and priority are determined at each tier.

    (Source Perforce, 2018)

    See our Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision for more information on backlog practices.

    Step 1.2

    Identify Your Technical Needs

    Activities

    1.2.1 Discuss your mobile needs

    1.2.2 Conduct a technical assessment

    Set the Mobile Context

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    • List of mobile features to enable the desired mobile experience
    • System current assessment

    Describe your desired mobile experiences with journey maps

    A journey map tells the story of the user's experience with an existing or prospective product or service, starting with a trigger, through the process of engagement, to create an outcome. Journey maps can focus on a particular part of the user's or the entire experience with your organization's products or services. All types of maps capture key interactions and motivations of the user in chronological order.

    Why are journey maps an important for mobile application delivery?

    Everyone has their own preferred method for completing their tasks on mobile devices – often, what differentiates one persona from another has to do with how users privately behave. Understand that the activities performed outside of IT's purview develop context for your persona's pain points and position IT to meet their needs with the appropriate solution.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Use Experience Design to Drive Empathy with the Business blueprint.

    Two charts are depicted, the first shows the path from Trigger, through steps 1-4, to the outcome, and the Activities and Touchpoints for each. The second chart shows the Expectation analysis, showing which steps are must-haves, nice-to-haves, and hidden-needs.

    Pinpoint specific mobile needs in your journey map

    Realize that mobile applications may not precisely fit with your personas workflow or align to their expectations due to device and system limitations and restrictions. Flag the mobile opportunities that require significant modifications to underlying systems.

    Consider these workflow scenarios that can influence your persona's desire for mobile:

    Workflow Scenarios Ask Yourself The Key Questions Technology Constraints or Restrictions to Consider Examples of Mobile Opportunities

    Data View – Data is queried, prepared and presented to make informed decisions, but it cannot be edited.

    Where is the data located and can it be easily gathered and prepared?

    Is the data sensitive and can it be locally stored?

    What is the level of detail in my view?

    Multi-factor authentication required.

    Highly sensitive data requires encryption in transit and at rest.

    Minor calculations and preparation needed before data view.

    Generate a status report.

    View social media channels.

    View contact information.

    Data Collection – Data is inputted directly into the application and updates back-end system or integrated 3rd party services.

    Do I need special permission to add, delete and overwrite data?

    How much data can I edit?

    Is the data automatically gathered?

    Bandwidth restrictions.

    Multi-factor authentication required.

    Native device access required (e.g., camera).

    Multiple types and formats of gathered data.

    Manual and automatic data gathering

    Book appointments with clients.

    Update inventory.

    Tracking movement of company assets.

    Data Analysis & Modification – Data is evaluated, manipulated and transformed through the application, back-end system or 3rd party service.

    How complex are my calculations?

    Can computations be offloaded?

    What resources are needed to complete the analysis?

    Memory and processing limitations on device.

    Inability to configure device and enterprise hardware to support system resource demand.

    Scope and precision of analysis and modifications.

    Evaluate and propose trends.

    Gauge user sentiment.

    Propose next steps and directions.

    Define the mobile experience your end users want

    Anytime, Anywhere
    The user can access, update and analyze data, and corporate products and services whenever they want, in all networks, and on any device.

    Hands-Off & Automated
    The application can perform various workflows and tasks without the user's involvement and notify the user when specific triggers are hit.

    Personalized & Insightful
    Content presentation and subject are tailored for the user based on specific inputs from the user, device hardware or predicted actions.

    Integrated Ecosystem
    The application supports a seamless experience across various 3rd party and enterprise applications and services the user needs.

    Visually Pleasing & Fulfilling
    The UI is intuitive and aesthetically gratifying with little security and performance trade-offs to use the full breadth of its functions and services.

    Each mobile platform has its own take on the mobile native experience. The choice ultimately depends on whether the costs and effort are worth the anticipated value.

    1.2.1 Discover your mobile needs

    1-3 hours

    1. Define the workflow of a high priority opportunity in your mobile backlog. This workflow can be pertaining to an existing mobile application or a workflow that can benefit with a mobile application.
      1. Indicate the trigger that will initiate the opportunity and the desired outcome.
      2. Break down the persona's desired outcome into small pieces of value that are realized in each workflow step.
    2. Identify activities and touchpoints the persona will need to complete to finish each step in the workflow. Indicate the technology used to complete the activity or to facilitate the touchpoint.
    3. Indicate which activities and touchpoints can be satisfied, complimented or enhanced with mobile.

    Input

    Output
    • User personas
    • Mobile application canvas
    • Desired mobile experience
    • List of mobile features
    • Journey map
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    1.2.1 cont'd

    Workflow

    Trigger

    Conduct initial analysis

    Get planning help

    Complete and submit RFP

    Design and implement solution

    Implement changes

    Activities, Channels, and Touchpoints

    Need is recognized in CIO council meeting

    See if we have a sufficient solution internally

    Seek planning help (various channels)

    *Meet with IT shared services business analyst

    Select the appropriate vendor

    Follow action plan

    Compliance rqmt triggered by new law

    See if we have a sufficient solution internally

    *Hold in-person initial meeting with IT shared services

    *Review and approve rqmts (email)

    Seek miscellaneous support

    Implement project and manage change

    Research potential solutions in the marketplace

    Excess budget identified for utilization

    Pick a "favorite" solution

    *Negotiate and sign statement of work (email)

    Prime organization for the change

    Create action plan

    If solution is unsatisfactory, plan remediation

    Current Technology

    • Email
    • Video conferencing
    • Phone
    • Meeting transcripts and recordings
    • ERP
    • IT asset management
    • Internet browser for research
    • Virtual environment to demonstrate solutions
    • Email
    • Vendor assessment and procurement solution
    • Email
    • Video conferencing
    • Phone
    • Meeting transcripts and recordings
    • PDF documents and reader
    • Digital signature
    • Email
    • Video conferencing
    • Phone
    • Meeting transcripts and recordings
    • PDF documents and reader
    • Digital signature
    • Email
    • Video conferencing
    • Phone
    • Vendor assessment and procurement solution
    • Project management solution
    • Team collaboration solution
    • Email
    • Video conferencing
    • Phone
    • Project management solution
    • Team collaboration solution
    • Vendor's solution

    Legend:

    Bold – Touchpoint

    * – Activities or Touchpoints That Can Benefit with Mobile

    1.2.1 cont'd

    1-3 hours

    1. Analyze persona expectations. Identify the persona's must-haves, then nice-to-haves, and then hidden needs to effectively complete the workflow.
      1. Must-haves. The necessary outcomes, qualities, and features of the workflow step.
      2. Nice-to-haves. Desired outcomes, qualities, or features that your persona is able to articulate or express.
      3. Hidden needs. Outcomes, qualities, or features that your persona is not aware they have a desire for; benefits that they are pleasantly surprised to receive. These will usually be unknown for your first-iteration journey map.
    2. Indicate which persona expectations can be satisfied with mobile. Discuss what would the desired mobile experience be.
    3. Discuss feedback and experiences your team has heard from the personas they engage with regularly.
    4. Document your findings and discussions into Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template.

    Download the Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    1.2.1 cont'd

    Example

    This image contains an example workflow for determining mobile needs.

    1.2.1 cont'd

    Template:

    Workflow

    TriggerStep 1Step 2Step 3Step 4

    Desired Outcome

    Journey Map

    Activities & Touch-points

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    Must-Haves

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    Nice-to-Haves

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    Hidden Needs

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    Emotional Journey

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    If you need more than four steps in the workflow, duplicate this slide.

    Understand how mobile fits with your current system

    Evaluate the risks and impacts of your desired mobile features by looking at your enterprise system architecture from top to bottom. Is your mobile vision and needs compatible with your existing business capabilities and technologies?

    An architecture is usually represented by one or more architecture views that together provide a coherent description of the application system, including demonstrating the full impact mobile will have. A single, comprehensive model is often too complex to be understood and communicated in its most detailed form, and a model too high level hides the underlying complexity of an application's structure and deployment (The Open Group, TOGAF 8.1.1 - Developing Architecture Views). Obtain a complete understanding of your architecture by assessing it through multiple levels of views to reveal different sets of concerns:

    Application Architecture Views

    1. Use Case View
    • How does your business operate, and how will users interact with your mobile applications?
  • . Process View
    • What is the user workflow impacted by mobile, and how will it change?
  • Component View
    • How are my existing applications structured? What are its various components? How will mobile expand the costs of the existing technical debt?
  • Data View
    • What is the relationship of the data and information consumed, analyzed, and transmitted? Will mobile jeopardize the quality and reliability of the data?
  • Deployment View
    • In what environment are your mobile application components deployed? How will the existing systems operate with your mobile applications?
  • System View
    • How does your mobile application communicate with other internal and external systems? How will dependencies change with mobile?
  • See our Enhance Your Solution Architecture for more information.

    Ask key questions in your current system assessment

    • How do the various components of your system communicate with each other (e.g., web APIs, middleware, and point to point)?
    • What information is exchanged during the conversation?
    • How does the data flow from one component to the next? Is the data read-only or can application and users edit and modify it?
    • What are the access points to your mid- and back-tier systems (e.g., user access through web interface, corporate networks and third-party application access through APIs)?
    • Who has access to your enterprise systems?
    • Which components are managed and operated by third-party providers? What is your level of control?
    • What are the security protocols currently enforced in your system?
    • How often are your databases updated? Is it real-time or periodic extract, transfer, and load (ETL)?
    • What are the business rules?
    • Is your mobile stack dependent on other systems?
    • Is a mobile middleware, web server, or API gateway needed to help facilitate the integration between devices and your back-end support?

    1.2.2 Conduct a technical assessment

    1-3 hours

    1. Evaluate your current systems that will support the journey map of your mobile opportunities based on two categories: system quality and system management. Use the tables on the following slides and modify the questions if needed.
    2. Discuss if the current state of your system will impede your ability to succeed with mobile. Use this discussion to verify the decision to continue with mobile applications in your current state.
    3. Document your findings and discussions into Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template.

    Download the Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    Input

    Output
    • Journey map
    • Understanding of current system
    • Assessment of current system
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    1.2.2 cont'd

    Current State System Quality Assessment

    Factors Definitions Survey Responses
    Fit-for-Purpose System functionalities, services and integrations are designed and implemented for the purpose of satisfying the end users' needs and technology compatibilities. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Response Rate The system completes computation and processing requests within acceptable timeframes. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Data Quality The system delivers consumable, accurate, and trustworthy data. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Usability The system provides functionalities, services and integrations that are rewarding, engaging, intuitive, and emotionally satisfying. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Reliability The system is resilient or quickly recovers from issues and defects. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Accessible The system is available on demand and on the end user's preferred interface and device. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Secured End-user activity and data is protected from unauthorized access. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Adaptable The system can be quickly tailored to meet changing end-user and technology needs with reusable and customizable components. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)

    1.2.2 cont'd

    Current State System Management Assessment

    Factors Definitions Survey Responses
    Documentation The system is documented, accurate, and shared in the organization. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Measurement The system is continuously measured against clearly defined metrics tied to business value. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Compliance The system is compliant with regulations and industry standards. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Continuous Improvement The system is routinely rationalized and enhanced. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Architecture There is a shared overview of how the process supports business value delivery and its dependencies with technologies and other processes. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Ownership & Accountability The process has a clearly defined owner who is accountable for its risks and roadmap. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Support Resources are available to address adoption and execution challenges. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)
    Organizational Change Management Communication, onboarding, and other change management capabilities are available to facilitate technology and related role and process changes. 1 (Very Poor) – 2 – 3 (Fair) – 4 – 5 (Excellent)

    Step 1.3

    Define Your Non-Functional Requirements

    Activities

    1.3.1 Define mobile application quality

    1.3.2 Verify your decision to deliver mobile applications

    Set the Mobile Context

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams

    Outcomes of this step

    • Mobile application quality definition
    • Readiness for mobile delivery

    Build a strong foundation of mobile application quality

    Functionality and aesthetics often take front seats in mobile application delivery. Applications are then frequently modified and changed, not because they are functionally deficient or visually displeasing, but because they are difficult to maintain or scale, too slow, vulnerable or compromised. Implementing clear quality principles (i.e., non-functional requirements) and strong quality assurance practices throughout delivery are critical to minimize the potential work of future maintenance and to avoid, mitigate and manage IT risks.

    What is Mobile Application Quality?

    • Quality requirements (i.e., non-functional requirements) are properties of a system or product that dictate how it should behave at runtime and how it should be designed, implemented, and maintained.
    • These requirements should be involved in decision making around architecture, UI and functional design changes.
    • Functionality should not dictate the level of security, availability, or performance of a product, thereby risking system quality. Functionality and quality are viewed orthogonally, and trade-offs are discussed when one impacts the other.
    • Quality attributes should never be achieved in isolation as one attribute can have a negative or positive impact on another (e.g. security and availability).

    Why is Mobile Quality Assurance Critical?

    • Quality assurance (QA) is a necessity for the validation and verification of mobile delivery, whether you are delivering applications in an Agile or Waterfall fashion. Effective QA practices implemented across the software development lifecycle (SDLC) are vital, as all layers of the mobile stack need to readily able to adjust to suddenly evolving and changing business and user needs and technologies without risking system stability and breaking business standards and expectations.
    • However, investments in QA optimizations are often afterthoughts. QA is commonly viewed as a lower priority compared to other delivery capabilities (e.g., design and coding) and is typically the first item cut when delivery is under pressure.

    See our Build a Software Quality Assurance Program for more information.

    Mobile emphasizes the importance of good security, performance and integration

    Today's mobile workforce is looking for new ways to get more work done quickly. They want access to enterprise solutions and data directly on their mobile device, which can reside on multiple legacy systems and in the cloud and third-party infrastructure. This presents significant performance, integration, and security risks.

    Cloud Solutions: Can I use my existing APIs?. Solutions in Corporate Networks: Do my legacy systems have the capacity to support mobile?; How do I integrate solutions and data from multiple sources into a single view?; Third Party Solutions: Will I have a significant performance bottleneck?; Single View on Mobile Devices: How is corporate data stored on the device?; What new technology dependencies must I account for in my architecture and operational support capabilities?

    Mobile risks opening and widening existing security gaps

    New mobile technologies and the continued expansion of the enterprise environment increase the number of entry points attackers to your corporate data and networks. The ever-growing volume, velocity, and variety of new threats puts significant pressure on mobile delivery teams who are responsible for implementing mobile security measures and maintaining alignment to your security policies and those of app stores.

    Mobile attacks can come from various vectors:

    Attack Surface: Mobile Device

    Attack Surface: Network

    Attack Surface: Data Center

    Browser:
    Phishing
    Buffer Overflow
    Data Caching

    System:
    No Passcode
    Jailbroken and Rooted OS
    No/Weak Encryption
    OS Data Caching

    Phone:
    SMSishing
    Radio Frequency Attacks

    Apps:
    Configuration Manipulation
    Runtime Injection
    Improper SSL Validation

    • Packet Sniffing
    • Session Hijacking
    • Man-in-the-Middle (circumvent password verification systems)
    • Fake SSL Certificate
    • Rogue Access Points

    Web Server:
    Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
    Brute Force Attacks
    Server Misconfigurations

    Database:
    SQL Injection
    Data Dumping

    Understand the top web security risks and vulnerabilities seen in the industry

    Recognize mobile applications are exposed to the same risks and vulnerabilities as web applications. Learn of OWASP's top 10 web security risks.

    • Broken Access Control
      • Failures typically lead to unauthorized information disclosure, modification, or destruction of all data or performing a business function outside the user's limits.
    • Cryptographic Failures
      • Improper and incorrect protection of data in transit and at rest, especially proprietary and confidential data and those that fall under privacy laws.
    • Injection
      • Execution of malicious code and injection of hostile or unfiltered data on the mobile device via the mobile application.
    • Insecure Design
      • Missing or ineffective security controls in the application design. An insecure design cannot be fixed by a perfect implementation,. Needed security controls were never created to defend against specific attacks.
    • Security Misconfiguration
      • The security settings in the application are not securely set or configured, including poor security hardening and inadequate system upgrading practices.
    • Vulnerable and Outdated Components
      • System components are vulnerable because they are unsupported, out of date, untested or not hardened against current security concerns.
    • Identification and Authentication Failures
      • Improper or poor protection against authentication-related attacks, particularly to the user's identity, authentication and session management.
    • Software and Data Integrity Failures
      • Failures related to code and infrastructure that does not protect against integrity violations, such as an application relying upon plugins, libraries, or modules from untrusted sources, repositories, and content delivery networks
    • Security Logging and Monitoring Failures
      • Insufficient logging, detection, monitoring, and active response that hinders the ability to detect, escalate, and respond to active breaches.
    • Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)
      • SSRF flaws occur whenever a web application is fetching a remote resource without validating the user-supplied URL.

    Good mobile application performance drives satisfaction and value delivery

    Underperforming mobile applications can cause your users to be unproductive. Your mobile applications should always aim to satisfy the productivity requirements of your end users.

    Users quickly notice applications that are slow and difficult to use. Providing a seamless experience for the user is now heavily dependent on how well your application performs. Optimizing your mobile application's processing efficiency can help your users perform their jobs properly in various environment conditions.

    Productive Users Need
    Performant Mobile Applications

    Persona

    Mobile Application Use Case

    Optimized Mobile Application

    Stationary Worker

    • Design flowcharts and diagrams, while abandoning paper and desktop apps in favor of easy-to-use, drawing tablet applications.
    • Multitask by checking the application to verify information given by a vendor during their presentation or pitch.
    • Flowcharts and diagrams are updated in real time for team members to view and edit
    • Compare vendors under assessment with a quick look-up app feature

    Roaming Worker (Engineer)

    • Replace physical copies of service and repair manuals physically stored with digital copies and access them with mobile applications.
    • Scan or input product bar code to determine whether a replacement part is available or needs to be ordered.
    • Worker is capable of interacting with other features of the mobile web app while product bar code is being verified

    Enhance the performance of the entire mobile stack

    Due to frequently changing mobile hardware, users' high performance expectations and mobile network constraints, mobile delivery teams must focus on the entire mobile stack for optimizing performance.

    Fine tune your enterprise mobile applications using optimization techniques to improve performance across the full mobile stack.

    This image contains a bar graph ranking the importance of the following datapoints: Minimize render blocking resources; Configure the mobile application viewport; Determine the right image file format ; Determine above-the-fold content; Minimize browser reflow; Adopt UI techniques to improve perceived latency; Resource minification; Data compression; Asynchronous programming; Resource HTTP caching; Minimize network roundtrips for first time to render.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Some user performance expectations can be managed with clever UI design (e.g., spinning pinwheels to indicate loading in progress and directing user focus to quick loading content) and operational choices (e.g. graceful degradation and progressive enhancements).

    Create an API-centric integration strategy

    Mobile delivery teams are tasked to keep up with the changing needs of end users and accommodate the evolution of trending mobile features. Ensuring scalable APIs is critical in quickly releasing changes and ensuring availability of corporate services and resources.

    As your portfolio of mobile applications grows, and device platforms and browsers diversify, it will become increasingly complex to provide all the data and service capabilities your mobile apps need to operate. It is important that your APIs are available, reliable, reusable, and secure for multiple uses and platforms.

    Take an API-centric approach to retain control of your mobile development and ensure reliability.

    APIs are the underlying layer of your mobile applications, enabling remote access of company data and services to end users. Focusing design and development efforts on the maintainability, reliability and scalability of your APIs enables your delivery teams to:

    • Reuse tried-and-tested APIs to deliver, test and harden applications and systems quicker by standardizing on the use and structure of REST APIs.
    • Ensure a consistent experience and performance across different applications using the same API.
    • Uniformly apply security and access control to remain compliant to security protocols, industry standards and regulations.
    • Provide reliable integration points when leveraging third-party APIs and services.

    See our Build Effective Enterprise Integration on the Back of Business Process for more information.

    Guide your integration strategy with principles

    Craft your principles around good API management and integration practices

    Expose Enterprise Data And Functionality in API-Friendly Formats
    Convert complex on-premises application services into developer-friendly RESTful APIs

    Protect Information Assets Exposed Via APIs to Prevent Misuse
    Ensure that enterprise systems are protected against message-level attack and hijack

    Authorize Secure, Seamless Access for Valid Identities
    Deploy strong access control, identity federation and social login functionality

    Optimize System Performance and Manage the API Lifecycle
    Maintain the availability of backend systems for APIs, applications and end users

    Engage, Onboard, Educate and Manage Developers
    Give developers the resources they need to create applications that deliver real value

    Source: 5 Pillars of API Management, Broadcom, 2021

    Clarify your definition of mobile quality

    Quality does not mean the same thing to everyone

    Do not expect a universal definition of mobile quality. Each department, person and industry standard will have a different interpretation of quality, and they will perform certain activities and enforce policies that meet those interpretations. Misunderstanding of what is defined as a high quality mobile application within business and IT teams can lead to further confusion behind governance, testing priorities and compliance.

    Each interpretation of quality can lead to endless testing, guardrails and constraints, or lack thereof. Be clear on the priority of each interpretation and the degree of effort needed to ensure they are met.

    For example:

    Mobile Application Owner
    What does an accessible mobile application mean?

    Persona: Customer
    I can access it on mobile phones, tablets and the web browser

    Persona: Developer
    I have access to each layer of the mobile stack including the code & data

    Persona: Operations
    The mobile application is accessible 24/7 with 95% uptime

    Example: A School Board's Quality Definition

    Quality Attribute Definitions
    Usability The product is an intuitive solution. Usability is the ease with which the user accomplishes a desired task in the application system and the degree of user support the system provides. Limited training and documentation are required.
    Performance Usability and performance are closely related. A solution that is slow is not usable. The application system is able to meet timing requirements, which is dependent on stable infrastructure to support it regardless of where the application is hosted. Baseline performance metrics are defined and changes must result in improvements. Performance is validated against peak loads.
    Availability The application system is present, accessible, and ready to carry out its tasks when needed. The application is accessible from multiple devices and platforms, is available 24x7x365, and teams communicate planned downtimes and unplanned outages. IT must serve teachers international student's parents, and other users who access the application outside normal business hours. The application should never be down when it should be up. Teams must not put undue burden on end users accessing the systems. Reasonable access requirements are published.
    Security Applications handle both private and personal data, and must be able to segregate data based on permissions to protect privacy. The application system is able to protect data and information from unauthorized access. Users want it to be secure but seamless. Vendors need to understand and implement the District School Board's security requirements into their products. Teams ensure access is authorized, maintain data integrity, and enforce privacy.
    Reusability Reusability is the capability for components and subsystems to be suitable for use in other applications and in other scenarios. This attribute minimizes the duplication of components and implementation time. Teams ensure a modular design that is flexible and usable in other applications.
    Interoperability The degree to which two or more systems can usefully exchange meaningful information via interfaces in a particular context.

    Scalability

    There are two kinds of scalability:

    • Horizontal scalability (scaling out): Adding more resources to logical units, such as adding another server to a cluster of servers.
    • Vertical scalability (scaling up): Adding more resources to a physical unit, such as adding more memory to a single computer.

    Ease of maintenance and enhancements are critical. Additional care is given to custom code because of the inherent difficulty to make it scale and update.

    Modifiability The capability to manage the risks and costs of change, considering what can be changed, the likelihood of change, and when and who makes the change. Teams minimize the barriers to change, and get business buy in to keep systems current and valuable.
    Testability The ease with which software are made to demonstrate its faults through (typically execution-based) testing. It cannot be assumed that the vendor has already tested the system against District School Board's requirements. Testability applies to all applications, operating systems, and databases.
    Supportability The ability of the system to provide information helpful for identifying and resolving issues when it fails to work correctly. Supportability applies to all applications and systems within the District School Board's portfolio, whether that be custom developed applications or vendor provided solutions. Resource investments are made to better support the system.
    Cost Efficiency The application system is executed and maintained in such a way that each area of cost is reduced to what is critically needed. Cost efficiency is critical (e.g. printers cost per page, TCO, software what does downtime cost us), and everyone must understand the financial impact of their decisions.
    Self-Service End users are empowered to make configurations, troubleshoot and make changes to their application without the involvement of IT. The appropriate controls are in place to manage the access to unauthorized access to corporate systems.
    Modifiability The capability to manage the risks and costs of change, considering what can be changed, the likelihood of change, and when and who makes the change. Teams minimize the barriers to change, and get business buy in to keep systems current and valuable.
    Testability The ease with which software are made to demonstrate its faults through (typically execution-based) testing. It cannot be assumed that the vendor has already tested the system against District School Board's requirements. Testability applies to all applications, operating systems, and databases.
    Supportability The ability of the system to provide information helpful for identifying and resolving issues when it fails to work correctly. Supportability applies to all applications and systems within the District School Board's portfolio, whether that be custom developed applications or vendor provided solutions. Resource investments are made to better support the system.

    1.3.1 Define mobile application quality

    1-3 hours

    1. List 5 quality attributes that your organization sees as important for a successful mobile application.
    2. List the core personas that will support mobile delivery and that will consume the mobile application. Start with development, operations and support, and end user.
    3. Describe each quality attributes from the perspective of each persona by asking, "What does quality mean to you?".
    4. Review each description from each persona to come to an acceptable definition.
    5. Document your findings and discussions into Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template.

    Download the Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    Input

    Output
    • User personas
    • Mobile application canvas
    • Journey map
    • Mobile application quality definition
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    1.3.1 cont'd

    Example: Info-Tech Guided Implementation with a Legal and Professional Services Organization

    Quality AttributeDeveloperOperations & Support TeamEnd Users

    Usability

    • Architecture and frameworks are aligned with industry best practices
    • Regular feedback through analytics and user feedback
    • Faster development and less technical debt
    • Pride in the product
    • Satisfaction that the product is serving its purpose and is actually being used by the user
    • Increased update of product use and feedback for future lifecycle
    • Standardization and positive perception of IT processes
    • Simpler to train users to adopt products and changes
    • Trust in system and ability to promote the product in a positive light
    • Trusted list of applications
    • Intuitive (easy to use, no training required)
    • Encourage collaboration and sharing ideas between end users and delivery teams
    • The information presented is correct and accurate
    • Users understand where the data came from and the algorithms behind it
    • Users learn features quickly and retain their knowledge longer, which directly correlates to decreased training costs and time
    • High uptake in use of the product
    • Seamless experience, use less energy to work with product

    Security

    • Secure by design approach
    • Testing across all layers of the application stack
    • Security analysis of our source code
    • Good approach to security requirement definition, secure access to databases, using latest libraries and using semantics in code
    • Standardized & clear practices for development
    • Making data access granular (not all or none)
    • Secure mission critical procedures which will reduce operational cost, improve compliance and mitigate risks
    • Auditable artifacts on security implementation
    • Good data classification, managed secure access, system backups and privacy protocols
    • Confidence of protection of user data
    • Encryption of sensitive data
    Availability
    • Good access to the code
    • Good access to the data
    • Good access to APIs and other integration technologies
    • Automatic alerts when something goes wrong
    • Self-repairing/recovering
    • SLAs and uptimes
    • Code documentation
    • Proactive support from the infrastructure team
    • System availability dashboard
    • Access on any end user device, including mobile and desktop
    • 24/7 uptime
    • Rapid response to reported defects or bugs
    • Business continuity

    1.3.2 Verify your decision to deliver mobile applications

    1-3 hours

    1. Review the various end user, business and technical expectations for mobile its achievability given the current state of your system and non-functional requirements.
    2. Complete the list of questions on the following slide as an indication for your readiness for mobile delivery.

    Input

    Output
    • Mobile application canvas
    • Assessment to proceed with mobile
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    1.3.2 cont'd

    Skill Sets
    Software delivery teams have skills in creating mobile applications that stakeholders are expecting in value and quality. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Architects look for ways to reuse existing technical asset and design for future growth and maturity in mobile. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Resources can be committed to implement and manage a mobile platform. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Software delivery teams and resources are adaptable and flexible to requirements and system changes. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Delivery Process
    My software delivery process can accommodate last minute and sudden changes in mobile delivery tasks. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Business and IT requirements for the mobile are clarified through collaboration between business and IT representatives. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Mobile will help us fill the gaps and standardize our software delivery process process. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    My testing practices can be adapted to verify and validate the mobile functional and non-functional requirements. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Technical Stack
    My mid-tier and back-end support has the capacity to accommodate additional traffic from mobile. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    I have access to my web infrastructure and integration technologies, and I am capable of making configurations. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    My security approaches and capabilities can be enhanced address specific mobile application risks and vulnerabilities. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    I have a sound and robust integration strategy involving web APIs that gives me the flexibility to support mobile applications. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)

    Phase 2

    Define Your Mobile Approach

    Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Step 2.1 – Choose Your Platform Approach
    • Step 2.2 – Shortlist Your Mobile Delivery Solution
    • Step 2.3 – Create a Roadmap for Mobile Delivery

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    Step 2.1

    Choose Your Platform Approach

    Activities

    2.1.1 Select your platform approach

    Define Your Mobile Approach

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    • Desired mobile platform approach

    Mobile value is dependent on the platform you choose

    What is a platform?

    "A platform is a set of software and a surrounding ecosystem of resources that helps you to grow your business. A platform enables growth through connection: its value comes not only from its own features, but from its ability to connect external tools, teams, data, and processes." (Source: Emilie Nøss Wangen, 2021) In the mobile context, applications in a platform execute and communicate through a loosely coupled API architecture whether the supporting system is managed and supported by your organization or by 3rd party providers.

    Web

    The mobile web often takes on one of the following two approaches:

    • Responsive websites – Content, UI and other website elements automatically adjusts itself according to the device, creating a seamless experience regardless of the device.
    • Progressive web applications (PWAs) – PWAs uses the browser's APIs and features to offer native-like experiences.

    Mobile web applications are often developed with a combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript languages.

    Hybrid

    Hybrid applications are developed with web technologies but are deployed as native applications. The code is wrapped using a framework so that it runs locally within a native container, and it uses the device's browser runtime engine to support more sophisticated designs and features compared to the web approach. Hybrid mobile solutions allows teams to code once and deploy to multiple platforms.

    Some notable examples:

    • Gmail
    • Instagram

    Cross-Platform

    Cross-platform applications are developed within a distinct programming or scripting environment that uses its own scripting language (often like web languages) and APIs. Then the solution will compile the code into device-specific builds for native deployment.

    Some notable examples:

    • Facebook
    • Skype
    • Slack

    Native

    Native applications are developed and deployed to specific devices and OSs using platform-specific software development kits (SDKs) provided by the operating system vendors. The programming language and framework are dictated by the targeted device, such as Java for Android.

    With this platform, developers have direct access to local device features allowing customized operations. This enables the use of local resources, such as memory and runtime engines, which will achieve a higher performance than hybrid and cross-platform applications.

    Each platform offers unique pros and cons depending on your mobile needs

    WebHybridCross-PlatformNative

    Pros

    Cons

    Pros

    Cons

    Pros

    Cons

    Pros

    Cons

    • Modern browsers support the popular of web languages (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript).
    • Ubiquitous across multiple form factors and devices.
    • Mobile can be easily integrated into traditional web development processes and technical stacks.
    • Installations are not required, and updates are immediate.
    • Sensitive data can be wiped from memory after app is closed.
    • Limited access to local device hardware and software.
    • Local caching is available for limited offline capabilities, but the scope of tasks that can be completed in this scenario is restricted.
    • The browser's runtime engine is limited in computing power.
    • Not all browsers fully support the latest versions of HTML, CSS, or JavaScript.
    • Web languages can be used to develop a complete application.
    • Code can be reused for multiple platforms, including web.
    • Access to commonly-used native features that are not available through the web platform.
    • Quick delivery and maintenance updates compared to native and cross-platform platforms.
    • Consistent internet access is needed due to its reliance heavily reliance on web technologies to operate.
    • Limited ability to support complex workflows and features.
    • Sluggish performance compared to cross-platform and native applications.
    • Certain features may not operate the same across all platforms given the code once, deploy everywhere approach.
    • More cost-effective to develop than using native development approaches to gain similar features. Platform-specific developers are not needed.
    • Common codebase to develop applications on different applications.
    • Enables more complex application functionalities and technical customizations compared to hybrid applications.
    • Code is not portable across cross-platform delivery solutions.
    • The framework is tied to the vendor solution which presents the risk of vendor lock-in.
    • Deployment is dependent on an app store and the delivery solution may not guarantee the application's acceptance into the application store.
    • Significant training and onboarding may be needed using the cross-platform framework.
    • Tight integration with the device's hardware enables high performance and greater use of hardware features.
    • Computationally-intensive and complex tasks can be completed on the device.
    • Available offline access.
    • Apps are available through easy-to-access app stores.
    • Requires additional investments, such as app stores, app-specific support, versioning, and platform-specific extensions.
    • Developers skilled in a device-specific language are difficult to acquire and costly to train.
    • Testing is required every time a new device or OS is introduced.
    • Higher development and maintenance costs are tradeoffs for native device features.

    Start mobile development on a mobile web platform

    Start with what you have: begin with a mobile web platform to minimize impacts to your existing delivery skill sets and technical stack while addressing business needs. Resort to a hybrid first and then consider a cross-platform application if you require device access or the need to meet specific non-functional requirements.

    Why choose a mobile web platform?

    Pros

    The latest versions of the most popular web languages (HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript) abstract away from the granular, physical components of the application, simplifying the development process. HTML5 offer some mobile features (e.g., geolocation, accelerometer) that can meet your desired experience without the need for native development skills. Native look-and-feel, high performance, and full device access are just a few tradeoffs of going with web languages.

    Cons

    Native mobile platforms depend on device-specific code which follows specific frameworks and leverages unique programming libraries, such as Objective C for iOS and Java for Android. Each language requires a high level of expertise in the coding structure and hardware of specific devices requiring resources with specific skillsets and different tools to support development and testing.

    Other Notable Benefits with Web Languages

    • Modern browsers in most mobile devices are capable of executing and rendering many mobile features developed in web languages, allowing for greater portability and sophistication of code across multiple devices. However, this flexibility comes at the cost of performance since the browser's runtime engine will not perform as well as a native engine.
    • Web languages are well known by developers, minimizing skills and resourcing impacts. Consequently, changes can be quickly accommodated and updated uniformly across all end users.

    Do you need a native platform?

    Consider web workarounds if you choose a web platform but require some native experiences.

    The web platform does not give you direct access or sophisticated customizations to local device hardware and services, underlying code and integrations. You may run into the situation where you need some native experiences, but the value of these features may not offset the costs to undertake a native, hybrid or cross-platform application. When developing hybrid and cross-platform applications with a mobile delivery solution, only the APIs of the commonly used device features are available. Note that some vendors may not offer a particular native feature across all devices, inhibiting your ability to achieve feature parity or exploiting device features only available in certain devices. Workarounds are then needed.

    Consider the following workarounds to address the required native experiences on the web platform:

    Native Function Description Web Workaround Impact
    Camera Takes pictures or records videos through the device's camera. Create an upload form in the web with HTML5. Break in workflow leading to poor user experience (UX).
    Geolocation Detects the geographical location of the device. Available through HTML5. Not Applicable.
    Calendar Stores the user's calendar in local memory. Integrate with calendaring system or manually upload contacts. Costly integration initiative. Poor user experience.
    Contacts Stores contact information in local memory. Integrate app with contact system or manually upload contacts. Costly integration initiative. Poor user experience.
    Near Field Communication (NFC) Communication between devices by touching them together or bringing them into proximity. Manual transfer of data. A lot of time is consumed transferring simple information.
    Native Computation Computational power and resources needed to complete tasks on the device. Resource-intensive requests are completed by back-end systems and results sent back to user. Slower application performance given network constraints.

    Info-Tech Insight

    In many cases, workarounds are available when evaluating the gaps between web and native applications. For example, not having application-level access to the camera does not negate the user option to upload a picture taken by the camera through a web form. Tradeoffs like this will come down to assessing the importance of each platform gap for your organization and whether a workaround is good enough as a native-like experience.

    Architect and configure your entire mobile stack with a plan

    • Assess your existing technology stack that will support your mobile platform. Determine if it has the capacity to handle mobile traffic and the necessary integration between devices and enterprise and 3rd party systems are robust and reliable. Reach out to your IT teams and vendors if you are missing key mobile components, such as:
    • The acquisition and provisioning of physical or virtual mobile web servers and middleware from existing vendors.
    • Cloud services [e.g., Mobile Back-end as a Service (mBaaS)] that assists in the mobilization of back-end data sources with API SDKs, orchestration of data from multiple sources, transformation of legacy APIs to mobile formats, and satisfaction of other security, integration and performance needs.
    • Configure the services of your web server or middleware to facilitate the translation, transformation, and transfer of data between your mobile front-end and back-end. If your plan involves scripts, maintenance and other ongoing costs will likely increase.
    • Leverage the APIs or adapters provided by your vendors or device manufacturers to integrate your mobile front-end and back-end support to your web server or middleware. If you are reusing a web server, the back-end integration should already be in place. Remember, APIs implement business rules to maintain the integrity of data exchange within your mobile stack.
    • See Appendix A for examples of reference architectures of mobile platforms.

    See our Enhance Your Solution Architecture for more information.

    Do Not Forget Your Security and Performance Requirements

    Security: New threats from mobile put organizations into a difficult situation beyond simply responding to them in a timely matter. Be careful not to take the benefits of security out of the mobile context. You need to make security a first-order citizen during the scoping, design, and optimization of your systems supporting mobile. It must also be balanced with other functional and non-functional requirements with the right roles taking accountability for these decisions.

    See our Strengthen the SSDLC for Enterprise Mobile Applications for more information.

    Performance: Within a distributed mobile environment, performance has a risk of diminishing due to limited device capacity, network hopping, lack of server scalability, API bottlenecks, and other device, network and infrastructure issues. Mobile web APIs suffer from the same pain points as traditional web browsing and unplanned API call management in an application will lead to slow performance.

    See our Develop Enterprise Mobile Applications With Realistic and Relevant Performance for more information.

    Enterprise platform selection requires a shift in perspective

    Your mobile platform selection must consider both user and enterprise (i.e., non-functional) needs. Use a two-step process for your analysis:

    Begin Platform Selection with a User-Centric Approach

    Organizations appealing to end users place emphasis on the user experience: the look and appeal of the user interface, and the satisfaction, ease of use, and value of its functionalities. In this approach, IT concerns and needs are not high priorities, but many functions are completed locally or isolated from mission critical corporate networks and sensitive data. Some needs include:

    • Performance: quick execution of tasks and calculations made on the device or offloaded to web servers or the cloud.
    • User Interface: cross-platform compatibility and feature-rich design and functionality. The right native experience is critical to the user adoption and satisfaction.
    • Device Access: use of local device hardware and software to complete app use cases, such as camera, calendar, and contact lists.

    Refine Platform Selection with an Enterprise-Centric Approach

    From the enterprise perspective, emphasis is on security, system performance, integration, reuse and other non-functional requirements as the primary motivations in the selection of a mobile platform. User experience is still a contributing factor because of the mobile application's need to drive value but its priority is not exclusive. Some drivers include:

    • Openness: agreed-upon industry standards and technologies that can be applied to serve enterprise needs which support business processes.
    • Integration: increase the reuse of legacy investments and existing applications and services with integration capabilities.
    • Flexibility: support for multiple data types from applications such as JSON format for mobile.
    • Capacity: maximize the utilization of your software delivery resources beyond the initial iteration of the mobile application.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Selecting a mobile platform should not solely be made on business requirements. Key technical stakeholders should be at the table in this discussion to provide insight on the implementation and ongoing costs and benefits of each platform. Both business and technical requirements should be considered when deciding on a final platform.

    Select your mobile platform

    Drive your mobile platform selection against user-centric needs (e.g. device access, aesthetics) and enterprise-centric needs (e.g. security, system performance).

    When does a platform makes sense to use?

    Web

    • Desire to maximize current web technologies investments (people, process, and technologies).
    • Use cases do not require significant computational resources on the device or are tightly constrained by non-functional requirements.
    • Limited budget to acquire mobile development resources.
    • Access to device hardware is not a high priority.

    Hybrid / Cross-Platform

    • The need to quickly spin up native-like applications for multiple platforms and devices.
    • Desire to leverage existing web development skills, but also a need for device access and meeting specific non-functional requirements.
    • Vendor support is needed for the entire mobile delivery process.

    Native

    • Developers are experts in the target programming language and with the device's hardware.
    • Strong need for high performance, security and device-specific access and customizations.
    • Application use cases requiring significant computing resources.

    Nine datapoints are arranged on a graph where the x axis s labeled: User Centric Needs; and the Y axis is labeled: Enterprise-centric needs. The datapoints are, in order from left to right, top to bottom: Hybrid; Cross- Platform; Native; Web; Hybrid or Cross- Platform; Cros-s Platform; Web; Web; Hybrid or Cross- Platform.

    2.1.1 Select your platform approach

    1-3 hours

    1. Review your mobile objectives, end user needs and non-functional requirements.
    2. Determine which mobile platform is appropriate for each mobile opportunity or use case by answering the following questions on the following slides against two factors: user-centric and enterprise-centric needs.
    3. Calculate an average score for user-centric and one for enterprise-centric. Then, map them on the matrix to indicate possible platform options. Consider all options around the plotted point.
    4. Further discuss which platforms should be the preferred choice.
    5. Document your findings and discussions into Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template.

    Download the Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    Input

    Output
    • Desired mobile experience
    • List of desired mobile features
    • Current state assessments
    • Mobile platform approach
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    2.1.1 cont'd

    User-Centric Needs: Functional Requirements

    Factors Definitions Survey Responses
    Device Hardware Access The scope of access to native device hardware features. Basic features include those that are available through current web languages (e.g., geolocation) whereas comprehensive features are those that are device-specific. 1 (Basic) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (Comprehensive)
    Customized Execution of Device Hardware The degree of changes to the execution of local device hardware to satisfy functional needs. 1 (Use as Is) – 2 – 3 (Configure) – 4 – 5 (Customize)
    Device Software Access The scope of access to software on the user's device, such as calendars and contact. 1 (Basic) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (Comprehensive)
    Customized Execution of Device Software The degree of changes to the execution of local device software to satisfy functional needs. 1 (Use as Is) – 2 – 3 (Configure) – 4 – 5 (Customize)
    Use Case Complexity Workflow tasks and decisions are simple and straightforward. Complex computation is not needed to acquire the desired outcome. 1 (Strongly Agree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Disagree)
    Computational Resources The resources needed on the device to complete desired functional needs. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Use Case Ambiguity The mobile use case and technical requirements are well understood and documented. Changes to the mobile application is likely. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Mobile Application Access Enterprise systems and data are accessible to the broader organization through the mobile application. This factor does not necessarily mean that anyone can access it untracked. You may still need to identify yourself or log in, etc. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Scope of Adoption & Impact The extent to which the mobile application is leveraged in the organization. 1 (Enterprise) – 2 – 3 (Department) – 4 – 5 (Team)
    Installable The need to locally install the mobile application. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Targeted Devices & Platforms Mobile applications are developed for a defined set of mobile platform versions and types and device. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Output Audience The mobile application transforms an input into a valuable output for high-priority internal or external stakeholders. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)

    2.1.1 cont'd

    User-Centric Needs: Native User Experience Factors

    Factors Definitions Survey Responses
    Immersive Experience The need to bridge physical world with the virtual and digital environment, such as geofencing and NFC. 1 (Internally Delivered) – 2 – 3 (3rd Party Supported) – 4 – 5 (Business Implemented)
    Timeliness of Content and Updates The speed of which the mobile application (and supporting system) responds with requested information, data and updates from enterprise systems and 3rd party services. 1 (Reasonable Delayed Response) – 2 – 3 (Partially Outsourced) – 4 – 5 (Fully Outsourced)
    Application Performance The speed of which the mobile application completes tasks is critical to its success. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Network Accessibility The needed ability to access and use the mobile application in various network conditions. 1 (Only Available When Online) – 2 – 3 (Partially Available When Online) – 4 – 5 (Available Online)
    Integrated Ecosystem The approach to integrate the mobile application with enterprise or 3rd party systems and services. 1 (Out-of-the-Box Connectors) – 2 – 3 (Configurable Connectors) – 4 – 5 (Customized Connectors)
    Desire to Have a Native Look-and-Feel The aesthetics and UI features (e.g., heavy animations) that are only available through native and cross-platform applications. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    User Tolerance to Change The degree of willingness and ableness for a user to change their way of working to maximize the value of the mobile application. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Mission Criticality The business could not execute its main strategy if the mobile application was removed. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Business Value The mobile application directly adds business value to the organization. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Industry Differentiation The mobile application provides a distinctive competitive advantage or is unique to your organization. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)

    2.1.1 cont'd

    Enterprise-Centric Needs: Non-Functional Requirements

    Factors Definitions Survey Responses
    Legacy Compatibility The need to integrate and operate with legacy systems. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Code Portability The need to enable the "code once and deploy everywhere" approach. 1 (High) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (Low)
    Vendor & Technology Lock-In The tolerance to lock into a vendor mobile delivery solution or technology framework. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Data Sensitivity The data used by the mobile application does not fall into the category of sensitive data – meaning nothing financial, medical, or personal identity (GDPR and worldwide equivalents). The disclosure, modification, or destruction of this data would cause limited harm to the organization. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Data Policies Policies of the mobile application's data are mandated by internal departmental standards (e.g. naming standards, backup standards, data type consistency). Policies only mandated in this way usually have limited use in a production capacity. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Security Risks Mobile applications are connected to private data sources and its intended use will be significant if underlying data is breached. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    Business Continuity & System Integrity Risks The mobile application in question does not have much significance relative to the running of mission critical processes in the organization. 1 (Strongly Disagree) – 2 – 3 (Neutral) – 4 – 5 (Strongly Agree)
    System Openness Openness of enterprise systems to enable mobile applications from the user interface to the business logic and backend integrations and database. 1 (High) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (Low)
    Mobile Device Management The organization's policy for the use of mobile devices to access and leverage enterprise data and services. 1 (Bring-Your-Own-Device) – 2 – 3 (Hybrid) – 4 – 5 (Corporate Devices)

    2.1.1 cont'd

    Enterprise-Centric Needs: Delivery Capacity

    Factors Definitions Survey Responses
    Ease of Mobile Delivery The desire to have out-of-the-box and packaged tools to expedite mobile application delivery using web technologies. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Solution Competency The capability for internal staff to and learn how to implement and administer mobile delivery tools and deliver valuable, high-quality applications. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Ease of Deployment The desire to have the mobile applications delivered by the team or person without specialized resources from outside the team. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Delivery Approach The capability to successfully deliver mobile applications given budgetary and costing, resourcing, and supporting services constraints. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Maintenance & Operational Support The capability of the resources to responsibly maintain and operate mobile applications, including defect fixes and the addition and extension of modules to base implementations of the digital product. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Domain Knowledge Support The availability and accessibility of subject and domain experts to guide facilitate mobile application implementation and adoption. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Delivery Urgency The desire to have the mobile application delivered quickly. 1 (High) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (Low)
    Reusable Components The desire to reuse UI elements and application components. 1 (High) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (Low)

    2.1.1 cont'd

    Example:

    Score Factors (Average) Mobile Opportunity 1: Inventory Management Mobile Opportunity 2: Remote Support
    User-Centric Needs 4.25 3
    Functional Requirements 4.5 2.25
    Native User Experience Factors 4 1.75
    Enterprise-Centric Needs 4 2
    Non-Functional Requirements 3.75 3.25
    Delivery Capacity 4.25 2.75
    Possible Mobile Platform Cross-Platform Native PWA Hybrid

    Nine datapoints are arranged on a graph where the x axis s labeled: User Centric Needs; and the Y axis is labeled: Enterprise-centric needs. The datapoints are, in order from left to right, top to bottom: Hybrid; Cross- Platform; Native; Web; Hybrid or Cross- Platform; Cros-s Platform; Web; Web; Hybrid or Cross- Platform. Two yellow circles are overlaid, one containing the phrase: Remote Support - over the box containing Progressive Web Applications (PWA) or Hybrid; and a yellow circle containing the phrase Inventory MGMT, partly covering the box containing Native; and the box containing Cross-Platform.

    Build a scalable and manageable platform

    Long-term mobile success depends on the efficiency and reliability of the underlying operational platform. This platform must support the computational and performance demands in a changing business environment, whether it is composed of off-the-self or custom-developed solutions, or a single vendor or best-of-breed.

    • Application
      • The UI design and content language is standardized and consistently applied
      • All mobile configurations and components are automatically versioned
      • Controlled administration and tooling access, automation capabilities, and update delivery
      • Holistic portfolio management
    • Data
      • Automated data management to preserve data quality (e.g. removal of duplications)
      • Defined single source of truth
      • Adherence to data governance, and privacy and security policies
      • Good content management practices, governance and architecture
    • Infrastructure
      • Containers and sandboxes are available for development and testing
      • Self-healing and self-service environments
      • Automatic system scaling and load balancing
      • Comply to budgetary and licensing constraints
    • Integration
      • Backend database and system updates are efficient
      • Loosely coupled architecture to minimize system regressions and delivery effort
      • Application, system and data monitoring

    Step 2.2

    Shortlist Your Mobile Delivery Solution

    Activities

    2.2.1 Shortlist your mobile delivery solution

    2.2.2 Build your feature and service lists

    Define Your Mobile Approach

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    • Shortlisted mobile delivery solutions
    • Desired list of vendor features and services

    Ask yourself: should I build or buy?

    Build Buy

    Multi-Source Best-of-Breed

    Vendor Add-Ons & Integrations

    Integrate various technologies that provide subset(s) of the features needed for supporting the business functions.

    Enhance an existing vendor's offerings by using their system add-ons either as upgrades, new add-ons or integrations.

    Pros

    • Flexibility in choice of tools.
    • In some cases, cost may be lower.
    • Easier to enhance with in-house teams.

    Cons

    • Introduces tool sprawl.
    • Requires resources to understand tools and how they integrate.
    • Some of the tools necessary may not be compatible with each other.

    Pros

    • Reduces tool sprawl.
    • Supports consistent tool stack.
    • Vendor support can make enhancement easier.
    • Total cost of ownership may be lower.

    Cons

    • Vendor Lock-In.
    • The processes to enhance may require tweaking to fit tool capability.

    Multi-Source Custom

    Single Source

    Integrate systems built in-house with technologies developed by external organizations.

    Buy an application/system from one vendor only.

    Pros

    • Flexibility in choice of tools.
    • In some cases, cost may be lower.
    • Easier to enhance with in-house teams.

    Cons

    • May introduce tool sprawl.
    • Requires resources to have strong technical skills
    • Some of the tools necessary may
    • not be compatible with each other.

    Pros

    • Reduces tool sprawl.
    • Supports consistent tool stack.
    • Vendor support can make enhancement easier.
    • Total cost of ownership may be lower.

    Cons

    • Vendor Lock-In.
    • The processes to enhance may require tweaking to fit tool capability.

    Weigh the pros and cons of mobile enablement versus development

    Mobile Enablement

    Mobile Development

    Description Mobile interfaces that heavily rely on enterprise or 3rd party systems to operate. Mobile does not expand the functionality of the system but complements it with enhanced access, input and consumption capabilities. Mobile applications that are custom built or configured in a way that can operate as a standalone entity, whether they are locally deployed to a user's device or virtually hosted.
    Mobile Platform Mobile web, locally installed mobile application provided by vendor Mobile web, hybrid, cross-platform, native
    Typical Audience Internal staff, trusted users Internal and external users, general public
    Examples of Tooling Flavors Enterprise applications, point solutions, robotic & process automation Mobile enterprise application platform, web development, low and no code development, software development kits (SDKs)
    Technical Skills Required Little to no mobile delivery experience and skillsets are needed, but teams must be familiar with the supporting system to understand how a mobile interface can improve the value of the system. Have good UX-driven and quality-first practices in the mobile context. In-depth coding, networking, system and UX design, data management and security skills are needed for complex designs, functions, and architectures.
    Architecture & Integration Architecture is standardized by the vendor or enterprise with UI elements that are often minimally configurable. Extensions and integrations must be done through the system rather than the mobile interface. Much of application stack and integration approach can be customized to meet the specific functional and non-functional needs. It should still leverage web and design standards and investments currently used.
    Functional Scope Functionality is limited to the what the underlying system allows the interface to do. This often is constrained to commodity web application features (e.g., reporting) or tied to minor configurations to the vendor-provided point solution Functionality is only constrained by the platform and the targeted mobile devices whether it is performance, integration, access or security related. Teams should consider feature and content parity across all products within the organization portfolio.
    Delivery Pipeline End-to-end delivery and automated pipeline is provided by the vendor to ensure parity across all interfaces. Many vendors provide cloud-based services for hosting. Otherwise, it is directly tied to the SDLC of the supporting system. End-to-end delivery and automated pipeline is directly tied to enterprise SDLC practices or through the vendor. Some vendors provide cloud-based services for hosting. Updates are manually or automatically (through a vendor) published to app stores and can be automatically pushed to corporate users through mobile application management capabilities.
    Standards & Guardrails Quality standards and technology governance are managed by the vendor or IT with limited capabilities to tailor them to be mobile specific. Quality standards and technology governance are managed by the mobile delivery teams. The degree of customizations to these standards and guardrails is dependent on the chosen platform and delivery team competencies.

    Understand the common attributes of a mobile delivery solution

    • Source Code Management – Built-in or having the ability to integrate with code management solutions for branching, merging, and versioning. Debugging and coding assistance capabilities may be available.
    • Single Code Base – Capable of programming in a standard coding and scripting language for deployment into several platforms and devices. This code base is aligned to a common industry framework (e.g., AngularJS, Java) or a vendor-defined one.
    • Out-of-the-Box Connectors & Plug-ins – Pre-built APIs enhance the solution's capabilities with 3rd party tools and systems to deliver and manage high quality and valuable mobile applications.
    • Emulators – Ability to virtualize an application's execution on a target platform and device.
    • Support for Native Features – Supports plug-ins and APIs for access to device-specific features.

    What are mobile delivery solutions?

    A mobile delivery solution gives you the tools, resources and support to enable or build your mobile application. They can provide pre-built applications, vendor supported components to allow some configurations, or resources for full stack customizations. Some solutions can be barebone software development kits (SDKs) or comprehensive suites offering features to support the entire software delivery lifecycle, such as:

    • Mobile application management
    • Testing and publishing to app stores
    • Content management
    • Cloud hosting
    • Application performance management

    Info-Tech Insight

    Mobile enablement and development capabilities are already embedded in many common productivity tools and enterprise applications, such as Microsoft PowerApps and ERP modules. They can serve as a starting point in the initial rollout of new management and governance practices without the need of acquiring new tools.

    Select your mobile delivery solutions

    1. Set the scope of your framework.
    • The initial context of this framework is based on the mobile functions needed to support your desired mobile experience and on the current state of your enterprise and 3rd party systems.
  • Define the decision factors for your solution selection.
    • Review the decision factors that will influence the selection of your mobile delivery solution for each mobile opportunity:
    • Stack Management – Who will be hosting and supporting your mobile application stack?
    • Workflows Complexity & Native Experience – How complex is your desired mobile experience and how will native device features be leveraged?
  • Select your solution type.
    • Mobile delivery solutions are broadly defined in the following groups:
    • Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) – Pre-built mobile applications requiring little to no configurations or implementation effort.
    • Vendor Hosted Mobile Platform – Back-end and mid-tier infrastructure and operational support are managed by a vendor.
    • Cross-Platform Development – Frameworks that transform a single code base into platform-specific builds.
    • Hybrid Development – Tools that wrap a single code base into a locally deployable build.
    • Custom Web Development – Environment enabling full stack development for mobile web applications.
    • Custom Native Development – Environment enabling full stack development for mobile native applications.
  • A quadrant analysis is depicted. the top data is labeled Complex Mobile Features; the right side is labeled Organization-Managed Stack; the bottom is labeled Simple Mobile Features; and the left side is labeled Vendor-Managed Stack. The quadrants are labeled the following, in order from left to right, top to bottom. Vendor- Hosted Mobile Platform; Custom Native Development Solutions; Commercial-Off-the-Shelf Solutions; Custom Web Development Solutions. In the middle of the graph are the following, in order from top to bottom: Cross-Platform Development Solutions; Hybrid Development Solutions

    Explore the various solution options

    Vendor Hosted Mobile Platform

    • Cloud Services (Mobile Backend-as-a-Service) (Amazon Amplify, Kinvey, Back4App, Google Firebase, Apache Usergrid)
    • Low Code Mobile Platforms (Outsystems, Mendix, Zoho Creator, IBM Mobile Foundation, Pega Mobile, HCL Volt MX, Appery)
    • Mobile Development via Enterprise Application (SalesForce Heroku, Oracle Application Accelerator MAX, SAP Mobile Development Kit, NetSuite Mobile)
    • Mobile Development via Business Process Automation (PowerApps, Appian, Nintex, Quickbase)

    Cross-Platform Development SDKs

    React Native, NativeScript, Xamarin Forms, .NET MAUI, Flutter, Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile, jQuery Mobile, Telerik, Temenos Quantum

    Custom Native Development Solutions

    • Native Development Languages and Environments (Swift, Java, Objective-C, Kotlin, Xcode, NetBeans, Android Studio, AppCode, Microsoft Visual Studio, Eclipse, DriodScript, Compose, Atom)
    • Mobile Application Utilities (Unity, MonoGame, Blender, 3ds Max Design, Maya, Unreal Engine, Amazon Lumberyard, Oculus)

    Commercial-Off-the-Shelf Solutions

    • No Code Mobile Platforms (Swiftic, Betty Blocks, BuildFire, Appy Pie, Plant an App, Microsoft Power Apps, AppSheet, Wix, Quixy)
    • Mobile Application Point Solutions and Enablement via Enterprise Applications

    Hybrid Development SDKs

    Cordova Project, Sencha Touch, Electron, Ionic, Capacitor, Monaca, Voltbuilder

    Custom Web Development Solutions

    Web Development Frameworks (React, Angular, Vue, Express, Django, Rails, Spring, Ember, Backbone, Bulma, Bootstrap, Tailwind CSS, Blade)

    Get the most out of your solutions by understanding their core components

    While most of the heavy lifting is handled by the vendor or framework, understanding how the mobile application is built and operates can identify where further fine-tuning is needed to increase its value and quality.

    Platform Runtime

    Automatic provisioning, configurations, and tuning of organizational and 3rd party infrastructure for high availability, performance, security and stability. This can include cloud management and non-production environments.

    Extensions

    • Mobile delivery solutions can be extended to allow:
    • Custom development of back-end code
    • Customizable integrations and hooks where needed
    • Integrations with CI/CD pipelines and administrative services
    • Integrations with existing databases and authentication services

    Platform Services

    The various services needed to support mobile delivery and enable continuous delivery, such as:

    • Configuration & Change Management – Verifies, validates, and monitors builds, deployments and changes across all components.
    • Code Generator – Transforms UI and data models into native application components that are ready to be deployed.
    • Deployment Services – Deploys application components consistently across all target environments and app stores.
    • Application Services – Manages the mobile application at runtime, including executing scheduled tasks and instrumentation.

    Application Architecture

    Fundamentally, mobile application architecture is no different than any other application architecture so much of your design standards still applies. The trick is tuning it to best meet your mobile functional and non-functional needs.

    This image contains an example of mobile application architecture.

    Source: "HCL Volt MX", HCL.

    Build your shortlist decision criteria

    The decision on which type of mobile delivery solution to use is dependent on several key questions?

    Who is the Mobile Delivery Team?

    • Is it a worker, business or IT?
    • What skills and knowledge does this person have?
    • Who is supporting mobile delivery and management?
    • Are other skills and tools needed to support, extend or mature mobile delivery adoption?

    What are the Use Cases?

    • What is the value and priority of the use cases?
    • What native features do we need?
    • Who is the audience of the output and who is impacted?
    • What systems, data and services do I need access?
    • Is it best to build it or buy it?
    • What are the quality standards?
    • How strategic is the use case?

    How Complex is the System?

    • Is the mobile application a standalone or integrated with enterprise systems?
    • What is the system's state and architecture?
    • What 3rd party services do we need integrated?
    • Are integrations out-of-the-box or custom?
    • Is the data standardized and who can edit its definition?
    • Is the system monolithic or loosely coupled?

    How Much Can We Tolerate?

    • Risks: What are the business and technical risks involved?
    • Costs: How much can we invest in implementation, training and operations?
    • Change: What organizational changes am I expecting to make? Will these changes be accepted and adopted?

    2.2.1 Shortlist your mobile delivery solution

    1-3 hours

    1. Determine which mobile delivery solutions is appropriate for each mobile opportunity or use case by answering the following questions on the following slides against two factors: complexity of mobile workflows and native features and management of the mobile stack.
      1. Take the average of the enterprise-centric and user-centric scores from step 2.1 for your complexity of mobile workflows and native features scores.
    2. Calculate an average score for the management of the mobile stack. Then, map them on the matrix to indicate possible solution options alongside your user-centric scores. Consider all options around the plotted point.
    3. Further discuss which solution should be the preferred choice and compare those options with your selected platform approach.
    4. Document your findings and discussions into Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template.

    Download the Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    Input

    Output
    • Current state assessment
    • Mobile platform approach
    • Shortlist of mobile delivery solution
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    2.2.1 cont'd

    Stack Management

    Factors Definitions Survey Responses
    Cost of Delayed Delivery The expected cost if a vendor solution or update is delayed. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Vendor Negotiation Organization's ability to negotiate favorable terms from vendors. 1 (High) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (Low)
    Controllable Delivery Timeline Organization's desire to control when solutions and updates are delivered. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Solution Hosting The desired approach to host the mobile application. 1 (Fully Outsourced) – 2 – 3 (Partially Outsourced) – 4 – 5 (Internally Hosted)
    Vendor Lock-In The tolerance to be locked into a specific technology stack or vendor ecosystem. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Operational Cost Target The primary target of the mobile application's operational budget. 1 (External Resources) – 2 – 3 (Hybrid) – 4 – 5 (Internal Resources)
    Platform Management The desired approach to manage the mobile delivery solution, platform or underlying technology. 1 (Decentralized) – 2 – 3 (Federated) – 4 – 5 (Centralized)
    Skill & Competency of Mobile Delivery Team The ability of the team to create and manage valuable and high-quality mobile applications. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Current Investment in Enterprise Technologies The need to maximize the ROI of current enterprise technologies or integrate with legacy technologies. 1 (High) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (Low)
    Ease of Extensibility Need to have out-of-the-box connectors and plug-ins to extend the mobile delivery solution beyond its base implementation. 1 (High) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (Low)
    Holistic Application Strategy Organizational priorities on the types of applications the portfolio should be comprised. 1 (Buy) – 2 – 3 (Hybrid) – 4 – 5 (Build)
    Control of Delivery Pipeline The desire to control the software delivery pipeline from design to development, testing, publishing and support. 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)
    Specific Quality Requirements Software and mobile delivery is constrained to your unique quality standards (e.g., security, performance, availability) 1 (Low) – 2 – 3 (Moderate) – 4 – 5 (High)

    2.2.1 cont'd

    Example:

    Score Factors (Average) Mobile Opportunity 1: Inventory Management Mobile Opportunity 2: Remote Support
    User-Centric & Enterprise Centric Needs (From Step 2.1) 4.125 2.5
    Stack Management 2 2.5
    Desired Mobile Delivery Solution Vendor-Hosted Mobile Platform

    Commercial-Off-the-Shelf Solution

    Hybrid Development Solution

    A quadrant analysis is depicted. the top data is labeled Complex Mobile Features; the right side is labeled Organization-Managed Stack; the bottom is labeled Simple Mobile Features; and the left side is labeled Vendor-Managed Stack. The quadrants are labeled the following, in order from left to right, top to bottom. Vendor- Hosted Mobile Platform; Custom Native Development Solutions; Commercial-Off-the-Shelf Solutions; Custom Web Development Solutions. In the middle of the graph are the following, in order from top to bottom: Cross-Platform Development Solutions; Hybrid Development Solutions.

    Consider the following in your solution selection and implementation

    • Vendor lock in – Each solution has its own approach, frameworks, and data schemas to convert designs and logic into an executable build that is stable in the targeted environment. Consequently, moving application artifacts (e.g., code and designs) from one solution or environment to another may not be easily accomplished without significant modifications or the use of application modernization or migration services.
    • Conflicting priorities and viewpoints of good delivery practices – Mobile delivery solutions are very particular on how they generate applications from designs and configurations. The solution's approach may not accommodate your interpretation of high-quality code (e.g., scalability, maintainability, extensibility, security). Technical experts should be reviewing and refactoring the generated code.
    • Incompatibility with enterprise applications and systems – The true benefit of mobile delivery solutions is their ability to connect your mobile application to enterprise and 3rd party technologies and services. This capability often requires enterprise technologies and services to be architected in a way that is compatible with your delivery solution while ensuring data, security protocols and other standards and policies are consistently enforced.
    • Integration with current application development and management tools – Mobile delivery solutions should be extensions from your existing application development and management tools that provides the versioning, testing, monitoring, and deployment capabilities to sustain a valuable application portfolio. Without this integration, IT will be unable to:
      • Root cause issues found on IT dashboards or reported to help desk.
      • Rollback defective applications to a previous stable state.
      • Obtain a complete application portfolio inventory.
      • Execute comprehensive testing for high-risk applications.
      • Trace artifacts throughout the development lifecycle.
      • Generate reports of the status of releases.

    Enhance your SDLC to support mobile delivery

    What is the SDLC?

    The software development lifecycle (SDLC) is a process that ensures valuable software products are efficiently delivered to customers. It contains a repeatable set of activities needed to intake and analyze requirements to design, build, test, deploy, and maintain software products.

    How will mobile delivery influence my SDLC?

    • Cross-functional collaboration – Bringing business and IT together at the most opportune times to clarify user needs and business priorities, and set realistic expectations given technology and capacity constraints. The appropriate tactics and techniques are used to improve decision making and delivery effectiveness according to the type of work.
    • Iterative delivery – Frequent delivery of progressive changes minimizes the risk of low-quality features by containing and simplifying scope, and enables responsive turnarounds of fixes, enhancements, and priority changes.
    • Feedback loops –Mobile application owners constantly review, update and refine their backlog of mobile features and changes to reflect user feedback and system performance metrics. Delivery teams proactively prepare the application for future scaling based on lessons and feedback learned from earlier releases.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Modernize Your SDLC blueprint.

    Example: Low- & No-Code Mobile Delivery Pipeline

    Low Code

    Data Modeling & Configuration

    No Code

    Visual Interface with Complex Data Models

    Data Modeling & Configuration

    Visual Interfaces with Simple Data Models

    GUI Designer with Customizable Components & Entities

    UI Definition & Design

    GUI Designer with Canned Templates

    Visual Workflow and Custom Scripting

    Business Logic Rules and Workflow Specification

    Visual Workflow and Natural Language Scripting

    Out-of-the-Box Plugins & Custom Integrations

    Integration of External Services (via 3rd Party APIs)

    Out-of-the-Box Plugins

    Automated and Manual Build & Packaging

    Build & Package

    Automated Build & Packaging

    Automated & Manual Testing

    Test

    Automated Testing

    One-Click Push or IT Push to App Store

    Publish to App Store

    One-Click Push to App Store

    Use Info-Tech's research to address your delivery gaps

    Mobile success requires more than a set of good tools.

    Overcome the Common Challenges Faced with Building Mobile Applications

    Common Challenges with Digital Applications

    Suggested Solutions

    • Time & Resource Constraints
    • Buy-In From Internal Stakeholders
    • Rapidly Changing Requirements
    • Legacy Systems
    • Low-Priority for Internal Tools
    • Insufficient Data Access

    Source: DronaHQ, 2021

    Learn the differentiators of mobile delivery solutions

    • Native Program Languages – Supports languages other than web (Java, Ruby, C/C++/C#, Objective-C).
    • IDE Integration – Available plug-ins for popular development suites and editors.
    • Debugging Tools – Finding and eliminating bugs (breakpoints, single stepping, variable inspection, etc.).
    • Application Packaging via IDE – Digitally sign applications through the IDE for it to be packaged and published in app stores.
    • Automated Testing Tools – Native or integration with automated functional and unit testing tools.
    • Low- and No- Code Designer – Tools for designing graphical user interfaces and features and managing data with drag-and-drop functionalities.
    • Publishing and Deployment Capabilities – Automated deployment to mobile device management (MDM) systems, mobile application management (MAM) systems, mobile application stores, and web servers.
    • Third-Party and Open-Source Integration – Integration with proprietary and open-source third-party modules, development tools, and systems.
    • Developer Marketplace – Out-of-the-box plug-ins, templates, and integration are available through a marketplace.
    • Mobile Application Support Capabilities – Ability to gather, manage, and address application issues and defects.
    • API Gateway, Monitoring, and Management – Services that enable the creation, publishing, maintenance, monitoring, and securing of APIs through a common interface.
    • Mobile Analytics and Monitoring – View the adoption, usage, and performance of deployed mobile applications through graphical dashboards.
    • Mobile Content Management – Publish and manage mobile content through a centralized system.
    • Mobile Application Security – Supports the securing of application access and usage, data encryption, and testing of security controls.

    Define your mobile delivery vendor selection criteria

    Focus on the key vendor attributes and capabilities that enable mobile delivery scaling and growth in your organization

    Considerations in Mobile Delivery Vendor Selection
    Platform Features & Capabilities Price to Implement & Operate Platform
    Types of Mobile Applications That Can Be Developed Ease of IT Administration & Management
    User Community & Marketplace Size Security, Privacy & Access Control Capabilities
    SME in Industry Verticals & Business Functions Vendor Product Roadmap & Corporate Strategy
    Pre-Built Designs, Templates & Application Shells Scope of Device- and OS-Specific Compatibilities
    Regulatory & Industry Compliance Integration & Technology Partners
    Importing Artifacts From and Exporting to Other Solutions Platform Architecture & Underlying Technology
    End-to-End Support for the Entire Mobile SDLC Relevance to Current Mobile Trends & Practices

    Build your features list

    Incorporate different perspectives when defining the list of mandatory and desired features of your target solution.

    Appendix B contains a list of features for low- and no-code solutions that can be used as a starting point.

    Visit Info-Tech's Implement a Proactive and Consistent Vendor Selection Process blueprint.

    Mobile Developer

    • Visual, drag-and-drop models to define data models, business logic, and user interfaces.
    • One-click deployment.
    • Self-healing capabilities.
    • Vendor-managed infrastructure.
    • Active community and marketplace.
    • Pre-built templates and libraries.
    • Optical character recognition and natural language processing.
    • Knowledgebase and document management.
    • Business value, operational costs, and other KPI monitoring.
    • Business workflow automation.

    Mobile IT Professional

    • Audit and change logs.
    • Theme and template builder.
    • Template management.
    • Role-based access.
    • Regulatory compliance.
    • Consistent design and user experience across applications.
    • Application and system performance monitoring.
    • Versioning and code management.
    • Automatic application and system refactoring and recovery.
    • Exception and error handling.
    • Scalability (e.g. load balancing) and infrastructure management.
    • Real-time debugging.
    • Testing capabilities.
    • Security management.
    • Application integration management.

    2.2.2 Build your feature and service lists

    1-3 hours

    Review the key outcomes in the previous exercises to help inform the features and vendor support you require to support your mobile delivery needs:

    End user personas and desired mobile experience

    Objectives and expectations

    Desired mobile features and platform

    Mobile delivery solutions

    Brainstorm a list of features and functionalities you require from your ideal solution vendors. Prioritize these features and functionalities. See our Implement a Proactive and Consistent Vendor Selection Process blueprint for more information on vendor procurement.

    Document your findings and discussions into Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template.

    Download the Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    Input

    Output
    • Shortlist of mobile solutions
    • Quality definitions
    • Mobile objectives and metrics
    • List of desired features and services of mobile delivery solution vendors
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    Hit a home run with your stakeholders

    Use a data-driven approach to select the right tooling vendor for your needs – fast.

    AwarenessEducation & DiscoveryEvaluationSelection

    Negotiation & Configuration

    1.1 Proactively Lead Technology Optimization & Prioritization2.1 Understand Marketplace Capabilities & Trends3.1 Gather & Prioritize Requirements & Establish Key Success Metrics4.1 Create a Weighted Selection Decision Model5.1 Initiate Price Negotiation with Top Two Venders
    1.2 Scope & Define the Selection Process for Each Selection Request Action2.2 Discover Alternate Solutions & Conduct Market Education3.2 Conduct a Data Driven Comparison of Vendor Features & Capabilities4.2 Conduct Investigative Interviews Focused on Mission Critical Priorities with Top 2-4 Vendors5.2 Negotiate Contract Terms & Product Configuration

    1.3 Conduct an Accelerated Business Needs Assessment

    2.3 Evaluate Enterprise Architecture & Application PortfolioNarrow the Field to Four Top Contenders4.3 Validate Key Issues with Deep Technical Assessments, Trial Configuration & Reference Checks5.3 Finalize Budget Approval & Project
    1.4 Align Stakeholder Calendars to Reduce Elapsed Time & Asynchronous Evaluation2.4 Validate the Business Case5.4 Invest in Training & Onboarding Assistance

    Investing time improving your software selection methodology has big returns.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Not all software selection projects are created equal – some are very small, some span the entire enterprise. To ensure that IT is using the right framework, understand the cost and complexity profile of the application you're looking to select. Info-Tech's Rapid Application Selection Framework approach is best for commodity and mid-tier enterprise applications; selecting complex applications is better handled by the methodology in Info-Tech's Implement a Proactive and Consistent Vendor Selection Process.

    Step 2.3

    Create a Roadmap for Mobile Delivery

    Activities

    2.3.1 Define your MVP release

    2.3.2 Build your roadmap

    Define Your Mobile Approach

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    • MVP design
    • Mobile delivery roadmap

    Achieve mobile success with MVPs

    By delivering mobile capabilities in small iterations, teams recognize value sooner and reduce accumulated risk. Both benefits are realized as the iteration enters validation testing and release.

    This image depicts a graph of the learn-build-measure cycle over time, adapted from Managing the Development of Large Software Systems, Dr. Winston W. Royce, 1970

    An MVP focuses on a small set of functions, involves minimal possible effort to deliver a working and valuable solution, and is designed to satisfy a specific user group. Its purpose is to:

    • Maximize learning.
    • Evaluate the value and acceptance of mobile applications.
    • Inform the building of a mobile delivery practice.

    The build-measure-learn loop suggests mobile delivery teams should perpetually take an idea and develop, test, and validate it with the mobile development solution, then expand on the MVP using the lessons learned and evolving ideas. In this sense the MVP is just the first iteration in the loop.

    Leverage a canvas to detail your MVP

    Use the release canvas to organize and align the organization around your MVP!

    This is an example of a release canvas which can be used to detail your MVP.

    2.3.1 Define your MVP release

    1-3 hours

    1. Create a list of high priority use cases slated for mobile application delivery. Brainstorm the various supporting activities required to implement your use cases including the shortlisting of mobile delivery tools.
    2. Prioritize these use cases based on business priority (from your canvas). Size the effort of these use cases through collaboration.
    3. Define your MVPs using a release canvas as shown on the following slide.
    4. Document your findings and discussions into Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template.

    Input

    Output
    • High priority mobile opportunities
    • Mobile platform approach
    • Shortlist of mobile solutions
    • List of potential MVPs
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    2.3.1 cont'd

    MVP Name

    Owner:
    Parent Initiative:
    Updated:

    NAME
    LINK
    October 05, 2022

    MVP Theme/Goals

    [Theme / Goal]

    Use Cases

    Value

    Costs

    [Use Case 1]
    [Use Case 2]
    [Use Case 3]

    [Business Value 1]
    [Business Value 2]
    [Business Value 3]

    [Cost Item 1]
    [Cost Item 2]
    [Cost Item 3]

    Impacted Personas

    Impacted Workflows

    Stakeholders

    [Persona 1]
    [Persona 2]
    [Persona 3]

    [Workflow 1]
    [Workflow 2]
    [Workflow 3]

    [Stakeholder 1]
    [Stakeholder 2]
    [Stakeholder 3]

    Build your mobile roadmap

    It's more than a set of colorful boxes. It's the map to align everyone to where you are going

    Your mobile roadmap

    • Lays out a strategy for your mobile application, platform and practice implementation and scaling.
    • Is a statement of intent for your mobile adoption.
    • Communicates direction for the implementation and use of mobile delivery tools, mobile applications and supporting technologies.
    • Directly connects to the organization's goals

    However, it is not:

    • Representative of a hard commitment.
    • A simple combination of your current product roadmaps

    Roadmap your MVPs against your milestones and release dates

    This is an image of an example of a roadmap for your MVPS, with milestones across Jan 2022, Feb 2022, Mar 2022, Apr 2022. under milestones, are the following points: Points in the timeline when an established set of artifacts is complete (feature-based), or to check status at a particular point in time (time-based); Typically assigned a date and used to show progress; Plays an important role when sequencing different types of artifacts. Under Release Dates are the following points: Releases mark the actual delivery of a set of artifacts packaged together in a new version of processes and applications or new mobile application and delivery capabilities. ; Release dates, firm or not, allow stakeholders to anticipate when this is coming.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision blueprint.

    Understand what is communicated in your roadmap

    WHY is the work being done?

    Explains the overarching goal of work being done to a specific audience.

    WHO is doing the work?

    Categorizes the different groups delivering the work on the product.

    WHAT is the work being done?

    Explains the artifacts, or items of work, that will be delivered.

    WHEN is the work being done?

    Explains when the work will be delivered within your timeline.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision blueprint.

    Pay attention to organizational changes

    Be prepared to answer:

    "How will mobile change the way I do my job?"

    • Plan how workers will incorporate mobile applications into their way of working and maximize the features it offers.
    • Address the human concerns regarding the transition to a digital world involving modern and mobile technologies and automation.
    • Accept changes, challenges and failures with open arms and instill tactics to quickly address them.
    • Build and strengthen business-IT trust, empowerment, and collaborative culture by adopting the right practices throughout the mobile delivery process.
    • Ensure continuous management and leadership support for business empowerment, operational changes, and shifts in role definitions to best support mobile delivery.
    • Establish a committee to manage the growth, adoption, and delivery of mobile as part of a grandeur digital application portfolio and address conflicts among business units and IT.

    Anticipate and prepare for changes and issues

    Verify and validate the flexibility and adaptability of your mobile applications, strategy and roadmap against various scenarios

    • Scenarios
      • Application Stores Rejecting the Application
      • Security Incidents & Risks
      • Low User Adoption, Retention & Satisfaction
      • Incompatibility with User's Device & Other Systems
      • Device & OS Patches & Updates
      • Changes in Industry Standards & Regulations

    Use the "Now, Next, Later" roadmap

    Use this when deadlines and delivery dates are not strict. This is best suited for brainstorming a product plan when dependency mapping is not required.

    Now

    What are you going to do now?

    Next

    What are you going to do very soon?

    Later

    What are you going to do in the future?

    This is a roadmap showing various points in the following categories: Now; Next; Later

    Adapted From: "Tips for Agile product roadmaps & product roadmap examples," Scrum.org, 2017

    2.3.2 Build your roadmap

    1-3 hours

    1. Identify the business outcomes your mobile application delivery and MVP is expected to deliver.
    2. Build your strategic roadmap by grouping each business outcome by how soon you need to deliver it:
      1. Now: Let's achieve this ASAP.
      2. Next: Sometime very soon, let's achieve these things.
      3. Later: Much further off in the distance, let's consider these things.
    3. Identify what the critical steps are for the organization to embrace mobile application delivery and deliver your MVP.
    4. Build your tactical roadmap by grouping each critical step by how soon you need to address it:
      1. Now: Let's do this ASAP.
      2. Next: Sometime very soon, let's do these things.
      3. Later: Much further off in the distance, let's consider these things.
    5. Document your findings and discussions into Info-Tech's Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template.

    Input

    Output
    • List of potential MVPs
    • Mobile roadmap
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template
    • Applications Manager
    • Product and Platform Owners
    • Software Delivery Teams
    • Business and IT Leaders

    2.3.2 cont'd

    Example: Tactical Roadmap

    Milestone 1

    • Modify the business processes of the MVP to best leverage mobile technologies. Streamline the business processes by removing the steps that do not directly support value delivery.
    • Develop UI templates using the material design framework and the organization's design standards. Ensure it is supported on mobile devices through the mobile browser and satisfy accessibility design standards.
    • Verify and validate current security controls against latest security risks using the W3C as a starting point. Install the latest security patches to maintain compliance.
    • Acquire the Ionic SDK and upskill delivery teams.

    Milestone 2

    • Update the current web framework and third-party libraries with the latest version and align web infrastructure to latest W3C guidelines.
    • Verify and validate functionality and stability of APIs with third-party applications. Begin transition to REST APIs where possible.
    • Make minor changes to the existing data architecture to better support the data volume, velocity, variety, and veracity the system will process and deliver.
    • Update the master data management with latest changes. Keep changes to a minimum.
    • Develop and deliver the first iteration of the MVP with Ionic.

    Milestone 3

    • Standardize the initial mobile delivery practice.
    • Continuously monitor the system and proactively address business continuity, system stability and performance, and security risks.
    • Deliver a hands-on and facilitated training session to end users.
    • Develop intuitive user manuals that are easily accessible on SharePoint.
    • Consult end users for their views and perspectives of suggested business model and technology changes.
    • Regularly survey end users and the media to gauge industry sentiment toward the organization.

    Pitch your roadmap initiatives

    There are multiple audiences for your pitch, and each audience requires a different level of detail when addressed. Depending on the outcomes expected from each audience, a suitable approach must be chosen. The format and information presented will vary significantly from group to group.

    Audience

    Key Contents

    Outcome

    Outcome

    • Costs or benefits estimates

    Sign off on cost and benefit projections

    Executives and decision makers

    • Business value and financial benefits
    • Notable business risks and impacts
    • Business rationale and strategic roadmap

    Revisions, edits, and approval

    IT teams

    • Notable technical and IT risks
    • IT rationale and tactical roadmap
    • Proposed resourcing and skills capacity

    Clarity of vision and direction and readiness for delivery

    Business workers

    • Business rationale
    • Proposed business operations changes
    • Application roadmap

    Verification on proposed changes and feedback

    Continuously measure the benefits and value realized in your mobile applications

    Success hinges on your team's ability to deliver business value. Well-developed mobile applications instill stakeholder confidence in ongoing business value delivery and stakeholder buy-in, provided proper expectations are set and met.

    Business value defines the success criteria of an organization, and it is interpreted from four perspectives:

    • Profit Generation – The revenue generated from a business capability with mobile applications.
    • Cost Reduction – The cost reduction when performing business capabilities with mobile applications.
    • Service Enablement – The productivity and efficiency gains of internal business operations with mobile applications.
    • Customer and Market Reach – Metrics measuring the improved reach and insights of the business in existing or new markets.

    See our Build a Value Measurement Framework blueprint for more information about business value definition.

    Business Value Matrix

    This image contains a quadrant analysis with the following labels: Left - Improved Capabilities; Top - Outward; Right - Financial Benefit; Bottom - Inward. the quadrants are labeled the following, in order from left to right, top to bottom. Customer and Market Reach; Profit Generation; Service Enhancement; Cost Reduction

    Grow your mobile delivery practice

    We are Here
    Level 1: Mobile Delivery Foundations Level 2: Scaled Mobile Delivery Level 3: Leading-Edge Mobile Delivery

    You understand the opportunities and impacts mobile has on your business operations and its disruptive nature on your enterprise systems. Your software delivery lifecycle was optimized to incorporate the specific practices and requirements needed for mobile. A mobile platform was selected based on stakeholder needs that are weighed against current skillsets, high priority non-functional requirements, the available capacity and scalability of your stack, and alignment to your current delivery process.

    New features and mobile use cases are regularly emerging in the industry. Ensuring your mobile platform and delivery process can easily scale to incorporate constantly changing mobile features and technologies is key. This can help minimize the impact these changes will have on your mobile stack and the resulting experience.

    Achieving this state requires three competencies: mobile security, performance optimization, and integration practices.

    Many of today's mobile trends involve, in one form or another, hardware components on the mobile device (e.g., NFC receivers, GPS, cameras). You understand the scope of native features available on your end user's mobile device and the required steps and capabilities to enable and leverage them.

    Grow your mobile delivery practice (cont'd)

    Ask yourself the following questions:
    Level 1: Mobile Delivery Foundations Level 2: Scaled Mobile Delivery Level 3: Leading-Edge Mobile Delivery

    Checkpoint questions shown at the end of step 1.2 of this blueprint

    You should be at this point upon the successful delivery of your first mobile application.

    Security

    • Your mobile stack (application, data, and infrastructure) is updated to incorporate the security risks mobile apps will have on your systems and business operations.
    • Leading edge encryption, authentication management (e.g., multi-factor), and access control systems are used to bolster existing mobile security infrastructure.
    • Network traffic to and from mobile application is monitored and analyzed.

    Performance Optimization

    • Performance enhancements are made with the entire mobile stack in mind.
    • Mobile performance is monitored and assessed with both proactive (data flow) and retroactive (instrumentation) approaches.
    • Development and testing practices and technologies accommodate the performance differences between mobile and desktop applications.

    API Development

    • Existing web APIs are compatible with mobile applications, or a gateway / middleware is used to facilitate communication with backend and third-party services.
    • APIs are secured to prevent unauthorized access and misuse.
    • Web APIs are documented and standardized for reuse in multiple mobile applications.
    • Implementing APIs of native features in native and/or cross-platform and/or hybrid platforms is well understood.
    • All leading-edge mobile features are mapped to and support business requirements and objectives.
    • The new mobile use cases are well understood and account for the various scenarios/environments a user may encounter with the leading-edge mobile features.
    • The relevant non-mobile devices, readers, sensors, and other dependent systems are shortlisted and acquired to enable and support your new mobile capabilities.
    • Delivery teams are prepared to accommodate the various security, performance, and integration risks associated with implementing leading-edge mobile features. Practices and mechanisms are established to minimize the impact to business operations.
    • Metrics are used to measure the success of your leading-edge mobile features implementation by comparing its performance and acceptance against past projects.
    • Business stakeholders and development teams are up to date with the latest mobile technologies and delivery techniques.

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools

    • User personas
    • Mobile objectives and metrics
    • Mobile opportunity backlog
    • List of mobile features to enable the desired mobile experience
    • System current assessment
    • Mobile application quality definition
    • Readiness for mobile delivery
    • Desired mobile platform approach
    • Shortlisted mobile delivery solutions
    • Desired list of vendor features and services
    • MVP design
    • Mobile delivery roadmap

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

    Contact your account representative for more information

    workshops@infotech.com

    1-888-670-8889

    Research Contributors and Experts

    This is a picture of Chaim Yudkowsky, Chief Information Officer for The American Israel Public Affairs Committee

    Chaim Yudkowsky
    Chief Information Officer
    The American Israel Public Affairs Committee

    Chaim Yudkowsky is currently Chief information Officer for American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the DC headquartered not-for-profit focused on lobbying for a strong US-Israel relationship. In that role, Chaim is responsible for all traditional IT functions including oversight of IT strategy, vendor relationships, and cybersecurity program. In addition, Chaim also has primary responsibility for all physical security technology and strategy for US offices and event technology for the many AIPAC events.

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    Clement, J. "Share of global mobile website traffic 2015-2021". Statista, 18 Feb 2022. Web

    DeVos, Jordan. "Design Problem Statements – What They Are and How to Frame Them." Toptal, n.d. Web.

    Enge, Eric. "Mobile vs. Desktop Usage in 2020". Perficient, 23 March 2021. Web.

    Engels, Antoine. "How many Android updates does Samsung, Xiaomi or OnePlus offer?" NextPit, Mar 2022. Web.

    "Fast-tracking digital transformation through next-gen technologies". Broadridge, 2022. Web.

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    Appendix A

    Sample Reference Frameworks

    Reference Framework: Web Platform

    Most of the operations of the applications on a web platform are executed in the mid-tier or back-end servers. End users interact with the platform through the presentation layer, developed with web languages, in the browser.

    This is an image of the Reference Framework: Web Platform

    Reference Framework: Mobile Web Application

    Many mobile web applications are composed of JavaScript (the muscle of the app), HTML5 (the backbone of the app), and CSS (the aesthetics of the app). The user will make a request to the web server which will interact with the application to provide a response. Since each device has unique attributes, consider a device detection service to help adjust content for each type of device.

    this is an image of the Reference Framework: Mobile Web Application

    Source: MaLavolta, Ivono, 2012.

    Web Platform: Anatomy of a Web Server

    Web Server Services

    • Mediation Services: Perform transformation of data/messages.
    • Boundary Services: Provide interface protocol and data/message conversion capabilities.
    • Event Distribution: Provides for the enterprise-wide adoption of content and topic-based publish/subscribe event distribution.
    • Transport Services: Facilitate data transmission across the middleware/server.
    • Service Directory: Manages multiple service identifiers and locations.

    This image shows the relationships of the various web server services listed above

    Reference Framework: Hybrid Platform

    Unlike the mobile web platform, most of an application's operations on the hybrid platform is on the device within a native container. The container leverages the device browser's runtime engine and is based on the framework of the mobile delivery solution.

    This is an image of the Reference Framework: Hybrid Platform

    Reference Framework: Native Platform

    Applications on a native platform are installed locally on the device giving it access to native device hardware and software. The programming language depends on the operating system's or device's SDK.

    This is an image of the Reference Framework: Native Platform

    Appendix B

    List of Low- and No- Code Software Delivery Solution Features

    Supplementary List of Features

    Graphical user interface

    • Drag-and-drop designer - This feature enhances the user experience by permitting to drag all the items involved in making an app including actions, responses, connections, etc.
    • Point and click approach - This is similar to the drag-and-drop feature except it involves pointing on the item and clicking on the interface rather than dragging and dropping the item.
    • Pre-built forms/reports - This is off-the-shelf and most common reusable editable forms or reports that a user can use when developing an application.
    • Pre-built dashboards - This is off-the-shelf and most common dashboards that a user can use when developing an application.
    • Forms - This feature helps in creating a better user interface and user experience when developing applications. A form includes dashboards, custom forms, surveys, checklists, etc. which could be useful to enhance the usability of the application being developed.
    • Progress tracking - This features helps collaborators to combine their work and track the development progress of the application.
    • Advanced Reporting - This features enables the user to obtain a graphical reporting of the application usage. The graphical reporting includes graphs, tables, charts, etc.
    • Built-in workflows - This feature helps to concentrate the most common reusable workflows when creating applications.
    • Configurable workflows - Besides built-in workflows, the user should be able to customize workflows according to their needs.

    Interoperability support

    • Interoperability with external services - This feature is one of the most important features to incorporate different services and platforms including that of Microsoft, Google, etc. It also includes the interoperability possibilities among different low-code platforms.
    • Connection with data sources - This features connects the application with data sources such as Microsoft Excel, Access and other relational databases such as Microsoft SQL, Azure and other non-relational databases such as MongoDB.

    Security Support

    • Application security - This feature enables the security mechanism of an application which involves confidentiality, integrity and availability of an application, if and when required.
    • Platform security - The security and roles management is a key part in developing an application so that the confidentiality, integrity and authentication (CIA) can be ensured at the platform level.

    Collaborative development support

    • Off-line collaboration - Different developers can collaborate on the specification of the same application. They work off-line locally and then they commit to a remote server their changes, which need to be properly merged.
    • On-line collaboration - Different developers collaborate concurrently on the specification of the same application. Conflicts are managed at run-time.

    Reusability support

    • Built-in workflows - This feature helps to concentrate the most common reusable workflows in creating an application.
    • Pre-built forms/reports - This is off-the-shelf and most common reusable editable forms or reports that a user might want to employ when developing an application.
    • Pre-built dashboards - This is off-the-shelf and most common dashboards that a user might want to employ when developing an application.

    Scalability

    • Scalability on number of users - This features enables the application to scale-up with respect to the number of active users that are using that application at the same time.
    • Scalability on data traffic - This features enables the application to scale-up with respect to the volume of data traffic that are allowed by that application in a particular time.
    • Scalability on data storage - This features enables the application to scale-up with respect to the data storage capacity of that application.

    Business logic specification mechanisms

    • Business rules engine - This feature helps in executing one or more business rules that help in managing data according to user's requirements.
    • Graphical workflow editor - This feature helps to specify one or more business rules in a graphical manner.
    • AI enabled business logic - This is an important feature which uses Artificial Intelligence in learning the behavior of an attributes and replicate those behaviors according to learning mechanisms.

    Application build mechanisms

    • Code generation - According to this feature, the source code of the modeled application is generated and subsequently deployed before its execution.
    • Models at run-time - The model of the specified application is interpreted and used at run-time during the execution of the modeled application without performing any code generation phase.

    Deployment support

    • Deployment on cloud - This features enables an application to be deployed online in a cloud infrastructure when the application is ready to deployed and used.
    • Deployment on local infrastructures - This features enables an application to be deployed locally on the user organization's infrastructure when the application is ready to be deployed and used.

    Kinds of supported applications

    • Event monitoring - This kind of applications involves the process of collecting data, analyzing the event that can be caused by the data, and signaling any events occurring on the data to the user.
    • Process automation - This kind of applications focuses on automating complex processes, such as workflows, which can take place with minimal human intervention.
    • Approval process control - This kind of applications consists of processes of creating and managing work approvals depending on the authorization of the user. For example, payment tasks should be managed by the approval of authorized personnel only.
    • Escalation management - This kind of applications are in the domain of customer service and focuses on the management of user viewpoints that filter out aspects that are not under the user competences.
    • Inventory management - This kind of applications is for monitoring the inflow and outflow of goods and manages the right amount of goods to be stored.
    • Quality management - This kind of applications is for managing the quality of software projects, e.g., by focusing on planning, assurance, control and improvements of quality factors.
    • Workflow management - This kind of applications is defined as sequences of tasks to be performed and monitored during their execution, e.g., to check the performance and correctness of the overall workflow.

    Source: Sahay, Apurvanand et al., 2020

    The First 100 Days as CISO

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    • Parent Category Name: Security Strategy & Budgeting
    • Parent Category Link: /security-strategy-and-budgeting
    • Make a good first impression at your new job.
    • Obtain guidance on how you should approach the first 100 days.
    • Assess the current state of the security program and recommend areas of improvement and possible solutions.
    • Develop a high-level security strategy in three months.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Every CISO needs to follow Info-Tech’s five-step approach to truly succeed in their new position. The meaning and expectations of a CISO role will differ from organization to organization and person to person, however, the approach to the new position will be relatively the same.
    • Eighty percent of your time will be spent listening. The first 100 days of the CISO role is an information gathering exercise that will involve several conversations with different stakeholders and business divisions. Leverage this collaborative time to understand the business, its internal and external operations, and its people. Unequivocally, active listening will build company trust and help you to build an information security vision that reflects that of the business strategy.
    • Start “working” before you actually start the job. This involves finding out as much information about the company before officially being an employee. Investigate the company website and leverage available organizational documents and initial discussions to better understand your employer’s leadership, company culture ,and business model.

    Impact and Result

    • Hit the ground running with Info-Tech’s ready-made agenda vetted by CISO professionals to impress your colleagues and superiors.
    • Gather details needed to understand the organization (i.e. people, process, technology) and determine the current state of the security program.
    • Track and assess high-level security gaps using Info-Tech’s diagnostic tools and compare yourself to your industry’s vertical using benchmarking data.
    • Deliver an executive presentation that shows key findings obtained from your security evaluation.

    The First 100 Days as CISO Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why the first 100 days of being a CISO is a crucial time to be strategic. Review Info-Tech’s methodology and discover our five-step approach to CISO success.

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

    1. Prepare

    Review previous communications to prepare for your first day.

    • CISO Diary
    • Introduction Sheet

    2. Build relationships

    Understand how the business operates and develop meaningful relationships with your sphere of influence.

    3. Inventory components of the business

    Inventory company assets to know what to protect.

    4. Assess security posture

    Evaluate the security posture of the organization by leveraging Info-Tech’s IT Security diagnostic program.

    • Diagnostic Benchmarks: Security Governance & Management Scorecard
    • Diagnostic Benchmarks: Security Business Satisfaction Report

    5. Deliver plan

    Communicate your security vision to business stakeholders.

    • The First 100 Days as CISO Executive Presentation Template
    • The First 100 Days as CISO Executive Presentation Example
    [infographic]

    Build a Winning Business Process Automation Playbook

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    • Parent Category Name: Business Analysis
    • Parent Category Link: /business-analysis
    • 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

    Identify Opportunities to Mature the Security Architecture

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    • Parent Category Name: Secure Cloud & Network Architecture
    • Parent Category Link: /secure-cloud-network-architecture
    • Organizations do not have a solid grasp on the complexity of their infrastructure and are unaware of the overall risk to their infrastructure posed by inadequate security.
    • Organizations do not understand how to properly create and deliver value propositions of technical security solutions.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • The security architecture is a living, breathing thing based on the risk profile of your organization.
    • Compliance and risk mitigation create an intertwined relationship between the business and your security architecture. The security architecture roadmap must be regularly assessed and continuously maintained to ensure security controls align with organizational objectives.

    Impact and Result

    • A right-sized security architecture can be created by assessing the complexity of the IT department, the operations currently underway for security, and the perceived value of a security architecture within the organization. This will bring about a deeper understanding of the organizational infrastructure.
    • Developing a security architecture should also result in a list of opportunities (i.e. initiatives) that an organization can integrate into a roadmap. These initiatives will seek to improve security operations and strengthen the IT department’s understanding of security’s role within the organization.
    • A better understanding of the infrastructure will help to save time on determining the correct technologies required from vendors and therefore cut down on the amount of vendor noise.
    • Creating a defensible roadmap will assist with justifying future security spend.

    Identify Opportunities to Mature the Security Architecture Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

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

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

    1. Identify the organization’s ideal security architecture

    Complete three unique assessments to define the ideal security architecture maturity for your organization.

    • Identify Opportunities to Mature the Security Architecture – Phase 1: Identify the Organization's Ideal Security Architecture
    • Security Architecture Recommendation Tool
    • None

    2. Create a security program roadmap

    Use the results of the assessments from Phase 1 of this research to create a roadmap for improving the security program.

    • Identify Opportunities to Mature the Security Architecture – Phase 2: Create a Security Program Roadmap
    [infographic]

    Transform Your Field Technical Support Services

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    • Parent Category Name: Strategy and Organizational Design
    • Parent Category Link: /strategy-and-organizational-design
    • Redefine the role of deskside or field technicians as demand for service evolves and service teams are restructured.
    • Redefine the role of onsite technicians when the help desk is outsourced.
    • Define requirements when supplementing with outsourced field services teams.
    • Identify barriers to streamlining processes.
    • Look for opportunities to streamline processes and better use technical teams.
    • Communicate and manage change to support roles.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Service needs to be defined in a way that considers the organizational need for local, hands-on technicians, the need for customer service, and the need to make the best use of resources that you have.
    • Service level agreements will need to be refined and metrics will need to be analyzed for capacity and skilled planning.
    • Organizational change management will be key to persuade users to engage with the technical team in a way that supports the new structure.

    Impact and Result

    • Many IT teams are struggling to keep up with demand while trying to refocus on customer service. With more remote workers than ever, organizations who have traditionally provided desktop and field services have been revaluating the role of the field service technicians. Add in the price of fuel, and there is even more reason to assess the support model.
    • Often changes to the way IT does support, especially if moving centralized support to an outsourcer, is met with resistance by end users who don’t see the value of phoning someone else when their local technician is still available to problem solve. This speaks to the need to ensure the central group is providing value to end users as well as the technical team.
    • With the challenges of finding the right number of technicians with the right skills, it’s time to rethink remote support and how that can be used to train and upskill the people you have. And it’s time to think about how to use field services tools to make the best use of your technician’s time.

    Transform Your Field Technical Support Services Research & Tools

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

    1. Transform Field Services Guide – A brief deck that outlines key migration steps to improve our remote client support services.

    This blueprint will help you:

    • Transform Your Field Technical Services Storyboard

    2. Transform Field Services Template – A template to create a transformation proposal.

    This template will help you to build your proposal to transform your field services.

    • Proposal to Transform Field Technical Services Template
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Transform Your Field Technical Support Services

    Improve service and reduce costs through digital transformation.

    Analyst Perspective

    Improve staffing challenges through digital transformation.

    Many IT teams are struggling to keep up with demand while trying to refocus on customer service. With more remote workers than ever, organizations who have traditionally provided desktop and field services have been revaluating the role of the field service technicians. Add in the price of fuel, and there is even more reason to assess the support model. Often changes to the way IT does support, especially if moving centralized support to an outsourcer, is met with resistance by end users who don’t see the value of phoning someone else when their local technician is still available to problem solve. This speaks to the need to ensure the central group is providing value to end users as well as the technical team. With the challenges of finding the right number of technicians with the right skills, it’s time to rethink remote support and how that can be used to train and upskill the people you have. And it’s time to think about how to use field services tools to make the best use of your technician’s time.

    The image contains a picture of Sandi Conrad.

    Sandi Conrad

    Principal Research Director

    Infrastructure & Operations Practice

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    With remote work becoming a normal employee offering for many organizations, self-serve/self-solve becoming more prominent, and a common call out to improve customer service, there is a need to re-examine the way many organizations are supplying onsite support. For organizations with a small number of offices, a central desk with remote tools may be enough or can be combined with a concierge service or technical center, but for organizations with multiple offices it becomes difficult to provide a consistent level of service for all customers unless there is a team onsite for each location. This may not be financially possible if there isn’t enough work to keep a technical team busy full-time.

    Common Obstacles

    Where people have a choice between calling a central phone number or talking to the technician down the hall, the in-person experience often wins out. End users may resist changes to in-person support as work is rerouted to a centralized group by choosing to wait for their favorite technician to show up onsite rather than reporting issues centrally. This can make the job of the onsite technician more challenging as they need to schedule time in every visit for unplanned work. And where technicians need to support multiple locations, travel needs to be calculated into lost technician time and costs.

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    • Service needs to be defined in a way that considers the organizational need for local, hands-on technicians, the need for customer service, and the need to make the best use of resources that you have.
    • Service-level agreements will need to be refined and metrics will need to be analyzed for capacity and skilled planning.
    • Organizational change management will be key to persuade users to engage with the technical team in a way that supports the new structure.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Improving process will be helpful for smaller teams, but as teams expand or work gets more complicated, investment in appropriate tools to support field services technicians will enable them to be more efficient, reduce costs, and improve outcomes when visits are warranted.

    Your challenge

    This research is designed to help organizations who are looking to:

    • Redefine the role of deskside or field technicians as demand for service evolves and service teams are restructured.
    • Redefine the role of onsite technicians when the help desk is outsourced.
    • Define requirements when supplementing with outsourced field services teams.
    • Identify barriers to streamlining processes.
    • Look for opportunities to streamline processes and better use technical teams.
    • Communicate and manage change to support roles.

    With many companies having new work arrangements for users, where remote work may be a permanent offering or if your digital transformation is well underway, this provides an opportunity to rethink how field support needs to be done.

    What is field services?

    Field services is in-person support delivered onsite at one or more locations. Management of field service technicians may include queue management, scheduling service and maintenance requests, triaging incidents, dispatching technicians, ordering parts, tracking job status, and billing.

    The image contains a diagram to demonstrate what may be supported by field services and what should be supported by field services.

    What challenges are you trying to solve within your field services offering?

    Focus on the reasons for the change to ensure the outcome can be met. Common goals include improved customer service, better technician utilization, and increased response time and stability.

    • Discuss specific challenges the team feels are contributing to less-than-ideal customer service.
    • Does the team have the skills, knowledge, and tools they need to be successful? Technicians may be solving issues with the customer looking over their shoulder. Having quick access to knowledge articles or to subject matter experts who can provide deeper expertise remotely may be the difference between a single visit to resolve or multiple or extended visits.
    • What percentage of tickets would benefit from triage and troubleshooting done remotely before sending a technician onsite? Where there are a high number of no-fault-found visits, this may be imperative to improving technician availability.
    • Review method for distribution of tickets, including batching criteria and dispatching of technicians. Are tickets being dispatched efficiently? By location and/or priority? Is there an attempt to solve more tickets centrally? Should there be? What SLA adjustment is reasonable for onsite visits?
    • Has the support value been defined?
    The image contains a graph to demonstrate Case Casuals in Field Services, where the highest at 55% is break/fix.

    Field services will see the biggest improvements through technology updates

    Customer Intake

    Provide tools for scheduling technicians, self-serve and self- or assisted-solve through ITSM or CRM-based portal and visual remote tools.

    The image contains a picture to demonstrate the different field services.

    Triage and Troubleshoot

    Upgrade remote tools to visual remote solutions to troubleshoot equipment as well as software. Eliminate no-fault-found visits and improve first-time fix rate by visually inspecting equipment before technician deployments.

    Improve Communications

    FSM GPS and SMS updates can be set to notify customers when a technician is close by and can be used for customer sign-off to immediately update service records and launch survey or customer billing where applicable.

    Schedule Technicians

    Field service management (FSM) ITSM modules will allow skills-based scheduling for remote technicians and determine best route for multi-site visits.

    Enable Work From Anywhere

    FSM mobile applications can provide technicians with daily schedules, turn-by-turn directions, access to inventory, knowledge articles, maintenance, and warranty and asset records. Visual remote captures service records and enables access to SMEs.

    Manage Expectations

    Know where technicians are for routing to emergency calls and managing workload using field service management solutions with GPS.

    Digital transformation can dramatically improve customer and technician experience

    The image contains an arrown that dips and rises dramatically to demonstrate how digital transformation can dramatically increase customer and technician experience.
    Sources: 1 - TechSee, 2019; 2 - Glartek; 3 - Geoforce; 4 - TechSee, 2020

    Improve technician utilization and scheduling with field services management software

    Field services management (FSM) software is designed to improve scheduling of technicians by skills and location while reducing travel time and mileage. When integrated with ITSM software, the service record is transferred to the field technician for continuity and to prepare for the job. FSM mobile apps will enable technicians to receive schedule updates through the day and through GPS update the dispatcher as technicians move from site to site.

    FSM solutions are designed to manage large teams of technicians, providing automated dispatch recommendations based on skills matching and proximity.

    Routes can be mapped to reduce travel time and mileage and adjusted to respond to emergency requests by technician skills or proximity. Automation will provide suggestions for work allocation.

    Spare parts management may be part of a field services solution, enabling technicians to easily identify parts needed and update real-time inventory as parts are deployed.

    Push notifications in real-time streamline communications from the field to the office, and enable technicians to close service records while in the field.

    Dispatchers can easily view availability, assign work orders, attach notes to work orders, and immediately receive updates if technicians acknowledge or reject a job.

    Maintenance work can be built into online checklists and forms to provide a technician with step-by-step instructions and to ensure a complete review.

    Skills and location-based routing allow dispatchers to be able to see closest tech for emergency deployments.

    Improve time to resolve while cutting costs by using visual remote support tools

    Visual remote support tools enable live video sessions to clearly see what the client or field service technician sees, enabling the experts to provide real-time assistance where the experts will provide guidance to the onsite person. Getting a view of the technology will reduce issues with getting the right parts, tools, and technicians onsite and dramatically reduce second visits.

    Visual remote tools can provide secure connections through any smartphone, with no need for the client to install an application.

    The technicians can take control of the camera to zoom in, turn on the flashlight for extra lighting, take photos, and save video directly to the tickets.

    Optical character recognition allows automatic text capture to streamline process to check warranty, recalls, and asset history.

    Visual, interactive workflows enhance break/fix and inspections, providing step-by-step guidance visual evidence and using AI and augmented reality to assess the images, and can provide next steps by connecting to a visual knowledgebase.

    Integration with field service management tools will allow information to easily be captured and uploaded immediately into the service record.

    Self-serve is available through many of these tools, providing step-by-step instructions using visual cues. These solutions are designed to work in low-bandwidth environments, using Wi-Fi or cellular service, and sessions can be started with a simple link sent through SMS.

    Prepare an Actionable Roadmap for Your PMO

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    • Parent Category Name: Project Management Office
    • Parent Category Link: /project-management-office
    • Problems with project management offices (PMOs) often start with a lack of a clear definition of what the PMO is actually about and what the organization does.
    • Few organizations provide the minimum required services, and many are not using their PMOs effectively. Many people see the PMO as nothing more than the “project document police,” i.e. a source of red tape rather than a helpful support system. This impacts staffing and hiring.
    • The PMO is often misunderstood as a center for project management governance when it also needs to facilitate the communication of project data from project teams to decision makers to ensure that appropriate decisions get made around resourcing, approval of new projects, etc.
    • Accountability is something that is not clearly defined for many activities that flow through the PMO. Business leaders, project workers, and project managers are rarely as aligned as they need to be.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • There is a gap in the perception of the actual role of the PMO in many organizations by different stakeholder groups. Many people see the PMO as police that produce red tape rather than a helpful support system. Those that need to present a coherent plan to leadership to champion the need for a PMO often have an uphill battle.
    • Determine the PMO’s role and needs and then determine your staff needs based on that PMO.
    • Staff the PMO according to its actual role and needs. Don’t rush to the assumption that PMO staff starts with accomplished project managers.
    • The difference in a winning PMO is determined by a roadmap or plan created at the beginning.

    Impact and Result

    • Define a PMO with functions that work for you based on the needs of your organization and the gaps in services. A “fit-for-purpose” PMO is the right kind of PMO for your organization.
    • Determine your PMO staffing needs. Our approach to building a PMO starts by analyzing the staffing requirements of your PMO mandate.
    • Create purpose-built role descriptions. Once you understand the staff and skills you’ll need to succeed, we have job description aids you’ll need to fill the roles.

    Prepare an Actionable Roadmap for Your PMO Research & Tools

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

    1. Prepare and Actionable Roadmap for Your PMO – An actionable deck to help you establish a valuable PMO.

    Before setting up or re-structuring a PMO, organizational need should not only be taken into consideration but used as a foundation. Phase 1 of this blueprint will help you define the services that your PMO should provide to your organization, instead of the one-size-fits-all approach that doesn’t work.

    • Prepare an Actionable Roadmap for Your PMO – Phases 1-3

    2. PMO Role Definition Tool – An Excel tool to help you define the services of your PMO.

    Use the PMO Role Definition Tool to establish your PMO current state and the service gaps you may have. Use the results to determine the role your PMO should play within your organization.

    • PMO Role Definition Tool

    3. PMO Project Charter – A template to formalize your PMO and make sure everyone is on the same page.

    The PMO Project Charter shares the vision to achieve consensus between stakeholders and projects and initiatives of the PMO. Use this template to jump-start your PMO project.

    • PMO Project Charter

    4. Blank Job Description Template – A template to create different job descriptions from.

    Use this template to create your job descriptions from scratch.

    • Blank Job Description Template

    5. Portfolio Manager Job Description – A clear and realistic job description template for a Portfolio Manager.

    The Portfolio Manager will oversee the business of discovering unsatisfied needs, articulating them as project demand, and organizing appropriate responses. Your customers are the people who approve projects, and you will service them.

    • Portfolio Manager

    6. PMO Job Description Builder Workbook – An Excel tool to help you access PMO staffing requirements.

    This tool will help you assess staffing requirements to facilitate project management, business analysis, and organizational change management outcomes.

    • PMO Job Description Builder Workbook

    7. PMO Strategic Plan – A template to help you compose a PMO strategy.

    This template will help you compose a PMO strategy. Follow the steps in the blueprint to complete the strategy.

    • PMO Strategic Plan

    8. Organizational Change Impact Analysis Tool – An Excel tool to analyze the impact of change to the organization.

    Use the Organizational Change Impact Analysis Tool to analyze the effects of a change across the organization, and to assess the likelihood of adoption to right-size your OCM efforts.

    • Organizational Change Impact Analysis Tool

    9. PMO MS Project Plan – A template to map out timeline for completing the tasks to create your PMO.

    Use this tool to determine the next steps and assign tasks to the appropriate people.

    • PMO MS Project Plan Sample

    Infographic

    Workshop: Prepare an Actionable Roadmap for Your PMO

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

    1 Define

    The Purpose

    Get a common understanding of your PMO options.

    Determine where you are and engage leadership.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A clear vision for your PMO and an articulated reason for establishing it.

    An understanding of you PMO goals and which challenges it sets to address.

    Activities

    1.1 PPM Current State Scorecard

    1.2 SWOT Analysis

    1.3 Current State and Leadership Engagement

    1.4 PMO Mandate and Vision

    Outputs

    PPM Current State Scorecard Results

    SWOT Results

    PMO Role Development Tool

    PMO Charter

    2 Staff

    The Purpose

    Identify organizational design.

    Build job descriptions.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    An analysis of staffing requirements of your PMO that aligns with your mandate from phase 1.

    Job description aids to fill the necessary roles.

    Activities

    2.1 Right, Wrong, Missing, Confusing

    2.2 PMO Function, Roles, and Responsibilities

    2.3 Job Descriptions

    Outputs

    Right, Wrong, Missing, Confusing Results

    Job Description Survey Tool

    Job Description Templates

    3 Plan

    The Purpose

    Create a roadmap.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    An actionable roadmap that can be presented to leadership and implemented.

    Activities

    3.1 Roadmap Hierarchy and Staffing and Sizing

    3.2 Governance and Authority

    Outputs

    PMO Roadmap Draft

    Governance Authority

    4 Change

    The Purpose

    Set up governance and OCM.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    An introduction to the concept of governance and tools for a change impact analysis.

    Activities

    4.1 Analyze the impact of the change across multiple dimensions and stakeholder groups.

    4.2 Gain sponsorship.

    Outputs

    Organizational Change Impact Analysis Tool

    Sponsor Template

    Further reading

    Prepare an Actionable Roadmap for Your PMO

    Turn planning into action with a realistic PMO timeline.

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    Prepare an actionable roadmap for your PMO.

    Photo of Ugbad Farah, PMP, Senior Research Analyst, PPM, Info-Tech Research Group

    We all have junk drawers somewhere in our homes, and we probably try not to think about what’s going on in there. We’re just happy that they close and that the contents are concealed from anyone living in or passing through the house.

    What goes in these junk drawers? Things that don’t have a home, things you don’t know what to do with, and things you don’t have the time or desire to deal with. Eventually, the drawer gets full, and it doesn’t serve you anymore because you can’t add anything else to it. Instead of cleaning the drawer and keeping the things you need, you throw everything away in one sweep. One day you will start the process again.

    The junk drawer is like your project management office (PMO). The PMO is given projects that are barely scoped, projects that don’t have clear sponsors, and ad hoc administrative tasks you don’t have the time or desire to deal with. Inevitably, your PMO is out of capacity. This happens rather quickly, since it’s understaffed. You question its purpose because you made it a junk drawer. You even think about closing it. One day you will start the process again.

    Use this blueprint to stop the madness. Learn how to properly define, staff, and plan a roadmap of a PMO that will actually serve your organization.

    Ugbad Farah, PMP
    Senior Research Analyst, PPM
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Your challenge

    This research is designed to help organizations that are facing these challenges:

    • No visibility into projects
    • The organization views the PMO as unnecessary overhead
    • The PMO is not properly staffed to support the organization’s needs
    • Project managers/staff aren’t providing information or following processes
    • Leadership and sponsors are disengaged

    Pie chart of 'IT Time Allocation by Area'. The grey section on the bottom left represents 'Projects and Project Portfolio Management, 11.5%'.
    IT is responsible for many different business services. The data from Info-Tech’s IT Staffing diagnostic shows that 11.5% of staff time is spent on projects and project portfolio management. (Source: Info-Tech IT Staffing Benchmark Report)

    PMOs can’t do everything and be all things to all people. Define limits with a strong mandate and effective staffing. Make sure you have the skills and capacity to support required PMO functions.

    Project management chaos

    PMOs get pulled into the day-to-day project and resourcing issues, making it difficult to focus on running a portfolio:

    1. Teammates seem unphased by overdue tasks and missed milestones.
    2. Fire drills may happen more often than planned projects.
    3. Resources are allocated and then redirected to something more urgent.
    4. Communication that’s stuck in silos, leading to confusion about priorities.
    5. Due dates mysteriously shift without explanation.
    6. Project teams are more focused on the due date than adoption and outcomes.

    Common obstacles

    IT and PMO leaders face several challenges.

    • Many people see the PMO as nothing more than the “project document police,” i.e. a source of red tape rather than a helpful support system. This impacts staffing and hiring.
    • The PMO is often misunderstood as a center for project management governance, when it also needs to facilitate the communication of project data from project teams to decision makers to ensure that appropriate decisions get made around resourcing, approval of new projects, etc.
    • Accountability is something that is not clearly defined for many activities that flow through the PMO. Business leaders, project workers, and project managers are rarely as aligned as they need to be.

    The Reality

    68% — Sixty-eight percent of stakeholders see their PMOs as sources of unnecessary bureaucratic red tape. (Source: KeyedIn, 2014)

    50% — Fifty percent of PMOs close within the first three years due to such things as poorly defined mandates and poor leadership. (Source: KeyedIn, 2014)

    Info-Tech’s approach

    Prepare an Actionable Roadmap for Your PMO

    The Info-Tech difference:

    1. Get a departmental job description first. Defining your PMO may not be as simple as it seems. Explore the boundaries of portfolio, project, resource, and organizational change management before jumping ahead with processes and tools.
    2. The staffing plan should come before your long-term plan. Get buy-in around your definition of the roles needed to run your PMO before articulating a long-term plan. Too often, plans have been accepted without the commensurate level of staffing. Our approach gives you a chance to put hiring on the roadmap as a predecessor to accountability.
    3. Keep your eye on the ball. Build your PMO around the operational imperative to recognize completed projects as an early milestone in broader changes. In other words, projects exist to create change.

    Prepare an Actionable Roadmap for your PMO

    Turn planning into action with a realistic PMO timeline.

    50% of PMOs close within the first 3 years.

    Logo for Info-Tech.


    Logo for ITRG.

    01 Define

    DEFINE THE RIGHT KIND OF PMO

    Establish the purpose of your PMO. Identify organizational needs to fill in gaps instead of duplicating efforts.

    LOGICAL FALLACY
    “If we approve more work, we'll get more done.”

    A properly run portfolio reconciles demand (project requests) to supply (available people) and drives throughput by approving the amount of projects that can get done.

    02 Staff

    STAFF THE PMO FOR RESILIENCE

    Analyze the staffing requirements for your PMOs mandate. Create purpose-built role descriptions.

    FALSE ASSUMPTION
    “Our best project manager should run the PMO.”

    Your best project manager should be running projects and, no, they shouldn't do both.

    03 Plan

    PREPARE AN ACTIONABLE ROADMAP

    The difference in a winning PMO is determined by a roadmap or plan created at the beginning. Leaders should understand the full scope of the plan before committing their teams to the project.

    COMMON MISTAKE
    “We'll get great at project management now and worry about portfolio management later.”

    Too often, PMOs focus on project management rigor and plan to do portfolio management after that's done. But few successfully maintain the process long enough to get there. If you start with portfolio management, leadership might soften their demands for project management rigor.

    04 Execute

    ALIGN TO STRATEGIC PLAN

    Use the power of organizational change management to ensure success and adoption. Iterate through the finer points of planning and execution to deploy the kind of PMO defined in step 1, with the people described in step 2, and the strategic roadmap articulated in step 3.

    PROJECT MYOPIA
    “Let's focus on delivering the project on time so we can move on to our next project.”

    Don't forget why the idea got approved in the first place. The goal is to sustain beneficial business outcomes well beyond the completion of your project.

    Info-Tech’s methodology for Preparing an Actionable Roadmap for Your PMO

    1. Define the PMO 2. Staff the PMO 3. Prepare a Roadmap
    Phase Steps
    1. Get a Common Understanding of Your PMO Options
    2. Determine Where You Are and Engage Leadership
    1. Identify Organizational Design
    2. Build Job Descriptions
    1. Create Roadmap
    2. Governance and OCM
    Phase Outcomes A clear vision for your PMO and an articulated reason for establishing it.
    An understanding of your PMO goals and which challenges it sets to address.
    An analysis of staffing requirements of your PMO that aligns with your mandate from phase 1. Job descriptions help to fill the necessary roles. An actionable roadmap that can be presented to leadership and implemented. An introduction to the concept of governance and tools for a change impact analysis.

    Insight summary

    Overarching insight

    There is a gap in the perception of the actual role of the PMO in many organizations by different stakeholder groups. Many people see the PMO police that produce red tape rather than a helpful support system. Those that need to present a coherent plan to leadership championing the need for a PMO often have an uphill battle.

    Phase 1 insight

    Determine the PMO’s role and needs and then determine your staff needs based on that PMO.

    PMO leaders are all too often set up to fail, left to make successes out of PMOs that:

    1. have poorly defined mandates;
    2. lack the proper resourcing to support the services the organization requires; or
    3. lack executive leadership, vision, and backing.

    Phase 2 insight

    Staff the PMO according to its actual role and needs. Don’t rush to the assumption that PMO staff starts with accomplished project managers.

    Many organizations have PMOs of one person, and it is simply not a long-term recipe for success. People in this situation have a lot of weight on their shoulders and feel like they are being set up to fail. It is very challenging for anyone to run a PMO alone without support or administrative help.

    Phase 3 insight

    The difference in a winning PMO is determined by a roadmap or plan created at the beginning.

    When you are determining what your PMO will provide in the future, it is important to align the ambition of the PMO with the maturity of the business. Too often, a lot of effort is spent trying to convince businesses of the value of a PMO.

    Blueprint deliverables

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

    PMO Role Definition Tool Sample of the PMO Role Definition Tool deliverable. PMO Project Charter Template Sample of the PMO Project Charter Template deliverable.
    Blank Job Description Template
    Sample of the Blank Job Description Template deliverable.
    Sample Job Descriptions
    Sample of the Sample Job Descriptions deliverable.
    PMO Job Description Builder Workbook
    Sample of the PMO Job Description Builder Workbook deliverable.

    Blueprint deliverables

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

    PMO Strategic Plan
    Sample of the PMO Strategic Plan deliverable.
    PMO MS Project Plan Sample
    Sample of the PMO MS Project Plan Sample deliverable.
    Organizational Change Impact Analysis Tool
    Sample of the Organizational Change Impact Analysis Tool deliverable.

    Benefits

    IT Benefits

    • Determine how you can fill gaps and not duplicate efforts to bring value to your organization.
    • Ensure that key PMO capabilities like portfolio management, project management, and organizational change management are in balance.
    • Staffing is purpose-driven. Avoid putting good people in the wrong role.

    Business Benefits

    • Intake and governance have a primary focus and are not merely afterthoughts of someone primarily focused on project management methodology.
    • Avoid unrealistic commitments by ensuring better upfront analysis of ability to execute.
    • Ensure appropriately mandated sponsor management.

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

    DIY Toolkit

    Guided Implementation

    Workshop

    Consulting

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Guided Implementation

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

    A typical GI is 8 to 12 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

      Phase 1

    • Call #1: Scope requirements, objectives, and your specific challenges.
    • Call #2: Assess current state and determine PMO role/type.
    • Call #3: Complete job description survey.
    • Phase 2

    • Call #4: Analyze survey results and complete FTE analysis.
    • Call #5: Discuss necessary roles and create job descriptions.
    • Phase 3

    • Call #6: Discuss business goals and priorities.
    • Call #7: Identify and prioritize initiatives on roadmap.
    • Call #8: Discuss governance and organizational change.
    • Call #9: Summarize results in strategic plan and discuss next steps.

    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
    Activities
    Define

    1.1 Review PPM Current State Scorecard Results

    1.2 Get a Common Understanding of Your PMO Options

    1.3 Conduct SWOT Analysis

    1.4 Current State and Leadership Engagement

    1.5 PMO Mandate and Vision

    Staff

    2.1 Identify Organizational Design

    2.2 Right, Wrong, Missing, Confusing

    2.3 PMO Function, Roles, and Responsibilities

    2.4 Job Descriptions

    Plan

    3.1 Roadmap Top-Level Hierarchy

    3.2 Roadmap Second-Level Hierarchy

    3.2 Staffing and Sizing

    3.3 Reconcile and Finalize Roadmap

    3.4 Governance and Authority

    Change

    4.1 Importance of OCM

    4.2 Sponsorship

    4.3 Analyze the Impact of the Change Across Multiple Dimensions and Stakeholder Groups

    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. PPM Current State Scorecard
    2. SWOT Results
    3. PMO Role Development Tool
    4. PMO Charter
    1. Right, Wrong, Missing, Confusing Results
    2. Job Description Survey Tool
    3. Job Description Templates
    1. PMO Roadmap Draft
    2. Governance and Authority Activity
    1. Organizational Change Impact Analysis Tool
    2. Sponsor Template
    1. Completed PMO Roadmap draft
    2. PMO Strategic Plan draft

    Prepare an Actionable Roadmap for Your PMO

    Phase 1

    Define the Right Kind of PMO

    Phase 1

    • 1.1 Get a Common Understanding of Your PMO Options
    • 1.2 Determine Where You Are and Engage Your Leadership

    Phase 2

    • 2.1 Identify Organizational Design
    • 2.2. Build Job Descriptions

    Phase 3

    • 3.1 Create Roadmap
    • 3.2 Governance and OCM

    A PMO may not simply be an office of project managers

    Project management offices are evolving and taking on activities that differ from company to company.

    1915 1930s 1950s 1980s 1990s
    Frederick Taylor introduces the PMO with the implementation of the scientific management method and the increase in the number and complexity of projects. The US Air Corps creates a Project Office function to monitor aircraft development (probably the first record of the term being used). The US military starts developing complex missile systems. Each weapon system was composed of several sub-projects grouped together in system program offices (SPOs). This built the structures underlying the traditional PMO. The Project Office concept exported to construction and IT. The PMO gains a lot of momentum with professional associations and project management certifications becoming recognized industry standards.

    Organizations are confused about what a PMO is, whether they should have one, and what it should do

    PMBOK

    The responsibilities of a PMO can range from providing project management support functions to the direct management of one or more projects. The PMO is an organizational body assigned with various responsibilities related to the centralized and coordinated management of those projects under its domain.

    The PMO may play a role in supporting strategic alignment and delivering organizational value, integrating data and information for organizational strategic projects, and evaluating how higher-level strategic objectives are being fulfilled.

    COBIT

    The PMO can be responsible for portfolio maintenance, setting a standard approach for project and program and portfolio management.

    OPM

    The PMO is an organizational body assigned with various responsibilities related to the centralized and coordinated management of those projects under its domain.

    In an effort to set a standard, the governance frameworks have over complicated it for most of us.

    Use Info-Tech’s framework to create the PMO that works for your organization

    Determine the Services Your PMO Will Provide
    Manage your PMO services in alignment with your mandate and your organization’s needs.

    Establish Your PMO’s Mandate
    Figure out the purpose of your PMO and write it down so it’s clear to your leadership. Align your mandate to the organization’s needs.

    Ensure Organizational Needs Are Being Met
    Before you can decide on what your PMO will do, find out who’s doing what in your organization so you can fill gaps instead of duplicating efforts.

    Hierarchy of PMO Needs
    Hierarchy of PMO needs with 'Organizational Needs' as the base, 'PMO Mandate' in the middle, and 'PMO Services' at the top.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Consider the principles of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which view the lower tiers of the hierarchy as fundamentally required to validate the pursuit of the higher tiers.

    Step 1.1

    Get a Common Understanding of Your PMO Options

    Activities
    • 1.1.1 Review PMO Types
    • 1.1.2 SWOT Analysis

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Review Info-Tech’s PMO Types
    • Complete a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats Analysis

    This step involves the following participants:

    • PMO director and/or portfolio manager
    • PMO staff/stakeholders
    • Project managers

    Outcomes of this step

    • Current state analysis
    Define the Right Kind of PMO
    Step 1.1 Step 1.2

    People mistake the PMO as only an office with project managers

    It sounded simple enough, but no one could really explain what it meant.

    PMOs are often born out of necessity or desperation. A traumatic event happens, and leadership decides that it wouldn’t have happened had there been a “Project Management Office.” The phrase itself is often quite reassuring and offers the hope of some sort of sanity and order.

    People may not really be able to explain what a PMO is, but they do have a common understanding that it should solve all project management issues. But simply prescribing the “PMO” as a remedy for every organizational alignment is not going to be sufficient. There are different types of PMOs and more importantly there are different types of organizations.

    Screenshot of a Google search for 'what is a project management office'.
    Google and the Google logo are trademarks of Google LLC.

    The PMI has described what a PMO could be

    The PMI does not have a standard for PMOs like it does for things like project, program, and portfolio management. Its PMO definitions should be used as more of a reference point than a best practice.

    But what should it do?

    • Supportive: Provides a consultative role to projects by supplying templates, best practices, training, access to information, and lessons learned from previous projects.
    • Controlling: Provides support and requires compliance through various means.
    • Directive: Takes control of the projects by directly executing them.

    The PMI described three types of PMOs. These three types are well known in the industry, but they are essentially characteristics and do little to help people understand the functions and services of a PMO. There continue to be questions about the role a PMO should play in an organization and how it’s supposed to add value.

    Stock photo of two sticky notes reading 'project' and 'management'.

    Thousands of practitioners came together at the 2012 PMI Symposium and expanded upon PMBOK’s PMO types

    1. Managing
      Manages the work in projects and programs.
    2. Consulting
      Serves as an experience-based consultative body to project managers.
    3. Project Repository
      Repository of previous project documentation, lessons learned, etc.
    4. Enterprise PMO
      Provides PMO services to the organization.
    5. Center of Excellence
      Creates the standard and methodologies and provides tools.
    6. Managerial
      Manages the project and program managers, and eventually, other project resources.
    7. Delivery
      Manages the project and programs.

    1.1.1 Leverage Info-Tech’s PMO types to anchor yourself

    We have narrowed it down to five types of PMOs.

    ePMO
    Icon for ePMO.
    IT PMO
    Icon for IT PMO.
    PMO
    Icon for PMO.
    CMO
    Icon for CMO.
    CoE
    Icon for CoE.
    Enterprise
    Highest level PMO, typically responsible to align project and program work to strategy-significant projects or programs for the entire organization. Could include both IT and business units.
    IT
    IT PMOs provide project-related support for IT project portfolios. For many organizations PMOs originate in IT departments because of the structure required for technology-related projects.
    Project/Program
    Provides project-related tactical service as an entity to support a specific project or program. Can be dismantled when program is done.
    Change
    Change management offices (CMO) help build change management capabilities and enable change readiness in organizations.
    Excellence
    These centers differ in size and mode of organization, depending on their subject and scope. They support project work by providing the organizations with standard methodologies and tools.

    What is your definition of a PMO?

    Use this model to clearly show what is in and out of scope.

    ePMO IT PMO PMO CMO CoE
    PPM Reporting for enterprise portfolio and the financial/human resources needed to deliver them X
    PPM Finance for project/portfolio capital and expense X X
    PPM Customer Management – the customers, sponsors of the project X X
    PPM Strategy Management – projects and programs relate to corporate X X X
    PPM Program Management – related projects in the portfolio X X X
    PPM Time Accounting X X x
    PPM Business Relationship Management (BRM) X X
    PPM Project Information System (PMIS) – organization of project information X X
    PPM Administrative Support – general assistance with Portfolio X
    PPM Record Keeping – Enterprise Information X X
    RM Forecasting X
    PM Quality Assurance X X
    PM Procurement and Vendor Management X X X
    PM Project Status Reporting X X
    PM PM Services X X X
    PM Training X
    PM PM SOP X
    OCM Adoption X X
    OCM Change Management X X
    OCM Benefits Attainment X X
    OCM Forecast Benefits X X
    OCM Track Benefits X X
    GOV Intake X
    GOV Governance X X
    GOV Reporting X X X X

    Use Info-Tech’s PMO function matrix to help provide role definitions for your PMO

    Info-Tech’s potential PMO capabilities are in the header of the table below. These are the services a PMO may (or may not) provide depending on the needs of the organization.

    Portfolio Management Resource Management Project Management Organizational Change Management PMO Governance
    Recordkeeping and bookkeeping Strategy management Assessment of available supply of people and their time Project status reporting PM SOP
    (e.g. feed the portfolio, project planning, task managing)
    Benefits management Technology and infrastructure
    Reporting Financial management HR Security
    PMIS Intake Matching supply to demand based on time, cost, scope, and skill set requirements Procurement and vendor management Legal Financial
    CRM/RM/BRM Program management
    Tracking of utilization based on the allocations Quality Intake
    Time Accounting PM services
    (e.g. staffing project managers or coordinators)
    Quality assurance Organizational change management Project progress, visibility, and process
    Forecasting of utilization via supply-demand reconciliation Closure and lessons learned
    Administrative support PM Training

    The rest of this blueprint will help you choose the right capabilities and accompanying job functions for your PMO.

    Various options for specific PMO job functions are listed below each capability. PMO leaders need to decide which of these functions are required for their organization.

    1.1.2 SWOT analysis

    45-60 minutes

    Input: Current PMO governance documents and SOPs

    Output: An assessment of current strengths, opportunities, threats, and weaknesses of capabilities in previous slide

    Materials: Whiteboard/flip charts, Sticky notes

    Participants: PMO director and/or portfolio manager, PMO staff/stakeholders, Project managers

    Perform a SWOT analysis to assess the current state of PMO capabilities covered on the previous slide.

    The purpose of the SWOT is to begin to define the goals of this implementation by assessing your project management, portfolio management, resource management, organizational change management, and governance capabilities and cultivating alignment around the most critical opportunities and challenges.

    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 in the next slide or by taking a picture of the whiteboard or flip chart.

    1.1.2 Sample SWOT analysis

    Strengths

    • Knowledge, skills, and talent of project staff.
    • We have fairly effective project management processes.
    • Motivation to get things done when priorities, goals, and action plans are clear.

    Weaknesses

    • IT-business communication and alignment.
    • No standards are currently in place across departments. Staff are unsure which templates to use and how/when/why to use them.
    • There are no formal intake structures in place. Projects are approved and it’s up to us to “figure it out.”
    • We have no prioritization practices to keep up with constantly changing priorities and shifts in the marketplace.

    Opportunities

    • Establish portfolio discipline to improve IT-business communication through more effective and efficient project coordination.
    • Stronger initiation processes should translate to smoother project execution.
    • Establish more disciplined and efficient weekly/monthly project reporting practices that should facilitate more effective communication with senior leaders.

    Threats

    • Risk of introducing burdensome processes and documentation that takes more time away from getting things done.
    • We tried to formalize a PMO in the past and it failed after eight months.
    • We have no insight into project resourcing.

    Step 1.2

    Determine Where You Are and Engage Your Leadership

    Activities
    • 1.2.1 Assess Current State
    • 1.2.2 Gap Analysis
    • 1.2.3 Vision Exercise
    • 1.2.4 PMO Charter
    • 1.2.5 Strategic Planning

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Assess the current state of your PPM/PM services using the PMO Role Definition Tool
    • Determine current gaps in your services and processes using the PMO Role Definition Tool
    • Discuss the vison for your PMO
    • Start creating your PMO charter

    This step involves the following participants:

    • PMO director and/or portfolio manager
    • PMO staff/stakeholders
    • Project managers

    Outcomes of this step

    • Results of PMO Role Definition Tool
    • PMO vision
    • PMO charter

    Define the Right Kind of PMO

    Step 1.1 Step 1.2

    Why do organizations need a PMO?

    Stock image of a man thinking.

    “If a company is not a project-oriented organization, there’s less of a need for a PMO. If they are project-focused though, they should have one. Otherwise, who’s driving the delivery of their projects? Who’s establishing their methodology? How are they managing resources efficiently?” (Mary Hubbard, PMP, director of the PMO at Siemens Government Technologies Inc., A PMI Global Executive Council Member)

    Signs you might need a PMO:

    • A lack of project transparency.
    • Significant discrepancies in project results.
    • Poor customer satisfaction rates.
    • An inability to cost projects accurately.
    • A high percentage of delayed or cancelled projects.
    • High project failure rates.
    • Poor alignment of project activity and business strategy investments.
    • Inconsistent project management processes and methodologies.
    • A lack of collaboration and knowledge sharing.
    • Little to no resource training to meet IT and business needs.
    • A lack of resource management for utilization and capacity.
    • Little to no visibility into project, program, and portfolio-level status.

    Why does your organization need a PMO?

    Observe the needs of your organization before deciding on services to support it.
    • Observe what is and what is not in place. Look for existing processes, tools, and systems and evidence that they are being followed. You might already have some pieces in place; the question becomes what to keep and what not to keep.
    • What does your organization look like?
      • Name
      • Population
      • Current Project Lifecycle
      • IT Services Team
      • # of Unique Applications
      • Annual Budget
    • Gather a list of potential areas for improvement where a PMO can add value. Once a list is established, convert it to a prioritized queue of initiatives. A key item on your list should be how projects go from beginning to end so you can understand the potential issues and opportunities with your current project delivery.
    Stock image of a hierarchy mapped out over a birds eye view of people.

    Ideally, we wouldn’t invest in project, portfolio, or OCM because they’re overhead processes without any direct value…

    …but you need to spend just enough to demonstrate you are a diligent steward of the assets under your administration.

    Organizational Change Management

    • Well-run projects can fail without OCM.
    • More than anyone else, it’s up to the sponsor to pursue outcomes.

    Project Management

    • Determine the current project management standards and methodologies.
    • Uncover any forms and templates that are currently in use.
    • If there is a lack of project management knowledge among current or future staff, you will need to do some training.

    Portfolio Management

    • Who currently approves projects and who will be approving them in the future?
    • Who is accountable for approving too many projects?
    • What roles does resource capacity play? Is it constrained or do you approve everything?
    • Are the resources in your PMO full-time?
    • How big is your portfolio?
    • How much do you spend on resources (hours or months)?

    Governance

    • Governance can mean many different things: intake, finance, over-sight of existing projects, resource management, technology and architecture, and process.
    • Don’t try to introduce governance without considering the people who may already be governing different areas.
    • Consider what things can be done without getting executive approval.

    Define your PMO’s role in the organization

    Use Info-Tech’s PMO Role Definition Tool to help establish your PMO’s future state.

    • Use Info-Tech’s PMO Role Definition Tool to figure out the functions your PMO should provide.
    • The current-state analysis uses specific questions to assess how you are doing things now and provide you with some situational awareness.
    • The gap analysis uses another set of specific questions to uncover the holes in your organization and the services that are not being provided.
    • Based on the answers you gave to the questions, the tool will populate the functions that your PMO should provide to your organization: the services your organization needs.
    • Use the outputs to start looking into missing functions and ultimately start building or re-establishing the responsibilities of your PMO.
    • Consider having multiple team members answer all the questions to establish alignment and get realistic data.

    Sample of the PMO Role Definition Tool.

    Download the PMO Role Definition Tool

    Hey, you don’t to have to spend anything on portfolio, project, and organizational change management! Assuming of course…

    • You have enough people to do all your projects
    • All projects are getting done on time
    • Your customers and employees are happy
    • You have complete visibility into the portfolio
    • Your projects align with your corporate strategy
    • Your projects align with your operational needs
    • Your strategic and operational needs are in harmony
    • You have the right skills
    • You are using all resources provided to you
    • People self-identify the right work and independently do that work
    • Time is not wasted
    • The work is production-ready (i.e. high quality)
    • Vendors honor their commitments
    • The sponsor is confident they’re getting what was committed
    • You have sufficient reports for the portfolio
    • Stakeholders make it through transitions with minimal resistance
    • The organization is prepared to adopt the outcomes of projects
    • The sponsors’ forecasted benefits are realized
    • Stakeholders are aware of the need for change
    • Stakeholders transition well from current to future state

    Use the tool on the next slide to see where you may need to spend.

    1.2.1 Assess the current state of your project environment

    20-30 minutes

    Input: Understanding of current project portfolio environment

    Output: Completed current state survey

    Materials: Tab 1 of Info-Tech’s PMO Role Definition Tool

    Participants: PMO director and/or portfolio manager, PMO staff/stakeholders, Project managers

    Screenshot from tab 1 of Info-Tech’s PMO Role Definition Tool.

    Screenshot from tab 1 of Info-Tech’s PMO Role Definition Tool. There are three columns: '#', 'Question', and 'Answer'.

    There are 20 current-state questions in column C. Together, the questions address the five capabilities in Info-Tech’s PMO function matrix (slide 28).

    Use the drop-down menu in column D to answer Agree, Somewhat Agree, Neutral, Somewhat Disagree, or Disagree to each question in column C.

    The questions are broad by design. Answer them honestly and select “neutral” if anything is not applicable.

    1.2.2 Set your target state needs to identify gaps

    15-30 minutes

    Input: Reflection on the question, “If I/We do nothing, someone in the organization is…”

    Output: Completed target state survey

    Materials: Tab 2 of Info-Tech’s PMO Role Definition Tool

    Participants: PMO director and/or portfolio manager, PMO staff/stakeholders, Project managers

    Screenshot from tab 2 of Info-Tech’s PMO Role Definition Tool.

    Screenshot from tab 2 of Info-Tech’s PMO Role Definition Tool. There are four columns: '#', 'Question', 'Answer', and 'Department'.

    Each question in column C of tab 2 should be answered in the context of, “If I do nothing, someone in the organization is…”

    Answer each question by using the drop-down menu in column D to select “Yes,” “No,” “I don’t know,” or “N/A.”

    If “Yes” include the department or area that is responsible.

    Hierarchy of PMO needs with 'Organizational Needs' highlighted. 'Organizational Needs' at the base, 'PMO Mandate' in the middle, and 'PMO Services' at the top.

    Review the preliminary list of your potential PMO functions

    Tab 3 of the PMO Role Definition Tool contains a customized version of Info-Tech’s PMO definition matrix, based upon your inputs in the previous two tabs.

    Screenshot from tab 3 of Info-Tech’s PMO Role Definition Tool. It is titled 'PMO Functions and Groups' and contains a table with five columns: 'Portfolio Management', 'Resource Management', 'Project Management', 'Organizational Change Management', and 'Governance'. Each column contains high level recommendations, and at the bottom of the columns are outputs.

    The name of the box is the group the function belongs to.

    These outputs are based on the answers to the questions on the previous 2 tabs.

    In each group’s box are high-level recommendations.

    Consider your stakeholders

    Who benefits from the new or updated PMO structure?

    In a matrix environment, understanding the challenges other teams are facing is a core requirement of an effective PMO. The best way to understand this is through direct engagement like conducting interviews and taking surveys with management and members of other teams.

    Ask yourself these questions about your PMO:

    • Are we doing the right things?
    • Do we know the current status of projects?
    • Are we managing, escalating, and resolving project issues?
    • Do PMs have the right training?
    • What is our overall utilization?

    A PMO should be structured to provide service to the organization. View it as a business, serving the stakeholders.

    1.2.3 Complete this vision exercise to produce an initial mandate for a new/improved PMO

    45-60 minutes

    Input: Outputs from SWOT analysis

    Output: An initial PMO mandate

    Materials: Whiteboard/flip charts, Sticky notes

    Participants: PMO director and/or portfolio manager, PMO staff/stakeholders, Project managers

    Now that you have an idea of the services your organization needs from steps 1.1 and 1.2 of this blueprint, you can discuss the target state of your PMO.

    Follow these steps to complete the SWOT analysis:

    1. Each person writes one aspect of a future state that would solve the issues described in the SWOT analysis (activity 1.1.1). Use sticky notes and post them on the whiteboard.
    2. As a group, identify which of these aspects would be good candidates for embodying the “core element” of your PMO’s new mandate.
    3. From the aspects gathered, have everyone individually come up with a statement of one to two sentences they think captures the overall theme and vision of this PMO.
    4. Collectively choose the best statement to use as the working mandate for your new project management office. This mandate can be modified as needed in the time leading up the creation and launch of your PMO.

    Hierarchy of PMO needs with 'PMO Mandate' highlighted. 'Organizational Needs' at the base, 'PMO Mandate' in the middle, and 'PMO Services' at the top.

    1.2.4 Use Info-Tech’s PMO Project Charter template to help capture your mandate and obtain approval

    3-4 hours

    Input: Activity 1.2.3, Logical considerations for PMO deployment (see bulleted list on this slide)

    Output: An assessment of current strengths, opportunities, threats, and weaknesses of capabilities in previous slide

    Materials: Whiteboard/flip charts, Sticky notes

    Participants: PMO director and/or portfolio manager, PMO staff/stakeholders, Project managers

    A successful PMO will offer a range of services which business units can rely on. The aim of the PMO charter is to outline what is in scope for the PMO and what services it will initially offer.

    A project charter serves several important functions. It organizes the project so you can make efficient and effective resource allocation decisions. It also communicates important details about the project purpose, scope definition, and project parameters.

    To use this template, simply modify or delete all information in grey text and convert the remaining text to black before printing or sending. Sections within the Template include:

    1. PMO Mandate
    2. Goals & Benefits
    3. Scope Definition
    4. Key PMO Stakeholders
    5. Projected Timeline for Implementation
    6. Project Roles and Responsibilities
    7. High-Level Budget
    8. High-Level Risk Assessment

    Sample of the PMO Project Charter Template.

    Download the PMO Project Charter Template

    Engage leadership to refine target-state expectations

    Stock image of a person with a megaphone. ?
    Will project managers be included in the PMO? Which projects and programs will be in the PMO’s mandate?
    ?
    Will the PMO have decision-making authority? If so, how much and on what issues?
    ?
    Where in the organizational structure will the PMO report?

    “Changing the perception of project management from ‘busy work’ to ‘valued efforts’ is easier when the PMO is properly aligned.” (Project Management Institute, October 2009)

    Don’t assume your PMO is merely tactical

    It can help drive strategy instead of just being a technical arm.

    Strategic

    Stock image of a business person.

    Tactical

    Strategic Alignment
    Leadership assumes that your presence will optimize the alignment of projects to corporate strategy.
    Process Adherence
    Leadership assumes you’re all about process.
    Portfolio Thinking
    Leadership assumes that you’re thinking about the overall throughput of projects through the portfolio.
    Project Thinking
    Leadership assumes you’re not thinking beyond the boundaries of a single project at any given time.
    Outcomes Focused
    Leadership assumes that you’re focused on the outcomes forecast by sponsors.
    Timeline Focused
    Leadership assumes you’re focused on delivering projects on time.

    Info-Tech Insight

    A key success factor for a PMO is to take part of strategic conversations; when they are left out, it creates a barrier. The PMO is the connective tissue between strategy and tactics. Don’t risk your benefits by not having the PMO Director at the table before you make decisions.

    Avoid the disconnect

    Create a strategic plan with project professionals at the table.

    • Strategic plans should guide organizations to future states, yet many don’t ever get used. This is because there is a disconnect between the people creating the strategic plan and the people being asked to implement it. Strategic planners don’t often develop their plans with the help of project managers who can ensure the plan is transferred into a working operational plan.
    • Strategic planners are broad thinkers with high-level plans whereas project professionals often work in the trenches. The disconnect between the two can often result in cost overruns, delays in implementation, low worker morale, and an overall chaotic work environment.
    • By putting strategic planners and project managers together to work on the strategic planning process, they can see what the other sees and plan accordingly.
    • Twenty-seven percent more projects are executed successfully when a company’s structure and resources align with their strategy (KPMG, 2017).

    “The failure to build a bridge between the strategic planning process and project management’s planning process is a major reason strategic plans don’t work.” (Bruce McGraw, Project/Programme Manager)

    1.2.5 Strategic planning

    1 hour

    To create a strategic plan that provides value, recognize that the strategic plan for the PMO is not the PMO charter.

    • The PMO charter is the organizational mandate for the PMO. It defines the role, purpose and functions of the PMO. It articulates who the PMO's sponsors and customers are, the services that it offers, and the staffing and support structures required to deliver those services. And, it assumes that a decision to have a PMO has already been made.
    • A strategic plan enables the PMO to play an essential role in achieving a company’s business goals, setting out clear objectives and then providing a roadmap on how to achieve them. A strategic plan maps the tools and resources necessary to achieve successful project outcomes.

    To create a results-driven strategic plan for your PMO, it is helpful to follow a top-down format:

    • Start by going through the list on the right and update the strategic plan.
    • What are the top project-related issues and opportunities you want your PMO to address and what’s the value to the business of trusting them?

    Vision: this needs to be a vivid and common image
    Mission: this is the special assignment that is given to a group
    Goals: these are broad statements of future conditions
    Objectives: these are operational statements that indicate how much and by when (e.g. deliverables or intangible objectives like productivity)
    Strategies: these are the set of actions that need to take place
    Needs: these are the things required to carry out the strategy
    Critical Success Factors: these are the key areas of activity in which favorable results are necessary to reach the goal

    Download the PMO Strategic Plan

    Prepare an Actionable Roadmap for Your PMO

    Phase 2

    Staff Your PMO for Resilience

    Phase 1

    • 1.1 Get a Common Understanding of Your PMO Options
    • 1.2 Determine Where You Are and Engage Your Leadership

    Phase 2

    • 2.1 Identify Organizational Design
    • 2.2. Build Job Descriptions

    Phase 3

    • 3.1 Create Roadmap
    • 3.2 Governance and OCM

    Info-Tech’s approach

    Follow our two-step approach to successfully staff your PMO.

    1. Determine your PMO staffing needs.
      Our approach to building a PMO starts by analyzing the staffing requirements of your PMO mandate.
    2. Create purpose-built role descriptions.
      Once you have an understanding of the staff and skills you’ll need to succeed, we have job description aids you’ll need to fill the roles.

    The Info-Tech difference:

    1. Save time developing a purpose-built approach. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to PMO staffing. The advice and tools in this research will help you quickly determine your unique staffing needs and guide your next steps to get the staffing you need.
    2. Leverage insider research. We’ve worked with thousands of PMOs and have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of PMO staffing. The approach in this research is informed by client successes and will help you avoid the common mistakes that drive PMO failure.

    IT staff allocation for project work

    Projects and Project Portfolio Management

    58.3% — 58% of respondents feel they have the appropriate staffing level to execute project management effectively. (Source: Info-Tech IT Staffing Benchmark Report)

    59.8% — 59% feel they have the appropriate staffing level to execute requirements gathering effectively. (Source: Info-Tech IT Staffing Benchmark Report)

    The GDP contributions from project-oriented industries are forecasted to reach $20.2 trillion over the next 20 years. (Source: “Project Management: Job Growth and Talent Gap” Project Management Institute, 2017)

    Info-Tech Insight

    Project work is only going to increase, and in general, people are dissatisfied with their current staffing levels.

    Step 2.1

    Identify Organizational Design

    Activities
    • 2.1.1 Right, Wrong, Missing, Confusing
    • 2.1.2 Map Your Current Structure
    • 2.1.3 Inventory Assessment
    • 2.1.4 Job Description Survey

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Complete a Right, Wrong, Missing, Confusing analysis
    • Determine your current organizational/PMO structure
    • Assess your current inventory
    • Complete the job description survey

    This step involves the following participants:

    • PMO director and/or portfolio manager
    • PMO staff/stakeholders
    • Project managers

    Outcomes of this step

    • Current-state analysis
    • Job description survey results

    Staff Your PMO for Resilience

    Step 2.1 Step 2.2

    2.1.1 Right, wrong, missing, confusing

    30-45 minutes

    Input: Current PMO process, Current PMO org. chart

    Output: An assessment of current things that are being done right and wrong and what is currently missing and confusing

    Materials: Whiteboard/flip charts, Sticky notes

    Participants: PMO director and/or portfolio manager, PMO staff, Project managers

    Perform a right, wrong, missing, confusing analysis to assess the current state of your PMO and its staff.

    The purpose of this exercise is to begin to define the goals of this implementation by assessing your staffing capabilities and cultivating alignment around the most critical opportunities and challenges.

    Follow these steps to complete the analysis:

    1. Have participants discuss what is wrong, right, missing, and confusing.
    2. Spend roughly 45 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 by taking a picture of the whiteboard or flip chart.

    Organizational types

    1. Functional
      Functional organizations are structured around the functions the organization needs to be performed.
    2. Projectized
      Projectized organizations are organized around projects for maximal project management effectiveness.
    3. Matrix
      Matrix organizations have structures that blend the characteristics of functional and projectized organizations.

    Functional organization

    The traditional hierarchical organizational structure.

    A functional hierarchical structure with 'Functional Managers' highlighted and the note 'Project coordination'. 'Chief Executive' at the top, 'Functional Managers' in the middle, and 'Staff' at the bottom.
    Adapted from ProjectEngineer, 2019
    1. Employees are organized by specialties like human resources, information technology, sales, marketing, administration, etc.
    2. The project management role will be performed by a team member of a functional area under the management of a functional manager.
    3. Resources for the project will need to be negotiated for with the functional managers, and the accessibility of those resources will be based on business conditions. Any escalations of issues would need to be taken to the functional manager.
    4. The project management role would act more like a project coordinator who does not usually carry the title of project manager.
    5. Project management is considered a part-time responsibility. Of all the organizational types, this one tends to be the most difficult for the project manager. The project manager lacks the authority to assign resources and must acquire people and other resources from multiple functional managers.
    6. Because the project manager has little to no authority, the project can take longer to complete than in other organizational structures, and there is generally no recognized project management methodology or best practices.

    Projectized organization

    The majority of project resources are involved in project work.

    A projectized hierarchical structure with a single project hierarchy highlighted and the note 'Project coordination'. 'Chief Executive' at the top, 'Project Managers' in the middle, and 'Staff' at the bottom.
    Adapted from ProjectEngineer, 2019
    1. The project manager has increased independence and authority and is a full-time member of a project organization. They have project resources available to them, such as project coordinators, project schedulers, business analysts, and plan administrators.
    2. The project manager is responsible to the sponsor and/or senior management. The project manager has authority and control of the budget, and any escalation of issues would be taken to the sponsor.
    3. Given that the project resources report to the project manager versus the functional area, there may be a decrease in the subject matter expertise of the team members.
    4. Team members are usually co-located within the same office or virtually co-located to maximize communication effectiveness.
    5. There can be some functional units within the organization; however, those units play a supportive role, without authority over the project manager.
    6. There is no defined hierarchy. Resources are brought together specifically for the purpose of a project. At the end of each project, resources are either reassigned to another project or returned to a resource pool.

    Matrix organization

    A combination of functional and projectized.

    A matrix hierarchical structure with the lowest row highlighted and the note 'Project coordination'. 'Chief Executive' at the top, 'Functional Managers' in the middle, mainly 'Staff' at the bottom, except one 'Project Manager' who coordinates across functions.
    Adapted from ProjectEngineer, 2019
    1. A matrix organization is a blended organizational structure. Although a functional hierarchy is still in place, the project manager is recognized as a valuable position and is given more authority to manage the project and assign resources.
    2. Matrix organizations can be classified as weak, balanced, or strong based on the relative authority of the functional manager and project manager. If the project manager is given more of a project coordinator role, then the organization is considered a weak matrix. If the project manager is given much more authority on resources and budget spending, the organization is considered a strong matrix.
    3. Matrix structures evolve in response to the rise of large-scale projects in contemporary organizations. These projects require efficient processing of large amounts of information.
    4. Working in a matrix organization is challenging and structurally complex. Employees have dual reporting relationships – generally to both a functional manager and a project and/or product manager. However, if done well, it offers the best of both worlds.
    5. The matrix organization structure usually exists in large and multi-project organizations. Here they can move employees whenever and wherever their services are needed. The matrix structure has the flexibility to transfer the organization’s talent by considering employees to be shared resources.

    The project management office

    The vast majority of PMOs are understaffed and underequipped.

    • They are often born out of necessity or desperation.
    • They have no long-terms goals; they tend to go from year to year trying to meet the organization’s needs.
    • They don’t have clear mandates, so it is difficult to determine how they are providing value.
    • Over time (and sometimes even from day one), project management offices find that other tasks fall into their area of responsibility. This often happens when the work has nowhere else to go.
    • Resource management is the challenge, both in terms of being able to allocate skilled resources to projects and within the PMO itself. Staffing gaps within the PMO are often met by individuals wearing more than one hat.

    A stock photo of a circle of chairs in a field being occupied by only two people.

    2.1.2 Map your current structure

    30 minutes to 1 hour

    Input: Current org. charts and PMO structures, Info-Tech’s PMO Function Matrix

    Output: Structure chart

    Materials: Whiteboard/flip charts

    Participants: PMO director and/or portfolio manager, PMO staff, Project managers

    1. As a group, review your current organizational and PMO structure.
    2. Map out both, or if your PMO is small, map out how it fits into the overall structure.
      • Make sure to think about your process, reporting structures, and escalation hierarchies.
      • Consider the capabilities on slide 59 as you work.
      • Use the sample structure on the next page as a guide.

    Stock image of a business hierarchy.

    Sample PMO structure

    Sample PMO structure with 'PMO Director' at the top. 'Portfolio Administrator' below, but not directly in charge of others. Then 'Program Manager', 'Change Manager', 'Resource Management Analyst', 'Business Relationship Manager', and 'Business Analyst' all report to the PMO Director. Below 'Program Manager' are two 'Project Managers' then 'Project Coordinator'. Stock photo of a hand placing a puzzle piece of a business person on it into a puzzle.

    Info-Tech’s PMO Function Matrix

    Info-Tech’s potential PMO capabilities are in the header of the table below.

    Portfolio Management Resource Management Project Management Organizational Change Management PMO Governance
    Recordkeeping and bookkeeping Strategy management Assessment of available supply of people and their time Project status reporting PM SOP
    (e.g. feed the portfolio, project planning, task managing)
    Benefits management Technology and infrastructure
    Reporting Financial management HR Security
    PMIS Intake Matching supply to demand based on time, cost, scope, and skill set requirements Procurement and vendor management Legal Financial
    CRM/RM/BRM Program management
    Tracking of utilization based on the allocations Quality Intake
    Time Accounting PM services
    (e.g. staffing project managers or coordinators)
    Quality assurance Organizational change management Project progress, visibility, and process
    Forecasting of utilization via supply-demand reconciliation Closure and lessons learned
    Administrative support PM Training

    2.1.3 Inventory assessment

    30-45 minutes

    Input: Understanding of your current situation regarding project intake and process

    Output: Survey results

    Materials: Whiteboard/flip charts

    Participants: PMO director and/or portfolio manager, PMO staff, Project managers

    When staffing your PMO, it is important to understand your current situation regarding project intake and process.

    Answer the following questions, and be as detailed as possible:

    • What is your project intake process?
    • How many projects do you currently have?
    • How many people lead projects?
    • Are those who lead projects distributed (federated) or centralized?
    • What tools do you use to manage your portfolio, projects, and resources?

    Stock image of a magnifying glass over an idea lightbulb surrounded by the six classic question words.

    2.1.4 Job description survey

    45 minutes to 1 hour

    Input: Tab 1 of the PMO Job Description Builder Workbook

    Output: List of current projects, processes, and tools

    Materials: PMO Job Description Builder Workbook

    Participants: PMO director and/or portfolio manager, PMO staff, Project managers

    On tab 1 of the PMO Job Description Builder Workbook, use the survey to help determine potential role requirements across various project portfolio management, project management, business analysis, and organizational change management activities.

    Follow these steps to complete the survey:

    1. Consider the role that you are trying to fill.
    2. Read each question carefully and use the drop-down menu to answer whether the activity in column C is a core, ancillary, or out-of-scope job duty.

    Download the PMO Job Description Builder Workbook

    2.1.4 Job description survey continued

    Sample of the Job Description Survey with questions and responses.

    Step 2.2

    Build Job Descriptions

    Activities
    • 2.2.1 Analyze Survey Results
    • 2.2.2 FTE Analysis
    • 2.2.3 Create Your Job Descriptions

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Complete the PMO Job Description Builder Workbook
    • Create job descriptions

    This step involves the following participants:

    • PMO director and/or portfolio manager
    • PMO staff/stakeholders
    • Project managers

    Outcomes of this step

    • PMO org. chart
    • Completed job descriptions

    Staff Your PMO for Resilience

    Step 2.1 Step 2.2

    2.2.1 Analyze survey results

    30 minutes

    Tab 2 of the PMO Job Description Builder Workbook shows the survey results from tab 1.

    The job activities are ranked in a prioritized list. The analysis will help you determine if you require a portfolio manager, program manager, project manager, business analyst, organizational change manager, or a combination.

    Follow these steps to analyze your results:

    • Digest the prioritized ranking. The job activities are ranked in a prioritized list (from most essential to the role to least essential) in column D. The core process or capability that corresponds to each activity is listed in column C.
    • Use the drop-down menu in column F to decide if the core job duties and ancillary job duties will or will not be included in the role description. Out-of-scope activities will automatically be removed.

    Screenshot of the 'Job Description Survey Results' from the PMO Job Description Builder Workbook.

    Download the PMO Job Description Builder Workbook

    2.2.2 FTE analysis

    30 minutes

    Input: Tab 3 of the PMO Job Description Builder Workbook

    Output: Total estimated monthly time commitments, Preliminary FTE analysis

    Materials: PMO Job Description Builder Workbook

    Participants: PMO director and/or portfolio manager, PMO staff, Project managers

    Tab 3 of the PMO Job Description Builder Workbook is used to complete the FTE analysis.

    Download the PMO Job Description Builder Workbook

    2.2.2 FTE analysis continued

    Screenshot of the 'FTE analysis' on tab 3 of the PMO Job Description Builder Workbook. It has a table with columns for 'Rank', 'Process', 'Activity', and 'Est. Monthly Time Commitments (aka Column E)' with note 'Base these initial estimates on the number of projects and project teams, as well as the number of internal and external customers and stakeholders'. There is also a table of totals with a pie chart of the 'Distribution of Role Responsibilities'. The value for 'Total Estimated Monthly Timing Commitment' is in cell J5, and the note for the value of 'Preliminary FTE Analysis' is 'If your preliminary FTE analysis comes out to be more than 1 FTE, you may want to revisit your analysis on tabs 1 and 2 to further limit this role, or to further delineate it across multiple roles and FTEs'.

    On tab 3, use column E to estimate the monthly time commitments required for each activity in the role.

    Tip: Base estimates on the number of projects and project teams as well as the number of internal and external stakeholders across the portfolio(s) of projects and programs.

    Cell J5 will provide a preliminary recommended FTE count for the role.

    Job description content

    Screenshot of the 'Job Description Content' section of the PMO Job Description Builder Workbook.

    This is an output tab based on your analysis in tabs 1 and 2. Copy and paste the content and add it under the relevant heading in Info-Tech's Blank Job Description Template later in this blueprint.

    Screenshot of the 'Blank Job Description Template' section of the PMO Job Description Builder Workbook.

    For each capability you are including in your job description, there is a list of common certifications. These can also be copied and pasted into the Blank Job Description Template.

    Download the PMO Job Description Builder Workbook

    How to determine the roles in your PMO

    It’s not black and white.

    While your PMO should have someone to lead the team, aside from that it’s hard to be specific about the exact roles your PMO needs without understanding the needs of your organization.

    This is why it’s important to define your PMO first. Your team members should best support the function and capabilities of your PMO.

    For example:

    • If you want to provide a training program to project managers, you’ll need your PMO to have people with experience delivering training and with experience having done the job before.
    • If your PMO provides management information and deep portfolio analysis, you’ll need someone on the team who knows their way around data analysis tools.

    You should have a mix of skills in the PMO team, each complementing the others. You may have administrators and coordinators, data analysts and software experts, trainers, coaches, and senior managers.

    “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” (African proverb)

    Managing projects and building PMOs are not the same thing

    Your best project manager should be running projects, and, no, they can’t do both.

    • Your new PMO needs a leader to get it off the ground, but don’t assume that the best project manager is best suited to build the PMO. The goal-oriented passion of a successful project manager may prove to be antithetical to the forward-looking finesse and political acumen needed to develop and staff the PMO as an organizational unit. Avoid the common mistake of promoting effective people into positions where they become ineffective, a concept often referred to as “The Peter Principle.”
    • You can’t determine if your best project manager fits the PMO leadership role if the PMO’s role isn’t clearly defined. Carefully define and clearly articulate the PMO’s role to understand the skill set needed to develop and lead your PMO.
    • Project managers often propose to create a PMO without considering the fit with project portfolio management and organizational change management. If the leadership doesn’t understand the magnitude of what is being requested, they may well think a project manager is best suited to run the PMO. The prestige and/or compensation is attractive, but project managers will often spin their wheels and naturally focus on what they know how to do: manage projects. Start with a PMO design to align with business expectations.

    The Peter Principle

    The Peter Principle was first introduced by Canadian sociologist Laurence Johnston Peter describing the pitfalls of bureaucratic organizations. The original principle states that "in a hierarchically structured administration, people tend to be promoted up to their level of incompetence.” The principle is based on the observation that whenever someone succeeds at their job, the organizational response is to promote them, thus people will continue to be promoted until they reach a point where they’re no longer excelling at their job. At that point, they would no longer be promoted. Followed to its logical conclusion, organizations will continue to take successful people and rotate them to new positions until they are no longer effective.

    PMO Director/Lead

    Job overviews for different kinds of PMO directors.

    The job descriptions on the next few pages are associated with the descriptive headings, but it is important to recognize that these diverse roles can all fall under the job title of PMO director.

    Portfolio Management

    As PMO director, you will oversee the throughput of IT projects using portfolio management, project management, and organizational change management disciplines.

    You and your team will directly manage the intake of new project requests, the preparation of evaluation-ready project proposals, and the handoff of approved project initiation documents to project managers in other departments. You will forecast and track the availability of people to do the project work throughout the project life cycle. You will publish monthly and annual portfolio reporting based on information collected from the project teams, and you will oversee the closure of projects with follow-up reporting to those who approved them.

    From time to time, the PMO may be required to identify projects that should be frozen or canceled based on criteria set forth by the leadership and/or industry best practices.

    While currently out of scope, successful candidates should be comfortable with the possibility that the PMO may required to develop full life cycle organizational change management in the future. As well, experienced project managers in the PMO may be required to manage high-risk, high-visibility projects from time to time.

    PMO Director/Lead

    Job overviews for different kinds of PMO directors.

    Project Management

    As PMO director, you will oversee a team of professional project managers who are responsible for the company’s high-risk, high-visibility, and strategic projects.

    You and your team will receive initiation documents and assigned resourcing for approved projects from the company’s authorized decision makers. You will manage the fulfillment of the project requirements, providing regular status updates to project and portfolio stakeholders and escalating concerns when projects are struggling to meet their commitments for scope, cost, and timelines.

    Over time, the PMO will take on an increasing role in organizational change management. The PMO will transition its focus from project delivery to business outcomes. Over time, the PMO will transition project sponsors from articulating requirements to delivering results.

    Project Policy

    As PMO director, you will oversee the establishment, support, and promotion of company-wide standards for project management.

    You and your team will modernize and maintain the company policy manuals and processes for everything related to project management. You will adapt our legacy PMBOK-based standards to cover iterative project management approaches as well as the more formal approaches required for construction projects, outsourced projects, and a wide variety of non-IT projects.

    PMO Director/Lead

    Job overviews for different kinds of PMO directors.

    Project Governance

    As PMO director, you will oversee the governance of project spending, delivery, and impact.

    You and your team will ensure that project proposals address the broad needs of the organization via strategic alignment, operational alignment, appropriateness of timing, identification and management of risk, and ability to execute. You will represent the needs and interests of the shareholder, ratepayer, or constituent by validating adherence to the organization’s published policies for project, portfolio, and organizational change management.

    The PMO is independent from the broader information technology division and will retain a mandate to ensure transparency and disclosure relative to the consumption of the organization’s scarce resources in the pursuit of high-risk IT projects.

    Stock photo of a compass pointing in the direction of leadership.

    Info-Tech sample job descriptions

    Use the sample job descriptions available with this blueprint as a guide when creating your descriptions.

    1. PMO Director
    2. Portfolio Manager
    3. Portfolio Administrator
    4. Project Manager
    5. Project Coordinator
    6. Resource Management Analyst
    1. Program Manager
    2. Change Manager
    3. Business Analyst
    4. Business Relationship Manager
    5. Product Owner
    6. Scrum Master

    Stock photo of a pen resting on a 'job duties' section of a job description.

    2.2.3 Create your job descriptions

    30 minutes

    Input: PMO Job Description Builder Workbook

    Output: Job descriptions

    Materials: Blank Job Description Template

    Participants: PMO director and/or portfolio manager, PMO staff, Project managers

    When you’ve determined the roles you need, you can start creating your job descriptions. If none of our out-of-the-box, pre-populated job description templates suit your needs, use the results of Info-Tech’s PMO Job Description Builder Workbook and the Blank Job Description Template to create your purpose-built job description.

    Follow these steps to create your job description:

    1. Copy the content from tab 4 of the PMO Job Description Builder Workbook and paste it under the relevant headings in the “Responsibilities” section of the Blank Job Description Template. Delete any unused headings if they are not relevant to your role. Additionally, use the list of common certifications on tab 4 of the Workbook to inform that section of the Blank Job Description Template.
    2. Use the sample job descriptions on the blueprint landing page as a guide for filling out the remaining sections of the document.

    Download the Blank Job Description Template

    2.2.3 Create your job descriptions continued

    Screenshot of the Blank Job Description Template.

    Prepare an Actionable Roadmap for Your PMO

    Phase 3

    Prepare an Actionable Roadmap for Your PMO

    Phase 1

    • 1.1 Get a Common Understanding of Your PMO Options
    • 1.2 Determine Where You Are and Engage Your Leadership

    Phase 2

    • 2.1 Identify Organizational Design
    • 2.2. Build Job Descriptions

    Phase 3

    • 3.1 Create Roadmap
    • 3.2 Governance and OCM

    Having a strategy is essential but real value and benefits are delivered through projects

    9.9% of every dollar is wasted due to poor project performance

    52% of projects are delivered to stakeholder satisfaction

    51% of projects are likely to meet original the goal and business intent
    (Source: Project Management Institute, 2018)

    You’re always going to have troubled projects

    Have the organizational discipline to step away from the mess and develop a plan.

    • The world of modern project management has been in place for over 50 years and yet business leaders still seem to put the pressure on troubled projects instead of broken processes.
    • With higher portfolio maturity comes higher performance, warranting investment in the PMO.
    • Instead of alternative cost-reduction measures, such as stopping an individual project, we find that PMO resources (or the entire PMO) are being cut. In most cases, this demonstrates a lack of understanding of the value of portfolio management processes and related impacts.
    • Plan for a series of improvements over time so you’re not continually using your PMO resources on troubled projects. Instead, maintain an ongoing focus on improvement.

    Stock photo of an axe stuck in a piece of wood.
    “If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.” (Anonymous woodsman)

    All improvements cannot be done at once

    • The difference in a winning PMO is determined by a roadmap or plan created at the beginning.
    • Leaders should understand the full scope of the plan before committing their teams to the project.
    • All improvements cannot be done at once. The best PMOs create an approach of overall governance and strictly adhere to it. After the approach is defined, a roadmap can be plotted, executed, and delivered effectively.
    • The exercise of creating a roadmap is less about the plan and more about raising the level of understanding for stakeholders.
    • We often find that the PMO is ahead of the business's views of how the PMO can support and add value to the business. A lot of effort is spent trying to convince businesses of the value of a PMO, usually without complete success.
    • The PMO needs to align to the strategic goals of the business, providing the business understands or accepts that alignment. By aligning your roadmap activities to business drivers, you are more likely to get ownership from the business for the initiatives.
    Stock image of a winding path between two map markers.

    A PMO can benefit your business and organization as a whole

    Your PMO can:

    1. Help to align the project or portfolio with a focus on the future strategy of the organization.
    2. Be a mechanism to deliver projects successfully, keep them on track, and report when scheduling, budget, and other scope issues could derail the project.
    3. Create a portfolio of projects and understand the links and dependencies between the projects. This provides you with a bird's-eye view to make better decisions based on changes as they arise.
    4. Facilitate better communications with customers and stakeholders.
    5. Enforce project management governance and ensure consistent standards throughout the organization.
    6. Strategize on how to best use shared resources and best use them productively.

    “If you run projects and the projects have a significant level of cost or have significant level of impact, then you can really benefit from a PMO. Certainly, the larger the projects, the bigger the budget, the more there are projects, then the more you can benefit from a PMO.” (Michael Fritsch, Vice President PMO, Confoe)

    “PMOs are there to ensure project and program success and that’s critical because organizations deliver value through projects and programs.” (Brian Weiss, Vice President, Practitioner Career Development, Project Management Institute)

    Step 3.1

    Create Roadmap

    Activities
    • 3.1.1 Business Goals
    • 3.1.2 Roadmap
    • 3.1.3 Resources

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Determine business goals
    • Create roadmap
    • Establish resources

    This step involves the following participants:

    • PMO director and/or portfolio manager
    • PMO staff/stakeholders
    • Project managers

    Outcomes of this step

    • PMO roadmap aligned to business goals

    Prepare an Actionable Roadmap for Your PMO

    Step 3.1 Step 3.2

    3.1.1 Business goals and priorities

    30 minutes

    Input: Business strategies and goals, Current PMO org. chart

    Output: An initial short, medium, long-term roadmap of initiatives

    Materials: Whiteboard/flip charts, Sticky notes, Slide 83

    Participants: IT leaders/CIO, PMO director and/or portfolio manager, PMO staff, Project managers

    When you are determining what your PMO will provide in the future, it is important to align the ambition of the PMO with the maturity of the business. Too often, a lot of effort is spent trying to convince businesses of the value of a PMO.

    Before you develop your roadmap, try to seek out the key strategies that the business is currently driving to get the proper ownership for the proposed initiatives.

    • What does leadership want to accomplish?
    • What are the key strategies the business is currently driving?
    • What are the current pain points?

    Once you’ve established the business strategies, start mapping out your initiatives:

    • For each initiative, consider the activities you think will work best to take you from your current to future state. It’s okay to keep this high level, we will break them down later in the blueprint.
    • Don’t place activities on a roadmap with dates yet. Use the table on the next slide to record the activities against each initiative at a high level.
    Current State Business Strategies PMO Initiatives Future State Business Strategies
    Short Term Medium Term Long Term
    Portfolio Management Project Intake Process
    Triage Process
    Project Levelling
    Book of Record
    Approval
    Prioritization
    Reporting
    Resource Allocation
    Resource Management
    Project Management Standardize Project Management
    Methodologies
    PM Training
    Organizational Change Management Benefits
    Governance Project progress, visibility, and process
    Documentation

    3.1.2 Create your roadmap

    1-2 hours

    Services should be introduced gradually and your PMO roadmap should clearly highlight this and explain when key deliverables will be achieved.

    Consider the below top-level tasks and add any others that pertain to your organization:

    • Enable Transition
    • Establish Governance
    • Organizational Chart
    • Technology and Infrastructure
    • Develop Portfolio Management Capabilities and Guidelines
    • Standardize Project Management Methodology
    • Organizational Change Management
    • Strategy Management

    Download Info-Tech’s PMO MS Project Plan Sample to see a full list of top-level tasks and second-level tasks. Once done, you can visually plot the tasks on a roadmap. See the next few slides for roadmap visuals.

    Stock photo of median lines on a road with the years 2021-2023 painted between them.

    Download the PMO MS Project Plan Sample

    Screenshot of PMO MS Project Plan Sample

    Screenshot of PMO MS Project Plan Sample with notes point out the headings as 'Top-level hierarchy' and the list contents as 'Second-level-hierarchy'.

    Sample roadmap

    A sample roadmap with column headers 'Task' and 'Q1', 'Q2', 'Q3', 'Q4', and 'Q1' with 3 months beneath each quarter. Under 'Task' are 'Establish Tradition', 'Establish Governance', 'Organizational Chart', and 'Technology and Infrastructure'; these are the 'Top-level-hierarchy'. There are arrows laid out in the table cross section with different steps; these are the 'Second-level hierarchy'.

    Sample roadmap

    A sample roadmap with monthly column headers 'Jan' through 'Jun'. Rows are 'Develop Portfolio Management Capabilities and Guidelines', 'Standardize Project Management Methodology', and 'Design Resource Management Process'. There are processes laid out in the table cross section that are color-coded as 'Completed', 'In progress', and 'Planned'.

    Consider the resources you will need

    Use these Info-Tech resources to make sure your roadmap will be successful.

    Finances – Understand and be transparent about the real costs of your project.

    People – Strategize according to skill sets and availability. Use the org. chart in phase 2 of this blueprint as a starting place (slide 58).

    Assets – Determine the tangible resources you may buy like software and licenses.

    Stock photo of a thinking man.

    3.1.3 Define resources

    30 minutes

    Input: Project documentation, Current resources

    Output: List of resources for your PMO

    Materials: Whiteboard/flip charts

    Participants: IT leaders/CIO, PMO director and/or portfolio manager, PMO staff, Project managers

    Resources for your projects include staff, equipment, and materials. Resource management at the PMO level will help you manage those resources, get visibility into projects, and keep them moving forward. Be sure to consider the resources that will get your PMO off the ground.

    Determine the resources you currently have and the resources your PMO will need and add them to your strategic plan:

    1. Finances — It’s essential that you know, and are transparent about, the real cost of creating your PMO and new process. Don’t forget to consider post deployment costs as well.
    2. People — Every project depends on the skill sets that individual team members bring to the table. Strategize according to these skill sets and their availability for the duration of a project. Some team members may have other work responsibilities and limited time for the project, so you need to accommodate this.
    3. Assets — These include the tangible resources you may have to buy, lease, or arrange for, such as workspace, software and licenses, computer hardware, testing equipment, and so on.

    Step 3.2

    Governance and OCM

    Activities
    • 3.2.1 Governance
    • 3.2.2 OCM
    • 3.2.3 Perform a Change Impact Analysis
    • 3.2.4 Determine Dimensions of Change
    • 3.2.5 Determine Depth of Impact

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Assess/understand governance
    • Conduct impact analysis

    This step involves the following participants:

    • PMO director and/or portfolio manager
    • PMO staff/stakeholders
    • Project managers

    Outcomes of this step

    • Governance Structures
    • Organizational Change Management Impact Analysis Tool

    Prepare an Actionable Roadmap for Your PMO

    Step 3.1 Step 3.2

    Clearly define the authority your PMO will have

    The following section includes slides from Info-Tech’s Make Governance Adaptable blueprint. Download the blueprint to dive deeper into IT governance.

    Governance is an important part of building a strong PMO. A PMO governance framework defines the authority and the support it requires to maximize portfolio and project management capabilities throughout the business. It should sit within your overall governance framework and as the PMO matures, its roles and responsibilities will also change to adapt with business demands and additional capabilities.

    Your framework can:

    • Specify PMO authority
    • Introduce and apply process standards, polices, and directives as it pertains to project and portfolio management
    • Facilitate executive and leadership involvement
    • Foster a collaborative environment between the PMO and the business

    A PMO governance framework enables PMO leaders to establish the common guidelines and manage the distribution of authority given to the PMO.

    Visit Make Your IT Governance Adaptable

    Stock photo of a group working together.

    Common causes of poor governance

    Key causes of poor or misaligned governance
    1. Governance and its value to your organization is not well understood, often being confused or integrated with more granular management activities.
    2. Business executives fail to understand that IT governance is a function of the business and not the IT department.
    3. Poor past experiences have made “governance” a bad word in the organization – a constraint and barrier that must be circumvented to get work done.
    4. There is misalignment between accountability and authority throughout the organization, and the wrong people are involved in governance practices.
    5. There is an unwillingness to change a governance approach that has served the organization well in the past, leading to challenges when the organization starts to change practices and speed of delivery.
    6. There is a lack of data and data-related capabilities required to support good decision making and the automation of governing decisions.
    7. The goals and strategy of the organization are not known or understood, leaving nothing for IT governance to orient around.
    Five key symptoms of ineffective governance committees
    1. No actions or decisions are generated – The committee produces no value and makes no decisions after it meets. The lack of value output makes the usefulness of the committee questionable.
    2. Overallocation of resources – There is a lack of clear understanding of capacity and value in work to be done, leading to consistent underestimation of required resources and resource overallocation.
    3. Decisions are changed outside of committee – Decisions that are made or initiatives that are approved are changed when the proper decision makers are involved or the right information becomes available.
    4. Decisions conflict with organizational direction – Governance decisions conflict with organizational needs, showing a visible lack of alignment and behavioral disconnects that work against organizational success. Often due to power that’s not accounted for within the structure.
    5. Consistently poor outcomes are produced from governance direction – Lack of business acumen in members and relevant data or understanding of organizational goals drives poor measured outcomes from the decisions made in the committee.

    IT PMO

    Chair:
    Updated:

    Mandate

    Ensure business value is achieved through information and technology (IT) investments by aligning strategic objectives and client needs with IT initiatives and their outcomes.

    Committee Goals

    • Maximize throughput of the most valuable projects
    • Ensure visibility of current and pending projects
    • Minimize resource waste and optimize of alignment of skills to assignments
    • Clarify accountability for post-project benefits attainment and facilitate the tracking/reporting of those benefits
    • Drive approval and prioritization of IT initiatives based on their alignment with business goals and strategy
    • Establish a consistent process for handling intake/demand

    Committee Metrics

    • % of approved IT initiatives that measure benefit achievement upon completion
    • % of IT initiatives with direct alignment to organizational strategic direction
    • % of initiatives approved by exception

    Decisions and responsibilities by purpose

    Responsibilities
    STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT

    Ensure initiatives align with organizational objectives
    Embed strategic goals and prioritization approach within process
    Define intake approach

    VALUE DELIVERY
    • Ensure all IT initiatives have a defined value expectation (excepting innovation activities)
    • Approve and prioritize IT initiatives based on value
    RISK MANAGEMENT

    Assess risk as a factor of prioritizing and approving initiatives

    RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

    Decide on the allocation of IT resources

    PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT

    Ensure process is in place to measure and validate performance of IT initiatives

    Committee Membership
    Role

    CIO, Product Owner, Service Owner, IT VPs, BRM, PMO Director, CISO/CRO

    Individual

    IT Steering Committee

    Chair:
    Updated:

    Mandate

    Ensure business value is achieved through information and technology (IT) investments by aligning strategic objectives and client needs with IT initiatives and their outcomes.

    Committee Goals

    • Align IT initiatives with organizational goals
    • Evaluate, approve, and prioritize IT initiatives
    • Approve IT strategy
    • Reinforce (if provided) or establish risk appetite and threshold
    • Confirm value achievement of approved initiatives
    • Set target investment mix and optimize IT resource utilization

    Committee Metrics

    • % of approved IT initiatives that meet or exceed value expectation
    • % of IT initiatives with direct alignment to organizational strategic direction
    • Level of satisfaction with IT decision making
    • % of initiatives approved by exception

    Committee Overview

    Committee Name Committee Membership Mandate
    Executive Leadership Committee CEO, CFO, CTO, CDO, CISO/CRO, CIO, Enterprise Architect/Chief Architect, CPO Provide strategic and operational leadership to the company by establishing goals, developing strategy, and directing/validating strategic execution.
    Enterprise Risk Committee CISO/CRO, CPO, Enterprise Risk Manager, BU Leaders, CFO, CTO, CDO Govern enterprise risks to ensure that risk information is available and integrated to support governance decision making. Ensure the definition of the organizational risk posture and that an enterprise risk approach is in place.
    IT Steering Committee CIO, Product Owner, Service Owner, IT VPs, BRM, PMO Director, CISO/CRO Ensure business value is achieved through information and technology (IT) investments by aligning strategic objectives and client needs with IT initiatives and their outcomes.
    IT Risk Council IT Risk Manager, CISO, IT Directors Govern IT risks within the context of business strategy and objectives to align the decision-making processes towards the achievement of performance goals. It will also ensure that a risk management framework is in place and risk posture (risk appetite/threshold) is defined.
    PPM Portfolio Manager, Project Managers, BRMs Ensure the best alignment of IT initiatives and program activity to meet the goals of the business.
    Architectural Review Board Service/Product Owners, Enterprise Architects, Chief Architect, Domain Architects Ensure enterprise and related architectures are managed and applied enterprise-wise. Ensure the alignment of IT initiatives to business strategy and architecture and compliance to regulatory standards. Establish architectural standards and guidelines. Review and recommend initiatives.
    Change Advisory Board Service/Product Owner, Change Manager, IT Directors or Managers Ensure changes are assessed, prioritized, and approved to support the change management purpose of optimizing the throughput of successful changes with a minimum of disruption to business function.

    Decisions and responsibilities by purpose

    Responsibilities
    STRATEGIC ALIGNMENT
    • Ensure initiatives align with organizational objectives
    • Approve strategies and policies that ensure the organization benefits from IT
    • Propose innovative uses of IT to enable the business to compete and perform better
    • Make decisions that account for human preferences and behavior
    VALUE DELIVERY
    • Validate the achievement of benefits from IT initiatives
    • Ensure all IT initiatives have a defined value expectation (excepting innovation activities)
    • Ensure stakeholder value and value drivers are understood
    • Prioritize IT work based on value
    • Define a prioritization approach with stakeholders
    RISK MANAGEMENT
    • Ensure creation, maintenance, and observation of policies and procedures, ensuring conformance where needed
    • Ensure ethical behavior in IT
    • Ensure IT meets the requirements of laws, regulations, and contracts
    • Develop or reinforce the risk appetite and threshold
    • Ensure risk management framework is in place
    RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
    • Identify the target investment mix
    • Decide on the allocation of IT resources
    • Define required IT capabilities
    PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT
    • Confirm that IT supports business processes with the right capabilities and capacity
    • Ensure data is up to date and secure
    • Monitor the extent to which prioritization of IT resources matches organizational objectives
    • Measure extent to which IT supports the business
    • Measure adherence to regulations
    Committee Membership
    Role

    CIO, Product Owner, Service Owner, IT VPs, BRM, PMO Director, CISO/CRO

    Individual

    Sample Governance Model

    A sample governance model with four levels and roles dispersed throughout the levels with arrows indicating hierarchy. The levels are 'Enterprise: Defines organizational goals. Directs or regulates the performance and behavior of the enterprise, ensuring it has the structure and capabilities to achieve its goals', 'Strategic: Ensures IT initiatives, products, and services are aligned to organizational goals and strategy and provide expected value. Ensure adherence to key principles', 'Tactical: Ensures key activities and planning are in place to execute strategic initiatives', and 'Operational: Ensures effective execution of day-to-day functions and practices to meet their key objectives'. Roles in Enterprise are 'Board', 'Executive Leadership Committee', and 'Enterprise Risk Committee'. Roles in Strategic are 'IT Steering Committee', plus three half in Strategic, 'IT PMO', 'Architectural Review Board', and 'IT Risk Council'. One role is half in Strategic and half in Tactical, 'Change Advisory Board'.

    3.2.1 Governance and authority

    1-3 hours

    Input: List of key tasks

    Output: Initial Authority Map

    Materials: Whiteboard/flip charts, Sticky notes, Strategic Plan

    Participants: IT leadership, Portfolio Manager (PMO Director), PMO Admin Team, Project Managers

    Now that you’ve determined the activities on your roadmap, it’s important to determine who is going to be responsible for the following:

    • Intake Scoring
    • Project Approvals
    • Staffing and Resource Management
    • Portfolio Reporting
    • Communications and Organizational Change Management
    • Benefits Attainment
    • Formalized Project Closure
    1. For each task have participants discuss who is ultimately accountable for the decision and who has the ultimate authority to make that decision.
    2. Place the sticky notes on the swim lanes in the strategic plan to represent the area or person has authority over it.
    3. Add all initiatives to your PMO governance framework.

    Download the PMO Strategic Plan

    Governance and Authority

    Committee Name Committee Membership
    Executive Leadership Committee CEO, CFO, CTO, CDO, CISO/CRO, CIO, Enterprise Architect/Chief Architect, CPO
    Enterprise Risk Committee CISO/CRO, CPO, Enterprise Risk Manager, BU Leaders, CFO, CTO, CDO
    IT Steering Committee CIO, Product Owner, Service Owner, IT VPs, BRM, PMO Director, CISO/CRO
    IT Risk Council IT Risk Manager, CISO, IT Directors,
    PPM Portfolio Manager, Project Managers, BRMs
    Architectural Review Board Service/Product Owners, Enterprise Architects, Chief Architect, Domain Architects
    Change Advisory Board Service/Product Owner, Change Manager, IT Directors or Managers

    PMO Governance Framework

    PMO Authority
    • Resource Management
    • Customer Relationship
    • Vendor & Contractor Relationships
    • Intake and Scoring
    • Project Approvals
    • Organizational Change Management
    Standards and Policies
    • Portfolio Management Process
    • Project Governance
    Guidelines
    • Project Classification Guidelines
    Executive Oversight
    • Establish Steering Committees
    • Sponsorship
    • Spending Authorization
    • Execution Oversight
    • Spending Cessation
    • Benefits Attainment
    • Organizational Change Management

    Customize groupings as appropriate.

    Document key achievements governance initiatives.

    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.

    Organizational change management (OCM) is a supplement to project management that is needed to ensure the intended value is realized. It is the practice through which the PMO or other body can improve user adoption rates and maximize project benefits. Without it, IT might finish the project but the business might fail to recognize the intended benefits.

    Start with next step and refer to Info-Tech research on OCM for a deeper dive. 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.

    Change Impact Analysis

    1. It is important to establish a process for analyzing how the change of your PMO roadmap processes will impact different areas of the business and how to manage these impacts. Analyze change impacts across multiple dimensions to ensure nothing is overlooked.
    2. A thorough analysis of change impacts will help the PMO processes:
      • Bypass avoidable problems.
      • Remove non-fixed barriers to success.
      • Acknowledge and minimize the impacts of unavoidable barriers.
      • Identify and leverage potential benefits.
      • Measure the success of the change.

    3.2.2 Perform a change impact analysis to make your planning more complete

    Use Info-Tech’s Organizational Change Impact Analysis Tool to weigh all the factors involved in the change.

    Info-Tech’s Organizational Change Impact Analysis Tool helps to document the change impact across multiple dimensions, enabling you 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.

    Sample of the Organizational Change Impact Analysis Tool.

    Download the Organizational Change Impact Analysis Tool

    3.2.3 Assess the current state of your project environment

    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-down menus 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.

    Sample of the Impact Analysis Tool Set-Up Tab. There is a space for 'Project Name' and a list of 'Project Stakeholders'.
    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.

    3.2.4 Determine the relevant considerations for analyzing the change impacts

    15-30 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 13-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.

    Sample of the Change Impact Survey on tab 3 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-down menus in column K to record your responses.

    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.

    3.2.5 Determine the depth of each impact for each stakeholder group

    1-3 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 13 change impact tables (see next slide for a screenshot of one of these tables).
      • You may not need to use all 13 tables. The number of tables you use coincides with the number of “yes” responses you gave in the previous tab.
      • If you do not need all 13 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.
    2. 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.
    3. 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.
    4. Use the drop-down menus 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-down menus is tied to a ranking table that informs the ratings on the two subsequent tabs.
    5. 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

    Screenshot of the Impact analysis tab of the Analysis Tool.

    The stakeholder groups entered on the Set Up tab 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-down menus 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-down menus to hypothesize what the stakeholder response might be. For the purpose of this impact analysis, a guess is fine. A more detailed communication plan can be created later.

    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.
    Projects in the red zone 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 zone also require a high level of change governance.
    Screenshot of 'Overall Impact Rating' scale on tab 5 of the Analysis Tool.
    To free up resources for those OCM initiatives that require more discipline, projects in the green zone 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.

    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.

    Screenshot of the Impact Analysis Outputs on tab 5 of the Analysis Tool. There are tables ranking risk impacts and stakeholders, as well as an impact zone map.

    This table displays the highest risk impacts based on frequency and action inputs on tab 4.

    Here you’ll find the stakeholders, ranked again based on frequency and action, who will be most impacted by the proposed changes.

    These are the five 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 Baseline Metrics

    Baseline metrics will be improved through:

    • A strong PMO is one than can link performance to the overall goals of the organization.
    • Use these examples of KPIs to measure success.
    Metric KPI
    Portfolio Performance Return on Investment (ROI) for projects and programs
    Alignment of spend with objectives
    Resource Utilization Rate (hours allocated to projects actual vs. allocation)
    Customer/Stakeholder Satisfaction
    # of strategic projects approved vs. completed
    Project/Program Performance % of completed projects (planned vs. actual)
    % of projects completed on time (based on original due date)
    % of projects completed on budget
    % of projects delivering their expected business outcomes
    Actual delivery of benefits vs. planned benefits
    % of customer satisfaction
    Project manager satisfaction rating
    PMO % of approved IT initiatives that measure benefit achievement upon completion
    % of IT initiatives with direct alignment to organizational strategic direction

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Problem Solved

    Knowledge Gained
    • PMO Options and “Best Practices”
    • PMO Types
    • Key PMO Functions/Services

    The PMO staffing model that you use will depend on many different factors. It is in your hands to create and define what your staffing needs are for your organization.

    The success of your PMO is linked to the plan you create before executing on it.

    Processes Optimized
    • Establishing organizational need.
    • Getting situational awareness to build a solid foundation for the PMO.
    • Identifying organizational design and establishing PMO structure and staffing needs.
    • Creating an actionable roadmap.

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

    Contact your account representative for more information.

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

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Problem Solved

    Deliverables Completed
    • PMO Role Development Tool
    • Initial PMO Mandate
    • PMO Job Description Builder Workbook
    • PMO job descriptions
    • PMO Strategic Plan
    • Organizational Change Impact Analysis Tool

    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.

    Photo of Ugbad Farah.

    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:

    Sample of the Job Description Survey activity.
    Job Description Survey
    Use the survey to help determine potential role requirements across various project portfolio management, project management, business analysis, and organizational change management activities.
    Sample of the Job Descriptions builder activity.
    Create Your Job Descriptions
    Use the job descriptions as a guide when creating your own job descriptions based on the outputs from the tool.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Stock photo of two people looking over their finances. Develop a Project Portfolio Management Strategy
    Time is money; spend it wisely.
    Stock photo of a hand with a pen resting on paper. Establish Realistic IT Resource Management Practices
    Holistically balance IT supply and demand to avoid overallocation.
    Stock photo of light bending through a tunnel. Tailor Project Management Processes to Fit Your Projects
    Spend less time managing processes and more time delivering results.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Stock photo of a group working on a project. Optimize IT Project Intake, Approval, and Prioritization
    Decide which IT projects to approve and when to start them.
    Stock photo of a round table silhouetted in front of a window. Master Organizational Change Management Practices
    PMOs, if you don’t know who is responsible for org change, it’s you.
    Stock photo of the nose of a fighter jet. Set a Strategic Course of Action for the PMO in 100 Days
    Use your first 100 days as PMO leader to define a mandate for long-term success.

    Bibliography

    Alexander, Moira. “How to Develop a PMO Strategic Plan.” CIO, 11 July 2018. Web.

    Barlow, Gina, Andrew Tubb, and Grant Riley. “Driving Business Performance. Project Management Survey 2017.” KPMG, 2017. Accessed 11 Jan. 2022.

    Brennan, M. V., and G. Heerkens. “How we went from zero project management to PMO implementation—a real life story.” Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2009—North America, Orlando, FL. Project Management Institute, 13 October 2009. Web.

    Casey, W., and W. Peck. “Choosing the right PMO setup.” PM Network, vol. 15, no. 2, 2001, pp. 40-47. Web.

    “COBIT 2019 Framework Governance and Management Objectives.” ISACA, 2019. PDF.

    Crawford, J. K. “Staffing your strategic project office: seven keys to success.” Paper presented at Project Management Institute Annual Seminars & Symposium, San Antonio, TX. Project Management Institute, 2002. Web.

    Davis, Stanley M., and Paul R. Lawrence. “Problems of Matrix Organizations.” Harvard Business Review, May 1978. Web.

    Dow, William D. “Chapter 6: The Tactical Guide for Building a PMO.” Dow Publishing, 2012. PDF.

    Giraudo, L., and E. Monaldi. “PMO evolution: from the origin to the future.” Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2015—EMEA, London, England. Project Management Institute, 11 May 2015. Web.

    Greengard, S. “No PMO? Know when you need one.” PM Network, vol. 27, no. 12, 2013, pp. 44-49. Web.

    Hobbs, J. B., and M. Aubry. “What research is telling us about PMOs.” Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2009—EMEA, Amsterdam, North Holland, The Netherlands. Project Management Institute, May 2009. Web.

    Jordan, Andy. “Staffing the Strategic PMO.” ProjectManagement.com, 24 October 2016. Web.

    Lang, Greg. “5 Questions to Answer When Building a Roadmap.” LinkedIn, 2 October 2016. Accessed 15 Apr. 2021.

    Manello, Carl. “Establish a PMO Roadmap.” LinkedIn, 10 February 2021. Accessed 29 Mar. 2021.

    Martin, Ken. “5 Steps to Set Up a Successful Project Management Office.” BrightWork, 9 July 2018. Accessed 29 Mar. 2021.

    Miller, Jen A. “What Is a Project Management Office (PMO) and Do You Need One?” CIO, 19 October 2017. Accessed 16 Apr. 2021.

    Needs, Ian. “Why PMOs Fail: 5 Shocking PMO Statistics.” KeyedIn, 6 January 2014. Web.

    Ovans, Andrea. “Overcoming the Peter Principle.” Harvard Business Review, 22 December 2014. Web.

    PMI®. “A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge.” 6th Ed. Project Management Institute, 2017.

    PMI®. “Ahead of the Curve: Forging a Future-Focused Culture.” Pulse of the Profession. Project Management Institute, 11 February 2020. Accessed 21 April 2021.

    PMI®. “Project Management: Job Growth and Talent Gap.” Project Management Institute, 2017. Web.

    PMI®. “Pulse of the Profession: Success in Disruptive Times.” Project Management Institute, 2018. Web.

    PMI®.“The Project Management Office: In Sync with Strategy.” Project Management Institute, March 2012. Web.

    “Project Management Organizational Structures.” PM4Dev, 2016. Web.

    Rincon, I. “Building a PMO from the ground up: Three stories, one result.” Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2014—North America, Phoenix, AZ. Project Management Institute, 26 October 2014. Web.

    Roseke, Bernie. “The 4 Types of Project Organizational Structure.” ProjectEngineer, 16 August 2019. Web.

    Sexton, Peter. “Project Delivery Performance: AIPM and KPMG Project Management Survey 2020 - KPMG Australia.” KPMG, 9 November 2020. Web.

    The Change Management Office (CMO). Prosci, n.d. Accessed 7 July 2021.

    “The New Face of Strategic Planning.” Project Smart, 27 March 2009. Accessed 29 Mar. 2021.

    “The State of Project Management Annual Survey.” Wellington PPM Intelligence, 2018. Web.

    “The State of the Project Management Office : Enabling Strategy Execution Excellence.” PM Solutions Research, 2016. Web.

    Wagner, Rodd. “New Evidence The Peter Principle Is Real - And What To Do About It.” Forbes, 10 April 2018. Accessed 14 Apr. 2021.

    Wright, David. “Developing Your PMO Roadmap.” Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2012—North America, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Project Management Institute, 2012. Accessed 29 March 2021.

    Drive Business Value With Off-the-Shelf AI

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}205|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): N/A
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    • Parent Category Name: Business Intelligence Strategy
    • Parent Category Link: /business-intelligence-strategy
    • Understanding the impact of the machine learning/AI component that is built into most of the enterprise products and tools and its role in the implementation of the solution.
    • Understanding the most important aspects that the organization needs to consider while planning the implementation of the AI-powered product.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Organizations are faced with multiple challenges trying to adopt AI solutions. Challenges include data issues, ethics and compliance considerations, business process challenges, and misaligned leadership goals.
    • When choosing the right product to meet business needs, organizations need to know what questions to ask vendors to ensure they fully understand the implications of buying an AI/ML product.
    • To guarantee the success of your off-the-shelf AI implementation and ensure it delivers value, you must start with a clear definition of the business case and an understanding of your data.

    Impact and Result

    To guarantee success of the off-the-shelf AI implementation and deliver value, in addition to formulating a clear definition of the business case and understanding of data, organizations should also:

    • Know what questions to ask vendors while evaluating AI-powered products.
    • Measure the impact of the project on business and IT processes.

    Drive Business Value With Off-the-Shelf AI Research & Tools

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

    1. Drive Business Value With Off-the-Shelf AI Deck – A step-by-step approach that will help guarantee the success of your Off-the-Shelf AI implementation and ensure it delivers business value

    Use this practical and actionable framework that will guide you through the planning of your Off-the-Shelf AI product implementation.

    • Drive Business Value With Off-the-Shelf AI Storyboard

    2. Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis – A tool that will guide the analysis and planning of the implementation

    Use this analysis tool to ensure the success of the implementation.

    • Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis

    Infographic

    Further reading

    Drive Business Value With Off-the-Shelf AI

    A practical guide to ensure return on your Off-the-Shelf AI investment

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge
    • Understanding the impact of the machine learning/AI component that is built into most of the enterprise products and tools and its role in the implementation of the solution.
    • What are the most important aspects that organizations needs to consider while planning the implementation of the AI-powered product?
    Common Obstacles
    • Organizations are faced with multiple challenges trying to adopt an AI solution. Challenges include data issues, ethics and compliance considerations, business process challenges, and misaligned leadership goals.
    • When choosing the right product to meet business needs, organizations need to know what questions to ask vendors to ensure they fully understand the implications of buying an AI/ML product.
    Info-Tech’s Approach

    Info-Tech’s approach includes a framework that will guide organizations through the process of the Off-the-Shelf AI product selection.

    To guarantee success of the Off-the-Shelf AI implementation and deliver value, organization should start with clear definition of the business case and an understanding of data.

    Other steps include:

    • Knowing what questions to ask vendors to evaluate AI-powered products.
    • Measuring the impact of the project on your business and IT processes.
    • Assessing impact on the organization and ensure team readiness.

    Info-Tech Insight

    To guarantee the success of your Off-the-Shelf AI implementation and ensure it delivers value, you must start with a clear definition of the business case and an understanding of your data.

    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

    Getting value out of AI and machine learning investments

    92.1%

    of companies say they are achieving returns on their data and AI investments

    91.7%

    said they were increasing investments in data and AI

    26.0%

    of companies have AI systems in widespread production
    However, CIO Magazine identified nine main hurdles to AI adoption based on the survey results:
    • Data issues
    • Business process challenges
    • Implementation challenges and skill shortages
    • Costs of tools and development
    • Misaligned leadership goals
    • Measuring and proving business value
    • Legal and regulatory risks
    • Cybersecurity
    • Ethics
    • (Source: CIO, 2019)
    “Data and AI initiatives are becoming well established, investments are paying off, and companies are getting more economic value from AI.” (Source: NewVantage, 2022.)

    67% of companies are currently using machine learning, and 97% are using or planning to use it in the next year.” (Source: Deloitte, 2020)

    AI vs. ML

    Machine learning systems learn from experience and without explicit instructions. They learn patterns from data then analyze and make predictions based on past behavior and the patterns learned.

    Artificial intelligence is a combination of technologies and can include machine learning. AI systems perform tasks mimicking human intelligence such as learning from experience and problem solving. Most importantly, AI is making its own decisions without human intervention.

    The AI system can make assumptions, test these assumptions, and learn from the results.

    (Level of decision making required increases from left to right)
    Statistical Reasoning
    Infer relationships between variables

    Statistical models are designed to find relationships between variables and the significance of those relationships.

    Machine Learning:
    Making accurate predictions

    Machine learning is a subset of AI that discovers patterns from data without being explicitly programmed to do so.

    Artificial Intelligence
    Dynamic adaptation to novelty

    AI systems choose the optimal combination of methods to solve a problem. They make assumptions, reassess the model, and reevaluate the data.

    “Machine learning is the study of computer algorithms that improve automatically through experience.” (Tom Mitchell, 1997)

    “At its simplest form, artificial intelligence is a field, which combines computer science and robust datasets, to enable problem-solving.” (IBM, “What is artificial intelligence?”)

    Types of Off-the-Shelf AI products and solutions

    ML/AI-Powered Products Off-the-Shelf Pre-built and Pre-trained AI/ML Models
    • AI/ML capabilities built into the product and might require training as part of the implementation.
    • Off-the-Shelf ML/AI Models, pre-built, pre-trained, and pre-optimized for a particular task. For example, language models or image recognition models that can be used to speed up and simplify ML/AI systems development.
    Examples of OTS tools/products: Examples of OTS models:

    The data inputs for these models are defined, the developer has to conform to the provided schema, and the data outputs are usually fixed due to the particular task the OTS model is built to solve.

    Insight summary

    Overarching insight:

    To guarantee the success of your Off-the-Shelf AI implementation and ensure it delivers value, you must start with a clear definition of the business case and an understanding of your data.

    Business Goals

    Question the value that AI adds to the tool you are evaluating. Don’t go after the tool simply because it has an AI label attached to it. AI/ML capabilities might add little value but increase implementation complexity. Define the problem you are solving and document business requirements for the tool or a model.

    Data

    Know your data. Determine data requirements to:

    • Train the model during the implementation and development.
    • Run the model in production.

    People/Skills

    Define the skills required for the implementation and assemble the team that will support the project from requirements to deployment and support, through its entire lifecycle. Don’t forget about production support and maintenance.

    Choosing an AI-Powered Tool

    No need to reinvent the wheel and build a product you can buy, but be prepared to work around tool limitations, and make sure you understand the data and the model the tool is built on.

    Choosing an AI/ML Model

    Using Off-the-Shelf-AI models enables an agile approach to system development. Faster POC and validation of ideas and approaches, but the model might not be customizable for your requirements.

    Guaranteeing Off-the-Shelf AI Implementation Success

    Info-Tech Insight

    To guarantee the success of your Off-the-Shelf AI implementation and ensure it delivers value, you must start with a clear definition of the business case and an understanding of your data.

    Why do you need AI in your toolset?
    Business Goals

    Clearly defined problem statement and business requirements for the tool or a model will help you select the right solution that will deliver business value even if it does not have all the latest bells and whistles.

    Small chevron pointing right.
    Do you know the data required for implementation?
    Data

    Expected business outcome defines data requirements for implementation. Do you have the right data required to train and run the model?

    Large chevron pointing right.
    Is your organization ready for AI?
    People/Team/ Skills

    New skills and expertise are required through all phases of the implementation: design, build, deployment, support, and maintenance, as well as post-production support, scaling, and adoption.

    Data Architecture/ Infrastructure

    New tool or model will impact your cloud and integration strategy. It will have to integrate with the existing infrastructure, in the cloud or on prem.

    Large chevron pointing right.
    What questions do you need to ask when choosing the solution?
    Product/ Tool or Model Selection

    Do you know what model powers the AI tool? What data was used to train the tool and what data is required to run it? Ask the right questions.

    Small chevron pointing right.
    Are you measuring impact on your processes?
    Business and IT Processes

    Business processes need to be defined or updated to incorporate the output of the tool back into the business processes to deliver value.

    IT governance and support processes need to accommodate the new AI-powered tool.

    Small chevron pointing right.
    Realize and measure business value of your AI investment
    Value

    Do you have a clear understanding of the value that AI will bring to your organization?Optimization?Increased revenue?Operational efficiency?

    Introduction of Off-the-Shelf AI Requires a Strategic Approach

    Business Goals and Value Data People/Team/ Skills Infrastructure Business and IT Processes
    AI/ML–powered tools
    • Define a business problem that can be solved with either an AI-powered tool or an AI/ML pre-built model that will become part of the solution.
    • Define expectations and assumptions around the value that AI can bring.
    • Document business requirements for the tool or model.
    • Define the scope for a prototype or POC.
    • Define data requirements.
    • Define data required for implementation.
    • Determine if the required data can be acquired or captured/generated.
    • Document internal and external sources of data.
    • Validate data quality (define requirements and criteria for data quality).
    • Define where and how the data is stored and will be stored. Does it have to be moved or consolidated?
    • Define all stakeholders involved in the implementation and support.
    • Define skills and expertise required through all phases of the implementation: design, build, deployment, support, and maintenance.
    • Define skills and expertise required to grow AI practice and achieve the next level of adoption, scaling, and development of the tool or model POC.
    • Define infrastructure requirements for either Cloud, Software-as-a-Service, or on-prem deployment of a tool or model.
    • Define how the tool is integrated with existing systems and into existing infrastructure.
    • Determine the cost to deploy and run the tool/model.
    • Define processes that need to be updated to accommodate new functionality.
    • Define how the outcome of the tool or a model (e.g. predictions) are incorporated back into the business processes.
    • Define new business and IT processes that need to be defined around the tool (e.g. chatbot maintenance; analysis of the data generated by the tool).
    Off-the-shelf AI/ML pre-built models
    • Define the business metrics and KPIs to measure success of the implementation against.
    • Determine if there are requirements for a specific data format required for the tool or a model.
    • Determine if there is a need to classify/label the data (supervised learning).
    • Define privacy and security requirements.
    • Define requirements for employee training. This can be vendor training for a tool or platform training in the case of a pre-built model or service.
    • Define if ML/AI expertise is required.
    • Is the organization ready for ML/AI? Conduct an AI literacy survey and understand team’s concerns, fears, and misconceptions and address them.
    • Define requirements for:
      • Data migration.
      • Security.
      • AI/ML pipeline deployment and maintenance.
    • Define requirements for operation and maintenance of the tool or model.
    • Confirm infrastructure readiness.
    • How AI and its output will be used across the organization.

    Define Business Goals and Objectives

    Why do you need AI in your toolset? What value will AI deliver? Have a clear understanding of business benefits and the value AI delivers through the tool.

    • Define a business problem that can be solved with either an AI-powered tool or AI/ML pre-built model.
    • Define expectations and assumptions around the value that AI can bring.
    • Document business requirements for a tool or model.
    • Start with the POC or a prototype to test assumptions, architecture, and components of the solution.
    • Define business metrics and KPIs to measure success of the implementation.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Question the value that AI adds to the tool you are evaluating. Don’t go after the tool simply because it has an AI label attached to it. AI/ML capabilities might add little value but increase implementation complexity. Define the problem you are solving and document business requirements for the tool or a model.

    Venn diagram of 'Applied Artificial Intelligence (AAI)' with a larger circle at the top, 'Machine Learning (ML)', and three smaller ovals intersecting, 'Computer Vision', 'Natural Language Processing (NLP)', and 'Robotic Process Automation (RPA)'.

    AAI solutions and technologies are helping organizations make faster decisions and predict future outcomes such as:

    • Business process automation
    • Intelligent integration
    • Intelligent insights
    • Operational efficiency improvement
    • Increase revenue
    • Improvement of existing products and services
    • Product and process innovation

    1. Use Info-Tech’s Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool to define business drivers and document business requirements

    2-3 hours
    Screenshot of the Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool's Business Drivers tab, a table with columns 'AI/ML Tool or Model', 'Use Case', 'Business problem / goal for AI/ML use case', 'Description', 'Business Owner (Primary Stakeholder)', 'Priority', 'Stakeholder Groups Impacted', 'Requirements Defined? Yes/No', 'Related Data Domains', and 'KPIs'. Use the Business Drivers tab to document:
    • Business objectives of the initiative that might drive the AI/ML use case.
    • The business owner or primary stakeholder who will help to define business value and requirements.
    • All stakeholders who will be involved or impacted.
    • KPIs that will be used to assess the success of the POC.
    • Data required for the implementation.
    • Use the Business Requirements tab to document high-level requirements for a tool or model.
    • These requirements will be used while defining criteria for a tool selection and to validate if the tool or model meets your business goals.
    • You can use either traditional BRD format or a user story to document requirements.
    Screenshot of the Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool's Business Requirements tab, a table with columns 'Requirement ID', 'Requirement Description / user story', 'Requirement Category', 'Stakeholder / User Role', 'Requirement Priority', and 'Complexity (point estimates)'.

    Download the Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool

    1. Define business drivers and document business requirements

    Input

    • Strategic plan of the organization
    • Data strategy that defines target data capabilities required to support enterprise strategic goals
    • Roadmap of business and data initiatives to support target state of data capabilities

    Output

    • Prioritized list of business use cases where an AI-powered tool or AI/ML can deliver business value
    • List of high-level requirements for the selected use case

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Off-the-Shelf-AI Analysis Tool, “Business Drivers” and “Business Requirements” tabs

    Participants

    • CIO
    • Senior business and IT stakeholders
    • Data owner(s)
    • Data steward(s)
    • Enterprise Architect
    • Data Architect
    • Data scientist/Data analyst

    Understand data required for implementation

    Do you have the right data to implement and run the AI-powered tool or AI/ML model?

    Info-Tech Insight

    Know your data. Determine data requirements to:

    • Train the model during the implementation and development, and
    • Run the model in production
    AvailabilityArrow pointing rightQualityArrow pointing rightPreparationArrow pointing rightBias, Privacy, SecurityArrow pointing rightData Architecture
    • Define what data is required for implementation, e.g. customer data, financial data, product sentiment.
    • If the data is not available, can it be acquired, gathered, or generated?
    • Define the volume of data required for implementation and production.
    • If the model has to be trained, do you have the data required for training (e.g. dictionary of terms)? Can it be created, gathered, or acquired?
    • Document internal and external sources of data.
    • Evaluate data quality for all data sources based on the requirements and criteria defined in the previous step.
    • For datasets with data quality issues, determine if the data issues can be resolved (e.g. missing values are inferred). If not, can this issue be resolved by using other data sources?
    • Engage a Data Governance organization to address any data quality concerns.
    • Determine if there are requirements for a specific data format required for the tool or model.
    • Determine if there is a need to classify/label or tag the data. What are the metadata requirements?
    • Define whether or not the implementation team needs to aggregate or transform the data before it can be used.
    • Define privacy requirements, as these might affect the availability of the data for ML/AI.
    • Define data bias concerns and considerations. Do you have datasheets for datasets that will be used in this project? What datasets cannot be used to prevent bias?
    • What are the security requirements and how will they affect data storage, product selection, and infrastructure requirements for the tool and overall solution?
    • Define where and how the data is currently stored and will be stored.
    • Does it have to be migrated or consolidated? Does it have to be moved to the cloud or between systems?
    • Is a data lake or data warehouse a requirement for this implementation as defined by the solution architecture?

    2. Use Info-Tech’s Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool to document data requirements

    2-3 hours

    Use the Data tab to document the following for each data source or dataset:
    • Data Domain – e.g. Customer data
    • Data Concept – e.g. Customer
    • Data Internally Accessible – Identify datasets that are required for the implementation even if the data might not be available internally. Work on determining if the data ca be acquired externally or collected internally.
    • Source System – define the primary source system for the data, e.g. Salesforce
    • Target System (if applicable) – Define if the data needs to be migrated/transferred. For example, you might use a datalake or data warehouse for the AI/ML solution or migrate data to the cloud.
    • Classification/Taxonomy/Ontology
    • Data Steward
    • Data Owner
    • Data Quality – Data quality indicator
    • Refresh Rate – Frequency of data refresh. Indicate if the data can be accessed in real time or near-real time

    Screenshot of the Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool's Data tab, a spreadsheet table with the columns listed to the left and below.
    • Retention – Retention policy requirements
    • Compliance Requirements – Define if data has to comply with any of the regulatory requirements, e.g. GDPR
    • Privacy, Bias, and Ethics Considerations – Privacy Act, PIPEDA, etc. Identify if the dataset contains sensitive information that should be excluded from the model, such as gender, age, race etc. Indicate fairness metrics, if applicable.

    Download the Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool

    2. Document data requirements

    Input

    • Documented business use cases from Step 1.
    • High-level business requirements from Step 1.
    • Data catalog, data dictionaries, business glossary
    • Data flows and data architecture

    Output

    • High-level data requirements
    • List of data sources and datasets that can be used for the implementation
    • Datasets that need to be collected or acquired externally

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool, “Data” tab

    Participants

    • CIO
    • Business and IT stakeholders
    • Data owner(s)
    • Data steward(s)
    • Enterprise Architect
    • Data Architect
    • Data scientist/Data analyst

    Is Your Organization Ready for AI?

    Assess organizational readiness and define stakeholders impacted by the implementation. Build the team with the right skillset to drive the solution.

    • Implementation of the AI/ML-powered Off-the-Shelf Tool or an AI/ML model will require a team with a combination of skills through all phases of the project, from design of the solution to build, production, deployment, and support.
    • Document the skillsets required and determine the skills gap. Before you start hiring, depending on the role, you might find talent within the organization to join the implementation team with little to no training.
    • AI/ML resources that may be needed on your team driving AI implementation (you might consider bringing part-time resources to fill the gaps or use vendor developers) are:
      • Data Scientist
      • Machine Learning Engineer
      • Data Engineer
      • Data Architect
      • AI/ML Ops engineer
    • Define training requirements. Consider vendor training for a tool or platform.
    • Plan for future scaling and the growing of the solution and AI practice. Assess the need to apply AI in other business areas. Work with the team to analyze use cases and prioritize AI initiatives. As the practice grows, grow your team expertise.
    • Identify the stakeholders who will be affected by the AI implementation.
    • Work with them to understand and address any concerns, fears, or misconceptions around the role of AI and the consequences of bringing AI into the organization.
    • Develop a communication and change management plan to educate everyone within the organization on the application and benefits of using AI and machine learning.

    Info-Tech Insight:

    Define the skills required for the implementation and assemble the team that will support the project through its entire lifecycle. Don’t forget about production, support, and maintenance.

    3. Build your implementation team

    1-2 hours

    Input: Solution conceptual design, Current resource availability

    Output: Roles required for the implementation of the solution, Resources gap analysis, Training and hiring plan

    Materials: Whiteboard/Flip charts, Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool, “People and Team” tab

    Participants: Project lead, HR, Enterprise Architect

    1. Review your solution conceptual design and define implementation team roles.
    2. Document requirements for each role.
    3. Review current org chart and job descriptions and identify skillset gaps. Draft an action plan to fill in the roles.
    4. Use Info-Tech’s Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool's People and Team tab to document team roles for the entire implementation, including design, build/implement, deployment, support and maintenance, and future development.

    Screenshot of the Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool's People and Team tab, a table with columns 'Design', 'Implement', 'Deployment', 'Support and Maintenance', and 'Future Development'.

    Download the Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool

    Cloud, SaaS or On Prem – what are my options and what is the impact?

    Depending on the architecture of the solution, define the impact on the current infrastructure, including system integration, AI/ML pipeline deployment, maintenance, and data storage

    • Data Architecture: use the current data architecture to design the architecture for an AI-powered solution. Assess changes to the data architecture with the introduction of a new tool to make sure it is scalable enough to support the change.
    • Define infrastructure requirements for either Cloud, Software-as-a-Service, or on-prem deployment of a tool or model.
    • Define how the tool will be integrated with existing systems and into existing infrastructure.
    • Define requirements for:
      • Data migration and data storage
      • Security
      • AI/ML pipeline deployment, production monitoring, and maintenance
    • Define requirements for operation and maintenance of the tool or model.
    • Work with your infrastructure architect and vendor to determine the cost of deploying and running the tool/model.
    • Make a decision on the preferred architecture of the system and confirm infrastructure readiness.

    Download the Create an Architecture for AI blueprint

    4. Use Info-Tech’s Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool to document infrastructure decisions

    2-3 hours

    Input: Solution conceptual design

    Output: Infrastructure requirements, Infrastructure readiness assessment

    Materials: Whiteboard/Flip charts, Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool, “Infrastructure” tab

    Participants: Infrastructure Architect, Solution Architect, Enterprise Architect, Data Architect, ML/AI Ops Engineer

    1. Work with Infrastructure, Data, Solution, and Enterprise Architects to define your conceptual solution architecture.
    2. Define integration and storage requirements.
    3. Document security requirements for the solution in general and the data specifically.
    4. Define MLOps requirements and tools required for ML/AI pipeline deployment and production monitoring.
    5. Use Info-Tech’s Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool's Infrastructure tab to document requirements and decisions around Data and Infrastructure Architecture.

    Screenshot of the Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool's Infrastructure tab, a table with columns 'Cloud, SaaS or On-Prem', 'Data Migration Requirements', 'Data Storage Requirements', 'Security Requirements', 'Integrations Required', and 'AI/ML Pipeline Deployment and Maintenance Requirements'.

    Download the Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool

    What questions do you need to ask vendors when choosing the solution?

    Take advantage of Info-Tech’s Rapid Application Selection Framework (RASF) to guide tool selection, but ask vendors the right questions to understand implications of having AI/ML built into the tool or a model

    Data Model Implementation and Integration Deployment Security and Compliance
    • What data (attributes) were used to train the model?
    • Do you have datasheets for the data used?
    • How was data bias mitigated?
    • What are the data labeling/classification requirements for training the model?
    • What data is required for production? E.g. volume; type of data, etc.
    • Were there any open-source libraries used in the model? If yes, how were vulnerabilities and security concerns addressed?
    • What algorithms are implemented in the tool/model?
    • Can model parameters be configured?
    • What is model accuracy?
    • Level of customization required for the implementation to meet our requirements.
    • Does the model require training? If yes, can you provide details? Can you estimate the effort required?
    • Integration capabilities and requirements.
    • Data migration requirements for tool operation and development.
    • Administrator console – is this functionality available?
    • Implementation timeframe.
    • Is the model or tool deployable on premises or in the cloud? Do you support hybrid cloud and multi-cloud deployment?
    • What cloud platforms are your product/model integrated with (AWS, Azure, GCP)?
    • What are the infrastructure requirements?
    • Is the model containerized/ scalable?
    • What product support and product updates are available?
    • Regulatory compliance (GDPR, PIPEDA, HIPAA, PCI DSS, CCPA, SOX, etc.)?
    • How are data security risks addressed?

    Use Info-Tech’s Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool, “Vendor Questionnaire” tab to track vendor responses to these questions.

    Are you measuring impact on your processes?

    Make sure that you understand the impact of the new technology on the existing business and IT processes.

    And make sure your business processes are ready to take advantage of the benefits and new capabilities enabled by AI/ML.

    Process automation, optimization, and improvement enabled by the technology and AI/ML-powered tools allow organizations to reduce manual work, streamline existing business processes, improve customer satisfaction, and get critical insights to assist decision making.

    To take full advantage of the benefits and new capabilities enabled by the technology, make sure that business and IT processes reflect these changes:

    • Processes that need to be updated.
    • How the outcome of the tool or a model (e.g. predictions) is incorporated into the existing business processes and the processes that will monitor the accuracy of the outcome and monitor performance of the tool or model.
    • New business and IT processes that need to be defined for the tool (e.g. chatbot maintenance, analysis of the data generated by the tool, etc.).

    5. Document the Impact on Business and IT Processes

    2-3 hours

    Input: Solution design, Existing business and IT processes

    Output: Documented updates to the existing processes, Documented new business and IT processes

    Materials: Whiteboard/Flip charts, Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool, “Business and IT Processes” tab

    Participants: Project lead, Business stakeholders, Business analyst

    1. Review current business processes affected by the implementation of the AI/ML- powered tool or model. Define the changes that need to be made. The changes might include simplification of the process due to automation of some of the steps. Some processes will need to be redesigned and some processes might become obsolete.
    2. Document high-level steps for any new processes that need to be defined around the AI/ML-powered tool. An example of such a process would be defining new IT and business processes to support a new chatbot.
    3. Use Info-Tech’s Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool's Business and IT Processes tab, to document process changes.

    Screenshot of the Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool's Business and IT Processes tab, a table with columns 'Existing business process affected', 'New business process', 'Stakeholders involved', 'Changes to be made', and 'New Process High-Level Steps'.

    Download the Off-the-Shelf AI Analysis Tool

    AI-powered Tools – Considerations

    PROS:
    • Enhanced functionality, allows the power of AI without specialized skills (e.g., Mathematica – recognizing patterns in data).
    • Might be a cheaper option compared to building a solution in-house (chatbot, for ex.).

    Info-Tech Insight:

    No need to reinvent the wheel and build the product you can buy, but be prepared to work around tool limitations, and make sure you understand the data and the model the tool is built on.

    CONS:
    • Dependency on the service provider.
    • The tool might not meet all the business requirements without customization.
    • Bias can be built into the tool:
      • Work with the vendor to understand what data was used to train the model.
      • From the perspective of ethics and bias, learn what model is implemented in the tool and what data attributes the model uses.

    Pre-built/pre-trained models – what to keep in mind when choosing

    PROS:
    • Lower cost and less time to development compared to creating and training models from scratch (e.g. using image recognition models or pre-trained language models like BERT).
    • If the pre-trained and optimized model perfectly fits your needs, the model accuracy might be high and sufficient for your scenario.
    • Off-the-Shelf AI models are useful for creating prototypes or POCs, for testing a hypothesis, and for validating ideas and requirements.
    • Usage of Off-the-Shelf models shortens the development cycle and reduces investment risks.
    • Language models are particularly useful if you don’t have data to train your own model (a “small data” scenario).
    • Infrastructure and model training cost reduction.
    CONS:
    • Might be a challenge to deploy and maintain the system in production.
    • Lack of flexibility: you might not be able to configure input or output parameters to your requirements. For example, a pre-built sentiment analysis model might return four values (“positive,” “negative,” “neutral,” and “mixed”), but your solution will require only two or three values.
    • Might be a challenge to comply with security and privacy requirements.
    • Compliance with privacy and fairness requirements and considerations: what data was used to pretrain the model?
    • If open-source libraries were used to create the model, how will vulnerabilities, risks, and security concerns be addressed?

    Info-Tech Insight:

    Using Off-the-Shelf AI models enables an agile approach to system development – faster POC and validation of ideas and approaches, but the model might not be customizable for your requirements.

    Metrics

    Metrics and KPIs for this project will depend on the business goals and objectives that you will identify in Step 1 of the tool selection process.

    Metrics might include:

    • Reduction of time spent on a specific business process. If the tool is used to automate certain steps of a business process, this metric will measure how much time was saved, in minutes/hours, compared to the process time before the introduction of the tool.
    • Accuracy of prediction. This metric would measure the accuracy of estimations or predictions compared to the same estimations done before the implementation of the tool. It can be measured by generating the same prediction or estimation using the AI-powered tool or using any methods used before the introduction of the tool and comparing the results.
    • Accuracy of the search results. If the AI-powered tool is a search engine, compare a) how much time it would take a user to find an article or a piece of content they were searching for using new tool vs. previous techniques, b) how many steps it took the user to locate the required article in the search results, and c) the location of the correct piece of content in the search result list (at the top of the search result list or on the tenth page).
    • Time spent on manual tasks and activities. This metric will measure how much time, in minutes/hours, is spent by the employees or users on manual tasks if the tool automates some of these tasks.
    • Reduction of business process steps (if the steps are being automated). To derive this metric, create a map of the business process before the introduction of the AI-powered tool and after, and determine if the tool helped to simplify the process by reducing the number of process steps.

    Bibliography

    Adryan, Boris. “Is it all machine learning?” Badryan, Oct. 20, 2015. Accessed Feb. 2022.

    “AI-Powered Data Management Platform.” Informatica, N.d. Accessed Feb 2022.

    Amazon Rekognition. “Automate your image and video analysis with machine learning.” AWS. N.d. Accessed Feb 2022.

    “Artificial Intelligence (AI).” IBM Cloud Education, 3 June 2020. Accessed Feb 2022.

    “Artificial intelligence (AI) vs machine learning (ML).” Microsoft Azure Documentation. Accessed Feb. 2022.

    “Avante Garde in the Realm of AI” SearchUnify Cognitive Platform. Accessed Feb 2022.

    “Azure Cognitive Services.” Microsoft. N.d. Accessed Feb 2022.

    “Becoming an AI-fueled organization. State of AI in the enterprise, 4th edition,” Deloitte, 2020. Accessed Feb. 2022.

    “Coveo Predictive Search.” Coveo, N.d. Accessed Feb 2022.

    ”Data and AI Leadership. Executive Survey 2022. Executive Summary of Findings.” NewVantage Partners. Accessed Feb 2022.

    “Einstein Discovery in Tableau.” Tableau, N.d. Accessed Feb 2022.

    Korolov, Maria. “9 biggest hurdles to AI adoption.” CIO, Feb 26, 2019. Accessed Feb 2022.

    Meel, Vidushi. “What Is Deep Learning? An Easy to Understand Guide.” visio.ai. Accessed Feb. 2022.

    Mitchell, Tom. “Machine Learning,” McGraw Hill, 1997.

    Stewart, Matthew. “The Actual Difference Between Statistics and Machine Learning.” Towards Data Science, Mar 24, 2019. Accessed Feb 2022.

    “Sentiment analysis with Cognitive Services.” Microsoft Azure Documentation. Accessed February 2022.

    “Three Principles for Designing ML-Powered Products.” Spotify Blog. Oct 2019, Accessed Feb 2022.

    “Video Intelligence API.” Google Cloud Platform. N.d. Accessed Feb 2022

    Build a Data Pipeline for Reporting and Analytics

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}126|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 9.3/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $61,999 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 20 Average Days Saved
    • 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.

    Manage Your Chromebooks and MacBooks

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    • Parent Category Name: End-User Computing Devices
    • Parent Category Link: /end-user-computing-devices

    Windows is no longer the only option. MacBooks and Chromebooks are justified, but now you have to manage them.

    • If you have modernized your end-user computing strategy, you may have Windows 10 devices as well as MacBooks.
    • Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and desktop as a service (DaaS) are becoming popular. Chromebooks may be ideal as a low-cost interface into DaaS for your employees.
    • Managing Chromebooks can be particularly challenging as they grow in popularity in the education sector.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Managing end-user devices may be accomplished with a variety of solutions, but many of those solutions advocate integration with a Microsoft-friendly solution to take advantage of features such as conditional access, security functionality, and data governance.

    Impact and Result

    • Many solutions are available to manage end-user devices, and they come with a long list of options and features. Clarify your needs and define your requirements before you purchase another endpoint management tool. Don’t purchase capabilities that you may never use.
    • Use the associated Endpoint Management Selection Tool spreadsheet to identify your desired endpoint solution features and compare vendor solution functionality based on your desired features.

    Manage Your Chromebooks and MacBooks Research & Tools

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

    1. Manage Your Chromebooks and MacBooks deck – MacBooks and Chromebooks are growing in popularity in enterprise and education environments, and now you have to manage them.

    Explore options, guidance and some best practices related to the management of Chromebooks and MacBooks in the enterprise environment and educational institutions. Our guidance will help you understand features and options available in a variety of solutions. We also provide guidance on selecting the best endpoint management solution for your own environment.

    • Manage Your Chromebooks and MacBooks Storyboard

    2. Endpoint Management Selection Tool – Select the best endpoint management tool for your environment. Build a table to compare endpoint management offerings in relation to the features and options desired by your organization.

    This tool will help you determine the features and options you want or need in an endpoint management solution.

    • Endpoint Management Selection Tool
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Manage Your Chromebooks and MacBooks

    Financial constraints, strategy, and your user base dictate the need for Chromebooks and MacBooks – now you have to manage them in your environment.

    Analyst Perspective

    Managing MacBooks and Chromebooks is similar to managing Windows devices in many ways and different in others. The tools have many common features, yet they struggle to achieve the same goals.

    Until recently, Windows devices dominated the workplace globally. Computing devices were also rare in many industries such as education. Administrators and administrative staff may have used Windows-based devices, but Chromebooks were not yet in use. Most universities and colleges were Windows-based in offices with some flavor of Unix in other areas, and Apple devices were gaining some popularity in certain circles.

    That is a stark contrast compared to today, where Chromebooks dominate the classrooms and MacBooks and Chromebooks are making significant inroads into the enterprise environment. MacBooks are also a common sight on many university campuses. There is no doubt that while Windows may still be the dominant player, it is far from the only one in town.

    Now that Chromebooks and MacBooks are a notable, if not significant, part of the education and enterprise environments, they must be afforded the same considerations as Windows devices in those environments when it comes to management. The good news is that there is no lack of available solutions for managing these devices, and the endpoint management landscape is continually evolving and improving.

    This is a picture of P.J. Ryan, Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations, Info-Tech Research Group

    P.J. Ryan
    Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    • You modernized your end-user computing strategy and now have Windows 10 devices as well as MacBooks.
    • Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and desktop as a service (DaaS) are becoming popular. Chromebooks would be ideal as a low-cost interface into DaaS for your employees.
    • You are responsible for the management of all the new Chromebooks in your educational district.
    • Windows is no longer the only option. MacBooks and Chromebooks are justified, but now you have to manage them.

    Common Obstacles

    • Endpoint management solutions typically do a great job at managing one category of devices, like Windows or MacBooks, but they struggle to fully manage alternative endpoints.
    • Multiple solutions to manage multiple devices will result in multiple dashboards. A single view would be better.
    • One solution may not fit all, but multiple solutions is not desirable either, especially if you have Windows devices, MacBooks, and Chromebooks.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    • Use the tools at your disposal first – don't needlessly spend money if you don't have to. Many solutions can already manage other types of devices to some degree.
    • Use the integration capabilities of endpoint management tools. Many of them can integrate with each other to give you a single interface to manage multiple types of devices while taking advantage of additional functionality.
    • Don't purchase capabilities you will never use. Using 80% of a less expensive tool is economically smarter than using 10% of a more expensive tool.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Managing end-user devices may be accomplished with a variety of solutions, but many of those solutions advocate integration with a Microsoft-friendly solution to take advantage of features such as conditional access, security functionality, and data governance.

    Insight Summary

    Insight 1

    Google Admin Console is necessary to manage Chromebooks, but it can be paired with other tools. Implementation partnerships provide solutions to track the device lifecycle, track the repair lifecycle, sync with Google Admin Console as well as PowerSchool to provide a more complete picture of the user and device, and facilitate reminders to return the device, pay fees if necessary, pick up a device when a repair is complete, and more.

    Insight 2

    The Google Admin Console allows admins to follow an organizational unit (OU) structure very similar to what they may have used in Microsoft's Active Directory environment. This familiarity makes the task of administering Chromebooks easier for admins.

    Insight 3

    Chromebook management goes beyond securing and manipulating the device. Controls to protect the students while online, such as Safe Search and Safe Browsing, should also be implemented.

    Insight 4

    Most companies choose to use a dedicated MacBook management tool. Many unified endpoint management (UEM) tools can manage MacBooks to some extent, but admins tend to agree that a MacBook-focused endpoint management tool is best for MacBooks while a Windows-based endpoint management tool is best for Windows devices.

    Insight 5

    Some MacBook management solutions advocate integration with Windows UEM solutions to take advantage of Microsoft features such as conditional access, security functionality, and data governance. This approach can also be applied to Chromebooks.

    Chromebooks

    Chromebooks had a respectable share of the education market before 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic turbocharged the penetration of Chromebooks in the education industry.

    Chromebooks are also catching the attention of some decision makers in the enterprise environment.

    "In 2018, Chromebooks represented an incredible 60 percent of all laptop or tablet devices in K-12 -- up from zero percent when the first Chromebook launched during the summer break in 2011."
    – "Will Chromebooks Rule the Enterprise?" Computerworld

    "Chromebooks were the best performing PC products in Q3 2020, with shipment volume increasing to a record-high 9.4 million units, up a whopping 122% year-on-year."
    – Android Police

    "Until the pandemic, Chrome OS' success was largely limited to U.S. schools. Demand in 2020 appears to have expanded beyond that small but critical part of the U.S. PC market."
    – Geekwire

    "In addition to running a huge number of Chrome Extensions and Apps at once, Chromebooks also run Android, Linux and Windows apps."
    – "Will Chromebooks Rule the Enterprise?" Computerworld

    Managing Chromebooks

    Start with the Google Admin Console (GAC)

    GAC is necessary to initially manage Chrome OS devices.

    GAC gives you a centralized console that will allow you to:

    • Create organizational units
    • Add your Chromebook devices
    • Add users
    • Assign users to devices
    • Create groups
    • Create and assign policies
    • Plus more

    GAC can facilitate device management with features such as:

    • Control admin permissions
    • Encryption and update settings
    • App deployment, screen timeout settings
    • Perform a device wipe if required
    • Audit user activity on a device
    • Plus more

    Device and user addition, group and organizational unit creation and administration, applying policies to devices and users – does all this remind you of your Active Directory environment?

    GAC lets you administer users and devices with a similar approach.

    Managing Chromebooks

    Use Active Directory to manage Chromebooks.

    • Enable Active Directory (AD) management from within GAC and you will be able to integrate your Chromebook devices with your AD environment.
    • Devices will be visible in both the GAC and AD environment.
    • Use Windows Group Policy to manage devices and to push policies to users and devices.
    • Users can use their AD username and password to sign into Chromebook devices.
    • GAC can still be used for devices that are not synced with AD.

    Chromebooks can also be managed through these approved partners:

    • Cisco Meraki
    • Citrix XenMobile
    • IBM MaaS360
    • ManageEngine Mobile Device Manager Plus
    • VMware Workspace ONE

    Source: Google

    You must be running the Chrome Enterprise Upgrade and have any licenses required by the approved partner to take advantage of this management option. The partner admin policies supersede GAC.

    If you stop using the approved partner admin console to manage your devices, the polices and settings in GAC will immediately take over the devices.

    Microsoft still has the market share when it comes to device sales, and many administrators are already familiar with Microsoft's Active Directory. Google took advantage of that familiarity when it designed the Google Admin Console structure for users, groups, and organizational units.

    Chromebook Deployment

    Chromebook deployment becomes a challenge when device quantities grow. The enrollment process can be time consuming, and every device must be enrolled before it can be used by an employee or a student. Many admins enlist their full IT teams to assist in the short term. Some vendor partners may assist with distribution options if staffing levels permit. Recent developments from Google have opened additional options for device enrollment beyond the manual enrollment approach.

    Enrolling Chromebooks comes down to one of two approaches:

    1. Manually enrolling one device at a time
      • Users can assist by entering some identifying details during the enrollment if permitted.
      • Some third-party solutions exist, such as USB drives to reduce repetitive keystrokes or hubs to facilitate manually enrolling multiple Chromebooks simultaneously.
    2. Google's Chrome Enterprise Upgrade or the Chrome Education Upgrade
      • This allows you to let your users enroll devices after they accept the end-user license agreement.
      • You can take advantage of Google's vendor partner program and use a zero-touch deployment method where the Chromebook devices automatically receive the assigned policies, apps, and settings as soon as the device is powered on and an authorized user signs in.
      • The Enterprise Upgrade and the Education Upgrade do come with an annual cost per device, which is currently less than US$50.
      • The Enterprise and Education Upgrades come with other features as well, such as enhanced security.

    Chromebooks are automatically assigned to the top-level organizational unit (OU) when enrolled. Devices can be manually moved to another OU, but admins can also create enrollment policies to place newly enrolled devices in a specific OU or have the device locate itself in the same OU as the user.

    Chromebooks in Education

    GAC is also used with Education-licensed devices

    Most of the settings and features previously mentioned are also available for Education-licensed devices and users. Enterprise-specific features will not be available to Education licenses. (Active Directory integration with Education licenses, for example, is accomplished using a different approach)

    • Groups, policies, administrative controls, app deployment and management, adding devices and users, creating organizational units, and more features are all available to Education Admins to use.

    Education device policies and settings tend to focus more on protecting the students with controls such as:

    • Disable incognito mode
    • Disable location tracking
    • Disable external storage devices
    • Browser based protections such as Safe Search or Safe Browsing
    • URL blocking
    • Video input disable for websites
    • App installation prevention, auto re-install, and app blocking
    • Forced re-enrollment to your domain after a device is wiped
    • Disable Guest Mode
    • Restrict who can sign in
    • Audit user activity on a device

    When a student takes home a Chromebook assigned to them, that Chromebook may be the only computer in the household. Administrative polices and settings must take into account the fact that the device may have multiple users accessing many different sites and applications when the device is outside of the school environment.

    Chromebook Management Extended

    An online search for Chromebook management solutions will reveal several software solutions that augment the capabilities of the Google Admin Console. Many of these solutions are focused on the education sector and classroom and student options, although the features would be beneficial to enterprises and educational organizations alike.

    These solutions assist or augment Chromebook management with features such as:

    • Ability to sync with Google Admin Console
    • Ability to sync with student information systems, such as PowerSchool
    • Financial management, purchase details, and chargeback
    • Asset lifecycle management
    • 1:1 Chromebook distribution management
    • Repair programs and repair process management
    • Check-out/loan program management
    • Device distribution/allocation management, including barcode reader integration
    • Simple learning material distribution to the classroom for teachers
    • Facilitate GAC bulk operations
    • Manage inventory of non-IT assets such as projectors, TVs, and other educational assets
    • Plus more

    "There are many components to managing Chromebooks. Schools need to know which student has which device, which school has which device, and costs relating to repairs. Chromebook Management Software … facilitates these processes."
    – VIZOR

    MacBooks

    • MacBooks are gaining popularity in the Enterprise world.
    • Some admins claim MacBooks are less expensive in the long run over Windows-based PCs.
    • Users claim less issues when using a MacBook, and overall, companies report increased retention rates when users are using MacBooks.

    "Macs now make up 23% of endpoints in enterprises."
    – ComputerWeekly.com

    "When given the choice, no less than 72% of employees choose Macs over PCs."
    – "5 Reasons Mac is a must," Jamf

    "IBM says it is 3X more expensive to manage PCs than Macs."
    – Computerworld

    "74% of those who previously used a PC for work experienced fewer issues now that they use a Mac"
    – "Global Survey: Mac in the Enterprise," Jamf

    "When enterprise moves to Mac, staff retention rates improve by 20%. That's quite a boost! "
    – "5 Reasons Mac is a must," Jamf

    Managing MacBooks

    Can your existing UEM keep up?

    Many Windows unified endpoint management (UEM) tools can manage MacBooks, but most companies choose to use a dedicated MacBook management tool.

    • UEM tools that are primarily Windows focused do not typically go deep enough into the management capabilities of non-Windows devices.
    • Admins have noted limitations when it comes to using Windows UEM tools, and reasons they prefer a dedicated MacBook management solution include:
      • Easier to use
      • Faster response times when deploying settings and policies
      • Better control over notification settings and lock screen settings.
      • Easier Apple Business Manager (ABM) integration and provisioning.
    • Note that not every UEM will have the same limitations or advantages. Functionality is different between vendor products.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Most Windows UEM tools are constantly improving, and it is only a matter of time before they rival many of the dedicated MacBook management tools out there.

    Admins tend to agree that a Windows UEM is best for Windows while an Apple-based UEM is best for Apple devices.

    Managing MacBooks

    The market for "MacBook-first" management solutions includes a variety of players of varying ages such as:

    • Jamf
    • Kandji
    • Mosyle
    • SimpleMDM
    • Others

    MacBook-focused management tools can provide features such as:

    • Encryption and update settings
    • App deployment and lifecycle management
    • Remote device wipe, scan, shutdown, restart, and lock
    • Zero touch deployment and support
    • Location tracking
    • Browser content filtering
    • Enable, hide/block, or disable built-in features
    • Configure Wi-Fi, VPN, and certificate-based settings
    • Centralized dashboard with device and app listings as well as individual details
    • Data restrictions
    • Plus more

    Unified endpoint management (UEM) solutions that can provide MacBook management to some degree include (but are not limited to):

    • Intune
    • Ivanti
    • Endpoint Central
    • WorkspaceOne

    Dedicated solutions advocate integration with UEM solutions to take advantage of conditional access, security functionality, and data governance features.

    Jamf and Microsoft entered into a collaboration several years ago with the intention of making the MacBook management process easier and more secure.

    Microsoft Intune and Jamf Pro: Better together to manage and secure Macs
    Microsoft Conditional Access with Jamf Pro ensures that company data is only accessed by trusted users, on trusted devices, using trusted apps. Jamf extends this Enterprise Mobile + Security (EMS) functionality to Mac, iPhone and iPad.
    – "Microsoft Intune and Jamf Pro," Jamf

    Endpoint Management Selection Tool
    Activity

    There are many solutions available to manage end-user devices, and they come with a long list of options and features. Clarify your needs and define your requirements before you purchase another endpoint management tool. Don't purchase capabilities that you may never use.

    Use the Endpoint Management Selection Tool to identify your desired endpoint solution features and compare vendor solution functionality based on your desired features.

    1. List out the desired features you want in an endpoint solution for your devices and record those features in the first column. Use the features provided, or add your own and edit or delete the existing ones if necessary.
    2. List your selected endpoint management solution vendors in each of the columns in place of "Vendor 1," "Vendor 2," etc.
    3. Fill out the spreadsheet by changing the corresponding desired feature cell under each vendor to a "yes" or "no" based on your findings while investigating each vendor solution.
    4. When you have finished your investigation, review your spreadsheet to compare the various offerings and pros and cons of each vendor.
    5. Select your endpoint management solution.

    Endpoint Management Selection Tool

    In the first column, list out the desired features you want in an endpoint solution for your devices. Use the features provided if desired, or add your own and edit or delete the existing ones if necessary. As you look into various endpoint management solution vendors, list them in the columns in place of "Vendor 1," "Vendor 2," etc. Use the "Desired Feature" list as a checklist and change the values to "yes" or "no" in the corresponding box under the vendors' names. When complete, you will be able to look at all the features and compare vendors in a single table.

    Desired Feature Vendor 1 Vendor 2 Vendor 3
    Organizational unit creation Yes No Yes
    Group creation Yes Yes Yes
    Ability to assign users to devices No Yes Yes
    Control of administrative permissions Yes Yes Yes
    Conditional access No Yes Yes
    Security policies enforced Yes No Yes
    Asset management No Yes No
    Single sign-on Yes Yes Yes
    Auto-deployment No Yes No
    Repair lifecycle tracking No Yes No
    Application deployment Yes Yes No
    Device tracking Yes Yes Yes
    Ability to enable encryption Yes No Yes
    Device wipe Yes No Yes
    Ability to enable/disable device tracking No No Yes
    User activity audit No No No

    Related Info-Tech Research

    this is a screenshot from Info-Tech's Modernize and Transform Your End-User Computing Strategy.

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

    Best Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) Software 2022 | SoftwareReviews
    Compare and evaluate unified endpoint management vendors using the most in-depth and unbiased buyer reports available. Download free comprehensive 40+ page reports to select the best unified endpoint management software for your organization.

    Best Enterprise Mobile Management (EMM) Software 2022 | (softwarereviews.com)
    Compare and evaluate enterprise mobile management vendors using the most in-depth and unbiased buyer reports available. Download free comprehensive 40+ page reports to select the best enterprise mobile management software for your organization.

    Bibliography

    Bridge, Tom. "Macs in the enterprise – what you need to know". Computerweekly.com, TechTarget. 27 May 2022. Accessed 12 Aug. 2022.
    Copley-Woods, Haddayr. "5 reasons Mac is a must in the enterprise". Jamf.com, Jamf. 28 June 2022. Accessed 16 Aug. 2022.
    Duke, Kent. "Chromebook sales skyrocketed in Q3 2020 with online education fueling demand." androidpolice.com, Android Police. 16 Nov 2020. Accessed 10 Aug. 2022.
    Elgin, Mike. "Will Chromebooks Rule the Enterprise? (5 Reasons They May)". Computerworld.com, Computerworld. 30 Aug 2019. Accessed 10 Aug. 2022.
    Evans, Jonny. "IBM says it is 3X more expensive to manage PCs than Macs". Computerworld.com, Computerworld. 19 Oct 2016. Accessed 23 Aug. 2022.
    "Global Survey: Mac in the Enterprise". Jamf.com, Jamf. Accessed 16 Aug. 2022.
    "How to Manage Chromebooks Like a Pro." Vizor.cloud, VIZOR. Accessed 10 Aug. 2022.
    "Manage Chrome OS Devices with EMM Console". support.google.com, Google. Accessed 16 Aug. 2022.
    Protalinski, Emil. "Chromebooks outsold Macs worldwide in 2020, cutting into Windows market share". Geekwire.com, Geekwire. 16 Feb 2021. Accessed 22 Aug. 2022.
    Smith, Sean. "Microsoft Intune and Jamf Pro: Better together to manage and secure Macs". Jamf.com, Jamf. 20 April 2022. Accessed 16 Aug. 2022.

    Develop a Use Case for Smart Contracts

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    • Parent Category Name: Innovation
    • Parent Category Link: /innovation
    • Organizations today continue to use traditional and often archaic methods of manual processing with physical paper documents.
    • These error-prone methods introduce cumbersome administrative work, causing businesses to struggle with payments and contract disputes.
    • The increasing scale and complexity of business processes has led to many third parties, middlemen, and paper hand-offs.
    • Companies remain bogged down by expensive and inefficient processes while losing sight of their ultimate stakeholder: the customer. A failure to focus on the customer is a failure to do business.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Simplify, automate, secure. Smart contracts enable businesses to simplify, automate, and secure traditionally complex transactions.
    • Focus on the customer. Smart contracts provide a frictionless experience for customers by removing unnecessary middlemen and increasing the speed of transactions.
    • New business models. Smart contracts enable the redesign of your organization and business-to-business relationships and transactions.

    Impact and Result

    • Simplify and optimize your business processes by using Info-Tech’s methodology to select processes with inefficient transactions, unnecessary middlemen, and excessive manual paperwork.
    • Use Info-Tech’s template to generate a smart contract use case customized for your business.
    • Customize Info-Tech’s stakeholder presentation template to articulate the goals and benefits of the project and get buy-in from business executives.

    Develop a Use Case for Smart Contracts Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should leverage smart contracts in your business, 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:

    • Develop a Use Case for Smart Contracts – Phases 1-2

    1. Understand smart contracts

    Understand the fundamental concepts of smart contract technology and get buy-in from stakeholders.

    • Develop a Use Case for Smart Contracts – Phase 1: Understand Smart Contracts
    • Smart Contracts Executive Buy-in Presentation Template

    2. Develop a smart contract use case

    Select a business process, create a smart contract logic diagram, and complete a smart contract use-case deliverable.

    • Develop a Use Case for Smart Contracts – Phase 2: Develop the Smart Contract Use Case
    • Smart Contracts Use-Case Template

    [infographic]

    Workshop: Develop a Use Case for Smart Contracts

    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 Smart Contracts

    The Purpose

    Review blockchain basics.

    Understand the fundamental concepts of smart contracts.

    Develop smart contract use-case executive buy-in presentation.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of blockchain basics.

    Understanding the fundamentals of smart contracts.

    Development of an executive buy-in presentation.

    Activities

    1.1 Review blockchain basics.

    1.2 Understand smart contract fundamentals.

    1.3 Identify business challenges and smart contract benefits.

    1.4 Create executive buy-in presentation.

    Outputs

    Executive buy-in presentation

    2 Smart Contract Logic Diagram

    The Purpose

    Brainstorm and select a business process to develop a smart contract use case around.

    Generate a smart contract logic diagram.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Selected a business process.

    Developed a smart contract logic diagram for the selected business process.

    Activities

    2.1 Brainstorm candidate business processes.

    2.2 Select a business process.

    2.3 Identify phases, actors, events, and transactions.

    2.4 Create the smart contract logic diagram.

    Outputs

    Smart contract logic diagram

    3 Smart Contract Use Case

    The Purpose

    Develop smart contract use-case diagrams for each business process phase.

    Complete a smart contract use-case deliverable.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Smart contract use-case diagrams.

    Smart contract use-case deliverable.

    Activities

    3.1 Build smart contract use-case diagrams for each phase of the business process.

    3.2 Create a smart contract use-case summary diagram.

    3.3 Complete smart contract use-case deliverable.

    Outputs

    Smart contract use case

    4 Next Steps and Action Plan

    The Purpose

    Review workshop week and lessons learned.

    Develop an action plan to follow through with next steps for the project.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Reviewed workshop week with common understanding of lessons learned.

    Completed an action plan for the project.

    Activities

    4.1 Review workshop deliverables.

    4.2 Create action plan.

    Outputs

    Smart contract action plan

     

    Get Started With FinOps

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    • Parent Category Name: Cloud Strategy
    • Parent Category Link: /cloud-strategy
    • Runaway cloud costs are wrecking the CIO’s budget, but cloud costs are hard to reign in because vendors are not always up front about the true costs, it’s easy to oversubscribe to services and quickly run up costs with pay-as-you-go service, and cloud bills are complex.
    • While IT isn’t the business owner for cloud services, they often carry the cost of overruns on their budget, and don’t have the skills or influence to more effectively manage cloud costs.
    • Truly optimizing cloud spend and maximizing business value from cloud requires insight and collaboration from IT/engineering, finance, and business owners, but those teams are often siloed and manage their cloud usage or spend differently.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • The business units that need to collaborate to make FinOps work are often siloed, with different processes, data, metrics and cloud expertise. Coordinating their efforts to encourage shared responsibility can be a big obstacle to overcome.
    • FinOps requires a cultural shift to empower every cloud user to take accountability for cloud cost optimization.
    • To get started with FinOps, it’s essential to first break down those silos and get the multiple teams involved on the same page. Everyone must understand how FinOps is part of their responsibilities.

    Impact and Result

    • Implementing FinOps will lead to improved visibility and control over cloud spend, optimized resource allocation and reduced cloud waste, enhanced transparency, improved forecasting and budgeting, and increased accountability over cloud costs across business units.
    • This blueprint will help you get started with FinOps by identifying the roles involved in FinOps, defining the key activities that must be conducted, and assigning ownership to each task. This will help foster a shared responsibility for FinOps and encourage everyone to work toward common goals.

    Get Started With FinOps Research & Tools

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

    1. Get Started With FinOps Deck – A guide to defining and assigning the roles and activities involved in FinOps.

    This storyboard will help you define FinOps roles and structure of the FinOps and other teams, identify key activities, and assign ownership to each. It will also provide guidance on analyzing the results of the RACI chart.

    • Get Started With FinOps Storyboard

    2. FinOps RACI Chart – A tool to help you assess the current state of FinOps activities and assign ownership to each.

    This tool will help you assess the current state of FinOps activities and assign ownership to each activity. Use the outputs of the exercise to define how roles across the organization will be involved in FinOps and where to focus efforts in maturing in FinOps.

    • FinOps RACI Chart
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Get Started With FinOps

    FinOps goes beyond identifying cloud savings. It empowers every cloud user to maximize the value of their spend.

    Executive Brief

    Analyst Perspective

    The first step of FinOps is collectively realizing that maximizing value is every cloud user's responsibility.

    Natalie Sansone

    Natalie Sansone, PhD
    Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations
    Info-Tech Research Group

    As cloud adoption increases, and with it the complexity of cloud environments, managing and optimizing cloud spend has become both a top challenge and priority for IT organizations. In response, the practice of FinOps has emerged to help organizations maximize the value they get from the cloud. As its popularity surges, organizations are told they must do FinOps, but many feel their practice is not yet mature. One of their biggest obstacles is empowering engineers and other cloud users to work toward this shared goal with other teams.

    To grow and mature your FinOps practice, your first challenge is breaking down silos, encouraging collaboration across varying business units, and getting all cloud users to be accountable for their cloud usage and spend and to understand the shared goals of FinOps. Beyond finding ways to reduce cloud costs, FinOps is a cultural shift that enables better collaboration between distributed teams. It allows them to leverage data to identify opportunities to maximize business value from cloud investments.

    Whether you’re starting the FinOps journey or looking to mature your practice, this blueprint will help you organize by defining the required role and tasks. Then you can work through a collective exercise to ensure everyone understands who is involved and responsible for each activity. You’ll gain the information you need and be better positioned to continuously improve and mature your processes, but success begins with everyone understanding that FinOps is a shared responsibility.

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Common Obstacles

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    • Runaway cloud costs are wrecking the CIO’s budget, but these are hard to rein in because cloud vendors are not always upfront about the true costs. It’s easy to oversubscribe to services and quickly run up costs with pay-as-you-go service and complex bills.
    • While IT isn’t the business owner for cloud services, they often carry the cost of overruns on their budget, and don’t have the skills or influence to more effectively manage cloud costs.
    • Truly optimizing cloud spend and maximizing its business value requires insight and collaboration from IT/engineering, finance, and business owners, but those teams are often siloed and manage their cloud usage/spend differently.
    • IT leaders are instructed to implement a FinOps practice, but don’t truly understand what that is, who needs to be involved, or where to start.
    • Business units that must collaborate to make FinOps work are often siloed and have different processes, data, metrics, and cloud expertise. Coordinating efforts to encourage shared responsibility can be a challenge. FinOps requires a cultural shift to empower every cloud user to take accountability for cost optimization.
    • Lack of visibility into cloud usage, spending patterns, and cost drivers along with inadequate tools to get the required data to drive decision making. This leads to hindered progress.
    • Implementing FinOps will improve visibility and control over cloud spend, optimize resource allocation and reduce waste, enhance transparency, improve forecasting and budgeting, and improve cost accountability across business units.
    • To get started with FinOps, first it’s essential to break down those silos and coordinate the multiple teams involved. Everyone must understand how FinOps is part of their responsibilities.
    • This blueprint will help you identify the roles involved in FinOps, define the key activities that must be conducted, and assign ownership to each task. This will help foster a shared responsibility for FinOps and encourage everyone to work toward common goals.

    Info-Tech Insight

    FinOps is not just about driving cloud savings. It’s a cultural shift empowering every cloud user to maximize the value of their spend. The first step of FinOps is therefore to help everyone understand their share of responsibility.

    What is FinOps?

    Definition

    “FinOps is an evolving cloud financial management discipline and cultural practice that enables organizations to get maximum business value by helping engineering, finance, technology, and business teams to collaborate on data-driven spending decisions.”

    Definition Updated: November 2021 by the FinOps Foundation Technical Advisory Council

    The ultimate purpose of FinOps is to bring business value to your organization by reducing cloud waste.

    • FinOps is the people, processes, and tools you use to eliminate waste and ensure you get the most value from your cloud spend.
    • FinOps is the framework within which teams can operate to ensure they are optimizing their use of cloud resources.
    • FinOps brings financial accountability to cloud spend.
    • FinOps is a culture practice where everyone collaborates and takes ownership for their cloud usage while being supported and governed by a central group. It breaks down silos so teams that haven’t worked closely together in the past collaborate toward shared goals.
    • It brings financial accountability and cultural change to cloud spend by enabling distributed teams to better collaborate and leverage data to decide where/when to invest in cloud for maximum business value.
    • FinOps is not done by an individual or just one team. It’s a change in the way that many disparate teams work together, from engineering to finance to business teams.

    Common misconceptions about FinOps

    FinOps is not

    FinOps is

    • Only about saving money
    • Only focused on activities related to cost optimization
    • IT financial management, which involves tracking and analyzing all costs associated with IT services
    • An activity (or set of activities) done by one person or team
    • Short for financial operations
    • About maximizing value. FinOps is optimizing cloud costs to provide maximum business value and support scalability (sometimes this means investing more money in cloud)
    • FinOps also involves building a culture of accountability, visibility, and collaboration around cloud usage and cost
    • Focused specifically on managing/optimizing cloud costs
    • A cultural shift around how disparate teams work together, people from all areas of the organization can play a role
    • The term is a portmanteau (combination) of Finance and (Dev)Ops, emphasizing the collaboration between business and engineering teams1
    1 “What is FinOps?” FinOps Foundation, 2023

    FinOps’ popularity has exploded in recent years

    2012 - The practice of FinOps begins to emerge through early scalers in public cloud like Adobe and Intuit

    2017 - Many IT departments begin to use the cloud for limited use cases, but very few enterprises are all in the cloud

    2019 - Many companies begin moving to a cloud-first strategy, shifting IT spend from capital to operational expenditure (CapEx to OpEx), complicating cloud bills

    February 2019 - The FinOps Foundation is born out of Cloudability’s Customer Advisory Board meeting where many cloud practitioners discuss the need for a community of practitioners

    June 2020 - The FinOps Foundation merges with Linux Foundation and sets the standard for cloud financial management

    Sources: Carr, 2022; Linux Foundation, 2023, Storment & Fuller, 2023.

    The image contains a graph that demonstrates the increasing number of people listing FinOps as a skill.

    Where did the term come from?

    The term FinOps has risen in popularity over the last few years. Originally, organizations used the term cloud cost management, then cloud cost optimization, then more broadly, cloud financial management. The latter has now been largely replaced by FinOps.

    Why is FinOps so essential? (1/2)

    The shift from fixed to variable spend has changed the way organizations must manage and report on costs.

    In the traditional data center era:

    • The enterprise procured infrastructure through large capital refreshes of data center hardware.
    • Infrastructure teams tried their best to avoid running out of storage before the next hardware refresh. Equipment was intentionally oversized to accommodate unexpected growth.
    • IT teams would not worry about how much infrastructure resources they consumed, provided they stayed within planned capacity limits. If capacity ran low, resource usage would be adjusted.
    • The business might not like laying out large capital expenditures, but it had full visibility into the cost and got to approve spending in advance using financial controls.
    • Monthly costs were well-understood and monthly or infrequent reporting was acceptable because day-to-day costs did not vary.
    • Mature organizations might chargeback or showback costs to application teams based on number of virtual machines or other measures, but traditional on-premises chargeback wouldn't save money overall.

    Why is FinOps so essential? (2/2)

    The shift from fixed to variable spend has changed the way organizations must manage and report on costs.

    In the cloud era:

    • Infrastructure resources must no longer be provisioned in advance through spending capital budgets.
    • Capacity management isn’t a major concern. Spare capacity is always available, and savings can result from not paying for unnecessary capacity.
    • Cloud services often offer pay-as-you-go pricing models, allowing more control and flexibility to pay only for the resources you consume.
    • When services use more resources than they need, running costs increase. Cost reductions are realized through reducing the size of allocated resources.
    • The variable consumption model can reduce operating costs but can make budgeting and forecasting difficult. IT and the business can no longer predict what they will pay for infrastructure resources.
    • Billing is no longer straightforward and monthly. Resources are individually charged in micro amounts. Costs must be regularly reviewed as unexpected or forgotten resource usage can add up significantly.

    Managing cloud spend remains a challenge for many organizations

    Given the variable nature of cloud costs and complex pricing structures, it can be easy to overspend without mature FinOps processes in place. Indeed, 82% of organizations cite managing cloud spend as one of their top challenges.

    Respondents reported that public cloud spend was over budget by an average of 18%, up from 13% the previous year.

    Source: Flexera 2023 State of the Cloud Report, n=750

    Organization's top cloud challenges.

    While FinOps adoption has rapidly increased, maturity has not

    Most organizations understand the value of FinOps but are not mature in their practice.

    NetApp’s 2023 State of CloudOps Report found that:

    96% say FinOps is important to their cloud strategy

    9% have a mature FinOps practice

    92% report that they struggle with FinOps

    Source: NetApp, 2023 State of CloudOps Report, n=310 IT decision makers in the United States responsible for public cloud infrastructure investments.

    Flexera’s 2023 State of the Cloud report found that 72% of organizations have a dedicated FinOps team.

    Flexera’s annual report also found that year over year, cloud cost responsibilities are increasingly shifting away from Finance/Accounting and Vendor Management teams and over to FinOps teams as they emerge and mature.

    Source: Flexera, 2023 State of the Cloud Report, n=750 decision-makers and users around the world

    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

    Accelerate Your Automation Processes

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    • Parent Category Name: Service Desk
    • Parent Category Link: /service-desk

    Your organization needs to:

    • Define an automation suite for the business.
    • Specify the business goals for your automation suite.
    • Roadmap your automation modules to continually grow your automation platform.
    • Identify how an automation suite can help the organization improve.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Start small and do it right:

    • Assess if a particular solution works for your organization and continually invest in it if it does before moving onto the next solution.
    • Overwhelming your organization with a plethora of automation solutions can lead to a lack of management for each solution and decrease your overall return on investment.

    Impact and Result

    • Define your automation suite in terms of your business goals.
    • Take stock of what you have now: RPA, AIOps, chatbots.
    • Think about how to integrate and optimize what you have now, as well as roadmap your continual improvement.

    Accelerate Your Automation Processes Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read this Executive Brief to find out why your organization should accelerate your automation processes, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the ways Info-Tech can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Discover automation suite possibilities

    Take hold of your current state and assess where you would like to improve. See if adding a new automation module or investing in your current modules is the right decision.

    • Automation Suite Maturity Assessment Tool

    2. Chart your automation suite roadmap

    Build a high-level roadmap of where you want to bring your organization's automation suite in the future.

    • Automation Suite Roadmap Tool
    [infographic]

    Select and Implement a Web Experience Management Solution

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    • Parent Category Name: Marketing Solutions
    • Parent Category Link: /marketing-solutions
    • A company’s web presence is its front face to the world. Ensuring you have the right suite of tools for web content management, experience design, and web analytics is critical to putting your best foot forward: failing to do so will result in customer attrition and lost revenue.
    • Web Experience Management (WEM) suites are a rapidly maturing and dynamic market, with a landscape full of vendors with cutting edge solutions and diverse offerings. As a result, finding a solution that is the best fit for your organization can be a complex process.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • WEM products are not a one-size-fits-all investment: unique evaluations and customization are required in order to deploy a solution that fits your organization.
    • WEM technology often complements core CRM and marketing management products – it does not supplant it, and must augment the rest of your customer experience management portfolio.
    • Phase your WEM implementation: Start with core capabilities such as content management, then add additional capabilities for site analytics and dynamic experience.

    Impact and Result

    • Align marketing needs with identified functional requirements.
    • Implement a best-fit WEM that increases customer acquisition and retention, and provides in-depth capabilities for site analysis.
    • Optimize procurement and operations costs for the WEM platform.

    Select and Implement a Web Experience Management Solution Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

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

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

    1. Launch the WEM project and collect requirements

    Conduct a market overview, structure the project, and gather requirements.

    • Select and Implement a Web Experience Management Solution – Phase 1: Launch the WEM Project and Collect Requirements
    • WEM Project Charter Template
    • WEM Use-Case Fit Assessment Tool

    2. Select a WEM solution

    Analyze and shortlist vendors in the space and select a WEM solution.

    • Select and Implement a Web Experience Management Solution – Phase 2: Select a WEM Solution
    • WEM Vendor Shortlist & Detailed Feature Analysis Tool
    • WEM Vendor Demo Script Template
    • WEM RFP Template

    3. Plan the WEM implementation

    Plan the implementation and evaluate project metrics.

    • Select and Implement a Web Experience Management Solution – Phase 3: Plan the WEM Implementation
    • WEM Work Breakdown Structure Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Select and Implement a Web Experience Management 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 Launch of the WEM Selection Project

    The Purpose

    Discuss the general project overview for the WEM selection.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Launch of your WEM selection project.

    Development of your organization’s WEM requirements.

    Activities

    1.1 Facilitation of activities from the Launch the WEM Project and Collect Requirements phase, including project scoping and resource planning.

    1.2 Conduct overview of the WEM market landscape, trends, and vendors.

    1.3 Conduct process mapping for selected marketing processes.

    1.4 Interview business stakeholders.

    1.5 Prioritize WEM functional requirements.

    Outputs

    WEM Procurement Project Charter

    WEM Use-Case Fit Assessment

    2 Plan the Procurement and Implementation Process

    The Purpose

    Plan the procurement and the implementation of the WEM solution.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Selection of a WEM solution.

    A plan for implementing the selected WEM solution.

    Activities

    2.1 Complete marketing process mapping with business stakeholders.

    2.2 Interview IT staff and project team, identify technical requirements for the WEM suite, and document high-level solution requirements.

    2.3 Perform a use-case scenario assessment, review use-case scenario results, identify use-case alignment, and review the WEM Vendor Landscape vendor profiles and performance.

    2.4 Create a custom vendor shortlist and investigate additional vendors for exploration in the marketplace.

    2.5 Meet with project manager to discuss results and action items.

    Outputs

    Vendor Shortlist

    WEM RFP

    Vendor Evaluations

    Selection of a WEM Solution

    WEM projected work break-down

    Implementation plan

    Framework for WEM deployment and CRM/Marketing Management Suite Integration

    Get the Most Out of Workday

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}239|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 10.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: 20 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: 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.

    Build Your BizDevOps Playbook

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    • Parent Category Name: Architecture & Strategy
    • Parent Category Link: /architecture-and-strategy
    • 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 see BizDevOps as a solution to help meet this demand. However, they often lack the critical cross-functional collaboration and team-sport culture that are critical for success.
    • The industry provides little consensus and guidance on how to prepare for the transition to BizDevOps.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • BizDevOps is cultural, not driven by tools. It is about delivering high-quality and valuable releases to stakeholders through collective ownership, continuous collaboration, and team-first behaviors supported by tools.
    • BizDevOps begins with a strong foundation in five key areas. The crux of successful BizDevOps is centered on the strategic adoption and optimization of building great requirements, collaborative practices, iterative delivery, application management, and high-fidelity environments.
    • Teams take STOCK of what it takes to collaborate effectively. Teams and stakeholders must show up, trust the delivery method and people, orchestrate facilitated activities, clearly communicate and knowledge share every time they collaborate.

    Impact and Result

    • Bring the right people to the table. BizDevOps brings significant organizational, process and technology changes to improve delivery effectiveness. Include the key roles in the definition and validation of your BizDevOps vision and practices.
    • Focus on the areas that matter. Review your current circumstances and incorporate the right practices that addresses your key challenges and blockers to becoming BizDevOps.
    • Build your BizDevOps playbook. Gain a broad understanding of the key plays and practices that makes a successful BizDevOps organization. Verify and validate these practices in order to tailor them to your context. Keep your playbook live.

    Build Your BizDevOps Playbook Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Find out why you should implement BizDevOps, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Get started with BizDevOps

    Set the right expectations with your stakeholders and define the context of your BizDevOps implementation.

    • Build Your BizDevOps Playbook – Phase 1: Get Started With BizDevOps
    • BizDevOps Playbook

    2. Tailor your BizDevOps playbook

    Tailor the plays in your BizDevOps playbook to your circumstances and vision.

    • Build Your BizDevOps Playbook – Phase 2: Tailor Your BizDevOps Playbook
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Build Your BizDevOps 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 Set Your Expectations

    The Purpose

    Discuss the goals of your BizDevOps playbook.

    Identify the various perspectives who should be included in the BizDevOps discussion.

    Level set expectations of your BizDevOps implementation.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Identification of the key roles who should be included in the BizDevOps discussion.

    Learning of key practices to support your BizDevOps vision and goals.

    Your vision of BizDevOps in your organization.

    Activities

    1.1 Define BizDevOps.

    1.2 Understand your key stakeholders.

    1.3 Define your objectives.

    Outputs

    Your BizDevOps definition

    List of BizDevOps stakeholders

    BizDevOps vision and objectives

    2 Set the Context

    The Purpose

    Understand the various methods to initiate the structuring of facilitated collaboration.

    Share a common way of thinking and behaving with a set of principles.

    Focus BizDevOps adoption on key areas of software product delivery.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A chosen collaboration method (Scrum, Kanban, Scrumban) to facilitate collaboration

    A mutually understanding and beneficial set of guiding principles

    Areas where BizDevOps will see the most benefit

    Activities

    2.1 Select your foundation method.

    2.2 Define your guiding principles.

    2.3 Focus on the areas that matter.

    Outputs

    Chosen collaboration model

    List of guiding principles

    High-level assessment of delivery practices and its fit for BizDevOps

    3 Tailor Your BizDevOps Playbook

    The Purpose

    Review the good practices within Info-Tech’s BizDevOps Playbook.

    Tailor your playbook to reflect your circumstances.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of the key plays involved in product delivery

    Product delivery plays that reflect the challenges and opportunities of your organization and support your BizDevOps vision

    Activities

    3.1 Review and tailor the plays in your playbook

    Outputs

    High-level discussion of key product delivery plays and its optimization to support BizDevOps

    Maximize Your American Rescue Plan Funding

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    • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 9.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $661,499 Average $ Saved
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    • Parent Category Name: Cost & Budget Management
    • Parent Category Link: /cost-and-budget-management
    • 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

    Identify and Manage Operational Risk Impacts on Your Organization

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    • Parent Category Name: Vendor Management
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    More than any other time, our world is changing. As a result, organizations – and their vendors – need to be able to adapt their plans to accommodate risk on an unprecedented level.

    A new threat will impact your organization's operations at some point. Make sure your plans are flexible enough to manage the inevitable consequences and that you understand where those threats may originate.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Identifying and managing a vendor’s potential operational impact on your organization requires multiple people in the organization across several functions. Those people all need coaching on the potential changes in the market and how these changes may affect operations.
    • Organizational leadership is often taken unaware during crises, and their plans lack the flexibility to adjust to significant market upheavals.

    Impact and Result

    Vendor management practices educate organizations on the different potential risks from vendors in your market and suggest creative and alternative ways to avoid and help manage them.

    • Prioritize and classify your vendors with quantifiable, standardized rankings.
    • Prioritize focus on your high-risk vendors.
    • Standardize your processes for identifying and monitoring vendor risks to manage potential impacts with our Operational Risk Impact Tool.

    Identify and Manage Operational 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 Operational Risk Impacts to Your Organization Storyboard – Use this research to better understand the negative impacts of vendor actions to your brand reputation.

    Use this research to identify and quantify the potential operational impacts caused by vendors. Utilize Info-Tech's approach to look at the operational impact from various perspectives to better prepare for issues that may arise.

    • Identify and Manage Operational Risk Impacts to Your Organization Storyboard

    2. Operational Risk Impact Tool – Use this tool to help identify and quantify the operational 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.

    • Operational Risk Impact Tool
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Identify and Manage Operational Risk Impacts on Your Organization

    Understand internal and external vendor risks to avoid potential disaster.

    Analyst perspective

    Organizations need to be aware of the operational damage vendors may cause to plan around those impacts effectively.

    Frank Sewell

    Organizations must be mindful that operational risks come from internal and external vendor sources. Missing either component in the overall risk assessment can significantly impact day-to-day business processes that cost revenue, delay projects, and lead to customer dissatisfaction.

    Frank Sewell,

    Research Director, Vendor Management
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    More than any other time, our world is changing rapidly. As a result, organizations – and their vendors – need to be able to adapt their plans to accommodate risk on an unprecedented level.

    A new threat will impact your organization's operations at some point. Make sure your plans are flexible enough to manage the inevitable consequences and that you understand where those threats may originate.

    Common Obstacles

    Identifying and managing a vendor’s potential operational impact on your organization requires multiple people in the organization across several functions. Those people all need coaching on the potential changes in the market and how these changes may affect operations.

    Organizational leadership is often taken unaware during crises, and their plans lack the flexibility to adjust to significant market upheavals.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    Vendor management practices educate organizations on the different potential risks from vendors in your market and suggest creative and alternative ways to avoid and help manage them.

    Prioritize and classify your vendors with quantifiable, standardized rankings.

    Prioritize focus on your high-risk vendors.

    Standardize your processes for identifying and monitoring vendor risks to manage potential impacts with our Operational Risk Impact Tool.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Organizations must evolve their risk assessments to be more adaptive to respond to threats in the market. Ongoing monitoring of the vendors tied to company operations, and understanding where those vendors impact your operations, is imperative to avoiding disasters.

    Info-Tech’s multi-blueprint series on vendor risk assessment

    There are many individual components of vendor risk beyond cybersecurity.

    There are many components to vendor risk, including: Financial, Reputational, Operational, Strategic, Security, 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.

    Operational risk impacts

    Potential losses to the organization due to incidents that affect operations.

    • In this blueprint we’ll explore operational risks, particularly from third-party vendors, and their impacts.
    • Identify potentially disruptive events to assess the overall impact on organizations and implement adaptive measures to identify, manage, and monitor vendor performance.
    Operational

    The world is constantly changing

    The IT market is constantly reacting to global influences. By anticipating changes, leaders can set expectations and work with their vendors to accommodate them.

    When the unexpected happens, being able to adapt quickly to new priorities ensures continued long-term business success.

    Below are some things no one expected to happen in the last few years:

    27%

    Businesses are changing their internal processes around TPRM in response to the Pandemic.

    70%

    Of organizations attribute a third-party breach to too much privileged access.

    85%

    Of breaches involved human factors (phishing, poor passwords, etc.).

    Assess internal and external operational risk impacts

    Due diligence and consistent monitoring are the keys to safeguarding your organization.

    Two sides of the Same Coin

    Internal

    • Poorly vetted supplemental staff
    • Bad system configurations
    • Lack of relevant skills
    • Poor vendor performance
    • Failure to follow established processes
    • Weak contractual accountability
    • Unsupportable or end-of-life system components

    External

    • Cyberattacks
    • Supply Chain Issues
    • Geopolitical Disruptions
    • Vendor Acquisitions
    • N-Party Non-Compliance
    • Vendor Fraud

    Operational risk is the risk of losses caused by flawed or failed processes, policies, systems, or events that disrupt business operations.

    - Wikipedia

    Internal operational risk

    Vendors operating within your secure perimeter can open your organization to substantial risk.

    Frequently monitor your internal process around vendor management to ensure safe operations.

    • Poorly vetted supplemental staff
    • Bad system configurations
    • Lack of relevant skills
    • Poor vendor performance
    • Failure to follow established processes
    • Weak contractual accountability
    • Unsupportable or end-of-life system components

    Info-Tech Insight

    You may have solid policies, but if your employees and vendors are not following them, they will not protect the organization.

    External operational risks

    • Cyberattacks
    • Supplier issues and geopolitical instability
    • Vendor acquisitions
    • N-party vendor non-compliance

    Identify and manage operational risks

    Poorly configured systems

    Failing to ensure that your vendor-supported systems are properly configured and that your vendors are meeting your IT change control and configuration standards is more commonplace than expected. Proper oversight and management of your support vendors are crucial to ensure they are meeting expectations in this regard.

    Failure to follow processes

    Most companies have policies and procedures around IT change and configuration control, security standards, risk management, vendor performance standards, etc. While having these processes is a good start, failure to perform continuous monitoring and management of these leads to increased risks of incidents.

    Supply chain disruptions

    Awareness of the supply chain's complications, and each organization's dependencies, are increasing for everyone. However, most organizations still do not understand the chain of n-party vendors that support their specific vendors or how interruptions in their supply chains could affect them. The 2022 Toyota shutdown due to Kojima is a perfect example of how one essential parts vendor could shut down your operations.

    What to look for

    Identify operational risk impacts

    • Does the vendor have a business continuity plan they will share for your review?
    • Is the vendor operating on old hardware that may be out of warranty or at end of life?
    • Is the vendor operating on older software or shareware that may lack the necessary patches?
    • Does the vendor self-audit, or do they use a vetted third-party audit firm to issue a SOC report annually?
    • Does the vendor have sufficient personnel in acceptable regions to support your operations?
    • Is the vendor willing to make concessions on contractual protections, or are they only offering “one-sided” agreements with “as-is” warranties?

    Operational risks

    Not knowing where your risks come from creates additional risks to operations.

    • Supply chain disruptions and global shortages.
      • Geopolitical disruptions and natural disasters have caused unprecedented interruptions to business. Do you know where your critical vendors are getting their supplies? Are you aware of their business continuity plans to accommodate for those interruptions?
    • Poor vendor performance.
      • Organizations need to understand where vendors are acting in their operations and manage the impact of replacing that vendor and cutting their losses rather than continuing to throw good money away after a bad performance.
    • Vendor acquisitions.
      • A lot of acquisition is going on in the market today. Large companies are buying competitors, imposing new terms on customers, or removing competing products from the market. Understand your options if a vendor is acquired by a company with which you do not wish to be in a relationship.

    It is important to identify where potential risks to your operations may come from to manage and potentially eliminate them from impacting your organization.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Most organizations realize that their vendors could operationally affect them if an incident occurs. Still, they fail to follow the chain of events that might arise from those incidents to understand the impact fully.

    Prepare your vendor risk management for success

    Due diligence will enable successful outcomes.

    1. Obtain top-level buy-in; it is critical to success.
    2. Build enterprise risk management (ERM) through incremental improvement.
    3. Focus initial efforts on the “big wins” to prove the process works.
    4. Use existing resources.
    5. Build on any risk management activities that already exist in the organization.
    6. Socialize ERM throughout the organization to gain additional buy‑in.
    7. Normalize the process long term with ongoing updates and continuing education for the organization.

    How to assess third-party operational risk

    1. Review Organizational Operations

      Understand the organization’s operational risks to prepare for the “what if” game exercise.
    2. Identify and Understand Potential Operational Risks

      Play the “what if” game with the right people at the table.
    3. Create a Risk Profile Packet for Leadership

      Pull all the information together in a presentation document.
    4. Validate the Risks

      Work with leadership to ensure that the proposed risks are in line with their thoughts.
    5. Plan to Manage the Risks

      Lower the overall risk potential by putting mitigations in place.
    6. Communicate the Plan

      It is important not only to have a plan but also to socialize it in the organization for awareness.
    7. Enact the Plan

      Once the plan is finalized and socialized, put it in place with continued monitoring for success.

    Insight summary

    Operational risk impacts often come from unexpected places and have unforeseen impacts. Knowing where your vendors place in critical business processes and those vendors' business continuity plans concerning your organization should be a priority for those who manage the vendors.

    Insight 1

    Organizations fail to plan for vendor acquisitions appropriately.

    Vendors routinely get acquired in the IT space. Does your organization have appropriate safeguards from inadvertently entering a negative relationship? Do you have plans around replacing critical vendors purchased in such a manner?

    Insight 2

    Organizations often fail to understand how they factor into a vendor’s business continuity plan.

    If one of your critical vendors goes down, do you know how they intend to re-establish business? Do you know how you factor into their priorities?

    Insight 3

    Organizations need to have a comprehensive understanding of how their vendor-managed systems integrate with Operations.

    Do you understand where in the business processes vendor-supported systems lie? Do you have contingencies around disruptions that account for those pieces missing from the process?

    Identifying operational vendor risk

    Who should be included in the discussion

    • While it is true that executive-level leadership defines the strategy for an organization, it is vital for those making decisions to make informed decisions.
    • Getting input from operational experts at your organization will enhance your organization's long-term potential for success.
    • Involving those who not only directly manage vendors but also understand your business processes will aid in determining the forward path for relationships with your current vendors and identifying new emerging potential partners.

    See the blueprint Build an IT Risk Management Program

    Review your operational plans for new risks on a regular basis.

    Keep in mind Risk = Likelihood x Impact (R=L*I).

    Impact (I) tends to remain the same, while Likelihood (L) is becoming closer to 100% as threat actors become more prevalent

    Managing vendor operational risk impacts

    What can we realistically do about the risks?

    • Review vendors’ business continuity plans and disaster recovery testing.
      • Understand your priority in their plans.
    • Institute proper contract lifecycle management.
      • Make sure to follow corporate due diligence and risk assessment policies and procedures.
      • Failure to do so consistently can be a recipe for disaster.
    • Develop IT governance and change control.
    • Introduce continual risk assessment to monitor the relevant vendor markets.
      • Regularly review your operational plans for new risks and evolving likelihoods.
      • Risk = Likelihood x Impact (R=L*I).
        • Impact (I) tends to remain the same and be well understood, while Likelihood (L) may often be considered 100%.
    • Be adaptable and allow for innovations that arise from the current needs.
      • Capture lessons learned from prior incidents to improve over time and adjust your plans accordingly.

    Organizations need to review their organizational risk plans, considering the placement of vendors in their operations.

    Pandemics, extreme weather, and wars that affect global supply chains are current realities, not unlikely scenarios.

    Ongoing improvement

    Incorporating lessons learned

    • Over time, despite everyone’s best observations and plans, incidents will catch us off guard.
    • When it happens, follow your incident response plans and act accordingly.
    • An essential step is to document what worked and what did not – collectively known as the “lessons learned.”
    • Use the lessons learned document to devise, incorporate, and enact a better risk management process.

    Sometimes disasters occur despite our best plans to manage them.

    When this happens, it is important to document the lessons learned and improve our plans going forward.

    The "what if" game

    1-3 hours

    Vendor management professionals are in an excellent position to help senior leadership identify and pull together resources across the organization to determine potential risks. By playing the "what if" game and asking probing questions to draw out – or eliminate – possible adverse outcomes, everyone involved adds their insight into parts of the organization to gather a comprehensive picture of potential impacts.

    • Break into smaller groups (or if too small, continue as a single group).
    • Use the Operational Risk Impact Tool to prompt discussion on potential risks. Keep this discussion flowing organically to explore all potentials but manage the overall process to keep the discussion pertinent and on track.
    • Collect the outputs and ask the subject matter experts (SMEs) 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 Operational Risk Impact Tool

    Input

    • List of identified potential risk scenarios scored by likelihood and operational impact
    • List of potential management of the scenarios to reduce the risk

    Output

    • Comprehensive operational risk profile on the specific vendor solution

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Operational Risk Impact Tool to help drive discussion

    Participants

    • Vendor Management – Coordinator
    • Organizational Leadership
    • Operations Experts (SMEs)
    • Legal/Compliance/Risk Manager

    High risk example from tool

    Sample Questions to Ask to Identify Impacts. Lists questions impact score, weight, question and comments or notes.

    Being overly reliant on a single talented individual can impose risk to your operations. Make sure you include resiliency in your skill sets for critical business practices.

    Impact score and level. Each score for impacts are unique to the organization.

    Low risk example from tool

    Sample Questions to Ask to Identify Impacts. Lists questions impact score, weight, question and comments or notes. Impact score and level. Each score for impacts are unique to the organization.

    Summary

    Seek to understand all aspects of your operations.

    • Organizations need to understand and map out where vendors are critical to their operations.
    • Those organizations that consistently follow their established risk assessment and due diligence processes will be better positioned to avoid disasters.
    • Bring the right people to the table to outline potential risks in the market and your organization.
    • Understand how your vendors prioritize your organization in their business continuity processes.
    • Incorporate “lessons learned” from prior incidents into your risk management process to build better plans for future issues.

    Organizations must evolve their operational risk assessments considering their vendor portfolio.

    Ongoing monitoring of the market and the vendors tied to company operations is imperative to avoiding disaster.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Identify and Manage Financial Risk Impacts on Your Organization

    • Vendor management practices educate organizations on the different potential financial impacts that vendors may incur and suggest systems to help manage them.
    • Standardize your processes for identifying and monitoring vendor risks to manage financial impacts with our Financial Risk Impact Tool.

    Identify and Manage Reputational Risk Impacts on Your Organization

    • Vendor management practices educate organizations on the different potential risks to vendors in your market and suggest creative and alternative ways to avoid and help manage them.
    • Standardize your processes for identifying and monitoring vendor risks to manage potential impacts on your reputation and brand with our Reputational Risk Impact Tool.

    Identify and Manage Strategic Risk Impacts on Your Organization

    • Vendor management practices educate organizations on the different potential risks to vendors in your market and suggest creative and alternative ways to avoid and help manage them.
    • Standardize your processes for identifying and monitoring vendor risks to manage potential impacts on your strategic plan with our Strategic Risk Impact Tool.

    Bibliography

    “Weak Cybersecurity is taking a toll on Small Businesses.” Tripwire. August 7, 2022.

    SecureLink 2022 White Paper SL_Page_EA+PAM (rocketcdn.me)

    Member Poll March 2021 "Guide: Evolving Work Environments Impact of Covid-19 on Profile and Management of Third Parties.“ Shared Assessments. March 2021.

    “Operational Risk.” Wikipedia.

    Tonello, Matteo. “Strategic Risk Management: A Primer for Directors.” Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, August 23, 2012.

    Frigo, Mark L., and Richard J. Anderson. “Embracing Enterprise Risk Management: Practical Approaches for Getting Started.” COSO, 2011.

    Communicate Any IT Initiative

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}428|cart{/j2store}
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    IT communications are often considered ineffective and unengaging. This is demonstrated by the:

    • Lack of expectation that IT should communicate well. Why develop a skill that no one expects IT to deliver on?
    • Failure to recognize the importance of communication to engage employees and communicate ideas.
    • Perception that communication is a broadcast not a continuous dialogue.
    • Inability to create, monitor, and manage feedback mechanisms.
    • Overreliance on data as the main method of communication instead of as evidence to support a broader narrative.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Don't make data your star. It is a supporting character. People can argue about the collection methods or interpretation of the data, but they cannot argue with the story you share.
    • Messages are also non-verbal. Practice using your voice and body to set the right tone and impact your audience.
    • Recognize that communications are essential even in highly technical IT environments.
    • Measure if the communication is being received and resulting in the desired outcome. If not, modify what and how the message is being expressed.

    Impact and Result

    • Develop an actionable plan to deliver consistent, timely messaging for all audiences.
    • Compose and deliver meaningful messages.
    • Consistently deliver the right information and the right time to the right stakeholders.

    Communicate Any IT Initiative Research & Tools

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

    1. Communicate Any IT Initiative Deck – A step-by-step document that walks you through how to plan, compose, and deliver communications to any stakeholder up, down, or across the organization.

    This blueprint not only provides the tools and techniques for planning, composing, and delivering effective communications, but also walks you through practical exercises. Practice and perfect your communication, composition, and delivery skills for any IT initiative.

    • Communicate Any IT Initiative – Phases 1-3

    2. Communicate Any IT Initiative Facilitation Deck – A step-by-step communications workshop deck suitable for any workshop with a communication component.

    Communication concepts and exercises that teach you how to plan, compose, and deliver effective communications. The deck includes practical tools, techniques, and skills practice.

    • Communicate Any IT Initiative Facilitation Deck

    3. Communications Planner – An communications plan template that includes a section to define a change, a communications plan, communications calendars, and a pitch composition exercise.

    This communications planner is a tool that accompanies the Effective IT Communications blueprint and the Communicate Any IT Initiative Facilitation Deck so that you can plan your communications, view your deliverables, and compose your pitch all in one document.

    • Communications Planner Tool

    4. Stakeholder Analysis Tool – A tool to help ensure that all stakeholders are identified and none are missed.

    A tool for identifying stakeholders and conducting an analysis to understand their degree of influence or impact.

    • Stakeholder Management Analysis Tool
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Communicate Any IT Initiative

    Plan, compose, and deliver communications that engage your audience.

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge Common Obstacles Info-Tech’s Approach
    Communicating about your initiative is when the work really begins. Many organizations struggle with:
    • Knowing what target audiences need to be communicated with.
    • Communicating the same message consistently and clearly across target audiences.
    • Communicating to target audiences at the right times.
    • Selecting a channel that will be most effective for the message and practicing to deliver that message.
    Some of the challenges IT faces when it comes to communicating its initiatives includes:
    • Not being given the opportunity or time to practice composing or delivering communications.
    • Coordinating the communications of this initiative with other initiative communications.
    • Forgetting to communicate with key stakeholders.
    Choosing not to communicate because we do not know how it’s leading to initiative failures and lack of adoption by impacted parties.
    For every IT initiative you have going forward, focus on following these three steps:
    1. Create a plan of action around who, what, how, and when communications will take place.
    2. Compose an easy-to-understand pitch for each stakeholder audience.
    3. Practice delivering the message in an authentic and clear manner.
    By following these steps, you will ensure that your audience always understands and feels ready to engage with you.

    Info-Tech Insight
    Every IT employee can be a great communicator; it just takes a few consistent steps, the right tools, and a dedication to practicing communicating your message.

    Info-Tech’s approach

    Effective communications is not a broadcast but a dialogue between communicator and audience in a continuous feedback loop.

    Continuous Feedback Loop

    The Info-Tech difference:

    1. The skills needed to communicate effectively as a front-line employee or CIO are the same. It’s important to begin the development of these skills from the beginning of one's career.
    2. Time is a non-renewable resource. Any communication needs to be considered valuable and engaging by the audience or they will be unforgiving.
    3. Don't make data your star. It is a supporting character. People can argue about the collection methods or interpretation of the data, but they cannot argue about the story you share.

    Poor communication can lead to dissatisfied stakeholders

    27.8% of organizations are not satisfied with IT communications.

    25.8% of business stakeholders are not satisfied with IT communications.

    Source: Info-Tech Diagnostic Programs; n=34,345 business stakeholders within 604 organizations

    The bottom line? Stakeholders for any initiative need to be communicated with often and well. When stakeholders become dissatisfied with IT’s communication, it can lead to an overall decrease in satisfaction with IT.

    Good IT initiative communications can be leverage

    • IT risk mitigation and technology initiative funding are dependent on critical stakeholders comprehending the risk impact and initiative benefit in easy-to-understand terms.
    • IT employees need clear and direct information to feel empowered and accountable to do their jobs well.
    • End users who have a good experience engaging in communications with IT employees have an overall increase in satisfaction with IT.
    • Continuously demonstrating IT’s value to the organization comes when those initiatives are clearly aligned to overall objectives – don’t assume this alignment is being made.
    • Communication prevents assumptions and further miscommunication from happening among IT employees who are usually impacted and fear change the most.

    “Nothing gets done properly if it's not communicated well.”
    -- Nastaran Bisheban, CTO KFC Canada

    Approach to communications

    Introduction
    Review effective communications.

    Plan
    Plan your communications using a strategic tool.

    Compose
    Create your own message.

    Deliver
    Practice delivering your own message.

    Info-Tech’s methodology for effective IT communications

    1. Plan Strategic Communications 2. Compose a Compelling Message 3. Deliver Messages Effectively
    Step Activities
    1. Define the Change
    2. Determine Target Audience
    3. Communication Outcomes
    4. Clarify the Key Message(s)
    5. Identify the Owner and Messenger(s)
    6. Select the Right Channels
    7. Establish a Frequency and Time Frame
    8. Obtain Feedback and Improve
    9. Finalize the Calendar
    1. Craft a Pitch
    2. Revise the Pitch
    1. Deliver Your Pitch
    2. Refine and Deliver Again
    Step Outcomes Establish an easy-to-read view of the key communications that need to take place related to your initiative or change. Practice writing a pitch that conveys the message in a compelling and easy-to-understand way. Practice delivering the pitch. Ensure there is authenticity in the delivery while still maintaining the audience’s attention.

    This blueprint can support communication about any IT initiative

    • Strategy or roadmap
    • Major transformational change
    • System integration
    • Process changes
    • Service changes
    • New solution rollouts
    • Organizational restructuring

    We recommend considering this blueprint a natural add-on to any completed Info-Tech blueprint, whether it is completed in the DIY fashion or through a Guided Implementation or workshop.

    Key deliverable:

    Communication Planner
    A single place to plan and compose all communications related to your IT initiative.

    Blueprint deliverables

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

    Facilitation Guide
    A step-by-step guide to help your IT organization develop a communication plan and practice composing and delivering key messages.

    Stakeholder Analysis
    An ability to assess all stakeholders based on impact, influence, and involvement.

    Workshop Overview

    MorningAfternoon
    ActivitiesPlan Strategic Communications for Your Initiative
    1. Define the Change
    2. Determine Target Audience
    3. Communication Outcomes
    4. Clarify the Key Message(s)
    5. Identify the Owner and Messenger(s)
    6. Select the Right Channels
    7. Establish a Frequency and Time Frame
    8. Obtain Feedback and Improve
    9. Finalize the Calendar
    Compose and Deliver a Compelling Message
    1. Craft a Pitch
    2. Revise the Pitch
    3. Deliver Your Pitch
    4. Refine and Deliver Again
    Deliverables
    1. Communication planner with weekly, monthly, and yearly calendar views to ensure consistent and ongoing engagement with every target audience member
    1. Crafted pitches that can be used for communicating the initiative to different stakeholders
    2. Skills and ability to deliver messages more effectively

    Contact your account representative for more information.
    workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

    Key KPIs for communication with any stakeholder

    Measuring communication is hard; use these to determine effectiveness:

    Goal Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Related Resource
    Obtain board buy-in for IT strategic initiatives. X% of IT initiatives that were approved to be funded.
    Number of times that technical initiatives were asked to be explained further.
    Using our Board Presentation Review
    Ensure stakeholders feel engaged during initiatives. X% of business leadership satisfied with the statement “IT communicates with your group effectively.” Using the CIO Business Vision Diagnostic
    End users know what IT initiatives are going to impact the products or services they use. X% of end users that are satisfied with communications around changing services or applications. Using the End-User Satisfaction Survey
    Project stakeholders receive sufficient communication throughout the initiative. X% overall satisfaction with the quality of the project communications. Using the PPM Customer Satisfaction Diagnostic
    Employees are empowered to perform on IT initiatives. X% satisfaction employees have with statement “I have all the resources and information I need to do a great job.” Using the Employee Engagement Diagnostic Program

    Phase 1

    Plan Strategic Communications

    Activities
    1.1 Define the Change
    1.2 Determine Target Audience
    1.3 Communication Outcomes
    1.4 Clarify the Key Message(s)
    1.5 Identify the Owner and Messenger(s)
    1.6 Select the Right Channels
    1.7 Establish a Frequency and Time Frame
    1.8 Obtain Feedback and Improve
    1.9 Finalize the Calendar

    Communicate Any IT Initiative Effectively
    Phase1 > Phase 2 > Phase 3

    This step involves the following participants:
    Varies based on those who would be relevant to your initiative.

    Outcomes of this step
    Create an easy-to-follow communications plan to ensure that the right message is sent to the right audience using the right medium and frequency.

    What is an IT change?

    Before communicating, understand the degree of change.

    Incremental Change:
    • Changes made to improve current processes or systems (e.g. optimizing current technology).
    Transitional Change:
    • Changes that involve dismantling old systems and/or processes in favor of new ones (e.g. new product or services added).
    Transformational Change:
    • Significant change in organizational strategy or culture resulting in substantial shift in direction.
    Examples:
    • New or changed policy
    • Switching from on-premises to cloud-first infrastructure
    • Implementing ransomware risk controls
    • Implementing a learning & development plan
    Examples:
    • Moving to an insourced or outsourced service desk
    • Developing a BI & analytics function
    • Integrating risk into organization risk
    • Developing a strategy (technology, architecture, security, data, service, infrastructure, application)
    Examples:
    • Organizational redesign
    • Acquisition or merger of another organization
    • Implementing a digital strategy
    • A new CEO or board taking over the organization's direction

    Consider the various impacts of the change

    Invest time at the start of the project to develop a detailed understanding of the impact of the change. This will help to create a plan that will simplify the change and save time in the end. Evaluate the impact from a people, process, and technology perspective.

    Leverage a design thinking principle: Empathize with the stakeholder – what will change?

    People

    • Team structure
    • Reporting structure
    • Career paths
    • Job skills
    • Responsibilities
    • Company vision/mission
    • Number of FTE
    • Culture
    • Training required

    Process

    • Budget
    • Work location
    • Daily workflow
    • Working conditions
    • Work hours
    • Reward structure
    • Required number of completed tasks
    • Training required

    Technology

    • Required tools
    • Required policies
    • Required systems
    • Training required

    1.1 Define the change

    30 minutes

    1. While different stakeholders will be impacted by the change differently, it’s important to be able to describe what the change is at a higher level.
    2. Have everyone take eight minutes to jot down what the change is and why it is happening in one to two sentences. Tab 2 of the Communication Planner Tool can also be used to house the different ideas.
    3. Present the change statements to one another.
    4. By leveraging one of the examples or consolidating many examples, as a group document:
      • What is the change?
      • Why is it happening?
    5. The goal is to ensure that all individuals involved in establishing or implementing the change have the same understanding.
    Input Output
    • Individual ideas about what change is occurring and why.
    • A single statement that reflects the change occurring and the rationale for why the change is needed.
    Materials Participants
    • Communication Planner Tool
    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard
    • Varies based on those who would be relevant to your initiative.

    Download the Communication Planner Tool

    Ensure effective communication by focusing on four key elements

    Audience
    Stakeholders (either groups or individuals) who will receive the communication.

    Message
    Information communicated to impacted stakeholders. Must be rooted in a purpose or intent.

    Messenger
    Person who delivers the communication to the audience. The communicator and owner are two different things.

    Channel
    Method or channel used to communicate to the audience.

    Identify the target audience

    The target audience always includes groups and individuals who are directly impacted by the change and may also include those who are change adjacent.

    Define the target audience: Identify which stakeholders will be the target audience of communications related to the initiative. Stakeholders can be single individuals (CFO) or groups (Applications Team).

    Stakeholders to consider:

    • Who is sponsoring the initiative?
    • Who benefits from the initiative?
    • Who loses from the initiative?
    • Who can make approvals?
    • Who controls resources?
    • Who has specialist skills?
    • Who implements the changes?
    • Who will be adversely affected by potential environmental and social impacts in areas of influence that are affected by what you are doing?
    • At which stage will stakeholders be most affected (e.g. procurement, implementation, operations, decommissioning)?
    • Will other stakeholders emerge as the phases are started and completed?

    1.2a Determine target audience

    20 minutes

    1. Consider all the potential individuals or groups of individuals who will be impacted or can influence the outcome of the initiative.
    2. On tab 3 of the Communication Planner Tool, list each of the stakeholders who will be part of the target audience. If in person, use sticky notes to define the target audiences. The individuals or group of individuals that make up the target audience are all the people who require being communicated with before, during, or after the initiative.
    3. As you list each target audience, consider how they perceive IT. This perception could impact how you choose to communicate with the stakeholder(s).
    InputOutput
    • The change
    • Why the change is needed
    • A list of individuals or group of individuals that will be communicated with.
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Communication Planner Tool
    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard
    • Varies based on those who would be relevant to your initiative.

    Download the Communication Planner Tool

    1.2b Conduct a stakeholder analysis (optional)

    1 hour

    1. For each stakeholder identified as a part of the target audience, conduct an analysis to understand their degree of influence or impact.
    2. Based on the stakeholder, the influence or impact of the change, initiative, etc. can inform the type and way of communicating.
    3. This is a great activity for those who are unsure how to frame communications for each stakeholder identified as a target audience.
    InputOutput
    • The change
    • Why the change is needed
    • A list of individuals or group of individuals that will be communicated with
    • The degree of influence or impact each target audience stakeholder has.
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Communication Planner Tool
    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard
    • Varies based on those who would be relevant to your initiative.

    Download the Stakeholder Management Analysis Tool

    Determine the desired outcome of communicating with each audience

    For each target audience, there will be an overall goal on why they need to be communicated with. This outcome or purpose is often dependent on the type of influence the stakeholder wields within the organization as well as the type of impact the change or initiative will have. Depending on the target audience, consider each of the communication outcomes listed below.

    Communicating Across the Organization Communicating Up to Board or Executives Communicating Within IT
    • Obtain buy-in
    • Obtain approval
    • Obtain funding
    • Demonstrate alignment to organization objectives
    • Reduce concerns about risk
    • Demonstrate alignment to organization objectives
    • Demonstrate alignment to individual departments or functions
    • Obtain other departments’ buy-in
    • Inform about a crisis
    • Inform about the IT change
    • Obtain adoption related to the change
    • Obtain buy-in
    • Inform about the IT change
    • Create a training plan
    • Inform about department changes
    • Inform about organization changes
    • Inform about a crisis
    • Obtain adoption related to the change
    • Distribute key messages to change agents

    1.3 Communication outcomes

    30 minutes

    1. For each stakeholder, there may be one or more reasons why you need to communicate with them. On tab 3 of the Communication Planner Tool or on a whiteboard, begin to identify the objective or outcome your team is seeking by engaging in each target audience.
    2. As you move through the communication outcomes, it could result in more than one outcome for each target audience.
    3. Ensure there is one line for each target audience desired communication outcome. Many stakeholders might need to be communicated with for several reasons. If using the Communication Planner Tool, add the target audience name in column C for as many different communication outcomes there are in column D related to that stakeholder.
    InputOutput
    • The change
    • A list of individuals or group of individuals that will be communicated with
    • Outcome or objective of communicating with each stakeholder
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Communication Planner Tool
    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard
    • Varies based on those who would be relevant to your initiative.

    Download the Communication Planner Tool

    Establish and define key messages based on organizational objectives

    What are key messages?
    • Key messages guide all internal communications to ensure they are consistent, unified, and straightforward.
    • Distill key messages down from organizational objectives and use them to reinforce the organization’s strategic direction. Key messages should inspire employees to act in a way that will help the organization reach its objectives.
    How to establish key messages: Ground key messages in organizational strategy and culture. These should be the first places you look to determine the organization’s key messages:
    • Refer to organizational strategy documents. What needs to be reinforced in internal communications to ensure the organization can achieve its strategy? This is a key message.
    • Look at the organization’s values. How do values guide how work should be done? Do employees need to behave in a certain way or keep a certain value top of mind? This is a key message.

    Key messages should be clear, concise, and consistent (Porter, 2014). The intent is to convey important information in a way that is relatable and memorable, to promote reinforcement, and ultimately, to drive action.

    Info-Tech Insight
    Empathizing with the audience is key to anticipating and addressing objections as well as identifying benefits. Customize messaging based on audience attributes such as work model (e.g. hybrid), anticipated objections, what's in it for me? (WIIFM), and specific expectations.

    1.4 Clarify the key messages

    25 minutes

    1. Divide the number of communication lines up equally amongst the participants.
    2. Based on the outcome expected from engaging that target audience in communications, define one to five key messages that should be expressed.
    3. The key messages should highlight benefits anticipated, concerns anticipated, details about the change, and plan of action or next steps. The goal here is to ensure the target audience is included in the communication process.
    4. The key messages should be focused on how the target audience receives a consistent message, especially if different communication messengers are involved.
    5. Document the key messages on tab 3 of the Communication Planner Tool.
    InputOutput
    • The change
    • Target audience
    • Communication outcomes
    • Key messages to support a consistent approach
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Communication Planner Tool
    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard
    • Varies based on those who would be relevant to your initiative.

    Download the Communication Planner Tool

    Understand to how to identify appropriate messengers

    Messages must be communicated by a variety of individuals across the organization. Select the messenger depending on the message characteristics (e.g. audience, message, medium). The same messenger can be used for a variety of messages across different mediums.

    Personal impact messages should be delivered by an employee's direct supervisor.

    Organizational impact messages and rationale should be delivered by senior leaders in the affected areas.

    Chart Preferred Messenger for Change Messages

    Recent research by Prosci found employees prefer to hear personal messages from their direct manager and organizational messages from the executive leadership team.

    Fifty percent of respondents indicated the CEO as the preferred messenger for organizational change messages.

    Select the appropriate messenger

    For each audience, message, and medium, review whether the message is personal or organizational to determine which messengers are best.

    The number and seniority of messengers involved depends on the size of the change:

    • Incremental change
      • Personal messages from direct supervisors
      • Organizational messages from a leader in the audience’s function or the direct supervisor
    • Transitional change
      • Personal messages from direct supervisors or function leaders
      • Organizational messages from a leader in the audience’s function or the C suite
    • Transformational change
      • Personal messages from direct supervisors or function leaders
      • Organizational messages from the CEO or C-suite
      • Cascading messages are critical in this type of change because all levels of the organization will be involved

    Communication owner vs. messenger

    Communication Owner

    Single person
    Accountable for the communication message and activities
    Oversees that the communication does not contradict other communications
    Validates the key messages to be made

    Communication Messenger(s)

    Single person or many people
    Responsible for delivering the intended message
    Engages the target audience in the communication
    Ensures the key messages are made in a consistent and clear manner

    1.5 Identify the owner and messenger(s)

    30 minutes

    1. For every communication, there needs to be a single owner. This is the person who approves the communication and will be accountable for the communication
    2. The messenger(s) can be several individuals or a single individual depending on the target audience and desired outcome being sought through the communications.
    3. Identify the person or role who will be accountable for the communication and document this in the Communication Planner Tool.
    4. Identify the person(s) or role(s) who will be responsible for delivering the communication and engaging the target audience and document this in the Communication Planner Tool.
    Input Output
    • Individual ideas about what change is occurring and why.
    • A single statement that reflects the change occurring and the rationale for why the change is needed.
    Materials Participants
    • Communication Planner Tool
    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard
    • Varies based on those who would be relevant to your initiative.

    Download the Communication Planner Tool

    Review appropriate channel for different types of messages

    Communication channels are in-person, paper-based, or tech-enabled. Provide communicators with guidance on which mediums to use in different situations.

    First question: Should the communication be delivered in-person or not?
    Types of channels In-Person Paper-Based or Tech-Enabled
    Questions to consider
    • How is your message likely to be received? Is the message primarily negative?
    • Will the message prompt a lot of dialogue or questions? Will it require significant context or clarification?
    Note: Messages that are important, complex, or negative must be delivered in person. This allows the sender to provide context, clarify questions, and collect feedback.
    • Use paper-based and tech-enabled communications to provide reminders or updates.
    • When deciding which of the two to use, think about your audience: do they have regular access to a computer?
    Two-way interaction Supplement in-person communications with paper-based or tech-enabled communications to provide follow-up and consistency (Government of Nova Scotia). Tech-enabled communications allow the sender to deliver messages when they do not co-locate with the receiver. That said, make sure paper-based communications are provided to those without regular access to a computer.

    Consider accessibility when communicating change – not all employees will have access to the same mediums. To ensure inclusivity, strategically plan which mediums to use to reach the entire audience.

    Select communication channels

    Medium Description Key Messages When to Use
    One-on-One Meetings Individual meetings between managers and their direct reports to ensure they understand the change, can express any concerns, and obtain feedback or recommendations.
    • How the change will impact the employee, what they can expect throughout the change, how they can get support, what the timelines are, etc.
    • Requests for feedback.
    • Responses to feedback.
    • Most applicable for personal messages throughout all stages of change.
    • When real-time feedback is needed.
    • To understand the change’s impact on each employee, understand their emotional reactions and provide support.
    • After a change has been announced and continuing at a regular cadence until after the change has been implemented. Frequency of meetings will vary by employee over the course of the change.
    Team Meeting A meeting of a work unit or department. Can be virtual, in person, or a combination. Led by the work unit or department head/manager.
    • How the change will impact the team – how work gets done, who they work with, etc.
    • Available timelines regarding the change.
    • Support available throughout the change.
    • Most applicable for personal messages throughout all change stages.
    • When real-time communication is needed to keep everyone on the same page and provide an opportunity to ask questions (essential for buy-in).
    • To announce a small change or after a larger change announcement. Continue frequently until the end of adoption, with time reserved for ad hoc meetings.
    Email Electronic communication sent to the audience’s company emails, or in the absence of that, to their personal emails.
    • Overarching details and timelines.
    • Short, easy-to-digest pieces of information that either provide a summary of what to expect or describe actions employees need to take.
    • Applicable for both personal and organizational messages, depending on the messenger. Send personal messages in separate emails from organizational messages.
    • To communicate key details quickly and to a distributed workforce.
    • To reinforce or reiterate information that has been shared in person. Can be used broadly or target specific employees/groups.

    Select communication channels

    Medium Description Key Messages When to Use
    Town Hall Virtual or in-person meeting where senior leadership shares information with a wide audience about the change and answers questions.
    • Messaging that is applicable to a large audience.
    • The strategic decisions of senior leadership.
    • Highlight positive initiative outcomes.
    • Recognize employee efforts.
    • Report on engagement.
    • Most applicable for organizational messages to launch a change or between milestones in a long-term or complex change.
    • To enable senior leaders to explain strategic decisions to employees.
    • To allow employees to ask questions and provide feedback.
    • When support of senior leadership is critical to change success.
    Roadshow A series of meetings where senior leadership or the change champion travels to different geographic locations to hold town halls adapted to each location’s audience.
    • Why the change is happening, when the change is happening, who will be impacted, expectations, and key points of contact.
    • Most applicable for organizational messages to launch a change and between milestones during a long-term, large, or complex change.
    • For a change impacting several locations.
    • When face time with senior leadership is critical to developing understanding and adoption of the change. Satellite locations can often feel forgotten. A roadshow provides access to senior leadership and lends the credibility of the leader to the change.
    • To enable live two-way communication between employees and leadership.

    Select communication channels

    Medium Description Key Messages When to Use
    Intranet An internal company website that a large number of employees can access at any time.
    • Information that has already been communicated to the audience before, so they can access it at any time.
    • FAQs and/or general details about the change (e.g. milestones).
    • Most applicable for organizational messages.
    • To post relevant documentation so the audience can access it whenever they need it.
    • To enable consistency in answers to common questions.
    Training Scheduled blocks of time for the team to learn new skills and behaviors needed to successfully adapt to the change.
    • Reinforce the need for change and the benefits the change will have.
    • Most applicable for organizational messages during the implementation stage.
    • To reduce anxiety over change initiatives, improve buy-in, and increase adoption by helping employees develop skills and behaviors needed to perform effectively.
    Video Message A prerecorded short video clip designed for either simultaneous broadcast or just-in-time viewing. Can be sent over email or mobile or uploaded to a company portal/intranet.
    • Positive messaging to convey enthusiasm for the change.
    • Details about why the organization is changing and what the benefits will be, updates on major milestone achievements, etc.
    • Most applicable for organizational messages, used on a limited basis at any point during the change.
    • Effective when the message needs to appear more personal by putting a face to the message and when it can be presented in a condensed time frame.
    • When a message needs to be delivered consistently across a variety of employees, locations, and time zones.
    • To provide updates and recognize key achievements.

    Select communication channels

    Medium Description Key Messages When to Use
    Shift Turnover Meeting A meeting between teams or departments when a shift changes over; sometimes called a shift report. Used to communicate any relevant information from the outgoing shift to the incoming shift members.
    • Details related to the activities performed during the shift.
    • Most applicable for personal impact messages during the implementation stage to reinforce information shared using other communication mediums.
    • Where change directly impacts role expectations or performance so teams hear the same message at the same time.
    Company Newsletter Electronic or hardcopy newsletter published by the company. Contains timely updates on company information.
    • Overarching change details.
    • Information that has already been communicated through other mediums.
    • Varies with the change stage and newsletter frequency.
    • Most applicable for organizational messages throughout the change.
    • When the change implementation is expected to be lengthy and audiences need to be kept updated.
    • To celebrate change successes and milestone achievements.
    Sign/Poster Digital or paper-based sign, graphic, or image. Includes posters, screensavers, etc.
    • Positive messaging to convey enthusiasm for the change.
    • Key dates and activities.
    • Key contacts.
    • Most applicable for organizational messages throughout the change.
    • As visual reminders in common, highly visible locations (e.g. a company bulletin board, elevator TV monitors).

    1.6 Select the right channels

    20 minutes

    1. Consider the different channels that were described and presented on the previous five slides. Each channel has element(s) to it that will allow it to be more beneficial based on the communication target audience, outcome, and messenger.
    2. Evenly assign the number of communication rows on tab 3 of the Communication Planner Tool and input the channel that should be used.
    3. Consider if the channel will:
      • Obtain the desired outcome of the communication.
      • Be completed by the messenger(s) defined.
      • Support the target audience in understanding the key messages.
    4. If any target audience communication requires several channels, add additional rows to the planner on TAB 3.
    InputOutput
    • Target audience
    • Communication outcome
    • Communication messenger(s)
    • The right channel selected to support the desired communication outcome.
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Communication Planner Tool
    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard
    • Varies based on those who would be relevant to your initiative.

    Download the Communication Planner Tool

    Define the communication time frame based on the initiative

    Communication occurs during four of the five stages of an initiative:

    01 Identify and prioritize 02 Prepare for initiative 03 Create a communication plan 04 Implement change 05 Sustain the desired outcome
    Before During After
    • Communication begins with sponsors and the project team.
    • Set general expectations with project team and sponsors.
    • Outline the communication plan for the remaining stages.
    • Set specific expectations with each stakeholder group.
    • Implement the communication plan.
    • Use feedback loops to determine updates or changes to communications.
    • Communication continues as required after the change.
    • Feedback loops continue until change becomes business as usual.
    Where communication needs to happen

    Don’t forget: Cascade messages down through the organization to ensure those who need to deliver messages have time to internalize the change before communicating it to others. Include a mix of personal and organizational messages, but where possible, separate personal and organizational content into different communications.

    Establish a frequency that aligns to the desired communication outcome

    Successful communications are frequent communications.

    • The cadence of a communication is highly dependent on the objective of the communication.
    • Each target requires a different frequency as well:
      • Board Presentations > four times a year is a good frequency
      • Executive Leadership > monthly frequency
      • Organizationally > annually and when necessary
      • Organization Crises > daily, if not hourly
      • IT Initiatives and Projects > weekly
      • IT Teams > weekly, if not daily

    Tech Team Frequency for Discussing Goals

    “When goals are talked about weekly, teams are nearly 3X more likely to feel confident hitting them.”
    – Hypercontext, 2022

    Info-Tech Insight
    Communications made once will always fail. Ensure there is a frequency appropriate for every communication — or do not expect the desired outcome.

    1.7 Establish a frequency and time frame

    30 minutes

    1. For each row in tab 3, determine how frequently that communication needs to take place and when that communication needs to be completed by.
      • Frequency: How often the communication will be delivered to the audience (e.g. one-time, monthly, as needed).
      • Time frame: When the communication will be delivered to the audience (e.g. a planned period or a specific date).
    2. When selecting the time frame, consider what dependencies need to take place prior to that communication. For example, IT employees should not be communicated with on anything that has not yet been approved by the CEO. Also consider when other communications might be taking place so the message is not lost in the noise.
    3. For frequency, the only time that a communication needs to take place once is when presenting up to senior leaders of the organization. And even then it will sometimes require more than one conversation. Be mindful of this.
    InputOutput
    • The change
    • Target audience
    • Communication outcome
    • Communication channel
    • Frequency and time frame of the communication
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Communication Planner Tool
    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard
    • Varies based on those who would be relevant to your initiative.

    Download the Communication Planner Tool

    First, ensure feedback mechanisms are in place

    Soliciting and acting on feedback involves employees in the decision-making process and demonstrates to them that their contributions matter.

    Prior to the strategy rollout, make sure you have also established feedback mechanisms to collect feedback on both the messages delivered and how they were delivered. Some ways to collect feedback include:

    • Evaluating intranet comments and interactions (likes, etc.) if this function is enabled.
    • Measuring comprehension and satisfaction through surveys and polls.
    • Looking for themes in the feedback and questions employees bring forward to managers during in-person briefings.

    Feedback Mechanisms:

    • CIO Business Vision Survey
    • Engagement Surveys
    • Focus Groups
    • Suggestion Boxes
    • Team Meetings
    • Random Sampling
    • Informal Feedback
    • Direct Feedback
    • Audience Body Language
    • Repeating the Message Back

    Select metrics to measure progress on key results

    There are two types of metrics that can be used to measure the impact of an internal communications strategy and progress toward strategy goals. These metrics are used to measure both outputs and outcomes.

    Select metrics measuring both:
    Tactical Effectiveness (Outputs) Strategic Effectiveness (Outcomes)
    • Open rate
    • Click-through rate
    • Employee sentiment
    • Participation rates
    • Physical distractions
    • Shift in behavior
    • Manager capability to communicate
    • Organizational ability to meet goals
    • Engagement
    • Turnover

    Pyramid of metrics to measure process on key results

    1.8 Obtain feedback and improve

    20 minutes

    1. Evenly distribute the number of rows in the communication plan to all those involved. Consider a metric that would help inform whether the communication outcome was achieved.
    2. For each row, identify a feedback mechanism (slide 38) that could be used to enable the collection and confirm a successful outcome.
    3. Come back as a group and validate the feedback mechanisms selected.
    4. The important aspect here is not just to measure if the desired outcome was achieved. However, if the desired outcome is not achieved, consider what you might do to change or enable better communication to that target audience.
    5. Every communication can be better. Feedback, whether it is tactical or strategic, will help inform methods to improve future communication activities.
    InputOutput
    • Communication outcome
    • Target audience
    • Communication channel
    • A mechanism to measure communication feedback and adjust future communications when necessary.
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Communication Planner Tool
    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard
    • Varies based on those who would be relevant to your initiative.

    Download the Communication Planner Tool

    Example of internal communications survey

    Use and modify the questions below when building an internal communications survey. Use a Likert scale to gauge responses.

    1. I am satisfied with the communications at our organization.
    2. I am kept fully informed of news and updates relevant to our organization.
    3. I receive information that is relevant to me on a regular basis.
    4. I have the information I need to do my job.
    5. I know where to go to find the information I am looking for.
    6. My manager communicates with me in-person on a regular basis.
    7. I feel I can believe the information I receive from the company.
    8. I feel heard by senior leaders and know that they have received my feedback.
    9. The content and information that I receive is interesting to me.

    Create an easy-to-read approach to communication

    Example of an easy-to-read approach to communication

    1.9 Finalize the calendar

    2 hours

    1. Once the information on tabs 2 and 3 of the Communication Planner Tool has been completed, start to organize the information in an easy-to-read view.
    2. Using the annual, monthly, and weekly calendar views on tabs 3 to 5, begin to formalize the dates of when communications will take place.
    3. Following the instructions on each tab, complete one or all of the views of the communication plan. Remember, the stakeholder that makes up the target audience needs to be considered and whether this communication will overlap with any other communications.
    InputOutput
    • Communication Plan on tab 2
    • Yearly, monthly, and weekly communication calendars
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Communication Planner Tool
    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard
    • Varies based on those who would be relevant to your initiative.

    Download the Communication Planner Tool

    Phase 2

    Compose a Compelling Message

    Activities

    2.1 Craft a Pitch
    2.2 Revise the Pitch

    This step involves the following participants:
    Varies based on those who would be relevant to your initiative.

    Outcomes of this step
    Ability to create a clear, concise, and consistent message using best practices and a pitch framework.

    Communication Any IT Initiative Effectively

    Phase 1 > Phase 2 > Phase 3

    Include all the following pieces in your message for an effective communication

    Pieces needed in your message for effective communication

    Info-Tech Insight
    Time is a non-renewable resource. The message crafted must be considered a value-add communication to your audience.

    Enable good communication with these components

    Be Consistent Be Clear
    • The core message must be consistent regardless of audience, channel, or medium.
    • Test your communication with your team or colleagues to obtain feedback before delivering to a broader audience.
    • A lack of consistency can be interpreted as an attempt at deception. This can hurt credibility and trust.
    • Say what you mean and mean what you say.
    • Choice of language is important: “Do you think this is a good idea? I think we could really benefit from your insights and experience here.” Or do you mean: “I think we should do this. I need you to do this to make it happen.”
    • Don’t use jargon.
    Be Relevant Be Concise
    • Talk about what matters to the stakeholder.
    • Talk about what matters to the initiative.
    • Tailor the details of the message to each stakeholder’s specific concerns.
    • IT thinks in processes but stakeholders only care about results: talk in terms of results.
    • IT wants to be understood, but this does not matter to stakeholders. Think: “what’s in it for them?”
    • Communicate truthfully; do not make false promises or hide bad news.
    • Keep communication short and to the point so key messages are not lost in the noise.
    • There is a risk of diluting your key message if you include too many other details.
    • If you provide more information than necessary, the clarity and consistency of the message can be lost.

    Draft the core messages to communicate

    Draft core messages communicating information consistent with the high-level communications plan. This includes the overall goal of communications, key messaging, specifics related to the change action, and customizations for each audience. It’s also important to:

    1. Hook your audience: Use a compelling introduction that ensures your target audience cares about the message. Use a statistic or another piece of information that presents the problem in a unique way.
    2. Demonstrate you can help: Let the audience know that based on the unique problem you can help. There is value to engaging and working with you further.
    3. Repeat messages several times and through several messengers and mediums throughout the change stages to ensure all audience members receive and understand the details.
    4. Write for the ear: Use concise and clear sentences, avoid technological language, and when you speak it aloud ensure it sounds like how you would normally speak.
    5. Keep messaging positive but realistic. Avoid continually telling stakeholders that “change is hard.” Instead, communicate messages around change success to positively prime the audience’s mindset (Harvard Business Review).
    6. Communicate what is meaningfully unchanged. Not everything will be impacted by the change. To help reduce fears, include information about meaningful aspects of employees’ work that will not be changing (e.g. employees are moving to report to a new manager on a new team, but the job responsibilities are staying the same).
    7. Finish with a call to action: Your concluding statement should not be a thank-you but a call to action that ignites how your audience will behave after the communication.

    Components of a good pitch

    Key Components of a Good Pitch
    Purpose of the pitch What are you asking for? What is the desired outcome of the conversation? What three things do you want the audience to take away?
    Speak to what matters to them Who is your audience and what are their biggest challenges today? What do they care? What is the “so what”? Humanize it. Start with an example of a real person.
    Sell the improvement How is your solution going to solve that problem? Is your solution a pain killer or vitamin?
    Show real value How will your solution create real value? How can that be measured? Give an example.
    Discuss potential fears Identify and alleviate fears the stakeholder may have in working with you. Think about what they think now and what you want them to think.
    Have a call to action Identify what your ask is. What are you looking for from the stakeholder? Listen and respond.
    Follow up with a thank-you Did you ensure that the participants’ time was respected and appreciated? Be genuine and sincere.

    Key questions to answer with change communication

    To effectively communicate change, answer questions before they’re asked, whenever possible. To do this, outline at each stage of the change process what’s happening next for the audience and answer other anticipated questions. Pair key questions with core messages in change communications.

    Examples of key questions by change stage include:

    What is changing?
    When is the change expected?
    Who will be championing the change?
    What are the change expectations?
    Will I have input into how the change is happening?
    What’s happening next?
    Why are we changing?
    Why is the change happening now?
    What are the risks of not changing?
    What will be new?
    What’s in it for me?
    What training will be available?
    Who will be impacted?
    How will I be impacted?
    How will my team be impacted?
    What’s happening next?
    Who should I contact with questions or concerns?
    How will I be updated?
    How can I access more information?
    Will the previous process be available throughout the new process implementation?
    What needs to be done and what needs to stop to succeed?
    Will I be measured on this change?
    What’s happening next?
    How can I access more information?
    Will this change be added to key performance indicators?
    How did the change implementation go?
    What’s happening next?
    Before change During change After change
    Prepare for change Create change action and communication plan Implement change Sustain the change

    2.1 Craft a pitch

    20 minutes

    1. Using the set of stakeholders identified in activity 1.2, every participant takes one stakeholder.
    2. Open tab 7 of the Communication Planner Tool or use a piece of paper and create a communication message specific to that stakeholder.
    3. Select a topic from your workshop or use something you are passionate about.
    4. Consider the pitch components as a way to create your pitch. Remember to use what you have learned from the planning and composing sections of this training (in bold).
    5. Compose a three-minute pitch that you will deliver to your audience member.
    InputOutput
    • Individual ideas about what change is occurring and why.
    • A single statement that reflects the change occurring and the rationale for why the change is needed.
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Communication Planner Tool
    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard
    • Varies based on those who would be relevant to your initiative.

    Download the Communication Planner Tool

    Communication Composition Checklist

    • Did you open the communication with a statistic or other memorable piece of information?
    • Is the topic being communicated in a compelling way that engages the target audience?
    • Are there statistics or data to support the story?
    • Are the statistics and data clear so they cannot be conveyed in any other way than their intended method?
    • Are you writing in clear and concise sentences?
    • Are you avoiding any technical jargon?
    • Is the message only focused on what needs to be said? Have you removed all unnecessary components?
    • Is the content organized in priority order? Could you adapt if the presentation time is shortened?
    • Is the way the communication is written sound like how you would speak normally? Are you writing for the ear?
    • Do you have a clear call to action that the audience will be asked to complete at the end?
    • Does your communication encourage discussion with the target audience? Is the audience a part of the solution?

    2.2 Revise the pitch

    10 minutes

    1. Review the pitch that was created in activity 2.1.
    2. Consider what could be done to make the pitch better:
      • Concise: Identify opportunities to remove unnecessary information.
      • Clear: It uses only terms or language the target audience would understand.
      • Relevant: It matters to the target audience and the problems they face.
      • Consistent: The message could be repeated across audiences.
    3. Validate that when you say the pitch out loud, it sounds like something you would say normally when communicating with other people.
    4. Make updates to the pitch and get ready to present.
    Input Output
    • Individual ideas about what change is occurring and why.
    • A single statement that reflects the change occurring and the rationale for why the change is needed.
    Materials Participants
    • Communication Planner Tool
    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard
    • Varies based on those who would be relevant to your initiative.

    Download the Communication Planner Tool

    Phase 3

    Deliver Messages Effectively

    Activities
    3.1 Deliver Your Pitch
    3.2 Refine and Deliver Again

    This step involves the following participants:
    Varies based on those who would be relevant to your initiative.

    Outcomes of this step
    Ability to deliver the pitch in a manner that is clear and would be understood by the specific stakeholder the pitch is intended for.

    Communicate Any IT Initiative Effectively

    Phase 1 > Phase 2 > Phase 3

    Hone presentation skills before meeting with key stakeholders

    Using voice and body

    Think about the message you are trying to convey and how your body can support that delivery. Hands, stance, and frame all have an impact on what might be conveyed.

    If you want your audience to lean in and be eager about your next point, consider using a pause or softer voice and volume.

    Be professional and confident

    State the main points of your presentation confidently. While this should be obvious, it is essential. Your audience should be able to clearly see that you believe the points you are stating.

    Present in a way that is genuine to you and your voice. Whether you have an energetic personality or a calm and composed personality, the presentation should be authentic to you.

    Connect with your audience

    Look each member of the audience in the eye at least once during your presentation. Avoid looking at the ceiling, the back wall, or the floor. Your audience should feel engaged – this is essential to keeping their attention.

    Avoid reading from your slides. If there is text on a slide, paraphrase it while maintaining eye contact.

    Info-Tech Insight
    You are responsible for the response of your audience. If they aren’t engaged, it is on you as the communicator.

    Use clear slides that avoid distracting the audience

    Which slide will be better to present?

    Sample A:

    Sample A

    Sample B:

    Sample B

    3.1 Deliver your pitch

    20 minutes

    1. Take ten minutes to think about how to deliver your pitch. Where will you emphasize words, speak louder, softer, lean in, stand tall, make eye contact, etc.?
    2. Group into pairs. One person is the speaker and the other the audience.
    3. Set a timer on your phone or watch.
    4. Speaker:
      1. Take a few seconds to center yourself and prepare to deliver your pitch.
      2. Deliver your pitch to Person 2. Don’t forget to use your body language and your voice to deliver.
    5. Audience:
      1. Repeats ideas back to Person 1. Are the ideas correct? Are you convinced?
      2. Identifies who the audience is. Are they correct?
    6. Reverse roles and repeat.
    7. Discuss and provide feedback to one another.
    InputOutput
    • Written pitch
    • Best practices for delivering
    • An ability to deliver the pitch in a clear and concise manner that could be understood by the intended stakeholder.
    • Feedback from person 2.
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Pitch framework
    • Communications Plan Tool
    • Piece of paper
    • Varies based on those who would be relevant to your initiative.

    Communication Delivery Checklist

    • Are the slides clean so the audience can focus on your speaking and not on reading the context-heavy slide?
    • Have you practiced delivering the communication to team members or coaches?
    • Have you practiced delivering the communication to someone with little to no technology background?
    • Are you making yourself open to feedback and improvement opportunities?
    • If the communication is derailed from your plan, are you prepared to handle that change?
    • Can you deliver the communication without reading your notes word for word?
    • Have you adapted your voice throughout the communication to highlight specific components you want the audience to focus on?
    • Are you presenting in a way that is genuine to you and your personality?
    • Can you communicate the message within the time allotted?
    • Are you moving in an appropriate manner based on your communication (e.g. toward the screen, across the stage, hand gestures).

    3.2 Refine and deliver again

    1 hour

    1. Go back to what you wrote as your pitch and take ten minutes to eliminate more information to get the pitch down to two minutes based on the feedback from your original partner.
    2. Repeat the last exercise where you deliver your pitch; however, deliver it to the larger group this time.
    3. Focus on ways to adjust body language and voice to make the message more compelling.
    4. Identify if your audience is telling you anything with their body language (e.g. leaning in, leaning back). Use this to adjust as you are presenting.
    5. Have the group provide additional feedback on what was effective about the message and opportunities to further improve the message.
    InputOutput
    • Three-minute pitch
    • Feedback from first delivery
    • An ability to deliver the pitch in a clear and concise manner that could be understood by the intended stakeholder.
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Pitch framework
    • Communications Plan Tool
    • Piece of paper
    • Varies based on those who would be relevant to your initiative.

    Info-Tech Insight
    Whether the CIO or a service desk technician, delivering a presentation is a fear for every role in IT. Prepare your communication to help overcome the fears that are within your control.

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Anuja Agrawal, National Communications Director, PwC

    Anuja Agrawal
    National Communications Director
    PwC

    Anuja is an accomplished global communications professional, with extensive experience in the insurance, banking, financial, and professional services industry in Asia, the US, and Canada. She is currently the National Communications Director at PwC Canada. Her prior work experience includes communication leadership roles at Deutsche Bank, GE, Aviva, and Veritas. Anuja works closely with senior business leaders and key stakeholders to deliver measurable results and effective change and culture building programs. Anuja has experience in both internal and external communications, including strategic leadership communication, employee engagement, PR and media management, digital and social media, M&A/change and crisis management. Anuja believes in leveraging digital tools and technology-enabled solutions combined with in-person engagement to help improve the quality of dialogue and increase interactive communication within the organization to help build an inclusive culture of belonging.

    Nastaran Bisheban, Chief Technology Officer, KFC Canada

    Nastaran Bisheban
    Chief Technology Officer
    KFC Canada

    A passionate technologist and seasoned transformational leader. A software engineer and computer scientist by education, a certified Project Manager that holds an MBA in Leadership with Honors and Distinction from University of Liverpool. A public speaker on various disciplines of technology and data strategy with a Harvard Business School executive leadership program training to round it all. Challenges status quo and conventional practices; is an advocate for taking calculated risk and following the principle of continuous improvement. With multiple computer software and project management publications she is a strategic mentor and board member on various non-profit organizations. Nastaran sees the world as a better place only when everyone has a seat at the table and is an active advocate for diversity and inclusion.

    Heidi Davidson, Co-founder & CEO, Galvanize Worldwide and Galvanize On Demand

    Heidi Davidson
    Co-founder & CEO
    Galvanize Worldwide and Galvanize On Demand

    Dr. Heidi Davidson is the Co-Founder and CEO of Galvanize Worldwide, the largest distributed network of marketing and communications experts in the world. She also is the Co-Founder and CEO of Galvanize On Demand, a tech platform that matches marketing and communications freelancers with client projects. Now with 167 active experts, the Galvanize team delivers startup advisory work, outsourced marketing, training, and crisis communications to organizations of all sizes. Before Galvanize, Heidi spent four years as part of the turnaround team at BlackBerry as the Chief Communications Officer and SVP of Corporate Marketing, where she helped the company move from a device manufacturer to a security software provider.

    Eli Gladstone, Co-founder, Speaker Labs

    Eli Gladstone
    Co-Founder
    Speaker Labs

    Eli is a Co-Founder of Speaker Labs. He has spent over 6 years helping countless individuals overcome their public speaking fears and communicate with clarity and confidence. When he's not coaching others on how to build and deliver the perfect presentation, you'll probably find him reading some weird books, teaching his kids how to ski or play tennis, or trying to develop a good enough jumpshot to avoid being a liability on the basketball court.

    Francisco Mahfuz, Keynote Speaker & Storytelling Coach

    Francisco Mahfuz
    Keynote Speaker & Storytelling Coach

    Francisco Mahfuz has been telling stories in front of audiences for a decade, and even became a National Champion of public speaking. Today, Francisco is a keynote speaker and storytelling coach and offers communication training to individuals and international organisations, and has worked with organisations like Pepsi, HP, the United Nations, Santander and Cornell University. He's the author of Bare: A Guide to Brutally Honest Public Speaking, the host of The Storypowers Podcast, and he’s been part of the IESE MBA communications course since 2020. He's received a BA in English Literature from Birkbeck University in London.

    Sarah Shortreed, EVP & CTO, ATCO Ltd.

    Sarah Shortreed
    EVP & CTO
    ATCO Ltd.

    Sarah Shortreed is ATCO’s Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. Her responsibilities include leading ATCO’s Information Technology (IT) function as it continues to drive agility and collaboration throughout ATCO’s global businesses and expanding and enhancing its enterprise IT strategy, including establishing ATCO’s technology roadmap for the future. Ms. Shortreed's skill and expertise are drawn from her more than 30-year career that spans many industries and includes executive roles in business consulting, complex multi-stakeholder programs, operations, sales, customer relationship management and product management. She was recently the Chief Information Officer at Bruce Power and has previously worked at BlackBerry, IBM and Union Gas. She sits on the Board of Governors for the University of Western Ontario and is the current Chair of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) Committee at the Conference Board of Canada.

    Eric Silverberg, Co-Founder Speaker Labs

    Eric Silverberg
    Co-Founder
    Speaker Labs

    Eric is a Co-Founder of Speaker Labs and has helped thousands of people build their public speaking confidence and become more dynamic and engaging communicators. When he's not running workshops to help people grow in their careers, there's a good chance you'll find him with his wife and dog, drinking Diet Coke and rewatching iconic episodes of the reality TV show Survivor! He's such a die-hard fan, that you'll probably see him playing the game one day.

    Stephanie Stewart, Communications Officer & DR Coordinator, Info Security Services Simon Fraser University

    Stephanie Stewart
    Communications Officer & DR Coordinator
    Info Security Services Simon Fraser University

    Steve Strout, President, Miovision Technologies

    Steve Strout
    President
    Miovision Technologies

    Mr. Strout is a recognized and experienced technology leader with extensive experience in delivering value. He has successfully led business and technology transformations by leveraging many dozens of complex global SFDC, Oracle and/or SAP projects. He is especially adept at leading what some call “Project Rescues” – saving people’s careers where projects have gone awry; always driving "on-time and on-budget.“ Mr. Strout is the current President of Miovision Technologies and the former CEO and board member of the Americas’ SAP Users’ Group (ASUG). His wealth of practical knowledge comes from 30 years of extensive experience in many CxO and executive roles at some prestigious organizations such as Vonage, Sabre, BlackBerry, Shred-it, The Thomson Corporation (now Thomson Reuters) and Morris Communications. Served on Boards including Customer Advisory Boards of Apple, AgriSource Data, Dell, Edgewise, EMC, LogiSense, Socrates.ai, Spiro Carbon Group, and Unifi.

    Info-Tech Research Group Contributors:
    Sanchia Benedict, Research Lead
    Koula Bouloukos, Production Manager
    Antony Chan, Executive Counsellor
    Janice Clatterbuck, Executive Counsellor
    Ahmed Jowar, Research Specialist
    Dave Kish, Practice Lead
    Nick Kozlo, Senior Research Analyst
    Heather Leier Murray, Senior Research Analyst
    Amanda Mathieson, Research Director
    Carlene McCubbin, Practice Lead
    Joe Meier, Executive Counsellor
    Andy Neill, AVP, Research
    Thomas Randall, Research Director

    Plus an additional two contributors who wish to remain anonymous.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Boardroom Presentation Review

    • You will come away with a clear, concise, and compelling board presentation that IT leaders can feel confident presenting in front of their board of directors.
    • Add improvements to your current board presentation in terms of visual appeal and logical flow to ensure it resonates with your board of directors.
    • Leverage a best-of-breed presentation template.

    Build a Better Manager

    • Management skills training is needed, but organizations are struggling to provide training that makes a long-term difference in the skills managers actually use in their day to day.
    • Many training programs are ineffective because they offer the wrong content, deliver it in a way that is not memorable, and are not aligned with the IT department’s business objectives.

    Crisis Communication Guides

    During a crisis it is important to communicate to employees through messages that convey calm and are transparent and tailored to your audience. Use the Crisis Communication Guides to:

    • Draft a communication strategy.
    • Tailor messages to your audience.
    • Draft employee crisis communications.

    Use this guide to equip leadership to communicate in times of crisis.

    Bibliography

    Gallo, Carmine. "How Great Leaders Communicate." Harvard Business Review. 23 November 2022.

    Gallup. State of the American Workplace Report. Washington, D.C.: Gallup, 6 February 2020.

    Guthrie, Georgina. “Why Good Internal Communications Matter Now More than Ever.” Nulab. 15 Dec. 2021.

    Hypercontext. “The State of High Performing Teams in Tech 2022.” Hypercontext. 2022.

    Lambden, Duncan. “The Importance of Effective Workplace Communication – Statistics for 2022.” Expert Market. 13 June 2022.

    McCreary, Gale & WikiHow. “How to Measure the Effectiveness of Communication: 14 Steps.” WikiHow.

    Nowak, Marcin. “Top 7 Communication Problems in the Workplace.” MIT Enterprise Forum CEE, 2021.

    Nunn, Philip. “Messaging That Works: A Unique Framework to Maximize Communication Success.” iabc.

    Picincu, Andra. “How to Measure Effective Communications.” Small Business Chron. 12 January 2021.

    Price. David A. “Pixar Story Rules.”

    Prosci. “Best Practices in Change Management 2020 Edition.” Prosci, 2020.

    Roberts, Dan. “How CIOs Become Visionary Communicators.” CIO, 2019.

    Schlesinger, Mark. “Why building effective communication skill in IT is incredibly important.”

    Skills Framework for the Information Age, “Mapping SFIA Levels of Responsibilities to Behavioural Factors.” Skills Framework for the Information Age, 2021.

    St. James, Halina. Talk It Out. Podium, 2005.

    TeamState. “Communication in the Workplace Statistics: Importance and Effectiveness in 2022.” TeamStage, 2022.

    Walters, Katlin. “Top 5 Ways to Measure Internal Communication.” Intranet Connections, 30 May 2019.

    Optimize Your SQA Practice Using a Full Lifecycle Approach

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}405|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: 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

    Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative

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    • Parent Category Name: Vendor Management
    • Parent Category Link: /vendor-management
    • Each year, IT organizations spend more money “outsourcing” tasks, activities, applications, functions, and other items.
    • The increased spend and associated outsourcing leads to less control, and more risk for IT organizations. Managing this becomes a higher priority for IT, but many IT organizations are ill-equipped to do this proactively.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Vendor management is not “plug and play” – each organization’s vendor management initiative (VMI) needs to fit its culture, environment, and goals. There are commonalites among vendor management initiatives, but the key is to adapt vendor management principles to fit your needs, not the other way around.
    • All vendors are not of equal importance to an organization. Internal resources are a scarce commodity and should be deployed so that they provide the best return on the organization’s investment. Classifying or segmenting your vendors allows you to focus your efforts on the most important vendors first, allowing your VMI to have the greatest impact possible.
    • Having a solid foundation is critical to the VMI’s ongoing success. Whether you will be creating a formal vendor management office or using vendor management techniques, tools, and templates “informally,” starting with the basics is essential. Make sure you understand why the VMI exists and what it hopes to achieve, what is in and out of scope for the VMI, what strengths the VMI can leverage and the obstacles it will have to address, and how it will work with other areas within your organization.

    Impact and Result

    • Build and implement a vendor management initiative tailored to your environment.
    • Create a solid foundation to sustain your vendor management initiative as it evolves and matures.
    • Leverage vendor management-specific tools and templates to manage vendors more proactively and improve communication.
    • Concentrate your vendor management resources on the right vendors.
    • Build a roadmap and project plan for your vendor management journey to ensure you reach your destination.
    • Build collaborative relationships with critical vendors.

    Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should jump start a vendor management initiative, 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. Plan

    Organize your VMI and document internal processes, relationships, roles, and responsibilities. The main outcomes from this phase are organizational documents, a baseline VMI maturity level, and a desired future state for the VMI.

    • Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative – Phase 1: Plan
    • Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium

    2. Build

    Configure and create the tools and templates that will help you run the VMI. The main outcomes from this phase are a clear understanding of which vendors are important to you, the tools to manage the vendor relationships, and an implementation plan.

    • Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative – Phase 2: Build
    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium
    • Jump – Phase 2 Vendor Classification Tool
    • Jump – Phase 2 Vendor Risk Assessment Tool

    3. Run

    Begin operating the VMI. The main outcomes from this phase are guidance and the steps required to implement your VMI.

    • Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative – Phase 3: Run

    4. Review

    Identify what the VMI should stop doing, start doing, and continue doing as it improves and matures. The main outcomes from this phase are ways to advance the VMI and maintain internal alignment.

    • Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative – Phase 4: Review

    Infographic

    Workshop: Jump Start Your Vendor Management 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 Plan

    The Purpose

    Getting Organized

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Defined Roles and Goals for the VMI

    Activities

    1.1 Mission Statement and Goals

    1.2 Scope

    1.3 Strengths and Obstacles

    1.4 Roles and Responsibilities – OIC Chart

    1.5 Process Mapping

    1.6 Vendor Inventory Tool (Overview)

    Outputs

    Completed Mission Statement and Goals

    List of Items In Scope and Out of Scope for the VMI

    List of Strengths and Obstacles for the VMI

    Completed OIC Chart

    Sample Process Map for One Process

    Begun Using Vendor Inventory Tool

    2 Plan/Build/Run

    The Purpose

    Build VMI Tools and Templates

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Configured Tools and Templates for the VMI Based on Its Roles and Goals

    Activities

    2.1 Maturity Assessment

    2.2 Structure and Job Descriptions

    2.3 Attributes of a Valuable Vendor

    2.4 Classification Model

    2.5 Risk Assessment Tool

    2.6 Scorecards and Feedback

    2.7 Business Alignment Meeting Agenda

    Outputs

    Completed Maturity Assessment.

    Sample Job Descriptions and Phrases.

    List of Attributes of a Valuable Vendor.

    Configured Classification Model.

    Configured Risk Assessment Tool.

    Configured Scorecard and Feedback Questions.

    Configured Business Alignment Meeting Agenda.

    3 Build/Run

    The Purpose

    Continue Building VMI Tools and Templates

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Configured Tools and Templates for the VMI Based on Its Roles and Goals

    Activities

    3.1 Relationship Alignment Document

    3.2 Vendor Orientation

    3.3 Policies and Procedures

    3.4 3-Year Roadmap

    3.5 90-Day Plan

    3.6 Quick Wins

    3.7 Reports

    3.8 Kickoff Meeting

    Outputs

    Relationship Alignment Document Sample and Checklist

    Vendor Orientation Checklist

    Policies and Procedures Checklist

    Completed 3-Year Roadmap

    Completed 90-Day Plan

    List of Quick Wins

    List of Reports

    4 Review

    The Purpose

    Review the Past 12 Months of VMI Operations and Improve

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Keeping the VMI Aligned With the Organization’s Goals and Ensuring the VMI Is Leveraging Leading Practices

    Activities

    4.1 Develop/Improve Vendor Relationships.

    4.2 Assess Compliance.

    4.3 Incorporate Leading Practices.

    4.4 Leverage Lessons Learned.

    4.5 Maintain Internal Alignment.

    4.6 Update Governances.

    Outputs

    Further reading

    Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative

    Create and implement a vendor management framework to begin obtaining measurable results in 90 days.

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    What is vendor management?

    When you read the phrase “vendor management,” what comes to mind? This isn’t a rhetorical question. Take your time … I’ll wait.

    Unfortunately, those words conjure up a lot of different meanings, and much of that depends on whom you ask. Those who work in the vendor management field will provide a variety of answers. To complicate matters, those who are vendor management “outsiders” will have a totally different view of what vendor management is. Why is this important? Because we need a common definition to communicate more effectively, even if the definition is broad.

    Let’s start creating a working definition that is not circular. Vendor management is not simply managing vendors. That expression basically reorders the words and does nothing to advance our cause; it only adds to the existing confusion surrounding the concept.

    Vendor management is best thought of as a spectrum or continuum with many points rather than a specific discipline like accounting or finance. There are many functions and activities that fall under the umbrella term of vendor management: some of them will be part of your vendor management initiative (VMI), some will not, and some will exist in your organization but be outside the VMI. This is the unique part of vendor management – the part that makes it fun, but also the part that leads to the confusion. For example, accounts payable sits within the accounting department almost exclusively, but contract management can sit within or outside the VMI. The beauty of vendor management is its flexibility; your VMI can be created to meet your specific needs and goals while leveraging common vendor management principles.

    Every conversation around vendor management needs to begin with “What do you mean by that?” Only then can we home in on the scope and nature of what people are discussing. “Managing vendors” is too narrow because it often ignores many of the reasons organizations create VMIs in the first place: to reduce costs, to improve performance, to improve processes, to improve relationships, to improve communication, and to manage risk better.

    Vendor management is a strategic initiative that takes the big picture into account … navigating the cradle to grave lifecycle to get the most out of your interactions and relationships with your vendors. It is flexible and customizable; it is not plug and play or overly prescriptive. Tools, principles, templates, and concepts are adapted rather than adopted as is. Ultimately, you define what vendor management is for your organization.

    We look forward to helping you on your vendor management journey no matter what it looks like. But first, let’s have a conversation about how you want to define vendor management in your environment.

    This is a picture of Phil Bode, Principal  Research Director, Vendor Management at Info-Tech Research Group.

    Phil Bode
    Principal Research Director, Vendor Management
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Each year, IT organizations “outsource” tasks, activities, functions, and other items. During 2021:

    • Spend on as-a-service providers increased 38% over 2020.*
    • Spend on managed service providers increased 16% over 2020.*
    • IT service providers increased their merger and acquisition numbers by 47% over 2020.*

    *Source: Information Services Group, Inc., 2022.

    This leads to more spend, less control, and more risk for IT organizations. Managing this becomes a higher priority for IT, but many IT organizations are ill-equipped to do this proactively.

    Common Obstacles

    As new contracts are negotiated and existing contracts are renegotiated or renewed, there is a perception that the contracts will yield certain results, output, performance, solutions, or outcomes. The hope is that these will provide a measurable expected value to IT and the organization. Oftentimes, much of the expected value is never realized. Many organizations don’t have a VMI to help:

    • Ensure at least the expected value is achieved.
    • Improve on the expected value through performance management.
    • Significantly increase the expected value through a proactive VMI.

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    Vendor management is a proactive, cross-functional lifecycle. It can be broken down into four phases:

    • Plan
    • Build
    • Run
    • Review

    The Info-Tech process addresses all four phases and provides a step-by-step approach to configure and operate your VMI. The content in this blueprint helps you quickly establish your VMI and set a solid foundation for its growth and maturity.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Vendor management is not a one-size-fits-all initiative. It must be configured:

    • For your environment, culture, and goals.
    • To leverage the strengths of your organization and personnel.
    • To focus your energy and resources on your critical vendors.

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Spend on managed service providers and as-a-service providers continues to increase. In addition, IT services vendors continue to be active in the mergers and acquisitions arena. This increases the need for a VMI to help with the changing IT vendor landscape. In 2021, there was increases of:

    38%

    Spend on As-a-Service Providers

    16%

    Spend on Managed Services Providers

    47%

    IT Services Merger & Acquisition Growth (Transactions)

    Source: Information Services Group, Inc., 2022.

    Executive Summary

    Common Obstacles

    When organizations execute, renew, or renegotiate a contract, there is an “expected value” associated with that contract. Without a robust VMI, most of the expected value will never be realized. With a robust VMI, the realized value significantly exceeds the expected value during the contract term.

    A contract’s realized value with and without a vendor management initiative

    Two bars are depicted, showing that vendor collaboration and vendor performance management exceed expected value with a VMI, but without VMI, 75% of a contract's expected value can disappear within 18 months.

    Source: Based on findings from Geller & Company, 2003.

    Executive Summary

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    A sound, cyclical approach to vendor management will help you create a VMI that meets your needs and stays in alignment with your organization as they both change (i.e. mature and grow).

    This is an image of Info-Tech's approach to VMI.  It includes the following four steps: 01 - Plan; 02 - Build; 03 - Run; 04 - Review

    Info-Tech’s Methodology for Creating and Operating Your VMI

    Phase 1: Plan Phase 2: Build Phase 3: Run Phase 4: Review

    Phase Steps

    1.1 Mission Statement and Goals
    1.2 Scope
    1.3 Strengths and Obstacles
    1.4 Roles and Responsibilities
    1.5 Process Mapping
    1.6 Charter
    1.7 Vendor Inventory
    1.8 Maturity Assessment
    1.9 Structure

    2.1 Classification Model
    2.2 Risk Assessment Tool
    2.3 Scorecards and Feedback
    2.4 Business Alignment Meeting Agenda
    2.5 Relationship Alignment Document
    2.6 Vendor Orientation
    2.7 Job Descriptions
    2.8 Policies and Procedures
    2.9 3-Year Roadmap
    2.10 90-Day Plan
    2.11 Quick Wins
    2.12 Reports

    3.1 Classify Vendors
    3.2 Conduct Internal “Kickoff” Meeting
    3.3 Conduct Vendor Orientation
    3.4 Compile Scorecards
    3.5 Conduct Business Alignment Meetings
    3.6 Work the 90-Day Plan
    3.7 Manage the 3-Year Roadmap
    3.8 Measure and Monitor Risk
    3.9 Issue Reports
    3.10 Develop/Improve Vendor Relationships
    3.11 Contribute to Other Processes

    4.1 Assess Compliance
    4.2 Incorporate Leading Practices
    4.3 Leverage Lessons Learned
    4.4 Maintain Internal Alignment
    4.5 Update Governances

    Phase Outcomes

    This phase helps you organize your VMI and document internal processes, relationships, roles, and responsibilities. The main outcomes from this phase are organizational documents, a baseline VMI maturity level, and a desired future state for the VMI. This phase helps you configure and create the tools and templates that will help you run the VMI. The main outcomes from this phase are a clear understanding of which vendors are important to you, the tools to manage the vendor relationships, and an implementation plan. This phase helps you begin operating the VMI. The main outcomes from this phase are guidance and the steps required to implement your VMI. This phase helps the VMI identify what it should stop doing, start doing, and continue doing as it improves and matures. The main outcomes from this phase are ways to advance the VMI and maintain internal alignment.

    Insight Summary

    Insight 1

    Vendor management is not “plug and play” – each organization’s vendor management initiative (VMI) needs to fit its culture, environment, and goals. While there are commonalities and leading practices associated with vendor management, your initiative won’t look exactly like another organization’s. The key is to adapt vendor management principles to fit your needs.

    Insight 2

    All vendors are not of equal importance to your organization. Internal resources are a scarce commodity and should be deployed so that they provide the best return on the organization’s investment. Classifying or segmenting your vendors allows you to focus your efforts on the most important vendors first, allowing your VMI to have the greatest impact possible.

    Insight 3

    Having a solid foundation is critical to the VMI’s ongoing success. Whether you will be creating a formal vendor management office or using vendor management techniques, tools, and templates “informally,” starting with the basics is essential. Make sure you understand why the VMI exists and what it hopes to achieve, what is in and out of scope for the VMI, what strengths the VMI can leverage and the obstacles it will have to address, and how it will work with other areas within your organization.

    Blueprint Deliverables

    The four phases of creating and running a vendor management initiative are supported with configurable tools, templates, and checklists to help you stay aligned internally and achieve your goals.

    VMI Tools and Templates

    This image contains two screenshots of Info-Tech's VMI Tools and Templates

    Build a solid foundation for your VMI and configure tools and templates to help you manage your vendor relationships.

    Key Deliverables:

    1. Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium
    2. Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium
    3. Jump – Phase 2 Vendor Classification Tool
    4. Jump – Phase 2 Vendor Risk Assessment Tool

    A suite of tools and templates to help you create and implement your vendor management initiative.

    Blueprint benefits

    IT Benefits

    • Identify and manage risk proactively.
    • Reduce costs and maximize value.
    • Increase visibility with your critical vendors.
    • Improve vendor performance.
    • Create a collaborative environment with key vendors.
    • Segment vendors to allocate resources more effectively and more efficiently.

    Business Benefits

    • Improve vendor accountability.
    • Increase collaboration between departments.
    • Improve working relationships with your vendors.
    • Create a feedback loop to address vendor or customer issues before they get out of hand or are more costly to resolve.
    • Increase access to meaningful data and information regarding important vendors.

    Establish Baseline Metrics

    Baseline metrics will be improved through:

    Using the Maturity Assessment and 90-Day Plan tools, track how well you are able to achieve your goals and objectives:

    • Did you meet the targeted maturity level for each maturity category as determined by the point system?
    • Did you finish each activity in the 90-Day Plan completely and on time?
    1-Year Maturity Roadmap(by Category) Target Maturity (Total Points) Actual Maturity (Total Points)
    Contracts 12 12
    Risk 8 7
    Vendor Selection 9 9
    Vendor Relationships 21 21
    VMI Operations 24 16
    90-Day Plan (by Activity) Activity Completed
    Finalize mission and goals; gain executive approval Yes
    Finalize OIC chart; gain buy-in from other departments Yes
    Classify top 40 vendors by spend Yes
    Create initial scorecard Yes
    Develop the business alignment meeting agenda Yes
    Conduct two business alignment meetings No
    Update job descriptions Yes
    Map two VMI processes No

    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 Phases 2 & 3 Phase 4

    Call #1: Mission statement and goals, scope, and strengths and obstacles.

    Call #5: Classification model.

    Call #9: Policies and procedures and reports.

    Call #12: Assess compliance, incorporate leading practices, leverage lessons learned, maintain internal alignment, and update governances.

    Call #2: Roles and responsibilities and process mapping.

    Call #6: Risk assessment.

    Call #10: 3-year roadmap.

    Call #3: Charter and vendor inventory.

    Call #7: Scorecards and feedback and business alignment meetings.

    Call #11: 90-day plan and quick wins.

    Call #4: Maturity assessment and VMI structure.

    Call #8: Relationship alignment document, vendor orientation, and job descriptions.

    Workshop Overview

    Contact your account representative for more information.
    workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

    Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4
    Plan Plan/Build/Run Build/Run Review

    Activities

    1.1 Mission Statement and Goals
    1.2 Scope
    1.3 Strengths and Obstacles
    1.4 Roles and Responsibilities
    1.5 Process Mapping
    1.6 Charter
    1.7 Vendor Inventory
    1.8 Maturity Assessment
    1.9 Structure

    2.1 Classification Model
    2.2 Risk Assessment Tool
    2.3 Scorecards and Feedback
    2.4 Business Alignment Meeting Agenda
    2.5 Relationship Alignment Document
    2.6 Vendor Orientation
    2.7 Job Descriptions
    2.8 Policies and Procedures
    2.9 3-Year Roadmap
    2.10 90-Day Plan
    2.11 Quick Wins
    2.12 Reports

    3.1 Classify Vendors
    3.2 Conduct Internal “Kickoff” Meeting
    3.3 Conduct Vendor Orientation
    3.4 Compile Scorecards
    3.5 Conduct Business Alignment Meetings
    3.6 Work the 90-Day Plan
    3.7 Manage the 3-Year Roadmap
    3.8 Measure and Monitor Risk
    3.9 Issue Reports
    3.10 Develop/Improve Vendor Relationships
    3.11 Contribute to Other Processes

    4.1 Assess Compliance
    4.2 Incorporate Leading Practices
    4.3 Leverage Lessons Learned
    4.4 Maintain Internal Alignment
    4.5 Update Governances

    Deliverables

    1. Completed Mission Statement and Goals
    2. List of Items In Scope and Out of Scope for the VMI
    3. List of Strengths and Obstacles for the VMI
    4. Completed OIC Chart
    5. Sample Process Map for One Process
    6. Vendor Inventory tab
    1. Completed Maturity Assessment
    2. Sample Job Descriptions and Phrases
    3. List of Attributes of a Valuable Vendor
    4. Configured Classification Model
    5. Configured Risk Assessment Tool
    6. Configured Scorecard and Feedback Questions
    7. Configured Business Alignment Meeting Agenda
    1. Relationship Alignment Document Sample and Checklist
    2. Vendor Orientation Checklist
    3. Policies and Procedures Checklist
    4. Completed 3-Year Roadmap
    5. Completed 90-Day Plan
    6. List of Quick Wins
    7. List of Reports

    Phase 1: Plan

    Get Organized

    1.1 Mission Statement and Goals
    1.2 Scope
    1.3 Strengths and Obstacles
    1.4 Roles and Responsibilities
    1.5 Process Mapping
    1.6 Charter
    1.7 Vendor Inventory
    1.8 Maturity Assessment
    1.9 Structure

    Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4
    1.1 Mission Statement and Goals
    1.2 Scope
    1.3 Strengths and Obstacles
    1.4 Roles and Responsibilities
    1.5 Process Mapping
    1.6 Charter
    1.7 Vendor Inventory
    1.8 Maturity Assessment
    1.9 Structure

    2.1 Classification Model
    2.2 Risk Assessment Tool
    2.3 Scorecards and Feedback
    2.4 Business Alignment Meeting Agenda
    2.5 Relationship Alignment Document
    2.6 Vendor Orientation
    2.7 Job Descriptions
    2.8 Policies and Procedures
    2.9 3-Year Roadmap
    2.10 90-Day Plan
    2.11 Quick Wins
    2.12 Reports

    3.1 Classify Vendors
    3.2 Conduct Internal “Kickoff” Meeting
    3.3 Conduct Vendor Orientation
    3.4 Compile Scorecards
    3.5 Conduct Business Alignment Meetings
    3.6 Work the 90-Day Plan
    3.7 Manage the 3-Year Roadmap
    3.8 Measure and Monitor Risk
    3.9 Issue Reports
    3.10 Develop/Improve Vendor Relationships
    3.11 Contribute to Other Processes

    4.1 Assess Compliance
    4.2 Incorporate Leading Practices
    4.3 Leverage Lessons Learned
    4.4 Maintain Internal Alignment
    4.5 Update Governances

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    Organize your VMI and document internal processes, relationships, roles, and responsibilities. The main outcomes from this phase are organizational documents, a baseline VMI maturity level, and a desired future state for the VMI.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives
    • Procurement/Sourcing
    • IT
    • Others as needed

    Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative

    Phase 1: Plan

    Get organized.

    Phase 1: Plan focuses on getting organized. Foundational elements (mission statement, goals, scope, strengths and obstacles, roles and responsibilities, and process mapping) will help you define your VMI. These and the other elements of this Phase will follow you throughout the process of standing up your VMI and running it.

    Spending time up front to ensure that everyone is on the same page will help avoid headaches down the road. The tendency is to skimp (or even skip) on these steps to get to “the good stuff.” To a certain extent, the process provided here is like building a house. You wouldn’t start building your dream home without having a solid blueprint. The same is true with vendor management. Leveraging vendor management tools and techniques without the proper foundation may provide some benefit in the short term, but in the long term it will ultimately be a house of cards waiting to collapse.

    Step 1.1: Mission statement and goals

    Identify why the VMI exists and what it will achieve.

    Whether you are starting your vendor management journey or are already down the path, it is important to know why the vendor management initiative exists and what it hopes to achieve. The easiest way to document this is with a written declaration in the form of a mission statement and goals. Although this is the easiest way to proceed, it is far from easy.

    The mission statement should identify at a high level the nature of the services provided by the VMI, who it will serve, and some of the expected outcomes or achievements. The mission statement should be no longer than one or two sentences.

    The complement to the mission statement is the list of goals for the VMI. Your goals should not be a reassertion of your mission statement in bullet format. At this stage it may not be possible to make them SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable/Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound/Time-Based), but consider making them as SMART as possible. Without some of the SMART parameters attached, your goals are more like dreams and wishes. At a minimum, you should be able to determine the level of success achieved for each of the VMI goals.

    Although the VMI’s mission statement will stay static over time (other than for significant changes to the VMI or organization as a whole), the goals should be re-evaluated periodically using a SMART filter and adjusted as needed.

    1.1.1: Mission statement and goals

    20-40 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and use a brainstorming activity to list on a whiteboard or flip chart the reasons why the VMI will exist.
    2. Review external mission statements for inspiration.
    3. Review internal mission statements from other areas to ensure consistency.
    4. Draft and document your mission statement in the Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.1 Mission Statement and Goals.
    5. Continue brainstorming and identify the high-level goals for the VMI.
    6. Review the list of goals and make them as SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable/Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound/Time-Based) as possible.
    7. Document your goals in the Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.1 Mission Statement and Goals.
    8. Obtain sign-off on the mission statement and goals from stakeholders and executives as required.

    Input

    • Brainstorming results
    • Mission statements from other internal and external sources

    Output

    • Completed mission statement and goals

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.1 Mission Statement and Goals

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 1.2: Scope

    Determine what is in scope and out of scope for the VMI

    Regardless of where your VMI resides or how it operates, it will be working with other areas within your organization. Some of the activities performed by the VMI will be new and not currently handled by other groups or individuals internally; at the same time, some of the activities performed by the VMI may be currently handled by other groups or individuals internally. In addition, executives, stakeholders, and other internal personnel may have expectations or make assumptions about the VMI. As a result, there can be a lot of confusion about what the VMI does and doesn’t do, and the answers cannot always be found in the VMI’s mission statement and goals.

    One component of helping others understand the VMI landscape is formalizing the VMI scope. The scope will define boundaries for the VMI. The intent is not to fence itself off and keep others out but provide guidance on where the VMI’s territory begins and ends. Ultimately, this will help clarify the VMI’s roles and responsibilities, improve workflow, and reduce errant assumptions.

    When drafting your VMI scoping document, make sure you look at both sides of the equation (similar to what you would do when following best practices for a statement of work): Identify what is in scope and what is out of scope. Be specific when describing the individual components of the VMI scope, and make sure executives and stakeholders are on board with the final version.

    1.2.1: Scope

    20-40 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and use a brainstorming activity to list on a whiteboard or flip chart the activities and functions in scope and out of scope for the VMI.
      1. Be specific to avoid ambiguity and improve clarity.
      2. Go back and forth between in scope and out of scope as needed; it is not necessary to list all of the in-scope items and then turn your attention to the out-of-scope items.
    2. Review the lists to make sure there is enough specificity. An item may be in scope or out of scope but not both.
    3. Use the Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.2 Scope, to document the results.
    4. Obtain sign-off on the scope from stakeholders and executives as required.

    Input

    • Brainstorming
    • Mission statement and goals

    Output

    • Completed list of items in and out of scope for the VMI

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.2 Scope

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 1.3: Strengths and obstacles

    Pinpoint the VMI’s strengths and obstacles.

    A SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) is a valuable tool, but it is overkill for your VMI at this point. However, using a modified and simplified form of this tool (strengths and obstacles) will yield significant results and benefit the VMI as it grows and matures.

    Your output will be two lists: the strengths associated with the VMI and the obstacles facing the VMI. For example, strengths could include items such as smart people working within the VMI and executive support. Obstacles could include items such as limited headcount and training required for VMI staff.

    The goals are 1) to harness the strengths to help the VMI be successful and 2) to understand the impact of the obstacles and plan accordingly. The output can also be used to enlighten executives and stakeholders about the challenges associated with their directives or requests (e.g. human bandwidth may not be sufficient to accomplish some of the vendor management activities and there is a moratorium on hiring until the next budget year).

    For each strength identified, determine how you will or can leverage it when things are going well or when the VMI is in a bind. For each obstacle, list the potential impact on the VMI (e.g. scope, growth rate, and number of vendors that can actively be part of the VMI).

    As you do your brainstorming, be as specific as possible and validate your lists with stakeholders and executives as needed.

    1.3.1: Strengths and obstacles

    20-40 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and use a brainstorming activity to list on a whiteboard or flip chart the VMI’s strengths and obstacles.
      1. Be specific to avoid ambiguity and improve clarity.
      2. Go back and forth between strengths and obstacles as needed; it is not necessary to list all of the strengths and then turn your attention to the obstacles.
      3. It is possible for an item to be a strength and an obstacle; when this happens, add details to distinguish the situations.
    2. Review the lists to make sure there is enough specificity.
    3. Determine how you will leverage each strength and how you will manage each obstacle.
    4. Use the Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.3 Strengths and Obstacles, to document the results.
    5. Obtain sign-off on the strengths and obstacles from stakeholders and executives as required.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Brainstorming
    • Mission statement and goals
    • Scope

    Output

    • Completed list of items impacting the VMI’s ability to be successful: strengths the VMI can leverage and obstacles the VMI must manage

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.3 Strengths and Obstacles

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 1.4: Roles and responsibilities

    Obtain consensus on who is responsible for what.

    One crucial success factor for VMIs is gaining and maintaining internal alignment. There are many moving parts to an organization, and a VMI must be clear on the various roles and responsibilities related to the relevant processes. Some of this information can be found in the VMI’s scope, referenced in Step 1.2, but additional information is required to avoid stepping on each other’s toes since many of the processes require internal departments to work together. (For example, obtaining requirements for a request for proposal takes more than one person or one department to complete this process.) While it is not necessary to get too granular, it is imperative that you have a clear understanding of how the VMI activities will fit within the larger vendor management lifecycle (which is comprised of many sub processes) and who will be doing what.

    As we have learned through our workshops and guided implementations, a traditional RACI* or RASCI* chart does not work well for this purpose. These charts are not intuitive, and they lack the specificity required to be effective. For vendor management purposes, a higher-level view and a slightly different approach provide much better results.

    This step will lead your through the creation of an OIC* chart to determine vendor management lifecycle roles and responsibilities. Afterward, you’ll be able to say, “Oh, I see clearly who is involved in each part of the process and what their role is.”

    *RACI – Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed
    *RASCI – Responsible, Accountable, Support, Consulted, Informed
    *OIC – Owner, Informed, Contributor

    This is an image of a table which shows an example of which role would be responsible for which step

    Step 1.4: Roles and responsibilities (cont.)

    Obtain consensus on who is responsible for what.

    To start, define the vendor management lifecycle steps or process applicable to your VMI. Next, determine who participates in the vendor management lifecycle. There is no need to get too granular – think along the lines of departments, subdepartments, divisions, agencies, or however you categorize internal operational units. Avoid naming individuals other than by title; this typically happens when a person oversees a large group (e.g. the CIO [chief information officer] or the CPO [chief procurement officer]). Be thorough, but the chart can get out of hand quickly. For each role and step of the lifecycle, ask whether the entry is necessary – does it add value to the clarity of understanding the responsibilities associated with the vendor management lifecycle? Consider two examples, one for roles and one for lifecycle steps: 1) Is IT sufficient or do you need IT Operations and IT Development? 2) Is “negotiate contract documents” sufficient or do you need “negotiate the contract” and “negotiate the renewal”? The answer will always depend on your culture and environment, but be wary of creating a spreadsheet that requires an 85-inch monitor to view it in its entirety.

    After defining the roles (departments, divisions, agencies) and the vendor management lifecycle steps or process, assign one of three letters to each box in your chart:

    • O – Owner – who owns the process; they may also contribute to it.
    • I – Informed – who is informed about the progress or results of the process.
    • C – Contributor – who contributes or works on the process; it can be tangible or intangible contributions.

    This activity can be started by the VMI or done as a group with representatives from each of the named roles. If the VMI starts the activity, the resulting chart should be validated by the each of the named roles.

    1.4.1: Roles and responsibilities

    1-6 hours

    1. Meet with the participants and configure the OIC Chart in the Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.4 OIC Chart.
      1. Review the steps or activities across the top of the chart and modify as needed.
      2. Review the roles listed along the left side of the chart and modify as needed.
    2. For each activity or step across the top of the chart, assign each role a letter – O for owner of that activity or step; I for informed; or C for contributor. Use only one letter per cell.
    3. Work your way across the chart. Every cell should have an entry or be left blank if it is not applicable.
    4. Review the results and validate that every activity or step has an O assigned to it; there must be an owner for every activity or step.
    5. Obtain sign-off on the OIC chart from stakeholders and executives as required.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • A list of activities or steps to complete a project, starting with requirements gathering and ending with ongoing risk management
    • A list of internal areas (departments, divisions, agencies, etc.) and stakeholders that contribute to completing a project

    Output

    • Completed OCI chart indicating roles and responsibilities for the VMI and other internal areas

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.4 OIC Chart

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Procurement/Sourcing
    • IT
    • Representatives from other areas as needed
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives as needed

    Step 1.5: Process mapping

    Diagram the workflow.

    Although policies and procedures are important, their nature can make it difficult to grasp how things work at a high level (or even at the detail level). To help bridge the gap, map the applicable processes (determined by how deep and wide you want to go) involving the VMI. To start, look at the OIC chart from Step 1.4. You can expand the breadth and depth of your mapping to include the VMI scope, the 3-year roadmap (see Step 2.9), and the processes driven by the day-to-day work within the VMI.

    Various mapping tools can be used. Three common approaches that can be mixed and matched are:

    • Traditional flowcharts.
    • Swimlane diagrams.
    • Work breakdown structures.
    This is an example of a Workflow Process Map

    Step 1.5: Process mapping (cont.)

    Diagram the workflow.

    Your goal is not to create an in-depth diagram for every step of the vendor management lifecycle. However, for steps owned by the VMI, the process map should include sufficient details for the owner and the contributors (see Step 1.4) to understand what is required of them to support that step in the lifecycle.

    For VMI processes that don’t interact with other departments, follow the same pattern as outlined above for steps owned by the VMI.

    Whatever methodology you use to create your process map, make sure it includes enough details so that readers and users can identify the following elements:

    • Input:
      • What are the inputs?
      • Where do the inputs originate or come from?
    • Process:
      • Who is involved/required for this step?
      • What happens to the inputs in this step?
      • What additional materials, tools, or resources are used or required during this step?
    • Output:
      • What are the outputs?
      • Where do the outputs go next?

    1.5.1: Process Mapping

    1-8 hours (or more)

    1. Meet with the participants and determine which processes you want to map.
      1. For processes owned by the VMI, map the entire process.
      2. For processes contributed to by the VMI, map the entire process at a high level and map the VMI portion of the process in greater detail.
    2. Select the right charts/diagrams for your output.
      1. Flowchart
      2. Swimlane diagram
      3. Modified SIPOC (Supplier, Input, Process, Output, Customer)
      4. WBS (work breakdown structure)
    3. Begin mapping the processes either in a tool or using sticky notes. You want to be able to move the steps and associated information easily; most people don’t map the entire process accurately or with sufficient detail the first time through. An iterative approach works best.
    4. Obtain signoff on the process maps from stakeholders and executives as required. A copy of the final output can be kept in the Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.5 Process Mapping, if desired.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Existing processes (formal, informal, documented, and undocumented)
    • OIC chart

    Output

    • Process maps for processes contributed to or owned by the VMI

    Materials

    • Sticky Notes
    • Flowchart/process mapping software or something similar
    • (Optional) Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.5 Process Mapping

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Procurement/Sourcing
    • IT
    • Representatives from other areas as needed
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 1.6: Charter

    Document how the VMI will operate.

    As you continue getting organized by working through steps 1.1-1.5, you may want to document your progress in a charter and add some elements. Basically, a charter is a written document laying out how the VMI will operate within the organization. It clearly states the VMI’s mission, goals, scope, roles and responsibilities, and vendor governance model. In addition, it can include a list of team members and sponsors.

    Whether you create a VMI charter will largely depend on:

    • Your organization’s culture.
    • Your organization’s formality.
    • The perceived value of creating a charter.

    If you decide to create a VMI charter, this is a good place in the process to create an initial draft. As you continue working through the blueprint and your VMI matures, update the VMI charter as needed.

    VMI Charter:

    • Purpose
    • Sponsors
    • Roles
    • Responsibilities
    • Governance

    1.6.1: Charter

    1-4 hours

    1. Meet with the participants and review the template in Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.6 Charter.
    2. Determine whether the participants will use this template or add materials to your standard charter template.
    3. Complete as much of the charter as possible, knowing that some information may not be available until later.
    4. Return to the charter as needed until it is completed.
    5. Obtain sign-off on the charter from stakeholders and executives as required.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Mission statement and goals
    • Scope
    • Strengths and obstacles
    • OIC chart
    • List of stakeholders and executives and their VMI roles and responsibilities

    Output

    • Completed VMI charter

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.6 Charter
    • Your organization’s standard charter document

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 1.7: Vendor inventory

    Compile a list of vendors and relevant vendor information.

    As you prepare your VMI for being operational, it’s critical to identify all of your current vendors providing IT products or services to the organization. This can be tricky and may depend on how you view things internally. For example, you may have traditional IT vendors that are managed by IT, and you may have IT vendors that are managed by other internal departments (shadow IT or out-in-the-open IT). If it wasn’t determined with the help of stakeholders and executives before now, make sure you establish the purview of the VMI at this point. What types of vendors are included and excluded from the VMI?

    You may find that a vendor can be included and excluded based on the product or service they provide. A vendor may provide a service that is managed by IT and a service that is managed/controlled by another department. In this instance, a good working relationship and clearly defined roles and responsibilities between the VMI and the other department will be required. But, it all starts with compiling a list of vendors and validating the VMI’s purview (and any limitations) for the vendors with stakeholders and executives.

    Step 1.7: Vendor inventory (cont.)

    Compile a list of vendors and relevant vendor information.

    At a minimum, the VMI should be able to quickly retrieve key information about each of “its” vendors:

    • Vendor Name
    • Classification (see Steps 2.1 and 3.1)
    • Categories of Service
    • Names of Products and Services Provided
    • Brief Descriptions of Products and Services Provided
    • Annualized Vendor Spend
    • Vendor Contacts
    • Internal Vendor Relationship Owner

    Not all of this information will be available at this point, but you can begin designing or configuring your tool to meet your needs. As your VMI enters Phase 3: Run and continues to mature, you will return to this tool and update the information. For example, the vendor classification category won’t be known until Phase 3, and it can change over time.

    1.7.1: Vendor inventory

    1-10 hours

    Meet with the participants and review the Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.7 Vendor Inventory. Determine whether the VMI wants to collect and/or monitor additional information and make any necessary modifications to the tool.

    Enter the “Annual IT Vendor Spend” amount in the appropriate cell toward the top of the spreadsheet. This is for IT spend for vendor-related activities within the VMI’s scope; include shadow IT spend and “non-shadow” IT spend if those vendors will be included in the VMI’s scope.

    Populate the data fields for your top 50 vendors by annual spend; you may need multiple entries for the same vendor depending on the nature of the products and services they provide.

    Ignore the “Classification” column for now; you will return to this later when classification information is available.

    Ignore the “Percentage of IT Budget” column as well; it uses a formula to calculate this information.

    Input

    • Data from various internal and external sources such as accounts payable, contracts, and vendor websites

    Output

    • List of vendors with critical information required to manage relationships with key vendors

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.7 Vendor Inventory

    Participants

    • VMI team (directly)
    • Other internal and external personnel (indirectly)

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Step 1.8: Maturity assessment

    Establish a VMI maturity baseline and set an ideal future state.

    Knowing where you are and where you want to go are essential elements for any journey in the physical world, and the same holds true for your VMI journey. Start by assessing your current-state VMI maturity. This will provide you with a baseline to measure progress against. Next, using the same criteria, determine the level of VMI maturity you would like to achieve one year in the future. This will be your future-state VMI maturity. Lastly, identify the gaps and plot your course.

    The maturity assessment provides three main benefits:

    1. Focus – you’ll know what is important to you moving forward.
    2. 3-Year Roadmap (discussed more fully in Step 2.9) – you’ll have additional input for your short-term and long-term roadmap (1, 2, and 3 years out).
    3. Quantifiable Improvement – you’ll be able to measure your progress and make midcourse corrections when necessary.

    Step 1.8: Maturity assessment (cont.)

    Establish a VMI maturity baseline and set an ideal future state.

    The Info-Tech VMI Maturity Assessment tool evaluates your maturity across several criteria across multiple categories. Once completed, the assessment will specify:

    • A current-state score by category and overall.
    • A target-state score by category and overall.
    • A quantifiable gap for each criterion.
    • A priority assignment for each criterion.
    • A level of effort required by criterion to get from the current state to the target state.
    • A target due date by criterion for achieving the target state.
    • A rank order for each criterion (note: limit your ranking to your top 7 or 9).

    Many organizations will be tempted to mature too quickly. Resource constraints and other items from Step 1.3 (Strengths and Obstacles) will impact how quickly you can mature. Being aggressive is fine, but it must be tempered with a dose of reality. Otherwise, morale, perception, and results can suffer.

    1.8.1: Maturity assessment

    45-90 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and use Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.8 Maturity Assessment Input, to complete the first part of this activity. Provide the required information indicated below.
      1. Review each statement in column B and enter a value in the “Current” column using the drop-down menus based on how much you disagree or agree (0-4) with the statement. This establishes a baseline maturity.
      2. Repeat this process for the “Future” column using a target date of one year from now to achieve this level. This is your desired maturity.
      3. Enter information regarding priority, level of effort, and target due date in the applicable columns using the drop-down menus. (Priority levels are critical, high, medium, low, and maintain; Levels of Effort are high, medium, and low; Target Due Dates are broken into timelines: 1-3 months, 4-6 months, 7-9 months, and 10-12 months.)
    2. Review the information on Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.8 Maturity Assessment Output; use the Distribution Tables to help you rank your top priorities. Enter a unique number into the Priority (Rank) column. Limit your ranking to the top 7 to 9 activities to provide focus.

    Input

    • Knowledge of current VMI practices and desired future states

    Output

    • VMI maturity baseline
    • Desired VMI target maturity state (in one year)
    • Prioritized areas to improve and due dates
    • Graphs and tables to identify maturity deltas and track progress

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.8 Maturity Assessment Input
    • Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.8 Maturity Assessment Output

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 1.9: Structure

    Determine the VMI’s organizational and reporting structure.

    There are two parts to the VMI structure:

    1. Organization Structure. Who owns the VMI – where does it fit on the organization chart?
    2. Reporting Structure. What is the reporting structure within the VMI – what are the job functions, titles, and solid and dotted lines of accountability?

    VMI Organization Structure

    The decision regarding who owns the VMI can follow one of two paths:

    1. The decision has already been made by the board of directors, executives, senior leadership, or stakeholders; OR
    2. The decision has not been made, and options will be reviewed and evaluated before it is implemented.

    Many organizations overlook the importance of this decision. The VMI’s position on the organization chart can aid or hinder its success. Whether the decision has already been made or not, this is the perfect time to evaluate the decision or options based on the following question: Why is the VMI being created and how will it operate? Review the documents you created during Steps 1.1-1.8 and other factors to answer this question.

    Step 1.9: Structure (cont.)

    Determine the VMI’s organizational and reporting structure.

    Based on your work product from Steps 1.1-1.8 and other factors, select where the VMI will be best located from the following areas/offices or their equivalent:

    • Chief Compliance Officer (CCO)
    • Chief Information Officer (CIO)
    • Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
    • Chief Procurement Officer (CPO)
    • Chief Operating Officer (COO)
    • Other area

    Without the proper support and placement in the organization chart, the VMI can fail. It is important for the VMI to find a suitable home with a direct connection to one of the sponsors identified above and for the VMI lead to have significant stature (aka title) within the organization. For example, if the VMI lead is a “manager” level who is four reporting layers away from the chief officer/sponsor, the VMI will have an image issue within and outside of the sponsor’s organization (as well as within the vendor community). While this is not to say that the VMI lead should be a vice president* or senior director, our experience and research indicate that the VMI and the VMI lead will be taken more seriously when the VMI lead is at least a director level reporting directly to a CXO.

    *For purposes of the example above, the reporting structure hierarchy used is manager, senior manager, director, senior director, vice president, CXO.

    Step 1.9: Structure (cont.)

    Determine the VMI’s organizational and reporting structure.

    VMI Reporting Structure

    As previously mentioned, the VMI reporting structure describes and identifies the job functions, titles, and lines of accountability. Whether you have a formal vendor management office or you are leveraging the principles of vendor management informally, your VMI reporting structure design will involve some solid lines and some dotted lines. In this instance, the dotted lines represent part-time participation or people/areas that will assist the VMI in some capacity. For example, if the VMI sits within IT, a dotted line to Procurement will show that a good working relationship is required for both parties to succeed; or a dotted line to Christina in Legal will indicate that Christina will be helping the VMI with legal issues.

    There is no one-size-fits-all reporting structure for VMIs, and your approach must leverage the materials from Steps 1.1-1.8, your culture, and your needs. By way of example, your VMI may include some or all of the following functions:

    • Contract Management
    • Relationship Management
    • Financial Management
    • Asset Management
    • Performance Management
    • Sourcing/Procurement
    • Risk Management

    Step 1.9: Structure (cont.)

    Determine the VMI’s organizational and reporting structure.

    Once you’ve identified the functional groups, you can assign titles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships. A good diagram goes a long way to helping others understand your organization. Traditional organization charts work well with VMIs, but a target diagram allows for rapid absorption of the dotted-line relationships. Review the two examples below and determine an approach that works best for you.

    An organizational Chart is depicted.  At the top of the chart is: Office of the CIO.  Below that is: VMI: Legal; Accounting & Finance; Corporate Procurement; below that are the following: Vendor Risk Management; Vendor Reporting and Analysis; Asset Management; Performance Management; Contract Management; IT Procurement Three concentric circles are depicted.  In the inner circle is the term: VMI.  In the middle circle are the terms: Reporting & Analysis; Asset Mgmt; Contract Mgmt; Performance Mgmt; It Proc; Vendor Risk.  In the outer circle are the following terms: Compliance; Finance; HR; Accounting; Procurement; Business Units; Legal; IT

    1.9.1: Structure

    15-60 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and review decisions that have been made or options that are available regarding the VMI’s placement in the organization chart.
      1. Common options include the Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), or Chief Procurement Officer (CPO).
      2. Less common but viable options include the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO), Chief Operating Officer (COO), or another area.
    2. Brainstorm and determine the job functions and titles
    3. Define the reporting structure within the VMI.
    4. Identify the “dotted line” relationships between the VMI and other internal areas.
    5. Using flowchart, org. chart, or other similar software, reduce your results to a graphic representation that indicates where the VMI resides, its reporting structure, and its dotted-line relationships.
    6. Obtain sign-off on the structure from stakeholders and executives as required. A copy of the final output can be kept in the Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.9 Structure, if desired.

    Input

    • Mission statement and goals
    • Scope
    • Maturity assessment results (current and target state)
    • Existing org. charts
    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • Completed org. chart with job titles and reporting structure

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip chart
    • Sticky notes
    • Flowchart/org. chart software or something similar
    • (Optional) Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.9 Structure

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • VMI sponsor
    • Stakeholders and executives

    Phase 2: Build

    Create and Configure Tools, Templates, and Processes

    Phase 1Phase 2Phase 3Phase 4
    1.1 Mission Statement and Goals


    1.2 Scope

    1.3 Strengths and Obstacles

    1.4 Roles and Responsibilities

    1.5 Process Mapping

    1.6 Charter

    1.7 Vendor Inventory

    1.8 Maturity Assessment

    1.9 Structure

    2.1 Classification Model
    2.2 Risk Assessment Tool
    2.3 Scorecards and Feedback
    2.4 Business Alignment Meeting Agenda
    2.5 Relationship Alignment Document
    2.6 Vendor Orientation
    2.7 Job Descriptions
    2.8 Policies and Procedures
    2.9 3-Year Roadmap
    2.10 90-Day Plan
    2.11 Quick Wins
    2.12 Reports

    3.1 Classify Vendors
    3.2 Conduct Internal “Kickoff” Meeting
    3.3 Conduct Vendor Orientation
    3.4 Compile Scorecards
    3.5 Conduct Business Alignment Meetings
    3.6 Work the 90-Day Plan
    3.7 Manage the 3-Year Roadmap
    3.8 Measure and Monitor Risk
    3.9 Issue Reports
    3.10 Develop/Improve Vendor Relationships
    3.11 Contribute to Other Processes

    4.1 Assess Compliance
    4.2 Incorporate Leading Practices
    4.3 Leverage Lessons Learned
    4.4 Maintain Internal Alignment
    4.5 Update Governances

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    Configure and create the tools and templates that will help you run the VMI. The main outcomes from this phase are a clear understanding of which vendors are important to you, the tools to manage the vendor relationships, and an implementation plan.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives
    • Human Resources
    • Legal
    • Others as needed

    Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative

    Phase 2: Build

    Create and configure tools, templates, and processes.

    Phase 2: Build focuses on creating and configuring the tools and templates that will help you run your VMI. Vendor management is not a plug-and-play environment, and unless noted otherwise, the tools and templates included with this blueprint require your input and thought. The tools and templates must work in concert with your culture, values, and goals. That will require teamwork, insights, contemplation, and deliberation.

    During this Phase, you’ll leverage the various templates and tools included with this blueprint and adapt them for your specific needs and use. In some instances, you’ll be starting with mostly a blank slate; while in others, only a small modification may be required to make it fit your circumstances. However, it is possible that a document or spreadsheet may need heavy customization to fit your situation. As you create your VMI, use the included materials for inspiration and guidance purposes rather than as absolute dictates.

    Step 2.1: Classification model

    Configure the COST Vendor Classification Tool.

    One of the functions of a VMI is to allocate the appropriate level of vendor management resources to each vendor since not all vendors are of equal importance to your organization. While some people may be able intuitively to sort their vendors into vendor management categories, a more objective, consistent, and reliable model works best. Info-Tech’s COST model helps you assign your vendors to the appropriate vendor management category so that you can focus your vendor management resources where they will do the most good.

    COST is an acronym for Commodity, Operational, Strategic, and Tactical. Your vendors will occupy one of these vendor management categories, and each category helps you determine the nature of the resources allocated to that vendor, the characteristics of the relationship desired by the VMI, and the governance level used.

    The easiest way to think of the COST model is as a 2x2 matrix or graph. The model should be configured for your environment so that the criteria used for determining a vendor’s classification align with what is important to you and your organization. However, at this point in your VMI’s maturation, a simple approach works best. The Classification Model included with this blueprint requires minimal configuration to get you started and that is discussed on the activity slide associated with this Step 2.1.


    Speed
    Operational Strategic
    Commodity Tactical
    →→→
    Criticality and Risk to the Organization

    Step 2.1: Classification model (cont.)

    Configure the COST Vendor Classification Tool.

    Common Characteristics by Vendor Management Category

    Operational Strategic
    • Low to moderate risk and criticality; moderate to high spend and switching costs
    • Product or service used by more than one area
    • Price is a key negotiation point
    • Product or service is valued by the organization
    • Quality or the perception of quality is a differentiator (i.e. brand awareness)
    • Moderate to high risk and criticality; moderate to high spend and switching costs
    • Few competitors and differentiated products and services
    • Product or service significantly advances the organization’s vision, mission, and success
    • Well-established in their core industry
    Commodity Tactical
    • Low risk and criticality; low spend and switching costs
    • Product or service is readily available from many sources
    • Market has many competitors and options
    • Relationship is transactional
    • Price is the main differentiator
    • Moderate to high risk and criticality; low to moderate spend and switching costs
    • Vendor offerings align with or support one or more strategic objectives
    • Often IT vendors “outside” of IT (i.e. controlled and paid for by other areas)
    • Often niche or new vendors

    Source: Compiled in part from Stephen Guth, “Vendor Relationship Management Getting What You Paid for (And More)”

    2.1.1: Classification Model

    15-30 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants to configure the spend ranges in Jump – Phase 2 Vendor Classification Tool, Tab 1. Configuration, for your environment.
    2. Sort the data from Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.7 Vendor Inventory, by spend; if you used multiple line items for a vendor in the Vendor Inventory tab, you will have to aggregate the spend data for this activity.
    3. Update cells F14-J14 in the Classification Model based on your actual data.
      1. Cell F14 – set the boundary at a point between the spend for your 10th and 11th ranked vendors. For example, if the 10th vendor by spend is $1,009,850 and the 11th vendor by spend is $980,763, the range for F14 would be $1,000,00+.
      2. Cell G14 – set the bottom of the range at a point between the spend for your 30th and 31st ranked vendors; the top of the range will be $1 less than the bottom of the range specified in F14.
      3. Cell H14 – set the bottom of the range slightly below the spend for your 50th ranked vendor; the top of the range will be $1 less than the bottom of the range specified in G14.
      4. Cells I14 and J14 – divide the remaining range in half and split it between the two cells; for J14 the range will be $0 to $1 less than the bottom range in I14.
    4. Ignore the other variables at this time.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Vendor Risk Assessment Tool

    Input

    • Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.7 Vendor Inventory

    Output

    • Configured Vendor Classification Tool

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Vendor Classification Tool, Tab 1. Configuration

    Participants

    • VMI team

    Step 2.2: Risk assessment tool

    Identify risks to measure, monitor, and report on.

    One of the typical drivers of a VMI is risk management. Organizations want to get a better handle on the various risks their vendors pose. Vendor risks originate from many areas: financial, performance, security, legal, and many others. However, security risk is the high-profile risk and the one organizations often focus on almost exclusively, which leaves the organization vulnerable in other areas.

    Risk management is a program, not a project – there is no completion date. A proactive approach works best and requires continual monitoring, identification, and assessment. Reacting to risks after they occur can be costly and can have other detrimental effects on the organization. Any risk that adversely affects IT will adversely affect the entire organization.

    While the VMI won’t necessarily be quantifying or calculating the risk directly, it generally is the aggregator of risk information across the risk categories, which it then includes in its reporting function. (See Steps 2.12 and 3.8.)

    At a minimum, your risk management strategy should involve:

    • Identifying the risks you want to measure and monitor.
    • Identifying your risk appetite (the amount of risk you are willing to live with).
    • Measuring, monitoring, and reporting on the applicable risks.
    • Developing and deploying a risk management plan to minimize potential risk impact.

    Vendor risk is a fact of life, but you do have options for how you handle it. Be proactive and thoughtful in your approach, and focus your resources on what is important.

    2.2.1: Risk assessment tool

    30-90 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants to configure the risk indicators in Jump – Phase 2 Vendor Risk Assessment Tool, Tab 1. Set Parameters, for your environment.
    2. Review the risk categories and determine which ones you will be measuring and monitoring.
    3. Review the risk indicators under each risk category and determine whether the indicator is acceptable as written, is acceptable with modifications, should be replaced, or should be deleted.
    4. Make the necessary changes to the risk indicators; these changes will cascade to each of the vendor tabs. Limit the number of risk indicators to no more than seven per risk category.
    5. Gain input and approval as needed from sponsors, stakeholders, and executives as required.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Vendor Risk Assessment Tool

    Input

    • Scope
    • OIC Chart
    • Process Maps
    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • Configured Vendor Classification Tool

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Vendor Classification Tool, Tab 1. Configuration

    Participants

    • VMI team

    Step 2.3: Scorecards and feedback

    Design a two-way feedback loop with your vendors.

    A vendor management scorecard is a great tool for measuring, monitoring, and improving relationship alignment. In addition, it is perfect for improving communication between you and the vendor.

    Conceptually, a scorecard is similar to a report card you received when you were in school. At the end of a learning cycle, you received feedback on how well you did in each of your classes. For vendor management, the scorecard is also used to provide periodic feedback, but there are some different nuances and some additional benefits and objectives when compared to a report card.

    Although scorecards can be used in a variety of ways, the main focus here will be on vendor management scorecards – contract management, project management, and other types of scorecards will not be included in the materials covered in this Step 2.3 or in Step 3.4.

    Category 1 Score
    Vendor Objective A 4
    Objective B 3
    Objective C 5
    Objective D 4 !

    Step 2.3: Scorecards and feedback (cont.)

    Design a two-way feedback loop with your vendors.

    Anatomy

    The Info-Tech Scorecard includes five areas:

    • Measurement Categories. Measurement categories help organize the scorecard. Limit the number of measurement categories to three to five; this allows the parties to stay focused on what’s important. Too many measurement categories make it difficult for the vendor to understand the expectations.
    • Criteria. The criteria describe what is being measured. Create criteria with sufficient detail to allow the reviewers to fully understand what is being measured and to evaluate it. Criteria can be objective or subjective. Use three to five criteria per measurement category.
    • Measurement Category Weights. Not all of your measurement categories may be of equal importance to you; this area allows you to give greater weight to a measurement category when compiling the overall score.
    • Rating. Reviewers will be asked to assign a score to each criteria using a 1 to 5 scale.
    • Comments. A good scorecard will include a place for reviewers to provide additional information regarding the rating or other items that are relevant to the scorecard.

    An overall score is calculated based on the rating for each criteria and the measurement category weights.

    Step 2.3: Scorecards and feedback (cont.)

    Design a two-way feedback loop with your vendors.

    Goals and Objectives

    Scorecards can be used for a variety of reasons. Some of the common ones are listed below:

    • Improve vendor performance.
    • Convey expectations to the vendor.
    • Identify and recognize top vendors.
    • Increase alignment between the parties.
    • Improve communication with the vendor.
    • Compare vendors across the same criteria.
    • Measure items not included in contract metrics.
    • Identify vendors for “strategic alliance” consideration.
    • Help the organization achieve specific goals and objectives.
    • Identify and resolve issues before they impact performance or the relationship.

    Identifying your scorecard drivers first will help you craft a suitable scorecard.

    Step 2.3: Scorecards and feedback (cont.)

    Design a two-way feedback loop with your vendors.

    Info-Tech recommends starting with simple scorecards to allow you and the vendors to acclimate to the new process and information. As you build your scorecards, keep in mind that internal personnel will be scoring the vendors and the vendors will be reviewing the scorecard. Make your scorecard easy for your personnel to fill out and composed of meaningful content to drive the vendor in the right direction. You can always make the scorecard more complex in the future.

    Our recommendation of five categories is provided below. Choose three to five categories to help you accomplish your scorecard goals and objectives:

    1. Timeliness – responses, resolutions, fixes, submissions, completions, milestones, deliverables, invoices, etc.
    2. Cost – total cost of ownership, value, price stability, price increases/decreases, pricing models, etc.
    3. Quality – accuracy, completeness, mean time to failure, bugs, number of failures, etc.
    4. Personnel – skilled, experienced, knowledgeable, certified, friendly, trustworthy, flexible, accommodating, etc.
    5. Risk – adequate contractual protections, security breaches, lawsuits, finances, audit findings, etc.

    Some criteria may be applicable in more than one category. The categories above should cover at least 80% of the items that are important to your organization. The general criteria listed for each category is not an exhaustive list, but most things break down into time, money, quality, people, and risk issues.

    Step 2.3: Scorecards and feedback (cont.)

    Design a two-way feedback loop with your vendors.

    Additional Considerations

    • Even a good rating system can be confusing. Make sure you provide some examples or a way for reviewers to discern the differences between 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Don’t assume your “Rating Key” will be intuitive.
    • When assigning weights, don’t go lower than 10% for any measurement category. If the weight is too low, it won’t be relevant enough to have an impact on the total score. If it doesn’t “move the needle,” don’t include it.
    • Final sign-off on the scorecard template should occur outside of the VMI. The heavy lifting can be done by the VMI to create it, but the scorecard is for the benefit of the organization overall and those impacted by the vendors specifically. You may end up playing arbiter or referee, but the scorecard is not the exclusive property of the VMI. Try to reach consensus on your final template whenever possible.
    • You should notice improved ratings and total scores over time for your vendors. One explanation for this is the Pygmalion Effect: “The Pygmalion [E]ffect describes situations where someone’s high expectations improves our behavior and therefore our performance in a given area. It suggests that we do better when more is expected of us.”* Convey your expectations and let the vendors’ competitive juices take over.
    • While you’re creating your scorecard and materials to explain the process to internal personnel, identify those pieces that will help you explain it to your vendors as part of your vendor orientation (see steps 2.6 and 3.4). Leveraging pre-existing materials is a great shortcut.

    *Source: The Decision Lab, 2020

    Step 2.3: Scorecards and feedback (cont.)

    Design a two-way feedback loop with your vendors.

    Vendor Feedback

    After you’ve built your scorecard, turn your attention to the second half of the equation – feedback from the vendor. A communication loop cannot be successful without the dialogue flowing both ways. While this can happen with just a scorecard, a mechanism specifically geared toward the vendor providing you with feedback improves communication, alignment, and satisfaction.

    You may be tempted to create a formal scorecard for the vendor to use. Our recommendation is to avoid that temptation until later in your maturity or development of the VMI. You’ll be implementing a lot of new processes, deploying new tools and templates, and getting people to work together in new ways. Work on those things first.

    For now, implement an informal process for obtaining information from the vendor. Start by identifying information that you will find useful, information that will allow you to improve overall, to reduce waste or time, to improve processes, to identify gaps in skills. Incorporate these items into your business alignment meetings (see Steps 2.4 and 3.5). Create three to five good questions to ask the vendor and include these in the business alignment meeting agenda. The goal is to get meaningful feedback, and that starts with asking good questions.

    Keep it simple at first. When the time is right, you can build a more formal feedback form or scorecard. Don’t be in a rush though. So long as the informal method works, keep using it.

    2.3.1: Scorecards and feedback

    30-60 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and brainstorm ideas for your scorecard measurement categories:
      1. What makes a vendor valuable to your organization?
      2. What differentiates a “good” vendor from a “bad” vendor?
      3. What items would you like to measure and provide feedback to the vendor to improve performance, the relationship, risk, and other areas?
    2. Select three, but no more than five, of the following measure categories: timeliness, cost, quality, personnel, and risk.
    3. Within each measurement category, list two or three criteria that you want to measure and track for your vendors; choose items that are as universal as possible rather than being applicable to one vendor or one vendor type.
    4. Assign a weight to each measurement category, ensuring that the total weight is 100% for all measurement categories.
    5. Document your results as you go in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.3 Scorecard.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • Configured scorecard template

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.3 Scorecard

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    2.3.2: Scorecards and feedback

    15-30 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and brainstorm ideas for feedback to seek from your vendors during your business alignment meetings. During the brainstorming, identify questions to ask the vendor about your organization that will:
      1. Help you improve the relationship.
      2. Help you improve your processes or performance.
      3. Help you improve ongoing communication.
      4. Help you evaluate your personnel.
    2. Identify the top five questions you want to include in your business alignment meeting agenda. (Note: you may need to refine the actual questions from the brainstorming activity before they are ready to include in your business alignment meeting agenda.)
    3. Document both your brainstorming activity and your final results in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.3 Feedback. The brainstorming questions can be used in the future as your VMI matures and your feedback transforms from informal to formal. The final results will be used in Steps 2.4 and 3.5.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • Feedback questions to include with the business alignment meeting agenda

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.3 Feedback

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 2.4: Business alignment meeting agenda

    Craft an agenda that meets the needs of the VMI.

    A business alignment meeting (BAM) is a great, multi-faceted tool to ensure the customer and the vendor stay focused on what is important to the customer at a high level. BAMs are not traditional “operational” meetings where the parties get into the details of the contracts, deal with installation problems, address project management issues, or discuss specific cost overruns. The main focus of the BAM is the scorecard (see Step 2.3), but other topics are discussed and other purposes are served. For example, you can use the BAM to develop the relationship with the vendor’s leadership team so that if escalation is ever needed, your organization is more than just a name on a spreadsheet or customer list; you can learn about innovations the vendor is working on (without the meeting turning into a sales call); you can address high-level performance trends and request corrective action as needed; you can clarify your expectations; you can educate the vendor about your industry, culture, and organization; and you can learn more about the vendor.

    As you build your BAM agenda, someone in your organization may say, “Oh, that’s just a quarterly business review (QBR) or top-to-top meeting.” However, in most instances, an existing QBR or top-to-top meeting is not the same as a BAM. Using the term QBR or top-to-top meeting instead of BAM can lead to confusion internally. The VMI may say to the business unit, Procurement, or another department, “We’re going to start running some QBRs for our strategic vendors.” The typical response is, “There’s no need to do that. We already run QBRs/top-to-top meetings with our important vendors.” This may be accompanied by an invitation to join their meeting, where you may be an afterthought, have no influence, and get five minutes at the end to talk about your agenda items. Keep your BAM separate so that it meets your needs.

    Step 2.4: Business alignment meeting agenda (cont.)

    Craft an agenda that meets the needs of the VMI.

    As previously noted, using the term BAM more accurately depicts the nature of the VMI meeting and prevents confusion internally with other meetings already occurring. In addition, hosting the BAM yourself rather than piggybacking onto another meeting ensures that the VMI’s needs are met. The VMI will set and control the BAM agenda and determine the invite list for internal personnel and vendor personnel. As you may have figured out by now, having the right customer and vendor personnel attend will be essential.

    BAMs are conducted at the vendor level … not the contract level. As a result, the frequency of the BAMs will depend on the vendor’s classification category (see Steps 2.1 and 3.1). General frequency guidelines are provided below, but they can be modified to meet your goals:

    • Commodity Vendors – Not applicable
    • Operational Vendors – Biannually or annually
    • Strategic Vendors – Quarterly
    • Tactical Vendors – Quarterly or biannually

    BAMs can help you achieve some additional benefits not previously mentioned:

    • Foster a collaborative relationship with the vendor.
    • Avoid erroneous assumptions by the parties.
    • Capture and provide a record of the relationship (and other items) over time.

    Step 2.4: Business alignment meeting agenda (cont.)

    Craft an agenda that meets the needs of the VMI.

    As with any meeting, building the proper agenda will be one of the keys to an effective and efficient meeting. A high-level BAM agenda with sample topics is set out below:

    BAM Agenda

    • Opening Remarks
      • Welcome and introductions
      • Review of previous minutes
    • Active Discussion
      • Review of open issues
      • Scorecard and feedback
      • Current status of projects to ensure situational awareness by the vendor
      • Roadmap/strategy/future projects
      • Accomplishments
    • Closing Remarks
      • Reinforce positives (good behavior, results, and performance, value added, and expectations exceeded)
      • Recap
    • Adjourn

    2.4.1: Business alignment meeting agenda

    20-45 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and review the sample agenda in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.4 BAM Agenda.
    2. Using the sample agenda as inspiration and brainstorming activities as needed, create a BAM agenda tailored to your needs.
      1. Select the items from the sample agenda applicable to your situation.
      2. Add any items required based on your brainstorming.
      3. Add the feedback questions identified during Activity 2.3.2 and documented in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.3 Feedback.
    3. Gain input and approval from sponsors, stakeholders, and executives as required or appropriate.
    4. Document the final BAM agenda in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.4 BAM Agenda.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Brainstorming
    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.3 Feedback

    Output

    • Configured BAM agenda

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.4 BAM Agenda

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 2.5: Relationship alignment document

    Draft a document to convey important VMI information to your vendors.

    Throughout this blueprint, alignment is mentioned directly (e.g. business alignment meetings [Steps 2.4 and 3.5]) or indirectly implied. Ensuring you and your vendors are on the same page, have clear and transparent communication, and understand each other’s expectations is critical to fostering strong relationships. One component of gaining and maintaining alignment with your vendors is the relationship alignment document (RAD). Depending upon the scope of your VMI and what your organization already has in place, your RAD will fill in the gaps on various topics.

    Early in the VMI’s maturation, the easiest approach is to develop a short document (i.e. 1 page) or a pamphlet (i.e. the classic trifold) describing the rules of engagement when doing business with your organization. The RAD can convey expectations, policies, guidelines, and other items. The scope of the document will depend on 1) what you believe is important for the vendors to understand, and 2) any other similar information already provided to the vendors.

    The first step to drafting a RAD is to identify what information vendors need to know to stay on your good side. For example, you may want vendors to know about your gift policy (e.g. employees may not accept gifts from vendors above a nominal value such as a pen or mousepad). Next, compare your list of what vendors need to know and determine if the content is covered in other vendor-facing documents such as a vendor code of conduct or your website’s vendor portal. Lastly, create your RAD to bridge the gap between what you want and what is already in place. In some instances, you may want to include items from other documents to reemphasize them with the vendor community.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The RAD can be used with all vendors regardless of classification category. It can be sent directly to the vendors or given to them during vendor orientation (see Step 3.3)

    2.5.1: Relationship alignment document

    1-4 hours

    1. Meet with the participants and review the RAD sample and checklist in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.5 Relationship Alignment Doc.
    2. Determine:
      1. Whether you will create one RAD for all vendors or one RAD for strategic vendors and another RAD for tactical and operational vendors; whether you will create a RAD for commodity vendors.
      2. The concepts you want to include in your RAD(s).
      3. The format for your RAD(s) – traditional, pamphlet, or other.
      4. Whether signoff or acknowledgement will be required by the vendors.
    3. Draft your RAD(s) and work with other internal areas such as Marketing to create a consistent brand for the RADS and Legal to ensure consistent use and preservation of trademarks or other intellectual property rights and other legal issues.
    4. Review other vendor-facing documents (e.g. supplier code of conduct, onsite safety and security protocols) for consistencies between them and the RAD(s).
    5. Obtain signoff on the RAD(s) from stakeholders, sponsors, executives, Legal, Marketing, and others as needed.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Brainstorming
    • Vendor-facing documents, policies, and procedures

    Output

    • Completed relationship alignment document(s)

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.5 Relationship Alignment Doc

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Marketing, as needed
    • Legal, as needed

    Step 2.6: Vendor orientation

    Create a VMI awareness process to build bridges with your vendors.

    Vendor Orientation: 01 - Orientation; 02 - Reorientation; 03 - Debrief

    Your organization is unique. It may have many similarities with other organizations, but your culture, risk tolerance, mission, vision, and goals, finances, employees, and “customers” (those that depend on you) make it different. The same is true of your VMI. It may have similar principles, objectives, and processes to other organizations’ VMIs, but yours is still unique. As a result, your vendors may not fully understand your organization and what vendor management means to you.

    Vendor orientation is another means to helping you gain and maintain alignment with your important vendors, educate them on what is important to you, and provide closure when/if the relationship with the vendor ends. Vendor orientation is comprised of three components, each with a different function:

    • Orientation
    • Reorientation
    • Debrief

    Vendor orientation focuses on the vendor management pieces of the puzzle (e.g. the scorecard process) rather than the operational pieces (e.g. setting up a new vendor in the system to ensure invoices are processed smoothly).

    Step 2.6: Vendor orientation (cont.)

    Create a VMI awareness process to build bridges with your vendors.

    Vendor Orientation: 01 - Orientation

    Orientation

    Orientation is conceptually similar to new hire orientation for employees at your organization. Generally conducted as a meeting, orientation provides your vendors with the information they need to be successful when working with your organization. Sadly, this is often overlooked by customers; it can take months or years for vendors to figure it out by themselves. By controlling the narrative and condensing the timeline, vendor relationships and performance improve more rapidly.

    A partial list of topics for orientation is set out below:

    • Your organization’s structure
    • Your organization’s culture
    • Your relationship expectations
    • Your governances (VMI and other)
    • Their vendor classification designation (commodity, operational, strategic, or tactical)
    • The scorecard process
    • Business alignment meetings
    • Relationship alignment documents

    In short, this is the first step toward building (or continuing to build) a robust, collaborative, mutually beneficial relationship with your important vendors.

    Step 2.6: Vendor orientation (cont.)

    Create a VMI awareness process to build bridges with your vendors.

    Vendor Orientation: 02 - Reorientation

    Reorientation

    Reorientation is either identical or similar to orientation, depending upon the circumstances. Reorientation occurs for a number of reasons, and each reason will impact the nature and detail of the reorientation content. Reorientation occurs whenever:

    • There is a significant change in the vendor’s products or services.
    • The vendor has been through a merger, acquisition, or divestiture.
    • A significant contract renewal/renegotiation has recently occurred.
    • Sufficient time has passed from orientation; commonly 2 to 3 years.
    • The vendor has been placed in a “performance improvement plan” or “relationship improvement plan” protocol.
    • Significant turnover has occurred within your organization (executives, key stakeholders, and/or VMI personnel).
    • Substantial turnover has occurred at the vendor at the executive or account management level.
    • The vendor has changed vendor classification categories after the most current classification.

    As the name implies, the goal is to refamiliarize the vendor with your current VMI situation, governances, protocols, and expectations. The drivers for reorientation will help you determine its scope, scale, and frequency.

    Step 2.6: Vendor orientation (cont.)

    Create a VMI awareness process to build bridges with your vendors.

    Vendor Orientation: 03 - Debrief

    Debrief

    To continue the analogy from orientation, debrief is similar to an exit interview for an employee when their employment is terminated. In this case, debrief occurs when the vendor is no longer an active vendor with your organization – all contracts have terminated or expired, and no new business with the vendor is anticipated within the next three months.

    Similar to orientation and reorientation, debrief activities will be based on the vendor’s classification category within the COST model. Strategic vendors don’t go away very often; usually, they transition to operational or tactical vendors first. However, if a strategic vendor is no longer providing products or services to you, dig a little deeper into their experiences and allocate extra time for the debrief meeting.

    The debrief should provide you with feedback on the vendor’s experience with your organization and their participation in your VMI. In addition, it can provide closure for both parties since the relationship is ending. Be careful that the debrief does not turn into a finger-pointing meeting or therapy session for the vendor. It should be professional and productive; if it is going off the rails, terminate the meeting before more damage can occur.

    End the debrief on a high note if possible. Thank the vendor, highlight its key contributions, and single out any personnel who went above and beyond. You never know when you will be doing business with this vendor again – don’t burn bridges!

    Step 2.6: Vendor orientation (cont.)

    Create a VMI awareness process to build bridges with your vendors.

    • As you create your vendor orientation materials, focus on the message you want to convey.
    • For orientation and reorientation:
      • What is important to you that vendors need to know?
      • What will help the vendors understand more about your organization … your VMI?
      • What and how are you different from other organizations overall … in your “industry”?
      • What will help them understand your expectations?
      • What will help them be more successful?
      • What will help you build the relationship?
    • For debrief:
      • What information or feedback do you want to obtain?
      • What information or feedback to you want to give?
    • The level of detail you provide strategic vendors during orientation and reorientation may be different from the information you provide tactical and operational vendors. Commodity vendors are not typically involved in the vendor orientation process. The orientation meetings can be conducted on a one-to-one basis for strategic vendors and a one-to-many basis for operational and tactical vendors; reorientation and debrief are best conducted on a one-to-one basis. Lastly, face-to-face or video meetings work best for vendor orientation; voice-only meetings, recorded videos, or distributing only written materials seldom hit their mark or achieve the desired results.

    2.6.1: Vendor orientation

    1 to several hours

    1. Meet with the participants and review the Phase Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.6 Vendor Orientation.
      1. Use the orientation checklist to identify the materials you want to create for your orientation meetings.
      2. Use the reorientation checklist to identify the materials you want to create for your reorientation meetings.
    2. The selections can be made by classification category (i.e. different items can apply to strategic, operational, and tactical vendors).
    3. Create the materials and seek input and/or approval from sponsors, stakeholders, and executives as needed.
    4. Use the debrief section of the tool to create an agenda, list the questions you want to ask vendors, and list information you want to provide to vendors. The agenda, questions, and information can be segregated by classification category.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • Agendas and materials for orientation, reorientation, and debrief

    Materials

    • Phase Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.6 Vendor Orientation

    Participants

    • VMI team

    Step 2.7: Job descriptions

    Ensure new and existing job descriptions are up to date.

    Based on your work product from Steps 1.1-1.9, it’s time to start drafting new or modifying existing job descriptions applicable to the VMI team members. Some of the VMI personnel may be dedicated full-time to the VMI, while others may be supporting the VMI on a part-time basis. At a minimum, create or modify your job descriptions based on the categories set out below. Remember to get the internal experts involved so that you stay true to your environment and culture.

    01 Title

    This should align overall with what the person will be doing and what the person will be responsible for. Your hands may be tied with respect to titles, but try to make them intuitively descriptive if possible.

    02 Duties

    This is the main portion of the job description. List the duties, responsibilities, tasks, activities, and results expected. Again, there may be some limitations imposed by your organization, but be as thorough as possible.

    03 Qualifications

    This tends to be a gray area for many organizations, with the qualifications, certifications, and experience desired expressed in “ranges” so that good candidates are not eliminated from consideration unnecessarily.

    2.7.1: Job descriptions

    1 to several hours

    1. Meet with the participants and review the VMI structure from Step 1.9.
      1. List the positions that require new job descriptions.
      2. List the positions that require updated job descriptions.
    2. Review the other Phase 1 work product and list the responsibilities, tasks, and functions that need to be incorporated into the new and updated job descriptions.
    3. Review the sample VMI job descriptions and sample VMI job description language in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.7 Job Descriptions, and identify language and concepts you want to include in the new and revised job descriptions.
    4. Using your template, draft the new job descriptions and modify the existing job descriptions to synchronize with the VMI structure. Work with other internal areas such as Human Resources to ensure cultural fit and compliance.
    5. Obtain input and signoff on the job descriptions from stakeholders, sponsors, executives, Human Resources, and others as needed.
    6. Document your final job descriptions in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.7 Job Descriptions.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Brainstorming
    • Existing job descriptions
    • Work product from Phase 1

    Output

    • Job descriptions for new positions
    • Updated job descriptions for existing positions

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.7 Job Descriptions

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Human Resources (as needed)
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 2.8: Policies and procedures

    Prepare policies and procedures for VMI functions.

    Policies and procedures are often thought of as boring documents that are 1) tedious to create, 2) seldom read after creation, and 3) only used to punish people when they do something “wrong.” However, when done well, these documents:

    • Communicate expectations.
    • Capture institutional knowledge.
    • Provide guidance for decision making.
    • Help workers avoid errors and minimize risk.
    • Ensure regulatory and organizational compliance.
    • List the steps required to achieve consistent results.

    Definitions of Policies and Procedures

    Policies and procedures are essential, but they are often confused with each other. A policy is a rule, guideline, or framework for making decisions. For example, in the vendor management space, you may want a policy indicating your organization’s view on gifts from vendors. A procedure is a set of instructions for completing a task or activity. For example, staying in the vendor management space, you may want a procedure to outline the process for classifying vendors.

    Step 2.8: Policies and procedures (cont.)

    Prepare policies and procedures for VMI functions.

    Start With Your Policy/Procedure Template or Create One for Consistency

    When creating policies and procedures, follow your template. If you don’t have one (or want to see if anything is missing from your template) the following list of potential components for your governance documents is provided.* Not every concept is required. Use your judgment and err on the side of caution when drafting; balance readability and helpfulness against over documenting and over complicating.

    • Descriptive Title
    • Policy Number
    • Brief Overview
    • Purpose
    • Scope
    • The Policy or Procedure
    • Definitions
    • Revision Date
    • History
    • Related Documents
    • Keywords

    Step 2.8: Policies and procedures (cont.)

    Prepare policies and procedures for VMI functions.

    Although they are not ever going to be compared to page-turning novels, policies and procedures can be improved by following a few basic principles. By following the guidelines set out below, your VMI policies and procedures will contribute to the effectiveness of your initiative.*

    • Use short sentences.
    • Organize topics logically.
    • Use white space liberally.
    • Use mandatory language.
    • Use gender-neutral terms.
    • Write with an active voice.
    • Avoid jargon when possible.
    • Use a consistent “voice” and tone.
    • Use pictures or diagrams when they will help.
    • Write in the same tense throughout the document.
    • Use icons and colors to designate specific elements.
    • Make sure links to other policies and procedures work.
    • Define all acronyms and jargon (when it must be used).
    • Avoid a numbering scheme with more than three levels.

    *Adapted in part from smartsheet.com

    Info-Tech Insight

    Drafting policies and procedures is an iterative process that requires feedback from the organization’s leadership team.

    2.8.1: Policies and procedures

    Several hours

    1. Meet with the participants and review the sample policies and procedures topics in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.8 Policies and Procedures.
    2. Determine:
      1. The concepts you want to include in your policies and procedures; brainstorm for any additional concepts you want to include.
      2. The format/template for your policies and procedures.
    3. Draft your policies and procedures based on the sample topics and your brainstorming activity. Work with other internal areas such as Legal and Human Resources to ensure cultural and environmental fit within your organization.
    4. Obtain input and signoff on the policies and procedures from stakeholders, sponsors, executives, Legal, Human Resources, and others as needed.
    5. Document your final policies and procedures in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.8 Policies and Procedures.
    6. Publish your policies and procedures and conduct training sessions or awareness sessions as needed.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Existing policies and procedures (if any)
    • Existing policies and procedures template (if any)
    • Scope
    • OIC chart
    • Process maps
    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • VMI policies and procedures

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.8 Policies and Procedures

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Legal and Human Resources (as needed)
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 2.9: 3-year roadmap

    Plot your path at a high level.

    The VMI exists in many planes concurrently: 1) it operates both tactically and strategically, and 2) it focuses on different timelines or horizons (e.g. the past, the present, and the future). Creating a 3-year roadmap facilitates the VMI’s ability to function effectively across these multiple landscapes.

    The VMI roadmap will be influenced by many factors. The work product from Phase 1: Plan, input from executives, stakeholders, and internal clients, and the direction of the organization as a whole are great sources of information as you begin to build your roadmap.

    To start, identify what you would like to accomplish in Year 1. This is arguably the easiest year to complete: budgets are set (or you have a good idea what the budget will look like), personnel decisions have been made, resources have been allocated, and other issues impacting the VMI are known with a higher degree of certainty than any other year. This does not mean things won’t change during the first year of the VMI, but expectations are usually lower and the short event horizon makes things more predictable during the Year-1 ramp-up period.

    Years 2 and 3 are more tenuous, but the process is the same: identify what you would like to accomplish or roll out in each year. Typically, the VMI maintains the Year 1 plan into subsequent years and adds to the scope or maturity. For example, you may start Year 1 with BAMs and scorecards for three of your strategic vendors; during Year 2, you may increase that to five vendors; and during Year 3, you may increase that to nine vendors. Or, you may not conduct any market research during Year 1, waiting to add it to your roadmap in Year 2 or 3 as you mature.

    Breaking things down by year helps you identify what is important and the timing associated with your priorities. A conservative approach is recommended. It is easy to overcommit, but the results can be disastrous and painful.

    2.9.1: 3-year roadmap

    45-90 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and decide how to coordinate Year 1 of your 3-year roadmap with your existing fiscal year or reporting year. Year 1 may be shorter or longer than a calendar year.
    2. Review the VMI activities listed in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.9 3-Year Roadmap. Use brainstorming and your prior work product from Phase 1 and Phase 2 to identify additional items for the roadmap and add them at the bottom of the spreadsheet.
    3. Starting with the first activity, determine when that activity will begin and put an X in the corresponding column; if the activity is not applicable, leave it blank or insert N/A.
    4. Go back to the top of the list and add information as needed.
      1. For any Year-1 or Year-2 activities, add an X in the corresponding columns if the activity will be expanded/continued in subsequent periods (e.g. if a Year 2 activity will continue in Year 3, put an X in Year 3 as well).
      2. Use the comments column to provide clarifying remarks or additional insights related to your plans or “X’s.” For example, “Scorecards begin in Year 1 with three vendors and will roll out to five vendors in Year 2 and nine vendors in Year 3.”
    5. Obtain signoff from stakeholders, sponsors, and executives as needed.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Phase 1 work product
    • Steps 2.1-2.8 work product
    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • High level 3-year roadmap for the VMI

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.9 3-Year Roadmap

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 2.10: 90-day plan

    Pave your short-term path with a series of detailed quarterly plans.

    Now that you have prepared a 3-year roadmap, it’s time to take the most significant elements from the first year and create action plans for each three-month period. Your first 90-day plan may be longer or shorter if you want to sync to your fiscal or calendar quarters. Aligning with your fiscal year can make it easier for tracking and reporting purposes; however, the more critical item is to make sure you have a rolling series of four 90-day plans to keep you focused on the important activities and tasks throughout the year.

    The 90-day plan is a simple project plan that will help you measure, monitor, and report your progress. Use the Info-Tech tool to help you track:

    • Activities
    • Tasks comprising each activity
    • Who will be performing the tasks
    • An estimate of the time required per person per task
    • An estimate of the total time to achieve the activity
    • A due date for the activity
    • A priority of the activity

    The first 90-day plan will have the greatest level of detail and should be as thorough as possible; the remaining three 90-day plans will each have less detail for now. As you approach the middle of the first 90-day plan, start adding details to the next 90-day plan; toward the end of the first quarter add a high-level 90-day plan to the end of the chain. Continue repeating this cycle each quarter and consult the 3-year roadmap and the leadership team as necessary.

    90 Days

    2.10.1: 90-day plan

    45-90 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and decide how to coordinate the first 90-day plan with your existing fiscal year or reporting cycles. Your first plan may be shorter or longer than 90 days.
    2. Looking at the Year 1 section of the 3-year roadmap, identify the activities that will be started during the next 90 days.
    3. Using the Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.10 90-Day Plan, enter the following information into the spreadsheet for each activity to be accomplished during the next 90 days:
      1. Activity description
      2. Tasks required to complete the activity (be specific and descriptive)
      3. The people who will be performing each task
      4. The estimated number of hours required to complete each task
      5. The start date and due date for each task or the activity
    4. Validate the tasks are a complete list for each activity and the people performing the tasks have adequate time to complete the tasks by the due date(s).
    5. Assign a priority to each activity.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • 3-year roadmap
    • Phase 1 work product
    • Steps 2.1-2.9 work product
    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • Detailed plan for the VMI for the next quarter or 90 days

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.10 90-Day Plan

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 2.11: Quick wins

    Identify potential short-term successes to gain momentum and show value immediately.

    As the final step in the timeline trilogy, you are ready to identify some quick wins for the VMI. Using the first 90-day plan and a brainstorming activity, create a list of things you can do in 15 to 30 days that add value to your initiative and build momentum.

    As you evaluate your list of potential candidates, look for things that:

    • Are achievable within the stated timeline.
    • Don’t require a lot of effort.
    • Involve stopping a certain process, activity, or task; this is sometimes known as a “stop doing stupid stuff” approach.
    • Will reduce or eliminate inefficiencies; this is sometimes known as the war on waste.
    • Have a moderate to high impact or bolster the VMI’s reputation.

    As you look for quick wins, you may find that everything you identify does not meet the criteria. That’s ok … don’t force the issue. Return your focus to the 90-day plan and 3-year roadmap, and update those documents if the brainstorming activity associated with this Step 2.11 identified anything new.

    2.11.1: Quick wins

    15-30 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and review the 3-year roadmap and 90-day plan. Determine if any item on either document can be completed:
      1. Quickly (30 days or less)
      2. With minimal effort
      3. To provide or show moderate to high levels of value or provide the VMI with momentum
    2. Brainstorm to identify any other items that meet the criteria in step 1 above.
    3. Compile a comprehensive list of these items and select up to five to pursue.
    4. Document the list in the Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.11 Quick Wins.
    5. Manage the quick wins list and share the results with the VMI team and applicable stakeholders and executives.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • 3-year roadmap
    • 90-day plan
    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • A list of activities that require low levels of effort to achieve moderate to high levels of value in a short period

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.11 Quick Wins

    Participants

    • VMI team

    Step 2.12: Reports

    Construct your reports to resonate with your audience.

    Issuing reports is a critical piece of the VMI since the VMI is a conduit of information for the organization. It may be aggregating risk data from internal areas, conducting vendor research, compiling performance data, reviewing market intelligence, or obtaining relevant statistics, feedback, comments, facts, and figures from other sources. Holding onto this information minimizes the impact a VMI can have on the organization; however, the VMI’s internal clients, stakeholders, and executives can drown in raw data and ignore it completely if it is not transformed into meaningful, easily-digested information.

    Before building a report, think about your intended audience:

    • What information are they looking for … what will help them understand the big picture?
    • What level of detail is appropriate, keeping in mind the audience may not be like-minded?
    • What items are universal to all of the readers and what items are of interest to one or two readers?
    • How easy or hard will it be to collect the data … who will be providing it, how time consuming will it be?
    • How accurate, valid, and timely will the data be?
    • How frequently will each report need to be issued?

    Step 2.12: Reports (cont.)

    Construct your reports to resonate with your audience.

    Use the following guidelines to create reports that will resonate with your audience:

    • Value information over data, but sometimes data does have a place in your report.
    • Use pictures, graphics, and other representations more than words, but words are often necessary in small, concise doses.
    • Segregate your report by user; for example, general information up top, CIO information below that on the right, CFO information to the left of CIO information, etc.
    • Send a draft report to the internal audience and seek feedback, keeping in mind you won’t be able to cater to or please everyone.

    Step 2.12: Reports (cont.)

    Construct your reports to resonate with your audience.

    The report’s formatting and content display can make or break your reports.*

    • Make the report look inviting and easy to read. Use:
      • Short paragraphs and bullet points.
      • A simple layout and uncluttered, wide margins.
      • Minimal boldface, underline, or italics to attract the readers’ attention.
      • High contrast between text and background.
    • Charts, graphs, and infographics should be intuitive and tell the story on their own.
    • Make it easy to peruse the report for topics of interest.
      • Maintain consistent design features.
      • Use impactful, meaningful headings and subheadings.
      • Include callouts to draw attention to important high-level information.
    • Demonstrate the impact of the accomplishments or success stories when appropriate.
    • Finish with a simple concise summary when appropriate. Consider adding:
      • Key points for the reader to takeaway.
      • Action items or requests.
      • Plans for next reporting period.

    *Sources: Adapted and compiled in part from: designeclectic.com, ahrq.gov, and 60secondmarketer.com.

    2.12.1: Reports

    15-45 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and review the applicable work product from Phases 1 and 2; identify qualitative and quantitative items the VMI measures, monitors, tracks, or aggregates.
    2. Determine which items will be reported and to whom (by category):
      1. Internally to personnel within the VMI
      2. Internally to personnel outside the VMI
      3. Externally to vendors
    3. Within each category above, determine your intended audiences/recipients. For example, you may have a different list of recipients for a risk report than you do a scorecard summary report. This will help you identify the number of reports required.
    4. Create a draft structure for each report based on the audience and the information being conveyed. Determine the frequency of each report and person responsible for creating for each report.
    5. Document your final choices in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.12 Reports.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Brainstorming
    • Phase 1 work product
    • Steps 2.1-2.11 work product

    Output

    • A list of reports used by the VMI
    • For each report:
    • The conceptual content
    • A list of who will receive or have access
    • A creation/distribution frequency

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.12 Reports

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Phase 3: Run

    Implement Your Processes and Leverage Your Tools and Templates

    Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4
    1.1 Mission Statement and Goals
    1.2 Scope
    1.3 Strengths and Obstacles
    1.4 Roles and Responsibilities
    1.5 Process Mapping
    1.6 Charter
    1.7 Vendor Inventory
    1.8 Maturity Assessment
    1.9 Structure

    2.1 Classification Model
    2.2 Risk Assessment Tool
    2.3 Scorecards and Feedback
    2.4 Business Alignment Meeting Agenda
    2.5 Relationship Alignment Document
    2.6 Vendor Orientation
    2.7 Job Descriptions
    2.8 Policies and Procedures
    2.9 3-Year Roadmap
    2.10 90-Day Plan
    2.11 Quick Wins
    2.12 Reports

    3.1 Classify Vendors
    3.2 Conduct Internal “Kickoff” Meeting
    3.3 Conduct Vendor Orientation
    3.4 Compile Scorecards
    3.5 Conduct Business Alignment Meetings
    3.6 Work the 90-Day Plan
    3.7 Manage the 3-Year Roadmap
    3.8 Measure and Monitor Risk
    3.9 Issue Reports
    3.10 Develop/Improve Vendor Relationships
    3.11 Contribute to Other Processes

    4.1 Assess Compliance
    4.2 Incorporate Leading Practices
    4.3 Leverage Lessons Learned
    4.4 Maintain Internal Alignment
    4.5 Update Governances

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    Begin operating the VMI. The main outcomes from this phase are guidance and the steps required to implement your VMI.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives
    • Others as needed

    Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative

    Phase 3: Run

    Implement your processes and leverage your tools and templates.

    All of the hard work invested in Phase 1: Plan and Phase 2: Build begins to pay off in Phase 3: Run. It’s time to stand up your VMI and ensure that the proper level of resources is devoted to your vendors and the VMI itself. There’s more hard work ahead, but the foundational elements are in place. This doesn’t mean there won’t be adjustments and modifications along the way, but you are ready to use the tools and templates in the real world; you are ready to begin reaping the fruits of your labor.

    Phase 3: Run guides you through the process of collecting data, monitoring trends, issuing reports, and conducting effective meetings to:

    • Manage risk better.
    • Improve vendor performance.
    • Improve vendor relationships.
    • Identify areas where the parties can improve.
    • Improve communication between the parties.
    • Increase the value proposition with your vendors.

    Step 3.1: Classify vendors

    Begin classifying your top 25 vendors by spend.

    Step 3.1 sets the table for many of the subsequent steps in Phase 3: Run. The results of your classification process will determine: which vendors go through the scorecarding process (Step 3.4); which vendors participate in BAMs (Step 3.5); the nature and content of the vendor orientation activities (Step 3.3); which vendors will be part of the risk measurement and monitoring process (Step 3.8); which vendors will be included in the reports issued by the VMI (Step 3.9); and which vendors you will devote relationship-building resources to (Step 3.10).

    As you begin classifying your vendors, Info-Tech recommends using an iterative approach initially to validate the results from the classification model you configured in Step 2.1.

    1. Using the information from the Vendor Inventory tab (Step 1.7), identify your top 25 vendors by spend.
    2. Run your top 10 vendors by spend through the classification model and review the results.
      1. If the results are what you expected and do not contain any significant surprises, go to next page.
      2. If the results are not what you expected or contain significant surprises, look at the configuration page of the tool (Tab 1) and adjust the weights or the spend categories slightly. Be cautious in your evaluation of the results before modifying the configuration page – some legitimate results are unexpected or surprising based on bias. If you modify the weighting, review the new results and repeat your evaluation. If you modify the spend categories, review the answers on the vendor tabs to ensure that the answers are still accurate; review the new results and repeat your evaluation.

    Step 3.1: Classify vendors (cont.)

    Review your results and adjust the classification tool as needed.

    1. Run your top 11 through 25 vendors by spend through the classification model and review the results. Identify any unexpected results or surprises. Determine if further configuration makes sense and repeat the process outlined in 2.b, previous page, as necessary. If no further modifications are required, continue to 4, below.
    2. Share the preliminary results with the leadership team, executives, and stakeholders to obtain their approval or adjustments to the results.
      1. They may have questions and want to understand the process before approving the results.
      2. They may request that you move a vendor from one quadrant to another based on your organization’s roadmap, the vendor’s roadmap, or other information not available to you.
    3. Identify the vendors that will be part of the VMI at this stage – how many and which ones. Based on this number and the VMI’s scope (Step 1.2), make sure you have the resources necessary to accommodate the number of vendors participating in the VMI. Proceed cautiously and gradually increase the number of vendors participating in the VMI.

    Step 3.1: Classify vendors (cont.)

    Finalize the results and update VMI tools and templates.

    1. Update the Vendor Inventory tab (Step 1.7) to indicate the current classification status for the top 25 vendors by spend. Once your vendors have been classified, you can sort the Vendor Inventory tab by classification status to see all the vendors in that category at once.
    2. Review your 3-year roadmap (Step 2.9) and 90-day plans (Step 2.10) to determine if any modifications are needed to the activities and timelines.

    Additional classification considerations:

    • You should only have a few vendors that fit in the strategic category. As a rough guideline, no more than 5% to 10% of your IT vendors should end up in the strategic category. If you have a large number of vendors, even 5% may be too many. The classification model is an objective start to the classification process, but common sense must prevail over the “math” at the end of the day.
    • At this point, there is no need to go beyond the top 25 by spend. Most VMIs starting out can’t handle more than three to five strategic vendors initially. Allow the VMI to run a pilot program with a small sample size, work out any bugs, make adjustments, and then ramp up the VMI’s rollout in waves. Vendors can be added quarterly, biannually, or annually, depending upon the desired goals and available resources.

    Step 3.1: Classify vendors (cont.)

    Align your vendor strategy to your classification results.

    As your VMI matures, additional vendors will be part of the VMI. Review the table below and incorporate the applicable strategies into your deployment of vendor management principles over time. Stay true to your mission, goals, and scope, and remember that not all of your vendors are of equal importance.

    Operational Strategic
    • Focus on spend containment
    • Concentrate on lowering total cost of ownership
    • Invest moderately in cultivating the relationship
    • Conduct BAMs biannually or annually
    • Compile scorecards quarterly or biannually
    • Identify areas for performance and cost improvement
    • Focus on value, collaboration, and alignment
    • Review market intelligence for the vendor’s industry
    • Invest significantly in cultivating the relationship
    • Initiate executive-to-executive relationships
    • Conduct BAMs quarterly
    • Compile scorecards quarterly
    • Understand how the vendors view your organization

    Commodity

    Tactical

    • Investigate vendor rationalization and consolidation
    • Negotiate for the best-possible price
    • Leverage competition during negotiations
    • Streamline the purchasing and payment process
    • Allocate minimal VMI resources
    • Assign the lowest priority for vendor management metrics
    • Conduct risk assessments biannually or annually
    • Cultivate a collaborative relationship based on future growth plans or potential with the vendor
    • Conduct BAMs quarterly or biannually
    • Compile scorecards quarterly
    • Identify areas of performance improvement
    • Leverage innovation and creative problem solving

    Step 3.1: Classify vendors (cont.)

    Be careful when using the word “partner” with your strategic and other vendors.

    For decades, vendors have used the term “partner” to refer to the relationship they have with their clients and customers. In many regards, this is often an emotional ploy used by the vendors to get the upper hand. To fully understand the terms “partner” and “partnership” let’s evaluate them through two more-objective, less-cynical lenses.

    If you were to talk to your in-house or outside legal counsel, you may be told that partners share in profits and losses, and they have a fiduciary obligation to each other. Unless there is a joint venture between the parties, you are unlikely to have a partnership with a vendor from this perspective.

    What about a “business” partnership … one that doesn’t involve sharing profits and losses? What would that look like? Here are some indicators of a business partnership (or preferably a strategic alliance):

    • Trust and transparent communication exist.
    • You have input into the vendor’s roadmap for products and services.
    • The vendor is aligned with your desired outcomes and helps you achieve success.
    • You and the vendor are accountable for actions and inactions, with both parties being at risk.
    • There is parity in the peer-to-peer relationships between the organizations (e.g. C-Level to C-Level).
    • The vendor provides transparency in pricing models and proactively suggests ways for you to reduce costs.
    • You and the vendor work together to make each party better, providing constructive feedback on a regular basis.
    • The vendor provides innovative suggestions for you to improve your processes, performance, the bottom line, etc.
    • Negotiations are not one-sided; they are meaningful and productive, resulting in an equitable distribution of money and risk.

    Step 3.1: Classify vendors (cont.)

    Understand the implications and how to leverage the words “partner” and “partnership.”

    By now you might be thinking, “What’s all the fuss? Why does it matter?” At Info-Tech, we’ve seen firsthand how referring to the vendor as a partner can have the following impact:

    • Confidences are disclosed unnecessarily.
    • Negotiation opportunities and leverage are lost.
    • Vendors no longer have to earn the customer’s business.
    • Vendor accountability is missing due to shared responsibilities.
    • Competent skilled vendor resources are assigned to other accounts.
    • Value erodes over time since contracts are renewed without being competitively sourced.
    • One-sided relationships are established, and false assurances are provided at the highest levels within the customer organization.

    Proceed with caution when using partner or partnership with your vendors. Understand how your organization benefits from using these terms and mitigate the negatives outlined above by raising awareness internally to ensure people understand the psychology behind the terms. Finally, use the term to your advantage when warranted by referring to the vendor as a partner when you want or need something that the vendor is reluctant to provide. Bottom line: Be strategic in how you refer to vendors and know the risks.

    Step 3.2: Conduct internal “kickoff” meeting

    Raise awareness about the VMI and its mission, vision, and goals.

    To be effective, your VMI needs executive support, a clear vision, appropriate governances and tools, personnel with the right skills, and other items discussed in this blueprint. However, the VMI doesn’t exist in a vacuum … it can’t sit back and be reactive. As part of being proactive, the VMI must be aware of its brand and “market” its services. An effective way to market the VMI is to conduct an internal kickoff meeting. There are at least a couple of ways to do this:

    • Host a meeting for stakeholders, executives, and others who will be contributing to the VMI processes (but are not part of the VMI). The meeting can be part of a townhall or standalone meeting; it can be done live or via a recorded video.
    • Attend appropriate staff meetings and make your presentation.

    With either approach above or one of your choosing, keep in mind the following objectives for your kickoff meeting:

    • Make sure you provide a way for those in attendance to ask questions at that time and later. You want to create and foster a communication loop with the people who will be impacted by the VMI or participating with it.
    • Raise awareness of your existence and personnel. Tell the VMI’s story by sharing your mission statement, goals, and scope; this will help dispel (or confirm) rumors about the VMI that often lead to confusion and faulty assumptions.
    • As you share the VMI’s vision, connect the story to how the VMI will impact the organization and individuals and to how they can help. The VMI tends to be the least autonomous area within an organization; it needs the assistance of others to be successful. Convey an atmosphere of collaboration and appreciation for their help.

    Host a kickoff meeting annually to kickoff the new year. Remind people of your story, announce successes from the past year, and indicate what the future year holds. Keep it brief, make it personal for the audience, and help them connect the names of VMI personnel to faces.

    Step 3.3: Conduct vendor orientation

    Introduce your VMI to your top vendors.

    Based on the results from your vendor classification (Step 3.1) and your VMI deployment timeline, identify the vendors who will participate in the initial orientation meetings. Treat the orientation as a formal, required meeting for the vendors to attend. Determine the attendee list for your organization and the vendors, and send out invites. Ideally, you will want the account manager, a sales director or vice president, the “delivery” director or vice president, and an executive from the vendor in the meeting. From the customer side, you may need more than one or two people from the VMI to entice the vendor’s leadership team to attend; you may need attendance from your own leadership team to add weight or credibility to the meeting (unfortunately).

    Before going into the meeting, make sure everyone on your side knows their roles and responsibilities, and review the agenda. Control the agenda or the meeting is likely to get out of hand and turn into a sales call.

    Conduct orientation meetings even if the participating vendors have been doing business with you for several years. Don’t assume they know all about your organization and your VMI (even if their other clients have a VMI).

    Run two or three orientation meetings and then review the “results.” What needs to be modified? What lessons have you learned? Make any necessary adjustments and continue rolling out the orientation meetings.

    Early in the VMI’s deployment, reorientation and debrief may not be in play. As time passes, it is important to remember them! Use them when warranted to help with vendor alignment.

    Step 3.4: Compile scorecards

    Begin scoring your top vendors.

    The scorecard process typically is owned and operated by the VMI, but the actual rating of the criteria within the measurement categories is conducted by those with day-to-day interactions with the vendors, those using or impacted by the services and products provided by the vendors, and those with the skills to research other information on the scorecard (e.g. risk). Chances are one person will not be able to complete an entire scorecard by themselves. As a result, the scorecard process is a team sport comprising sub-teams where necessary.

    The VMI will compile the scores, calculate the final results, and aggregate all of the comments into one scorecard. There are two common ways to approach this task:

    1. Send out the scorecard template to those who will be scoring the vendor and ask them to return it when completed, providing them with a due date a few days before you actually need it; you’ll need time to compile, calculate, and aggregate.
    2. Invite those who will be scoring the vendor to a meeting and let the contributors use that time to score the vendors; make VMI team members available to answer questions and facilitate the process.

    Step 3.4: Compile scorecards (cont.)

    Gather input from stakeholders and others impacted by the vendors.

    Since multiple people will be involved in the scorecarding process or have information to contribute, the VMI will have to work with the reviewers to ensure that the right mix of data is provided. For example:

    • If you are tracking lawsuits filed by or against the vendor, one person from Legal may be able to provide that, but they may not be able to evaluate any other criteria on the scorecard.
    • If you are tracking salesperson competencies, multiple people from multiple areas may have valuable insights.
    • If you are tracking deliverable timeliness, several project managers may want to contribute across several projects.

    Where one person is contributing exclusively to limited criteria, make it easy for the person to identify the criteria they are to evaluate. When multiple people from the same functional area will provide insights, they can contribute individually (and the VMI will average their responses) or they can respond collectively after reaching consensus among themselves.

    After the VMI has compiled, calculated, and aggregated, share the results with executives, impacted stakeholders, and others who will be attending the BAM for that vendor. Depending upon the comments provided by internal personnel, you may need to create a sanitized version of the scorecard for the vendor.

    Make sure your process timeline has a buffer built in. You’ll be sending the final scorecard to the vendor three to five days before the BAM, and you’ll need some time to assemble the results. The scorecarding process can be perceived as a low-priority activity for people outside of the VMI, and other “priorities” will arise for them. Without a timeline buffer, the VMI may find itself behind schedule and unprepared due to things beyond its control.

    Step 3.5: Conduct business alignment meetings

    Determine which vendors will participate and how long the meetings will last.

    At their core, BAMs aren’t that different from any other meeting. The basics of running a meeting still apply, but there are a few nuances that apply to BAMs Set out below are leading practices for conducing your BAMs; adapt them to meet your needs and suit your environment.

    Who

    Initially, BAMs are conducted with the strategic vendors in your pilot program. Over time, you’ll add vendors until all of your strategic vendors are meeting with you quarterly. After that, roll out the BAMs to those tactical and operational vendors located close to the strategic quadrant in the classification model (Steps 2.1 and 3.1) and as VMI resources allow. It may take several years before you are holding regular BAMs with all of your strategic, tactical, and operational vendors.

    Duration

    Keep the length of your meetings reasonable. The first few with a vendor may need to be 60 to 90 minutes long. After that, you should be able to trim them to 45 to 60 minutes. The BAM does not have to fill the entire time. When you are done, you are done.

    Step 3.5: Conduct business alignment meetings (cont.)

    Identify who will be invited and send out invitations.

    Invitations

    Set up a recurring meeting whenever possible. Changes will be inevitable, but keeping the timeline regular works to your advantage. Also, the vendors included in your initial BAMs won’t change for twelve months. For the first BAM with a vendor, provide adequate notice; four weeks is sufficient in most instances, but calendars will fill up quickly for the main attendees from the vendor. Treat the meeting as significant and make sure your invitation reflects this. A simple meeting request will often be rejected, treated as optional, or ignored completely by the vendor’s leadership team (and maybe yours as well!).

    Invitees

    Internal invitees should include those with a vested interest in the vendor’s performance and the relationship. In addition, other functional areas may be invited based on need or interest. Be careful the attendee list doesn’t get too big. Based on this, internal BAM attendees often include representatives from IT, Sourcing/Procurement, and the applicable business units. At times, Finance and Legal are included.

    From the vendor’s side, strive to have decision makers and key leaders attend. The salesperson/account manager is often included for continuity, but a director or vice president of sales will have more insights and influence. The project manager is not needed at this meeting due to the nature of the meeting and its agenda; however, a director or vice president from the “product or service delivery” area is a good choice. Bottom line: get as high into the vendor’s organization as possible whenever possible; look at the types of contracts you have with that vendor to provide guidance on the type of people to invite.

    Step 3.5: Conduct business alignment meetings (cont.)

    Prepare for the meetings and maintain control.

    Preparation

    Send the scorecard and agenda to the vendor five days prior to the BAM. The vendor should provide you with any information you require for the meeting five days prior as well.

    Decide who will run the meeting. Some customers like to lead and others let the vendor present. How you craft the agenda and your preferences will dictate who runs the show.

    Make sure the vendor knows what materials it should bring to the meeting or have access to. This will relate to the agenda and any specific requests listed under the discussion points. You don’t want the vendor to be caught off guard and unable to discuss a matter of importance to you.

    Running the BAM

    Regardless of which party leads, make sure you manage the agenda to stay on topic. This is your meeting – not the vendor’s, not IT’s, not Procurement’s or Sourcing’s. Don’t let anyone hijack it.

    Make sure someone is taking notes. If you are running this virtually, consider recording the meeting. Check with your legal department first for any concerns, notices, or prohibitions that may impact your recording the session.

    As a reminder, this is not a sales call, and this is not a social activity. Innovation discussions are allowed and encouraged, but that can quickly devolve into a sales presentation. People can be friendly toward one another, but the relationship building should not overwhelm the other purposes.

    Step 3.5: Conduct business alignment meetings (cont.)

    Follow these additional guidelines to maximize your meetings.

    More Leading Practices

    • Remind everyone that the conversation may include items covered by various confidentiality provisions or agreements.
    • Publish the meeting minutes on a timely basis (within 48 hours).
    • Focus on the bigger picture by looking at trends over time; get into the details only when warranted.
    • Meet internally immediately beforehand to prepare – don’t go in cold; review the agenda and the roles and responsibilities for the attendees.
    • Physical meetings are better than virtual meetings, but travel constraints, budgets, and pandemics may not allow for physical meetings.

    Final Thoughts

    • When performance or the relationship is suffering, be constructive in your feedback and conversations rather than trying to assign blame; lead with the carrot rather than the stick.
    • Look for collaborative solutions whenever possible and avoid referencing the contract if possible. Communicate your willingness to help resolve outstanding issues.
    • Use inclusive language and avoid language that puts the vendor on the defensive.
    • Make sure that your meetings are not focused exclusively on the negative, but don’t paint a rosy picture where one doesn’t exist.
    • A vendor that is doing well should be commended. This is an important part of relationship building.

    Step 3.6: Work the 90-day plan

    Monitor your progress and share your results.

    Having a 90-day plan is a good start, but assuming the tasks on the plan will be accomplished magically or without any oversight can lead to failure. While it won’t take a lot of time to work the plan, following a few basic guidelines will help ensure the 90-day plan gets results and wasn’t created in vain.

    90-Day Plan: Activity 1; Activity 2; Activity 3; Activity 4; Activity 5
    1. Measure and track your progress against the initial/current 90-day plan at least weekly; with a short timeline, any delay can have a huge impact.
    2. If adjustments are needed to any elements of the plan, understand the cause and the impact of those adjustments before making them.
    3. Make adjustments ONLY when warranted. The temptation will be to push activities and tasks further out on the timeline (or to the next 90-day plan!) when there is any sort of “hiccup” along the way, especially when personnel outside the VMI are involved. Hold true to the timeline whenever possible; once you start slipping, it often becomes a habit.
    4. Report on progress every week and hold people accountable for their assignments and contributions.
    5. Take the 90-day plan seriously and treat it as you would any significant project – this is part of the VMI’s branding and image.

    Step 3.7: Manage the 3-year roadmap

    Keep an eye on the future since it will feed the present.

    The 3-year roadmap is a great planning tool, but it is not 100% reliable. There are inherent flaws and challenges. Essentially, the roadmap is a set of three “crystal balls” attempting to tell you what the future holds. The vision for Year 1 may be fairly clear, but for each subsequent year, the crystal ball becomes foggier. In addition, the timeline is constantly changing; before you know it, tomorrow becomes today and Year 2 becomes Year 1.

    To help navigate through the roadmap and maximize its potential, follow these principles:

    • Manage each year of the roadmap differently.
      • Review the Year 1 map each quarter to update your 90-day plans (See steps 2.10 and 3.6).
      • Review the Year 2 map every six months to determine if any changes are necessary. As you cycle through this, your vantage point of Year 2 will be 6 months or 12 months away from the beginning of Year 2, and time moves quickly.
      • Review the Year 3 map annually, and determine what needs to be added, changed, or deleted. Each time you review Year 3, it will be a “new” Year 3 that needs to be built.
    • Analyze the impact on the proposed modifications from two perspectives: 1) What is the impact if a requested modification is made? 2) What is the impact if a requested modification is not made?
    • Validate all modifications with leadership and stakeholders before updating the 3-year roadmap to ensure internal alignment.

    Step 3.8: Measure and monitor risk

    Understand and manage risk levels.

    Using the configured Vendor Risk Assessment Tool (Step 2.2), confirm which risks you will be measuring and monitoring and identify the vendors that will be part of the initial risk management process. Generally, organizations start measuring and monitoring risk in two to five risk categories for two or three strategic vendors. Over time, additional risk categories and/or vendors can be added in waves. Resist the temptation to add risk categories or vendors into the mix too quickly. Expanding requires resources inside and outside of the VMI.

    The VMI will rely heavily on other areas to provide input or the risk data, and the VMI needs to establish good working relationships with those areas. For example, if legal risk is something being measured and monitored, the VMI will need data from Legal on the number and nature of any lawsuits filed by or against the applicable vendors; the VMI will need data from Legal, Contract Management, or Procurement/Sourcing on the number and nature of any agreed upon deviations from your organization’s preferred contract terms that increase legal risk.

    With respect to risk, the VMI’s main role is threefold: 1) take the data obtained from others (or in some instances the VMI may have the data) and turn it into useful information, 2) monitor the risk categories over time and periodically issue reports, and 3) work with other areas to manage the risk.

    Step 3.9: Issue reports

    Inform internal personnel and vendors about trends, issues, progress, and results.

    Issuing the reports created in Step 2.12 is one of the main ways the VMI 1) will communicate with internal and external personnel and 2) track trends and information over time. Even with input from the potential reviewers of the reports, you’ll still want to seek their feedback and input periodically. It may take a few iterations until the reports are hitting their mark. You may find that a metric is no longer required, that a metric is missing completely or it is missing a component, or a formatting change would improve the report’s readability. Once a report has been “finalized,” try not to change it until you are engaged in Phase 4: Review activities. It can be unsettling for the reviewers when reports change constantly.

    Whenever possible, find ways to automate the reports. While issuing reports is critical, the function should not consume more time than necessary. Automation can remove some of the manual and repetitive tasks.

    Internal reports may need to be kept confidential. An automated dashboard or reporting tool can help lock down who has access to the information. At a minimum, the internal reports should contain a “Confidential” stamp, header, watermark, or other indicator that the materials are sensitive and should not be disclosed outside of your organization without approval.

    Reports for vendors may not need to be sent as often as reports are generated or prepared for internal personnel. Establish a cadence by classification model category and stick to it. Letting each vendor choose the frequency will make it more difficult for you to manage. The vendors can choose to ignore the report if they so choose.

    This is an image of an example of a bar graph showing ROI and Benchmark for Categories 1-6

    Step 3.10: Develop/improve vendor relationships

    Drive better performance through better relationships.

    One of the key components of a VMI is relationship management. Good relationships with your vendors provide many benefits for both parties, but they don’t happen by accident. Do not assume the relationship will be good or is good merely because your organization is buying products and services from a vendor.

    In many respects, the VMI should mirror a vendor’s sales organization by establishing relationships at multiple levels within the vendor organizations – not just with the salesperson or account manager. Building and maintaining relationships is hard work, but the return on investment makes it worthwhile.

    Business relationships are comprised of many components, not all of which have to be present to have a great relationship. However, there are some essential components. Whether you are trying to develop, improve, or maintain a relationship with a vendor, make sure you are conscious of the following:*

    • Focus your energies on strategic vendors first and then tactical and operational vendors.
    • Be transparent and honest in your communications.
    • Continue building trust by being responsive and honoring commitments (timely).
    • Create a collaborative environment and build upon common ground.
    • Thank the vendor when appropriate.
    • Resolve disputes early, avoid the “blame game,” and be objective when there are disagreements.

    Step 3.11: Contribute to other processes

    Continue assisting others and managing roles and responsibilities outside of the VMI.

    The VMI has processes that it owns and processes that it contributes to. Based on the VMI scope (Step 1.2), the OIC chart (Step 1.4), and the process mapping activities (Step 1.5), ensure that the VMI is honoring its contribution commitments. This is often easier said than done though. A number of factors can make it difficult to achieve the balance required to handle VMI processes and contribute to other processes associated with the VMI’s mission and vision. Understanding the issues is half the battle. If you see signs of these common “vampires,” take action quickly to address the situation.

    • The VMI’s first focus is often internal, and the tendency is to operate in a bubble. Classifying vendors, running BAMs, coordinating the risk process, and other inward-facing processes can consume all of the VMI’s energy. As a result, there is little time, effort, or let’s be honest, desire to participate in other processes outside of the VMI.
    • It is easy for VMI personnel to get dragged into processes and situations that are outside of its scope. This often happens when personnel join the VMI from other internal areas or departments and have good relationships with their former teammates. The relationships make it hard to say “No” when out-of-scope assistance is being requested.
    • The VMI may have “part-time” personnel who have responsibilities across internal departments, divisions, agencies, or teams. When the going gets tough and time is at a premium, people gravitate toward the easiest or most comfortable work. That work may not be VMI work.

    Phase 4: Review

    Keep Your VMI Up to Date and Running Smoothly

    Phase 1Phase 2Phase 3Phase 4
    1.1 Mission Statement and Goals


    1.2 Scope

    1.3 Strengths and Obstacles

    1.4 Roles and Responsibilities

    1.5 Process Mapping

    1.6 Charter

    1.7 Vendor Inventory

    1.8 Maturity Assessment

    1.9 Structure

    2.1 Classification Model
    2.2 Risk Assessment Tool
    2.3 Scorecards and Feedback
    2.4 Business Alignment Meeting Agenda
    2.5 Relationship Alignment Document
    2.6 Vendor Orientation
    2.7 Job Descriptions
    2.8 Policies and Procedures
    2.9 3-Year Roadmap
    2.10 90-Day Plan
    2.11 Quick Wins
    2.12 Reports

    3.1 Classify Vendors
    3.2 Conduct Internal “Kickoff” Meeting
    3.3 Conduct Vendor Orientation
    3.4 Compile Scorecards
    3.5 Conduct Business Alignment Meetings
    3.6 Work the 90-Day Plan
    3.7 Manage the 3-Year Roadmap
    3.8 Measure and Monitor Risk
    3.9 Issue Reports
    3.10 Develop/Improve Vendor Relationships
    3.11 Contribute to Other Processes

    4.1 Assess Compliance
    4.2 Incorporate Leading Practices
    4.3 Leverage Lessons Learned
    4.4 Maintain Internal Alignment
    4.5 Update Governances

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    Identify what the VMI should stop doing, start doing, and continue doing as it improves and matures. The main outcomes from this phase are ways to advance the VMI and maintain internal alignment.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives
    • Others as needed

    Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative

    Phase 4: Review

    Keep your VMI up to date and running smoothly.

    As the old adage says, “The only thing constant in life is change.” This is particularly true for your VMI. It will continue to mature; people inside and outside of the VMI will change; resources will expand or contract from year to year; your vendor base will change. As a result, your VMI needs the equivalent of a physical every year. In place of bloodwork, x-rays, and the other paces your physician may put you through, you’ll assess compliance with your policies and procedures, incorporate leading practices, leverage lessons learned, maintain internal alignment, and update governances.

    Be thorough in your actions during this Phase to get the most out of it. It requires more than the equivalent of gauging a person’s health by taking their temperature, measuring their blood pressure, and determining their body mass index. Keeping your VMI up to date and running smoothly takes hard work.

    Some of the items presented in this Phase require an annual review; others may require quarterly review or timely review (i.e. when things are top of mind and current). For example, collecting lessons learned should happen on a timely basis rather than annually, and classifying your vendors should occur annually rather than every time a new vendor enters the fold.

    Ultimately, the goal is to improve over time and stay aligned with other areas internally. This won’t happen by accident. Being proactive in the review of your VMI further reinforces the nature of the VMI itself – proactive vendor management, NOT reactive!

    Step 4.1: Assess compliance

    Determine what is functionally going well and not going well.

    Whether you have a robust set of vendor management-related policies and procedures or they are the bare minimum, gathering data each quarter and conducting an assessment each year will provide valuable feedback. The scope of your assessment should focus on two concepts: 1) are the policies and procedures being followed and 2) are the policies and procedures accurate and relevant. This approach requires parallel thinking, but it will help you understand the complete picture and minimize the amount of time required.

    Use the steps listed below (or modify them for your culture) to conduct your assessment:

    • Determine the type of assessment – formal or informal.
    • Determine the scale of the assessment – which policies and procedures will be reviewed and how many people will be interviewed.
    • Determine the compliance levels, and seek feedback on the policies and procedures – what is going well and what can be improved?
    • Review the compliance deviations.
    • Conduct a root cause analysis for the deviations.
    • Create a list of improvements and gain approval.
    • Create a plan for minimizing noncompliance in the future.
      • Improve/increase education and awareness.
      • Clarify/modify policies and procedures.
      • Add resources, tools, and people (as necessary and as allowed).

    Step 4.2: Incorporate leading practices

    Identify and evaluate what external VMIs are doing.

    The VMI’s world is constantly shifting and evolving. Some changes will take place slowly, while others will occur quickly. Think about how quickly the cloud environment has changed over the past five years versus the 15 years before that; or think about issues that have popped up and instantly altered the landscape (we’re looking at you COVID-19 and ransomware). As a result, the VMI needs to keep pace, and one of the best ways to do that is to incorporate leading practices.

    At a high level, a leading practice is a way of doing something that is better at producing a particular outcome or result or performing a task or activity than other ways of proceeding. The leading practice can be based on methodologies, tools, processes, procedures, and other items. Leading practices change periodically due to innovation, new ways of thinking, research, and other factors. Consequently, a leading practice is to identify and evaluate leading practices each year.

    Step 4.2: Incorporate leading practices (cont.)

    Update your VMI based on your research.

    • A simple approach for incorporating leading practices into your regular review process is set out below:
    • Research:
      • What other VMIs in your industry are doing.
      • What other VMIs outside your industry are doing.
      • Vendor management in general.
    • Based on your results, list specific leading practices others are doing that would improve your VMI (be specific – e.g. other VMIs are incorporating risk into their classification process).
    • Evaluate your list to determine which of these potential changes fit or could be modified to fit your culture and environment.
    • Recommend the proposed changes to leadership (with a short business case or explanation/justification, as needed) and gain approval.

    Remember: Leading practices or best practices may not be what is best for you. In some instances, you will have to modify them to fit your culture and environment; in other instances, you will elect not to implement them at all (in any form).

    Step 4.3: Leverage lessons learned

    Tap into the collective wisdom and experience of your team members.

    There are many ways to keep your VMI running smoothly, and creating a lessons learned library is a great complement to the other ways covered in this Phase 4: Review. By tapping into the collective wisdom of the team and creating a safe feedback loop, the VMI gains the following benefits:

    • Documented institutional wisdom and knowledge normally found only in the team members’ brains.
    • The ability for one team member to gain insights and avoid mistakes without having to duplicate the events leading to the insights or mistakes.
    • Improved methodologies, tools, processes, procedures, skills, and relationships.

    Many of the processes raised in this Phase can be performed annually, but a lessons learned library works best when the information is “deposited” in a timely manner. How you choose to set up your lessons learned process will depend on the tools you select and your culture. You may want to have regular “input” meetings to share the lessons as they are being deposited, or you may require team members to deposit lessons learned on a regular basis (within a week after they happen, monthly, or quarterly). Waiting too long can lead to vague or lost memories and specifics – timeliness of the deposits is a crucial element.

    Step 4.3: Leverage lessons learned (cont.)

    Create a library to share valuable information across the team.

    Lessons learned are not confined to identifying mistakes or dissecting bad outcomes. You want to reinforce good outcomes as well. When an opportunity for a lessons-learned deposit arises, identify the following basic elements:

    • A brief description of the situation and outcome.
    • What went well (if anything) and why did it go well?
    • What didn't go well (if anything) and why didn't it go well?
    • What would/could you do differently next time?
    • A synopsis of the lesson(s) learned.

    Info-Tech Insights

    The lessons learned library needs to be maintained. Irrelevant material needs to be culled periodically, and older or duplicate material may need to be archived.

    The lessons learned process should be blameless. The goal is to share insightful information … not to reward or punish people based on outcomes or results.

    Step 4.4: Maintain internal alignment

    Review the plans of other internal areas to stay in sync.

    Maintaining internal alignment is essential for the ongoing success of the VMI. Over time, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the VMI does not operate in a vacuum; it is an integral component of a larger organization whose parts must work well together to function optimally. Focusing annually on the VMI’s alignment within the enterprise helps reduce any breakdowns that could derail the organization.

    To ensure internal alignment:

    • Review the key components of the applicable materials from Phase 1: Plan and Phase 2: Build with the appropriate members of the leadership team (e.g. executives, sponsors, and stakeholders). Not every item from those Phases and Steps needs to be reviewed, but err on the side of caution for the first set of alignment discussions, and be prepared to review each item. You can gauge the audience’s interest on each topic and move quickly when necessary or dive deeper when needed. Identify potential changes required to maintain alignment.
    • Review the strategic plans (e.g. 1-, 3-, and 5- year plans) for various portions of the organization if you have access to them or gather insights if you don’t have access.
      • If the VMI is under the IT umbrella, review the strategic plans for IT and its departments.
      • Review the strategic plans for the areas the VMI works with (e.g. Procurement, Business Units).
      • The organization itself.
    • Create and vet a list of modifications to the VMI and obtain approval.
    • Develop a plan for making the necessary changes.

    Step 4.5: Update governances

    Revise your protocols and return to the beginning of cyclical processes.

    You’re at the final Step and ready to update governances. This is comprised of two sequential paths.

    • First, use the information from Steps 4.1-4.4 to make any required modifications to the items in Phase 1: Plan, Phase 2: Build, and Phase 3: Run. For example, you may need to update your policies and procedures (Step 2.8) based on your findings in Step 4.1; or you may need to update the VMI’s scope (Step 1.2) to ensure internal alignment issues identified in Step 4.4. are accounted for.
    • Second, return to Phase 3: Run to perform the activities below; they tend to be performed annually, but use your discretion and perform them on an as-needed basis:
      • Reclassify vendors.
      • Complete a new maturity assessment.
      • Run reorientation sessions for vendors.
      • Conduct a kickoff meeting to update internal personnel.

    Other activities and tasks (e.g. scorecards and BAMs) may be impacted by the modifications made above, but the nature of their performance follows a shorter cadence. As a result, they are not specifically called out here in this Step 4.5 since they are performed on an ongoing basis. However, don’t overlook them as part of your update.

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Problem Solved

    Vendor management is a broad, often overwhelming, comprehensive spectrum that encompasses many disciplines. By now, you should have a great idea of what vendor management can or will look like in your organization. Focus on the basics first: Why does the VMI exist and what does it hope to achieve? What is its scope? What are the strengths you can leverage, and what obstacles must you manage? How will the VMI work with others? From there, the spectrum of vendor management will begin to clarify and narrow.

    Leverage the tools and templates from this blueprint and adapt them to your needs. They will help you concentrate your energies in the right areas and on the right vendors to maximize the return on your organization’s investment in the VMI of time, money, personnel, and other resources. You may have to lead by example internally and with your vendors at first, but they will eventually join you on your path if you stay true to your course.

    At the heart of a good VMI is the relationship component. Don’t overlook its value in helping you achieve your vendor management goals. The VMI does not operate in a vacuum, and relationships (internal and external) will be critical.

    Lastly, seek continual improvement from the VMI and from your vendors. Both parties should be held accountable, and both parties should work together to get better. Be proactive in your efforts, and you, the VMI, and the organization will be rewarded.

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

    Contact your account representative for more information

    workshops@infotech.com

    1-888-670-8889

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    Bibliography

    “Best Practices for Writing Corporate Policies and Procedures.” PowerDMS, 29 Dec. 2020. Accessed 11 January 2022.

    Duncan. “Top 10 Tips for Creating Compelling Reports.” Design Eclectic, 11 October 2019. Accessed 29 March 2022.

    Eby, Kate. “Master Writing Policies, Procedures, Processes, and Work Instructions.” 1 June 2018, updated 19 July 2021. Accessed 11 January 2022.

    “Enterprise Risk Management.” Protiviti, n.d. Accessed 16 Feb. 2017.

    Geller & Company. “World-Class Procurement — Increasing Profitability and Quality.” Spend Matters, 2003. Accessed 4 March 2019.

    Guth, Stephen. “Vendor Relationship Management Getting What You Paid for (And More).” Citizens, 26 Feb. 2015. Web.

    Guth, Stephen. The Vendor Management Office: Unleashing the Power of Strategic Sourcing. Lulu.com, 2007. Print.

    “ISG Index 4Q 2021.” Information Services Group, Inc., 2022. Web.

    “Six Tips for Making a Quality Report Appealing and Easy To Skim.” AHRQ, Oct. 2019. Accessed 29 March 2022.

    Tucker, Davis. “Marketing Reporting: Tips to Create Compelling Reports.” 60 Second Marketer, 28 March 2020. Accessed 29 March 2022.

    “Why Do We Perform Better When Someone Has High Expectations of Us?” The Decision Lab, 9 Sept. 2020. Accessed 31 January 2022.

    Agile Enterprise Architecture Operating Model

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    Establish an enterprise architecture practice that:

    • Leverages an operating model that promotes/supports agility within the organization.
    • Embraces business, data, application, and technology architectures in an optimal mix.
    • Is Agile in itself and will be sustainable and reactive to business needs, staying relevant and “profitable” – continuously delivering business value.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Use your business and EA strategy and design principles to right-size standardized operating models to fit your EA organization’s needs.
    • You need to define a sound set of design principles before commencing with the design of your EA organization.
    • The EA operating model structure should be rigid but pliable enough to fit the needs of the stakeholders it provides services to.
    • A phased approach and a good communication strategy is key to the success of the new EA organization.
    • Start with one group and work out the hurdles before rolling it out organization-wide.
    • Make sure that you communicate regularly on wins but also on hurdles and how to overcome them.

    Impact and Result

    • The organization design approach proposed will aim to provide twofold agility: the ability to stretch and shrink depending on business requirements and the promotion of agility in architecture delivery.
    • By recognizing that agility comes in different flavors, organizations using more traditional design patterns will also benefit from the approach advocated by this blueprint.

    Agile Enterprise Architecture Operating Model Research & Tools

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    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out create an Agile EA operating model to execute the EA function, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Design your EA operating model

    You need to define a sound set of design principles before commencing with the design of your EA organization.

    • Agile EA Operating Model Communication Deck
    • Agile EA Operating Model Workbook
    • Business Architect
    • Application Architect
    • Data Architect
    • Enterprise Architect

    2. Define your EA organizational structure

    The EA operating model structure should be rigid but pliable enough to fit the needs of the stakeholders it provide services to.

    • EA Views Taxonomy
    • EA Operating Model Template
    • Architecture Board Charter Template
    • EA Policy Template
    • EA Compliance Waiver Form Template

    3. Implement the EA operating model

    A phased approach and a good communications strategy are key to the success of the new EA organization.

    • EA Roadmap
    • EA Communication Plan Template
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    Workshop: Agile Enterprise Architecture Operating Model

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

    1 EA Function Design

    The Purpose

    Identify how EA looks within the organization and ensure all the necessary skills are accounted for within the function.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    EA is designed to be the most appropriately placed and structured for the organization.

    Activities

    1.1 Place the EA department.

    1.2 Define roles for each team member.

    1.3 Find internal and external talent.

    1.4 Create job descriptions with required proficiencies.

    Outputs

    EA organization design

    Role-based skills and competencies

    Talent acquisition strategy

    Job descriptions

    2 EA Engagement Model

    The Purpose

    Create a thorough engagement model to interact with stakeholders.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    An understanding of each process within the engagement model.

    Create stakeholder interaction cards to plan your conversations.

    Activities

    2.1 Define each engagement process for your organization.

    2.2 Document stakeholder interactions.

    Outputs

    EA Operating Model Template

    EA Stakeholder Engagement Model Template

    3 EA Governance

    The Purpose

    Develop EA boards, alongside a charter and policies to effectively govern the function.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Governance that aids the EA function instead of being a bureaucratic obstacle.

    Adherence to governace.

    Activities

    3.1 Outline the architecture review process.

    3.2 Position the architecture review board.

    3.3 Create a committee charter.

    3.4 Make effective governance policy.

    Outputs

    Architecture Board Charter Template

    EA Policy Template

    4 Architecture Development Framework

    The Purpose

    Create an operating model that is influenced by universal standards including TOGAF, Zachmans, and DoDAF.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A thoroughly articulated development framework.

    Understanding of the views that influence each domain.

    Activities

    4.1 Tailor an architecture development framework to your organizational context.

    Outputs

    EA Operating Model Template

    Enterprise Architecture Views Taxonomy

    5 Operational Plan

    The Purpose

    Create a change management and communication plan or roadmap to execute the operating model.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Build a plan that takes change management and communication into consideration to achieve the wanted benefits of an EA program.

    Effectively execute the roadmap.

    Activities

    5.1 Create a sponsorship action plan.

    5.2 Outline a communication plan.

    5.3 Execute a communication roadmap.

    Outputs

    Sponsorship Action Plan

    EA Communication Plan Template

    EA Roadmap

    Map Technical Skills for a Changing Infrastructure & Operations Organization

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    • Infrastructure & Operations is changing rapidly. It’s a constant challenge to find the right skills to support the next new technology while at the same time maintaining the skills in house that allow you to support your existing platforms.
    • A lack of clarity around required skills makes finding the right skills difficult, and it’s not clear whether you should train, hire, contract, or outsource to address gaps.
    • You need to keep up with changes and new strategy while continuing to support your existing environment.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Take a strategic approach to acquiring skills – looking only as far as the needs of the next project will lead to a constant skills shortage with no plan for it to be addressed.
    • Begin by identifying your future state. Identify needed skills in the organization to support planned projects and initiatives, and to mitigate skills-related risks.

    Impact and Result

    • Leverage your infrastructure roadmap and cloud strategy to identify needed skills in your future state environment.
    • Decide how you’ll acquire needed skills based on the characteristics of need for each skill.
    • Communicate the change and create a plan of action for the skills transformation.

    Map Technical Skills for a Changing Infrastructure & Operations Organization Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should map technical skills for a changing Infrastructure & Operations organization, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Identify skills needs for the future state environment

    Identify what skills are needed based on where the organization is going.

    • Map Technical Skills for a Changing Infrastructure & Operations Organization – Phase 1: Identify Skills Needs for Your Future State Environment
    • Future State Playbook
    • IT/Cloud Solutions Architect
    • IT/Cloud Engineer
    • IT/Cloud Administrator
    • IT/Cloud Demand Billing & Accounting Analyst

    2. Acquire needed skills

    Ground skills acquisition decisions in the characteristics of need.

    • Map Technical Skills for a Changing Infrastructure & Operations Organization – Phase 2: Acquire Needed Skills
    • Technical Skills Map

    3. Maximize the value of the skills map

    Get stakeholder buy-in; leverage the skills map in other processes.

    • Map Technical Skills for a Changing Infrastructure & Operations Organization – Phase 3: Maximize the Value of Your Skills Map
    • Technical Skills Map Communication Deck Template
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    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Review Initiatives and Skills-Related Risks

    The Purpose

    Identify process and skills changes required by the future state of your environment.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Set foundation for alignment between strategy-defined technology initiatives and needed skills.

    Activities

    1.1 Review the list of initiatives and projects with the group.

    1.2 Identify how key support, operational, and deployment processes will change through planned initiatives.

    1.3 Identify skills-related risks and pain points.

    Outputs

    Future State Playbook

    2 Identify Needed Skills and Roles

    The Purpose

    Identify process and skills changes required by the future state of your environment.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Set foundation for alignment between strategy-defined technology initiatives and needed skills.

    Activities

    2.1 Identify skills required to support the new environment.

    2.2 Map required skills to roles.

    Outputs

    IT/Cloud Architect Role Description

    IT/Cloud Engineer Role Description

    IT/Cloud Administrator Role Description

    3 Create a Plan to Acquire Needed Skills

    The Purpose

    Create a skills acquisition strategy based on the characteristics of need.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Optimal skills acquisition strategy defined.

    Activities

    3.1 Modify impact scoring scale for key skills decision factors.

    3.2 Apply impact scoring scales to needed skills

    3.3 Decide whether to train, hire, contract, or outsource to acquire needed skills.

    Outputs

    Technical Skills Map

    4 Develop a Communication Plan

    The Purpose

    Create an effective communication plan for different stakeholders across the organization.

    Identify opportunities to leverage the skills map elsewhere.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Create a concise, clear, consistent, and relevant change message for stakeholders across the organization.

    Activities

    4.1 Review skills decisions and decide how you will acquire skills in each role.

    4.2 Update roles descriptions.

    4.3 Create a change message.

    4.4 Identify opportunities to leverage the skills map in other processes.

    Outputs

    Technical Skills Map Communication Deck

    Manage Third-Party Service Security Outsourcing

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    • A lack of high-skill labor increases the cost of internal security, making outsourcing more appealing.
    • It is unclear what processes could or should be outsourced versus what functions should remain in-house.
    • It is not feasible to have 24/7/365 monitoring in-house for most firms.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • You are outsourcing support, not accountability, unless you preface that with your customer.
    • For most of you, you won’t have a choice – you’ll have to outsource high-end security skills to meet future needs.
    • Third-party service providers may be able to more effectively remediate threats because of their large, disparate customer base and wider scope.

    Impact and Result

    • Documented obligations and processes. This will allow you to determine which solution (outsourcing vs. insourcing) allows for the best use of resources, and maintains your brand reputation.
    • A list of variables and features to rank potential third-party providers vs. internal delivery to find which solution provides the best fit for your organization.
    • Current limitations of your environment and the limitations of third parties identified for the environments you are looking to mature.
    • Security responsibilities determined that can be outsourced, and which should be outsourced in order to gain resource allocation and effectiveness, and to improve your overall security posture.
    • The limitations or restrictions for third-party usage understood.

    Manage Third-Party Service Security Outsourcing Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to understand how to avoid common mistakes when it comes to outsourcing security, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. What to outsource

    Identify different responsibilities/functions in your organization and determine which ones can be outsourced. Complete a cost analysis.

    • Manage Third-Party Service Security Outsourcing – Phase 1: What to Outsource
    • Insourcing vs. Outsourcing Costing Tool

    2. How to outsource

    Identify a list of features for your third-party provider and analyze.

    • Manage Third-Party Service Security Outsourcing – Phase 2: How to Outsource
    • MSSP Selection Tool
    • Checklist for Third-Party Providers

    3. Manage your third-party provider

    Understand how to align third-party providers to your organization.

    • Manage Third-Party Service Security Outsourcing – Phase 3: Manage Your Third-Party Provider
    • Security Operations Policy for Third-Party Outsourcing
    • Third-Party Security Policy Charter Template
    [infographic]

    Build a Data Warehouse

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    • Parent Category Name: Big Data
    • Parent Category Link: /big-data
    • Relational data warehouses, although reliable, centralized repositories for corporate data, were not built to handle the speed and volume of data and analytics today.
    • IT is under immense pressure from business units to provide technology that will yield greater agility and insight.
    • While some organizations are benefitting from modernization technologies, the majority of IT departments are unfamiliar with the technologies and have not yet defined clear use cases.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • The vast majority of your corporate data is not being properly leveraged. Modernize the data warehouse to get value from the 80% of unstructured data that goes unused.
    • Avoid rip and replace. Develop a future state that complements your existing data warehouse with emerging technologies.
    • Be flexible in your roadmap. Create an implementation roadmap that’s incremental and adapts to changing business priorities.

    Impact and Result

    • Establish both the business and IT perspectives of today’s data warehouse environment.
    • Explore the art-of-the-possible. Don’t get stuck trying to gather technical requirements from business users who don’t know what they don’t know. Use Info-Tech’s interview guide to discuss the pains of the current environment, and more importantly, where stakeholders want to be in the future.
    • Build an internal knowledgebase with respect to emerging technologies. The technology landscape is constantly shifting and often difficult for IT staff to keep track of. Use Info-Tech’s Data Warehouse Modernization Technology Education Deck to ensure that IT is able to appropriately match the right tools to the business’ use cases.
    • Create a compelling business case to secure investment and support.

    Build a Data Warehouse Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should be looking to modernize the relational data warehouse, review Info-Tech’s framework for identifying modernization opportunities, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Assess the current data warehouse environment

    Review the business’ perception and architecture of the current data warehouse environment.

    • Drive Business Innovation With a Modernized Data Warehouse Environment – Phase 1: Assess the Current Data Warehouse Environment
    • Data Warehouse Maturity Assessment Tool

    2. Define modernization drivers

    Collaborate with business users to identify the strongest motivations for data warehouse modernization.

    • Drive Business Innovation With a Modernized Data Warehouse Environment – Phase 2: Define Modernization Drivers
    • Data Warehouse Modernization Stakeholder Interview Guide
    • Data Warehouse Modernization Technology Education Deck
    • Data Warehouse Modernization Initiative Building Tool

    3. Create the modernization future state

    Combine business ideas with modernization initiatives and create a roadmap.

    • Drive Business Innovation With a Modernized Data Warehouse Environment – Phase 3: Create the Modernization Future State
    • Data Warehouse Modernization Technology Architectural Template
    • Data Warehouse Modernization Deployment Plan
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Build a Data Warehouse

    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 Current Data Warehouse Environment

    The Purpose

    Discuss the general project overview for data warehouse modernization.

    Establish the business and IT perspectives of the current state.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Holistic understanding of the current data warehouse.

    Business user engagement from the start of the project.

    Activities

    1.1 Review data warehouse project history.

    1.2 Evaluate data warehouse maturity.

    1.3 Draw architecture diagrams.

    1.4 Review supporting data management practices.

    Outputs

    Data warehouse maturity assessment

    Data architecture diagrams

    2 Explore Business Opportunities

    The Purpose

    Conduct a user workshop session to elicit the most pressing needs of business stakeholders.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Modernization technology selection is directly informed by business drivers.

    In-depth IT understanding of the business pains and opportunities.

    Activities

    2.1 Review general trends and drivers in your industry.

    2.2 Identify primary business frustrations, opportunities, and risks.

    2.3 Identify business processes to target for modernization.

    2.4 Capture business ideas for the future state.

    Outputs

    Business ideas for modernization

    Defined strategic direction for data warehouse modernization

    3 Review the Technology Landscape

    The Purpose

    Educate IT staff on the most common technologies for data warehouse modernization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Improved ability for IT to match technology with business ideas.

    Activities

    3.1 Appoint Modernization Advisors.

    3.2 Hold an open education and discussion forum for modernization technologies.

    Outputs

    Modernization Advisors identified

    Modernization technology education deck

    4 Define Modernization Solutions

    The Purpose

    Consolidate business ideas into modernization initiatives.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Refinement of the strategic direction for data warehouse modernization.

    Activities

    4.1 Match business ideas to technology solutions.

    4.2 Group similar ideas to create modernization initiatives.

    4.3 Create future-state architecture diagrams.

    Outputs

    Identified strategic direction for data warehouse modernization

    Defined modernization initiatives

    Future-state architecture for data warehouse

    5 Establish a Modernization Roadmap

    The Purpose

    Validate and build out initiatives with business users.

    Define benefits and costs to establish ROI.

    Identify enablers and barriers to modernization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Completion of materials for a compelling business case and roadmap.

    Activities

    5.1 Validate use cases with business users.

    5.2 Define initiative benefits.

    5.3 Identify enablers and barriers to modernization.

    5.4 Define preliminary activities for initiatives.

    5.5 Evaluate initiative costs.

    5.6 Determine overall ROI.

    Outputs

    Validated modernization initiatives

    Data warehouse modernization roadmap

    Apply Design Thinking to Build Empathy With the Business

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    • Parent Category Name: Innovation
    • Parent Category Link: /innovation
    • Business satisfaction with IT is low.
    • IT and the business have independently evolving strategy, initiatives, and objectives.
    • IT often exceeds their predicted project costs and has difficulty meeting the business’ expectations of project quality and time-to-market.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Business needs are unclear or ambiguous.
    • IT and the business do not know how to leverage each other’s talent and resources to meet their common goals.
    • Not enough steps are taken to fully understand and validate problems.
    • IT can’t pivot fast enough when the business’s needs change.

    Impact and Result

    Product, service, and process design should always start with an intimate understanding of what the business is trying to accomplish and why it is important.

    Apply Design Thinking to Build Empathy With the Business Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should apply experience design to partner with the business, 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. Research

    Identify goals and objectives for experience design, establish targeted stakeholders, and conduct discovery interviews.

    • Apply Design Thinking to Build Empathy With the Business – Phase 1: Research
    • Stakeholder Discovery Interview Template

    2. Map and iterate

    Create the journey map, design a research study to validate your hypotheses, and iterate and ideate around a refined, data-driven understanding of stakeholder problems.

    • Apply Design Thinking to Build Empathy With the Business – Phase 2: Map and Iterate
    • Journey Map Template
    • Research Study Log Tool
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Apply Design Thinking to Build Empathy With the Business

    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 Introduction to Journey Mapping

    The Purpose

    Understand the method and purpose of journey mapping.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Initial understanding of the journey mapping process and the concept of end-user empathy.

    Activities

    1.1 Introduce team and discuss workshop motivations and goals.

    1.2 Discuss overview of journey mapping process.

    1.3 Perform journey mapping case study activity.

    Outputs

    Case Study Deliverables – Journey Map and Empathy Maps

    2 Persona Creation

    The Purpose

    Begin to understand the goals and motivations of your stakeholders using customer segmentation and an empathy mapping exercise.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understand the demographic and psychographic factors driving stakeholder behavior.

    Activities

    2.1 Discuss psychographic stakeholder segmentation.

    2.2 Create empathy maps for four segments.

    2.3 Generate problem statements.

    2.4 Identify target market.

    Outputs

    Stakeholder personas

    Target market of IT

    3 Interview Stakeholders and Start a Journey Map

    The Purpose

    Get first-hand knowledge of stakeholder needs and start to capture their perspective with a first-iteration journey map.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Capture the process stakeholders use to solve problems and empathize with their perspectives, pains, and gains.

    Activities

    3.1 Review discovery interviewing techniques.

    3.2 Review and modify the discovery questionnaire

    3.3 Demonstrate stakeholder interview.

    3.4 Synthesize learnings and begin creating a journey map.

    Outputs

    Customized discovery interview template

    Results of discovery interviewing

    4 Complete the Journey Map and Create a Research Study

    The Purpose

    Hypothesize the stakeholder journey, identify assumptions, plan a research study to validate your understanding, and ideate around critical junctures in the journey.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understand the stakeholder journey and ideate solutions with the intention of improving their experience with IT.

    Activities

    4.1 Finish the journey map.

    4.2 Identify assumptions and create hypotheses.

    4.3 Discuss field research and hypothesis testing.

    4.4 Design the research study.

    4.5 Discuss concluding remarks and next steps.

    Outputs

    Completed journey map for one IT process, product, or service

    Research study design and action plan

    Build a Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap

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    Getting a seat at the table is your first objective in building a strategic roadmap. Knowing what the business wants to do and understanding what it will need in the future is a challenge for most IT departments.

    This could be a challenge such as:

    • Understanding the business vision
    • Clear communications on business planning
    • Insight into what the future state should look like
    • Understanding what the IT team is spending its time on day to day

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Having a clear vision of what the future state is and knowing that creating an IT Infrastructure roadmap is never finished will give your IT team an understanding of priorities, goals, business vision, and risks associated with not planning.
    • Understand what you are currently paying for and why.

    Impact and Result

    • Understanding of the business priorities, and vision of the future
    • Know what your budget is spent on: running the business, growth, or innovation
    • Increased communication with the right stakeholders
    • Better planning based on analysis of time study, priorities, and business goals

    Build a Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Research & Tools

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

    1. Build a Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Storyboard – Improve and align goals and strategy.

    In this section you will develop a vision and mission statement and set goals that align with the business vision and goals. The outcome will deliver your guiding principles and a list of goals that will determine your initiatives and their priorities.

    • Build Your Infrastructure Roadmap Storyboard
    • Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool

    2. Financial Spend Analysis Template – Envision future and analyze constraints.

    Consider your future state by looking at technology that will help the business in the future. Complete an analysis of your past spending to determine your future spend. Complete a SWOT analysis to determine suitability.

    • Financial Spend Analysis Template

    3. Strategic Roadmap Initiative Template – Align and build the roadmap.

    Develop a risk framework that may slow or hinder your strategic initiatives from progressing and evaluate your technical debt. What is the current state of your infrastructure? Generate and prioritize your initiatives, and set dates for completion.

    • Strategic Roadmap Initiative Template

    4. Infrastructure and Strategy Executive Brief Template – Communicate and improve the process.

    After creating your roadmap, communicate it to your audience. Identify who needs to be informed and create an executive brief with the template download. Finally, create KPIs to measure what success looks like.

    • Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Executive Presentation Template
    • Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template

    Infographic

    Further reading

    Build a Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap

    Align infrastructure investment to business-driven goals.

    Analysts' Perspectives

    Infrastructure roadmaps are an absolute necessity for all organizations. An organization's size often dictates the degree of complexity of the roadmap, but they all strive to paint the future picture of the organization's IT infrastructure.

    Infrastructure roadmaps typically start with the current state of infrastructure and work on how to improve. That thinking must change! Start with the future vision, an unimpeded vision, as if there were no constraints. Now you can see where you want to be.

    Look at your past to determine how you have been spending your infrastructure budget. If your past shows a trend of increased operational expenditures, that trend will likely continue. The same is true for capital spending and staffing numbers.

    Now that you know where you want to go, and how you ended up where you are, look at the constraints you must deal with and make a plan. It's not as difficult as it may seem, and even the longest journey begins with one step.

    Speaking of that first step, it should be to understand the business goals and align your roadmap with those same goals. Now you have a solid plan to develop a strategic infrastructure roadmap; enjoy the journey!

    There are many reasons why you need to build a strategic IT infrastructure roadmap, but your primary objectives are to set the long-term direction, build a framework for decision making, create a foundation for operational planning, and be able to explain to the business what you are planning. It is a basis for accountability and sets out goals and priorities for the future.

    Other than knowing where you are going there are four key benefits to building the roadmap.

    1. It allows you to be strategic and transformative rather than tactical and reactive.
    2. It gives you the ability to prioritize your tasks and projects in order to get them going.
    3. It gives you the ability to align your projects to business outcomes.
    4. Additionally, you can leverage your roadmap to justify your budget for resources and infrastructure.

    When complete, you will be able to communicate to your fellow IT teams what you are doing and get an understanding of possible business- or IT-related roadblocks, but overall executing on your roadmap will demonstrate to the business your competencies and ability to succeed.

    PJ Ryan

    PJ Ryan
    Research Director
    Infrastructure & Operations Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group

    John Donovan

    John Donovan
    Principal Research Director
    Infrastructure & Operations Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Build a Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap

    Align infrastructure investment to business-driven goals.

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    When it comes to building a strategic roadmap, getting a seat at the table is your first objective. Knowing what the business wants to do and understanding its future needs is a challenge for most IT organizations.

    Challenges such as:

    • Understanding the business vision
    • Clear communications on business planning
    • Insight into what the future state should look like

    Common Obstacles

    Fighting fires, keeping the lights on, patching, and overseeing legacy debt maintenance – these activities prevent your IT team from thinking strategically and looking beyond day-to-day operations. Issues include:

    • Managing time well
    • Building the right teams
    • Setting priorities

    Procrastinating when it comes to thinking about your future state will get you nowhere in a hurry.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    Look into your past IT spend and resources that are being utilized.

    • Analyze all aspects of the operation, and resources required.
    • Be realistic with your timelines.
    • Work from the future state backward.

    Build your roadmap by setting priorities, understanding risk and gaps both in finance and resources. Overall, your roadmap is never done, so don't worry if you get it wrong on the first pass.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Have a clear vision of what the future state is, and know that when creating an IT infrastructure roadmap, it is never done. This will give your IT team an understanding of priorities, goals, business vision, and risks associated with not planning. Understand what you are currently paying for and why.

    Insight Summary

    "Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now."
    Source: Alan Lakein, Libquotes

    Your strategic objectives are key to building a roadmap

    Many organizations' day-to-day IT operations are tactical and reactive. This needs to change; the IT team needs to become strategic and proactive in its planning and execution. Forward thinking bridges the gap from your current state, to what the organization is, to what it wants to achieve. Your strategic objectives need to align to the business vision and goals and keep it running.

    Your future state will determine your roadmap priorities

    Identify what the business needs to meet its goals; this should be reflected in your roadmap priorities. Then identify the tasks and projects that can get you there. Business alignment is key, as these projects require prioritization. Strategic initiatives that align to business outcomes will be your foundation for planning on those priorities. If you do not align your initiatives, you will end up spinning your wheels. A good strategic roadmap will have all the elements of forward thinking and planning to execute with the right resources, right priorities, and right funding to make it happen.

    Understand what you have been paying for the last few years

    Measure the cost of "keeping the lights on" as a baseline for your budget that is earmarked and already spent. Determine if your current spend is holding back innovation due to:

    1. The high cost of maintenance
    2. Resources in operations doing low-value work due to the effort required to do tasks related to break/fix on aging hardware and software

    A successful strategic roadmap will be determined when you have a good handle on your current spending patterns and planning for future needs that include resources, budget, and know-how. Without a plan and roadmap, that plan will not get business buy-in or funding.

    Top challenges reported by Info-Tech members

    Lack of strategic direction

    • Infrastructure leadership must discover the business goals.

    Time seepage

    • Project time is constantly being tracked incorrectly.

    Technical debt

    • Aging equipment is not proactively cycled out with newer enabling technologies.

    Case Study

    The strategic IT roadmap allows Dura to stay at the forefront of automotive manufacturing.

    INDUSTRY: Manufacturing
    SOURCE: Performance Improvement Partners

    Challenge

    Following the acquisition of Dura, MiddleGround aimed to position Dura as a leader in the automotive industry, leveraging the company's established success spanning over a century.

    However, prior limited investments in technology necessitated significant improvements for Dura to optimize its processes and take advantage of digital advancements.

    Solution

    MiddleGround joined forces with PIP to assess technology risks, expenses, and prospects, and develop a practical IT plan with solutions that fit MiddleGround's value-creation timeline.

    By selecting the top 15 most important IT projects, the companies put together a feasible technology roadmap aimed at advancing Dura in the manufacturing sector.

    Results

    Armed with due diligence reports and a well-defined IT plan, MiddleGround and Dura have a strategic approach to maximizing value creation.

    By focusing on key areas such as analysis, applications, infrastructure and the IT organization, Dura is effectively transforming its operations and shaping the future of the automotive manufacturing industry.

    How well do you know your business strategy?

    A mere 25% of managers
    can list three of the company's
    top five priorities.

    Based on a study from MIT Sloan, shared understanding of strategic directives barely exists beyond the top tiers of leadership.

    An image of a bar graph showing the percentage of leaders able to correctly list a majority of their strategic priorities.

    Take your time back

    Unplanned incident response is a leading cause of the infrastructure time crunch, but so too are nonstandard service requests and service requests that should be projects.

    29%

    Less than one-third of all IT projects finish on time.

    200%

    85% of IT projects average cost overruns of 200% and time overruns of 70%.

    70%

    70% of IT workers feel as though they have too much work and not enough time to do it.

    Source: MIT Sloan

    Inventory Assessment

    Lifecycle

    Refresh strategies are still based on truisms (every three years for servers, every seven years for LAN, etc.) more than risk-based approaches.

    Opportunity Cost

    Assets that were suitable to enable business goals need to be re-evaluated as those goals change.

    See Info-Tech's Manage Your Technical Debt blueprint

    an image of info-tech's Manage your technical debt.

    Key IT strategy initiatives can be categorized in three ways

    IT key initiative plan

    Initiatives collectively support the business goals and corporate initiatives, and improve the delivery of IT services.

    1. Business support
      • Support major business initiatives
      • Each corporate initiative is supported by a major IT project and each project has unique IT challenges that require IT support.
    2. IT excellence
      • Reduce risk and improve IT operational excellence
      • These projects will increase IT process maturity and will systematically improve IT.
    3. Innovation
      • Drive technology innovation
      • These projects will improve future innovation capabilities and decrease risk by increasing technology maturity.

    Info-Tech Insight

    A CIO has three roles: enable business productivity, run an effective IT shop, and drive technology innovation. Your key initiative plan must reflect these three mandates and how IT strives to fulfill them.

    IT must accomplish many things

    Manage
    the lifecycle of aging equipment against current capacity and capability demands.

    Curate
    a portfolio of enabling technologies to meet future capacity and capability demands.

    Initiate
    a realistic schedule of initiatives that supports a diverse range of business goals.

    Adapt
    to executive feedback and changing business goals.

    an image of Info-Tech's Build your strategic roadmap

    Primary and secondary infrastructure drivers

    • Primary driver – The infrastructure component that is directly responsible for enabling change in the business metric.
    • Secondary driver – The infrastructure component(s) that primary drivers rely on.

    (Source: BMC)

    Sample primary and secondary drivers

    Business metric Source(s) Primary infrastructure drivers Secondary infrastructure drivers

    Sales revenue

    Online store

    Website/Server (for digital businesses)

    • Network
    • Data center facilities

    # of new customers

    Call center

    Physical plant cabling in the call center

    • PBX/VOIP server
    • Network
    • Data center facilities

    Info-Tech Insight

    You may not be able to directly influence the primary drivers of the business, but your infrastructure can have a major impact as a secondary driver.

    Info-Tech's approach

    1. Align strategy and goals
    • Establish the scope of your IT strategy by defining IT's mission and vision statements and guiding principles.
  • Envision future and analyze constraints
    • Envision and define your future infrastructure and analyze what is holding you back.
  • Align and build the roadmap
    • Establish a risk framework, identify initiatives, and build your strategic infrastructure roadmap.
  • Communicate and improve the process
    • Communicate the results of your hard work to the right people and establish the groundwork for continual improvement of the process.
  • Blueprint deliverables

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

    Mission and Vision Statement
    Goal Alignment (Slide 28)

    Construct your vision and mission aligned to the business.

    Mission and Vision Statement

    Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap tool

    Build initiatives and prioritize them. Build the roadmap.

    Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap tool

    Infrastructure Domain Study

    What is stealing your time from getting projects done?

    Infrastructure Domain Study

    Initiative Templates Process Maps & Strategy

    Build templates for initiates, build process map, and develop strategies.

    Initiative Templates Process Maps & Strategy

    Key Deliverable

    it infrastructure roadmap template

    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

    Info-Tech's methodology for an infrastructure strategy and roadmap

    1. Align Strategy and Goals

    2. Envision Future and Analyze Constraints

    3. Align and Build the Roadmap

    4. Communicate and Improve the Process

    Phase steps

    1.1 Develop the infrastructure strategy

    1.2 Define the goals

    2.1 Define the future state

    2.2 Analyze constraints

    3.1 Align the roadmap

    3.2 Build the roadmap

    4.1 Identify the audience

    4.2 Improve the process

    Phase Outcomes

    • Vision statement
    • Mission statement
    • Guiding principles
    • List of goals
    • Financial spend analysis
    • Domain time study
    • Prioritized list of roadblocks
    • Future-state vision document
    • IT and business risk frameworks
    • Technical debt assessment
    • New technology analysis
    • Initiative templates
    • Initiative candidates
    • Roadmap visualization
    • Process schedule
    • Communications strategy
    • process map
    • Infrastructure roadmap report

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Phase 0 Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4

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

    Call #2: Define mission and vision statements and guiding principles to discuss strategy scope.
    Call #3: Brainstorm goals and definition.

    Call #4: Conduct a spend analysis and a time resource study.
    Call #5: Identify roadblocks.

    Call #6: Develop a risk framework and address technical debt.
    Call #7: Identify new initiatives and SWOT analysis.
    Call #8: Visualize and identify initiatives.
    Call #9: Complete shadow IT and initiative finalization.

    Call #10: Identify your audience and communicate.
    Call #11: Improve the process.

    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

    Session 0 (Pre-workshop)

    Session 1

    Session 2

    Session 3

    Session 4

    Session 5 (Post-workshop)

    Elicit business context Align Strategy and Goals Envision Future and Analyze Constraints Align and Build the Roadmap Communicate and Improve the Process Wrap-up (offsite)

    0.1 Complete recommended diagnostic programs.
    0.2 Interview key business stakeholders, as needed, to identify business context: business goals, initiatives, and the organization's mission and vision.
    0.3 (Optional) CIO to compile and prioritize IT success stories.

    1.1 Infrastructure strategy.
    1.1.1 Review/validate the business context.
    1.1.2 Construct your mission and vision statements.
    1.1.3 Elicit your guiding principles and finalize IT strategy scope.

    1.2 Business goal alignment
    1.2.1 Intake identification and analysis.
    1.2.2 Survey results analysis.
    1.2.3 Brainstorm goals.
    1.2.4 Perform goal association and analysis.

    2.1 Define the future state.
    2.1.1 Conduct an emerging technology discussion.
    2.1.2 Document desired future state.
    2.1.3 Develop a new technology identification process.
    2.1.4 Compete SWOT analysis.

    2.2 Analyze your constraints
    2.2.1 Perform a historical spend analysis.
    2.2.2 Conduct a time study.
    2.2.3 Identify roadblocks.
    .

    3.1 Align the roadmap
    3.1.1 Develop a risk framework.
    3.1.2 Evaluate technical debt.

    3.2 Build the roadmap.
    3.2.1 Build effective initiative templates.
    3.2.2 Visualize.
    3.2.3 Generate new initiatives.
    3.2.4 Repatriate shadow IT initiatives.
    3.2.5 Finalize initiative candidates.

    4.2 Identify the audience
    4.1.1 Identify required authors and target audiences.
    4.1.2 Plan the process.
    4.1.2 Identify supporters and blockers.

    4.2 Improve the process
    4.2.1 Evaluate the value of each process output.
    4.2.2 Brainstorm improvements.
    4.2.3 Set realistic measures.

    5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days.
    5.2 Set up time to review workshop deliverables and discuss next steps.

    1. SWOT analysis of current state
    2. Goals cascade
    3. Persona analysis
    1. Vision statement, mission statement, and guiding principles
    2. List of goals
    1. Spend analysis document
    2. Domain time study
    3. Prioritized list of roadblocks
    4. Future state vision document
    1. IT and business risk frameworks
    2. Technical debt assessment
    3. New technology analysis
    4. Initiative templates
    5. Initiative candidates
    1. Roadmap visualization
    2. Process schedule
    3. Communications strategy
    4. Process map
    1. Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Report

    Phase 1

    Align Strategy and Goals

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    Phase 4

    1.1 Infrastructure strategy

    1.2 Goal alignment

    2.1 Define your future

    2.2 Conduct constraints analysis

    3.1 Drive business alignment

    3.2. Build the roadmap

    4.1 Identify the audience

    4.2 Process improvement

    and measurements

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • How to build IT mission and vision statements
    • How to elicit IT guiding principles
    • How to finalize and communicate your IT strategy scope

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • Senior IT Team

    Step 1.1

    Develop the Infrastructure Strategy

    Activities

    1.1.1 Review/validate the business context

    1.1.2 Construct your mission and vision statements

    1.1.3 Elicit your guiding principles and finalize IT strategy scope

    This step requires the following inputs:

    • Business Mission Statement
    • Business Vision Statement
    • Business Goals

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Roadmap team

    Outcomes of this step

    • IT mission statement
    • IT vision statement
    • Guiding principles

    To complete this phase, you will need:

    Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template

    Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template

    Use the IT Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template to document the results from the following activities:

    • Mission and Vision Statements
    • Business impact
    • Roadmap

    IT must aim to support the organization's mission and vision

    A mission statement

    • Focuses on today and what an organization does to achieve the mission.
    • Drives the company.
    • Answers: What do we do? Who do we serve? How do we service them?

    "A mission statement focuses on the purpose of the brand; the vision statement looks to the fulfillment of that purpose."

    A vision statement

    • Focuses on tomorrow and what an organization ultimately wants to become.
    • Gives the company direction.
    • Answers: What problems are we solving? Who and what are we changing?

    "A vision statement provides a concrete way for stakeholders, especially employees, to understand the meaning and purpose of your business. However, unlike a mission statement – which describes the who, what, and why of your business – a vision statement describes the desired long-term results of your company's efforts."
    Source: Business News Daily, 2020

    Characteristics of mission and vision statements

    A strong mission statement has the following characteristics:

    • Articulates the IT function's purpose and reason for existence.
    • Describes what the IT function does to achieve its vision.
    • Defines the customers of the IT function.
    • Is:
      • Compelling
      • Easy to grasp
      • Sharply focused
      • Concise

    A strong vision statement has the following characteristics:

    • Describes a desired future achievement.
    • Focuses on ends, not means.
    • Communicates promise.
    • Is:
      • Concise; no unnecessary words
      • Compelling
      • Achievable
      • Measurable

    Derive the IT mission and vision statements from the business

    Begin the process by identifying and locating the business mission and vision statements.

    • Corporate websites
    • Business strategy documents
    • Business executives

    Ensure there is alignment between the business and IT statements.

    Note: Mission statements may remain the same unless the IT department's mandate is changing.

    an image showing Business mission, IT mission, Business Vision, and IT Vison.

    1.1.2 Construct mission and vision statements

    1 hour

    Objective: Help teams define their purpose (why they exist) to build a mission statement (if one doesn't already exist).

    Step 1:

    1. Gather the IT strategy creation team and revisit your business context inputs, specifically the corporate mission statement.
    2. Begin by asking the participants:
        1. What is our job as a team?
        2. What's our goal? How do we align IT to our corporate mission?
        3. What benefit are we bringing to the company and the world?
      1. Ask them to share general thoughts in a check-in.

    Step 2:

    1. Share some examples of IT mission statements.
    2. Example: IT provides innovative product solutions and leadership that drives growth and
      success.
    3. Provide each participant with some time to write their own version of an IT mission statement.

    Download the ITRG IT Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template and document your mission and vision statements in Section 1.

    Input

    • Business vision statement
    • Business mission statement

    Output

    • IT mission statement
    • IT vision statement

    Materials

    • Sticky notes
    • Markers
    • Whiteboard
    • Paper
    • Collaboration/brain-storming tool (whiteboard, flip chart, digital equivalent)

    Participants

    • CIO
    • Senior IT Team

    1.1.2 Construct mission and vision statements (cont'd)

    1 hour

    Objective: Help teams define their purpose (why they exist) to build a mission statement (if one doesn't already exist).

    Step 3:

    This step involves reviewing individual mission statements, combining them, and building one collective mission statement for the team.

    1. Consider the following approach to build a unified mission statement:

    Use the 20x20 rule for group decision-making. Give the group no more than 20 minutes to craft a collective team purpose with no more than 20 words.

    1. As a facilitator, provide guidelines on how to write for the intended audience. Business stakeholders need business language.
    2. Refer to the corporate mission statement periodically and ensure there is alignment.
    3. Document your final mission statement in your ITRG Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template.

    Download the ITRG IT Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template and document your mission and vision statements in Section 1.

    Input

    • Business vision statement
    • Business mission statement

    Output

    • IT mission statement
    • IT vision statement

    Materials

    • Sticky notes
    • Markers
    • Whiteboard
    • Paper
    • Collaboration/brain-storming tool (whiteboard, flip chart, digital equivalent)

    Participants

    • CIO
    • Senior IT Team

    1.1.2 Construct mission and vision statements (cont'd)

    1 hour

    Objective: Help teams define their purpose (why they exist) to build a mission statement (if one doesn't already exist).

    Step 4:

    1. Gather the IT strategy creation team and revisit your business context inputs, specifically the corporate vision statement.
    2. Share one or more examples of vision statements.
    3. Provide participants with sticky notes and writing materials and ask them to work individually for this step.
    4. Ask participants to brainstorm:
      1. What is the desired future state of the IT organization?
      2. How should we work to attain the desired state?
      3. How do we want IT to be perceived in the desired state?
    5. Provide participants with guidelines to build descriptive, compelling, and achievable statements regarding their desired future state.
    6. Regroup as a team and review participant answers.

    Download the ITRG IT Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template and document your mission and vision statements in Section 1.

    Input

    • Business vision statement
    • Business mission statement

    Output

    • IT mission statement
    • IT vision statement

    Materials

    • Sticky notes
    • Markers
    • Whiteboard
    • Paper
    • Collaboration/brain-storming tool (whiteboard, flip chart, digital equivalent)

    Participants

    • CIO
    • Senior IT Team

    1.1.2 Construct mission and vision statements (cont'd)

    1 hour

    Objective: Help teams define their purpose (why they exist) to build a mission statement (if one doesn't already exist).

    Step 5:

    1. Ask the team to post their notes on the wall.
    2. Have the team group the words that have a similar meaning or feeling behind them; this will create themes.
    3. When the group is done categorizing the statements into themes, ask if there's anything missing. Did they ensure alignment to the corporate vision statement? Are there any elements missing when considering alignment back to the corporate vision statement?

    Step 6:

    1. Consider each category as a component of your vision statement.
    2. Review each category with participants; define what the behavior looks like when it is being met and what it looks like when it isn't.
    3. As a facilitator, provide guidelines on word-smithing and finessing the language.
    4. Refer to the corporate vision statement periodically and ensure there is alignment.
    5. Document your final mission statement in your IT Strategy Presentation Template.

    Download the ITRG IT Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template and document your mission and vision statements in Section 1.

    Input

    • Business vision statement
    • Business mission statement

    Output

    • IT mission statement
    • IT vision statement

    Materials

    • Sticky notes
    • Markers
    • Whiteboard
    • Paper
    • Collaboration/brain-storming tool (whiteboard, flip chart, digital equivalent)

    Participants

    • CIO
    • Senior IT Team

    1.1.2 Construct mission and vision statements (cont'd)

    Tips for online facilitation:

    • Pick an online whiteboard tool that allows participants to use a large, zoomable canvas.
    • Set up each topic at a different area of the board; spread them out just like you would do on the walls of a room.
    • Invite participants to zoom in and visit each section and add their ideas as sticky notes once you reach that section of the exercise.
    • If you're not using an online whiteboard, we'd recommend using a collaboration tool such as Google Docs or Teams Whiteboard to collect the information for each step under a separate heading. Invite everyone into the document but be very clear regarding editing rights.
    • Pre-create your screen deck and screen share this with your participants through your videoconferencing software. We'd also recommend sharing this so participants can go through the deck again during the reflection steps.
    • When facilitating group discussion, we'd recommend that participants use non-verbal means to indicate they'd like to speak. You can use tools like Teams' hand-raising tool, a reaction emoji, or have people put their hands up. The facilitator can then invite that person to talk.

    Source: Hyper Island

    Input

    • Business vision statement
    • Business mission statement

    Output

    • IT mission statement
    • IT vision statement

    Materials

    • Sticky notes
    • Markers
    • Whiteboard
    • Paper
    • Collaboration/brainstorming tool (whiteboard, flip chart, digital equivalent)

    Participants

    • CIO
    • Senior IT Team

    IT mission statements demonstrate IT's purpose

    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 statements use simple and concise terminology and speak loudly and clearly, generating enthusiasm for the organization.

    Strong IT mission statements have the following characteristics:

    • 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
    • Are:
      • Compelling
      • Easy to grasp
      • Sharply focused
      • Inspirational
      • Memorable
      • Concise

    Sample IT Mission Statements:

    • To provide infrastructure, support, and innovation in the delivery of secure, enterprise-grade information technology products and services that enable and empower the workforce at [Company Name].
    • To help fulfill organizational goals, the IT department is committed to empowering business stakeholders with technology and services that facilitate effective processes, collaboration, and communication.
    • The mission of the information technology (IT) department is to build a solid, comprehensive technology infrastructure; to maintain an efficient, effective operations environment; and to deliver high-quality, timely services that support the business goals and objectives of ABC Inc.
    • The IT department has operational, strategic, and fiscal responsibility for the innovation, implementation, and advancement of technology at ABC Inc. in three main areas: network administration and end-user support, instructional services, and information systems. The IT department provides leadership in long-range planning, implementation, and maintenance of information technology across the organization.
    • The IT group is customer-centered and driven by its commitment to management and staff. It oversees services in computing, telecommunications, networking, administrative computing, and technology training.

    Sample mission statements (cont'd)

    • To collaborate and empower our stakeholders through an engaged team and operational agility and deliver innovative technology and services.
    • To empower our stakeholders with innovative technology and services, through collaboration and agility.
    • To collaborate and empower our stakeholder, by delivering innovative technology and services, with an engaged team and operational agility.
    • To partner with departments and be technology leaders that will deliver innovative, secure, efficient, and cost-effective services for our citizens.
    • As a client-centric strategic partner, provide excellence in IM and IT services through flexible business solutions for achieving positive user experience and satisfaction.
    • Develop a high-performing global team that will plan and build a scalable, stable operating environment.
    • Through communication and collaboration, empower stakeholders with innovative technology and services.
    • Build a robust portfolio of technology services and solutions, enabling science-lead and business-driven success.
    • Guided by value-driven decision making, high-performing teams and trusted partners deliver and continually improve secure, reliable, scalable, and reusable services that exceed customer expectations.
    • Engage the business to grow capabilities and securely deliver efficient services to our users and clients.
    • Engage the business to securely deliver efficient services and grow capabilities for our users and clients.

    IT vision statements demonstrate what the IT organization aspires to be

    The IT vision statement communicates a desired future state of the IT organization. The statement is expressed in the present tense. It seeks to articulate the desired role of IT and how IT will be perceived.

    Strong IT vision statements have the following characteristics:

    • Describe a desired future
    • Focus on ends, not means
    • Communicate promise
    • Are:
      • Concise; no unnecessary words
      • Compelling
      • Achievable
      • Inspirational
      • Memorable

    Sample IT vision statements:

    • To be a trusted advisor and partner in enabling business innovation and growth through an engaged IT workforce.
    • The IT organization will strive to become a world-class value center that is a catalyst for innovation.
    • IT is a cohesive, proactive, and disciplined team that delivers innovative technology solutions while demonstrating a strong customer-oriented mindset.
    • Develop and maintain IT and an IT support environment that is secure, stable, and reliable within a dynamic environment.

    Sample vision statements (cont'd)

    • Alignment: To ensure that the IT organizational model and all related operational services and duties are properly aligned with all underlying business goals and objectives. Alignment reflects an IT operation "that makes sense," considering the business served, its interests and its operational imperatives.
    • Engagement: To ensure that all IT vision stakeholders are fully engaged in technology-related planning and the operational parameters of the IT service portfolio. IT stakeholders include the IT performing organization (IT Department), company executives and end-users.
    • Best Practices: To ensure that IT operates in a standardized fashion, relying on practical management standards and strategies properly sized to technology needs and organizational capabilities.
    • Commitment to Customer Service: To ensure that IT services are provided in a timely, high-quality manner, designed to fill the operational needs of the front-line end-users, working within the boundaries established by business interests and technology best practices.

    Quoted From ITtoolkit, 2020

    Case Study

    Acme Corp. was able to construct its IT mission and vison statements by aligning to its corporate mission and vision.

    INDUSTRY: Professional Services
    COMPANY: This case study is based on a real company but was anonymized for use in this research.

    Business

    IT

    Mission

    Vision

    Mission

    Vision

    We help IT leaders achieve measurable results by systematically improving core IT processes, governance, and critical technology projects.

    Acme Corp. will grow to become the largest research firm across the industry by providing unprecedented value to our clients.

    IT provides innovative product solutions and leadership that drives growth and success.

    We will relentlessly drive value to our customers through unprecedented innovation.

    IT guiding principles set the boundaries for your strategy

    Strategic guiding principles advise the IT organization on the boundaries of the strategy.

    Guiding principles are a priori decisions that limit the scope of strategic thinking to what is acceptable organizationally, from budgetary, people, and partnership standpoints. Guiding principles can cover other dimensions, as well.

    Organizational stakeholders are more likely to follow IT principles when a rationale is provided.

    After defining the set of IT principles, ensure that they are all expanded upon with a rationale. The rationale ensures principles are more likely to be followed because they communicate why the principles are important and how they are to be used. Develop the rationale for each IT principle your organization has chosen.

    IT guiding principles = IT strategy boundaries

    Consider these four components when brainstorming guiding principles

    Breadth

    of the IT strategy can span across the eight perspectives: people, process, technology, data, process, sourcing, location, and timing.

    Defining which of the eight perspectives is in scope for the IT strategy is crucial to ensuring the IT strategy will be comprehensive, relevant, and actionable.

    Depth

    of coverage refers to the level of detail the IT strategy will go into for each perspective. Info-Tech recommends that depth should go to the initiative level (i.e. individual projects).

    Organizational coverage

    will determine which part of the organization the IT strategy will cover.

    Planning horizon

    of the IT strategy will dictate when the target state should be reached and the length of the roadmap.

    Consider these criteria when brainstorming guiding principle statements

    Approach focused IT principles are focused on the approach, i.e. 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 IT principles that are actionable. Avoid truisms, general statements, and observations.
    Verifiable If compliance can't be verified, the principle is less likely to be followed.
    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 reinforced 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.

    Review ten universal IT principles to determine if your organization wishes to adopt them

    IT principle name

    IT principle statement

    1. Enterprise value focus We aim to provide maximum long-term benefits to the enterprise as a whole while optimizing total costs of ownership and risks.
    2. Fit for purpose We maintain capability levels and create solutions that are fit for purpose without over engineering them.
    3. Simplicity We choose the simplest solutions and aim to reduce operational complexity of the enterprise.
    4. Reuse > buy > build We maximize reuse of existing assets. If we can't reuse, we procure externally. As a last resort, we build custom solutions.
    5. Managed data We handle data creation, modification, and use enterprise-wide in compliance with our data governance policy.
    6. Controlled technical diversity We control the variety of technology platforms we use.
    7. Managed security We manage security enterprise-wide in compliance with our security governance policy.
    8. Compliance to laws and regulations We operate in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.
    9. Innovation We seek innovative ways to use technology for business advantage.
    10. Customer centricity We deliver best experiences to our customers with our services and products.

    1.1.3 Elicit guiding principles

    1 hour

    Objective: Generate ideas for guiding principle statements with silent sticky note writing.

    1. Gather the IT strategy creation team and revisit your mission and vision statements.
    2. Ask the group to brainstorm answers individually, silently writing their ideas on separate sticky notes. Provide the brainstorming criteria from the previous slide to all team members. Allow the team to put items on separate notes that can later be shuffled and sorted as distinct thoughts.
    3. After a set amount of time, ask the members of the group to stick their notes to the whiteboard and quickly present them. Categorize all ideas into four major buckets: breadth, depth, organizational coverage, and planning horizon. Ideally, you want one guiding principle to describe each of the four components.
    4. If there are missing guiding principles in any category or anyone's items inspire others to write more, they can stick those up on the wall too, after everyone has presented.
    5. Discuss and finalize your IT guiding principles.
    6. Document your guiding principles in the IT Strategy Presentation Template in Section 1.

    Source: Hyper Island

    Download the ITRG IT Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template and document your mission and vision statements in Section 1.

    Input

    • Four components for eliciting guiding principles
    • Mission and vision statements

    Output

    • IT guiding principles
    • IT strategy scope

    Materials

    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard
    • Paper
    • Collaboration/brain-storming tool (whiteboard, flip chart, digital equivalent)

    Participants

    • CIO
    • Senior IT Team

    Guiding principle examples

    • Alignment: Our IT decisions will align with [our organization's] strategic plan.
    • Resources: We will allocate cyber-infrastructure resources based on providing the greatest value and benefit for [the community].
    • User Focus: User needs will be a key component in all IT decisions.
    • Collaboration: We will work within and across organizational structures to meet strategic goals and identify opportunities for innovation and improvement.
    • Transparency: We will be transparent in our decision making and resource use.
    • Innovation: We will value innovative and creative thinking.
    • Data Stewardship: We will provide a secure but accessible data environment.
    • IT Knowledge and Skills: We will value technology skills development for the IT community.
    • Drive reduced costs and improved services
    • Deploy packaged apps – do not develop – retain business process knowledge expertise – reduce apps portfolio
    • Standardize/Consolidate infrastructure with key partners
    • Use what we sell, and help sell
    • Drive high-availability goals: No blunders
    • Ensure hardened security and disaster recovery
    • Broaden skills (hard and soft) across the workforce
    • Improve business alignment and IT governance

    Quoted From: Office of Information Technology, 2014; Future of CIO, 2013

    Case Study

    Acme Corp. elicited guiding principles that set the scope of its IT strategy for FY21.

    INDUSTRY: Professional Services
    COMPANY: Acme Corp.

    The following guiding principles define the values that drive IT's strategy in FY23 and provide the criteria for our 12-month planning horizon.

    • We will focus on big-ticket items during the next 12 months.
    • We will keep the budget within 5%+/- YOY.
    • We will insource over outsource.
    • We will develop a cloud-first technology stack.

    Finalize your IT strategy scope

    Your mission and vision statements and your guiding principles should be the first things you communicate on your IT strategy document.

    Why is this important?

    • Communicating these elements shows how IT supports the corporate direction.
    • The vision and mission statements will clearly articulate IT's aspirations and purpose.
    • The guiding principles will clearly articulate how IT plans to support the business strategically.
    • These elements set expectations with stakeholders for the rest of your strategy.

    Input information into the IT Strategy Presentation Template.

    an image showing the IT Strategy Scope.

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Established the scope of your IT strategy

    • Constructed the IT mission statement to communicate the IT organization's reason for being.
    • Constructed the IT vision statement to communicate the desired future state of the IT organization.
    • Elicited IT's guiding principles to communicate the overall scope and time horizon for the strategy.

    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

    Step 1.2

    Business Goal Alignment

    Activities

    1.2.1 Intake identification and analysis

    1.2.2 Survey results analysis

    1.2.3 Goal brainstorming

    1.2.4 Goal association and analysis

    This step requires the following inputs:

    • Last year's accomplished project list
    • Business unit input source list
    • Goal list
    • In-flight initiatives list

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Business leadership
    • Project Management Office
    • Service Desk
    • Business Relationship Management
    • Solution or Enterprise Architecture
    • Roadmap team

    Outcomes of this step

    • Intake analysis
    • Goal list
    • Initiative-to-goal map

    Identify who is expecting what from the infrastructure

    "Typically, IT thinks in an IT first, business second, way: 'I have a list of problems and if I solve them, the business will benefit.' This is the wrong way of thinking. The business needs to be thought of first, then IT."

    – Fred Chagnon, Infrastructure Director,
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Info-Tech Insight

    If you're not soliciting input from or delivering on the needs of the various departments in your company, then who is? Be explicit and track how you communicate with each individual unit within your company.

    Mature project portfolio management and enterprise architecture practices are no substitute for understanding your business clientele.

    It may not be a democracy, but listening to everyone's voice is an essential step toward generating a useful roadmap.

    Building good infrastructure requires an understanding of how it will be used. Explicit consultation with stakeholders maximizes a roadmap's usefulness and holds the enterprise accountable in future roadmap iterations as goals change.

    Who are the customers for infrastructure?

    Internal customer examples:

    • Network Operations manager
    • IT Systems manager
    • Webmaster
    • Security manager

    External customer examples:

    • Director of Sales
    • Operations manager
    • Applications manager
    • Clients
    • Partners and consultants
    • Regulators/government

    1.2.1 Intake identification and analysis

    1 hour

    The humble checklist is the single most effective tool to ensure we don't forget someone or something:

    1. Have everyone write down their top five completed projects from last year – one project per sticky note.
    2. Organize everyone's sticky notes on a whiteboard according to input source – did these projects come from the PMO? Directly from a BRM? Service request? VP or LoB management?
    3. Make a MECE list of these sources on the left-hand side of a whiteboard.
    4. On the right-hand side list all the departments or functional business units within the company.
    5. Draw lines from right to left indicating which business units use which input source to request work.
    6. Optional: Rate the efficacy of each input channel – what is the success rate of projects per channel in terms of time, budget, and functionality?

    Discussion:

    1. How clearly do projects and initiatives arrive at infrastructure to be acted on? Do they follow the predictable formal process with all the needed information or is it more ad hoc?
    2. Can we validate that business units are using the correct input channel to request the appropriate work? Does infrastructure have to spend more time validating the requests of any one channel?
    3. Can we identify business units that are underserved? How about overserved? Infrastructure initiatives tend to be near universal in effect – are we forgetting anyone?
    4. Are all these methods passive (order taking), or is there a process for infrastructure to suggest an initiative or project?

    Input

    • Last year's accomplished project list

    Output

    • Work requested workflow and map

    Materials

    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard & markers

    Participants

    • Roadmap team

    Case Study

    Building IT governance and digital infrastructure for tech-enabled student experiences

    INDUSTRY: Education
    COMPANY: Collegis Education

    Challenge

    In 2019, Saint Francis University decided to expand its online program offering to reach students outside of its market.

    It had to first transform its operations to deliver a high-quality, technology-enabled student experience on and off campus. The remote location of the campus posed power outages, Wi-Fi issues, and challenges in attracting and retaining the right staff to help the university achieve its goals.

    It began working with an IT consulting firm to build a long-term strategic roadmap.

    Solution

    The consultant designed a strategic multi-year roadmap for digital transformation that would prioritize developing infrastructure to immediately improve the student experience and ultimately enable the university to scale its online programs. The consultant worked with school leadership to establish a virtual CIO to oversee the IT department's strategy and operations. The virtual CIO quickly became a key advisor to the president and board, identifying gaps between technology initiatives and enrollment and revenue targets. St. Francis staff also transitioned to the consultant's technology team, allowing the university to alleviate its talent acquisition and retention challenges.

    Results

    • $200,000 in funds reallocated to help with upgrades due to streamlined technology infrastructure
    • Updated card access system for campus staff and students
    • Active directory implementation for a secure and strong authentication technology
    • An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) backup is installed to ensure power continues in the event of a power outage
    • Upgrade to a reliable, campus-wide Wi-Fi network
    • Behind-the-scenes upgrades like state-of-the-art data centers to stabilize aging technology for greater reliability

    Track your annual activity by business unit – not by input source

    A simple graph showing the breakdown of projects by business unit is an excellent visualization of who is getting the most from infrastructure services.

    Show everyone in the organization that the best way to get anything done is by availing themselves of the roadmap process.

    An image of two bar graphs, # of initiatives requested
by customer; # of initiatives proposed to customer.

    Enable technology staff to engage in business storytelling by documenting known goals in a framework

    Without a goal framework

    Technology-focused IT staff are notoriously disconnected from the business process and are therefore often unable to explain the outcomes of their projects in terms that are meaningful to the business.

    With a goal framework

    When business, IT, and infrastructure goals are aligned, the business story writes itself as you follow the path of cascading goals upward.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    So many organizations we speak with don't have goals written down. This rarely means that the goals aren't known, rather that they're not clearly communicated.

    When goals aren't clear, personal agendas can take precedence. This is what often leads to the disconnect between what the business wants and what IT is delivering.

    1.2.2 Survey and results analysis

    1 hour

    Infrastructure succeeds by effectively scaling shared resources for the common good. Sometimes that is a matter of aggregating similarities, sometimes by recognizing where specialization is required.

    1. Have every business unit provide their top three to five current goals or objectives for their department. Emphasize that you are requesting their operational objectives, not just the ones they think IT may be able to help them with.
    2. Put each goal on a sticky note (optional: use a unique sticky note or marker color for each department) and place them on a whiteboard.
    3. Group the sticky notes according to common themes.
    4. Rank each grouping according to number of occurrences.

    Discussion:

    1. This is very democratic. Do certain departments' goals carry more weight more than others?
    2. What is the current business prioritization process? Do the results of our activity match with the current published output of this process?
    3. Consider each business goal in the context of infrastructure activity or technology feature or capability. As infrastructure is a lift function existing only to serve the business, it is important to understand our world in context.

    Examples: The VP of Operations is looking to reduce office rental costs over the next three years. The VP of Sales is focused on increasing the number of face-to-face customer interactions. Both can potentially be served by IT activities and technologies that increase mobility.

    Input

    • Business unit input source list

    Output

    • Prioritized list of business goals

    Materials

    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard & markers

    Participants

    • Roadmap team

    1.2.3 Goal brainstorming – Affinity diagramming exercise

    1 hour

    Clarify how well you understand what the business wants.

    1. Ask each participant to consider: "What are the top three priorities of the company [this period]?" They should consider not what they think the priorities should be, but their understanding of what business leadership's priorities actually are.
    2. Have each participant write down their three priorities on sticky notes – one per note.
    3. Select a moderator from the group – not the infrastructure leader or the CIO. The moderator will begin by placing (and explaining) their sticky notes on the whiteboard.
    4. Have each participant place and explain their sticky notes on the whiteboard.
    5. The moderator will assist each participant in grouping sticky notes together based on theme.
    6. Groups that become overly large may be broken into smaller, more precise themes.
    7. Once everyone has placed their sticky notes, and the groups have been arranged and rearranged, you should have a visual representation of infrastructure's understanding of the business' priorities.
    8. Let the infrastructure leader and/or CIO place their sticky notes last.

    Discussion:

    Is there a lot of agreement within the group? What does it mean if there are 10 or 15 groups with equal numbers of sticky notes? What does it mean if there are a few top groups and dozens of small outliers?

    How does the group's understanding compare with that of the Director and/or CIO?

    What mechanisms are in place for the business to communicate their goals to infrastructure? Are they effective? Does the team take the time to reimagine those goals and internalize them?

    What does it mean if infrastructure's understanding differs from the business?

    Input

    • Business unit input source list

    Output

    • Prioritized list of business goals

    Materials

    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard & markers

    Participants

    • Roadmap team

    Additional Activity

    Now that infrastructure has a consensus on what it thinks the business' goals are, suggest a meeting with leadership to validate this understanding. Once the first picture is drawn, a 30-minute meeting can help clear up any misconceptions.

    Build your own framework or start with these three root value drivers

    With a framework of cascading goals in place, a roadmap is a Rosetta Stone. Being able to map activities back to governance objectives allows you to demonstrate value regardless of the audience you are addressing.

    An image of the framework for developing a roadmap using three root value drivers.

    (Info-Tech, Build a Business-Aligned IT Strategy 2022)

    1.2.4 Goal association exercise and analysis

    1 hour

    Wherever possible use the language of your customers to avoid confusion, but at least ensure that everyone in infrastructure is using a common language.

    1. Take your business strategy or IT strategy or survey response (Activity 1.2.3) or Info-Tech's fundamental goals list (strategic agility, improved cash flow, innovate product, safety, standardize end-user experience) and write them across the top of a whiteboard.
    2. Have everyone write, on a sticky note, their current in-flight initiatives – one per sticky note.
    3. Have each participant then place each of their sticky notes on the whiteboard and draw a line from the initiative to the goal it supports.
    4. The rest of the group should challenge any relationships that seem unsupported or questionable.

    Discussion:

    1. How many goals are you supporting? Are there too many? Are you doing enough to support the right goals?
    2. Is there a shared understanding of the business goals among the infrastructure staff? Or, do questions about meaning keep coming up?
    3. Do you have initiatives that are difficult to express in terms of business goals? Do you have a lot of them or just a few?

    Input

    • Goal list
    • In-flight initiatives list

    Output

    • Initiatives-to-goals map

    Materials

    • Whiteboard & markers

    Participants

    • Roadmap team

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Review performance from last fiscal year.

    • Analyzed and communicated the benefits and value realized from IT's strategic initiatives in the past fiscal year.
    • Analyzed and prioritized diagnostic data insights to communicate IT success stories.
    • Elicited important retrospective information such as KPIs, financials, etc. to build IT's credibility as a strategic business partner.

    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

    Phase 2

    Envision Future and Analyze Constraints

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    Phase 4

    1.1 Infrastructure strategy

    1.2 Goal alignment

    2.1 Define your future

    2.2 Conduct constraints analysis

    3.1 Drive business alignment

    3.2. Build the roadmap

    4.1 Identify the audience

    4.2 Process improvement

    and measurements

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Determine from a greenfield perspective what the future state looks like.
    • Do SWOT analysis on technology you may plan to use in the future.
    • Complete a time study.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Roadmap team

    Step 2.1

    Define the future state

    Activities

    2.1.1 Define your future infrastructure vision

    2.1.2 Document desired future state

    2.1.3 Develop a new technology identification process

    2.1.4 Conduct a SWOT analysis

    This step requires the following inputs:

    • Emerging technology interest

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Roadmap team
    • External SMEs

    Outcomes of this step

    • Technology discovery process
    • Technology assessment process
    • Future state vision document

    Future state discussion

    "Very few of us are lucky enough to be one of the first few employees in a new organization. Those of you who get to plan the infrastructure with a blank slate and can focus all of your efforts on doing things right the first time."

    BMC, 2018

    "A company's future state is ultimately defined as the greater vision for the business. It's where you want to be, your long-term goal in terms of the ever-changing state of technology and how that applies to your present-day business."
    "Without a definitive future state, a company will often find themselves lacking direction, making it harder to make pivotal decisions, causing misalignment amongst executives, and ultimately hindering the progression and growth of a company's mission."
    Source: Third Stage Consulting

    "When working with digital technologies, it is imperative to consider how such technologies can enhance the solution. The future state should communicate the vision of how digital technologies will enhance the solutions, deliver value, and enable further development toward even greater value creation."
    Source: F. Milani

    Info-Tech Insight

    Define your infrastructure roadmap as if you had a blank slate – no constraints, no technical debt, and no financial limitations. Imagine your future infrastructure and let that vision drive your roadmap.

    Expertise is not innate; it requires effort and research

    Evaluating new enterprise technology is a process of defining it, analyzing it, and sourcing it.

    • Understand what a technology is in order to have a common frame of reference for discussion. Just as important, understand what it is not.
    • Conduct an internal and external analysis of the technology including an adoption case study.
    • Provide an overview of the vendor landscape, identifying the leading players in the market and how they differentiate their offerings.

    This is not intended to be a thesis grade research project, nor an onerous duty. Most infrastructure practitioners came to the field because of an innate excitement about technology! Harness that excitement and give them four to eight hours to indulge themselves.

    An output of approximately four slides per technology candidate should be sufficient to decided if moving to PoC or pilot is warranted.

    Including this material in the roadmap helps you control the technology conversation with your audience.

    Info-Tech Best Practices

    Don't start from scratch. Recall the original sources from your technology watchlist. Leverage vendors and analyst firms (such as Info-Tech) to give the broad context, letting you focus instead on the specifics relevant to your business.

    Channel emerging technologies to ensure the rising tide floats all boats rather than capsizing your business

    Adopting the wrong new technology can be even more dangerous than failing to adopt any new technology.

    Implementing every new promising technology would cost prodigious amounts of money and time. Know the costs before choosing what to invest in.

    The risk of a new technology failing is acceptable. The risk of that failure disrupting adjacent core functions is unacceptable. Vet potential technologies to ensure they can be safely integrated.

    Best practices for new technologies are nonexistent, standards are in flux, and use cases are fuzzy. Be aware of the unforeseen that will negatively affect your chances of a successful implementation.

    "Like early pioneers crossing the American plains, first movers have to create their own wagon trails, but later movers can follow in the ruts."
    Harper Business, 2014

    Info-Tech Insight

    The right technology for someone else can easily be the wrong technology for your business.

    Even with a mature Enterprise Architecture practice, wrong technology bets can happen. Minimize the chance of this occurrence by making selection an infrastructure-wide activity. Leverage the practical knowledge of the day-to-day operators.

    First Mover

    47% failure rate

    Fast Follower

    8% failure rate

    2.1.1 Create your future infrastructure vision

    1 hour

    Objective: Help teams define their future infrastructure state (assuming zero constraints or limitations).

    1. Ask each participant to ponder the question: "How would the infrastructure look if there were no limitations?" They should consider all aspects of their infrastructure but keep in mind the infrastructure vision and mission statements from phase one, as well as the business goals.
    2. Have each participant write down their ideas on sticky notes – one per note.
    3. Select a moderator and a scribe from the group – not the infrastructure leader or the CIO. The moderator will begin by placing (and explaining) their sticky notes on the whiteboard. The scribe will summarize the results in short statements at the end.
    4. Have each participant place and explain their sticky notes on the whiteboard.
    5. The moderator will assist each participant in grouping sticky notes together based on theme.
    6. Once everyone has placed their sticky notes and groups have been arranged and rearranged, you should have a visual representation of infrastructure's understanding of the business' priorities.
    7. Let the infrastructure leader and/or CIO place their sticky notes last.

    Discussion:

    1. Assume a blank slate as a starting point. No technical debt or financial constraints; nothing holding you back.
    2. Can SaaS, PaaS, or other cloud-based offerings play a role in this future utopia?
    3. Do vendors play a larger or smaller role in your future infrastructure vision?

    Download the IT Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template and document your mission and vision statements in Section 1.

    Input

    • Thoughts and ideas about how the future infrastructure should look.

    Output

    • Future state vision

    Materials

    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard & markers

    Participants

    • Roadmap team

    2.1.1 Document your future state vision (cont'd)

    Objective: Help teams define their future infrastructure state (assuming zero constraints or limitations).

    1 hour

    Steps:

    1. The scribe will take the groups of suggestions and summarize them in a statement or two, briefly describing the infrastructure in that group.
    2. The statements should be recorded on Tab 2 of the Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Tool.

    Discussion:

    • Should the points be listed in any specific order?
    • Include all suggestions in the summary. Remember this is a blank slate with no constraints, and no idea is higher or lower in weight at this stage.
    Infrastructure Future State Vision
    Item Focus Area Future Vision
    1 Email Residing on Microsoft 365
    2 Servers Hosted in cloud - nothing on prem.
    3 Endpoints virtual desktops on Microsoft Azure
    4 Endpoint hardware Chromebooks
    5 Network internet only
    6 Backups cloud based but stored in multiple cloud services
    7

    Download Info-Tech's Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Tool and document your future state vision in the Infrastructure Future State tab.

    Input

    • Thoughts and ideas about how the future infrastructure should look.

    Output

    • Future state vision

    Materials

    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard & markers

    Participants

    • Roadmap team

    2.1.2 Identification and association exercise

    1 hour

    Formalize what is likely an ad hoc process.

    1. Brainstorm with the group a list of external sources they are currently using to stay abreast of the market.
    2. Organize this list on the left-hand side of a whiteboard, in vendor and vendor-neutral groups.
      1. For each item in the list ask a series of questions:
      2. Is this a push or pull source?
      3. Is this source suited to individual or group consumption?
      4. What is the frequency of this source?
    3. What is the cost of this source to the company?
    4. On the right-hand side of the whiteboard brainstorm a list of internal mechanisms for sharing new technology information. Ask about the audience, distribution mode, and frequency for each of those mechanisms.
    5. Map which of the external sources make it over to internal distribution.

    Discussion:

    1. Are we getting the most value out of our high-cost conferences? Does that information make it from the attendees to the rest of the team?
    2. Do we share information only within our domains? Or across the whole infrastructure practice?
    3. Do we have sufficient diversity of sources? Are we in danger of believing one vendor's particular market interpretation?
    4. How do we select new technologies to explore further? Make it fun – upvotes, for example.

    Input

    • Team knowledge
    • Conference notes
    • Expense reports

    Output

    • Internal socialization process
    • Tech briefings & repository

    Materials

    • Whiteboard & markers

    Participants

    • Roadmap team

    Info-Tech Best Practices

    It is impractical for everyone to present their tech briefing at the monthly meeting. But you want to avoid a one-to-many exercise. Keep the presenter a secret until called on. Those who do not present live can still contribute their material to the technology watchlist database.

    Analyze new technologies for your future state

    Four to eight hours of research per technology can uncover a wealth of relevant information and prepare the infrastructure team for a robust discussion. Key research elements include:

    • Précis: A single page or slide that describes the technology, outlines some of the vendors, and explores the value proposition.
    • SWOT Analysis:
      • Strengths and weaknesses: What does the technology inherently do well (e.g. lots of features) and what does it do poorly (e.g. steep learning curve)?
      • Opportunities and threats: What capabilities can the technology enable (e.g. build PCs faster, remote sensing)? Why would we not want to exploit this technology (e.g. market volatility, M&As)

    a series of four screenshots from the IT Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template

    Download the IT Infrastructure Strategy and Roadmap Report Template slides 21, 22, 23 for sample output.

    Position infrastructure as the go-to source for information about new technology

    One way or another, tech always seems to finds its way into infrastructure's lap. Better to stay in front and act as stewards rather than cleanup crew.

    Beware airline magazine syndrome!

    Symptoms

    Pathology
    • Leadership speaking in tech buzzwords
    • Urgent meetings to discuss vaguely defined topics
    • Fervent exclamations of "I don't care how – just get it done!"
    • Management showing up on at your doorstep needing help with their new toy

    Outbreaks tend to occur in close proximity to

    • Industry trade shows
    • Excessive executive travel
    • Vendor BRM luncheons or retreats with leadership
    • Executive golf outings with old college roommates

    Effective treatment options

    1. Targeted regular communication with a technology portfolio analysis customized to the specific goals of the business.
    2. Ongoing PoC and piloting efforts with detailed results reporting.

    While no permanent cure exists, regular treatment makes this chronic syndrome manageable.

    Keep your roadmap horizon in mind

    Technology doesn't have to be bleeding edge. New-to-you can have plenty of value.

    You want to present a curated landscape of technologies, demonstrating that you are actively maintaining expertise in your chosen field.

    Most enterprise IT shops buy rather than develop their technology, which means they want to focus effort on what is market available. The outcome is that infrastructure sponsors and delivers new technologies whose capabilities and features will help the business achieve its goals on this roadmap.

    If you want to think more like a business disruptor or innovator, we suggest working through the blueprint Exploit Disruptive Infrastructure Technology.
    Explore technology five to ten years into the future!

    a quadrant analysis comparing innovation and transformation, as well as two images from Exploit Disruptive Infrastructure Technology.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The ROI of any individual effort is difficult to justify – in aggregate, however, the enterprise always wins!
    Money spent on Google Glass in 2013 seemed like vanity. Certainly, this wasn't enterprise-ready technology. But those early experiences positioned some visionary firms to quickly take advantage of augmented reality in 2018. Creative research tends to pay off in unexpected and unpredictable ways.
    .

    2.1.3 Working session, presentation, and feedback

    1 hour

    Complete a SWOT analysis with future state technology.

    The best research hasn't been done in isolation since the days of da Vinci.

    1. Divide the participants into small groups of at least four people.
    2. Further split those groups into two teams – the red team and the white team.
    3. Assign a technology candidate from the last exercise to each group. Ideally the group should have some initial familiarity with the technology and/or space.
    4. The red team from each group will focus on the weaknesses and threats of the technology. The white team will focus on the strengths and opportunities of the technology.
    5. Set a timer and spend the next 30-40 minutes completing the SWOT analysis.
    6. Have each group present their analysis to the larger team. Encourage conversation and debate. Capture and refine the understanding of the analysis.
    7. Reset with the next technology candidate. Have the participants switch teams within their groups.
    8. Continue until you've exhausted your technology candidates.

    Discussion:

    1. Does working in a group make for better research? Why?
    2. Do you need specific expertise in order to evaluate a technology? Is an outsider (non-expert) view sometimes valuable?
    3. Is it easier to think of the positive or the negative qualities of a technology? What about the internal or external implications?

    Input

    • Technology candidates

    Output

    • Technology analysis including SWOT

    Materials

    • Projector
    • Templates
    • Laptops & internet

    Participants

    • Roadmap team

    Step 2.2

    Constraints analysis

    Activities

    2.2.1 Historical spend analysis

    2.2.2 Conduct a time study

    2.2.3 Identify roadblocks

    This step requires the following inputs:

    • Historical spend and staff numbers
    • Organizational design identification and thought experiment
    • Time study
    • Roadblock brainstorming session
    • Prioritization exercise

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Financial leader
    • HR Leader
    • Roadmap team

    Outcomes of this step

    • OpEx, CapEx, and staffing trends
    • Domain time study
    • Prioritized roadblock list

    2.2.1 Historical spend analysis

    "A Budget is telling your money where to go, instead of wondering where it went."
    -David Ramsay

    "Don't tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I'll tell you what they are"
    -James Frick, Due.com

    Annual IT budgeting aligns with business goals
    a circle showing 68%, broken down into 50% and 18%

    50% of businesses surveyed see that improvements are necessary for IT budgets to align to business goals, while 18% feel they require significant improvements to align to business goals
    Source: ITRG Diagnostics 2022

    Challenges in IT spend visibility

    68%

    Visibility of all spend data for on-prem, SaaS and cloud environments
    Source: Flexera

    The challenges that keep IT leaders up at night

    47%

    Lack of visibility in resource usage and cost
    Source: BMC, 2021

    2.2.1 Build a picture of your financial spending and staffing trends

    Follow the steps below to generate a visualization so you can start the conversation:

    1 hour

    1. Open the Info-Tech Infrastructure Roadmap Financial Spend Analysis Tool.
    2. The Instructions tab will provide guidance, or you can follow the instructions below.
    3. Insert values into the appropriate uncolored blocks in the first 4 rows of the Spend Record Entry tab to reflect the amount spent on IT OpEx, IT CapEx, or staff numbers for the present year (budgeted) as well as the previous five years.
    4. Data input populates cells in subsequent rows to quickly reveal spending ratios.

    an image of the timeline table from the Infrastructure Roadmap Financial Analysis Tool

    Download the Infrastructure Roadmap Financial Analysis Tool
    ( additional Deep Dive available if required)

    Input

    • Historical spend and staff numbers

    Output

    • OpEx, CapEx, and staffing trends for your organization

    Materials

    • Info-Tech's Infrastructure Roadmap Financial Spend Analysis Tool

    Participants

    • Infrastructure leader
    • Financial leader
    • HR leader

    2.2.1 Build a picture of your financial spending and staffing trends (cont'd)

    Continue with the steps below to generate a visualization so you can start the conversation.

    1 hour

    1. Select tab 3 (Results) to reveal a graphical analysis of your data.
    2. Trends are shown in graphs for OpEx, CapEx, and staffing levels as well as comparative graphs to show broader trends between multiple spend and staffing areas.
    3. Some observations worth noting may include the following:
      • Is OpEx spending increasing over time or decreasing?
      • Is CapEx increasing or decreasing?
      • Are OpEx and CapEx moving in the same directions?
      • Are IT staff to total staff ratios increasing or decreasing?
      • Trends will continue in the same direction unless changes are made.

    Download the Infrastructure Roadmap Financial Analysis Tool
    ( additional Deep Dive available if required)

    Input

    • Historical spend and staff numbers

    Output

    • OpEx, CapEx, and staffing trends for your organization

    Materials

    • Info-Tech's Infrastructure Roadmap Financial Spend Analysis Tool

    Participants

    • Infrastructure leader
    • Financial leader
    • HR leader

    Consider perceptions held by the enterprise when dividing infrastructure into domains

    2.2.2 Conduct a time study

    Internal divisions that seem important to infrastructure may have little or even negative value when it comes to users accessing their services.

    Domains are the logical divisions of work within an infrastructure practice. Historically, the organization was based around physical assets: servers, storage, networking, and end-user devices. Staff had skills they applied according to specific best practices using physical objects that provided functionality (computing power, persistence, connectivity, and interface).

    Modern enterprises may find it more effective to divide according to activity (analytics, programming, operations, and security) or function (customer relations, learning platform, content management, and core IT). As a rule, look to your organizational chart; managers responsible for buying, building, deploying, or supporting technologies should each be responsible for their own domain.

    Regardless of structure, poor organization leads to silos of marginally interoperable efforts working against each other, without focus on a common goal. Clearly defined domains ensure responsibility and allow for rapid, accurate, and confident decision making.

    • Server
    • Network
    • Storage
    • End User
    • DevOps
    • Analytics
    • Core IT
    • Security

    Info-Tech Insight

    The medium is the message. Do stakeholders talk about switches or storage or services? Organizing infrastructure to match its external perception can increase communication effectiveness and improve alignment.

    Case Study

    IT infrastructure that makes employees happier

    INDUSTRY: Services
    SOURCE: Network Doctor

    Challenge

    Atlas Electric's IT infrastructure was very old and urgently needed to be refreshed. Its existing server hardware was about nine years old and was becoming unstable. The server was running Windows 2008 R2 server operating systems that was no longer supported by Microsoft; security updates and patches were no longer available. They also experienced slowdowns on many older PCs.

    Recommendations for an upgrade were not approved due to budgetary constraints. Recommendations for upgrading to virtual servers were approved following a harmful phishing attack.

    Solution

    The following improvements to their infrastructure were implemented.

    • Installing a new physical host server running VMWare ESXi virtualization software and hosting four virtual servers.
    • Migration of data and applications to new virtual servers.
    • Upgrading networking equipment and deploying new relays, switches, battery backups, and network management.
    • New server racks to host new hardware.

    Results

    Virtualization, consolidating servers, and desktops have made assets more flexible and simpler to manage.

    Improved levels of efficiency, reliability, and productivity.

    Enhanced security level.

    An upgraded backup and disaster recovery system has improved risk management.

    Optimize where you spend your time by doing a time study

    Infrastructure activity is limited generally by only two variables: money and time. Money is in the hands of the CFO, which leaves us a single variable to optimize.

    Not all time is spent equally, nor is it equally valuable. Analysis lets us communicate with others and gives us a shared framework to decide where our priorities lie.

    There are lots of frameworks to help categorize our activities. Stephen Covey (Seven Habits of Highly Effective People) describes a four-quadrant system along the axes of importance and urgency. Gene Kim, through his character Erik in The Phoenix Project,speaks instead of business projects, internal IT projects, changes, and unplanned work.

    We propose a similar four-category system.

    Project Maintenance

    Administrative

    Reactive

    Planned activity spent pursuing a business objective

    Planned activity spent on the upkeep of existing IT systems

    Planned activity required as a condition of employment

    Unplanned activity requiring immediate response

    This is why we are valuable to our company

    We have it in our power to work to reduce these three in order to maximize our time available for projects

    Survey and analysis

    Perform a quick time study.

    Verifiable data sources are always preferred but large groups can hold each other's inherent biases in check to get a reasonable estimate.

    1 hour

    1. Organize the participants into the domain groups established earlier.
    2. On an index card have each participant independently write down the percentage of time they think their entire domain (not themselves personally) spends during the average month, quarter, or year on:
      1. Admin
      2. Reactive work
      3. Maintenance
    3. Draw a matrix on the whiteboard; collect the index cards and transcribe the results from participants into the matrix.
    4. Add up the three reported time estimates and subtract from 100 – the result is the percentage of time available for/spent on project work.

    Discussion

    1. Certain domains should have higher percentages of reactive work (think Service Desk and Network Operations Center) – can we shift work around to optimize resources?
    2. Why is reactive work the least desirable type? Could we reduce our reactive work by increasing our maintenance work?
    3. From a planning perspective, what are the implications of only having x% of time available for project work?
    4. Does it feel like backing into the project work from adding the other three together provides a reasonable assessment?

    Input

    • Domain groups

    Output

    • Time study

    Materials

    • Whiteboard & markers
    • Index cards

    Participants

    • Roadmap team

    Quickly and easily evaluate all your infrastructure

    Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool, Tab 2, Capacity Analysis

    In order to quickly and easily build some visualizations for the eventual final report, Info-Tech has developed the Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool.

    • Up to five infrastructure domains are supported.
      • For practices that cannot be reasonably collapsed into five domains, multiple copies of the tool can be used and manually stitched together.
    • The tool can be used in either an absolute (total number) or relative mode (percentage of available).
    • By design we specifically don't ask for a project work figure but rather calculate it based on other values.
    • For everything but miscellaneous duties, hard data sources can (and where appropriate should) be leveraged.
      • Reactive work – service desk tool
      • Project work – project management tool
      • Maintenance work – logs or ITSM tool
    • Individual domains' values are calculated, as well as the overall breakdown for the infrastructure practice.
    • Even these rough estimates will be useful during the planning steps throughout the rest of the roadmap process.

    an image of the source capacity analysis page from tab 2 of the Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool

    Please note that this tool requires Microsoft's Power Pivot add-in to be installed if you are using Excel 2010 or 2013. The scatter plot labels on tabs 5 and 8 may not function correctly in Excel 2010.

    Build your roadmap from both the top and the bottom for best results

    Strong IT strategy favors top-down: activities enabling clearly dictated goals. The bottom-up approach aggregates ongoing activities into goals.

    Systematic approach

    External stakeholders prioritize a list of goals requiring IT initiatives to achieve.

    Roadblocks:

    • Multitudes of goals easily overwhelm scant IT resources.
    • Unglamorous yet vital maintenance activities get overlooked.
    • Goals are set without awareness of IT capacity or capabilities.

    Organic approach

    Practitioners aggregate initiatives into logical groups and seek to align them to one or more business goals.

    Roadblocks:

    • Pet initiatives can be perpetuated based on cult of personality rather than alignment to business goals.
    • Funding requests can fall flat when competing against other business units for executive support.

    A successful roadmap respects both approaches.

    an image of two arrows, intersecting with the words Infrastructure Roadmap with the top arrow labeled Systematic, and the bottom arrow being labeled Organic.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Perfection is anathema to practicality. Draw the first picture and not only expect but welcome conflicting feedback! Socialize it and drive the conversation forward to a consensus.

    2.2.3 Brainstorming – Affinity diagramming

    Identify the systemic roadblocks to executing infrastructure projects

    1 hour

    Affinity diagramming is a form of structured brainstorming that works well with larger groups and provokes discussion.

    1. Have each participant write down their top five impediments to executing their projects from last year – one roadblock per sticky note.
    2. Once everyone has written their top five, select a moderator from the group. The moderator will begin by placing (and explaining) their five sticky notes on the whiteboard.
    3. Have each participant then place and explain their sticky notes on the whiteboard.
    4. The moderator will assist participants in grouping sticky notes together based on theme.
    5. Groups that have become overly large may be broken into smaller, more precise themes.
    6. Once everyone has placed their sticky notes, you should be able to visually identify the greatest or most common roadblocks the group perceives.

    Discussion

    Categorize each roadblock identified as either internal or external to infrastructure's control.

    Attempt to understand the root cause of each roadblock. What would you need to ask for in order to remove the roadblock?

    Additional Research

    Also called the KJ Method (after its inventor, Jiro Kawakita, a 1960s Japanese anthropologist), this activity helps organize large amounts of data into groupings based on natural relationships while reducing many social biases.

    Input

    • Last years initiatives and their roadblocks

    Output

    • List of refined Roadblocks

    Materials

    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard & markers

    Participants

    • Roadmap team

    2.2.4 Prioritization exercise – Card sorting

    Choose your priorities wisely.

    Which roadblocks do you need to work on? How do you establish a group sense of these priorities? This exercise helps establish priorities while reducing individual bias.

    1 hour

    1. Distribute index cards that have been prepopulated with the roadblocks identified in the previous activity – one full set of cards to each participant.
    2. Have each participant sort their set-in order of perceived priority, highest on top.
    3. Where n=number of cards in the stack, take the n-3 lowest priority cards and put a tick mark in the upper-right-hand corner. Pass these cards to the person on the left, who should incorporate them into their pile (if you start with eight cards you're ticking and passing five cards). Variation: On the first pass, allow everyone to take the most important and least important cards, write "0th" and "NIL" on them, respectively, and set them aside.
    4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for a total of n times. Treat duplicates as a single card in your hand.
    5. After the final pass, ask each participant to write the priority in the upper-left-hand corner of their top three cards.
    6. Collect all the cards, group by roadblock, count the number of ticks, and take note of the final priority.

    Discussion

    Total the number of passes (ticks) for each roadblock. A large number indicates a notionally low priority. No passes indicates a high priority.

    Are the internal or external roadblocks of highest priority? Were there similarities among participants' 0th and NILs compared to each other or to the final results?

    Input

    • Roadblock list

    Output

    • Prioritized roadblocks

    Materials

    • Index cards

    Participants

    • Roadmap team

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Review performance from last fiscal year

    • Analyzed and communicated the benefits and value realized from IT's strategic initiatives in the past fiscal year.
    • Analyzed and prioritized diagnostic data insights to communicate IT success stories.
    • Elicited important retrospective information such as KPIs, financials, etc. to build IT's credibility as a strategic business partner.

    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

    Phase 3

    Align and Build the Roadmap

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    Phase 4

    1.1 Infrastructure strategy

    1.2 Goal alignment

    2.1 Define your future

    2.2 Conduct constraints analysis

    3.1 Drive business alignment

    3.2. Build the roadmap

    4.1 Identify the audience

    4.2 Process improvement

    and measurements

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Elicit business context from the CIO & IT team
    • Identify key initiatives that support the business
    • Identify key initiatives that enable IT excellence
    • Identify initiatives that drive technology innovation
    • Build initiative profiles
    • Construct your strategy roadmap

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Roadmap Team

    Step 3.1

    Drive business alignment

    Activities

    3.1.1 Develop a risk framework

    3.1.2 Evaluate technical debt

    This step requires the following inputs:

    • Intake identification and analysis
    • Survey results analysis
    • Goal brainstorming
    • Goal association and analysis

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Business leadership
    • Project Management Office
    • Service Desk
    • Business Relationship Management
    • Solution or Enterprise Architecture
    • Roadmap team

    Outcomes of this step

    • Intake analysis
    • Goal list
    • Initiative-to-goal map

    Speak for those with no voice – regularly review your existing portfolio of IT assets and services

    A chain is only as strong as its weakest link; while you'll receive no accolades for keeping the lights on, you'll certainly hear about it if you don't!

    Time has been a traditional method for assessing the fitness of infrastructure assets – servers are replaced every five years, core switches every seven, laptops and desktops every three. While quick, this framework of assessment is overly simplistic for most modern organizations.

    Building one that is instead based on the likelihood of asset failure plotted against the business impact of that failure is not overly burdensome and yields more practical results. Infrastructure focuses on its strength (assessing IT risk) and validates an understanding with the business regarding the criticality of the service(s) enabled by any given asset.

    Rather than fight on every asset individually, agree on a framework with the business that enables data-driven decision making.

    IT Risk Factors
    Age, Reliability, Serviceability, Conformity, Skill Set

    Business Risk Factors
    Suitability, Capacity, Safety, Criticality

    Info-Tech Insight

    Infrastructure in a cloud-enabled world: As infrastructure operations evolve it is important to keep current with the definition of an asset. Software platforms such as hypervisors and server OS are just as much an asset under the care and control of infrastructure as are cloud services, managed services from third-party providers, and traditional racks and switches.

    3.1.1 Develop a risk framework – Classification exercise

    While it's not necessary for each infrastructure domain to view IT risk identically, any differences should be intensely scrutinized.

    1 hour

    1. Divide the whiteboard along the axes of IT Risk and
      Business Risk (criticality) into quadrants:
      1. High IT Risk & High Biz Risk (upper right)
      2. Low IT Risk & Low Biz Risk (bottom left)
      3. Low IT Risk & High Biz Risk (bottom right)
      4. High IT Risk & Low Biz Risk (upper left)
    2. Have each participant write the names of two or three infrastructure assets or services they are responsible or accountable for – one name per sticky note.
    3. Have each participant come one-at-a-time and place their sticky notes in one quadrant.
    4. As each additional sticky note is placed, verify with the group that the relative positioning of the others is still accurate.

    Discussion:

    1. Most assets should end up in the lower-right quadrant, indicating that IT has lowered the risk of failure commensurate to the business consequences of a failure. What does this imply about assets in the other three quadrants?
    2. Infrastructure is foundational; do we properly document and communicate all dependencies for business-critical services?
    3. What actions can infrastructure take to adjust the risk profile of any given asset?

    Input

    • List of infrastructure assets

    Output

    • Notional risk analysis

    Materials

    • Whiteboard & markers
    • Sticky notes

    Participants

    • Roadmap team

    3.1.2 Brainstorming and prioritization exercise

    Identify the key elements that make up risk in order to refine your framework.

    A shared notional understanding is good, but in order to bring the business onside a documented defensible framework is better.

    1 hour

    1. Brainstorm (possibly using the affinity diagramming technique) the component elements of IT risk.
    2. Ensure you have a non-overlapping set of risk elements. Ensure that all the participants are comfortable with the definitions of each element. Write them on a whiteboard.
    3. Give each participant an equal number (three to five) of voting dots.
    4. As a group have the participants go the whiteboard and use their dots to cast their votes for what they consider to be the most important risk element(s). Participants are free to place any number of their dots on a single element.
    5. Based on the votes cast select a reasonable number of elements with which to proceed.
    6. For each element selected, brainstorm up to six tiers of the risk scale. You can use numbers or words, whichever is most compelling.
      • E.g. Reliability: no failures, >1 incident per year, >1 incident per quarter, >1 incident per month, frequent issues, unreliable.
    7. Repeat the above except with the components of business risk. Alternately, rely on existing business risk documentation, possibly from a disaster recovery or business continuity plan.

    Discussion
    How difficult was it to agree on the definitions of the IT risk elements? What about selecting the scale? What was the voting distribution like? Were there tiers of popular elements or did most of the dots end up on a limited number of elements? What are the implications of having more elements in the analysis?

    Input

    • Notional risk analysis

    Output

    • Risk elements
    • Scale dimensions

    Materials

    • Whiteboard & markers
    • Voting dots

    Participants

    • Roadmap team

    3.1.3 Forced ranking exercise

    Alternate: Identify the key elements that make up risk in order to refine your framework

    A shared notional understanding is good, but in order to bring the business onside a documented defensible framework is better.

    1 hour

    1. Brainstorm (possibly using the affinity diagramming technique) the component elements of IT risk.
    2. Ensure you have a non-overlapping set of risk elements. Ensure that all the participants are comfortable with the definitions of each element. Write them on a whiteboard.
    3. Distribute index cards (one per participant) with the risk elements written down one side.
    4. Ask the participants to rank the elements in order of importance, with 1 being the most important.
    5. Collect the cards and write the ranking results on the whiteboard.
    6. Look for elements with high variability. Also look for the distribution of 1, 2, and 3 ranks.
    7. Based on the results select a reasonable number of elements with which to proceed.
    8. Follow the rest of the procedure from the previous activity.

    Discussion:

    What was the total number of elements required in order to contain the full set of every participant's first-, second-, and third-ranked risks? Does this seem a reasonable number?

    Why did some elements contain both the lowest and highest rankings? Was one (or more) participant thinking consistently different from the rest of the group? Are they seeing something the rest of the group is overlooking?

    This technique automatically puts the focus on a smaller number of elements – is this effective? Or is it overly simplistic and reductionist?

    Input

    • Notional risk analysis

    Output

    • Risk elements

    Materials

    • Whiteboard & markers
    • Index cards

    Participants

    • Roadmap team

    3.1.4 Consensus weighting

    Use your previous notional assessment to inform your risk weightings:

    1 hour

    1. Distribute index cards that have been prepopulated with the risk elements from the previous activity.
    2. Have the participants independently assign a weighting to each element. The assigned weights must add up to 100.
    3. Collect the cards and transcribe the results into a matrix on the whiteboard.
    4. Look for elements with high variability in the responses.
    5. Discuss and come to a consensus figure for each element's weighting.
    6. Select a variety of assets and services from the notional assessment exercise. Ensure that you have representation from all four quadrants.
    7. Using your newly defined risk elements and associated scales, evaluate as a group the values you'd suggest for each asset. Aim for a plurality of opinion rather than full consensus.
    8. Use Info-Tech's Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool to document the elements, weightings, scales, and asset analysis.
    9. Compare the output generated by the tool (Tab 4) with the initial notional assessment.

    Discussion:

    How much framework is too much? Complexity and granularity do not guarantee accuracy. What is the right balance between effort and result?

    Does your granular assessment match your notional assessment? Why or why not? Do you need to go back and change weightings? Or reduce complexity?

    Is this a more reasonable and valuable way of periodically evaluating your infrastructure?

    Input

    • Notional risk analysis

    Output

    • Weighted risk framework

    Materials

    • Whiteboard & markers
    • Index cards
    • Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool

    Participants

    • Roadmap team

    3.1.5 Platform assessment set-up

    Hard work up front allows for year-over-year comparisons

    The value of a risk framework is that once the heavy lifting work of building it is done, the analysis and assessment can proceed very quickly. Once built, the framework can be tweaked as necessary, rather than recreated every year.

    • Open Info-Tech's Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool, Tab 3.
    • Up to eight elements each of IT and business risk can be captured.
      • IT risk elements of end-of-life and dependencies are mandatory and do not count against the eight customizable elements.
    • Every element can have up to six scale descriptors. Populate them from left to right in increasing magnitude of risk.
      • Scale descriptors must be input as string values and not numeric.
    • Each element's scale can be customized from linear to a risk-adverse or risk-seeking curve. We recommend linear.

    an image of the Platform Assessment Setup Page from Info-Tech's Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool,

    IT platform assessment

    Quickly and easily evaluate all your infrastructure.

    Once configured, individual domain teams can spend surprisingly little time answering reasonably simple questions to assess their assets. The common framework lets results be compared between teams and produces a valuable visualization to communication with the business.

    • Open the Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool, Tab 4.
    • The tool has been tested successfully with up to 2,000 asset items. Don't necessarily list every asset; rather, think of the logical groups of assets you'd cycle in or out of your environment.
    • Each asset must be associated with one and only one infrastructure domain and have a defined End of Service Life date.
    • With extreme numbers of assets an additional filter can be useful – the Grouping field allows you to set any number of additional tags to make sorting and filtering easier.
    • Drop-down menus for each risk element are prepopulated with the scale descriptors from Tab 3. Unused elements are greyed out.
    • Each asset can be deemed dependent on up to four additional assets or services. Use this to highlight obscure or undervalued relationships between assets. It is generally not useful to be reminded that everything relies on Cat 6 cabling.

    A series of screenshots from the IT Platform Assessment.

    Prioritized upgrades

    Validate and tweak your framework with the business

    Once the grunt work of inputting all the assets and the associated risk data has been completed, you can tweak the risk profile and sort the data to whatever the business may require.

    • Open Info-Tech's Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool, Tab 5.
    • IT platforms in the upper-right quadrant have an abundance of IT risk and are critical to the business.
    • The visualization can be sorted by selecting the slicers on the left. Sort by:
      • Infrastructure domain
      • Customized grouping tag
      • Top overall risk platforms
    • With extreme numbers of assets an additional filter can be useful. The Grouping field allows you to set any number of additional tags to make sorting and filtering easier.
    • Risk weightings can be individually adjusted to reflect changing business priorities or shared infrastructure understanding of predictive power.
      • In order to make year-over-year comparisons valuable it is recommended that changing IT risk elements should be avoided unless absolutely necessary.

    An image of a scatter plot graph titled Prioritized Upgrades.

    Step 3.2

    Build the roadmap

    Activities

    3.2.1 Build templates and visualize

    3.2.2 Generate new initiatives

    3.2.3 Repatriate shadow IT initiatives

    3.2.4 Finalize initiative candidates

    This step requires the following inputs:

    • Develop an initiative template
    • Restate the existing initiatives with the template
    • Visualize the existing initiatives
    • Brainstorm new initiatives
    • Initiative ranking
    • Solicit, evaluate, and refine shadow IT initiatives
    • Resource estimation

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Roadmap team

    Outcomes of this step

    • Initiative communication template
    • Roadmap visualization diagram

    Tell them what they really need to know

    Templates transform many disparate sources of data into easy-to-produce, easy-to-consume, business-ready documents.

    Develop a high-level document that travels with the initiative from inception through executive inquiry and project management, and finally to execution. Understand an initiative's key elements that both IT and the business need defined and that are relatively static over its lifecycle.

    Initiatives are the waypoints along a roadmap leading to the eventual destination, each bringing you one step closer. Like steps, initiatives need to be discrete: able to be conceptualized and discussed as a single largely independent item. Each initiative must have two characteristics:

    • Specific outcome: Describe an explicit change in the people, processes, or technology of the enterprise.
    • Target end date: When the described outcome will be in effect.

    "Learn a new skill"– not an effective initiative statement.

    "Be proficient in the new skill by the end of the year" – better.

    "Use the new skill to complete a project and present it at a conference by Dec 15" – best!

    Info-Tech Insight

    Bundle your initiatives for clarity and manageability.
    Ruthlessly evaluate if an initiative should stand alone or can be rolled up with another. Fewer initiatives increases focus and alignment, allowing for better communication.

    3.2.1 Develop impactful templates to sell your initiative upstream

    Step 1: Open Info-Tech's Strategic Roadmap Initiative Template. Determine and describe the goals that the initiative is enabling or supporting.
    Step 2: State the current pain points from the end-user or business perspective. Do not list IT-specific pain points here, such as management complexity.
    Step 3: List both the tangible (quantitative) and ancillary (qualitative) benefits of executing the project. These can be pain relievers derived from the pain points, or any IT-specific benefit not captured in Step 1.
    Step 4: List any enabled capability that will come as an output of the project. Avoid technical capabilities like "Application-aware network monitoring." Instead, shoot for business outcomes like "Ability to filter network traffic based on application type."

    An image of the Move to Office 365, with the numbers 1-4 superimposed over the image.  These correspond to steps 1-4 above.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Sell the project to the mailroom clerk! You need to be able to explain the outcome of the project in terms that non-IT workers can appreciate. This is done by walking as far up the goals cascade as you have defined, which gets to the underlying business outcome that the initiative supports.

    Develop impactful templates to sell your initiative upstream (cont'd)

    Strategic Roadmap Initiative Template, p. 2

    Step 5: State the risks to the business for not executing the project (and avoid restating the pain points).
    Step 6: List any known or anticipated roadblocks that may come before, during, or after executing the project. Consider all aspects of people, process, and technology.
    Step 7: List any measurable objectives that can be used to gauge the success of the projects. Avoid technical metrics like "number of IOPS." Instead think of business metrics such as "increased orders per hour."
    Step 8: The abstract is a short 50-word project description. Best to leave it as the final step after all the other aspects of the project (risks and rewards) have been fully fleshed out. The abstract acts as an executive summary – written last, read first.

    An image of the Move to Office 365, with the numbers 5-8 superimposed over the image.  These correspond to steps 5-8 above.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Every piece of information that is not directly relevant to the interests of the audience is a distraction from the value proposition.

    Working session, presentation, and feedback

    Rewrite your in-flight initiatives to ensure you're capturing all the required information:

    1 hour

    1. Have each participant select an initiative they are responsible or accountable for.
    2. Introduce the template and discuss any immediate questions they might have.
    3. Take 15-20 minutes and have each participant attempt to fill out the template for their initiative.
    4. Have each participant present their initiative to the group.
    5. The group should imagine themselves business leaders and push back with questions or clarification when IT jargon is used.
    6. Look to IT leadership in the room for cues as to what hot button items they've encountered from the business executives.
    7. Debate the merits of each section in the template. Adjust and customize as appropriate.

    Discussion:
    Did everyone use the goal framework adopted earlier? Why not?
    Are there recurring topics or issues that business leaders always seem concerned about?
    Of all the information available, what consistently seems to be the talking points when discussing an initiative?

    Input

    • In-flight initiatives

    Output

    • Completed initiatives templates

    Materials

    • Templates
    • Laptops & internet

    Participants

    • Roadmap team

    3.2.2 Visual representations are more compelling than text alone

    Being able to quickly sort and filter data allows you to customize the visualization and focus on what matters to your audience. Any data that is not immediately relevant to them risks becoming a distraction.

    1. Open the Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool, Tabs 6 and 7.
    2. Up to ten goals can be supported. Input the goals into column F of the tool. Be explicit but brief.
    3. Initiatives and Obstacles can be independently defined, and the tool supports up to five subdivisions of each. Initiative by origin source makes for an interesting analysis but initially we recommend simplicity.
    4. Every Initiative and Obstacle must be given a unique name in column H. Context-sensitive drop-downs let you define the subtype and responsible infrastructure domain.
    5. Three pieces of data are captured for each initiative: Business Impact is the qualitative value to the business; Risk is the qualitative likelihood of failure – entirely or partially (e.g. significantly over budget or delayed); and Effort is a relative measure of magnitude ($ or time). Only the value for Effort must be specified.
    6. Every initiative can claim to support one or many goals by placing an "x" in the appropriate column(s).
    7. On Tab 7 you must select the initiative end date (go-live date). You can also document start date, owner, and manager if required. Remember, though, that the tool does not replace proper project management tools.

    A series of screenshots of tables, labeled A-F

    Decoding your visualization

    Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool, Tab 8, "Roadmap"

    Visuals aren't always as clear as we assume them to be.

    An example of a roadmap visualization found in the Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool

    If you could suggest one thing, what would it be?

    The roadmap is likely the best and most direct way to showcase our ideas to business leadership – take advantage of it.

    We've spent an awful lot of time setting the stage, deciding on frameworks so we agree on what is important. We know how to have an effective conversation – now what do we want to say?

    an image of a roadmap, including inputs passing through infrastructure & Operations; to the Move to Office 365 images found earlier in this blueprint.

    Creative thinking, presentation, and feedback

    Since we're so smart – how could we do it better?

    1 hour

    1. Introduce the Roadmap Initiative Template and discuss any immediate questions the participants might have.
    2. Take 15-20 minutes and have each participant attempt to fill out the template for their initiative candidate.
    3. Have each author present their initiative to the group.
    4. The group should imagine themselves business leaders and push back with questions or clarification when IT jargon is used.
    5. Look to IT leadership in the room for cues as to what hot button items they've encountered from the business executives
    6. Debate the merits of each section in the template. Adjust and customize as appropriate.

    Discussion:
    Did everyone use the goal framework adopted earlier? Why not?
    Do we think we can find business buy-in or sponsorship? Why or why not?
    Are our initiatives at odds with or complementary to the ones proposed through the normal channels?

    Input

    • Everything we know

    Output

    • Initiative candidates

    Materials

    • Info-Tech's Infrastructure Roadmap Initiatives Template
    • Laptops & internet

    Participants

    • Roadmap team

    Forced Ranking Exercise

    Showcase only your best and brightest ideas:

    1 hour

    1. Write the initiative titles from the previous exercise across the top of a whiteboard.
    2. Distribute index cards (one per participant) with the initiative titles written down one side.
    3. Ask each participant to rank the initiatives in order of importance, with 1 being the most important.
    4. Collect the cards and write the ranking results on the whiteboard.
    5. Look at the results with an eye toward high variability. Also look for the distribution of 1, 2, and 3 ranks.
    6. Based on the results, select (through democratic vote or authoritarian fiat – Director or CIO) a reasonable number of initiatives.
    7. Refine the selected initiative templates for inclusion in the roadmap.

    Discussion:
    Do participants tend to think their idea is the best and rank it accordingly?
    If so, then is it better to look at the second, third, and fourth rankings for consensus instead?
    What is a reasonable number of initiatives to suggest? How do we limit ourselves?

    Input

    • Infrastructure initiative candidates

    Output

    • Infrastructure initiatives

    Materials

    • Index cards

    Participants

    • Roadmap team

    Who else might be using technology to solve business problems?

    Shadow IT operates outside of the governance and control structure of Enterprise IT and so is, by definition, a problem. an opportunity!

    Except for that one thing they do wrong, that one small technicality, they may well do everything else right.

    Consider:

    1. Shadow IT evolves to solve a problem or enable an activity for a specific group of users.
    2. This infers that because stakeholders spend their own resources resolving a problem or enabling an action, it is a priority.
    3. The technology choices they've made have been based solely on functionality for value, unrestrained by any legacy of previous decisions.
    4. Staffing demands and procedural issues must be modest or nonexistent.
    5. The users must be engaged, receptive to change, and tolerant of stutter steps toward a goal.

    In short, shadow IT can provide fully vetted infrastructure initiatives that with a little effort can be turned into easy wins on the roadmap.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Shadow IT can include business-ready initiatives, needing only minor tweaking to align with infrastructure's best practices.

    3.2.3 Survey and hack-a-thon

    Negotiate amnesty with shadow IT by evaluating their "hacks" for inclusion on the roadmap.

    1 hour

    1. Put out an open call for submissions across the enterprise. Ask "How do you think technology could help you solve one of your pain points?" Be specific.
    2. Gather the responses into a presentable format and assemble the roadmap team.
    3. Use voting dots (three per person) to filter out a shortlist.
    4. Invite the original author to come in and work with a roadmap team member to complete the template.
    5. Reassemble the roadmap team and use the forced ranking exercise to select initiatives to move forward.

    Discussion:
    Did you learn anything from working directly with in-the-trenches staff? Can those learnings be used elsewhere in infrastructure? Or in larger IT?

    Input

    • End-user ideas

    Output

    • Roadmap initiatives

    Materials

    • Whiteboard & markers
    • Voting dots
    • Index cards
    • Templates

    Participants

    • Enthusiastic end users
    • Roadmap team
    • Infrastructure leader

    3.2.4 Consensus estimation

    Exploit the wisdom of groups to develop reasonable estimates.

    1 hour

    Also called scrum poker (in Agile software circles), this method reduces anchoring bias by requiring all participants to formulate and submit their estimates independently and simultaneously.

    Equipment: A typical scrum deck shows the Fibonacci sequence of numbers, or similar progression, with the added values of ∞ (project too big and needs to be subdivided), and a coffee cup (need a break). Use of the (mostly) Fibonacci sequence helps capture the notional uncertainty in estimating larger values.

    1. The infrastructure leader, who will not play, moderates the activity. A "currency" of estimation is selected. This could be person, days, or weeks, or a dollar value in the thousands or tens of thousands – whatever the group feels they can speak to authoritatively.
    2. The author of each initiative gives a short overview, and the participants are given the chance to ask questions and clarify assumptions and risks.
    3. Participants lay a card representing their estimate face down on the table. Estimates are revealed simultaneously.
    4. Participants with the highest and lowest estimates are given a soapbox to offer justification. The author is expected to provide clarifications. The moderator drives the conversation.
    5. The process is repeated until consensus is reached (decided by the moderator).
    6. To structure discussion, the moderator can impose time limits between rounds.

    Discussion:

    How often was the story unclear? How often did participants have to ask for additional information to make their estimate? How many rounds were required to reach consensus?
    Does number of person, days, or weeks, make more sense than dollars? Should we estimate both independently?
    Source: Scrum Poker

    Input

    • Initiative candidates from previous activity

    Output

    • Resourcing estimates

    Materials

    • Scrum poker deck

    Participants

    • Roadmap team

    Hard work up front allows for year-over-year comparisons

    Open the Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool, Tab 6, "Initiatives & Goals" and Tab 7, "Timeline"

    Add your ideas to the visualization.

    • An initiative subtype can be useful here to differentiate infrastructure-sponsored initiatives from traditional ones.
    • Goal alignment is as important as always – ideally you want your sponsored initiatives to fill gaps or support the highest-priority business goals.
    • The longer-term roadmap is an excellent parking lot for ideas, especially ones the business didn't even know they wanted. Make sure to pull those ideas forward, though, as you repeat the process periodically.

    An image containing three screenshots of timeline tables from the Strategic Infrastructure Roadmap Tool

    Pulling it all together – the published report

    We started with eight simple questions. Logically, the answers suggest sections for a published report. Developing those answers in didactic method is effective and popular among technologists as answers build upon each other. Business leaders and journalists, however, know never to bury the lead.

    Report Section Title Roadmap Activity or Step
    Sunshine diagram Visualization
    Priorities Understand business goals
    Who we help Evaluate intake process
    How we can help Create initiatives
    What we're working on Review initiatives
    How you can help us Assess roadblocks
    What is new Assess new technology
    How we spend our day Conduct a time study
    What we have Assess IT platform
    We can do better! Identify process optimizations

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Review performance from last fiscal year

    • Analyzed and communicated the benefits and value realized from IT's strategic initiatives in the past fiscal year.
    • Analyzed and prioritized diagnostic data insights to communicate IT success stories.
    • Elicited important retrospective information such as KPIs, financials, etc. to build IT's credibility as a strategic business partner.

    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

    Phase 4

    Communicate and Improve the Process

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    Phase 4

    1.1 Infrastructure strategy

    1.2 Goal alignment

    2.1 Define your future

    2.2 Conduct constraints analysis

    3.1 Drive business alignment

    3.2. Build the roadmap

    4.1 Identify the audience

    4.2 Process improvement

    and measurements

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Identify authors and target audiences
    • Understand the planning process
    • Identify if the process outputs have value
    • Set up realistic KPIs

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • Roadmap team

    Step 4.1

    Identify the audience

    Activities

    4.1.1 Identify required authors and target audiences

    4.1.2 Planning the process

    4.1.3 Identifying supporters and blockers

    This step requires the following inputs:

    • Identify required authors and target audiences
    • Plan the process
    • Identify supporters and blockers

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • Roadmap team

    Outcomes of this step

    • Process schedule
    • Communication strategy

    Again! Again!

    And you thought we were done. The roadmap is a process. Set a schedule and pattern to the individual steps.

    Publishing an infrastructure roadmap once a year as a lead into budget discussion is common practice. But this is just the last in a long series of steps and activities. Balance the effort of each activity against its results to decide on a frequency. Ensure that the frequency is sufficient to allow you to act on the results if required. Work backwards from publication to develop the schedule.

    an image of a circle of questions around the Infrastructure roadmap.

    A lot of work has gone into creating this final document. Does a single audience make sense? Who else may be interested in your promises to the business? Look back at the people you've asked for input. They probably want to know what this has all been about. Publish your roadmap broadly to ensure greater participation in subsequent years.

    4.1.1 Identify required authors and target audiences

    1 hour

    Identification and association

    Who needs to hear (and more importantly believe) your message? Who do you need to hear from? Build a communications plan to get the most from your roadmap effort.

    1. Write your eight roadmap section titles in the middle of a whiteboard.
    2. Make a list of everyone who answered your questions during the creation of this roadmap. Write these names on a single color of sticky notes and place them on the left side.
    3. Make a list of everyone who would be (or should be) interested in what you have to say. Write these names on a different single color of sticky notes and place them on the right side.
    4. Draw lines between the stickies and the relevant section of the roadmap. Solid lines indicate a must have communication while dashed lines indicate a nice-to-have communication.
    5. Come to a consensus.

    Discussion:

    How many people appear in both lists? What are the implications of that?

    Input

    • Roadmap sections

    Output

    • Roadmap audience and contributors list

    Materials

    • Whiteboard & markers
    • Sticky notes

    Participants

    • Roadmap team

    4.1.2 Planning the process and scheduling

    The right conversation at the right time

    Due Date (t) Freq Mode Participants Infrastructure Owner
    Update & Publish

    Start of Budget Planning

    Once

    Report

    IT Steering Committee

    Infrastructure Leader or CIO

    Evaluate Intakes

    (t) - 2 months

    (t) - 8 months

    Biannually

    Review

    PMO

    Service Desk

    Domain Heads

    Assess Roadblocks

    (t) - 2 months

    (t) - 5 months

    (t) - 8 months

    (t) - 11 months

    Quarterly

    Brainstorming & Consensus

    Domain Heads

    Infrastructure Leader

    Time Study

    (t) - 1 month

    (t) - 4 months

    (t) - 7 months

    (t) - 10 months

    Quarterly

    Assessment

    Domain Staff

    Domain Heads

    Inventory Assessment

    (t) - 2 months

    Annually

    Assessment

    Domain Staff

    Domain Heads

    Business Goals

    (t) - 1 month

    Annually

    Survey

    Line of Business Managers

    Infrastructure Leader or CIO

    New Technology Assessment

    monthly

    (t) - 2 months

    Monthly/Annually

    Process

    Domain Staff

    Infrastructure Leader

    Initiative Review

    (t) - 1 month

    (t) - 4 months

    (t) - 7 months

    (t) - 10 months

    Quarterly

    Review

    PMO

    Domain Heads

    Infrastructure Leader

    Initiative Creation

    (t) - 1 month

    Annually

    Brainstorming & Consensus

    Roadmap Team

    Infrastructure Leader

    The roadmap report is just a point-in-time snapshot, but to be most valuable it needs to come at the end of a full process cycle. Know your due date, work backwards, and assign responsibility.

    Discussion:

    1. Do each of the steps make sense? Is the outcome clear and does it flow naturally to where it will be useful?
    2. Is the effort required for each step commensurate with its value? Are we doing to much for not enough return?
    3. Are we acting on the information we're gathering? Is it informing or changing decisions throughout the year or period?

    Input

    • Roadmap sections

    Output

    • Roadmap process milestones

    Materials

    • Whiteboard & markers
    • Template

    Participants

    • Roadmap team

    Tailor your messaging to secure stakeholders' involvement and support

    If your stakeholders aren't on board, you're in serious trouble.

    Certain stakeholders will not only be highly involved and accountable in the process but may also be responsible for approving the roadmap and budget, so it's essential that you get their buy-in upfront.

    an image of a quadrant analysis, comparing levels of influence and support.

    an image of a quadrant analysis, comparing levels of influence and support.

    4.1.3 Identifying supporters and blockers

    Classification and Strategy

    1 hour

    You may want to restrict participation to senior members of the roadmap team only.

    This activity requires a considerable degree of candor in order to be effective. It is effectively a political conversation and as such can be sensitive.

    Steps:

    1. Review your sticky notes from the earlier activity (list of input and output names).
    2. Place each name in the corresponding quadrant of a 2x2 matrix like the one on the right.
    3. Come to a consensus on the placement of each sticky note.

    Input

    • Roadmap audience and contributors list

    Output

    • Communications strategy & plan

    Materials

    • Whiteboard & markers
    • Sticky notes

    Participants

    • Senior roadmap team

    Step 4.2

    Process improvement

    Activities

    4.2.1 Evaluating the value of each process output

    4.2.2 Brainstorming improvements

    4.2.3 Setting realistic measures

    This step requires the following inputs:

    • Evaluating the efficacy of each process output
    • Brainstorming improvements
    • Setting realistic measures

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Roadmap team

    Outcomes of this step

    • Process map
    • Process improvement plan

    Continual improvement

    Not just for the DevOps hipsters!

    You started with a desire – greater satisfaction with infrastructure from the business. All of the inputs, processes, and outputs exist only, and are designed solely, to serve the attainment of that outcome.

    The process outlined is not dogma; no element is sacrosanct. Ruthlessly evaluate the effectiveness of your efforts so you can do better next time.

    You would do no less after a server migration, network upgrade, or EUC rollout.

    Consider these four factors to help make your infrastructure roadmap effort more successful.

    Leadership
    If infrastructure leaders aren't committed, then this will quickly become an exercise of box-checking rather than candid communication.

    Data
    Quantitative or qualitative – always try to go where the data leads. Reduce unconscious bias and be surprised by the insight uncovered.

    Metrics
    Measurement allows management but if you measure the wrong thing you can game the system, cheating yourself out of the ultimate prize.

    Focus
    Less is sometimes more.

    4.2.1 Evaluating the value of each process output

    Understanding why and how individual steps are effective (or not) is how we improve the outcome of any process.

    1 hour

    1. List each of the nine roadmap steps on the left-hand side of a whiteboard.
    2. Ask the participants "Why was this step included? Did it accomplish its objective?" Consider using a reduced scale affinity diagramming exercise for this step.
    3. Consider the priority characteristics of each step; try to be as universal as possible (every characteristic will ideally apply to each step).
    4. Include two columns at the far right: "Improvement" and "Expected Change."
    5. Populate the table. If this is your first time, brainstorm reasonable objectives for your left-hand columns. Otherwise, document the reality of last year and focus on brainstorming the right-hand columns.
    6. Optional: Conduct a thought experiment and brainstorm tension metrics to establish whether the process is driving the outcomes we desire.
    7. Optional: Consider Info-Tech's assertion about the four things a roadmap can do. Brainstorm KPIs that you can measure yearly. What else would you want the roadmap to be able to do?

    Discussion:

    Did the group agree on the intended outcome of each step? Did the group think the step was effective? Was the outcome clear and did it flow naturally to where it was useful?
    Is the effort required for each step commensurate with its value? Are we doing too much for not enough return?
    Are we acting on the information we're gathering? Is it informing or changing decisions throughout the year or period?

    Input

    • Roadmap process steps

    Output

    • Process map
    • Improvement targets & metrics

    Materials

    • Whiteboard & markers
    • Sticky notes
    • Process Map Template (see next slide)

    Participants

    • Roadmap team

    Process map template

    Replace the included example text with your inputs.

    Freq.MethodMeasuresSuccess criteria

    Areas for improvement

    Expected change

    Evaluate intakesBiannuallyPMO Intake & Service RequestsProjects or Initiatives% of departments engaged

    Actively reach out to underrepresented depts.

    +10% engagement

    Assess roadblocksQuarterlyIT All-Staff MeetingRoadblocks% of identified that have been resolved

    Define expected outcomes of removing roadblock

    Measurable improvements

    Time studyQuarterly IT All-Staff MeetingTimeConfidence value of data

    Real data sources (time sheets, tools, etc.)

    85% of sources defensible

    Legacy asset assessmentAnnuallyDomain effortAsset Inventory Completeness of Inventory
    • Compare against Asset Management database
    • Track business activity by enabling asset(s)
    • > 95% accuracy/
      completeness
    • Easier business risk framework conversations
    Understand business goalsAnnuallyRoadmap MeetingGoal listGoal specificity

    Survey or interview leadership directly

    66% directly attributable participation

    New technology assessmentMonthly/AnnuallyTeam/Roadmap MeetingTechnologies Reviewed IT staff participation/# SWOTs

    Increase participation from junior members

    50% presentations from junior members

    Initiative review

    Quarterly

    IT All-Staff Meeting

    • Status Review
    • Template usage
    • Action taken upon review
    • Template uptake
    • Identify predictive factors
    • Improve template
    • 25% of yellow lights to green
    • -50% requests for additional info

    Initiative creation

    Annually Roadmap MeetingInitiatives# of initiatives proposedBusiness uptake+25% sponsorship in 6 months (biz)

    Update and publish

    AnnuallyPDF reportRoadmap Final ReportLeadership engagement Improve audience reach+15% of LoB managers have read the report

    Establish baseline metrics

    Baseline metrics will improve through:

    1. Increased communication. More information being shared to more people who need it.
    2. Better planning. More accurate information being shared.
    3. Reduced lead times. Less due diligence or discovery work required as part of project implementations.
    4. Faster delivery times. Less less-valuable work, freeing up more time to project work.
    Metric description Current metric Future goal
    # of critical incidents resulting from equipment failure per month
    # of service provisioning delays due to resource (non-labor) shortages
    # of projects that involve standing up untested (no prior infrastructure PoC) technologies
    # of PoCs conducted each year
    # of initiatives proposed by infrastructure
    # of initiatives proposed that find business sponsorship in >1yr
    % of long-term projects reviewed as per goal framework
    # of initiatives proposed that are the only ones supporting a business goal
    # of technologies deployed being used by more than the original business sponsor
    # of PMO delays due to resource contention

    Insight Summary

    Insight 1

    Draw the first picture.

    Highly engaged and effective team members are proactive rather than reactive. Instead of waiting for clear inputs from the higher ups, take what you do know, make some educated guesses about the rest, and present that to leadership. Where thinking diverges will be crystal clear and the necessary adjustments will be obvious.

    Insight 2

    Infrastructure must position itself as the broker for new technologies.

    No man is an island; no technology is a silo. Infrastructure's must ensure that everyone in the company benefits from what can be shared, ensure those benefits are delivered securely and reliably, and prevent the uninitiated from making costly technological mistakes. It is easier to lead from the front, so infrastructure must stay on top of available technology.

    Insight 3

    The roadmap is a process that is business driven and not a document.

    In an ever-changing world the process of change itself changes. We know the value of any specific roadmap output diminishes quickly over time, but don't forget to challenge the process itself from time to time. Striving for perfection is a fool's game; embrace constant updates and incremental improvement.

    Insight 4

    Focus on the framework, not the output.

    There usually is no one right answer. Instead make sure both the business and infrastructure are considering common relevant elements and are working from a shared set of priorities. Data then, rather than hierarchical positioning or a d20 Charisma roll, becomes the most compelling factor in making a decision. But since your audience is in hierarchical ascendency over you, make the effort to become familiar with their language.

    4.2.3 Track metrics throughout the project to keep stakeholders informed

    An effective strategic infrastructure roadmap should help to:

    1. Initiate a schedule of infrastructure projects to achieve business goals.
    2. Adapt to feedback from executives on changing business priorities.
    3. Curate a portfolio of enabling technologies that align to the business whether growing or stabilizing.
    4. Manage the lifecycle of aging equipment in order to meet capacity demands.
    Metric description

    Metric goal

    Checkpoint 1

    Checkpoint 2

    Checkpoint 3

    # of critical incidents resulting from equipment failure per month >1
    # of service provisioning delays due to resource (non-labor) shortages >5
    # of projects that involve standing up untested (no prior infrastructure PoC) technologies >10%
    # of PoCs conducted each year 4
    # of initiatives proposed by infrastructure 4
    # of initiatives proposed that find business sponsorship in >1 year 1
    # of initiatives proposed that are the only ones supporting a business goal 1
    % of long-term projects reviewed as per goal framework 100%

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Review performance from last fiscal year

    • Analyzed and communicated the benefits and value realized from IT's strategic initiatives in the past fiscal year.
    • Analyzed and prioritized diagnostic data insights to communicate IT success stories.
    • Elicited important retrospective information such as KPIs, financials, etc. to build IT's credibility as a strategic business partner.

    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

    Build a Business-Aligned IT Strategy
    Success depends on IT initiatives clearly aligned to business goals, IT excellence, and driving technology innovation.

    Document your Cloud Strategy
    A cloud strategy might seem like a big project, but it's just a series of smaller conversations. The methodology presented here is designed to facilitate those conversations using a curated list of topics, prompts, participant lists, and sample outcomes. We have divided the strategy into four key areas.

    Develop an IT Asset Management Strategy
    ITAM is a foundational IT service that provides accurate, accessible, actionable data on IT assets. But there's no value in data for data's sake. Enable collaboration between IT asset managers, business leaders, and IT leaders to develop an ITAM strategy that maximizes the value they can deliver as service provider.

    Infrastructure & Operations Research Center
    Practical insights, tools, and methodologies to systematically improve IT Infrastructure & Operations.

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Knowledge gained

    • Deeper understanding of business goals and priorities
    • Key data the business requires for any given initiative
    • Quantification of risk
    • Leading criteria for successful technology adoption

    Processes optimized

    • Infrastructure roadmap
    • Initiative creation, estimation, evaluation, and prioritization
    • Inventory assessment for legacy infrastructure debt
    • Technology adoption

    Deliverables completed

    • Domain time study
    • Initiative intake analysis
    • Prioritized roadblock list
    • Goal listing
    • IT and business risk frameworks
    • Infrastructure inventory assessment
    • New technology analyzes
    • Initiative templates
    • Initiative candidates
    • Roadmap visualization
    • Process schedule
    • Communications strategy
    • Process map
    • Roadmap report

    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

    Bibliography

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    Cybersecurity Priorities in Times of Pandemic

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}381|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: Security Processes & Operations
    • Parent Category Link: /security-processes-and-operations
    • Novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has thrown organizations around the globe into chaos as they attempt to continue operations while keeping employees safe.
    • IT needs to support business continuity – juggling available capacity and ensuring that services are available to end users – without clarity of duration, amid conditions that change daily, on a scale never seen before.
    • Security has never been more important than now. But…where to start? What are the top priorities? How do we support remote work while remaining secure?

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • There is intense pressure to enable employees to work remotely, as soon as possible. IT is scrambling to enable access, source equipment to stage, and deploy products to employees, many of whom are unfamiliar with working from home.
    • There is either too much security to allow people to be productive or too little security to ensure that the organization remains protected and secure.
    • These events are unprecedented, and no plan currently exists to sufficiently maintain a viable security posture during this interim new normal.

    Impact and Result

    • Don’t start from scratch. Leverage your current security framework, processes, and mechanisms but tailor them to accommodate the new way of remote working.
    • Address priority security items related to remote work capability and its implications in a logical sequence. Some security components may not be as time sensitive as others.
    • Remain diligent! Circumstances may have changed, but the importance of security has not. In fact, IT security is likely more important now than ever before.

    Cybersecurity Priorities in Times of Pandemic Research & Tools

    Start here – read our Cybersecurity Priorities research.

    Our recommendations and the accompanying checklist tool will help you quickly get a handle on supporting a remote workforce while maintaining security in your organization.

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

    • Cybersecurity Priorities in Times of Pandemic Storyboard
    • Cybersecurity Priorities Checklist Tool
    [infographic]

    Cost and Budget Management

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    • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 9.5/10
    • member rating average dollars saved: $2,000
    • member rating average days saved: 5
    • Parent Category Name: Financial Management
    • Parent Category Link: /financial-management

    The challenge

    • IT is seen as a cost center in most organizations. Your IT spend is fuelled by negative sentiment instead of contributing to business value.

    • Budgetary approval is difficult, and in many cases, the starting point is lowering the cost-income ratio without looking at the benefits.
    • Provide the right amount of detail in your budgets to tell your investment and spending story. Align it with the business story. Too much detail only increases confusion, too little suspicion.

    Our advice

    Insight

    An effective IT budget complements the business story with how you will achieve the expected business targets.

    • Partner with the business to understand the strategic direction of the company and its future needs.
    • Know your costs and the value you will deliver.
    • Present your numbers and story clearly and credibly. Excellent delivery is part of good communication.
    • Guide your company by clearly explaining the implications of different choices they can make.

    Impact and results 

    • Get a head-start on your IT forecasting exercise by knowing the business strategy and what initiatives they will launch.
    • The coffee corner works! Pre-sell your ideas in quick chats.
    • Do not make innovation budgets bigger than they need to be. It undermines your credibility.
    • You must know your history to accurately forecast your IT operations cost and how it will evolve based on expected business changes.
    • Anticipate questions. IT discretionary proposals are often challenged. Think ahead of time about what areas your business partners will focus on and be ready with researched and credible responses.
    • When you have an optimized budget, tie further cost reductions to consequences in service delivery or deferred projects, or a changed operating model.

    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 you should develop a budget based on value delivery. We'll show you our methodology and the ways we can help you in completing this.

    Plan for budget success

    • Build an IT Budget That Demonstrates Value Delivery – Phase 1: Plan (ppt)
    • IT Budget Interview Guide (doc)

    Build your budget.

    • Build an IT Budget That Demonstrates Value Delivery – Phase 2: Build (ppt)
    • IT Cost Forecasting Tool (xls)

    Sell your budget

    • Build an IT Budget That Demonstrates Value Delivery – Phase 3: Sell (ppt)
    • IT Budget Presentation (ppt)

     

    Create a Transparent and Defensible IT Budget

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    • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 9.3/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $29,682 Average $ Saved
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    • Parent Category Name: Cost & Budget Management
    • Parent Category Link: /cost-and-budget-management
    • IT struggles to gain budget approval year after year, largely driven by a few key factors:
      • For a long time, IT has been viewed as a cost center whose efficiency needs to be increasingly optimized over time. IT’s relationship to strategy is not yet understood or established in many organizations.
      • IT is one of the biggest areas of cost for many organizations. Often, executives don’t understand or even believe that all that IT spending is necessary to advance the organization’s objectives, let alone keep it up and running.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Internal and external obstacles beyond IT’s control make these challenges with gaining IT budget approval even harder to overcome:

    • Economic pressures can quickly drive IT’s budgetary focus from strategic back to tactical.
    • Corporate-driven categorizations of expenditure, plus disconnected approval mechanisms for capital vs. operational spend, hide key interdependencies and other aspects of IT’s financial reality.
    • Connecting the dots between IT activities and business benefits rarely forms a straight line.

    Impact and Result

    • CIOs need a straightforward way to create and present an approval-ready budget.
      • Info-Tech recognizes that connecting the dots to demonstrate value is key to budgetary approval.
      • Info-Tech also recognizes that key stakeholders require different perspectives on the IT budget.
      • This blueprint provides a framework, method, and templated exemplars for creating and presenting an IT budget to stakeholders that will speed up the approval process and ensure more of it is approved.

    Create a Transparent and Defensible IT Budget Research & Tools

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

    1. Create a Transparent and Defensible IT Budget Storyboard – A step-by-step guide to developing a proposed IT budget that’s sensitive to stakeholder perspectives and ready to approve.

    This deck applies Info-Tech’s proven ITFM Cost Model to the IT budgeting process and offers five phases that cover the purpose of your IT budget and what it means to your stakeholders, key budgeting resources, forecasting, selecting and fine-tuning your budget message, and delivering your IT budget executive presentation for approval.

    • Create a Transparent and Defensible IT Budget Storyboard

    2. IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook – A structured Excel tool that allows you to forecast your IT budget for next fiscal year across four key stakeholder views, analyze it in the context of past expenditure, and generate high-impact visualizations.

    This Excel workbook offers a step-by-step approach for mapping your historical and forecasted IT expenditure and creating visualizations you can use to populate your IT budget executive presentation.

    • IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook

    3. Sample: IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook – A completed IT Cost Forecasting & Budgeting Workbook to review and use as an example.

    This sample workbook offers a completed example of the “IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook” that accompanies the Create a Transparent & Defensible IT Budget blueprint.

    • Sample: IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook

    4. IT Budget Executive Presentation – A PowerPoint template and full example for pulling together your proposed IT budget presentation.

    This presentation template offers a recommended structure for presenting your proposed IT budget for next fiscal year to your executive stakeholders for approval. 

    [infographic]

    Workshop: Create a Transparent and Defensible IT Budget

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

    1 Get into budget-starting position

    The Purpose

    Understand your IT budget in the context of your organization and key stakeholders, as well as gather your budgeting data and review previous years’ financial performance.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understand your organization’s budget process and culture.

    Understand your stakeholders’ priorities and perspectives regarding your IT budget.

    Gain insight into your historical IT expenditure.

    Set next fiscal year’s IT budget targets.

    Activities

    1.1 Review budget purpose. 

    1.2 Understand stakeholders and approvers.

    1.3 Gather your data.

    1.4 Map and review historical financial performance.

    1.5 Rationalize last year’s variances and set next year's budget targets.

    Outputs

    Budget process and culture assessment.

    Stakeholder alignment assessment and pre-selling strategy.

    Data prepared for next steps.

    Mapped historical expenditure.

    Next fiscal year’s budget targets.

    2 Forecast project CapEx

    The Purpose

    Develop a forecast of next fiscal year’s proposed capital IT expenditure driven by your organization’s strategic projects.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Develop project CapEx forecast according to the four different stakeholder views of Info-Tech’s ITFM Cost Model.

    Ensure that no business projects that have IT implications (and their true costs) are missed.

    Activities

    2.1 Review the ITFM cost model

    2.2 List projects.

    2.3 Review project proposals and costs.

    2.4 Map and tally total project CapEx.

    2.5 Develop and/or confirm project-business alignment, ROI, and cost-benefit statements.

    Outputs

    Confirmed ITFM cost mdel.

    A list of projects.

    Confirmed list of project proposals and costs.

    Forecasted project-based capital expenditure mapped against the four views of the ITFM Cost Model.

    Projects financials in line.

    3 Forecast non-project CapEx and OpEx

    The Purpose

    Develop a forecast of next fiscal year’s proposed “business as usual” non-project capital and operating IT expenditure.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Develop non-project CapEx and non-project OpEx forecasts according to the four different stakeholder views of Info-Tech’s ITFM Cost Model.

    Make “business as usual” costs fully transparent and rationalized.

    Activities

    3.1 Review non-project capital and costs. 

    3.2 Review non-project operations and costs.

    3.3 Map and tally total non-project CapEx and OpEx.

    3.4 Develop and/or confirm proposed expenditure rationales.

    Outputs

    Confirmation of non-project capital and costs.

    Confirmation of non-project operations and costs.

    Forecasted non-project-based capital expenditure and operating expenditure against the four views of the ITFM Cost Model.

    Proposed expenditure rationales.

    4 Finalize budget and develop presentation

    The Purpose

    Aggregate and sanity-check your forecasts, harden your rationales, and plan/develop the content for your IT budget executive presentation.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Create a finalized proposed IT budget for next fiscal year that offers different views on your budget for different stakeholders.

    Select content for your IT budget executive presentation that will resonate with your stakeholders and streamline approval.

    Activities

    4.1 Aggregate forecast totals and sanity check.

    4.2 Generate graphical outputs and select content to include in presentation.

    4.3 Fine-tune rationales.

    4.4 Develop presentation and write commentary.

    Outputs

    Final proposed IT budget for next fiscal year.

    Graphic outputs selected for presentation.

    Rationales for budget.

    Content for IT Budget Executive Presentation.

    5 Next steps and wrap-up (offsite)

    The Purpose

    Finalize and polish the IT budget executive presentation.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    An approval-ready presentation that showcases your business-aligned proposed IT budget backed up with rigorous rationales.

    Activities

    5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days.

    5.2 Set up review time for workshop deliverables and to discuss next steps.

    Outputs

    Completed IT Budget Executive Presentation.

    Review scheduled.

    Further reading

    Create a Transparent and Defensible IT Budget

    Build in approvability from the start.

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    A budget’s approvability is about transparency and rationale, not the size of the numbers.

    Jennifer Perrier.

    It’s that time of year again – budgeting. Most organizations invest a lot of time and effort in a capital project selection process, tack a few percentage points onto last year’s OpEx, do a round of trimming, and call it a day. However, if you want to improve IT financial transparency and get your business stakeholders and the CFO to see the true value of IT, you need to do more than this.

    Yourcrea IT budget is more than a once-a-year administrative exercise. It’s an opportunity to educate, create partnerships, eliminate nasty surprises, and build trust. The key to doing these things rests in offering a range of budget perspectives that engage and make sense to your stakeholders, as well as providing iron-clad rationales that tie directly to organizational objectives.

    The work of setting and managing a budget never stops – it’s a series of interactions, conversations, and decisions that happen throughout the year. If you take this approach to budgeting, you’ll greatly enhance your chances of creating and presenting a defensible annual budget that gets approved the first time around.

    Jennifer Perrier
    Principal Research Director
    IT Financial Management Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Common Obstacles

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    IT struggles to gain budget approval year after year, largely driven by a few key factors:

    • For a long time, IT has been viewed as a cost center whose efficiency needs to be increasingly optimized over time. IT’s relationship to strategy is not yet understood or established in many organizations.
    • IT is one of the biggest areas of cost for many organizations. Often, executives don’t understand, or even believe, that all that IT spending is necessary to advance the organization’s objectives, let alone keep it running.

    Internal and external obstacles beyond IT’s control make these challenges even harder to overcome:

    • Economic pressures can quickly drive IT’s budgetary focus from strategic back to tactical.
    • Corporate-driven categorizations of expenditure, plus disconnected approval mechanisms for capital vs. operational spend, hide key interdependencies and other aspects of IT’s financial reality.
    • Connecting the dots between IT activities and business benefits rarely forms a straight line.

    CIOs need a straightforward way to create and present an approval-ready budget.

    • Info-Tech recognizes that connecting the dots to demonstrate value is key to budgetary approval.
    • Info-Tech also recognizes that key stakeholders require different perspectives on the IT budget.
    • This blueprint provides a framework, method, and templated exemplars for creating and presenting an IT budget to stakeholders. It will speed the approval process and ensure more of it is approved.

    Info-Tech Insight
    CIOs need a straightforward way to create and present an approval-ready IT budget that demonstrates the value IT is delivering to the business and speaks directly to different stakeholder priorities.

    IT struggles to get budgets approved due to low transparency and failure to engage

    Capability challenges

    Administrative challenges

    Operating challenges

    Visibility challenges

    Relationship challenges

    IT is seen as a cost center, not an enabler or driver of business strategy.

    IT leaders are not seen as business leaders.

    Economic pressures drive knee-jerk redirection of IT’s budgetary focus from strategic initiatives back to operational tactics.

    The vast majority of IT’s
    real-life expenditure is in the form of operating expenses i.e. keeping the lights on.

    Most business leaders don’t know how many IT resources their business units are really consuming.

    Other departments in the organization see IT as a competitor for funding, not a business partner.

    Lack of transparency

    IT and the business aren’t speaking the same language.

    IT leaders don’t have sufficient access to information about, or involvement in, business decisions and objectives.

    Outmoded finance department expenditure categorizations don’t accommodate IT’s real cost categories.

    IT absorbs unplanned spend because business leaders don’t realize or consider the impact of their decisions on IT.

    The business doesn’t understand what IT is, what it does, or what it can offer.

    IT and the business don’t have meaningful conversations about IT costs, opportunities, or investments.

    Defining and demonstrating the value of IT and its investments isn’t straightforward.

    IT leaders may not have the financial literacy or acumen needed to translate IT activities and needs into business terms.

    CapEx and OpEx approval and tracking mechanisms are handled separately when, in reality, they’re highly interdependent.

    IT activities usually have an indirect relationship with revenue, making value calculations more complicated.

    Much of IT, especially infrastructure, is invisible to the business and is only noticed if it’s not working.

    The relationship between IT spending and how it supports achievement of business objectives is not clear.

    Reflect on the numbers…

    The image contains a screenshot of five graphs. The graphs depict Cost and budget management, Cost optimization, Business value, perception of improvement, and intensity of business frustration.

    To move forward, first you need to get unstuck

    Today’s IT budgeting challenges have been growing for a long time. Overcoming these challenges means untangling yourself from the grip of the root causes.

    Principle 1:
    IT and the business are fighting diverging forces. Technology has changed monumentally, while financial management hasn’t changed much at all.

    Principle 2:
    Different stakeholders have different perspectives on your IT budget. Learn and acknowledge what’s important to them so that you can potentially deliver it.

    Principle 3:
    Connecting the dots to clearly demonstrate IT’s value to the organization is the key to budgetary approval. But those connected dots don’t always result in a straight line.

    The three principles above are all about IT’s changing relationship to the business. IT leaders need a systematic and repeatable approach to budgeting that addresses these principles by:

    • Clearly illustrating the alignment between the IT budget and business objectives.
    • Showing stakeholders the overall value that IT investment will bring them.
    • Demonstrating where IT is already realizing efficiencies and economies of scale.
    • Gaining consensus on the IT budget from all parties affected by it.

    “The culture of the organization will drive your success with IT financial management.”

    – Dave Kish, Practice Lead, IT Financial Management Practice, Info-Tech Research Group

    Info-Tech’s approach

    CIOs need a straightforward way to convince approval-granting CFOs, CEOs, boards, and committees to spend money on IT to advance the organization’s strategies.

    IT budget approval cycle

    The image contains a screenshot of the IT budget approval cycle.

    The Info-Tech difference:

    This blueprint provides a framework, method, and templated exemplars for building and presenting your IT budget to different stakeholders. These will speed the approval process and ensure that a higher percentage of your proposed spend is approved.

    Info-Tech’s methodology for how to create a transparent and defensible it budget

    1. Lay Your Foundation

    2. Get Into Budget-Starting Position

    3. Develop Your Forecasts

    4. Build Your Proposed Budget

    5. Create and Deliver Your Budget Presentation

    Phase steps

    1. Understand budget purpose
    2. Know your stakeholders
    3. Continuously pre-sell your budget
    1. Gather your data
    2. Review historical performance
    3. Set budget goals
    1. Develop alternate scenarios
    2. Develop project CapEx forecasts
    3. Develop non-project CapEx and OpEx forecasts
    1. Aggregate your forecasts
    2. Stress-test your forecasts
    3. Challenge and perfect your rationales
    1. Plan your presentation content
    2. Build your budget presentation
    3. Present, finalize, and submit your budget

    Phase outcomes

    An understanding of your stakeholders and what your IT budget means to them.

    Information and goals for planning next fiscal year’s IT budget.

    Completed forecasts for project and non-project CapEx and OpEx.

    A final IT budget for proposal including scenario-based alternatives.

    An IT budget presentation.

    Insight summary

    Overarching insight: Create a transparent and defensible IT budget

    CIOs need a straightforward way to create and present an approval-ready IT budget that demonstrates the value IT is delivering to the business and speaks directly to different stakeholder priorities.

    Phase 1 insight: Lay your foundation

    IT needs to step back and look at it’s budget-creation process by first understanding exactly what a budget is intended to do and learning what the IT budget means to IT’s various business stakeholders.

    Phase 2 Insight: Get into budget-starting position

    Presenting your proposed IT budget in the context of past IT expenditure demonstrates a pattern of spend behavior that is fundamental to next year’s expenditure rationale.

    Phase 3 insight: Develop your forecasts

    Forecasting costs according to a range of views, including CapEx vs. OpEx and project vs. non-project, and then positioning it according to different stakeholder perspectives, is key to creating a transparent budget.

    Phase 4 insight: Build your proposed budget

    Fine-tuning and hardening the rationales behind every aspect of your proposed budget is one of the most important steps for facilitating the budgetary approval process and increasing the amount of your budget that is ultimately approved.

    Phase 5 insight: Create and deliver your budget presentation

    Selecting the right content to present to your various stakeholders at the right level of granularity ensures that they see their priorities reflected in IT’s budget, driving their interest and engagement in IT financial concerns.

    Blueprint deliverables

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

    IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook

    This Excel tool allows you to capture and work through all elements of your IT forecasting from the perspective of multiple key stakeholders and generates compelling visuals to choose from to populate your final executive presentation.

    The image contains a screenshot of the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook.

    Also download this completed sample:

    Sample: IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook

    Key deliverable

    IT Budget Executive Presentation Template

    Phase 5: Create a focused presentation for your proposed IT budget that will engage your audience and facilitate approval.

    The image contains a screenshot of the IT Budget Executive Presentation Template.

    Blueprint benefits

    IT benefits

    Business benefits

    • Improve IT’s overall financial management capability.
    • Streamline the administration of annual IT budget development.
    • Legitimize the true purpose and value of IT operations and associated expenditure.
    • Create visibility on the part of both IT and the business into IT’s mandate, what needs to be in place, and what it costs to fund it.
    • Foster better relationships with business stakeholders by demonstrating IT’s business and financial competency, working in partnership with business leaders on IT investment decisions, and building mutual trust.
    • Better understand the different types of expenditure occurring in IT, including project CapEx, non-project CapEx, and non-project OpEx.
    • Gain insight into the relationship between one-time CapEx on ongoing OpEx and its ramifications.
    • See business priorities and concerns clearly reflected in IT’s budget down to the business-unit level.
    • Receive thorough return on investment calculations and cost-benefit analyses for all aspects of IT expenditure.
    • Understand the direct relationship between IT expenditure and the depth, breadth, and quality of IT service delivery to the business.

    Measure the value of this blueprint

    Ease budgetary approval and improve its accuracy.

    Near-term goals

    • Percentage of budget approved: Target 95%
    • Percentage of IT-driven projects approved: Target 100%
    • Number of iterations/re-drafts required to proposed budget: One iteration

    Long-term goal

    • Variance in budget vs. actuals: Actuals less than budget and within 2%

    In Phases 1 and 2 of this blueprint, we will help you understand what your approvers are looking for and gather the right data and information.

    In Phase 3, we will help you forecast your IT costs it terms of four stakeholder views so you can craft a more meaningful IT budget narrative.

    In Phases 4 and 5, we will help you build a targeted presentation for your proposed IT budget.

    Value you will receive:

    1. Increased forecast accuracy through using a sound cost-forecasting methodology.
    2. Improved budget accuracy by applying more thorough and transparent techniques.
    3. Increased budget transparency and completeness by soliciting input earlier and validating budgeting information.
    4. Stronger alignment between IT and enterprise goals through building a better understanding of the business values and using language they understand.
    5. A more compelling budget presentation by offering targeted, engaging, and rationalized information.
    6. A faster budgeting rework process by addressing business stakeholder concerns the first time.

    An analogy…

    “A budget isn’t like a horse and cart – you can’t get in front of it or behind it like that. It’s more like a river…

    When developing an annual budget, you have a good idea of what the OpEx will be – last year’s with an annual bump. You know what that boat is like and if the river can handle it.

    But sometimes you want to float bigger boats, like capital projects. But these boats don’t start at the same place at the same time. Some are full of holes. And does your river even have the capacity to handle a boat of that size?

    Some organizations force project charters by a certain date and only these are included in the following year’s budget. The project doesn’t start until 8-12 months later and the charter goes stale. The river just can’t float all these boats! It’s a failed model. You have to have a great governance processes and clear prioritization so that you can dynamically approve and get boats on the river throughout the year.”

    – Mark Roman, Managing Partner, Executive Services,
    Info-Tech Research Group and Former Higher Education CIO

    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

    Phase 1: Lay Your Foundation

    Phase 2: Get Into Budget-Starting Position

    Phase 3: Develop Your Forecasts

    Phase 4: Build Your Proposed Budget

    Phase 5: Create and Deliver Your Budget Presentation

    Call #1: Discuss the IT budget, processes, and stakeholders in the context of your unique organization.

    Call #2: Review data requirements for transparent budgeting.

    Call #3: Set budget goals and process improvement metrics.

    Call #4: Review project CapEx forecasts.

    Call #5: Review non-project CapEx and OpEx forecasts.

    Call #6: Review proposed budget logic and rationales.

    Call #7: Identify presentation inclusions and exclusions.

    Call #8: Review final budget presentation.

    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

    Get into budget-starting position

    Forecast project CapEx

    Forecast non-project CapEx and OpEx

    Finalize budget and develop presentation

    Next Steps and
    Wrap-Up (offsite)

    Activities

    1.1 Review budget purpose.

    1.2 Understand stakeholders and approvers.

    1.3 Gather your data.

    1.4 Map and review historical financial performance.

    1.5 Rationalize last year’s variances.

    1.5 Set next year’s budget targets.

    2.1 Review the ITFM Cost Model.

    2.2 List projects.

    2.3 Review project proposals and costs.

    2.4 Map and tally total project CapEx.

    2.5 Develop and/or confirm project-business alignment, ROI, and cost-benefit statements.

    3.1 Review non-project capital and costs.

    3.2 Review non-project operations and costs.

    3.3 Map and tally total non-project CapEx and OpEx.

    3.4 Develop and/or confirm proposed expenditure rationales.

    4.1 Aggregate forecast totals and sanity check.

    4.2 Generate graphical outputs and select content to include in presentation.

    4.3 Fine-tune rationales.

    4.4 Develop presentation and write commentary.

    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. Budget process and culture assessment.
    2. Stakeholder alignment assessment and pre-selling strategy.
    3. Mapped historical expenditure.
    4. Next fiscal year’s budget targets.
    1. Forecasted project-based capital expenditure mapped against the four views of the ITFM Cost Model.
    1. Forecasted non-project-based capital expenditure and operating expenditure against the four views of the ITFM Cost Model.
    1. Final proposed IT budget for next fiscal year.
    2. Plan and build content for IT Budget Executive Presentation.
    1. Completed IT Budget Executive Presentation.

    Phase 1

    Lay Your Foundation

    Lay Your
    Foundation

    Get Into Budget-Starting Position

    Develop Your
    Forecasts

    Build Your
    Proposed Budget

    Create and Deliver Your Presentation

    1.1 Understand what your budget is
    and does

    1.2 Know your stakeholders

    1.3 Continuously pre-sell your budget

    2.1 Assemble your resources

    2.2 Understand the four views of the ITFM Cost Model

    2.3 Review last year’s budget vs.
    actuals and five-year historical trends

    2.4 Set your high-level goals

    3.1 Develop assumptions and
    alternative scenarios

    3.2 Forecast your project CapEx

    3.3 Forecast your non-project CapEx and OpEx

    4.1 Aggregate your numbers

    4.2 Stress test your forecasts

    4.3 Challenge and perfect your
    rationales

    5.1 Plan your content

    5.2 Build your presentation

    5.3 Present to stakeholders

    5.4 Make final adjustments and submit your IT budget

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Seeing your budget as a living governance tool
    • Understanding the point of view of different stakeholders
    • Gaining tactics for setting future IT spend expectations

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Head of IT
    • IT Financial Lead
    • Other IT Management

    Lay Your Foundation

    Before starting any process, you need to understand exactly why you’re doing it.

    This phase is about understanding the what, why, and who of your IT budget.

    • Understand what your budget is and does. A budget isn’t just an annual administrative event – it’s an important governance tool. Understand exactly what a budget is and your budgetary accountabilities as an IT leader.
    • Know your stakeholders. The CFO, CEO, and CXOs in your organization have their own priorities, interests, and professional mandates. Get to know what their objectives are and what IT’s budget means to them.
    • Continuously pre-sell your budget. Identifying, creating, and capitalizing on opportunities to discuss your budget well in advance of its formal presentation will get influential stakeholders and approvers on side, foster collaborations, and avoid unpleasant surprises on all fronts.

    “IT finance is more than budgeting. It’s about building trust and credibility in where we’re spending money, how we’re spending money. It’s about relationships. It’s about financial responsibility, financial accountability. I rely on my entire leadership team to all understand what their spend is. We are a steward of other people’s money.”

    – Rick Hopfer, CIO, Hawaii Medical Service Association

    What does your budget actually do?

    A budget is not just a painful administrative exercise that you go through once a year.

    Most people know what a budget is, but it’s important to understand its true purpose and how it’s used in your organization before you engage in any activity or dialogue about it.

    In strictly objective terms:

    • A budget is a calculated estimate of income vs. expenditure for a period in the future, often one year. Basically, it’s an educated guess about how much money will come into a business entity or unit and how much money will go out of it.
    • A balanced budget is where income and expenditure amounts are equal.
    • The goal in most organizations is for the income component of the budget to match or exceed the expenditure component.
      If it doesn’t, this results in a deficit that may lead to debt.

    Simply put, a budget’s fundamental purpose is to plan and communicate how an organization will avoid deficit and debt and remain financially viable while meeting its various accountabilities and responsibilities to its internal and external stakeholders.

    “CFOs are not thinking that they want to shut down IT spend. Nobody wants to do that. I always looked at things in terms of revenue streams – where the cash inflow is coming from, where it’s going to, and if I can align my cash outflows to my revenue stream. Where I always got suspicious as a CFO is if somebody can’t articulate spending in terms of a revenue stream. I think that’s how most CFOs operate.”

    – Carol Carr, Technical Counselor,
    Info-Tech Research Group and Former CFO

    Put your IT budget in context

    Your IT budget is just one of several budgets across your organization that, when combined, create an organization-wide budget. In this context, IT’s in a tough spot.

    It’s a competition: The various units in your organization are competing for the biggest piece they can get of the limited projected income pie. It’s a zero-sum game. The organization’s strategic and operational priorities will determine how this projected income is divvied up.

    Direct-to-revenue units win: Business units that directly generate revenue often get bigger relative percentages of the organizational budget since they’re integral to bringing in the projected income part of the budget that allows the expenditure across all business units to happen in the first place.

    Indirect-to-revenue units lose: Unlike sales units, for example, IT’s relationship to projected income tends to be indirect, which means that IT must connect a lot more dots to illustrate its positive impact on projected income generation.

    In financial jargon, IT really is a cost center: This indirect relationship to revenue also explains why the focus of IT budget conversations is usually on the expenditure side of the equation, meaning it doesn’t have a clear positive impact on income.

    Contextual metrics like IT spend as a percentage of revenue, IT OpEx as a percentage of organizational OpEx, and IT spend per organizational employee are important baseline metrics to track around your budget, internally benchmark over time, and share, in order to illustrate exactly where IT fits into the broader organizational picture.

    Budgeting isn’t a once-a-year thing

    Yet, many organizations treat it like a “one and done” point of annual administration. This is a mistake that misses out on the real benefits of budgeting.

    Many organizations have an annual budgeting and planning event that takes place during the back half of the fiscal year. This is where all formal documentation around planned projects and proposed spend for the upcoming year is consolidated, culminating in final presentation, adjustment, and approval. It’s basically a consolidation and ranking of organization-wide priorities at the highest level.

    If things are running well, this culmination point in the overall budget development and management process is just a formality, not the beginning, middle, and end of the real work. Ideally:

    • Budgets are actually used: The whole organization uses budgets as tools to actively manage day-to-day operations and guide decision making throughout the year in alignment with priorities as opposed to something that’s put on a shelf or becomes obsolete within a few months.
    • Interdependencies are evident: No discrete area of spend focus is an island – it’s connected directly or indirectly with other areas of spend, both within IT and across the organization. For example, one server interacts with multiple business applications, IT and business processes, multiple IT staff, and even vendors or external managed service providers. Cost-related decisions about that one server – maintain, repurpose, consolidate, replace, discard – will drive other areas of spend up or down.
    • There are no surprises: While this does happen, your budget presentation isn’t a great time to bring up a new point of significant spend for the first time. The items in next year’s proposed budget should be priorities that are already known, vetted, supported, and funded.

    "A well developed and presented budget should be the numeric manifestation of your IT strategy that’s well communicated and understood by your peers. When done right, budgets should merely affirm what’s already been understood and should get approved with minimal pushback.“

    – Patrick Gray, TechRepublic, 2020

    Understand your budgetary responsibilities as the IT leader

    It’s in your job description. For some stakeholders, it’s the most important part of it.

    While not a contract per se, your IT budget is an objective and transparent statement made in good faith that shows:

    • You know what it takes to keep the organization viable.
    • You understand the organization’s accountabilities and responsibilities as well as those of its leaders.
    • You’re willing and able to do your part to meet these accountabilities and responsibilities.
    • You know what your part of this equation is, as well as what parts should and must be played by others.

    When it comes to your budget (and all things financial), your job is to be ethical, careful, and wise:

    1. Be honest. Business ethics matter.
    2. Be as accurate as possible. Your expenditure predictions won’t be perfect, but they need to be best-effort and defensible.
    3. Respect the other players. They have their own roles, motivations, and mandates. Accept and respect these by being a supporter of their success instead of an obstacle to them achieving it.
    4. Connect the dots to income. Always keep the demonstration of business value in your sights. Often, IT can’t draw a straight line to income, but demonstrating how IT expenditure supports and benefits future, current, and past (but still relevant) business goals and strategies, which in turn affect income, is the best course.
    5. Provide alternatives. There are only so many financial levers your organization can pull. An action on one lever will have wanted and unwanted consequences on another. Aim to put financial discussions in terms of risk-focused “what if” stories and let your business partners decide if those risks are satisfactory.

    Budgeting processes tend to be similar – it’s budgeting cultures that drive differences

    The basic rules of good budgeting are the same everywhere. Bad budgeting processes, however, are usually caused by cultural factors and can be changed.

    What’s the same everywhere…

    What’s unchangeable…

    What’s changeable…

    For right or wrong, most budgeting processes follow these general steps:

    There are usually only three things about an organization’s budgeting process that are untouchable and can’t be changed:

    Budgeting processes are rarely questioned. It never occurs to most people to challenge this system, even if it doesn’t work. Who wants to challenge the CFO? No one.

    Review your organization’s budgeting culture to discover the negotiable and non-negotiable constraints. Specifically, look at these potentially-negotiable factors if they’re obstacles to IT budgeting success:

    1. Capital project vetting and selection for the next fiscal year starts three-to-six months before the end of the current fiscal year.
    2. Operational expenditure, including salaries, is looked at later with much less formality and scrutiny with an aim to cut.
    3. Each business unit does a budget presentation and makes directed amendments (usually trimming).
    4. The approved budget numbers are plugged into a standard, sub-optimal budget template provided by Finance.
    1. The legal and regulatory mandates that govern financial funding, accounting, and reporting practices. These are often specific to industries and spend types.
    2. The accounting rules your organization follows, such as GAAP, or IFRS. These too may be legally mandated for government entities and publicly-traded companies.
    3. Hard limits on the projected available income the CFO has to distribute.
    • Timeframes and deadlines
    • Order of operations
    • Areas of focus (CapEx vs. OpEx)
    • Funding sources and ownership
    • Review/approval mechanisms
    • Templates and tools

    1.1 Review your budgeting process and culture

    1 hour

    1. Review the following components of your budget process using the questions provided for each as a guideline.
      1. Legal and regulatory mandates. What are the external rules that govern how we do financial tracking and reporting? How do they manifest in our processes?
      2. Accounting rules used. What rules does our finance department use and why? Do these rules allow for more meaningful representations of IT spend? Are there policies or practices in place that don’t appear to be backed by any external standards?
      3. Timeframes and deadlines. Are we starting the budgeting process too late? Do we have enough time to do proper due diligence? Will expenditures approved now be out of date when we go to execute? Are there mechanisms to update spend plans mid-cycle?
      4. Order of operations. What areas of spend do we always look at first, such as CapEx? Are there any benefits to changing the order in which we do things, such as examining OpEx first?
      5. Areas of focus. Is CapEx taking up most of our budgeting cycle time? Are we spending enough time examining OpEx? Is IT getting enough time from the CFO compared to other units?
      6. Funding sources and ownership. Is IT footing most of the technology bills? Are business unit leaders fronting any technology business case pitches? Is IT appropriately included in business case development? Is there any benefit to implementing show-back or charge-back?
      7. Review/approval mechanisms. Are strategies and priorities used to rank proposed spend clear and well communicated? Are spend approvers objective in their decision making? Do different approvers apply the same standards and tools?
      8. Templates and tools. Are the ones provided by Finance, the PMO, and other groups sufficient to document what we need to document? Are they accessible and easy to use? Are they automated and integrated so we only have to enter data once?
    2. On the slide following these activity instructions, rate how effective each of the above is on a scale of 1-10 (where 10 is very effective) in supporting the budgeting process. Note specific areas of challenge and opportunity for change.

    1.1 Review your budgeting process and culture

    Input Output Materials Participants
    • Organizational knowledge of typical budgeting processes
    • Copies of budgeting policies, procedures, and tools
    • Rated assessment of your organization’s budget process and culture, as well as major areas of challenge and opportunity for change
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Head of IT
    • IT Financial Lead
    • Other IT Management

    Budget process and culture assessment

    Document the outcomes of your assessment. Examples are provided below.

    Budgeting area of assessment

    Rating

    1 = very ineffective

    10 = very effective

    Challenges

    Opportunities for change

    Legal and regulatory mandates

    7

    Significant regulation but compliance steps not clear or supported within departments.

    Create, communicate, and train management on compliance procedures and align the financial management tools accordingly.

    Accounting rules

    6

    IT not very familiar with them.

    Learn more about them and their provisions to see if IT spend can be better represented.

    Timeframes and deadlines

    5

    Finalize capital project plans for next fiscal four months before end of current fiscal.

    Explore flexible funding models that allow changes to budget closer to project execution.

    Order of operations

    3

    Setting CapEx before OpEx leads to paring of necessary OpEx based on CapEx commitments.

    Establish OpEx first as a baseline and then top up to target budget with CapEx.

    Areas of focus

    6

    Lack of focus on OpEx means incremental budgeting – we don’t know what’s in there.

    Perform zero-based budgeting on OpEx every few years to re-rationalize this spend.

    Funding sources and ownership

    4

    IT absorbing unplanned mid-cycle spend due to impact of unknown business actions.

    Implement a show-back mechanism to change behavior or as precursor to limited charge-back.

    Review/approval mechanisms

    8

    CFO is fair and objective with information presented but could demand more evidence.

    Improve business sponsorship/fronting of new initiative business cases and IT partnership.

    Templates and tools

    2

    Finance budget template largely irrelevant and unreflective of IT: only two relevant categories.

    Adjust account buckets over a period of time, starting with SW/HW and cloud breakouts.

    Receptive audiences make communication a lot easier

    To successfully communicate anything, you need to be heard and understood.

    The key to being heard and understood is first to hear and understand the perspective of the people with whom you’re trying to communicate – your stakeholders. This means asking some questions:

    • What context are they operating in?
    • What are their goals and responsibilities?
    • What are their pressures and stresses?
    • How do they deal with novelty and uncertainty?
    • How do they best take in information and learn?

    The next step of this blueprint shows the perspectives of IT’s key stakeholders and how they’re best able to absorb and accept the important information contained in your IT budget. You will:

    • Learn a process for discovering these stakeholders’ IT budget information needs within the context of your organization’s industry, goals, culture, organizational structure, personalities, opportunities, and constraints.
    • Document key objectives and messages when communicating with these various key stakeholders.

    There are certain principles, mandates, and priorities that drive your stakeholders; they’ll want to see these reflected in you, your work, and your budget.

    Your IT budget means different things to different stakeholders

    Info-Tech’s ITFM Cost Model lays out what matters most from various points of view.

    The image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech's ITFM Cost Model.

    The CFO: Understand their role

    The CFO is the first person that comes to mind in dealing with budgets. They’re personally and professionally on the line if anything runs amiss with the corporate purse.

    What are the CFO’s role and responsibilities?

    • Tracking cash flow and balancing income with expenditures.
    • Ensuring fiscal reporting and legal/regulatory compliance.
    • Working with the CEO to ensure financial-strategic alignment.
    • Working with business unit heads to set aligned budgets.
    • Seeing the big picture.

    What’s important to the CFO?

    • Costs
    • Benefits
    • Value
    • Analysis
    • Compliance
    • Risk Management
    • Strategic alignment
    • Control
    • Efficiency
    • Effectiveness
    • Reason
    • Rationale
    • Clarity
    • Objectivity
    • Return on investment

    “Often, the CFO sees IT requests as overhead rather than a need. And they hate increasing overhead.”

    – Larry Clark, Executive Counselor, Info-Tech Research Group and Former CIO

    The CFO carries big responsibilities focused on mitigating organizational risks. It’s not their job to be generous or flexible when so much is at stake. While the CEO appears higher on the organizational chart than the CFO, in many ways the CFO’s accountabilities and responsibilities are on par with, and in some cases greater than, those of the CEO.

    The CFO: What they want from the IT budget

    What they need should look familiar, so do your homework and be an open book.

    Your CFO’s IT budget to-do list:

    Remember to:

    • A review of the previous year financial performance. This demonstrates to the CFO your awareness, savvy, and overall competence in the financial management realm. This is also your opportunity to start laying out the real-life context within which IT has been operating. Information to show includes:
      • Budget vs. actuals, including an overview of factors that led to major variances.
      • Percentage difference in proposed budget versus previous year’s budget, and major contributing factors to those differences (i.e. unanticipated projects, changes, or events).
    • Presentation of information according to Finance’s existing categories. This makes it as easy as possible for them to plug your numbers into their system.
    • Separate views of overall workforce vs. overall vendor spending. This is a traditional view.
    • Separate views of capital expenditure (CapEx) and operating expenditure (OpEx). This also includes information on expected lifespan of proposed new capital assets to inform depreciation/amortization decisions.
    • Explanation of anticipated sources of funding. Specifically, indicate whether the funding required is a brand-new net increase or a reallocation from the existing pool.
    • Details (upon request). Have these available for every aspect of your proposed budget.
    • Avoid being flashy. Exclude proposed expenditures with a lot of bells and whistles that don’t directly tie to concrete business objectives.
    • Be a conservationist. Show how you plan to re-use or extend assets that you already have.
    • Act like a business leader. Demonstrate your understanding of near-term (12-month) realities, priorities, and goals.
    • Think like them. Present reliable and defensible calculations of benefits versus risks as well as projected ROI for major areas of new or different spending.

    The CFO: Budget challenges and opportunities

    Budget season is a great time to start changing the conversation and building trust.

    Potential challenges

    Low trust

    Poor financial literacy and historical sloppiness among business unit leaders means that a CFO may come into budget conversations with skepticism. This can put them on the offensive and put you on the defensive. You have to prove yourself.

    Competition

    You’re not the only department the CFO is dealing with. Everyone is competing for their piece of the pie, and some business unit leaders are persistent. A good CFO will stay out of the politics and not be swayed by sweet talk, but it can be an exhausting experience for them.

    Mismatched buckets

    IT’s spend classes and categories probably won’t match what’s in Finance’s budget template or general ledger. Annual budgeting isn’t the best time to bring this up. Respect Finance’s categories, but plan to tackle permanent changes at a less busy time.

    Potential opportunities

    Build confidence

    Engaging in the budgeting process is your best chance to demonstrate your knowledge about the business and your financial acumen. The more that the CFO sees that you get it and are taking it seriously, the more confidence and trust they’ll have in you.

    Educate

    The CFO will not know as much as you about the role technology could and should play in the organization. Introduce new language around technology focused on capabilities and benefits. This will start to shift the conversation away from costs and toward value.

    Initiate alignment

    An important governance objective is to change the way IT expenditure is categorized and tracked to better reveal and understand what’s really happening. This process should be done gradually over time, but definitely communicate what you want to do and why.

    The CXO: Understand their role

    CXOs are a diverse group who lead a range of business functions including admin, operations, HR, legal, production, sales and service, and marketing, to name a few.

    What are the CXO’s role and responsibilities?

    Like you, the CXO’s job is to help the organization realize its goals and objectives. How each CXO does this is specific to the domain they lead. Variations in roles and responsibilities typically revolve around:

    • Law and regulation. Some functions have compliance as a core mandate, including legal, HR, finance, and corporate risk groups.
    • Finance and efficiency. Other functions prioritize time, money, and process such as finance, sales, customer service, marketing, production, operations, and logistics units.
    • Quality. These functions prioritize consistency, reliability, relationship, and brand such as production, customer service, and marketing.

    What’s important to the CXO?

    • Staffing
    • Skills
    • Reporting
    • Funding
    • Planning
    • Performance
    • Predictability
    • Customers
    • Visibility
    • Inclusion
    • Collaboration
    • Reliability
    • Information
    • Knowledge
    • Acknowledgement

    Disagreement is common between business-function leaders – they have different primary focus areas, and conflict and misalignment are natural by-products of that fact. It’s also hard to make someone care as much about your priorities as you do. Focus your efforts on sharing and partnering, not converting.

    The CXO: What they want from the IT budget

    Focus on their unique part of the organization and show that you see them.

    Your CXO’s IT budget to-do list:

    Remember to:

    • A review of the previous year’s IT expenditure on the business function. This includes:
      • Budget vs. actuals (if available) for the business function, and overview of any situations or factors that led to major variances.
      • Percentage difference in proposed budget for that business function vs. the previous year’s spend, and major contributing factors to those differences, i.e. unanticipated projects, changes, or events.
      • Last year’s IT expenditure per business function employee vs. proposed IT expenditure per business function employee (if available). This is a good metric to use going forward as it’s a fair comparative internal benchmark.
    • Separate views of proposed IT workforce vs. proposed IT vendor spending for the business function. Do a specific breakout of proposed expenditure for the major applications that business unit explicitly uses.
    • Separate views of proposed IT capital expenditure (CapEx) and proposed IT operating expenditure (OpEx) for the business function. Show breakdowns for each capital project,
      as well as summaries for their core applications and portion of shared IT services.
    • Celebrate any collaborative wins from last year. You want to reinforce that working together is in both of your best interests and you’d like to keep it going.
    • Get to the apps fast. Apps are visible, concrete, and relatable – this is what the CXO cares about. Core IT infrastructure, on the other hand, is technobabble about something that’s invisible, boring, and disengaging for most CXOs.
    • Focus on the business function’s actual technology needs and consumption. Show them where they stand in relation to others. This will get their attention and serve as an opportunity to provide some education.

    The CXO: Budget challenges and opportunities

    Seek out your common ground and be the solution for their real problems.

    Potential challenges

    Different priorities

    Other business unit leaders will have bigger concerns than your IT budget. They have their own budget to figure out plus other in-flight issues. The head of sales, for instance, is going to be more concerned with hitting sales goals for this fiscal year than planning for next.

    Perceived irrelevance

    Some business unit leaders may be completely unaware of how they use IT, how much they use, and how they could use it more or differently to improve their performance. They may have a learning curve to tackle before they can start to see your relationship as collaborative.

    Bad track record

    If a business unit has had friction with IT in the past or has historically been underserved, they may be hesitant to let you in, may be married to their own solutions, or perhaps do not know how to express what they need.

    Potential opportunities

    Start collaborating

    You and other business unit leaders have a lot in common. You all share the objective of helping the organization succeed. Focus in on your shared concerns and how you can make progress on them together before digging into your unique challenges.

    Practice perspective taking

    Be genuinely curious about the business unit, how it works, and how they overcome obstacles. See the organization from their point of view. For now, keep your technologies completely out of the discussion – that will come later on.

    Build relationships

    You only need to solve one problem for a business unit to change how they think of you. Just one. Find that one thing that will make a real difference – ideally small but impactful – and work it into your budget.

    The CEO: Understand their role

    A CEO sets the tone for an organization, from its overall direction and priorities to its values and culture. What’s possible and what’s not is usually determined by them.

    What are the CEO’s role and responsibilities?

    • Assemble an effective team of executives and advisors.
    • Establish, communicate, and exemplify the organizations core values.
    • Study the ecosystem within which the organization exists.
    • Identify and evaluate opportunities.
    • Set long-term directions, priorities, goals, and strategies.
    • Ensure ongoing organizational performance, profitability, and growth.
    • Connect the inside organization to the outside world.
    • Make the big decisions no one else can make.

    What’s important to the CEO?

    • Strategy
    • Leadership
    • Vision
    • Values
    • Goals
    • Priorities
    • Performance
    • Metrics
    • Accountability
    • Stakeholders
    • Results
    • Insight
    • Growth
    • Cohesion
    • Context

    Unlike the CFO and CXOs, the CEO is responsible for seeing the big picture. That means they’re operating in the realm of big problems and big ideas – they need to stay out of the weeds. IT is just one piece of that big picture, and your problems and ideas are sometimes small in comparison. Use any time you get with them wisely.

    The CEO: What they want from the IT budget

    The CEO wants what the CFO wants, but at a higher level and with longer-term vision.

    Your CEO’s IT budget to-do list:

    Remember to:

    • A review of the previous year’s financial performance. In addition to last year’s budget vs. actuals vs. proposed budget and any rationales for variances, the CEO’s interest is in seeing numbers in terms of strategic delivery. Focus on performance against last year’s goals and concrete benefits realized.
    • A review of initiatives undertaken to optimize/reduce operating costs. Note overall gains with a specific look at initiatives that had a substantial positive financial impact.
    • A specific summary of the cost landscape for new strategic or capital projects. Ideally, these projects have already been committed to at the executive level. A more fine-tuned analysis of anticipated costs and variables may be required, including high-level projects with long-term impact on operational expenditure. Categorize these expenditures as investments in innovation, growth, or keeping the lights on.
    • Details (upon request). Have these available for every aspect of your proposed budget.
    • Be brief. Hopefully, the CEO is already well versed on the strategic spend plans. Stay high-level, reserve the deep dive for your documentation, and let the CEO decide if they want to hash anything out in more detail.
    • Be strategic. If you can’t tie it to a strategic objective, don’t showcase it.
    • Use performance language. This means citing goals, metrics, and progress made against them.
    • Ensure the CFO can translate. You may not get a direct audience with the CEO – the CFO may be your proxy for that. Ensure that everything is crystal clear so that the CFO can summarize your budget on your behalf.

    The CEO: Budget challenges and opportunities

    Strategically address the big issues, but don’t count on their direct assistance.

    Potential challenges

    Lack of interest

    Your CEO may just not be enthusiastic about technology. For them, IT is strictly a cost center operating on the margins. If they don’t have a strategic vision that includes technology, IT’s budget will always be about efficiency and cost control and not investment.

    Deep hierarchy

    The executive-level CIO role isn’t yet pervasive in every industry. There may be one or more non-IT senior management layers between IT and the office of the CEO, as well as other bureaucratic hurdles, which prohibit your direct access.

    Uncertainty

    What’s happening on the outside will affect what needs to be done on the inside. The CEO has to assess and respond quickly, changing priorities and plans in an instant. An indecisive CEO that’s built an inflexible organization will make it difficult to pivot as needed.

    Potential opportunities

    Grow competency

    Sometimes, IT just needs to wait it out. The biggest shifts in technology interest often come with an outright change in the organization’s leadership. In the meantime, fine-tune your operational excellence, brush up on business skills, and draft out your best ideas on paper.

    Build partnerships

    Other business-function executives may need to be IT’s voice. Investment proposals may be more compelling coming from them anyway. Behind-the-scenes partnerships and high-profile champions are something you want regardless of your degree of CEO access.

    Bake in resilience

    Regardless of who’s at the helm, systematic investment in agile and flexible solutions that can be readily scaled, decoupled, redeployed, or decommissioned is a good strategy. Use recent crises to help make the strategic case for a more resilient posture.

    What about the CIO view on the IT budget?

    IT leaders tend to approach budgeting from an IT services perspective. After all, that’s how their departments are typically organized.

    The CFO expense view, CXO business view, and CEO innovation view represent IT’s stakeholders. The CIO service view, however, represents you, the IT budget creator. This means that the CIO service view plays a slightly different role in developing your IT budget communications.

    An IT team effort…

    A logical starting point

    A supporting view

    Most budget drafts start with internal IT management discussion. These managers are differentially responsible for apps dev and maintenance, service desk and user support, networks and data center, security, data and analytics, and so forth.

    These common organizational units and their managers tend to represent discrete IT service verticals. This means the CIO service view is a natural structural starting point for your budget-building process. Stakeholder views of your budget will be derived from this first view.

    You probably don’t want to lead your budget presentation with IT’s perspective – it won’t make sense to your stakeholders. Instead, select certain impactful pieces of your view to drop in where they provide valued information and augment the IT budget story.

    Things to bring forward…

    Things to hold back…

    • All major application costs
    • Security/compliance costs
    • Strategic project costs
    • End-user support and enablement costs
    • Data and BI initiative costs
    • Minor applications costs
    • Day-to-day network and data center costs
    • Other infrastructure costs
    • IT management and administration costs

    1.2 Assess your stakeholders

    1 hour

    1. Use the “Stakeholder alignment assessment” template slide following this one to document the outcomes of this activity.
    2. As an IT management team, identify your key budget stakeholders and specifically those in an approval position.
    3. Use the information provided in this blueprint about various stakeholder responsibilities, areas of focus, and what’s typically important to them to determine each key stakeholder’s needs regarding the information contained in your IT budget. Note their stated needs, any idiosyncrasies, and IT’s current relationship status with the stakeholder (positive, neutral, or negative).
    4. Assess previous years’ IT budgets to determine how well they targeted each different stakeholder’s needs. Note any gaps or areas for future improvement.
    5. Develop a high-level list of items or elements to stop, start, or continue during your next budgeting cycle.
    Input Output
    • Organizational awareness of key stakeholders and budget approvers
    • Previous years’ budgets
    • Assessment of key stakeholder needs and a list of potential changes or additions to the IT budget/budget process
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Stakeholder alignment assessment template (following slide)
    • Head of IT
    • IT Financial Lead
    • Other IT Management

    Stakeholder alignment assessment

    Document the outcomes of your assessment below. Examples are provided below.

    Stakeholder

    Relationship status

    Understanding of needs

    Budget changes/additions

    CFO

    Positive

    Wants at least 30% of budget to be CapEx. Needs more detail concerning benefits and tracking of realization.

    Do more detailed breakouts of CapEx vs. OpEx as 30% CapEx not realistic – pre-meet. Talk to Enterprise PMO about improving project benefits statement template.

    VP of Sales

    Negative

    Only concerned with hitting sales targets. Needs to respond/act quickly based on reliable data.

    Break out sales consumption of IT resources in detail focusing on CRM and SFA tool costs. Propose business intelligence enhancement project.

    Director of Marketing

    Neutral

    Multiple manual processes – would benefit from increased automation of campaign management and social media posting.

    Break out marketing consumption of IT resources and publicly share/compare to generate awareness/support for tech investment. Work together to build ROI statements

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    Set your IT budget pre-selling strategy

    Pre-selling is all about ongoing communication with your stakeholders. This is the most game-changing thing you can do to advance a proposed IT budget’s success.

    When IT works well, nobody notices. When it doesn’t, the persistent criticism about IT not delivering value will pop up, translating directly into less funding. Cut this off at the pass with an ongoing communications strategy based on facts, transparency, and perspective taking.

    1. Know your channels
    2. Identify all the communication channels you can leverage including meetings, committees, reporting cycles, and bulletins. Set up new channels if they don’t exist.

    3. Identify partners
    4. Nothing’s better than having a team of supporters when pitch day comes. Quietly get them on board early and be direct about the role each of you will play.

    5. Always be prepared
    6. Have information and materials about proposed initiatives at-the-ready. You never know when you’ll get your chance. But if your facts are still fuzzy, do more homework first.

    7. Don’t be annoying
    8. Talking about IT all the time will turn people off. Plan chats that don’t mention IT at all. Ask questions about their world and really listen. Empathy’s a powerful tool.

    9. Communicate IT initiatives at launch
    10. Describe what you will be doing and how it will benefit the business in language that makes sense to the beneficiaries of the initiative.

    11. Communicate IT successes
    12. Carry the same narrative forward through to the end and tell the whole story. Include comments from stakeholders and beneficiaries about the value they’re receiving.

    Pre-selling with partners

    The thing with pre-selling to partners is not to take a selling approach. Take a collaborative approach instead.

    A partner is an influencer, advocate, or beneficiary of the expenditure or investment you’re proposing. Partners can:

    • Advise you on real business impacts.
    • Voice their support for your funding request.
    • Present the initial business case for funding approval themselves.
    • Agree to fund all or part of an initiative from their own budget.

    When partners agree to pitch or fund an initiative, IT can lose control of it. Make sure you set specific expectations about what IT will help with or do on an ongoing basis, such as:

    • Calculating the upfront and ongoing technology maintenance/support costs of the initiative.
    • Leading the technology vetting and selection process, including negotiating with vendors, setting service-level agreements, and finalizing contracts.
    • Implementing selected technologies and training users.
    • Maintaining and managing the technology, including usage metering.
    • Making sure the bills get paid.

    A collaborative approach tends to result in a higher level of commitment than a selling approach.

    Put yourself in their shoes using their language. Asking “How will this affect you?” focuses on what’s in it for them.

    Example:

    CIO: “We’re thinking of investing in technology that marketing can use to automate posting content to social media. Is that something you could use?”

    CMO: “Yes, we currently pay two employees to post on Facebook and Twitter, so if it could make that more efficient, then there would be cost savings there.”

    Pre-selling with approvers

    The key here is to avoid surprises and ensure the big questions are answered well in advance of decision day.

    An approver is the CFO, CEO, board, council, or committee that formally commits funding support to a program or initiative. Approvers can:

    • Point out factors that could derail realization of intended benefits.
    • Know that a formal request is coming and factor it into their planning.
    • Connect your idea with others to create synergies and efficiencies.
    • Become active advocates.

    When approvers cool to an idea, it’s hard to warm them up again. Gradually socializing an idea well in advance of the formal pitch gives you the chance to isolate and address those cooling factors while they’re still minor. Things you can address if you get an early start with future approvers include:

    • Identify and prepare for administrative, regulatory, or bureaucratic hurdles.
    • Incorporate approvers’ insights about organizational realities and context.
    • Further reduce the technical jargon in your language.
    • Fine tune the relevance and specificity of your business benefits statements.
    • Get a better sense of the most compelling elements to focus on.

    Blindsiding approvers with a major request at a budget presentation could trigger an emotional response, not the rational and objective one you want.

    Make approvers part of the solution by soliciting their advice and setting their expectations well in advance.

    Example:

    CIO: “The underwriting team and I think there’s a way to cut new policyholder approval turnaround from 8 to 10 days down to 3 or 4 using an online intake form. Do you see any obstacles?”

    CFO: “How do the agents feel about it? They submit to underwriting differently and might not want to change. They’d all need to agree on it. Exactly how does this impact sales?”

    1.3 Set your budget pre-selling strategy

    1 hour

    1. Use the “Stakeholder pre-selling strategy” template slide following this instruction slide to document the outcomes of this activity.
    2. Carry forward your previously-generated stakeholder alignment assessment from Step 1.2. As a management team, discuss the following for each stakeholder:
      1. Forums and methods of contact and interaction.
      2. Frequency of interaction.
      3. Content or topics typically addressed during interactions.
    3. Discuss what the outcomes of an ideal interaction would look like with each stakeholder.
    4. List opportunities to change or improve the nature of interactions and specific actions you plan to take.
    InputOutput
    • Stakeholder Alignment Assessment (in-deck template)
    • Stakeholder Pre-selling Strategy
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Stakeholder Pre-selling Strategy (in-deck template)
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Head of IT
    • IT Financial Lead
    • Other IT Management

    Stakeholder pre-selling strategy

    Document the outcomes of your discussion. Examples are provided below.

    Stakeholder

    Current interactions

    Opportunities and actions

    Forum

    Frequency

    Content

    CFO

    One-on-one meeting

    Monthly

    IT expenditure updates and tracking toward budgeted amount.

    Increase one-on-one meeting to weekly. Alternate focus – retrospective update one week, future-looking case development the next. Invite one business unit head to future-looking sessions to discuss their IT needs.

    VP of Sales

    Executive meeting

    Quarterly

    General business update - dominates.

    Set up bi-weekly one-on-one meeting – initially focus on what sales does/needs, not tech. Later, when the relationship has stabilized, bring data that shows Sales’ consumption of IT resources.

    Director of Marketing

    Executive meeting

    Quarterly

    General business update - quiet.

    Set up monthly one-on-one meeting. Temporarily embed BA to better discover/understand staff processes and needs.

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    Phase recap: Lay your foundation

    Build in the elements from the start that you need to facilitate budgetary approval.

    You should now have a deeper understanding of the what, why, and who of your IT budget. These elements are foundational to streamlining the budget process, getting aligned with peers and the executive, and increasing your chances of winning budgetary approval in the end.

    In this phase, you have:

    • Reviewed what your budget is and does. Your budget is an important governance and communication tool that reflects organizational priorities and objectives and IT’s understanding of them.
    • Taken a closer look at your stakeholders. The CFO, CEO, and CXOs in your organization have accountabilities of their own to meet and need IT and its budget to help them succeed.
    • Developed a strategy for continuously pre-selling your budget. Identifying opportunities and approaches for building relationships, collaborating, and talking meaningfully about IT and IT expenditure throughout the year is one of the leading things you can do to get on the same page and pave the way for budget approval.

    “Many departments have mostly labor for their costs. They’re not buying a million and a half or two million dollars’ worth of software every year or fixing things that break. They don’t share IT’s operations mindset and I think they get frustrated.”

    – Matt Johnson, IT Director Governance and Business Solutions, Milwaukee County

    Phase 2

    Get Into Budget-Starting Position

    Lay Your
    Foundation

    Get Into Budget-Starting Position

    Develop Your
    Forecasts

    Build Your
    Proposed Budget

    Create and Deliver Your Presentation

    1.1 Understand what your budget is
    and does

    1.2 Know your stakeholders

    1.3 Continuously pre-sell your budget

    2.1 Assemble your resources

    2.2 Understand the four views of the ITFM Cost Model

    2.3 Review last year’s budget vs.
    actuals and five-year historical trends

    2.4 Set your high-level goals

    3.1 Develop assumptions and
    alternative scenarios

    3.2 Forecast your project CapEx

    3.3 Forecast your non-project CapEx and OpEx

    4.1 Aggregate your numbers

    4.2 Stress test your forecasts

    4.3 Challenge and perfect your
    rationales

    5.1 Plan your content

    5.2 Build your presentation

    5.3 Present to stakeholders

    5.4 Make final adjustments and submit your IT budget

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Putting together your budget team and gather your data.
    • Selecting which views of the ITFM Cost Model you’ll use.
    • Mapping and analyzing IT’s historical expenditure.
    • Setting goals and metrics for the next budgetary cycle.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Head of IT
    • IT Financial Lead
    • Other IT Management

    Get into budget-starting position

    Now’s the time to pull together your budgeting resources and decision-making reference points.

    This phase is about clarifying your context and defining your boundaries.

    • Assemble your resources. This includes the people, data, and other information you’ll need to maximize insight into future spend requirements.
    • Understand the four views of the IT Cost Model. Firm up your understanding of the CFO expense view, CIO service view, CXO business view, and CEO innovation view and decide which ones you’ll use in your analysis and forecasting.
    • Review last year’s budget versus actuals. You need last year’s context to inform next year’s numbers as well as demonstrate any cost efficiencies you successfully executed.
    • Review five-year historical trends. This long-term context gives stakeholders and approvers important information about where IT fits into the business big picture and reminds them how you got to where you are today.
    • Set your high-level goals. You need to decide if you’re increasing, decreasing, or holding steady on your budget and whether you can realistically meet any mandates you’ve been handed on this front. Set a target as a reference point to guide your decisions and flag areas where you might need to have some tough conversations.

    “A lot of the preparation is education for our IT managers so that they understand what’s in their budgets and all the moving parts. They can actually help you keep it within bounds.”

    – Trisha Goya, Director, IT Governance & Administration, Hawaii Medical Service Association

    Gather your budget-building team

    In addition to your CFO, CXOs, and CEO, there are other people who will provide important information, insight, and skill in identifying IT budget priorities and costs.

    Role

    Skill set

    Responsibilities

    IT Finance Lead

    • Financial acumen, specifically with cost forecasting and budgeting.
    • Understanding of actual IT costs and service-based costing methods.

    IT finance personnel will guide the building of cost forecasting methodologies for operating and capital costs, help manage IT cash flows, help identify cost reduction options, and work directly with the finance department to ensure they get what they need.

    IT Domain Managers

    • Knowledge of services and their outputs.
    • Understanding of cost drivers for the services they manage.

    They will be active participants in budgeting for their specific domains, act as a second set of eyes, assist with and manage their domain budgets, and engage with stakeholders.

    Project Managers

    • Knowledge of project requirements.
    • Project budgeting.
    • Understanding of project IT-specific costs.

    Project managers will assist in capital and operational forecasting and will review project budgets to ensure accuracy. They will also assist in forecasting the operational impacts of capital projects.

    As the head of IT, your role is as the budgeting team lead. You understand both the business and IT strategies, and have relationships with key business partners. Your primary responsibilities are to guide and approve all budget components and act as a liaison between finance, business units, and IT.

    Set expectations with your budgeting team

    Be clear on your goals and ensure everyone has what they need to succeed.

    Your responsibilities and accountabilities.

    • Budget team lead.
    • Strategic direction.
    • Primary liaison with business stakeholders.
    • Pre-presentation approver and final decision maker.

    Goals and requirements.

    • Idea generation for investment and cost optimization.
    • Cost prioritization and rationale.
    • Skills requirements and sourcing options.
    • Risk assessment and operational impact.
    • Data format and level of granularity.

    Budgeting fundamentals.

    • Review of key finance concepts – CapEx, OpEx, cashflow, income, depreciation, etc.
    • What a budget is, and its component parts.
    • How the budget will be used by IT and the organization.
    • How to calculate cost forecasts.

    Their responsibilities and accountabilities.

    • Data/information collection.
    • Operational knowledge of their services, projects, and staff.
    • Cost forecast development for their respective domains/projects.
    • Review and sanity checking of their peers’ cost forecasts.

    Timeframes and deadlines.

    • Budgeting stages/phases and their deliverables.
    • Internal IT deadlines.
    • External business deadlines.
    • Goals and cadence of future working sessions and meetings.

    Available resources.

    • Internal and external sources of data and information.
    • Tools and templates for tracking information and performing calculations.
    • Individuals who can provide finance concept guidance and support.
    • Repositories for in-progress and final work.

    2.1 Brief and mobilize your IT budgeting team

    2 hours

    1. Download the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook
    2. Organize a meeting with your IT department management team, team leaders, and project managers.
    3. Review their general financial management accountabilities and responsibilities.
    4. Discuss the purpose and context of the budgeting exercise, different budget components, and the organization’s milestones/deadlines.
    5. Identify specific tasks and activities that each member of the team must complete in support of the budgeting exercise.
    6. Set up additional checkpoints, working sessions, or meetings that will take you through to final budget submission.
    7. Document your budget team members, responsibilities, deliverables, and due dates on the “Planning Variables” tab in the IT Cost Forecasting & Budgeting Workbook.

    Download the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook

    InputOutput
    • The organization’s budgeting process and procedures
    • Assignment of IT budgeting team responsibilities
    • A budgeting schedule
    MaterialsParticipants
    • IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Head of IT
    • IT Financial Lead
    • Other IT Management

    Leverage the ITFM Cost Model

    Each of the four views breaks down IT costs into a different array of categories so you and your stakeholders can see expenditure in a way that’s meaningful for them.

    You may decide not to use all four views based on your goals, audience, and available time. However, let’s start with how you can use the first two views, the CFO expense view and the CIO service view.

    The image contains a screenshot of the CFO expense view.

    The CFO expense view is fairly traditional – workforce and vendor. However, Info-Tech’s approach breaks down the vendor software and hardware buckets into on-premises and cloud. Making this distinction is increasingly critical given key differences in CapEx vs. OpEx treatment.

    Forecasting this view is mandatory

    These two views provide information that will help you optimize IT costs. They’re designed to allow the CFO and CIO to find a common language that will allow them to collaboratively make decisions about managing IT expenditure effectively.

    The image contains a screenshot of the CIO service view.

    The CIO service view is your view, i.e. it’s how IT tends to organize and manage itself and is often the logical starting point for expenditure planning and analysis. Sub-categories in this view, such as security and data & BI, can also resonate strongly with business stakeholders and their priorities.

    Forecasting this view is recommended

    Extend your dialogue to the business

    Applying the business optimization views of the ITFM Cost Model can bring a level of sophistication to your IT cost analysis and forecasting efforts.

    Some views take a bit more work to map out, but they can be powerful tools for communicating the value of IT to the business. Let’s look at the last two views, the CXO business view and the CEO innovation view.

    The CXO business view looks at IT expenditure business unit by business unit so that each can understand their true consumption of IT resources. This view relies on having a fair and reliable cost allocation formula, such as one based on relative headcount, so it runs the risk of inaccuracy.

    Forecasting this view is recommended

    The image contains a screenshot of the CXO business view.

    These two views provide information that will help you optimize IT support to the business. These views also have a collaborative goal in mind, enabling IT to talk about IT spend in terms that will promote transparency and engage business stakeholders.

    The CEO innovation view is one of the hardest to analyze and forecast since a single spend item may apply to innovation, growth, and keeping the lights on. However, if you have an audience with the CEO and they want IT to play a more strategic or innovative role, then this view is worth mapping.

    Forecasting this view is optional

    The image contains a screenshot of the CEO innovation view.

    2.2 Select the ITFM Cost Model views you plan to complete based on your goals

    30 minutes

    The IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook contains standalone sections for each view, as well as rows for each lowest-tier sub-category in a view, so each view can be analyzed and forecasted independently.

    1. Review Info-Tech’s ITFM Cost Model and the expenditure categories and sub-categories each view contains.
    2. Revisit your stakeholder analysis for the budgeting exercise. Plan to:
      1. Complete the CFO expense view regardless.
      2. Complete the CIO service view – consider doing this one first for forecasting purposes as it may be most familiar to you and serve as an easier entry point into the forecasting process.
      3. Complete the CXO business view – consider doing this only for select business units if you have the objective of enhancing awareness of their true consumption of IT resources or if you have (or plan to have) a show-back/chargeback mechanism.
      4. Complete the CEO innovation view only if your data allows it and there’s a compelling reason to discuss the strategic or innovative role of IT in the organization.
    Input Output
    • Stakeholder analysis
    • Info-Tech’s ITFM Cost Model
    • Decision on which views in the ITFM Cost Model you’ll use for historical expenditure analysis and forecasting purposes
    Materials Participants
    • Info-Tech’s ITFM Cost Model
    • Head of IT
    • IT Financial Lead
    • Other IT Management

    Gather your budget-building data

    Your data not only forms the content of your budget but also serves as the supporting evidence for the decisions you’ve made.

    Ensure you have the following data and information available to you and your budgeting team before diving in:

    Past data

    • Last fiscal year’s budget.
    • Actuals for the past five fiscal years.
    • Pre-set capital depreciation/amortization amounts to be applied to next fiscal year’s budget.

    Current data

    • Current-year IT positions and salaries.
    • Active vendor contracts with payment schedules and amounts (including active multi-year agreements).
    • Cost projections for remainder of any projects that are committed or in-progress, including projected OpEx for ongoing maintenance and support.

    Future data

    • Estimated market value for any IT positions to be filled next year (both backfill of current vacancies and proposed net-new positions).
    • Pricing data on proposed vendor purchases or contracts.
    • Cost estimates for any capital/strategic projects that are being proposed but not yet committed, including resulting maintenance/support OpEx.
    • Any known pending credits to be received or applied in the next fiscal year.

    If you’re just getting started building a repeatable budgeting process, treat it like any other project, complete with a formal plan/ charter and a central repository for all related data, information, and in-progress and final documents.

    Once you’ve identified a repeatable approach that works for you, transition the budgeting project to a regular operational process complete with policies, procedures, and tools.

    Review last year’s budget vs. actuals

    This is the starting point for building your high-level rationale around what you’re proposing for next fiscal year.

    But first, some quick definitions:

    • Budgeted: What you planned to spend when you started the fiscal year.
    • Actual: What you ended up spending in real life by the end of the fiscal year.
    • Variance: The difference between budgeted expenditure and actual expenditure.

    For last fiscal year, pinpoint the following metrics and information:

    Budgeted and actual IT expenditure overall and by major cost category.

    Categories will include workforce (employees/contractors) and vendors (hardware, software, contracted services) at a minimum.

    Actual IT expenditure as a percentage of organizational revenue.

    This is a widely-used benchmark that your CFO will expect to see.

    The known and likely drivers behind budgeted vs. actual variances.

    Your rationales will affect your perceived credibility. Be straightforward, avoid defending or making excuses, and just show the facts.

    Ask your CFO what they consider acceptable variance thresholds for different cost categories to guide your variance analysis, such as 1% for overall IT expenditure.

    Actual IT CapEx and OpEx.

    CapEx is often more variable than OpEx over time. Separate them so you can see the real trends for each. Consider:

    • Sub-dividing CapEx by strategic projects and non-strategic “business as usual” spend (e.g. laptops, network maintenance gear).
    • Showing overall CapEx and OpEx as percentages of their organization-wide counterparts if that information is available.

    Next, review your five-year historical expenditure trends

    The longer-term pattern of IT expenditure can help you craft a narrative about the overarching story of IT.

    For the previous five fiscal years, focus on the following:

    Actual IT expenditure as a percentage of organizational revenue.

    Again, for historical years 2-5, you can break this down into granular cost categories like workforce, software, and infrastructure like you did for last fiscal year. Avoid getting bogged down and focusing on the past – you ultimately want to redirect stakeholders to the future.

    Percentage expenditure increase/decrease year to year.

    You may choose to show overall IT expenditure amounts, breakdowns by CapEx and OpEx, as well as high-level cost categories.

    As you go back in time, some data may not be available to you, may be unreliable or incomplete, or employ the same cost categories you’re using today. Use your judgement on the level of granularity you want to and can apply when going back two to five years in the past.

    So, what’s the trend? Consider these questions:

    • Is the year-over-year trend on a steady trajectory or are there notable dips and spikes?
    • Are there any one-time capital projects that significantly inflated CapEx and overall spend in a given year or that forced maintenance-and support-oriented OpEx commitments in subsequent years?
    • Does there seem to be an overall change in the CapEx-to-OpEx ratio due to factors like increased use of cloud services, outsourcing, or contract-based staff?

    Take a close look at financial data showcasing the cost-control measures you’ve taken

    Your CFO will look for evidence that you’re gaining efficiencies by controlling costs, which is often a prerequisite for them approving any new funding requests.

    Your objective here is threefold:

    1. Demonstrate IT’s track record of fiscal responsibility and responsiveness to business priorities.
    2. Acknowledge and celebrate your IT-as-cost-center efficiency gains to clear the way for more strategic discussions.
    3. Identify areas where you can potentially source and reallocate recouped funds to bolster other initiatives or business cases for net-new spend.

    This step is about establishing credibility, demonstrating IT value, building trust, and showing the CFO you’re on their team.

    Do the following:

    • List any specific cost-control initiatives and their initial objectives and targets.
    • Identify any changes made to those targets and your approaches due to changing conditions, with rationales for the decisions made. For example:
      • Mid-year, the business decided to allow approximately half the workforce to work from home on a permanent basis.
      • As a result, remote-worker demand on the service desk remained high and actually increased in some areas. You were unable to reduce service desk staff headcount as originally planned.
      • You’re now exploring ways to streamline ticket intake and assignment to increase throughput and speed resolution.
    • Report on completed cost-control initiatives first, including targets, actuals, and related impacts. Include select feedback from business stakeholders and users about the impact of your cost-control measure on them.
    • For in-progress initiatives, report progress made to-date, benefits realized to date, and plans for continuation next fiscal year.

    “Eliminate the things you don’t need. People will give you what you need when you need it if you’re being responsible with what you already have.”

    – Angela Hintz, VP of PMO & Integrated Services,
    Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana

    2.3 Review your historical IT expenditure

    8 hours

    1. Download the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook.
    2. On Tab 1, “Historical Events & Projects,” note the cost-driving and cost-saving events that occurred last fiscal year that drove any variance between budgeted and actual expenditure. Describe the nature of their impact and current status (ongoing, resolved – temporary impact, or resolved – permanent impact).
    3. Also on Tab 1, “Historical Events & Projects”, summarize the work done on capital or strategic projects, expenditures, and status (in progress, deferred, canceled, or complete).
    4. On Tab 2, “Historical Expenditure”:
      1. Enter the budgeted and actuals data for last fiscal year in columns D-H for the views of the ITFM Cost Model you’re opted to do, i.e. CFO expense view, CIO service view, CXO business view, and CEO innovation view.
      2. Enter a brief rationale for any notable budgeted-versus-actuals variances or other interesting items in column K.
      3. Enter actuals data for the remaining past five fiscal years in columns L-O. Year-over-year comparative metrics will be calculated for you.
      4. Enter FTEs by business function in columns R-AA, rows 34-43.
        Expenditure per FTE and year-over year comparative metrics will be
        calculated for you.
    5. Using Tabs 2, “Historical Expenditure” and 3, “Historical Analysis”, review and analyze the resulting data sets and graphs to identify overall patterns, specifically notable increases or decreases in a particular category of expenditure or where rationales are repeated across categories or views (these are significant).
    6. Finally, flag any data points that help demonstrate achievement of, or progress toward, any cost-control measures you implemented.

    2.3 Review your historical IT expenditure

    InputOutputMaterialsParticipants
    • Budgeted data for the previous fiscal year and actuals data for the previous five fiscal years
    • Mapped budgeted for last fiscal year, mapped actuals for the past five fiscal years, and variance metrics and rationales
    • IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Head of IT
    • IT Financial Lead
    • Other IT Management

    Pull historical trends into a present-day context when setting your high-level goals

    What’s happening to your organization and the ecosystem within which it’s operating right now? Review current business concerns, priorities, and strategies.

    Knowing what happened in the past can provide good insights and give you a chance to show stakeholders your money-management track record. However, what stakeholders really care about is “now” and “next”. For them, it’s all about current business context.

    Ask these questions about your current context to assess the relevance of your historical trend data:

    What’s the state of
    the economy and how is
    it affecting your organization?

    What are the
    organization’s stated
    strategic goals and objectives?

    What has the business
    explicitly communicated
    about finance-related targets?

    What’s the business
    executive’s attitude on
    budget increase requests?

    Some industries are very sensitive to economic cycles, causing wild budget fluctuations year to year. This uncertainty can reduce the volume of spend you automatically carry over one year to the next, making past spend patterns less relevant to your current budgeting effort.

    These can change year to year as well, and often manifest on the CapEx side in the form of strategic projects selected. Since this is so variable, using previous years’ CapEx to determine next fiscal’s CapEx isn’t always useful except in regard to multi-year, ongoing capital projects.

    Do your best to honor mandates. However, if cuts are suggested that could jeopardize core service delivery, tread cautiously, and pick your battles. You may be able to halt new capital spend to generate cuts, but these projects may get approved anyway, with IT expected to make cuts to OpEx.

    If the CFO and others rail against even the most necessary inflation-driven increases, you’ll need to take a conservative approach, focus on cost-saving initiatives, and plan to redirect last year’s expenditures instead of pursuing net-new spend.

    Set metrics and targets for some broader budget effectiveness improvement efforts

    Budget goalsetting isn’t limited to CapEx and OpEx targets. There are several effectiveness metrics to track overall improvement in your budgeting process.

    Step back and think about other budget and expenditure goals you have.
    Do you want to:

    • Better align the budget with organizational objectives?
    • Increase cost forecasting accuracy?
    • Increase budget transparency and completeness?
    • Improve the effectiveness of your budget presentation?
    • Reduce the amount of budget rework?
    • Increase the percentage of the budget that’s approved?
    • Reduce variance between what was budgeted and actuals?

    Establish appropriate metrics and targets that will allow you to define success, track progress, and communicate achievement on these higher-level goals.

    Check out some example metrics in the table below.

    Budgeting metric

    Improvement driver

    Current value

    Future target

    Percentage of spend directly tied to an organizational goal.

    Better alignment via increased communication and partnership with the business.

    72%

    90%

    Number of changes to budget prior to final acceptance.

    Better accuracy and transparency via use of zero-based budgeting and enhanced stakeholder views.

    8

    2

    Percentage variance between budgeted vs. actuals.

    Improved forecasting through better understanding of business plans and in-cycle show-back.

    +4%

    +/-2%

    Percentage of budget approved after first presentation.

    Improved business rationales and direct mapping of expenditure to org priorities.

    76%

    95%

    Percentage of IT-driven project budget approved.

    More rigor around benefits, ROI calculation, and quantifying value delivered.

    80%

    100%

    Set your high-level OpEx budget targets

    The high-level targets you set now don’t need to be perfect. Think of them as reference points or guardrails to sanity-check the cost forecasting exercise to come.

    First things first: Zero-based or incremental for OpEx?

    Set your OpEx targets

    Incremental budgeting is the addition of a few percentage onto next year’s budget, assuming the previous year’s OpEx is all re-occurring. The percentage often aligns with rates of inflation.

    • Most organizations take this approach because it’s faster and easier.
    • However, incremental budgeting is less accurate. Non-recurring items are often overlooked and get included in the forecast, resulting in budget bloat. Also, redundant or wasteful items can be entirely missed, undermining any cost optimization efforts.

    Zero-based budgeting involves rebuilding your budget from scratch, i.e. zero. It doesn’t assume that any of last year’s costs are recurring or consistent year to year.

    • This approach is harder because all relevant historical spend data needs to be collected and reviewed, which not only takes time but the data you need may be unlocatable.
    • Every item needs to be re-examined, re-justified, and tied to an asset, service, or project, which means it’s a far more comprehensive and accurate approach.

    Pick a range of percentage change based on your business context and past spend.

    • If economic prospects are negative, start with a 0-3% increase to balance inflation with potential cuts. Don’t set concrete reduction targets at this point, to avoid tunnel vision in the forecasting exercise.
    • If economic prospects are positive, target 3-5% increases for stable scenarios and 6-10% increases for growth scenarios.
    • If CapEx from previous-year projects is switching to steady-state OpEx, then account for these bumps in OpEx.
    • If the benefits from any previous-year efficiency measures will be realized next fiscal year, then account for these as OpEx reductions.

    If cost-cutting or optimization is a priority, then a zero-based approach is the right decision. If doing this every year is too onerous, plan to do it for your OpEx at least every few years to examine what’s actually in there, clean house, and re-set.

    Set your high-level CapEx budget targets

    A lot of IT CapEx is conceived in business projects, so your proposed expenditure here may not be up to you. Exercise as much influence as you can.

    First things first: Is it project CapEx, or “business as usual” CapEx?

    Project CapEx is tied to one-time strategic projects requiring investment in new assets.

    • This CapEx will probably be variable year to year, going up or down depending on the organization’s circumstances or goals.
    • This area of spend is driven largely by the business and not IT. Plan to set project CapEx targets in close partnership with the business and function as a steward of these funds instead of as an owner.

    User-driven “business as usual” CapEx manifests via changes (often increases) in organizational headcount due to growth.

    • Costs here focus on end-user hardware like desktops, laptops, and peripherals.
    • Any new capital software acquisitions you have planned will also be affected in terms of number of licenses required.
    • Get reliable estimates of department-by-department hiring plans for next fiscal year to better account for these in your budget.

    Network/data center-driven “business-as-usual” CapEx is about core infrastructure maintenance.

    • Costs here focus on the purchase of network and data center hardware and other equipment to maintain existing infrastructure services and performance.
    • Increased outsourcing often drives down this area of “business as usual” CapEx by reducing the purchase of new on-premises solutions and eliminating network and data center maintenance requirements.

    Unanticipated hiring and the need to buy end-user hardware is cited as a top cause of budget grief by IT leaders – get ahead of this. Project CapEx, however, is usually determined via business-based capital project approval mechanisms well in advance. And don’t forget to factor in pre-established capital asset depreciation amounts generated by all the above!

    2.4 Set your high-level IT budget targets and metrics

    8 hours

    1. Download the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook to document the outcomes of this activity.
    2. Review the context in which your organization is currently operating and expects to operate in the next fiscal year. Specifically, look at:
      1. The state of the economy.
      2. Stated goals, objectives, and targets.
      3. The executive’s point of view on budget increase requests.
      Document your factors, assessment, rationale, and considerations in the “Business Context Assessment” table on the “Planning Variables” tab in the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook.
    3. Based on the business context, anticipated flips of former CapEx to OpEx, and realization of previous years’ efficiency measures, set a general non-project OpEx target as a percentage increase or decrease for next fiscal year to serve as a guideline in the cost forecasting guideline. Document this in the “Budget Targets & Metrics” table on the “Planning Variables” tab in the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook. sed on known capital projects, changes in headcount, typical “business as usual” equipment expenditure, and pre-established capital asset depreciation amounts, set general project CapEx and non-project CapEx targets. Document these in the “Budget Targets & Metrics” table on the “Planning Variables” tab in the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook.
    4. Finally, set your overarching IT budget process success metrics. Also document these in the “Budget Targets & Metrics” table on the “Planning Variables” tab in the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook.

    Download the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook

    2.4 Set your high-level IT budget targets and metrics

    InputOutputMaterialsParticipants
    • Knowledge of current business context and probable context next fiscal year
    • Analysis of historical IT expenditure patterns
    • High-level project CapEx and non-project CapEx and OpEx targets for the next fiscal year
    • IT budget process success metrics
    • IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Head of IT
    • IT Financial Lead
    • Other IT Management

    Phase recap: Get into budget-starting position

    Now you’re ready to do the deep dive into forecasting your IT budget for next year.

    In this phase, you clarified your business context and defined your budgetary goals, including:

    • Assembling your resources. You’ve built and organized your IT budgeting team, as well as gathered the data and information you’ll need to do your historical expenditure analysis and future forecasting
    • Understanding the four views of the IT Cost Model. You’ve become familiar with the four views of the model and have selected which ones you’ll map for historical analysis and forecasting purposes.
    • Reviewing last year’s budget versus actuals and five-year historical trends. You now have the critical rationale-building context to inform next year’s numbers and demonstrate any cost efficiencies you’ve successfully executed.
    • Setting your high-level goals. You’ve established high-level targets for project and non-project CapEx and OpEx, as well as set some IT budget process improvement goals.

    “We only have one dollar but five things. Help us understand how to spend that dollar.”

    – Trisha Goya, Director, IT Governance & Administration, Hawaii Medical Service Association

    Phase 3

    Develop Your Forecasts

    Lay Your
    Foundation

    Get Into Budget-Starting Position

    Develop Your
    Forecasts

    Build Your
    Proposed Budget

    Create and Deliver Your Presentation

    1.1 Understand what your budget is
    and does

    1.2 Know your stakeholders

    1.3 Continuously pre-sell your budget

    2.1 Assemble your resources

    2.2 Understand the four views of the ITFM Cost Model

    2.3 Review last year’s budget vs.
    actuals and five-year historical trends

    2.4 Set your high-level goals

    3.1 Develop assumptions and
    alternative scenarios

    3.2 Forecast your project CapEx

    3.3 Forecast your non-project CapEx and OpEx

    4.1 Aggregate your numbers

    4.2 Stress test your forecasts

    4.3 Challenge and perfect your
    rationales

    5.1 Plan your content

    5.2 Build your presentation

    5.3 Present to stakeholders

    5.4 Make final adjustments and submit your IT budget

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Documenting the assumptions behind your proposed budget and develop alternative scenarios.
    • Forecasting your project CapEx.
    • Forecasting your non-project CapEx and OpEx.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Head of IT
    • IT Financial Lead
    • Other IT Management

    Develop your forecasts

    Start making some decisions.

    This phase focuses on putting real numbers on paper based on the research and data you’ve collected. Here, you will:

    • Develop assumptions and alternative scenarios. The assumptions you make are the logical foundation for your decisions, and your primary and alternative scenarios focus your thinking and demonstrate that you’ve thoroughly examined your organization’s current and future context.
    • Forecast your project CapEx costs. These costs are comprised of all the project-related capital expenditures for strategic or capital projects, including in-house labor.
    • Forecast your non-project CapEx and OpEx costs. These costs are the ongoing “business as usual” expenditures incurred via the day-to-day operations of IT and delivery of IT services.

    “Our April forecast is what really sets the bar for what our increase is going to be next fiscal year. We realized that we couldn’t change it later, so we needed to do more upfront to get that forecast right.

    If we know that IT projects have been delayed, if we know we pulled some things forward, if we know that a project isn’t starting until next year, let’s be really clear on those things so that we’re starting from a better forecast because that’s the basis of deciding two percent, three percent, whatever it’s going to be.”

    – Kristen Thurber, IT Director, Office of the CIO, Donaldson Company

    When pinning down assumptions, start with negotiable and non-negotiable constraints

    Assumptions are things you hold to be true. They may not actually be true, but they are your logical foundation and must be shared with stakeholders so they can follow your thinking.

    Start with understanding your constraints. These are either negotiable (adjustable) or non-negotiable (non-adjustable). However, what is non-negotiable for IT may be negotiable for the organization as a whole, such as its strategic objectives. Consider each of the constraints below, determine how it relates to IT expenditure options, and decide if it’s ultimately negotiable or non-negotiable.

    Organizational

    Legal and Regulatory

    IT/Other

    Example:
    • Strategic goals and priorities
    • Financial and market performance
    • Governance style and methods
    • Organizational policies
    • Organizational culture
    • Regulatory compliance and reporting
    • Data residency and privacy laws
    • Vendor contract terms and conditions
    • Health and safety
    • Compensation and collective bargaining
    • IT funding and fund allocation flexibility
    • Staff/skills availability and capacity
    • Business continuity and IT performance requirements
    • Time and timeframes
    You’re in year one of a three-year vendor contract. All contracts are negotiable, but this one isn’t for two years. This contact should be considered a non-negotiable for current budget-planning purposes.

    Identifying your negotiable and non-negotiable constraints is about knowing what levers you can pull. Government entities have more non-negotiable constraints than private companies, which means IT and the organization as a whole have fewer budgetary levers to pull and a lot less flexibility.

    An un-pullable lever and a pullable lever (and how much you can pull it) have one important thing in common – they are all fundamental assumptions that influence your decisions.

    Brainstorm your assumptions even further

    The tricky thing about assumptions is that they’re taken for granted – you don’t always realize you’ve made them. Consider these common assumptions and test them for validity.

    My current employees will still be here 18 months from now.

    My current vendors aren’t going to discontinue the products we have.

    My organization’s executive team will be the same 18 months from now. My current key vendors will be around for years to come.

    My organization’s departments, divisions, and general structure will be the same 18 months from now.

    IT has to be an innovation leader.

    We won’t be involved in any merger/acquisition activity next fiscal year.

    IT has always played the same role here and that won’t change.

    There won’t be a major natural disaster that takes us offline for days or even weeks.

    We must move everything we can to the cloud.

    We won’t be launching any new products or services next fiscal year.

    Most of our IT expenditure has to be CapEx, as usual.

    You won’t put some of these assumptions into your final budget presentation. It’s simply worthwhile knowing what they are so you can challenge them when forecasting.

    Based on your assumptions, define the primary scenario that will frame your budget

    Your primary scenario is the one you believe is most likely to happen and upon which you’ll build your IT cost forecasts.

    Now it’s time to outline your primary scenario.

    • A scenario is created by identifying the variable factors embedded in your assumptions and manipulating them across the range of possibilities. This manipulation of variables will result in different scenarios, some more likely or feasible than others.
    • Your primary scenario is the one you believe is the most feasible and/or likely to happen (i.e. most probable). This is based on:
      • Your understanding of past events and patterns.
      • Your understanding of your organization’s current context.
      • Your understanding of IT’s current context.
      • Your understanding of the organization’s objectives.
      • Your assessment of negotiable and non-negotiable constraints and other assumptions for both IT and the organization.

    A note on probability…

    • A non-negotiable constraint doesn’t have any variables to manipulate. It’s a 100% probability that must be rigidly accommodated and protected in your scenario. An example is a long-standing industry regulation that shows no signs of being updated or altered and must be complied with in its current state.
    • A negotiable constraint has many more variables in play. Your goal is to identify the different potential values of the variables and determine the degree of probability that one value is more likely to be true or feasible than another. An example is that you’re directed to cut costs, but the amount could be as little as 3% or as much as 20%.
    • And then there are the unknowns. These are circumstances, events, or initiatives that inevitably happen, but you can’t predict when, what, or how much. This is what contingency planning and insurance are for. Examples include a natural disaster, a pandemic, a supply chain crisis, or the CEO simply changing their mind. Its safe to assume something is going to happen, so if you’re able to establish a contingency fund or mechanisms that let you respond, then do it.

    What could or will be your organization’s new current state at the end of next fiscal year?

    Next, explore alternative scenarios, even those that may seem a bit outrageous

    Offering alternatives demonstrates that you weighed all the pertinent factors and that you’ve thought broadly about the organization’s future and how best to support it.

    Primary scenario approval can be helped by putting that scenario alongside alternatives that are less attractive due to their cost, priority, or feasibility. Alternative scenarios are created by manipulating or eliminating your negotiable constraints or treating specific unknowns as knowns. Here are some common alternative scenarios.

    The high-cost scenario: Assumes very positive economic prospects. Characterized by more of everything – people and skills, new or more sophisticated technologies, projects, growth, and innovation. Remember to consider the long-term impact on OpEx that higher capital spend may bring in subsequent years.

    Target 10-20% more expenditure than your primary scenario

    The low-cost scenario: Assumes negative economic prospects or cost-control objectives. Characterized by less of everything, specifically capital project investment, other CapEx, and OpEx. Must assume that business service-level expectations will be down-graded and other sacrifices will be made.

    Target 5-15% less expenditure than your primary scenario

    The dark horse scenario: This is a more radical proposition that challenges the status quo. For example, what would the budget look like if all data specialists in the organization were centralized under IT? What if IT ran the corporate PMO? What if the entire IT function was 100% outsourced?

    No specific target

    Case Study

    INDUSTRY: Manufacturing

    SOURCE: Anonymous

    A manufacturing IT Director gets budgetary approval by showing what the business would have to sacrifice to get the cheap option.

    Challenge

    Solution

    Results

    A manufacturing business had been cutting costs endlessly across the organization, but specifically in IT.

    IT was down to the bone. The IT Director had already been doing zero-based budgeting to rationalize all expenditure, stretching asset lifecycles as long as possible, and letting maintenance work slide.

    There were no obvious options left to reduce costs based on what the business wanted to do.

    The IT Director got creative. He put together three complete budgets:

    1. The budget he wanted.
    2. A budget where everything was entirely outsourced and there would be zero in-house IT staff.
    3. A budget that was not as extreme as the second one, but still tilted toward outsourcing.

    In the budget presentation, he led with the “super cheap” budget where IT was 100% outsourced.

    He proceeded to review the things they wouldn’t have under the extreme outsourced scenario, including the losses in service levels that would be necessary to make it happen.

    The executive was shocked by what the IT Director showed them.

    The executive immediately approved the IT Director’s preferred budget. He was able to defend the best budget for the business by showing them what they stood to lose.

    3.1 Document your assumptions and alternative scenarios

    2 hours

    1. Download the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook and document the outcomes of this activity on Tab 9, “Alternative Scenarios.”
    2. As a management team, identify and discuss your non-negotiable and negotiable constraints. Document these in rows 4 and 5 respectively in the Workbook.
    3. Brainstorm, list, and challenge any other assumptions being made by IT or the organization’s executive in terms of what can and cannot be done.
    4. Identify the most likely or feasible scenario (primary) and associated assumptions. You will base your initial forecasting on this scenario.
    5. Identify alternative scenarios. Document each scenario’s name, description, and key assumptions, and major opportunities in columns B-D on Tab 9, “Alternative Scenarios.” You will do any calculations for these scenarios after you have completed the forecast for your primary scenario.

    Download the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook

    InputOutput
    • Knowledge of organization’s context, culture, and operations
    • A list of assumptions that will form the logical foundation of your forecasting decisions
    • Identification of the primary budget scenario and alternatives
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Head of IT
    • IT Financial Lead
    • Other IT Management

    Before diving into actual forecasting, get clear on project and non-project CapEx and OpEx

    Traditional, binary “CapEx vs. OpEx” distinctions don’t seem adequate for showing where expenditure is really going. We’ve added a new facet to help further differentiate one-time project costs from recurring “business as usual” expenses.

    Project CapEx
    Includes all workforce and vendor costs associated with planning and execution of projects largely focused on the acquisition or creation of new capital assets.

    Non-project CapEx
    Includes “business as usual” capital asset acquisition in the interest of managing, maintaining, or supporting ongoing performance of existing infrastructure or services, such as replacement network equipment, end-user hardware (e.g. laptops), or disaster recovery/business continuity redundancies. Also includes ongoing asset depreciation amounts.

    Non-project OpEx
    Includes all recurring, non-CapEx “business as usual” costs such as labor compensation and training, cloud-based software fees, outsourcing costs, managed services fees, subscriptions, and other discretionary spend.

    Depreciation is technically CapEx. However, for practical purposes, most organizations list it under OpEx, which can cause it to get lost in the noise. Here, depreciation is under non-project CapEx to keep its true CapEx nature visible and in the company of other “business as usual” capital purchases that will ultimately join the depreciation ranks.

    Forecast your project CapEx costs

    This process can be simple as far as overall budget forecasting is concerned. If it isn’t simple now, plan to make it simpler next time around.

    What to expect…

    • Ideally, the costs for all projects should have been thoroughly estimated, reviewed, and accepted by a steering committee, your CFO, or other approving entity at the start of the budgeting season, and funding already committed to. In a nutshell, forecasting your project costs should already have been done and will only require plugging in those numbers.
    • If projects have yet to be pitched and rubber stamped, know that your work is cut out for you. Doing things in a rush or without proper due diligence will result in certain costs being missed. This means that you risk going far over budget in terms of actuals next year, or having to borrow from other areas in your budget to cover unplanned or underestimated project costs.

    Key forecasting principles…

    Develop rigorous business cases
    Secure funding approval well in advance
    Tie back costs benefitting business units
    Consider the longer-term OpEx impact

    For more information about putting together sound business cases for different projects and circumstances, see the following Info-Tech blueprints:

    Build a Comprehensive Business Case

    Fund Innovation with a Minimum Viable Business Case

    Reduce Time to Consensus with an Accelerated Business Case

    Apply these project CapEx forecasting tips

    A good project CapEx forecast requires steady legwork, not last-minute fast thinking.

    Tip #1: Don’t surprise your approvers. Springing a capital project on approvers at your formal presentation isn’t a good idea and stands a good chance of rejection, so do whatever you can to lock these costs down well in advance.

    Tip #2: Project costs should be entirely comprised of CapEx if possible. Keep in mind that some of these costs will convert to depreciated non-project CapEx and non-project OpEx as they transition from project costs to ongoing “business as usual” costs, usually in the fiscal year following the year of expenditure. Creating projections for the longer-term impacts of these project CapEx costs on future types of expenditure is a good idea. Remember that a one-time project is not the same thing as a one-time cost.

    Tip #3: Capitalize any employee labor costs on capital projects. This ensures the true costs of projects are not underestimated and that operational staff aren’t being used for free at the expense of their regular duties.

    Tip #4: Capitalizing cloud costs in year one of a formal implementation project is usually acceptable. It’s possible to continue treating cloud costs as CapEx with some vendors via something called reserved instances, but organizations report that this is a lot of work to set up. In the end, most capitalized cloud will convert into non-project OpEx in years two and beyond.

    Tip #5: Build in some leeway. By the time a project is initiated, circumstances may have changed dramatically from when it was first pitched and approved, including business priorities and needs, vendor pricing, and skillset availability. Your costing may become completely out of date. It’s a good practice to work within more general cost ranges than with specific numbers, to give you the flexibility to respond and adapt during actual execution.

    3.2 Forecast your project CapEx

    Time: Depends on size of project portfolio

    1. Download the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook and navigate to Tab 5, “Project CapEx Forecast”. Add more columns as required. Enter the following for all projects:
      • Row 5 – Its name and/or unique identifier.
      • Row 6 – Its known or estimated project start/end dates.
      • Row 7 – Its status (in proposal, committed, or in progress).
    2. Distribute each project’s costs across the categories listed for each view you’ve selected to map. Do not include any OpEx here – it will be mapped separately under non-project OpEx.
    3. Rationalize your values. A running per-project total for each view, as well as totals for all projects combined, are in rows 16, 28, 39, and 43. Ensure these totals match or are very close across all the views you are mapping. If they don’t match, review the views that are lower-end outliers as there’s a good chance something has been overlooked.

    Download the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook

    InputOutput
    • Project proposals and plans, including cost estimations
    • A project CapEx forecast for next fiscal year
    MaterialsParticipants
    • IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Head of IT
    • IT Financial Lead
    • Other IT Management

    Forecast your non-project OpEx

    Most of your budget will be non-project OpEx, so plan to spend most of your forecasting effort here.

    What to expect…

    Central to the definition of OpEx is the fact that it’s ongoing. It rarely stops, and tends to steadily increase over time due to factors like inflation, rising vendor prices, growing organizational growth, increases in the salary expectations of employees, and other factors.

    The only certain ways to reduce OpEx are to convert it to capitalizable expenditure, decrease staffing costs, not pursue cloud technologies, or for the organization to simply not grow. For most organizations, none of these approaches are feasible. Smaller scale efficiencies and optimizations can keep OpEx from running amok, but they won’t change its overall upward trajectory over time. Expect it to increase.

    Key forecasting principles…

    Focus on optimization and efficiency.
    Aim for full spend transparency.
    Think about appropriate chargeback options.
    Give it the time it deserves.

    For more information about how to make the most out of your IT OpEx, see the following Info-Tech blueprints:

    Develop Your Cost Optimization Roadmap

    Achieve IT Spend & Staffing Transparency

    Discover the Hidden Costs of Outsourcing

    Apply these non-project OpEx forecasting tips

    A good forecast is in the details, so take a very close look to see what’s really there.

    Tip #1: Consider zero-based budgeting. You don’t have to do this every year, but re-rationalizing your OpEx every few years, or a just a segment of it on a rotational basis, will not only help you readily justify the expenditure but also find waste and inefficiencies you didn’t know existed.

    Tip #2: Capitalize your employee capital project work. While some organizations aren’t allowed to do this, others who can simply don’t bother. Unfortunately, this act can bloat the OpEx side of the equation substantially. Many regular employees spend a significant amount of their time working on capital projects, but this fact is invisible to the business. This is why the business keeps asking why it takes so many people to run IT.

    Tip #3: Break out your cloud vs. on-premises costs. Burying cloud apps costs in a generic software bucket works against any transparency ambitions you may have. If you have anything resembling a cloud strategy, you need to track, report, and plan for these costs separately in order to measure benefits realization. This goes for cloud infrastructure costs, too.

    Tip #4: Spend time on your CIO service view forecast. Completing this view counts as a first step toward service-based costing and is a good starting point for setting up an accurate service catalog. If looking for cost reductions, you’ll want to examine your forecasts in this view as there will likely be service-level reductions you’ll need to propose to hit your cost-cutting goals.

    Tip #5: Budget with consideration for chargeback. chargeback mechanisms for OpEx can be challenging to manage and have political repercussions, but they do shift accountability back to the business, guarantee that the IT bills get paid, and reduce IT’s OpEx burden. Selectively charging business units for applications that only they use may be a good entry point into chargeback. It may also be as far as you want to go with it. Doing the CXO business view forecast will provide insight into your opportunities here.

    Forecast your non-project CapEx

    These costs are often the smallest percentage of overall expenditure but one of the biggest sources of financial grief for IT.

    What to expect…

    • These costs can be hard to predict. Anticipating expenditure on end-user hardware such as laptops depends on knowing how many new staff will be hired by the organization next year. Predicting the need to buy networking hardware depends on knowing if, and when, a critical piece of equipment is going to spontaneously fail. You can never be completely sure.
    • IT often must reallocate funds from other areas of its budget to cover non-project CapEx costs. Unfortunately, keeping the network running and ensuring employees have access to that network is seen exclusively as an IT problem, not a business problem. Plan to change this mindset.

    Key forecasting principles…

    Discuss hiring plans with the business.
    Pay close attention to your asset lifecycles.
    Prepare to advise about depreciation schedules.
    Build in contingency for the unexpected.

    For more information about ensuring IT isn’t left in the lurch when it comes to non-project CapEx, see the following Info-Tech blueprints:

    Manage End-User Devices

    Develop an Availability and Capacity Management Plan

    Modernize the Network

    Apply these non-project CapEx forecasting tips

    A good forecast relies on your ability to accurately predict the future.

    Tip #1: Top up new hire estimations: Talk to every business unit leader about their concrete hiring plans, not their aspirations. Get a number, increase that number by 25% or 20 FTEs (whichever is less), and use this new number to calculate your end-user non-project CapEx.

    Tip #2: Make an arrangement for who’s paying for operational technology (OT) devices and equipment. OT involves specialized devices such as in-the-field sensors, scanners, meters, and other networkable equipment. Historically, operational units have handled this themselves, but this has created security problems and they still rely on IT for support. Sort the financials out now, including whose budget device and equipment purchases appear on, as well as what accommodations IT will need to make in its own budget to support them.

    Tip #3: Evaluate cloud infrastructure and managed services. These can dramatically reduce your non-project CapEx, particularly on the network and data center fronts. However, these solutions aren’t necessarily less expensive and will drive up OpEx, so tread cautiously.

    Tip #4: Definitely do an inventory. If you haven’t invested in IT asset management, put it on your project and budgetary agenda. You can’t manage what you don’t know you have, so asset discovery should be your first order of business. From there, start gathering asset lifecycle information and build in alerting to aid your spend planning.

    Tip #5: Think about retirement: What assets are nearing end of life or the end of their depreciation schedule? What impact is this having on non-project OpEx in terms of maintenance and support? Deciding to retire, replace, or extend an IT operational asset will change your non-project CapEx outlook and will affect costs in other areas.

    Tip #6: Create a contingency fund: You need one to deal with surprises and emergencies, so why wait?

    Document the organization’s projected FTEs by business function

    This data point is usually missing from IT’s budget forecasting data set. Try to get it.

    A powerful metric to share with business stakeholders is expenditure per employee or FTE. It’s powerful because:

    • It’s one of the few metrics that’s intuitively understood by most people
    • It can show changes in IT expenditure over time at both granular and general levels.

    This metric is one of the simplest to calculate. The challenge is in getting your hands on the data in the first place.

    • Most business unit leaders struggle to pin down this number in terms of actuals as they have difficulty determining what an FTE actually is. Does it include contract staff? Part-time staff? Seasonal workers? Volunteers and interns? And if the business unit has high turnover, this number can fluctuate significantly.
    • Encourage your business peers to produce a rational estimate. Unlike the headcount number you’re seeking to forecast for non-project capital expenditure for end-user hardware, this FTE number should strive to be more in the ballpark, as you’re not using it to ensure sufficient funds but comparatively track expenditure year to year.
    • Depending on your industry, employees or FTEs may not be the best measurement. Use what works best for you. Number of unique users is a common one. Other industry-specific examples include per student, per bed, per patient, per account, and per resident.

    Start to build in long-term and short-term forecasting into your budgeting process

    These are growing practices in mature IT organizations that afford significant flexibility.

    Short-term forecasting:

    Long-term forecasting:

    • At Donaldson Company, budgeting is a once-a-year event, but they’ve started formalizing a forecast review three times a year.
    • These mini-forecasts are not as full blown as the annual forecasting process. Rather, they look at specific parts of the budget and update it based on changing realities.

    “It’s a great step in the right direction. We look at
    the current, and then the future. What we’re really pushing is how to keep that outyear spend more in discussion. The biggest thing we’re trying to do when we approve projects is look at what does that approval do to outyear spend? Is it going to increase? Is it going to decrease? Will we be spending more on licensing? On people?”

    – Kristen Thurber, IT Director, Office of the CIO,
    Donaldson Company

    • In 2017, the Hawaii Medical Service Association accepted the fact that they were very challenged with legacy systems. They needed to modernize.
    • They created a multi-year strategic budget -- a five-year investment plan. This plan was a success. They were able to gain approval for a five-year horizon with variable allocations per year, as required.

    “This approach was much better. We now
    have a “guarantee” of funding for five years now – they’ve conceptually agreed. Now we don’t have
    to make that request for new money every time
    if we need more. We can vary the amount every
    year – it doesn’t have to be the same.”

    – Trisha Goya, Director, IT Governance & Administration,
    Hawaii Medical Service Association

    3.4 Forecast your non-project OpEx and CapEx

    Time: Depends on size of vendor portfolio and workforce

    1. Download the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook and navigate to Tab 4, “Business as Usual Forecast”. This tab assumes an incremental budgeting approach. Last year’s actuals have been carried forward for you to build upon.
    2. Enter expected percentage-based cost increases/decreases for next fiscal year for each of the following variables (columns E-I): inflation, vendor pricing, labor costs, service levels, and depreciation. Do this for all sub-categories for the ITFM cost model views you’ve opted to map. Provide rationales for your percentage values in column K.
    3. In columns M and N, enter the anticipated percentage allocation of cost to non-project CapEx versus non-project OpEx.
    4. In column O, rows 29-38, enter the projected FTEs for each business function (if available).
    5. If you choose, make longer-term, high-level forecasts for 2-3 years in the future in columns P-U. Performing longer-term forecasts for at least the CFO expense view categories is recommended.

    Download the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook

    Input Output
    • Last fiscal year’s actuals
    • Knowledge of likely inflation, vendor cost, and salary expectations for next fiscal year
    • Depreciation amounts
    • A non-project OpEx and CapEx forecast for next fiscal year
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Head of IT
    • IT Financial Lead
    • Other IT Management

    Case Study

    INDUSTRY: Insurance

    SOURCE: Anonymous

    Challenge

    Solution

    Results

    In his first run at the annual budgeting process, a new CIO received delivery dates from Finance and spent the next three months building the budget for the next fiscal year.

    He discovered that the organization had been underinvesting in IT for a long time. There were platforms without support, no accounting for currency exchange rates on purchases, components that had not be upgraded in 16 years, big cybersecurity risks, and 20 critical incidences a month.

    In his budget, the CIO requested a 22-24% increase in IT expenditure to deal with the critical gaps, and provided a detailed defense of his proposal

    But the new CIO’s team and Finance were frustrated with him. He asked his IT finance leader why. She said she didn’t understand what his direction was and why the budgeting process was taking so long – his predecessor did the budget in only two days. He would add up the contracts, add 10% for inflation, and that’s it.

    Simply put, the organization hadn’t taken budgeting seriously. By doing it right, the new CIO had inadvertently challenged the status quo.

    The CIO ended up under-executing his first budget by 12% but is tracking closer to plan this year. Significantly, he’s been able cut critical incidences from 20 down to only 2-3 per month.

    Some friction persists with the CFO, who sees him as a “big spender,” but he believes that this friction has forced him to be even better.

    Phase recap: Develop your forecasts

    The hard math is done. Now it’s time to step back and craft your final proposed budget and its key messages.

    This phase focused on developing your forecasts and proposed budget for next fiscal year. It included:

    • Developing assumptions and alternative scenarios. These will showcase your understanding of business context as well as what’s most likely to happen (or should happen) next year.
    • Forecasting your project CapEx costs. If these costs weren’t laid out already in formal, approved project proposals or plans, now you know why it’s the better approach for developing a budget.
    • Forecasting your non-project CapEx and OpEx costs. Now you should have more clarity and transparency concerning where these costs are going and exactly why they need to go there.

    “Ninety percent of your projects will get started but a good 10% will never get off the ground because of capacity or the business changes their mind or other priorities are thrown in. There are always these sorts of challenges that come up.”

    – Theresa Hughes, Executive Counselor,
    Info-Tech Research Group
    and Former IT Executive

    Phase 4

    Build Your Proposed Budget

    Lay Your
    Foundation

    Get Into Budget-Starting Position

    Develop Your
    Forecasts

    Build Your
    Proposed Budget

    Create and Deliver Your Presentation

    1.1 Understand what your budget is
    and does

    1.2 Know your stakeholders

    1.3 Continuously pre-sell your budget

    2.1 Assemble your resources

    2.2 Understand the four views of the ITFM Cost Model

    2.3 Review last year’s budget vs.
    actuals and five-year historical trends

    2.4 Set your high-level goals

    3.1 Develop assumptions and
    alternative scenarios

    3.2 Forecast your project CapEx

    3.3 Forecast your non-project CapEx and OpEx

    4.1 Aggregate your numbers

    4.2 Stress test your forecasts

    4.3 Challenge and perfect your
    rationales

    5.1 Plan your content

    5.2 Build your presentation

    5.3 Present to stakeholders

    5.4 Make final adjustments and submit your IT budget

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Pulling your forecasts together into a comprehensive IT budget for next fiscal year.
    • Double checking your forecasts to ensure they’re accurate.
    • Fine tuning the rationales behind your proposals.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Head of IT
    • IT Financial Lead
    • Other IT Management

    Build your proposed budget

    Triple check your numbers and put the finishing touches on your approval-winning rationales.

    This phase is where your analysis and decision making finally come together into a coherent budget proposal. Key steps include:

    • Aggregating your numbers. This step involves pulling together your project CapEx, non-project CapEx, and non-project OpEx forecasts into a comprehensive whole and sanity-checking your expenditure-type ratios.
    • Stress-testing your forecasts. Do some detailed checks to ensure everything’s accounted for and you haven’t overlooked any significant information or factors that could affect your forecasted costs.
    • Challenging and perfecting your rationales. Your ability to present hard evidence and rational explanations in support of your proposed budget is often the difference between a yes or a no. Look at your proposals from different stakeholder perspectives and ask yourself, “Would I say yes to this if I were them?”

    “We don’t buy servers and licenses because we want to. We buy them because we have to. IT doesn’t need those servers out at our data center provider, network connections, et cetera. Only a fraction of these costs are to support us in the IT department. IT doesn’t have control over these costs because we’re not the consumers.”

    – Matt Johnson, IT Director Governance and Business Solutions, Milwaukee County

    Great rationales do more than set you up for streamlined budgetary approval

    Rationales build credibility and trust in your business capabilities. They can also help stop the same conversations happening year after year.

    Any item in your proposed budget can send you down a rabbit hole if not thoroughly defensible.

    You probably won’t need to defend every item, but it’s best to be prepared to do so. Ask yourself:

    • What areas of spend does the CFO come back to year after year? Is it some aspect of OpEx, such as workforce costs or cloud software fees? Is it the relationship between proposed project spend and business benefits? Provide detailed and transparent rationales for these items to start re-directing long-term conversations to more strategic issues.
    • What areas of spend seem to be recurring points of conflict with business unit leaders? Is it surprise spend that comes from business decisions that didn’t include IT? Is it business-unit leaders railing against chargeback? Have frank, information-sharing conversations focused on business applications, service-level requirements, and true IT costs to support them.
    • What’s on the CEO’s mind? Are they focused on entering a new overseas market, which will require capital investment? Are they interested in the potential of a new technology because competitors are adopting it? It may not be the same focus as last year, so ensure you have fresh rationales that show how IT will help deliver on these business goals.

    “Budgets get out of control when one department fails to care for the implications of change within another department's budget. This wastes time, reduces accuracy and causes conflict.”

    – Tara Kinney, Atomic Revenue, LLC.

    Rationalizing costs depends on the intention of the spend

    Not all spending serves the same purpose. Some types require deeper or different justifications than others.

    For the business, there are two main purposes for spend:

    1. Spending that drives revenues or the customer experience. Think in terms of return on investment (ROI), i.e. when will the expenditure pay for itself via the revenue gains it helps create?
    2. Spending that mitigates and manages risk. Think in terms of cost-benefit, i.e. what are the costs of doing something versus doing nothing at all?
    Source: Kris Blackmon, NetSuite Brainyard.

    “Approval came down to ROI and the ability to show benefits realization for years one, two, and three through five.”

    – Duane Cooney, Executive Counselor, Info-Tech Research Group, and Former Healthcare CIO

    Regardless of its ultimate purpose, all expenditure needs statements of assumptions, obstacles, and likelihood of goals being realized behind it.

    • What are the assumptions that went into the calculation?
    • Is the spend new or a reallocation (and from where)?
    • What’s the likelihood of realizing returns or benefits?
    • What are potential obstacles to realizing returns or benefits?

    Rationales aren’t only for capital projects – they can and should be applied to all proposed OpEx and CapEx. Business project rationales tend to drive revenue and the customer experience, demanding ROI calculations. Internal IT-projects and non-project expenditure are often focused on mitigating and managing risk, requiring cost-benefit analysis.

    First, make sure your numbers add up

    There are a lot of numbers flying around during a budgeting process. Now’s the time to get out of the weeds, look at the big picture, and ensure everything lines up.

    Overall

    Non-Project OpEx

    Non-Project CapEx

    Project CapEx

    • Is your proposed budget consistent with previous IT expenditure patterns?
    • Did you account for major known anomalies or events?
    • Is your final total in line with your CFO’s communicated targets and expectations?
    • Are your alternative scenarios realistic and reflective of viable economic contexts that your organization could find itself in in the near term?
    • Are the OpEx-to-CapEx ratios sensible?
    • Does it pass your gut check?
    • Did you research and verify market rates for employees and skill sets?
    • Did you research and verify likely vendor pricing and potential increases?
    • Are cost categories with variances greater than +5% backed up by defensible IT hiring plans or documented operational growth or improvement initiatives?
    • Have you accounted for the absorption of previous capital project costs into day-to-day management, maintenance, and support operations?
    • Do you have accurate depreciation amounts and timeframes for their discontinuation?
    • Are any variances driven by confirmed business plans to increase headcount, necessitating purchase of end-user hardware and on-premises software licenses?
    • Are any variances due to net-new planned/contingency purchases or the retirement of depreciable on-premises equipment?
    • Is funding for all capital projects represented reliable, i.e. has it been approved?
    • Are all in-progress, proposed, or committed project CapEx costs backed up with reliable estimates and full project documentation?
    • Do capital project costs include the capitalizable costs of employees working on those projects, and were these amounts deducted from non-project OpEx?
    • Have you estimated the longer-term OpEx impact of your current capital projects?

    4.1 Aggregate your proposed budget numbers and stress test your forecasts

    2 hours

    1. Download the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook for this activity. If you have been using it thus far, the Workbook will have calculated your numbers for you across the four views of the ITFM Cost Model on Tab 7, “Proposed Budget”, including:
      1. Forecasted non-project OpEx, non-project CapEx (including depreciation values), project CapEx, and total values.
      2. Numerical and percentage variances from the previous year.
    2. Test and finalize your forecasts by applying the questions on the previous slide.
    3. Flag cost categories where large variances from the previous year or large numbers in general appear – you will need to ensure your rationales for these variances are rigorous in the next step.
    4. Make amendments if needed to Tabs 4, “Business as Usual Forecast” and 5, “Project CapEx Forecast” in the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook.

    Download the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook

    InputOutputMaterialsParticipants
    • Final drafts of all IT cost forecasts
    • A final proposed IT budget
    • IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Head of IT
    • IT Financial Lead
    • Other IT Management

    Case Study

    INDUSTRY: Healthcare

    SOURCE: Anonymous

    Challenge

    Solution

    Results

    A senior nursing systems director needed the CIO’s help. She wanted to get a project off the ground, but it wasn’t getting priority or funding.

    Nurses were burning out. Many were staying one to two hours late per shift to catch up on patient notes. Their EHR platform had two problematic workflows, each taking up to about 15 minutes per nurse per patient to complete. These workflows were complex, of no value, and just not getting done. She needed a few million dollars to make the fix.

    The CIO worked with the director to do the math. In only a few hours, they realized that the savings from rewriting the workflows would allow them to hire over 500 full-time nurses.

    The benefits realized would not only help reduce nurse workload and generate savings, but also increase the amount of time spent with patients and number of patients seen overall. They redid the math several times to ensure they were right.

    The senior nursing systems director presented to her peers and leadership, and eventually to the Board of Directors. The Board immediately saw the benefits and promoted the project to first on the list ahead of all other projects.

    This collaborative approach to generating project benefits statements helped the CIO gain trust and pave the way for future budgets.

    The strength of your rationales will determine how readily your budget is approved

    When proposing expenditure, you need to thoroughly consider the organization’s goals, its governance culture, and the overall feasibility of what’s being asked.

    First, recall what budgets are really about.

    The completeness, accuracy, and granularity of your numbers and thorough ROI calculations for projects are essential. They will serve you well in getting the CFO’s attention. However, the numbers will only get you halfway there. Despite what some people think, the work in setting a budget is more about the what, how, and why – that is, the rationale – than about the how much.

    Next, revisit Phase 1 of this blueprint and review:

    • Your organization’s budgeting culture and processes.
    • The typical accountabilities, priorities, challenges, opportunities, and expectations associated with your CFO, CEO, and CXO IT budget stakeholders.
    • Your budgetary mandate as the head of IT.

    Then, look at each component of your proposed budget through each of these three rationale-building lenses.

    Business goals
    What are the organization’s strategic priorities?

    Governance culture
    How constrained is the decision-making process?

    Feasibility
    Can we make it happen?

    Linking proposed spend to strategic goals isn’t just for strategic project CapEx

    Tie in your “business as usual” non-project OpEx and CapEx, as well.

    Business goals

    What are the organization’s strategic priorities?

    Context

    This is all about external factors, namely the broader economic, political, and industry contexts in which the organization operates.

    Lifecycle position

    The stage the organization is at in terms of growth, stability, or decline will drive decisions, priorities, and the ability to spend or invest.

    Opportunities

    Context and lifecycle position determine opportunities, which are often defined in terms of potential cost savings
    or ROI.

    Tie every element in your proposed budget to an organizational goal.

    Non-project OpEx

    • Remember that OpEx is what comes from the realization of past strategic goals. If that past goal is still valid, then the OpEx that keeps that goal alive is, too.
    • Business viability and continuity are often unexpressed goals. OpEx directly supports these goals.
    • Periodically apply zero-based budgeting to OpEx to re-rationalize and identify waste.

    Non-project CapEx

    • Know the impact of any business growth goals on future headcount – this is essential to rationalize laptop/desktop and other end-user hardware spend.
    • Position infrastructure equipment spend in terms of having sufficient capacity to support growth goals as well as ensuring network/system reliability and continuity.
    • Leverage depreciation schedules as backup.

    Project CapEx

    • Challenge business-driven CapEx projects if they don’t directly support stated goals.
    • Ideally, the goal-supporting rationales for software, hardware, and workforce CapEx have been laid out in an already-approved project proposal. Refer to these plans.
    • If pitching a capital project at the last minute, especially an IT-driven one, expect a “no” regardless of how well it ties to goals.

    Your governance culture will determine what you need to show and when you show it

    The rigor of your rationales is entirely driven by “how things are done around here.”

    Governance Culture

    How rigorous/ constrained
    is decision-making?

    Risk tolerance

    This is the organization’s willingness to be flexible, take chances, make change, and innovate. It is often driven by legal and regulatory mandates.

    Control

    Control manifests in the number and nature of rules and how authority and accountability are centralized or distributed in the organization.

    Speed to action

    How quickly decisions are made and executed upon is determined by the amount of consultation and number of approval steps.

    Ensure all parts of your proposed budget align with what’s tolerated and allowed.

    Non-project OpEx

    • Don’t hide OpEx. If it’s a dirty word, put it front and center to start normalizing it.
    • As with business goals, position OpEx as necessary for business continuity and risk mitigation, as well as the thing that keeps long-term strategic goals alive.
    • Focus on efficiency and cost control, both in terms of past and future initiatives, regardless of the governance culture.

    Non-project CapEx

    • Treat non-project CapEx in the same way as you would non-project OpEx.
    • IT must make purchases quickly in this area of spend, but drawn-out procurement processes can make this impossible. Consider including a separate proposal to establish a policy that gives IT the control to make end-user and network/data center equipment purchases faster and easier.

    Project CapEx

    • If your organization is risk-averse, highly centralized, or slow to act, don’t expect IT to win approval for innovative capital projects. Let the business make any pitches and have IT serve in a supporting role.
    • Capital projects are often committed to 6-12 months in advance and can’t be completed within a fiscal year. Nudge the organization toward longer-term, flexible funding.

    No matter which way your goals and culture lean, ground all your rationales in reality

    Objective, unapologetic facts are your strongest rationale-building tool.

    Feasibility

    Can we do it, and what sacrifices will we have to make?

    Funding

    The ultimate determinant of feasibility is the availability, quantity, and reliability of funding next fiscal year and over the long term to support investment.

    Capabilities

    Success hinges on both the availability and accessibility of required skills and knowledge to execute on a spend plan in the required timeframe.

    Risk

    Risk is not just about obstacles to success and what could happen if you do something – it’s also about what could happen if you do nothing at all.

    Vet every part of your proposed budget to ensure what you’re asking for is both realistic and possible.

    Non-project OpEx

    • Point out your operational waste-reduction and efficiency-gaining efforts in hard, numerical terms.
    • Clearly demonstrate that OpEx cannot be reduced without sacrifices on the business side, specifically in terms of service levels.
    • Define OpEx impacts for all CapEx proposals to ensure funding commitments include long-term maintenance and support.

    Non-project CapEx

    • This is a common source of surprise budget overage, and IT often sacrifices parts of its OpEx budget to cover it. Shed light on this problem and define IT’s boundaries.
    • A core infrastructure equipment contingency fund and a policy mandating business units pay for unbudgeted end-user tech due to unplanned or uncommunicated headcount increases are worth pursuing.

    Project CapEx

    • Be sure IT is involved with every capital project proposal that has a technological implication (which is usually all of them).
    • Specifically, IT should take on responsibility for tech vendor evaluation and negotiation. Never leave this up to the business.
    • Ensure IT gains funding for supporting any technologies acquired via a capital planning process, including hiring if necessary.

    Double-check to ensure your bases are covered

    Detailed data and information checklist:

    • I have the following data and information for each item of proposed expenditure:
    • Sponsors, owners, and/or managers from IT and the business.
    • CapEx and OpEx costs broken down by workforce (employees/contract) and vendor (software, hardware, services) at a minimum for both last fiscal year (if continuing spend) and next fiscal year to demonstrate any changes.
    • Projected annual costs for the above, extending two to five years into the future, with dates when new spending will start, known depreciations will end, and CapEx will transition to OpEx.
    • Descriptions of any tradeoffs or potential obstacles.
    • Lifespan information for new, proposed assets informing depreciation scheduling.
    • Sources of funding (especially if new, transferred, or changed).
    • Copies of any research used to inform any of the above.

    High-level rationale checklist:

    • I have done the following thinking and analysis for each item of proposed expenditure:
    • Considered it in the context of my organization’s broader operating environment and the constraints and opportunities this creates.
    • Tied it – directly or indirectly – to the achievement or sustainment of current or past (but still relevant) organizational goals.
    • Understood my organization’s tolerances, how things get done, and whether I can win any battles that I need to fight given these realities.
    • Worked with business unit leaders to fully understand their plans and how IT can support them.
    • Obtained current, verifiable data and information and have a good idea if, when, and how this information may change next year.
    • Assessed benefits, risks, dependencies, and overall feasibility, as well as created ROI statements where needed.
    • Stuck to the facts and am confident they can speak for themselves.

    For more on creating detailed business cases for projects and investments, see Info-Tech’s comprehensive blueprint, Build a Comprehensive Business Case.

    4.2 Challenge and perfect your rationales

    2 hours

    1. Based on your analysis in Phase 1, review your organization’s current and near-term business goals (context, lifecycle position, opportunities), governance culture (risk tolerance, control, speed to action), and feasibility (funding, capabilities, risk) to understand what’s possible, what’s not, and your general boundaries.
    2. Review your proposed budget in its current form and flag items that may be difficult or impossible to sell, given the above.
    3. Systematically go through each item in you proposed budget and apply the detailed data and information and high-level rationale checklists on the previous slide to ensure you have considered it from every angle and have all the information you need to defend it.
    4. Track down any additional information needed to fill gaps and fine-tune your budget based on any discoveries, including eliminating or adding elements if needed.

    Download the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook

    InputOutput
    • Final drafts of all IT cost forecasts, including rationales
    • Fully rationalized proposed IT budget for next fiscal year
    MaterialsParticipants
    • IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Head of IT
    • IT Financial Lead
    • Other IT Management

    Phase recap: Build your proposed budget

    You can officially say your proposed IT budget is done. Now for the communications part.

    This phase is where everything came together into a coherent budget proposal. You were able to:

    • Aggregate your numbers. This involved pulling for project and non-project CapEx and OpEx forecasts into a single proposed IT budget total.
    • Stress-test your forecasts. Here, you ensured that all your numbers were accurate and made sense.
    • Challenge and perfect your rationales. Finally, you made sure you have all your evidence in place and can defend every component in your proposed IT budget regardless of who’s looking at it.

    “Current OpEx is about supporting and aligning with past business strategies. That’s alignment. If the business wants to give up on those past business strategies, that’s up to them.”

    – Darin Stahl, Distinguished Analyst and Research Fellow, Info-Tech Research Group

    Phase 5

    Create and Deliver Your Presentation

    Lay Your
    Foundation

    Get Into Budget-Starting Position

    Develop Your
    Forecasts

    Build Your
    Proposed Budget

    Create and Deliver Your Presentation

    1.1 Understand what your budget is
    and does

    1.2 Know your stakeholders

    1.3 Continuously pre-sell your budget

    2.1 Assemble your resources

    2.2 Understand the four views of the ITFM Cost Model

    2.3 Review last year’s budget vs.
    actuals and five-year historical trends

    2.4 Set your high-level goals

    3.1 Develop assumptions and
    alternative scenarios

    3.2 Forecast your project CapEx

    3.3 Forecast your non-project CapEx and OpEx

    4.1 Aggregate your numbers

    4.2 Stress test your forecasts

    4.3 Challenge and perfect your
    rationales

    5.1 Plan your content

    5.2 Build your presentation

    5.3 Present to stakeholders

    5.4 Make final adjustments and submit your IT budget

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Planning the content you’ll include in your budget presentation.
    • Pulling together your formal presentation.
    • Presenting, finalizing, and submitting your budget.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Head of IT
    • IT Financial Lead
    • Other IT Management

    Create and deliver your presentation

    Pull it all together into something you can show your approvers and stakeholders and win IT budgetary approval.

    This phase focuses on developing your final proposed budget presentation for delivery to your various stakeholders. Here you will:

    • Plan your final content. Decide the narrative you want to tell and select the visualizations and words you want to include in your presentation (or presentations) depending on the makeup of your target audience.
    • Build your presentation. Pull together all the key elements in a PowerPoint template in a way that best tells the IT budget story.
    • Present to stakeholders. Deliver your IT budgetary message.
    • Make final adjustments and submit your budget. Address any questions, make final changes, and deconstruct your budget into the account categories mandated by your Finance Department to plug into the budget template they’ve provided.

    “I could have put the numbers together in a week. The process of talking through what the divisions need and spending time with them is more time consuming than the budget itself.”

    – Jay Gnuse, IT Director, Chief Industries

    The content you select to present depends on your objectives and constraints

    Info-Tech classifies potential content according to three basic types: mandatory, recommended, and optional. What’s the difference?

    Mandatory: Just about every CFO or approving body will expect to see this information. Often high level in nature, it includes:

    • A review of last year’s performance.
    • A comparison of proposed budget totals to last year’s actuals.
    • A breakdown of CapEx vs. OpEx.
    • A breakdown of proposed expenditure according to traditional workforce and vendor costs.

    Recommended: This information builds on the mandatory elements, providing more depth and detail. Inclusion of recommended content depends on:

    • Availability of the information.
    • Relevance to a current strategic focus or overarching initiative in the organization.
    • Known business interest in the topic, or the topic’s ability to generate interest in IT budgetary concerns in general.

    Optional: This is very detailed information that provides alternative views and serves as reinforcement of your key messages. Consider including it if:

    • You need to bring fuller transparency to a murky IT spending situation.
    • Your audience is open to it, i.e. it wouldn’t be seen as irrelevant, wasting their time, or a cause of discord.
    • You have ample time during your presentation to dive into it.

    Deciding what to include or exclude depends 100% on your target audience. What will fulfill their basic information needs as well as increase their engagement in IT financial issues?

    Revisit your assumptions and alternative scenarios first

    These represent the contextual framework for your proposal and explain why you made the decisions you did.

    Stating your assumptions and presenting at least two alternative scenarios helps in the following ways:

    1. Identifies the factors you considered when setting budget targets and proposing specific expenditures, and shows that you know what the important factors are.
    2. Lays the logical foundation for all the rationales you will be presenting.
    3. Demonstrates that you’ve thought broadly about the future of the organization and how IT is best able to support that future organization regardless of its state and circumstances.

    Your assumptions and alternative scenarios may not appear back-to-back in your presentation, yet they’re intimately connected in that every unique scenario is based on adjustments to your core assumptions. These tweaks – and the resulting scenarios – reflect the different degrees of probability that a variable is likely to land on a certain value (i.e. an alternative assumption).

    Your primary scenario is the one you believe is most likely to happen and is represented by the complete budget you’re recommending and presenting.

    Target timeframe for presentation: 2 minutes

    Key objectives: Setting context, demonstrating breadth of thought.

    Potential content for section:

    • List of assumptions for the budget being presented (primary target scenario).
    • Two or more alternative scenarios.

    “Things get cut when the business
    doesn’t know what something is,
    doesn’t recognize it, doesn’t understand it. There needs to be an education.”

    – Angie Reynolds, Principal Research Director, ITFM Practice,
    Info-Tech Research Group,

    Select your assumptions and scenarios

    See Tabs “Planning Variables” and 9, “Alternative Scenarios” in your IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook for these outputs.

    Core assumptions

    Primary target scenario

    Alternative scenarios

    Full alternative scenario budgets

    List

    Slide

    Slide

    Budget

    Mandatory: This is a listing of both internal and external factors that are most likely to affect the challenges and opportunities your organization will have and how it can and will operate. This includes negotiable and non-negotiable internal and external constraints, stated priorities, and the expression of known risk factors.

    Mandatory: Emanating from your core assumptions, this scenario is a high-level statement of goals, initial budget targets, and proposed budget based on your core assumptions.

    Recommended: Two alternatives are typical, with one higher spend and one lower spend than your target. The state of the economy and funding availability are the assumptions usually tweaked. More radical scenarios, like the cost and implications of completely outsourcing IT, can also be explored.

    Optional: This is a lot of work, but some IT leaders do it if an alternative scenario is a strong contender or is necessary to show that a proposed direction from the business is costly or not feasible.

    The image contains screenshots of tab Planning Variables and Alternative Scenarios.

    The first major section of your presentation will be a retrospective

    Plan to kick things off with a review of last year’s results, factors that affected what transpired, and longer-term historical IT expenditure trends.

    This retrospective on IT expenditure is important for three reasons:

    1. Clarifying definitions and the different categories of IT expenditure.
    2. Showing your stakeholders how, and how well you aligned IT expenditure with business objectives.
    3. Setting stakeholder expectations about what next year’s budget will look like based on past patterns.

    You probably won’t have a lot of time for this section, so everything you select to share should pack a punch and perform double duty by introducing concepts you’ll need your stakeholders to have internalized when you present next year’s budget details.

    Target timeframe for presentation: 7 minutes

    Key objectives: Definitions, alignment, expectations-setting.

    Potential content for section:

    • Last fiscal year budgeted vs. actuals
    • Expenditure by type
    • Major capital projects completed
    • Top vendor spend
    • Drivers of last year’s expenditures and efficiencies
    • Last fiscal year in in detail (expense view, service view, business view, innovation view)
    • Expenditure trends for the past five years

    “If they don’t know the consequences of their actions, how are they ever going to change their actions?”

    – Angela Hintz, VP of PMO & Integrated Services,
    Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana

    Start at the highest level

    See Tabs 1 “Historical Events & Projects,” 3 “Historical Analysis,” and 6 “Vendor Worksheet” in your IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook for these outputs.

    Total budgeted vs. total actuals

    Graph

    Mandatory: Demonstrates the variance between what you budgeted for last year and what was actually spent. Explaining causes of variance is key.

    l actuals by expenditure type

    Graph

    Mandatory: Provides a comparative breakdown of last year’s expenditure by non-project OpEx, non-project CapEx, and project CapEx. This offers an opportunity to explain different types of IT expenditure and why they’re the relative size they are.

    Major capital projects completed

    List

    Mandatory: Illustrates progress made toward strategically important objectives.

    Top vendors

    List

    Recommended: A list of vendors that incurred the highest costs, including their relative portion of overall expenditure. These are usually business software vendors, i.e. tools your stakeholders use every day. The number of vendors shown is up to you.

    The image contains screenshots from Tabs 1, 3, and 6 of the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook.

    Describe drivers of costs and savings

    See Tab 1, “Historical Events & Projects” in your IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook for these outputs.

    Cost drivers

    List

    Mandatory: A list of major events, circumstances, business decisions, or non-negotiable factors that necessitated expenditure. Be sure to focus on the unplanned or unexpected situations that caused upward variance.

    Savings drivers

    List

    Mandatory: A list of key initiatives pursued, or circumstances that resulted in efficiencies or savings. Include any deferred or canceled projects.

    The image contains screenshots from Tab 1 of the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook.

    Also calculate and list the magnitude of costs incurred or savings realized in hard financial terms so that the full impact of these events is truly understood by your stakeholders.

    “What is that ongoing cost?
    If we brought in a new platform, what
    does that do to our operating costs?”

    – Kristen Thurber, IT Director, Office of the CIO, Donaldson Company

    End with longer-term five-year trends

    See Tab 3 “Historical Analysis” in your IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook for these outputs.

    IT actual expenditure
    year over year

    Graph

    Mandatory: This is crucial for showing overall IT expenditure patterns, particularly percentage changes up or down year to year, and what the drivers of those changes were.

    IT actuals as a % of organizational revenue

    Graph

    Mandatory: You need to set the stage for the proposed percentage of organizational revenue to come. The CFO will be looking for consistency and an overall decreasing pattern over time.

    IT expenditure per FTE year over year

    Graph

    Optional: This can be a powerful metric as it’s simple and easily to understand.

    The image contains screenshots from Tab 3 of the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook.

    The historical analysis you can do is endless. You can generate many more cuts of the data or go back even further – it’s up to you.

    Keep in mind that you won’t have a lot of time during your presentation, so stick to the high-level, high-impact graphs that demonstrate overarching trends or themes.

    Show different views of the details

    See Tab 3 “Historical Analysis” in your IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook for these outputs.

    Budgeted vs. actuals CFO expense view

    Graph

    Mandatory: Showing different types of workforce expenditure compared to different types of vendor expenditure will be important to the CFO.

    Budgeted vs. actuals CIO services view

    Graph

    Optional: Showing the expenditure of some IT services will clarify the true total costs of delivering and supporting these services if misunderstandings exist.

    Budgeted vs. actuals CXO business view

    Graph

    Optional: A good way to show true consumption levels and the relative IT haves and have-nots. Potentially political, so consider sharing one-on-one with relevant business unit leaders instead of doing a big public reveal.

    Budgeted vs. actual CEO innovation view

    Graph

    Optional: Clarifies how much the organization is investing in innovation or growth versus keeping the lights on. Of most interest to the CEO and possibly the CFO, and good for starting conversations about how well funding is aligned with strategic directions.

    The image contains screenshots from Tab 3 of the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook.

    5.1a Select your retrospective content

    30 minutes

    1. Open your copy of the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook.
    2. From Tabs 1, “Historical Events & Projects, 3 “Historical Analysis”, and 6, “Vendor Worksheet,” select the visual outputs (graphs and lists) you plan to include in the retrospective section of your presentation. Consider the following when determining what to include or exclude:
      1. Fundamentals: Elements such as budgeted vs. actual, distribution across expenditure types, and drivers of variance are mandatory.
      2. Key clarifications: What expectations need to be set or common misunderstandings cleared up? Strategically insert visuals that introduce and explain important concepts early.
      3. Your time allowance. Plan for a maximum of seven minutes for every half hour of total presentation time.
    3. Note what you plan to include in your presentation and set aside.

    Download the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook

    InputOutput
    • Data and graphs from the completed IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook
    • Selected content and visuals for the historical/ retrospective section of the IT Budget Executive Presentation
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Head of IT
    • IT Financial Lead
    • Other IT Management

    Next, transition from past expenditure to your proposal for the future

    Build a logical bridge between what happened in the past to what’s coming up next year using a comparative approach and feature major highlights.

    This transitional phase between the past and the future is important for the following reasons:

    1. It illustrates any consistent patterns of IT expenditure that may exist and be relevant in the near term.
    2. It sets the stage for explaining any deviations from historical patterns that you’re about to propose.
    3. It grounds proposed IT expenditure within the context of commitments made in previous years.

    Consider this the essential core of your presentation – this is the key message and what your audience came to hear.

    Target timeframe for presentation: 10 minutes

    Key objectives: Transition, reveal proposed budget.

    Potential content for section:

    • Last year’s actuals vs. next year’s proposed.
    • Next year’s proposed budget in context of the past five years’ year-over-year actuals.
    • Last year’s actual expenditure type distribution vs. next year’s proposed budget distribution.
    • Major projects to be started next year.

    “The companies...that invest the most in IT aren’t necessarily the best performers.
    On average, the most successful small and medium companies are more frugal when it comes to
    company spend on IT (as long as they do it judiciously).”

    – Source: Techvera, 2023

    Compare next year to last year

    See Tab 8, “Proposed Budget Analysis” in your IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook for these outputs.

    Last year’s total actuals vs. next year’s total forecast

    Proposed budget in context: Year-over-year expenditure

    Last year’s actuals vs. next year’s proposed by expenditure type

    Last year’s expenditure per FTE vs. next year’s proposed

    Graph

    Graph

    Graph

    Graph

    Mandatory: This is the most important graph for connecting the past with the future and is also the first meaningful view your audience will have of your proposed budget for next year.

    Mandatory: Here, you will continue the long-term view introduced in your historical data by adding on next year’s projections to your existing five-year historical trend. The percentage change from last year to next year will be the focus.

    Recommended: A double-comparative breakdown of last year vs. next year by non-project OpEx, non-project CapEx, and project CapEx illustrates where major events, decisions, and changes are having their impact.

    Optional: This graph is particularly useful in demonstrating the success of cost-control if the actual proposed budget is higher that the previous year but the IT cost per employee has gone down.

    The image contains screenshots from Tab 8 of the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook.

    Select business projects to profile

    See Tab 5, “Project CapEx Forecast” in your IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook for the data and information to create these outputs.

    Major project profile

    Slide

    Mandatory: Focus on projects for which funding is already committed and lean toward those that are strategic or clearly support business goal attainment. How many you profile is up to you, but three to five is suggested.

    Minor project overview

    List

    Optional: List other projects on IT’s agenda to communicate the scope of IT’s project-related responsibilities and required expenditure to be successful. Include in-progress projects that will be completed next year and net-new projects on the roster.

    The image contains screenshots from Tab 5 of the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook.

    You can’t profile every project on the list, but it’s important that your stakeholders see their priorities clearly reflected in your budget; projects are the best way to do this.

    If you’ve successfully pre-sold your budget and partnered with business-unit leaders to define IT initiatives, your stakeholders should already be very familiar with the project summaries you put in front of them in your presentation.

    5.1b Select your transitional past-to-future content

    30 minutes

    1. Open your copy of the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook.
    2. From Tabs 5, “Project CapEx Forecast” and 7, “Proposed Budget Analysis”, select the visual outputs (graphs and lists) you plan to include in the transitional section of your presentation. Consider the following when determining what to include or exclude:
      1. Shift from CapEx to OpEx: If this has been a point of contention or confusion with your CFO in the past, or if your organization has actively committed to greater cloud or outsourcing intensity, you’ll want to show this year-to-year shift in expenditure type.
      2. Strategic priorities: Profile major capital projects that reflect stakeholder priorities. If your audience is already very familiar with these projects, you may be able to skip detailed profiles and simply list them.
      3. Your time allowance. Plan for a maximum of 10 minutes for every half hour of total presentation time.
    3. Note what you plan to include in your presentation and set aside.

    Download the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook

    InputOutput
    • Data and graphs from the completed IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook
    • Selected content and visuals for the past-to-future transitional section of the IT Budget Executive Presentation
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Head of IT
    • IT Financial Lead
    • Other IT Management

    Finally, carefully select detailed drill-downs that add clarity and depth to your proposed budget

    The graphs you select here will be specific to your audience and any particular message you need to send.

    This detailed phase of your presentation is important because it allows you to:

    1. Highlight specific areas of IT expenditure that often get buried under generalities.
    2. View your proposed budget from different perspectives that are most meaningful to your audience, such as traditional workforce vs. vendor allocations, expenditure by IT service, business-unit consumption, and the allocation of funds to innovation and growth versus daily IT operations.
    3. Get stakeholder attention. For example, laying out exactly how much money will be spent next year in support of the Sales Department compared to other units will get the VP of Sales’ attention…and everyone else’s, for that matter. This kind of transparency is invaluable for enabling meaningful conversations and thoughtful decision-making about IT spend.

    Target timeframe for presentation: 7 minutes, but this phase of the presentation may naturally segue into the final Q&A.

    Key objectives: Transparency, dialogue, buy-in.

    Potential content for section:

    • Allocation across workforce vs. vendors
    • Top vendors by expenditure
    • Allocation across on-premises vs. cloud
    • Allocation across core IT services
    • Allocation across core business units
    • Allocation across business focus area

    “A budget is a quantified version of
    your service-level agreements.”

    – Darin Stahl, Distinguished Analysis & Research Fellow,
    Info-Tech Research Group,

    Start with the expense view details

    See Tab 8, “Proposed Budget Analysis” in your IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook for these outputs.

    Proposed budget: Workforce and vendors by expenditure type

    Graph

    Mandatory: This is the traditional CFO’s view, so definitely show it. The compelling twist here is showing it by expenditure type, i.e. non-project OpEx, non-project CapEx, and project CapEx.

    Proposed budget: Cloud vs. on-premises vendor expenditure

    Graph

    Optional: If this is a point of contention or if an active transition to cloud solutions is underway, then show it.

    Top vendors

    Graph

    Recommended: As with last year’s actuals, showing who the top vendors are slated to be next year speaks volumes to stakeholders about exactly where much of their money is going.

    If you have a diverse audience with diverse interests, be very selective – you don’t want to bore them with things they don’t care about.

    The image contains screenshots from Tab 8 of the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook.

    Offer choice details on the other views

    See Tab 8, “Proposed Budget Analysis” in your IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook for these outputs.

    Proposed budget: IT services by expenditure type

    Graph

    Optional: Business unit leaders will be most interested in the application services. Proposed expenditure on security and data and BI services may be of particular interest given business priorities. Don’t linger on infrastructure spend unless chargeback is in play.

    Proposed budget: Business units by expenditure type

    Graph

    Optional: The purpose of this data is to show varying business units where they stand in terms of consumption. It may be more appropriate to show this graph in a one-on-one meeting or other context.

    Proposed budget: Business focus by expenditure type

    Graph

    Optional: The CEO will care most about this data. If they’re not in the room, then consider bypassing it and discuss it separately with the CFO.

    Inclusion of these graphs really depends on the makeup of your audience. It’s a good decision to show all of them to your CFO at some point before the formal presentation. Consider getting their advice on what to include and exclude.

    The image contains screenshots from Tab 8 of the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook.

    5.1c Select next year’s expenditure sub-category details

    30 minutes

    1. Open your copy of the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook.
    2. From Tab 8, “Proposed Budget Analysis,” select the visual outputs (graphs) you plan to include in the targeted expenditure sub-category details section of your presentation. Consider the following when determining what to include or exclude:
      1. The presence of important fence-sitters. If there are key individuals who require more convincing, this is where you show them the reality of what it costs to deliver their most business-critical IT services to them.
      2. The degree to which you’ve already gone over the numbers previously with your audience. Again, if you’ve done your pre-selling, this data may be old news and not worth going over again.
      3. Your time allowance. Plan for a maximum of seven minutes for every half hour of total presentation time.
    3. Note what you plan to include in your presentation and set aside.

    Download the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook

    InputOutput
    • Data and graphs from the completed IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook
    • Selected content and visuals for the expenditure category details section of the IT Budget Executive Presentation
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Head of IT
    • IT Financial Lead
    • Other IT Management

    Finalize your line-up and put your selected content into a presentation template

    This step is about nailing down the horizontal logic of the story you want to tell. Start by ordering and loading the visualizations of your budget data.

    Download Info-Tech’s IT Budget Executive Presentation Template

    The image contains a screenshot of the IT Budget Executive Presentation Template.

    If you prefer, use your own internal presentation standard template instead and Info-Tech’s template as a structural guide.

    Regardless of the template you use, Info-Tech recommends the following structure:

    1. Summary: An overview of your decision-making assumptions, initial targets given the business context, and the total proposed IT budget amount.
    2. Retrospective: An overview of previous years’ performance, with a specific focus on last fiscal year.
    3. Proposed budget overview: A high-level view of the proposed budget for next fiscal year in the context of last year’s performance (i.e. the bridge from past to future), including alternative scenarios considered and capital projects on the roster.
    4. Proposed budget details by category: Detailed views of the proposed budget by expense type, IT service, business unit, and business focus category.
    5. Next steps: Include question-and-answer and itemization of your next actions through to submitting your final budget to the CFO.

    Draft the commentary that describes and highlights your data’s key messages

    This is where the rationales that you perfected earlier come into play.

    Leave the details for the speaker’s notes.
    Remember that this is an executive presentation. Use tags, pointers, and very brief sentences in the body of the presentation itself. Avoid walls of text. You want your audience to be listening to your words, not reading a slide.

    Speak to everything that represents an increase or decrease of more than 5% or that simply looks odd.
    Being transparent is essential. Don’t hide anything. Acknowledge the elephant in the room before your audience does to quickly stop suspicious or doubtful thoughts

    Identify causes and rationales.
    This is why your numbers are as they are. However, if you’re not 100% sure what all driving factors are, don’t make them up. Also, if the line between cause and effect isn’t straight, craft in advance a very simple way of explaining it that you can offer whenever needed.

    Be neutral and objective in your language.
    You need to park strong feelings at the door. You’re presenting rational facts and thoroughly vetted recommendations. The best defense is not to be defensive, or even offensive for that matter. You don’t need to argue, plead, or apologize – let your information speak for itself and allow the audience to arrive at their own logical conclusions.

    Re-emphasize your core themes to create connections.
    If a single strategic project is driving cost increases across multiple cost categories, point it out multiple times if needed to reinforce its importance. If an increase in one area is made possible by a significant offset in another, say so to demonstrate your ongoing commitment to efficiencies. If a single event from last year will continue having cost impacts on several IT services next year, spell this out.

    5.2 Develop an executive presentation

    Duration: 2 hours

    1. Download the IT Budget Executive Presentation PowerPoint template.
    2. Open your working version of the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook and copy and paste your selected graphs and tables into the template. Note: Pasting as an image will preserve graph formatting.
    3. Incorporate observations and insights about your proposed budget and other analysis into the template where indicated.
    4. Conduct an internal review of the final presentation to ensure it includes all the elements you need and is error-free.

    Note: Refer to your organization’s standards and norms for executive-level presentations and either adapt the Info-Tech template accordingly or use your own.

    Download the IT Budget Executive Presentation template

    Input Output
    • Tabular and graphical data outputs in the IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook
    • Interpretive commentary based on your analysis
    • Executive presentation summarizing your proposed IT budget
    Materials Participants
    • IT Cost Forecasting and Budgeting Workbook
    • IT Budget Executive Presentation template
    • CIO/IT Directors
    • IT Financial Lead
    • Other IT Management

    Now it’s time to present your proposed IT budget for next fiscal year

    If you’ve done your homework and pre-sold your budget, the presentation itself should be a mere formality with no surprises for anyone, including you.

    Some final advice on presenting your proposed budget…

    Partner up

    If something big in your budget is an initiative that’s for a specific business unit, let that business unit’s leader be the face of it and have IT play the role of supporting partner.

    Use your champions

    Let your advocates know in advance that you’d appreciate hearing their voice during the presentation if you encounter any pushback, or just to reinforce your main messages.

    Focus on the CFO

    The CFO is the most important stakeholder in the room at the end of the day, even more than the CEO in some cases. Their interests should take priority if you’re pressed for time.

    Avoid judgment

    Let the numbers speak for themselves. Do point out highlights and areas of interest but hold off on offering emotion-driven opinions. Let your audience draw their own conclusions.

    Solicit questions

    You do want dialogue. However, keep your answers short and to the point. What does come up in discussion is a good indication of where you’ll need to spend more time in the future.

    The only other thing that can boost your chances is if you’re lucky enough to be scheduled to present between 10:00 and 11:00 on a Thursday morning when people are most agreeable. Beyond that, apply the standard rules of good presentations to optimize your success.

    Your presentation is done – now re-focus on budget finalization and submission

    This final stage tends to be very administrative. Follow the rules and get it done.

    • Incorporate feedback: Follow up on comments from your first presentation and reflect them in your budget if appropriate. This may include:
      • Having follow-up conversations with stakeholders.
      • Further clarifying the ROI projections or business benefits.
      • Adjusting proposed expenditure amounts based on new information or a shift in priorities.
      • Adding details or increasing granularity around specific issues of interest.
    • Trim: Almost every business unit leader will need to make cuts to their initial budget proposal. After all, the CFO has a finite pool of money to allocate. If all’s gone well, it may only be a few percent. Resurrect your less-costly alternative scenario and selectively apply the options you laid out there. Focus on downsizing or deferring capital projects if possible. If you must trim OpEx, remind the CFO about any service-level adjustments that will need to happen to make the less expensive alternatives work.
    • Re-present: It’s not unusual to have to present your budget one more time after you’ve made your adjustments. In some organizations, the first presentation is to an internal executive group while the second one is to a governing board. The same rules apply to this second presentation as to your first one.
    • Submit: Slot your final budget into the list of accounts prescribed in the budget template provided by Finance. These templates often don’t align with IT’s budget categories, but you’ll have to make do.

    Phase recap: Create and deliver your presentation

    You’ve reached the end of the budget creation and approval process. Now you can refocus on using your budget as a living governance tool.

    This phase focused on developing your final proposed budget presentation for delivery to your various stakeholders. Here, you:

    • Planned your final content. You selected the data and visuals to include and highlight.
    • Built your presentation. You pulled everything together into a PowerPoint template and crafted commentary to tell a cohesive IT budget story.
    • Presented to stakeholders. You delivered your proposed IT budget and solicited their comments and feedback.
    • Made final adjustments and submitted your budget. You applied final tweaks, deconstructed your budget to fit Finance’s template, and submitted it for entry into Finance’s system.

    “Everyone understands that there’s never enough money. The challenge is prioritizing the right work and funding it.”

    – Trisha Goya, Director, IT Governance & Administration, Hawaii Medical Service Association

    Next Steps

    “Keep that conversation going throughout the year so that at budgeting time no one is surprised…Make sure that you’re telling your story all year long and keep track of that story.”

    – Angela Hintz, VP of PMO & Integrated Services,
    Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana

    This final section will provide you with:

    • An overall summary of accomplishment.
    • Recommended next steps.
    • A list of contributors to this research.
    • Some related Info-Tech resources.

    Summary of Accomplishment

    You’ve successfully created a transparent IT budget and gotten it approved.

    By following the phases and steps in this blueprint, you have:

    1. Learned more about what an IT budget does and what it means to your key stakeholders.
    2. Assembled your budgeting team and critical data needed for forecasting and budgeting, as well as set expenditure goals for next fiscal year, and metrics for improving the budgeting process overall.
    3. Forecasted your project and non-project CapEx and OpEx for next fiscal year and beyond.
    4. Fine-tuned your proposed expenditure rationales.
    5. Crafted and delivered an executive presentation and got your budget approved.

    What’s next?

    Use your approved budget as an ongoing IT financial management governance tool and track your budget process improvement metrics.

    If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through an Info-Tech full-service engagement or Guided Implementation.

    Contact your account representative for more information.

    1-888-670-8889

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Monica Braun

    Research Director, ITFM Practice

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Carol Carr

    Technical Counselor (Finance)

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Larry Clark

    Executive Counselor

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Duane Cooney

    Executive Counselor

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Lynn Fyhrlund

    Former Chief Information Officer

    Milwaukee County

    Jay Gnuse

    Information Technology Director

    Chief Industries

    Trisha Goya

    Director, IS Client Services

    Hawaii Medical Service Association

    Angela Hintz

    VP of PMO & Integrated Services

    Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana

    Rick Hopfer

    Chief Information Officer

    Hawaii Medical Service Association

    Theresa Hughes

    Executive Counselor

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Dave Kish

    Practice Lead, IT Financial Management Practice

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Matt Johnson

    IT Director Governance and Business Solutions

    Milwaukee County

    Titus Moore

    Executive Counselor

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Angie Reynolds

    Principal Research Director, IT Financial Management Practice

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Mark Roman

    Managing Partner, Executive Services

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Darin Stahl

    Distinguished Analyst & Research Fellow

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Miguel Suarez

    Head of Technology

    Seguros Monterrey New York Life

    Kristen Thurber

    IT Director, Office of the CIO

    Donaldson Company

    Related Info-Tech Research & Services

    Achieve IT Spend & Staffing Transparency

    • IT spend has increased in volume and complexity, but how IT spend decisions are made has not kept pace.
    • Lay a foundation for meaningful conversations and informed decision making around IT spend by transparently mapping exactly where IT funds are really going.

    IT Spend & Staffing Benchmarking Service

    • Is a do-it-yourself approach to achieving spend transparency too onerous? Let Info-Tech do the heavy lifting for you.
    • Using Info-Tech’s ITFM Cost Model, our analysts will map your IT expenditure to four different stakeholder views – CFO Expense View, CIO Service View, CXO Business View, and CEO Innovation View – so that you clearly show where expenditure is going in terms that stakeholders can relate to and better demonstrate IT’s value to the business.
    • Get a full report that shows how your spend is allocated plus benchmarks that compare your results to those of your industry peers.

    Build Your IT Cost Optimization Roadmap

    • Cost optimization is usually thought about in terms of cuts, when it’s really about optimizing IT’s cost-to-value ratio.
    • Develop a cost-optimization strategy based on your organization’s circumstances and timeline focused on four key areas of IT expenditure: assets, vendors, projects, and workforce.

    Bibliography

    “How Much Should a Company Spend on IT?” Techvera, no date. Accessed 3 Mar. 2023.
    “State of the CIO Study 2023.” Foundry, 25 Jan. 2023. Accessed 3 Mar. 2023.
    Aberdeen Strategy & Research. “The State of IT 2023.” Spiceworks. Ziff Davis, 2022. Accessed 28 Feb. 2023.
    Ainsworth, Paul. “Responsibilities of the Modern CFO - A Function in Transition.” TopTal, LLC., no date. Accessed 15 Feb. 2023.
    Balasaygun, Kaitlin. “For the first time in a long time, CFOs can say no to tech spending.” CNBC CFO Council, 19 Jan. 2023. Accessed 17 Feb. 2023.
    Bashir, Ahmad. “Objectives of Capital Budgeting and factors affecting Capital Budget Decisions.” LinkedIn, 27 May 2017. Accessed 14 Apr. 2023.
    Blackmon, Kris. “Building a Data-Driven Budget Pitch the C-Suite Can't Refuse.” NetSuite Brainyard, 21 Sep. 2021. Accessed 17 Feb. 2023
    Butcher, Daniel. “CFO to CFO: Budgeting to Fund Strategic Plans.” Strategic Finance Magazine/Institute of Management Accountants, 1 Dec. 2021. Accessed 17 Feb. 2023
    Gray, Patrick. “IT Budgeting: A Cheat Sheet.” TechRepublic, 29 Jul. 2020. Accessed 28 Feb. 2023.
    Greenbaum, David. “Budget vs. Actuals: Budget Variance Analysis & Guide.” OnPlan, 15 Mar. 2022. Accessed 22 Mar. 2023.
    Huber, Michael and Joan Rundle. “How to Budget for IT Like a CFO.” Huber & Associates, no date. Accessed 15 Feb. 2023.
    Kinney, Tara. “Executing Your Department Budget Like a CFO.” Atomic Revenue, LLC., no date. Accessed 15 Feb. 2023.
    Lafley, A.G. “What Only the CFO Can Do.” Harvard Business Review, May 2009. Accessed 15 Mar. 2009.
    Moore, Peter D. “IN THE DIGITAL WORLD, IT should be run as a profit center, not a cost center.” Wild Oak Enterprise, 26 Feb. 2020. Accessed 3 Mar. 2023.
    Nordmeyer, Bille. “What Factors Are Going to Influence Your Budgeting Decisions?” bizfluent, 8 May 2019. Accessed 14 Apr. 2023
    Ryan, Vincent. “IT Spending and 2023 Budgets Under Close Scrutiny.” CFO, 5 Dec. 2022. Accessed 3 Mar. 2023.
    Stackpole, Beth. “State of the CIO, 2022: Focus turns to IT fundamentals.” CIO Magazine, 21 Mar. 2022. Accessed 3 Mar. 2023.

    Document Your Cloud Strategy

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}468|cart{/j2store}
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    • Parent Category Name: Cloud Strategy
    • Parent Category Link: /cloud-strategy

    Despite the universally agreed-upon benefit of formulating a coherent strategy, several obstacles make execution difficult:

    • Inconsistent understanding of what the cloud means
    • Inability to come to a consensus on key decisions
    • Ungoverned decision-making
    • Unclear understanding of cloud roles and responsibilities

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    A cloud strategy might seem like a big project, but it’s just a series of smaller conversations. The methodology presented here is designed to facilitate those conversations, using a curated list of topics, prompts, participant lists, and sample outcomes. We have divided the strategy into four key areas:

    • Vision and alignment
    • People
    • Governance
    • Technology

    Impact and Result

    • A shared understanding of what is necessary to succeed in the cloud
    • An end to ad hoc deployments that solve small problems and create larger ones
    • A unified approach and set of principles that apply to governance, architecture, integration, skills, and roles (and much, much more).

    Document Your Cloud Strategy Research & Tools

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

    1. Document Your Cloud Strategy – a phased guide to identifying, validating, and recording the steps you’ll take, the processes you’ll leverage, and the governance you’ll deploy to succeed in the cloud.

    This storyboard comprises four phases, covering mission and vision, people, governance, and technology, and how each of these areas requires forethought when migrating to the cloud.

    • Document Your Cloud Strategy – Phases 1-4

    2. Cloud Strategy Document Template – a template that allows you to record the results of the cloud strategy exercise in a clear, readable way.

    Each section of Document Your Cloud Strategy corresponds to a section in the document template. Once you’ve completed each exercise, you can record your results in the document template, leaving you with an artifact you can share with stakeholders.

    • Cloud Strategy Document Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Document Your Cloud 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 Document Your Vision and Alignment

    The Purpose

    Understand and document your cloud vision and its alignment with your other strategic priorities.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A complete understanding of your strategy, vision, alignment, and a list of success metrics that will help you find your way.

    Activities

    1.1 Record your cloud mission and vision.

    1.2 Document your cloud strategy’s alignment with other strategic plans.

    1.3 Record your cloud guiding principles.

    Outputs

    Documented strategy, vision, and alignment.

    Defined success metrics.

    2 Record Your People Strategy

    The Purpose

    Define how people, skills, and roles will contribute to the broader cloud strategy.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Sections of the strategy that highlight skills, roles, culture, adoption, and the creation of a governance body.

    Activities

    2.1 Outline your skills and roles strategy.

    2.2 Document your approach to culture and adoption

    2.3 Create a cloud governing body.

    Outputs

    Documented people strategy.

    3 Document Governance Principles

    The Purpose

    This section facilitates governance in the cloud, developing principles that apply to architecture, integration, finance management, and more.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Sections of the strategy that define governance principles.

    Activities

    3.1 Conduct discussion on architecture.

    3.2 Conduct discussion on integration and interoperability.

    3.3 Conduct discussion on operations management.

    3.4 Conduct discussion on cloud portfolio management.

    3.5 Conduct discussion on cloud vendor management.

    3.6 Conduct discussion on finance management.

    3.7 Conduct discussion on security.

    3.8 Conduct discussion on data controls.

    Outputs

    Documented cloud governance strategy.

    4 Formalize Your Technology Strategy

    The Purpose

    Creation of a formal cloud strategy relating to technology around provisioning, monitoring, and migration.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Completed strategy sections of the document that cover technology areas.

    Activities

    4.1 Formalize organizational approach to monitoring.

    4.2 Document provisioning process.

    4.3 Outline migration processes and procedures.

    Outputs

    Documented cloud technology strategy.

    Further reading

    Document Your Cloud Strategy

    Get ready for the cloudy future with a consistent, proven strategy.

    Analyst perspective

    Any approach is better than no approach

    The image contains a picture of Jeremy Roberts

    Moving to the cloud is a big, scary transition, like moving from gas-powered to electric cars, or from cable to streaming, or even from the office to working from home. There are some undeniable benefits, but we must reorient our lives a bit to accommodate those changes, and the results aren’t always one-for-one. A strategy helps you make decisions about your future direction and how you should respond to changes and challenges. In Document Your Cloud Strategy we hope to help you accomplish just that: clarifying your overall mission and vision (as it relates to the cloud) and helping you develop an approach to changes in technology, people management, and, of course, governance. The cloud is not a panacea. Taken on its own, it will not solve your problems. But it can be an important tool in your IT toolkit, and you should aim to make the best use of it – whatever “best” happens to mean for you.

    Jeremy Roberts

    Research Director, Infrastructure and Operations

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    The cloud is multifaceted. It can be complicated. It can be expensive. Everyone has an opinion on the best way to proceed – and in many cases has already begun the process without bothering to get clearance from IT. The core challenge is creating a coherent strategy to facilitate your overall goals while making the best use of cloud technology, your financial resources, and your people.

    Common Obstacles

    Despite the universally agreed-upon benefit of formulating a coherent strategy, several obstacles make execution difficult:

    • Inconsistent understanding of what the cloud means
    • Inability to come to a consensus on key decisions
    • Ungoverned decision making
    • Unclear understanding of cloud roles and responsibilities

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    A cloud strategy might seem like a big project, but it’s just a series of smaller conversations. The methodology presented here is designed to facilitate those conversations, using a curated list of topics, prompts, participant lists, and sample outcomes. We have divided the strategy into four key areas:

    1. Vision and alignment
    2. People
    3. Governance
    4. Technology

    The answers might be different, but the questions are the same

    Every organization will approach the cloud differently, but they all need to ask the same questions: When will we use the cloud? What forms will our cloud usage take? How will we manage governance? What will we do about people? How will we incorporate new technology into our environment? The answers to these questions are as numerous as there are people to answer them, but the questions must be asked.

    Your challenge

    This research is designed to help organizations that are facing these challenges or looking to:

    • Ensure that the cloud strategy is complete and accurately reflects organizational goals and priorities.
    • Develop a consistent and coherent approach to adopting cloud services.
    • Design an approach to mitigate risks and challenges associated with adopting cloud services.
    • Create a shared understanding of the expected benefits of cloud services and the steps required to realize those benefits.

    Grappling with a cloud strategy is a top initiative: 43% of respondents report progressing on a cloud-first strategy as a top cloud initiative.

    Source: Flexera, 2021.

    Definition: Cloud strategy

    A document providing a systematic overview of cloud services, their appropriate use, and the steps that an organization will take to maximize value and minimize risk.

    Common obstacles

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

    • The cloud means different things to different people, and creating a strategy that is comprehensive enough to cover a multitude of use cases while also being written to be consumable by all stakeholders is difficult.
    • The incentives to adopt the cloud differ based on the expected benefit for the individual customer. User-led decision making and historically ungoverned deployments can make it difficult to reset expectation and align with a formal strategy.
    • Getting all the right people in a room together to agree on the key components of the strategy and the direction undertaken for each one is often difficult.

    Info-Tech’s approach

    Define Your Cloud Vision

    Vision and alignment

    • Mission and vision
    • Alignment to other strategic plans
    • Guiding principles
    • Measuring success

    Technology

    • Monitoring
    • Provisioning
    • Migration

    Governance

    • Architecture
    • Integration and interoperability
    • Operations management
    • Cloud portfolio management
    • Cloud vendor management
    • Finance management
    • Security
    • Data controls

    People

    • Skills and roles
    • Culture and adoption
    • Governing bodies

    Info-Tech’s approach

    Your cloud strategy will comprise the elements listed under “vision and alignment,” “technology,” “governance,” and “people.” The Info-Tech methodology involves breaking the strategy down into subcomponents and going through a three-step process for each one. Start by reviewing a standard set of questions and understanding the goal of the exercise: What do we need to know? What are some common considerations and best practices? Once you’ve had a chance to review, discuss your current state and any gaps: What has been done? What still needs to be done? Finally, outline how you plan to go forward: What are your next steps? Who needs to be involved?

    Review

    • What questions do we need to answer to complete the discussion of this strategy component? What does the decision look like?
    • What are some key terms and best practices we must understand before deciding?

    Discuss

    • What steps have we already taken to address this component?
    • Does anything still need to be done?
    • Is there anything we’re not sure about or need further guidance on?

    Go forward

    • What are the next steps?
    • Who needs to be involved?
    • What questions still need to be asked/answered?
    • What should the document’s wording look like?

    Info-Tech’s methodology for documenting your cloud strategy

    1. Document your vision and alignment

    2. Record your people strategy

    3. Document governance principles

    4. Formalize your technology strategy

    Phase Steps

    1. Record your cloud mission and vision
    2. Document your cloud strategy’s alignment with other strategic plans
    3. Record your cloud guiding principles
    4. Define success
    1. Outline your skills and roles strategy
    2. Document your approach to culture and adoption
    3. Create a cloud governing body

    Document official organizational positions in these governance areas:

    1. Architecture
    2. Integration and interoperability
    3. Operations management
    4. Cloud portfolio management
    5. Cloud vendor management
    6. Finance management
    7. Security
    8. Data controls
    1. Formalize organizational approach to monitoring
    2. Document provisioning process
    3. Outline migration processes and procedures

    Phase Outcomes

    Documented strategy: vision and alignment

    Documented people strategy

    Documented cloud governance strategy

    Documented cloud technology strategy

    Insight summary

    Separate strategy from tactics

    Separate strategy from tactics! A strategy requires building out the framework for ongoing decision making. It is meant to be high level and achieve a large goal. The outcome of a strategy is often a sense of commitment to the goal and better communication on the topic.

    The cloud does not exist in a vacuum

    Your cloud strategy flows from your cloud vision and should align with the broader IT strategy. It is also part of a pantheon of strategies and should exist harmoniously with other strategies – data, security, etc.

    People problems needn’t preponderate

    The cloud doesn’t have to be a great disruptor. If you handle the transition well, you can focus your people on doing more valuable work – and this is generally engaging.

    Governance is a means to an end

    Governing your deployment for its own sake will only frustrate your end users. Articulate the benefits users and the organization can expect to see and you’re more likely to receive the necessary buy-in.

    Technology isn’t a panacea

    Technology won’t solve all your problems. Technology is a force multiplier, but you will still have to design processes and train your people to fully leverage it.

    Key deliverable

    Cloud Strategy Document template

    Inconsistency and informality are the enemies of efficiency. Capture the results of the cloud strategy generation exercises in the Cloud Strategy Document template.

    The image contains a screenshot of the Cloud Strategy Document Template.
    • Record the results of the exercises undertaken as part of this blueprint in the Cloud Strategy Document template.
    • It is important to remember that not every cloud strategy will look exactly the same, but this template represents an amalgamation of best practices and cloud strategy creation honed over several years of advisory service in the space.
    • You know your audience better than anyone. If you would prefer a strategy delivered in a different way (e.g. presentation format) feel free to adapt the Cloud Vision Executive Presentation into a longer strategy presentation.
    • Emphasis is an area where you should exercise discretion as well. A cost-oriented cloud strategy, or one that prioritizes one type of cloud (e.g. SaaS) at the exclusion of others, may benefit from more focus on some areas than others, or the introduction of relevant subcategories. Include as many of these as you think will be relevant.
    • Parsimony is king – if you can distill a concept to its essence, start there. Include additional detail only as needed. You want your cloud strategy document to be read. If it’s too long or overly detailed, you’ll encounter readability issues.

    Blueprint benefits

    IT benefits

    Business benefits

    • A consistent, well-defined approach to the cloud
    • Consensus on key strategy components, including security, architecture, and integration
    • A clear path forward on skill development and talent acquisition/retention
    • A comprehensive resource for information about the organization’s approach to key strategy components
    • Predictable access to cloud services
    • A business-aligned approach to leveraging the resources available in the cloud
    • Efficient and secure consumption of cloud resources where appropriate to do so
    • Answers to questions about the cloud and how it will be leveraged in the environment

    Measure the value of this blueprint

    Don’t take our word for it:

    • Document Your Cloud Strategy has been available for several years in various forms as both a workshop and as an analyst-led guided implementation.
    • After each engagement, we send a survey that asks members how they benefited from the experience. Those who have worked through Info-Tech’s cloud strategy material have given overwhelmingly positive feedback.
    • Additionally, members reported saving between 10 and 20 days and an average of $46,499.
    • Measure the value by calculating the time saved as a result of using Info-Tech’s framework vs. a home-brewed cloud strategy alternative and by comparing the overall cost of a guided implementation or workshop with the equivalent offering from another firm. We’re confident you’ll come out ahead.

    8.8/10 Average reported satisfaction

    13 Days Average reported time savings

    $46,499 Average cost savings

    Executive Brief Case Study

    INDUSTRY: Pharmaceuticals

    SOURCE: Info-Tech workshop

    Pharmaceutical company

    The unnamed pharmaceutical company that is the subject of this case study was looking to make the transition to the cloud. In the absence of a coherent strategy, the organization had a few cloud deployments with no easily discernable overall approach. Representatives of several distinct functions (legal, infrastructure, data, etc.) all had opinions on the uses and abuses of cloud services, but it had been difficult to round everyone up and have the necessary conversations. As a result, the strategy exercise had not proceeded in a speedy or well-governed way. This lack of strategic readiness presented a roadblock to moving forward with the cloud strategy and to work with the cloud implementation partner, tasked with execution.

    Results

    The company engaged Info-Tech for a four-day workshop on cloud strategy documentation. Over the course of four days, participants drawn from across the organization discussed the strategic components and generated consensus statements and next steps. The team was able to formalize the cloud strategy and described the experience as saving 10 days.

    Example output: Document your cloud strategy workshop exercise

    The image contains an example of Document your cloud streatgy workshop exercise.

    Anything in green, the team was reasonably sure they had good alignment and next steps. Those yellow flags warranted more discussion and were not ready for documentation.

    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?

    Document your vision and alignment

    Record your people strategy

    Document governance principles

    Formalize your technology strategy

    Call #1: Review existing vision/strategy documentation.

    Call #2: Review progress on skills, roles, and governance bodies.

    Call #3: Work through integration, architecture, finance management, etc. based on reqs. (May be more than one call.)

    Call #4: Discuss challenges with monitoring, provisioning, and migration as-needed.

    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 4 to 6 calls over the course of 1 to 3 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

    Answer
    “so what?”

    Define the
    IT target state

    Assess the IT
    current state

    Bridge the gap and
    create the strategy

    Next steps and
    wrap-up (offsite)

    Activities

    1.1 Introduction

    1.2 Discuss cloud mission and vision

    1.3 Discuss alignment with other strategic plans

    1.4 Discuss guiding principles

    1.5 Define success metrics

    2.1 Discuss skills and roles

    2.2 Review culture and adoption

    2.3 Discuss a cloud governing body

    2.4 Review architecture position

    2.5 Discuss integration and interoperability

    3.1 Discuss cloud operations management

    3.2 Review cloud portfolio management

    3.3 Discuss cloud vendor management

    3.4 Discuss cloud finance management

    3.5 Discuss cloud security

    4.1 Review and formalize data controls

    4.2 Design a monitoring approach

    4.3 Document the workload provisioning process

    4.4 Outline migration processes and procedures

    5.1 Populate the Cloud Strategy Document

    Deliverables

    Formalized cloud mission and vision, along with alignment with strategic plans, guiding principles, and success metrics

    Position statement on skills and roles, culture and adoption, governing bodies, architecture, and integration/interoperability

    Position statements on cloud operations management, portfolio management, vendor management, finance management, and cloud security

    Position statements on data controls, monitoring, provisioning, and migration

    Completed Cloud Strategy Document

    Phase 1

    Document Your Vision and Alignment

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    Phase 4

    1.1 Document your mission and vision

    1.2 Document alignment to other strategic plans

    1.3 Document guiding principles

    1.4 Document success metrics

    2.1 Define approach to skills and roles

    2.2 Define approach to culture and adoption

    2.3 Define cloud governing bodies

    3.1 Define architecture direction

    3.2 Define integration approach

    3.3 Define operations management process

    3.4 Define portfolio management direction

    3.5 Define vendor management direction

    3.6 Document finance management tactics

    3.7 Define approach to cloud security

    3.8 Define data controls in the cloud

    4.1 Define cloud monitoring strategy

    4.2 Define cloud provisioning strategy

    4.3 Define cloud migration strategy

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    1. Record your cloud mission and vision
    2. Document your cloud strategy’s alignment with other strategic plans
    3. Record your cloud guiding principles
    4. Define success

    This phase has the following outcome:

    • Documented strategy: vision and alignment

    Record your mission and vision

    Build on the work you’ve already done

    Before formally documenting your cloud strategy, you should ensure that you have a good understanding of your overall cloud vision. How do you plan to leverage the cloud? What goals are you looking to accomplish? How will you distribute your workloads between different cloud service models (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS)? What will your preferred delivery model be (public, private, hybrid)? Will you support your cloud deployment internally or use the services of various consultants or managed service providers?

    The answers to these questions will inform the first section of your cloud strategy. If you haven’t put much thought into this or think you could use a deep dive on the fundamentals of your cloud vision and cloud archetypes, consider reviewing Define Your Cloud Vision, the companion blueprint to this one.

    Once you understand your cloud vision and what you’re trying to accomplish with your cloud strategy, this phase will walk you through aligning the strategy with other strategic initiatives. What decisions have others made that will impact the cloud strategy (or that the cloud strategy will impact)? Who must be involved/informed? What callouts must be involved at what point? Do users have access to the appropriate strategic documentation (and would they understand it if they did)?

    You must also capture some guiding principles. A strategy by its nature provides direction, helping readers understand the decisions they should make and why those decisions align with organizational interests. Creating some top-level principles is a useful exercise because those principles facilitate comprehension and ensure the strategy’s applicability.

    Finally, this phase will walk you through the process of measuring success. Once you know where you’d like to go, the principles that underpin your direction, and how your cloud strategy figures into the broader strategic pantheon, you should record what success actually means. If you’re looking to save money, overall cost should be a metric you track. If the cloud is all about productivity, generate appropriate productivity metrics. If you’re looking to expand into new technology or close a datacenter, you will need to track output specific to those overall goals.

    Review: mission and vision

    The overall organizational mission is a key foundational element of the cloud strategy. If you don’t understand where you’re going, how can you begin the journey to get there? This section of the strategy has four key parts that you should understand and incorporate into the beginning of the strategy document. If you haven’t already, review Define Your Cloud Vision for instructions on how to generate these elements.

    1. Cloud vision statement: This is a succinct encapsulation of your overall perspective on the suitability of cloud services for your environment – what you hope to accomplish. The ideal statement includes a scope (who/what does the strategy impact?), a goal (what will it accomplish?), and a key differentiator (what will make it happen?). This is an example: “[Organization] will leverage public cloud solutions and retire existing datacenter and colocation facilities. This transition will simplify infrastructure administration, support and security, while modernizing legacy infrastructure and reducing the need for additional capital expenditure.” You might also consider reviewing your overall cloud archetype (next slide) and including the output of that exercise in the document

    2. Service model decision framework: Services can be provided as software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), or they can be colocated or remain on premises. Not all cloud service models serve the same purpose or provide equal value in all circumstances. Understanding how you plan to take advantage of these distinct service models is an important component of the cloud strategy. In this section of the strategy, a rubric that captures the characteristics of the ideal workload for each of the named service models, along with some justification for the selection, is essential. This is a core component of Define Your Cloud Vision, and if you would like to analyze individual workloads, you can use the Cloud Vision Workbook for that purpose.

    3. Delivery model decision framework: Just as there are different cloud service models that have unique value propositions, there are several unique cloud delivery models as well, distinguished by ownership, operation, and customer base. Public clouds are the purview of third-party providers who make them available to paying customers. Private clouds are built for the exclusive use of a designated organization or group of organizations with internal clients to serve. Hybrid clouds involve the use of multiple, interoperable delivery models (interoperability is the key term here), while multi-cloud deployment models incorporate multiple delivery and service models into a single coherent strategy. What will your preferred delivery model be? Why?

    4. Support model decision framework: Once you have a service model nailed down and understand how you will execute on the delivery, the question then becomes about how you will support your cloud deployment going forward. Broadly speaking, you can choose to manage your deployment in house using internal resources (e.g. staff), to use managed service providers for ongoing support, or to hire consultants to handle specific projects/tasks. Each approach has its strengths and weaknesses, and many cloud customers will deploy multiple support models across time and different workloads. A foundational perspective on the support model is a key component of the cloud vision and should appear early in the strategy.

    Understand key cloud concepts: Archetype

    Once you understand the value of the cloud, your workloads’ general suitability for the cloud, and your proposed risks and mitigations, the next step is to define your cloud archetype. Your organization’s cloud archetype is the strategic posture that IT adopts to best support the organization’s goals. Info-Tech’s model recognizes seven archetypes, divided into three high-level archetypes. After consultation with your stakeholders, and based on the results of the suitability and risk assessment activities, define your archetype. The archetype feeds into the overall cloud vision and provides simple insight into the cloud future state for all stakeholders. The cloud vision itself is captured in a “vision statement,” a short summary of the overall approach that includes the overall cloud archetype.

    The image contains an arrow facing vertically up. The pointed end of the arrow is labelled more cloud, and the bottom of the arrow is labelled less cloud.

    We can best support the organization’s goals by:

    Cloud-Focused

    Cloud-Centric

    Providing all workloads through cloud delivery.

    Cloud-First

    Using the cloud as our default deployment model. For each workload, we should ask “why NOT cloud?”

    Cloud-Opportunistic

    Hybrid

    Enabling the ability to transition seamlessly between on-premises and cloud resources for many workloads.

    Integrated

    Combining cloud and traditional infrastructure resources, integrating data and applications through APIs or middleware.

    Split

    Using the cloud for some workloads and traditional infrastructure resources for others.

    Cloud-Averse

    Cloud-Light

    Using traditional infrastructure resources and limiting our use of the cloud to when it is absolutely necessary.

    Anti-Cloud

    Using traditional infrastructure resources and avoiding the use of cloud wherever possible.

    Exploit Disruptive Infrastructure Technology

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}298|cart{/j2store}
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    • Parent Category Name: Disruptive & Emerging Technologies
    • Parent Category Link: /disruptive-emerging-technologies
    • New technology can hit like a meteor. Not only disruptive to IT, technology provides opportunities for organization-wide advantage.
    • Your role is endangered. If you don’t prepare for the most disruptive technologies, you could be overshadowed. Don’t let the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) set the technological innovation agenda
    • Predicting the future isn’t easy. Most IT leaders fail to realize how quickly technology increases in capability. Even for the tech savvy, predicting which specific technologies will become disruptive is difficult.
    • Communication is difficult when the sky is falling. Even forward-looking IT leaders struggle with convincing others to devote time and resources to monitoring technologies with a formal process.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Establish the core working group, select a leader, and select a group of visionaries to help brainstorm emerging technologies.
    • Brainstorm about creating a better future, begin brainstorming an initial longlist.
    • Train the group to think like futurists.
    • Evaluate the shortlist.
    • Define your PoC list and schedule.
    • Finalize, present the plan to stakeholders and repeat.

    Impact and Result

    • Create a disruptive technology working group.
    • Produce a longlist of disruptive technologies.
    • Evaluate the longlist to produce a shortlist of disruptive technologies.
    • Develop a plan for a proof-of-concept project for each shortlisted technology.

    Exploit Disruptive Infrastructure Technology Research & Tools

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

    1. Exploit Disruptive Infrastructure Technology – A guide to help IT leaders make the most of disruptive impacts.

    As a CIO, there is a need to move beyond day-to-day technology management with an ever-increasing need to forecast technology impacts. Not just from a technical perspective but to map out the technical understandings aligned to potential business impacts and improvements. Technology transformation and innovation is moving more quickly than ever before and as an innovation champion, the CIO or CTO should have foresight in specific technologies with the understanding of how the company could be disrupted in the near future.

    • Exploit Disruptive Infrastructure Technology – Phases 1-3

    2. Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template – A guide to develop the plan for exploiting disruptive technology.

    The Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template acts as an implementation plan for developing a long-term strategy for monitoring and implementing disruptive technologies.

    • Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template

    3. Disruptive Technology Look to the Past Tool – A tool to keep track of the missed technology disruption from previous opportunities.

    The Disruptive Technology Look to the Past Tool will assist you to collect reasonability test notes when evaluating potential disruptive technologies.

    • Disruptive Technology Look to the Past Tool

    4. Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool – A tool to keep track of the research conducted by members of the working group.

    The Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool will help you to keep track of the independent research that is conducted by members of the disruptive technology exploitation working group.

    • Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool

    5. Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool

    The Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool will help you to codify the results of the disruptive technology working group's longlist winnowing process.

    • Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool

    6. Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool – A tool to systematize notional evaluations of the value and readiness of potential disruptive technologies.

    The Disruptive Technology Value Readiness & SWOT Analysis Tool will assist you to systematize notional evaluations of the value and readiness of potential disruptive technologies.

    • Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

    7. Proof of Concept Template – A handbook to serve as a reference when deciding how to proceed with your proposed solution.

    The Proof of Concept Template will guide you through the creation of a minimum-viable proof-of-concept project.

    • Proof of Concept Template

    8. Disruptive Technology Executive Presentation Template – A template to help you create a brief progress report presentation summarizing your project and program progress.

    The Disruptive Technology Executive Presentation Template will assist you to present an overview of the disruptive technology process, outlining the value to your company.

    • Disruptive Technology Executive Presentation Template

    Infographic

    Workshop: Exploit Disruptive Infrastructure Technology

    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: Establish the Disruptive Tech Process

    The Purpose

    Discuss the general overview of the disruptive technology exploitation process.

    Develop an initial disruptive technology exploitation plan.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Stakeholders are on board, the project’s goals are outlined, and the working group is selected.

    Activities

    1.1 Get execs and stakeholders on board.

    1.2 Review the process of analyzing disruptive tech.

    1.3 Select members for the working group.

    1.4 Choose a schedule and time commitment.

    1.5 Select a group of visionaries.

    Outputs

    Initialized disruptive tech exploitation plan

    Meeting agenda, schedule, and participants

    2 Hold the Initial Meeting

    The Purpose

    Understand how disruption will affect the organization, and develop an initial list of technologies to explore.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Knowledge of how to think like a futurist.

    Understanding of organizational processes vulnerable to disruption.

    Outline of potentially disruptive technologies.

    Activities

    2.1 Start the meeting with introductions.

    2.2 Train the group to think like futurists.

    2.3 Brainstorm about disruptive processes.

    2.4 Brainstorm a longlist.

    2.5 Research and brainstorm separate longlists.

    Outputs

    List of disruptive organizational processes

    Initial longlist of disruptive tech

    3 Create a Longlist and Assess Shortlist

    The Purpose

    Evaluate the specific value of longlisted technologies to the organization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Defined list of the disruptive technologies worth escalating to the proof of concept stage.

    Activities

    3.1 Converge the longlists developed by the team.

    3.2 Narrow the longlist to a shortlist.

    3.3 Assess readiness and value.

    3.4 Perform a SWOT analysis.

    Outputs

    Finalized longlist of disruptive tech

    Shortlist of disruptive tech

    Value-readiness analysis

    SWOT analysis

    Candidate(s) for proof of concept charter

    4 Create an Action Plan

    The Purpose

    Understand how the technologies in question will impact the organization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of the specific effects of the new technology on the business processes it is intended to disrupt.

    Business case for the proof-of-concept project.

    Activities

    4.1 Build a problem canvas.

    4.2 Identify affected business units.

    4.3 Outline and map the business processes likely to be disrupted.

    4.4 Map disrupted business processes.

    4.5 Recognize how the new technology will impact business processes.

    4.6 Make the case.

    Outputs

    Problem canvas

    Map of business processes: current state

    Map of disrupted business processes

    Business case for each technology

    Further reading

    Analyst Perspective

    The key is in anticipation.

    “We all encounter unexpected changes and our responses are often determined by how we perceive and understand those changes. We react according to the unexpected occurrence. Business organizations are no different.

    When a company faces a major technology disruption in its markets – one that could fundamentally change the business or impact its processes and technology – the way its management perceive and understand the disruption influences how they describe and plan for it. In other words, the way management sets the context of a disruption – the way they frame it – shapes the strategy they adopt. Technology leaders can vastly influence business strategy by adopting a proactive approach to understanding disruptive and innovative technologies by simply adopting a process to review and evaluate technology impacts to the company’s lines of business.”

    This is a picture of Troy Cheeseman

    Troy Cheeseman
    Practice Lead, Infrastructure & Operations Research
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    • New technology can hit like a meteor. Not only disruptive to IT, technology provides opportunities for organization-wide advantage.
    • Your role is endangered. If you don’t prepare for the most disruptive technologies, you could be overshadowed. Don’t let the chief marketing officer (CMO) set the technological innovation agenda.

    Common Obstacles

    • Predicting the future isn’t easy. Most IT leaders fail to realize how quickly technology increases in capability. Even for the tech savvy, predicting which specific technologies will become disruptive is difficult.
    • Communication is difficult when the sky is falling. Even forward-looking IT leaders struggle with convincing others to devote time and resources to monitoring technologies with a formal process.

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    • Identify, resolve, and evaluate. Use an annual process as described in this blueprint: a formal evaluation of new technology that turns analysis into action.
    • Lead the analysis from IT. Establish a team to carry out the annual process as a cure for the causes of “airline magazine syndrome” and to prevent it from happening in the future.
    • Train your team on the patterns of progress, track technology over time in a central database, and read Info-Tech’s analysis of upcoming technology.
    • Create your KPIs. Establish your success indicators to create measurable value when presenting to your executive.
    • Produce a comprehensive proof-of-concept plan that will allow your company to minimize risk and maximize reward when engaging with new technology.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Proactively monitoring, evaluating, and exploiting disruptive tech isn’t optional.
    This will protect your role, IT’s role, and the future of the organization.

    A diverse working group maximizes the insight brought to bear.
    An IT background is not a prerequisite.

    The best technology is only the best when it brings immediate value.
    Good technology might not be ready; ready technology might not be good.

    Review

    We help IT leaders make the most of disruptive impacts.

    This research is designed for:

    Target Audience: CIO, CTO, Head of Infrastructure

    This research will help you:

    • Develop a process for anticipating, analyzing, and exploiting disruptive technology.
    • Communicate the business case for investing in disruptive technology.
    • Categorize emerging technologies to decide what to do with them.
    • Develop a plan for taking action to exploit the technology that will most affect your organization.

    Problem statement:

    As a CIO, there is a need to move beyond day-to-day technology management with an ever-increasing need to forecast technology impacts. Not just from a technical perspective but to map out the technical understandings aligned to potential business impacts and improvements. Technology transformation and innovation is moving more quickly than ever before and as an innovation champion, the CIO or CTO should have foresight in specific technologies with the understanding of how the company could be disrupted in the near future. Foresight + Current Technology + Business Understanding = Understanding the Business Disruption. This should be a repeatable process, not an exception or reactionary response.

    Insight Summary

    Establish the core working group, select a leader, and select a group of visionaries to help brainstorm emerging technologies.

    The right team matters. A core working group will keep focus through the process and a leader will keep everyone accountable. Visionaries are out-of-the-box thinkers and once they understand how to think like a "futurists," they will drive the longlist and shortlist actions.

    Train the group to think like futurists

    To keep up with exponential technology growth you need to take a multi-threaded approach.

    Brainstorm about creating a better future; begin brainstorming an initial longlist

    Establish the longlist. The longlist helps create a holistic view of most technologies that could impact the business. Assigning values and quadrant scoring will shortlist the options and focus your PoC option.

    Converge everyone’s longlists

    Long to short...that's the short of it. Using SWOT, value readiness, and quadrant mapping review sessions will focus the longlist, creating a shortlist of potential POC candidates to review and consider.

    Evaluate the shortlist

    There is no such thing as a risk-free endeavor. Use a systematic process to ensure that the risks your organization takes have the potential to produce significant rewards.

    Define your PoC list and schedule

    Don’t be afraid to fail! Inevitably, some proof-of-concept projects will not benefit the organization. The projects that are successful will more than cover the costs of the failed projects. Roll out small scale and minimize losses.

    Finalize, present the plan to stakeholders, and repeat!

    Don't forget the C-suite. Effectively communicate and present the working group’s finding with a well-defined and succinct presentation. Start the process again!

    This is a screenshot of the Thought map for Exploit disruptive infrastructure Technology.
    1. Identify
      • Establish the core working group and select a leader; select a group of visionaries
      • Train the group to think like futurists
      • Hold your initial meeting
    2. Resolve
    • Create and winnow a longlist
    • Assess and create the shortlist
  • Evaluate
    • Create process maps
    • Develop proof of concept charter
  • The Key Is in Anticipation!

    Use Info-Tech’s approach for analyzing disruptive technology in your own disruptive tech working group

    Phase 1: Identify Phase 2: Resolve Phase 3: Evaluate

    Phase Steps

    1. Establish the disruptive technology working group
    2. Think like a futurist (Training)
    3. Hold initial meeting or create an agenda for the meeting
    1. Create and winnow a longlist
    2. Assess shortlist
    1. Create process maps
    2. Develop proof of concept charter

    Phase Outcomes

    • Establish a team of subject matter experts that will evaluate new, emerging, and potentially disruptive technologies.
    • Establish a process for including visionaries from outside of the working group who will provide insight and direction.
    • Introduce the core working group members.
    • Gain a better understanding of how technology advances.
    • Brainstorm a list of organizational processes.
    • Brainstorm an initial longlist.
    • Finalized longlist
    • Finalized shortlist
    • Initial analysis of each technology on the shortlist
    • Finalized shortlist
    • Initial analysis of each technology on the shortlist
    • Business process maps before and after disruption
    • Proof of concept charter
    • Key performance indicators
    • Estimation of required resources
    • Executive presentation

    Four key challenges make it essential for you to become a champion for exploiting disruptive technology

    1. New technology can hit like a meteor. It doesn’t only disrupt IT; technology provides opportunities for organization-wide advantage.
    2. Your role is endangered. If you don’t prepare for the most disruptive technologies, you could be overshadowed. Don’t let the CMO rule technological innovation.
    3. Predicting the future isn’t easy. Most IT leaders fail to realize how quickly technology increases in capability. Even for the tech savvy, predicting which specific technologies will become disruptive is difficult.
    4. Communication is difficult when the sky is falling. Even forward-looking IT leaders struggle with convincing others to devote time and resources to monitoring emerging technologies with a formal process.

    “Look, you have never had this amount of opportunity for innovation. Don’t forget to capitalize on it. If you do not capitalize on it, you will go the way of the dinosaur.”
    – Dave Evans, Co-Founder and CTO, Stringify

    Technology can hit like a meteor

    “ By 2025:

    • 38.6 billion smart devices will be collecting, analyzing, and sharing data.
    • The web hosting services market is to reach $77.8 billion in 2025.
    • 70% of all tech spending is expected to go for cloud solutions.
    • There are 1.35 million tech startups.
    • Global AI market is expected to reach $89.8 billion.”

    – Nick Gabov

    IT Disruption

    Technology disrupts IT by:

    • Affecting the infrastructure and applications that IT needs to use internally.
    • Affecting the technology of end users that IT needs to support and deploy, especially for technologies with a consumer focus.
    • Allowing IT to run more efficiently and to increase the efficiency of other business units.
    • Example: The rise of the smartphone required many organizations to rethink endpoint devices.

    Business Disruption

    Technology disrupts the business by:

    • Affecting the viability of the business.
    • Affecting the business’ standing in relation to competitors that better deal with disruptive technology.
    • Affecting efficiency and business strategy. IT should have a role in technology-related business decisions.
    • Example: BlackBerry failed to anticipate the rise of the apps ecosystem. The company struggled as it was unable to react with competitive products.

    Senior IT leaders are expected to predict disruptions to IT and the business, while tending to today’s needs

    You are expected to be both a firefighter and a forecaster

    • Anticipating upcoming disruptions is part of your job, and you will be blamed if you fail to anticipate future business disruptions because you are focusing on the present.
    • However, keeping IT running smoothly is also part of your job, and you will be blamed if today’s IT environment breaks down because you are focusing on the future.

    You’re caught between the present and the future

    • You don’t have a process that anticipates future disruptions but runs alongside and integrates with operations in the present.
    • You can’t do it alone. Tending to both the present and the future will require a team that can help you keep the process running.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Be prepared when disruptions start coming down, even though it isn’t easy. Use this research to reduce the effort to a simple process that can be performed alongside everyday firefighting.

    Make disruptive tech analysis and exploitation part of your innovation agenda

    A scatter plot graph is depicted, plotting IT Innovative Leadership (X axis), and Satisfaction with IT(Y axis). IT innovative leadership explains 75% of variation in satisfaction with IT

    Organizations without high satisfaction with IT innovation leadership are only 20% likely to be highly satisfied with IT

    “You rarely see a real-world correlation of .86!”
    – Mike Battista, Staff Scientist, Cambridge Brain Sciences, PhD in Measurement

    There is a clear relationship between satisfaction with IT and the IT department’s innovation leadership.

    Prevent “airline magazine syndrome” by proactively analyzing disruptive technologies

    “The last thing the CIO needs is an executive saying ‘I don’t what it is or what it does…but I want two of them!”
    – Tim Lalonde

    Airline magazine syndrome happens to IT leaders caught between the business and IT. It usually occurs in this manner:

    1. While on a flight, a senior executive reads about an emerging technology that has exciting implications for the business in an airline magazine.
    2. The executive returns and approaches IT, demanding that action be taken to address the disruptive technology – and that it should have been (ideally) completed already.

    Without a Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan:

    “I don’t know”

    With a Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan:

    “Here in IT, we have already considered that technology and decided it was overhyped. Let me show you our analysis and invite you to join our working group.”

    OR

    “We have already considered that technology and have started testing it. Let me show you our testing lab and invite you to join our working group.”

    Info-Tech Insight

    Airline magazine syndrome is a symptom of a wider problem: poor CEO-CIO alignment. Solve this problem with improved communication and documentation. Info-Tech’s disruptive tech iterative process will make airline magazine syndrome a thing of the past!

    IT leaders who do not keep up with disruptive technology will find their roles diminished

    “Today’s CIO dominion is in a decaying orbit with CIOs in existential threat mode.”
    – Ken Magee

    Protect your role within IT

    • IT is threatened by disruptive technology:
      • Trends like cloud services, increased automation, and consumerization reduce the need for IT to be involved in every aspect of deploying and using technology.
      • In the long term, machines will replace even intellectually demanding IT jobs, such as infrastructure admin and high-level planning.
    • Protect your role in IT by:
      • Anticipating new technology that will disrupt the IT department and your place within it.
      • Defining new IT roles and responsibilities that accurately reflect the reality of technology today.
      • Having a process for the above that does not diminish your ability to keep up with everyday operations that remain a priority today.

    Protect your role against other departments

    • Your role in the business is threatened by disruptive technology:
      • The trends that make IT less involved with technology allow other executives – such as the CMO – to make IT investments.
      • As the CMO gains the power and data necessary to embrace new trends, the CIO and IT managers have less pull.
    • Protect your role in the business by:
      • Being the individual to consult about new technology. It isn’t just a power play; IT leaders should be the ones who know technology thoroughly.
      • Becoming an indispensable part of the entire business’ innovation strategy through proposing and executing a process for exploiting disruptive technology.

    IT leaders who do keep up have an opportunity to solidify their roles as experts and aggregators

    “The IT department plays a critical role in [innovation]. What they can do is identify a technology that potentially might introduce improvements to the organization, whether it be through efficiency, or through additional services to constituents.”
    – Michael Maguire, Management Consultant

    The contemporary CIO is a conductor, ensuring that IT works in harmony with the rest of the business.

    The new CIO is a conductor, not a musician. The CIO is taking on the role of a business engineer, working with other executives to enable business innovation.

    The new CIO is an expert and an aggregator. Conductor CIOs increasingly need to keep up on the latest technologies. They will rely on experts in each area and provide strategic synthesis to decide if, and how, developments are relevant in order to tune their IT infrastructure.

    The pace of technological advances makes progress difficult to predict

    “An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense ‘intuitive linear’ view. So we won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century – it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate).”
    – Ray Kurzweil

    Technology advances exponentially. Rather than improving by the same amount of capability each year, it multiplies in capability each year.

    Think like a futurist to anticipate technology before it goes mainstream.

    Exponential growth happens much faster than linear growth, especially when it hits the knee of the curve. Even those who acknowledge exponential growth underestimate how capabilities can improve.

    To predict new advances, turn innovation into a process

    “We spend 70 percent of our time on core search and ads. We spend 20 percent on adjacent businesses, ones related to the core businesses in some interesting way. Examples of that would be Google News, Google Earth, and Google Local. And then 10 percent of our time should be on things that are truly new.”
    – Eric Schmidt, Google

    • Don’t get caught in the trap of refining your core processes to the exclusion of innovation. You should always be looking for new processes to improve, new technology to pilot, and where possible, new businesses to get into.
    • Devote about 10% of your time and resources to exploring new technology: the potential rewards are huge.

    You and your team need to analyze technology every year to predict where it’s going.

    A bar graph is shown which depicts the proportion of technology use from 2018-2022. the included devices are: Tablets; PCs; TVs; Non-smartphones; Smartphones; M2M
    • Foundational technologies, such as computing power, storage, and networks, are improving exponentially.
    • Disruptive technologies are specific manifestations of foundational advancements. Advancements of greater magnitude give rise to more manifestations; therefore, there will be more disruptive technologies every year.
    • There is a lot of noise to cut through. Remember Google Glasses? As technology becomes ubiquitous and consumerization reigns, everybody is a technology expert. How do you decide which technologies to focus on?

    Protect IT and the business from disruption by implementing a simple, repeatable disruptive technology exploitation process

    “One of the most consistent patterns in business is the failure of leading companies to stay at the top of their industries when technologies or markets change […] Managers must beware of ignoring new technologies that can’t initially meet the needs of their mainstream customers.”
    – Joseph L. Bower and Clayton M. Christensen

    Challenge

    Solution

    New technology can hit like a meteor, but it doesn’t have to leave a crater:

    Use the annual process described in this blueprint to create a formal evaluation of new technology that turns analysis into action.

    Predicting the future isn’t easy, but it can be done:

    Lead the analysis from the office of the CIO. Establish a team to carry out the annual process as a cure for airline magazine syndrome.

    Your role is endangered, but you can survive:

    Train your team on the patterns of progress, track technology over time in a central database, and read Info-Tech’s analysis of upcoming technology.

    Communication is difficult when the sky is falling, so have a simple way to get the message across:

    Track metrics that communicate your progress, and summarize the results in a single, easy-to-read exploitation plan.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Use Info-Tech’s tools and templates, along with this storyboard, to walk you through creating and executing an exploitation process in six steps.

    Create measurable value by using Info-Tech’s process for evaluating the disruptive potential of technology

    This image contains a bar graph with the following Title: Which are the primary benefits you've either realized or expect to realize by deploying hyperconverged infrastructure in the near term.

    No business process is perfect.

    • Use Info-Tech’s Proof of Concept Template to create a disruptive technology proof of concept implementation plan.
    • Harness your company’s internal wisdom to systematically vet new technology. Engage only in calculated risk and maximize potential benefit.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Inevitably, some proof of concept projects will not benefit the organization. The projects that are successful will more than cover the costs of the failed projects. Roll out small scale and minimize losses.

    Establish your key performance indicators (KPIs)

    Key performance indicators allow for rigorous analysis, which generates insight into utilization by platform and consumption by business activity.

    • Brainstorm metrics that indicate when process improvement is actually taking place.
    • Have members of the group pitch KPIs; the facilitator should record each suggestion on a whiteboard.
    • Make sure to have everyone justify the inclusion of each metric: how does it relate to the improvement that the proof of concept project is intended to drive? How does it relate to the overall goals of the business?
    • Include a list of KPIs, along with a description and a target (ensuring that it aligns with SMART metrics).
    Key Performance Indicator Description Target Result

    Number of Longlist technologies

    Establish a range of Longlist technologies to evaluate 10-15
    Number of Shortlist technologies Establish a range of Shortlist technologies to evaluate 5-10
    number of "look to the past" likes/dislikes Minimum number of testing characteristics 6
    Number of POCs Total number of POCs Approved 3-5

    Communicate your plan with the Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template

    Use the Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template to summarize everything that the group does. Update the report continuously and use it to show others what is happening in the world of disruptive technology.

    Section Title Description
    1 Rationale and Summary of Exploitation Plan A summary of the current efforts that exist for exploring disruptive technology. A summary of the process for exploiting disruptive technology, the resources required, the team members, meeting schedules, and executive approval.
    2 Longlist of Potentially Disruptive Technologies A summary of the longlist of identified disruptive technologies that could affect the organization, shortened to six or less that have the largest potential impact based on Info-Tech’s Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool.
    3 Analysis of Shortlist Individually analyze each technology placed on the shortlist using Info-Tech’s Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool.
    4 Proof of Concept Plan Use the results from Section 3 to establish a plan for moving forward with the technologies on the shortlist. Determine the tasks required to implement the technologies and decide who will complete them and when.
    5 Hand-off Pass the project along to identified stakeholders with significant interest in its success. Continue to track metrics and prepare to repeat the disruptive technology exploitation process annually.

    Whether you need a process for exploiting disruptive technology, or an analysis of current trends, Info-Tech can help

    Two sets of research make up Info-Tech’s disruptive technology coverage:

    This image contains four screenshots from each of the following Info-Tech Blueprints: Exploit disruptive Infrastructure Technology; Infrastructure & operations priorities 2022

    This storyboard, and the associated tools and templates, will walk you through creating a disruptive technology working group of your own.

    Blueprint deliverables

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

    Key deliverable:

    Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template

    The Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template acts as an implementation plan for developing a long-term strategy for monitoring and implementing disruptive technologies.

    Proof of Concept Template

    The Proof of Concept Template will guide you through the creation of a minimum-viable proof-of-concept project.

    Executive Presentation

    The Disruptive Technology Executive Presentation Template will assist you to present an overview of the disruptive technology process, outlining the value to your company.

    Disruptive Technology Value Readiness & SWOT Analysis Tool

    The Disruptive Technology Value Readiness & SWOT Analysis Tool will assist you to systematize notional evaluations of the value and readiness of potential disruptive technologies.

    Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool

    The Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool will help you to keep track of the independent research that is conducted by members of the disruptive technology exploitation working group.

    Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool

    The Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool will help you to codify the results of the disruptive technology working group's longlist winnowing process.

    Disruptive Technology Look to the Past Tool

    The Disruptive Technology Look to the Past Tool will assist you to collect reasonability test notes when evaluating potential disruptive technologies.

    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

    Call #1: Explore the need for a disruptive technology working group.

    Call #3: Review the agenda for the initial meeting.

    Call #5: Review how you’re brainstorming and your sources of information.

    Call #7: Review the final shortlist and assessment.

    Call #9: Review the progress of your team.

    Call #2: Review the team name, participants, and timeline.

    Call #4: Assess the results of the initial meeting.

    Call #6: Review the final longlist and begin narrowing it down.

    Call #8: Review the next steps.

    Call #10: Review the communication plan.

    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

    Pre-Work Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4
    Establish the Disruptive Tech Process Hold Your Initial Meeting Create a Longlist and Assess Shortlist Create Process Maps Develop a Proof of Concept Charter

    Activities

    1.1.a Get executives and stakeholders on board.

    1.1.b Review the process of analyzing disruptive tech.

    1.1.c Select members for the working group.

    1.1.d Choose a schedule and time commitment.

    1.1.e Select a group of visionaries.

    1.2.a Start the meeting with introductions.

    1.2.b Train the group to think like futurists.

    1.2.c Brainstorm about disruptable processes.

    1.2.d Brainstorm a longlist.

    1.2.e Research and brainstorm separate longlists.

    2.1.a Converge the longlists developed by the team.

    2.2.b Narrow the longlist to a shortlist.

    2.2.c Assess readiness and value.

    2.2.d Perform a SWOT analysis.

    3.1.a Build a problem canvas.

    3.1.b Identify affected business units.

    3.1.c Outline and map the business processes likely to be disrupted.

    3.1.d Map disrupted business processes.

    3.1.e Recognize how the new technology will impact business processes.

    3.1.f Make the case.

    3.2.a Develop key performance indicators (KPIs).

    3.2.b Identify key success factors.

    3.2.c Outline project scope.

    3.2.d Identify responsible team.

    3.2.e Complete resource estimation.

    Deliverables

    1. Initialized Disruptive Tech Exploitation Plan
    1. List of Disruptable Organizational Processes
    2. Initial Longlist of Disruptive Tech
    1. Finalized Longlist of Disruptive Tech
    2. Shortlist of Disruptive Tech
    3. Value-Readiness Analysis
    4. SWOT Analysis
    5. Candidate(s) for Proof of Concept Charter
    1. Problem Canvas
    2. Map of Business Processes: Current State
    3. Map of Disrupted Business Processes
    4. Business Case for Each Technology
    1. Completed Proof of Concept Charter

    Exploit Disruptive Infrastructure Technology

    Disrupt or be disrupted.

    Identify

    Create your working group.

    PHASE 1

    Use Info-Tech’s approach for analyzing disruptive technology in your own disruptive tech working group

    1. Identify
      1. Establish the core working group and select a leader; select a group of visionaries
      2. Train the group to think like futurists
      3. Hold your initial meeting
    2. Resolve
      1. Create and winnow a longlist
      2. Assess and create the shortlist
    3. Evaluate
      1. Create process maps
      2. Develop proof of concept charter

    The Key Is in Anticipation!

    Phase 1: Identify

    Create your working group.

    Activities:

    Step 1.1: Establish the core working group and select a leader; select a group of visionaries
    Step 1.2: Train the group to think like futurists
    Step 1.3: Hold the initial meeting

    This step involves the following participants:

    IT Infrastructure Manager

    CIO or CTO

    Potential members and visionaries of the working group

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Establish a team of subject matter experts that will evaluate new, emerging, and potentially disruptive technologies.
    • Establish a process for including visionaries from outside of the working group who will provide insight and direction.
    • Introduce the core working group members.
    • Gain a better understanding of how technology advances.
    • Brainstorm a list of organizational processes.
    • Brainstorm an initial longlist.

    Step 1.1

    Establish the core working group and select a leader; select a group of visionaries.

    Activities:

    • Articulate the long- and short-term benefits and costs to the entire organization
    • Gain support by articulating the long- and short-term benefits and costs to the IT department
    • Gain commitment from key stakeholders and executives
    • Help stakeholders understand what goes into formally exploiting disruptive tech by reviewing this process
    • Establish the core working group and select a leader
    • Create a schedule with a time commitment appropriate to your organization’s size; it doesn’t need to take long
    • Select a group of visionaries external to IT to help the working group brainstorm disruptive technologies

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT Infrastructure Manager
    • CIO or CTO
    • Potential members and visionaries of the working group

    Outcomes of this step

    • Establish a team of subject matter experts that will evaluate new, emerging, and potentially disruptive technologies.
    • Establish a process for including visionaries from outside of the working group that will provide insight and direction.

    1.1.A Articulate the long- and short-term benefits and costs to the entire organization

    A cost/benefit analysis will give stakeholders a picture of how disruptive technology could affect the business. Use the chart as a starting point and customize it based on your organization.

    Disruptive Technology Affects the Organization

    Benefits Costs

    Short Term

    • First-mover advantage from implementing new technology in the business before competitors – and before start-ups.
    • Better brand image as an organization focused on innovation.
    • Increased overall employee satisfaction by implementing new technology that increases employee capabilities or lowers effort.
    • Possibility of increased IT budget for integrating new technology.
    • Potential for employees to reject wide-scale use of unfamiliar technology.
    • Potential for technology to fail in the organization if it is not sufficiently tested.
    • Executive time required for making decisions about technology recommended by the team.

    Long Term

    • Increased internal business efficiencies from the integration of new technology (e.g. energy efficiency, fewer employees needed due to automation).
    • Better services or products for customers, resulting in increased long-term revenue.
    • Lowered costs of services or products and potential to grow market share.
    • Continued relevance of established organizations in a world changed by disruptive technologies.
    • Technology may not reach the capabilities initially expected, requiring waiting for increased value or readiness.
    • Potential for customers to reject new products resulting from technology.
    • Lack of focus on current core capabilities if technology is massively disruptive.

    1.1.B Gain support by articulating the long- and short-term benefits and costs to the IT department

    A cost/benefit analysis will give stakeholders a picture of how disruptive technology could affect the business. Use the chart as a starting point and customize it based on your organization.

    Disruptive Technology Affects IT

    BenefitsCosts

    Short Term

    • Perception of IT as a core component of business practices.
    • Increase IT’s capabilities to better serve employees (e.g. faster network speeds, better uptime, and storage and compute capacity that meet demands).
    • Cost for acquiring or implementing new technology and updating infrastructure to integrate with it.
    • Cost for training IT staff and end users on new IT technology and processes.
    • Minor costs for initial setup of disruptive technology exploitation process and time taken by members.

    Long Term

    • More efficient and powerful IT infrastructure that capitalizes on emerging trends at the right time.
    • Lower help desk load due to self-service and automation technology.
    • Increased satisfaction with IT due to implementation of improved enterprise technology and visible IT influence on improvements.
    • Increased end-user satisfaction with IT due to understanding and support of consumer technology that affects their lives.
    • New technology may result in lower need for specific IT roles. Cultural disruptions due to changing role of IT.
    • Perception of failure if technology is tested and never implemented.
    • Expectation that IT will continue to implement the newest technology available, even when it has been dismissed as not having value.

    1.1.C Gain commitment from key stakeholders and executives

    Gaining approval from executives and key stakeholders is the final obstacle. Ensure that you cover the following items to have the best chance for project approval.

    • Use a sample deck similar to this section for gaining buy-in, ensuring that you add/remove information to make it specific to your organization. Cover this section, including:
      • Who: Who will lead the team and who will be on it (working group)?
      • What: What resources will be required by the team (costs)?
      • Where/When: How often and where will the team meet (meeting schedule)?
      • Why: Why is there a need to exploit disruptive technology (benefits and examples)?
      • How: How is the team going to exploit disruptive technology (the process)?
    • Go through this blueprint prior to presenting the plan to stakeholders so that you have a strong understanding of the details behind each process and tool.
    • Frame the first iteration of the cycle as a pilot program. Use the completed results of the pilot to establish exploiting disruptive technology as a necessary company initiative.

    Insert the resources required by the disruptive tech exploitation team into Section 1.5 of the Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template. Have executives sign-off on the project in Section 1.6.

    Disruption has undermined some of the most successful tech companies

    “The IT department plays a critical role in [innovation]. What they can do is identify a technology that potentially might introduce improvements to the organization, whether it be through efficiency or through additional services to constituents.”
    - Michael Maguire, Management Consultant

    VoIP’s transformative effects

    Disruptive technology:
    Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a modern means of making phone calls through the internet by sending voice packets using data, as opposed to the traditional circuit transmissions of the PSTN.

    Who won:
    Organizations that realized the cost savings that VoIP provided for businesses with a steady internet connection saved as much as 60% on telephony expenses. Even in the early stages, with a few more limitations, organizations were able to save a significant amount of money and the technology has continued to improve.

    Who lost?
    Telecom-related companies that failed to realize VoIP was a potential threat to their market, and organizations that lacked the ability to explore and implement the disruptive technology early.

    Digital photography — the new norm

    Disruptive technology:
    Digital photography refers to the storing of photographs in a digital format, as opposed to traditional photography, which exposes light to sensitive photographic film.

    Who won:
    Photography companies and new players that exploited the evolution of data storage and applied it to photography succeeded. Those that were able to balance providing traditional photography and exploiting and introducing digital photography, such as Nikon, left competitors behind. Smartphone manufacturers also benefited by integrating digital cameras.

    Who lost?
    Photography companies, such as Kodak, that failed to respond to the digital revolution found themselves outcompeted and insolvent.

    1.1.D Help stakeholders understand what goes into formally exploiting disruptive tech by reviewing this process

    There are five steps to formally exploiting disruptive technology, each with its own individual outputs and tools to take analysis to the next level.

    Step 1.2:
    Hold Initial Meeting

    Output:

    • Initial list of disruptable processes;
    • Initial longlist

    Step 2.1:

    Brainstorm Longlist

    Output:

    • Finalized longlist;
    • Shortlist

    Step 2.2:

    Assess Shortlist

    Output:

    • Final shortlist;
    • SWOT analysis;
    • Tech categorization

    Step 3.1:
    Create Process Maps

    Output:

    • Completed process maps

    Step 3.2:
    Develop a proof of concept charter

    Output:

    • Proof-of-concept template with KPIs

    Info-Tech Insight

    Before going to stakeholders, complete the entire blueprint to better understand the tools and outputs of the process.

    1.1.E Establish the core working group and select a leader

    • Selecting your core membership for the working group is a critical step to the group’s success. Ensure that you satisfy the following criteria:
      • This is a team of subject matter experts. They will be overseeing the learning and piloting of disruptive technologies. Their input will also be valuable for senior executives and for implementing these technologies.
      • Choose members that can take time away from firefighting tasks to dedicate time to meetings.
      • It may be necessary to reach outside of the organization now or in the future for expertise on certain technologies. Use Info-Tech as a source of information.
    Organization Size Working Group Size
    Small 02-Jan
    Medium 05-Mar
    Large 10-May
    • Once the team is established, you must decide who will lead the group. Ensure that you satisfy the following criteria:
      • A leader should be credible, creative, and savvy in both technology and business.
      • The leader should facilitate, acting as both an expert and an aggregator of the information gathered by the team.

    Choose a compelling name

    The working group needs a name. Be sure to select one with a positive connotation within your organization.

    Section 1.3 of the Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template

    1.1.F Create a schedule with a time commitment appropriate to your organization’s size; it doesn’t need to take long

    Time the disruptive technology working group’s meetings to coincide and integrate with your organization’s strategic planning — at least annually.

    Size Meeting Frequency Time per Meeting Example Meeting Activities
    Small Annually One day A one-day meeting to run through phase 2 of the project (SWOT analysis and shortlist analysis).
    Medium Two days A two-day meeting to run through the project. The additional meeting involves phase 3 of this deck, developing a proof-of-concept plan.
    Large Two+ days Two meetings, each two days. Two days to create and winnow the longlist (phase 2), and two further days to develop a proof of concept plan.

    “Regardless of size, it’s incumbent upon every organization to have some familiarity of what’s happening over the next few years, [and to try] to anticipate what some of those trends may be. […] These trends are going to accelerate IT’s importance in terms of driving business strategy.”
    – Vern Brownell, CEO, D-Wave

    Section 1.4 of the Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template

    1.1.G Select a group of visionaries external to IT to help the working group brainstorm disruptive technologies

    Selecting advisors for your group is an ongoing step, and the roster can change.

    Ensure that you satisfy the following criteria:

    • Look beyond IT to select a team representing several business units.
    • Check for self-professed “geeks” and fans of science fiction that may be happy to join.
    • Membership can be a reward for good performance.

    This group does not have to meet as regularly as the core working group. Input from external advisors can occur between meetings. You can also include them on every second or third iteration of the entire process.

    However, the more input you can get into the group, the more innovative it can become.

    “It is … important to develop design fictions based on engagement with directly or indirectly implicated publics and not to be designed by experts alone.”
    – Emmanuel Tsekleves, Senior Lecturer in Design Interactions, University of Lancaster

    Section 1.3 of the Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template

    The following case study illustrates the innovative potential that is created when you include a diverse group of people

    INDUSTRY - Chip Manufacturing
    SOURCE - Clayton Christensen, Intel

    To achieve insight, you need to collaborate with people from outside of your department.

    Challenge

    • Headquartered in California, through the 1990s, Intel was the largest microprocessor chip manufacturer in the world, with revenue of $25 billion in 1997.
    • All was not perfect, however. Intel faced a challenge from Cyrix, a manufacturer of low-end chips. In 18 months, Cyrix’s share of the low-margin entry-level chip manufacturing business mushroomed from 10% to 70%.

    Solution

    • Troubled by the potential for significant disruption of the microprocessor market, Intel brought in external consultants to hold workshops to educate managers about disruptive innovation.
    • Managers would break into groups and discuss ways Intel could facilitate the disruption of its competitors. In one year, Intel hosted 18 workshops, and 2,000 managers went through the process.

    Results

    • Intel launched the Celeron chip to serve the lower end of the PC market and win market share back from Cyrix (which no longer exists as an independent company) and other competitors like AMD.
    • Within one year, Intel had captured 35% of the market.

    “[The models presented in the workshops] gave us a common language and a common way to frame the problem so that we could reach a consensus around a counterintuitive course of action.” – Andy Grove, then-CEO, Intel Corporation

    Phase 1: Identify

    Create your working group.

    Activities:

    Step 1.1: Establish the core working group and select a leader; select a group of visionaries
    Step 1.2: Train the group to think like futurists
    Step 1.3: Hold the initial meeting

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT Infrastructure Manager
    • CIO or CTO
    • Potential members and visionaries of the working group

    Outcomes of this phase:

    • Establish a team of subject matter experts that will evaluate new, emerging, and potentially disruptive technologies.
    • Establish a process for including visionaries from outside of the working group who will provide insight and direction.
    • Introduce the core working group members.
    • Gain a better understanding of how technology advances.
    • Brainstorm a list of organizational processes.
    • Brainstorm an initial longlist.

    Step 1.2

    Train the group to think like futurists

    Activities:

    1. Look to the past to predict the future:
      • Step 1: Review the technology opportunities you missed
      • Step 2: Review and record what you liked about the tech
      • Step 3: Review and record your dislikes
      • Step 4: Record and test the reasonability
    2. Crash course on futurology principles
    3. Peek into the future

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT Infrastructure Manager
    • CIO or CTO
    • Core working group members
    • Visionaries

    Outcomes of this step

    • Team members thinking like futurists
    • Better understanding of how technology advances
    • List of past examples and characteristics

    Info-Tech Insight

    Business buy-in is essential. Manage your business partners by providing a summary of the EDIT methodology and process. Validate the process value, which will allow you create a team of IT and business representatives.

    1.2 Train the group to think like futurists

    1 hour

    Ensure the team understands how technology advances and how they can identify patterns in upcoming technologies.

    1. Lead the group through a brainstorming session.
    2. Follow the next phases and steps.
    3. This session should be led by someone who can facilitate a thought-provoking discussion.
    4. This training deck finishes with a video.

    Input

    • Facilitated creativity
    • Training deck [following slides]

    Output

    • Inspiration
    • Anonymous ideas

    Materials

    • Futurist training “steps”
    • Pen and paper

    Participants

    • Core working group
    • Visionaries
    • Facilitator

    1.2.A Look to the past to predict the future

    30 minutes

    Step 1

    Step 2 Step 3 Step 4

    Review what you missed.

    What did you like?

    What did you dislike?

    Test the reasonability.

    Think about a time you missed a technical disruptive opportunity.

    Start with a list of technologies that changed your business and processes.

    Consider those specifically you could have identified with a repeatable process.

    What were the most impactful points about the technology?

    Define a list of “characteristics” you liked.

    Create a shortlist of items.

    Itemize the impact to process, people, and technology.

    Why did you pass on the tech?

    Define a list of “characteristics” you did not like.

    Create a shortlist of items.

    Itemize the impact to process, people, and technology.

    Avoid the “arm chair quarterback” view.

    Refer to the six positive and negative points.

    Check against your data points at the end of each phase.

    Record the list of missed opportunities

    Record 6 characteristics

    Record 6 characteristics

    Completed “Think like a Futurists” tool

    Use the Disruptive Technology Research Look to the Past Tool to record your output.

    Input

    • Facilitated creativity
    • Speaker’s notes

    Output

    • Inspiration
    • Anonymous ideas
    • Recorded missed opportunities
    • Recorded positive points
    • Recorded dislikes
    • Reasonability test list

    Materials

    • Futurist training “steps”
    • Pen and paper
    • “Look to the Past” tool

    Participants

    • Core working group
    • Visionaries
    • Facilitator

    Understand how the difference between linear and exponential growth will completely transform many organizations in the next decade

    “The last ten years have seen exponential growth in research on disruptive technologies and their impact on industries, supply chains, resources, training, education and employment markets … The debate is still open on who will be the winners and losers of future industries, but what is certain is that change has picked up pace and we are now in a new technology revolution whose impact is potentially greater than the industrial revolution.”
    – Gary L. Evans

    Exponential advancement will ensure that life in the next decade will be very different from life today.

    • Linear growth happens one step at a time.
    • The difference between linear and exponential is hard to notice, at first.
    • We are now at the knee of the curve.

    What about email?

    • Consider the amount of email you get daily
    • Double it
    • Triple it

    Exponential growth happens much faster than linear growth, especially when it hits the knee of the curve. Technology grows exponentially, and we are approaching the knee of the curve.

    This graph is adapted from research by Ray Kurzweil.

    Growth: Linear vs. Exponential

    This image contains a graph demonstrating examples of exponential and linear trends.

    1.2.B Crash course on futurology principles

    1 hour

    “An analysis of the history of technology shows that technological change is exponential, contrary to the common-sense ‘intuitive linear’ view. So we won’t experience 100 years of progress in the 21st century — it will be more like 20,000 years of progress (at today’s rate).”
    - Ray Kurzweil

    Review the differences between exponential and linear growth

    The pace of technological advances makes progress difficult to predict.

    Technology advances exponentially. Rather than improving by the same amount of capability each year, it multiplies in capability each year.

    Think like a futurist to anticipate technology before it goes mainstream.

    Exponential growth happens much faster than linear growth, especially when it hits the knee of the curve. Even those who acknowledge exponential growth underestimate how capabilities can improve.

    The following case study illustrates the rise of social media providers

    “There are 7.7 billion people in the world, with at least 3.5 billion of us online. This means social media platforms are used by one in three people in the world and more than two-thirds of all internet users.”
    – Esteban Ortiz-Ospina

    This graph depicts the trend of the number of people using social media platforms between 2005 and 2019

    The following case study illustrates the rapid growth of Machine to Machine (M2M) connections

    A bar graph is shown which depicts the proportion of technology use from 2018-2022. the included devices are: Tablets; PCs; TVs; Non-smartphones; Smartphones; M2M

    Ray Kurzweil’s Law of Accelerating Returns

    “Ray Kurzweil has been described as ‘the restless genius’ by The Wall Street Journal, and ‘the ultimate thinking machine’ by Forbes. He was ranked #8 among entrepreneurs in the United States by Inc Magazine, calling him the ‘rightful heir to Thomas Edison,’ and PBS included Ray as one of 16 ‘revolutionaries who made America,’ along with other inventors of the past two centuries.”
    Source: KurzweilAI.net

    Growth is linear?

    “Information technology is growing exponentially. That’s really my main thesis, and our intuition about the future is not exponential, it’s really linear. People think things will go at the current pace …1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 30 steps later, you’re at 30.”

    Better IT strategy enables future business innovation

    “The reality of information technology like computers, like biological technologies now, is it goes exponentially … 2, 4, 8, 16. At step 30, you’re at a billion, and this is not an idle speculation about the future.” [emphasis added]

    “When I was a student at MIT, we all shared a computer that cost tens of millions of dollars. This computer [pulling his smartphone out of his pocket] is a million times cheaper, a thousand times more powerful — that’s a billion-fold increase in MIPS per dollar, bits per dollar… and we’ll do it again in 25 years.”
    Source: “IT growth and global change: A conversation with Ray Kurzweil,” McKinsey & Company

    1.2.C Peak into the future

    1 hour

    Leverage industry roundtables and trend reports to understand the art of the possible

    • Uncover important business and industry trends that can inform possibilities for technology disruption.
    • Market research is critical in identifying factors external to your organization and identifying technology innovation that will provide a competitive edge. It’s important to evaluate the impact each trend or opportunity will have in your organization and market.

    Visit Info-Tech’s Trends & Priorities Research Center

    Visit Info-Tech’s Industry Coverage Research to get started.

    Phase 1: Identify

    Create your working group

    Activities:

    Step 1.1: Establish the core working group and select a leader; select a group of visionaries
    Step 1.2: Train the group to think like futurists
    Step 1.3: Hold the initial meeting

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT Infrastructure Manager
    • CIO or CTO
    • Potential members and visionaries of the working group

    Outcomes of this phase:

    • Establish a team of subject matter experts that will evaluate new, emerging, and potentially disruptive technologies.
    • Establish a process for including visionaries from outside of the working group who will provide insight and direction.
    • Introduce the core working group members.
    • Gain a better understanding of how technology advances.
    • Brainstorm a list of organizational processes.
    • Brainstorm an initial longlist.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Establish the longlist. The longlist help create a holistic view of most technologies that could impact the business. Assigning values and quadrant scoring will shortlist the options and focus your PoC option.

    Step 1.3

    Hold the initial meeting

    Activities:

    1. Create an agenda for the meeting
    2. Start the kick-off meeting with introductions and a recap
    3. Brainstorm about creating a better future
    4. Begin brainstorming an initial longlist
    5. Have team members develop separate longlists for their next meeting

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT Infrastructure Manager
    • CIO or CTO
    • Core working group members
    • Visionaries

    Outcomes of this step

    • Introduce the core working group members
    • Gain a better understanding of how technology advances
    • Brainstorm a list of organizational processes
    • Brainstorm an initial longlist

    1.3.A Create an agenda for the meeting

    1 hour

    Kick-off this cycle of the disruptive technology process by welcoming your visionaries and introducing your core working group.

    The purpose of the initial meeting is to brainstorm where new technology will be the most disruptive within the organization. You’ll develop two longlists: one of business processes and one of disruptive technology. These longlists are in addition to the independent research your core working group will perform before Phase 2.

    • Find an outgoing facilitator. Sitting back will let you focus more on ideating, and an engaging presenter will help bring out ideas from your visionaries.
    • The training deck (see step 1.2c) includes presenting a video. We’ve included some of our top choices for you to choose from.
      • Feel free to find your own video or bring in a keynote speaker.
      • The object of the video is to get the group thinking about the future.
      • Customize the training deck as needed.
    • If a cycle has been completed, present your findings and all of the group’s completed deliverables in the first section.
    • This session is the only time you have with your visionaries. Get their ideas on what technologies will be disruptive to start forming a longlist.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The disruptive tech team is prestigious. If your organization is large enough or has the resources, consider having this meeting in an offsite location. This will drive excitement to join the working group if the opportunity arises and incentivize good work.

    Meeting Agenda (Sample)

    Time

    Activity

    8:00am-8:30am Introductions and previous meeting recap
    8:30am-9:30am Training deck
    9:30 AM-10:00am Brainstorming
    10:00am-10:15am Break
    10:15am-10:45am Develop good research techniques
    10:45am-12:00pm Begin compiling your longlist

    Info-Tech Insight

    The disruptive tech team is prestigious. If your organization is large enough or has the resources, consider having this meeting in an offsite location. This will drive excitement to join the working group if the opportunity arises and incentivize good work.

    1.3.B Start the kick-off meeting with introductions and a summary of what work has been done so far

    30 minutes

    1. Start the meeting off with an icebreaker activity. This isn’t an ordinary business meeting – or even group – so we recommend starting off with an activity that will emphasize this unique nature. To get the group in the right mindset, try this activity:
      1. Go around the group and have people present:
      2. Their names and roles
      3. Pose some or all of the following questions/prompts to the group:
        • “Tell me about something you have created.”
        • “Tell me about a time you created a process or program considered risky.”
        • “Tell me about a situation in which you had to come up with several new ideas in a hurry. Were they accepted? Were they successful?”
        • “Tell me about a time you took a risk.”
        • “Tell me about one of your greatest failures and what you learned from it.”
    2. Once everyone has been introduced, present any work that has already been completed.
      1. If you have already completed a cycle, give a summary of each technology that you investigated and the results from any piloting.
      2. If this is the first cycle for the working group, present the information decided in Step 1.1.

    Input

    • Disruptive technology exploitation plan

    Output

    • Networking
    • Brainstorming

    Materials

    • Meeting agenda

    Participants

    • Core working group
    • Visionaries
    • Facilitator

    1.3.C Brainstorm about creating a better future for the company, the stakeholders, and the employees

    30 minutes

    Three sticky notes are depicted, at the top of each note are the following titles: What can we do better; How can we make a better future; How can we continue being successful

    1. Have everyone put up at least two ideas for each chart paper.
    2. Go around the room and discuss their ideas. You may generate some new ideas here.

    These generated ideas are organizational processes that can be improved or disrupted with emerging technologies. This list will be referenced throughout Phases 2 and 3.

    Input

    • Inspiration
    • Anonymous ideas

    Output

    • List of processes

    Materials

    • Chart paper and markers
    • Pen and paper

    Participants

    • Core working group
    • Visionaries

    1.3.D Begin brainstorming a longlist of future technology, and discuss how these technologies will impact the business

    30 minutes

    • Use the Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool to organize technologies and ideas. Longstanding working groups can track technologies here over the course of several years, updating the tool between meetings.
    • Guide the discussion with the following questions, and make sure to focus on the processes generated from Step 1.2.d.

    Focus on

    The Technology

    • What is the technology and what does it do?
    • What processes can it support?

    Experts and Other Organizations

    • What are the vendors saying about the technology?
    • Are similar organizations implementing the technology?

    Your Organization

    • Is the technology ready for wide-scale distribution?
    • Can the technology be tested and implemented now?

    The Technology’s Value

    • Is there any indication of the cost of the technology?
    • How much value will the technology bring?

    Download the Disruptive Technology Database Tool

    Input

    • Inspiration
    • List of processes

    Output

    • Initial longlist

    Materials

    • Chart paper and markers
    • Pen and paper
    • Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool

    Participants

    • Core working group
    • Visionaries

    1.3.E Explore these sources to generate your disruptive technology longlist for the next meeting

    30 Minutes

    There are many sources of information on new and emerging technology. Explore as many sources as you can.

    Science fiction is a valid source of learning. It drives and is influenced by disruptive technology.

    “…the inventor of the first liquid-fuelled rocket … was inspired by H.G. Wells’ science fiction novel War of the Worlds (1898). More recent examples include the 3D gesture-based user interface used by Tom Cruise’s character in Minority Report (2002), which is found today in most touch screens and the motion sensing capability of Microsoft’s Kinect. Similarly, the tablet computer actually first appeared in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and the communicator – which we’ve come to refer today as the mobile phone – was first used by Captain Kirk in Star Trek (1966).”
    – Emmanuel Tsekleves, senior lecturer, University of Lancaster

    Right sources: blogs, tech news sites, tech magazines, the tech section of business sites, popular science books about technology, conferences, trade publications, and vendor announcements

    Quantity over quality: early research is not the time to dismiss ideas.

    Discuss with your peers: spark new and innovative ideas

    Insert a brief summary of how independent research is conducted in Section 2.1 of the Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template.

    1.3.E (Cont.) Explore these sources to generate your disruptive technology longlist for the next meeting

    30 Minutes

    There are many sources of information on new and emerging technology. Use this list to kick-start your search.

    Connect with practitioners that are worth their weight in Reddit gold. Check out topic-based LinkedIn groups and subreddits such as r/sysadmin and r/tech. People experienced with technology frequent these groups.

    YouTube is for more than cat videos. Many vendors use YouTube for distributing their previous webinars. There are also videos showcasing various technologies that are uploaded by lecturers, geeks, researchers, and other technology enthusiasts.

    Test your reasonability. Check your “Think Like a Futurist” Tool

    Resolve

    Evaluate Disruptive Technologies

    PHASE 2

    Phase 2: Resolve

    Evaluate disrupted technologies

    Activities:

    Step 2.1: Create and Winnow a Longlist
    Step 2.2: Assess Shortlist

    Info-Tech Insight

    Long to short … that’s the short of it. Using SWOT, value readiness, and quadrant mapping review sessions will focus the longlist, creating a shortlist of potential PoC candidates to review and consider.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Core working group
    • Infrastructure Management

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Finalized longlist
    • Finalized shortlist
    • Initial analysis of each technology on the shortlist

    Step 2.1

    Create and winnow a longlist

    Activities:

    1. Converge everyone’s longlists
    2. Narrow technologies from the longlist down to a shortlist using Info-Tech’s Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool
    3. Use the shortlisting tool to help participants visualize the potential
    4. Input the technologies on your longlist into the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool to produce a shortlist

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Core working group members

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Finalized longlist
    • Finalized shortlist
    • Initial analysis of each technology on the shortlist

    2.1 Organize a meeting with the core working group to combine your longlists and create a shortlist

    1 hour

    Plan enough time to talk about each technology on the list. Each technology was included for a reason.

    • Start with the longlist. Review the longlist compiled at the initial meeting, and then have everyone present the lists that they independently researched.
    • Focus on the company’s context. Make sure that the working group analyzes these disruptive technologies in the context of the organization.
    • Start to compile the shortlist. Begin narrowing down the longlist by excluding technologies that are not relevant.

    Meeting Agenda (Sample)

    TimeActivity
    8:00am-9:30amConverge longlists
    9:30am-10:00amBreak
    10:00am-10:45amDiscuss tech in organizational context
    10:45am-11:15amBegin compiling the shortlist

    Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template

    2.1.A Converge the longlists developed by your team

    90 minutes

    • Start with the longlist developed at the initial meeting. Write this list on the whiteboard.
    • If applicable, have a member present the longlist that was created in the last cycle. Remove technologies that:
      • Are no longer disruptive (e.g. have been implemented or rejected).
      • Have become foundational.
    • Eliminate redundancy: remove items that are very similar.
    • Have members “pitch” items on their lists:
      • Explain why their technologies will be disruptive (2-5 minutes maximum)
      • Add new technologies to the whiteboard
    • Record the following for metrics:
      • Each presented technology
      • Reasons the technology could be disruptive
      • Source of the information
    • Use Info-Tech’s Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool as a starting point.

    Insert the final longlist into Section 2.2 of your Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template.

    Input

    • Longlist developed at first meeting
    • Independent research
    • Previous longlist

    Output

    • Finalized longlist

    Materials

    • Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool
    • Whiteboard and markers
    • Virtual whiteboard

    Participants

    • Core working group

    Review the list of processes that were brainstormed by the visionary group, and ask for input from others

    • IT innovation is most highly valued by the C-suite when it improves business processes, reduces costs, and improves core products and services.
    • By incorporating this insight into your working group’s analysis, you help to attract the attention of senior management and reinforce the group’s necessity.
    • Any input you can get from outside of IT will help your group understand how technology can be disruptive.
      • Visionaries consulted in Phase 1 are a great source for this insight.
    • The list of processes that they helped to brainstorm in Step 1.2 reflects processes that can be impacted by technology.
    • Info-Tech’s research has shown time and again that both CEOs and CIOs want IT to innovate around:
      • Improving business processes
      • Improving core products and services
      • Reducing costs

    Improved business processes

    80%

    Core product and service improvement

    48%

    Reduced costs

    48%

    Increased revenues

    23%

    Penetration into new markets

    21%

    N=364 CXOs & CIOs from the CEO-CIO Alignment Diagnostic Questions were asked on a 7-point scale of 1 = Not at all to 7 = Very strongly. Results are displayed as percentage of respondents selecting 6 or 7.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The disruptive tech team is prestigious. If your organization is large enough or has the resources, consider having this meeting in an offsite location. This will drive excitement to join the working group if the opportunity arises and incentivize good work.

    2.1.B Narrow technologies from the longlist down to a shortlist using Info-Tech’s Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool

    90 minutes

    To decide which technology has potential for your organization, have the working group or workshop participants evaluate each technology:

    1. Record each potentially disruptive technology in the longlist on a whiteboard.
    2. Making sure to carefully consider the meaning of the terms, have each member of the group evaluate each technology as “high” or “low” along each of the axes, innovation and transformation, on a piece of paper.
    3. The facilitator collects each piece of paper and inputs the results by technology into the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool.
    Technology Innovation Transformation
    Conversational Commerce High High

    Insert the final shortlist into Section 2.2 of your Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template.

    Input

    • Longlist
    • Futurist brainstorming

    Output

    • Shortlist

    Materials

    • Disruptive Technology Research Database Tool
    • Whiteboard and markers
    • Virtual whiteboard

    Participants

    • Core working group

    Disruptive technologies are innovative and transformational

    Innovation

    Transformation

    • Elements:
      • Creative solution to a problem that is relatively new on the scene.
      • It is different, counterintuitive, or insightful or has any combination of these qualities.
    • Questions to Ask:
      • How new is the technology?
      • How different is the technology?
      • Have you seen anything like it before? Is it counterintuitive?
      • Does it offer an insightful solution to a persistent problem?
    • Example:
      • The sharing economy: Today, simple platforms allow people to share rides and lodgings cheaply and have disrupted traditional services.
    • Elements:
      • Positive change to the business process.
      • Highly impactful: impacts a wide variety of roles in a company in a nontrivial way or impacts a smaller number of roles more significantly.
    • Questions to Ask:
      • Will this technology have a big impact on business operations?
      • Will it add substantial value? Will it change the structure of the company?
      • Will it impact a significant number of employees in the organization?
    • Example:
      • Flash memory improved storage technology incrementally by building on an existing foundation.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Technology can be transformational but not innovative. Not every new technology is disruptive. Even where technology has improved the efficiency of the business, if it does this in an incremental way, it might not be worth exploring using this storyboard.

    2.1.C Use the shortlisting tool to help participants visualize the potential

    1 hour

    Use the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool, tabs 2 and 3.

    Assign quadrants

    • Input group members’ names and the entire longlist (up to 30 technologies) into tab 2 of the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool.
    • On tab 3 of the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool, input the quadrant number that corresponds to the innovation and transformation scores each participant has assigned to each technology.

    Note

    This is an assessment meant to serve as a guide. Use discretion when moving forward with a proof-of-concept project for any potentially disruptive technology.

    Participant Evaluation Quadrant
    High Innovation, High Transformation 1
    High Innovation, Low Transformation 2
    Low Innovation, Low Transformation 3
    Low Innovation, High Transformation 4

    four quadrants are depicted, labeled 1-4. The quadrants are coloured as follows: 1- green; 2- yellow; 3; red; 4; yellow

    2.1.D Use the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool to produce a shortlist

    1 hour

    Use the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool, tabs 3 and 4.

    Use the populated matrix and the discussion list to arrive at a shortlist of four to six potentially disruptive technologies.

    • The tool populates each quadrant based on how many votes it received in the voting exercise.
    • Technologies selected for a particular quadrant by a majority of participants are placed in the quadrant on the graph. Where there was no consensus, the technology is placed in the discussion list.
    • Technologies in the upper right quadrant – high transformation and high innovation – are more likely to be good candidates for a proof-of-concept project. Those in the bottom left are likely to be poor candidates, while those in the remaining quadrants are strong on one of the axes and are unlikely candidates for further systematic evaluation.

    This image contains a screenshot from tab 3 of the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool.

    Input the results of the vote into tab 3 of the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool.

    This image contains a screenshot from tab 4 of the Disruptive Technology Shortlisting Tool.

    View the results on tab 4.

    Phase 2: Resolve

    Evaluate disrupted technologies

    Activities:

    Step 2.1: Create and Winnow a Longlist
    Step 2.2:- Assess Shortlist

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Core working group
    • Infrastructure Management

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Finalized longlist
    • Finalized shortlist
    • Initial analysis of each technology on the shortlist

    Assess Shortlist

    Activities:

    1. Assess the value of each technology to your organization by breaking it down into quality and cost
    2. Investigate the overall readiness of the technologies on the shortlist
    3. Interpret each technology’s value score
    4. Conduct a SWOT analysis for each technology on the shortlist
    5. Use Info-Tech’s disruptive technology shortlist analysis to visualize the tool’s outputs
    6. Select the shortlisted technologies you would like to move forward with

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Core working group members
    • IT Management

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Finalized shortlist
    • Initial analysis of each technology on the shortlist

    2.2 Evaluate technologies based on their value and readiness, and conduct a SWOT analysis for each one

    Use the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

    • A technology monitor diagram prioritizes investment in technology by analyzing its readiness and value.
      • Readiness: how close the technology is to being practical and implementable in your industry and organization.
      • Value: how worthwhile the technology is, in terms of its quality and its cost.
    • Value and readiness questionnaires are included in the tool to help determine current and future values for each, and the next four slides explain the ratings further.
    • Categorize technology by its value-readiness score, and evaluate how much potential value each technology has and how soon your company can realize that value.
    • Use a SWOT analysis to qualitatively evaluate the potential that each technology has for your organization in each of the four categories (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats).

    The technology monitor diagram appears in tab 9 of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

    This image depicts tab 9 of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

    2.2.A Assess the value of each technology to your organization by breaking it down into quality and cost

    1 hour

    Update the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool, tab 4.

    Populate the chart to produce a score for each technology’s overall value to the company conceptualized as the interaction of quality and cost.

    Overall Value

    Quality Cost

    Each technology, if it has a product associated with it, can be evaluated along eight dimensions of quality. Consider how well the product performs, its features, its reliability, its conformance, its durability, its serviceability, its aesthetics, and its perceived quality.

    IT budgets are broken down into capital and operating expenditures. A technology that requires a significant investment along either of these lines is unlikely to produce a positive return. Also consider how much time it will take to implement and operate each technology.

    The value assessment is part of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

    This image contains a screenshot from tab 4 of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Watch your costs: Technology that seems cheap at first can actually be expensive over time. Be sure to account for operational and opportunity costs as well.

    2.2.B Investigate the overall readiness of the technologies on the shortlist

    1 hour

    Update the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool, tab 4.

    Overall Readiness

    Age

    How much time has the technology had to mature? Older technology is more likely to be ready for adoption.

    Venture Capital

    The amount of venture capital gathered by important firms in the space is an indicator of market faith.

    Market Size

    How big is the market for the technology? It is more difficult to break into a giant market than a niche market.

    Market Players

    Have any established vendors (Microsoft, Facebook, Google, etc.) thrown their weight behind the technology?

    Fragmentation

    A large number of small companies in the space indicates that the market has yet to reach equilibrium.

    The readiness assessment is part of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

    This image contains a screenshot of the Readiness Scoring tab of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool.

    Use a variety of sources to populate the chart

    Google is your friend: search each shortlisted technology to find details about its development and important vendors.

    Websites like Crunchbase, VentureBeat, and Mashable are useful sources for information on the companies involved in a space and the amount of money they have each raised.

    2.2.C Interpret each technology’s value score

    1 hour

    Insert the result of the SWOT analysis into tab 7 of Info-Tech’s Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool.

    Visualize the results of the quality-cost analysis

    • Quality and cost are independently significant; it is essential to understand how each technology stacks up on the axes.
    • Use tab 6 of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool for an illustration of how quality and cost interact to produce each technology’s final position on the tech monitor graph.
    • Remember: the score is notional and reflects the values that you have assigned. Be sure to treat it accordingly.

    This image contains a screenshot of the Value Analysis tab of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

    Green represents a technology that scores extremely high on one axis or the other, or quite high on both. These technologies are the best candidates for proof-of-concept projects from a value perspective.

    Red represents a technology that has scored very low on both axes. These technologies will be expensive, time consuming, and of poor quality.

    Yellow represents the fuzzy middle ground. These technologies score moderately on both axes. Be especially careful when considering the SWOT analysis of these technologies.

    2.2.D Conduct a SWOT analysis for each technology on the shortlist

    1 hour

    Use tab 6 of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool.

    A formal process for analyzing disruptive technology is the only way to ensure that it is taken seriously.

    Write each technology as a heading on a whiteboard. Spend 10-15 minutes on each technology conducting a SWOT analysis together.

    Consider four categories for each technology:

    • Strengths: Current uses of the technology or supporting technology and ways in which it helps your organization.
    • Weaknesses: Current limitations of the technology and challenges or barriers to adopting it in your organization.
    • Opportunities: Potential uses of the technology, especially as it advances or improves.
    • Threats: Potential negative disruptions resulting from the technology, especially as it advances or improves.

    The list of processes generated at the cycle’s initial meeting is a great source for opportunities and threats.

    Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

    This image contains screenshots of the technology tab of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool.

    2.2.E Use Info-Tech’s disruptive technology shortlist analysis to visualize the tool’s outputs

    1 hour

    Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool, tab 9

    The tool’s final tab displays the results of the value-readiness analysis and the SWOT analysis in a single location.

    This image contains a screenshot from tab 9 of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

    Insert the shortlist analysis report into Section 3 of your Disruptive Technology Exploitation Plan Template.

    2.2.F Select the shortlisted technologies you would like to move forward with

    1 hour

    Present your findings to the working group.

    • The Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool aggregates your inputs in an easy-to-read, consistent way.
    • Present the tool’s outputs to members of the core working group.
    • Explain the scoring and present the graphic to the group. Go over each technology’s strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities and threats it presents/poses to the organization.
    • Go through the proof-of-concept planning phase before striking any technologies from the list.

    This image contains a screenshot of the disruptive technology shortlist analysis from the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool

    Info-Tech Insight

    A technology’s exceptional value and immediate usability make it the best. A technology can be promising and compelling, but it is unsuitable unless it can bring immediate and exceptional value to your organization. Don’t get caught up in the hype.

    Evaluate

    Create an Action Plan to Exploit Disruptive Technologies

    PHASE 3

    Phase 3: Evaluate

    Create an Action Plan to Exploit Disruptive Technologies

    Activities:

    Step 3.1: Create Process Maps
    Step 3.2: Develop Proof of Concept Charter

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Core working group
    • Infrastructure Management
    • Working group leader
    • CIO

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Business process maps before and after disruption
    • Proof of concept charter
    • Key performance indicators
    • Estimation of required resources

    Step 3.1

    Create Process Maps

    Activities:

    1. Creating a problem canvas by identifying stakeholders, jobs, pains, and gains
    2. Clarify the problem the proof-of-concept project will solve
    3. Identify jobs and stakeholders
    4. Outline how disruptive technology will solve the problem
    5. Map business processes
    6. Identify affected business units
    7. Outline and map the business processes likely to be disrupted
    8. Recognize how the new technology will impact business processes
    9. Make the case: Outline why the new business process is superior to the old

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Working group leader
    • CIO

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Business process maps before and after disruption

    3.1 Create an action plan to exploit disruptive technologies

    Clarify the problem in order to make the case. Fill in section 1.1 of Info-Tech’s Proof of Concept Template to clearly outline the problem each proof of concept is designed to solve.

    Establish roles and responsibilities. Use section 1.2 of the template to outline the roles and responsibilities that fall to each member of the team. Ensure that clear lines of authority are delineated and that the list of stakeholders is exhaustive: include the executives whose input will be required for project approval, all the way to the technicians on the frontline responsible for implementing it.

    Outline the solution to the problem. Demonstrate how each proof-of-concept project provides a solution to the problem outlined in section 1.1. Be sure to clarify what makes the particular technology under investigation a potential solution and record the results in section 1.3.

    This image contains a screenshot of the Proof of concept project template

    Use the Proof of Concept Project Template to track the information you gather throughout Phase 3.

    3.1.A Creating a problem canvas by identifying stakeholders, jobs, pains, and gains

    2 hours

    Instructions:

    1. On a whiteboard, draw the visual canvas supplied below.
    2. Select your issue area, and list jobs, pains, and gains in the associated sections.
    3. Record the pains, jobs, and gains in sections 1.1-1.3 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    Gains

    1. More revenue

    2. Job security

    3. ……

    Jobs

    1. Moving product

    2. Per sale value

    3. ……

    Pains

    1. Clunky website

    2. Bad site navigation

    3. ……

    Input

    • Inspiration
    • Anonymous ideas

    Output

    • List of processes

    Materials

    • Chart paper and markers
    • Pen and paper

    Participants

    • Core working group
    • Visionaries

    3.1.B Clarify the problem the proof-of-concept project will solve

    2 hours

    What is the problem?

    • Every technology is designed to solve a problem faced by somebody somewhere. For each technology that your team has decided to move forward with, identify and clearly state the problem it would solve.
    • A clear problem statement is a crucial part of a new technology’s business case. It is impossible to earn buy-in from the rest of the organization without demonstrating the necessity of a solution.
    • Perfection is impossible to achieve: during the course of their work, everyone encounters pain points. Identify those pain points to arrive at the problem that needs to be solved.

    Example:

    List of pains addressed by conversational commerce:

    • Search functions can be clunky and unresponsive.
    • Corporate websites can be difficult to navigate.
    • Customers are uncomfortable in unfamiliar internet environments.
    • Customers do not like waiting in a long queue to engage with customer service representatives when they have concerns.

    “If I were given one hour to solve a problem, I would spend 59 minutes defining the problem and one minute resolving it.”
    – Albert Einstein

    Input the results of this exercise into Section 1.1 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    3.1.C Identify jobs and stakeholders

    1 hour

    Jobs

    Job: Anything that the “customer” (the target of the solution) needs to get done but that is complicated by a pain.

    Examples:
    The job of the conversational commerce interface is to make selling products easier for the company.
    From the customer perspective, the job of the conversational interface is to make the act of purchasing a product simpler and easier.

    Stakeholders

    Stakeholder: Anyone who is impacted by the new technology and who will end up using, approving, or implementing it.

    Examples:
    The executive is responsible for changing the company’s direction and approving investment in a new sales platform.
    The IT team is responsible for implementing the new technology.
    Marketing will be responsible for selling the change to customers.
    Customers, the end users, will be the ones using the conversational commerce user interface.

    Input the results of this exercise into Section 1.2 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Process deconstruction reveals strengths and weaknesses. Promising technology should improve stakeholders’ abilities to do jobs.

    3.1.D Outline how disruptive technology will solve the problem

    1 hour

    How will the technology in question make jobs easier?

    • How will the disruptive technology you have elected to move forward with create gains for the organization?
    • First, identify the gains that are supposed to come with the project. Consider the benefits that the various stakeholders expect to derive from the jobs identified.
    • Second, make note of how the technology in question facilitates the gains you have noted. Be sure to articulate the exclusive features of the new technology that make it an improvement over the current state.

    Note: The goal of this exercise is to make the case for a particular technology. Sell it!

    Expected Gain: Increase in sales.

    Conversational Commerce’s Contribution: Customers are more likely to purchase products using interfaces they are comfortable with.

    Expected Gain: Decrease in costs.

    Conversational Commerce’s Contribution: Customers who are satisfied with the conversational interface are less likely to interact with live agents, saving labor costs.

    Input the results of this exercise into Section 1.3 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    3.1.E Map business processes

    1 hour

    Map the specific business processes the new technology will impact.

    • Disruptive technologies will impact a wide variety of business processes.
    • Map business processes to visualize what parts of your organization (departments, silos, divisions) will be impacted by the new technology, should it be adopted after the proof of concept.
    • Identify how the disruption will take place.
    • Demonstrate the value of each technology by including the results of the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool with your process map.

    This image contains a screenshot of the Proof of concept project template

    Use the Proof of Concept Project Template to track the information you gather throughout Phase 3.

    3.1.F Identify affected business units

    30 minutes per technology

    Disruptive technology will impact business units.

    • Using the stakeholders identified earlier in the project, map each technology to the business units that will be affected.
    • Make your list exhaustive. While some technologies will have a limited impact on the business as a whole, others will have ripple effects throughout the organization.
    • Examine affected units at all scales: How will the technology impact operations at the team level? The department level? The division level?

    “The disruption is not just in the technology. Sometimes a good business model can be the disruptor.”
    – Jason Hong, Associate Professor, Carnegie Mellon

    Example:

    • Customer service teams: Conversational commerce will replace some of the duties of the customer service representative. They will have to reorganize to account for this development.
    • IT department: The IT department will be responsible for building/maintaining the conversational interface (or, more likely, they will be responsible for managing the contract with the vendor).
    • Sales analytics: New data from customers in natural language might provide a unique opportunity for the analytics team to develop new initiatives to drive sales growth.

    Input the results of this exercise into Section 2.1 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    3.1.G Outline and map the business processes likely to be disrupted

    15 minutes per technology

    Leverage the insights of the diverse working group.

    • Processes are designed to transform inputs into outputs. All business activities can be mapped into processes.
    • A process map illustrates the sequence of actions and decisions that transform an input into an output.
    • Effective mapping gives managers an “aerial” view of the company’s processes, making it easier to identify inefficiencies, reduce waste, and ultimately, streamline operations.
    • To identify business processes, have group members familiar with the affected business units identify how jobs are typically accomplished within those units.

    “To truly understand a business process, we need information from both the top-down and bottom-up points of view. Informants higher in the organizational hierarchy with a strategic focus are less likely to know process details or problems. But they might advocate and clearly articulate an end-to-end, customer-oriented philosophy that describes the process in an idealized form. Conversely, the salespeople, customer service representatives, order processors, shipping clerks, and others who actually carry out the processes will be experts about the processes, their associated documents, and problems or exception cases they encounter.”
    – Robert J. Glushko, Professor at UC Berkeley and Tim McGrath, Business Consultant

    Info-Tech Insight

    Opinions gathered from a group that reflect the process in question are far more likely to align with your organization’s reality. If you have any questions about a particular process, do not be afraid to go outside of the working group to ask someone who might know.

    3.1.G Outline and map the business processes likely to be disrupted (continued)

    15 minutes per technology

    Create a simple diagram of identified processes.

    • Use different shapes to identify different points in the process.
    • Rectangles represent actions, diamonds represent decisions.
    • On a whiteboard, map out the actions and decisions that take place to transform an input into an output.
    • Input the result into section 2.2 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    This image contains a screenshot of the Software Service Cross-Function Process tab from Edraw Visualization Solutions.

    Source: Edraw Visualization Solutions

    Example: simplified process map

    1. User: visits company website
    2. User: engages search function or browses links
    3. User: selects and purchases product from a menu
    4. Company: ships product to customer

    3.1.H Recognize how the new technology will impact business processes

    15 minutes per technology

    Using the information gleaned from the previous activities, develop a new process map that takes the new technology into account.

    Identify the new actions or decisions that the new technology will affect.

    User: visits company website; User: engages conversational; commerce platform; User: engages search function or browses links; User: makes a natural language query; User: selects and purchases product from a menu</p data-verified=

    User: selects and purchases product from a menu; Company: ships product to customer; Company: ships product to customer">

    Info-Tech Insight

    It’s ok to fail! The only way to know you’re getting close to the “knee of curve" is from multiple failed PoC tests. The more PoC options you have, the more likely it will be that you will have two to three successful results.

    3.1.I Make the case: Outline why the new business process is superior to the old

    15 minutes per technology

    Articulate the main benefits of the new process.

    • Using the revised process map, make the case for each new action.
    • Questions to consider: How does the new technology relieve end-user/customer pains? How does the new technology contribute to the streamlining of the business process? Who will benefit from the new action? What are the implications of those benefits?
    • Record the results of this exercise in section 2.4 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    This image contains an example of an outline comparing the benefits of new and the old business processes.

    Info-Tech Insight

    If you cannot articulate how a new technology will benefit a business process, reconsider moving forward with the proof-of-concept project.

    Phase 3: Evaluate

    Create an Action Plan to Exploit Disruptive Technologies

    Activities:

    Step 3.1: Create Process Maps
    Step 3.2: Develop Proof of Concept Charter

    Develop Proof of Concept Charter

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Core working group
    • Infrastructure Management
    • Working group leader
    • CIO

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Business process maps before and after disruption
    • Proof of concept charter
    • Key performance indicators
    • Estimation of required resources

    Step 3.2

    Develop Proof of Concept Charter

    Activities:

    1. Use SMART success metrics to define your objectives
    2. Develop key performance indicators (KPIs)
    3. Identify key success factors for the project
    4. Outline the project’s scope
    5. Identify the structure of the team responsible for the proof-of-concept project
    6. Estimate the resources required by the project
    7. Be aware of common IT project concerns
    8. Communicate your working group’s findings and successes to a wide audience
    9. Hand off the completed proof-of-concept project plan
    10. Disruption is constant: Repeat the evaluation process regularly to protect the business

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Working group leader
    • CIO

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Proof of concept charter
    • Key performance indicators
    • Estimation of required resources

    3.2 Develop a proof of concept charter

    Keep your proof of concept on track by defining five key dimensions.

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

    Input the results of this exercise into Section 3.0 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    3.2.A Use SMART success metrics to define your objectives

    Specific

    Measurable

    Actionable

    Realistic

    Time Bound

    Make sure the objective is clear and detailed.

    Objectives are measurable if there are specific metrics assigned to measure success. Metrics should be objective.

    Objectives become actionable when specific initiatives designed to achieve the objective are identified.

    Objectives must be achievable given your current resources or known available resources.

    An objective without a timeline can be put off indefinitely. Furthermore, measuring success is challenging without a timeline.

    Who, what, where, why?

    How will you measure the extent to which the goal is met?

    What is the action-oriented verb?

    Is this within my capabilities?

    By when: deadline, frequency?

    Examples:

    1. Increase in sales by $40,000 per month by the end of next quarter.
    2. Immediate increase in web traffic by 600 unique page views per day.
    3. Number of pilots approved per year.
    4. Number of successfully deployed solutions per year.

    Input the results of this exercise into Section 3.0 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    3.2.B Develop key performance indicators (KPIs)

    30 minutes per technology

    Key performance indicators allow for rigorous analysis, which generates insight into utilization by platform and consumption by business activity.

    • Use the process improvements identified in step 3.1 to brainstorm metrics that indicate when process improvement is actually taking place.
    • Have members of the group pitch KPIs; the facilitator should record each suggestion on a whiteboard.
    • Make sure to have everyone justify the inclusion of each metric: How does it relate to the improvement that the proof of concept project is intended to drive? How does it relate to the overall goals of the business?
    • Include a list of KPIs, along with a description and a target (ensuring that it aligns with SMART metrics) in section 3.1 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    “An estimated 70% of performance measurement systems fail after implementation. Carefully select your KPIs and avoid this trap!”
    Source: Collins et al. 2016

    Key Performance Indicator Description Target

    Result

    Conversion rate What percentage of customers who visit the site/open the conversational interface continue on to make a purchase? 40%
    Average order value

    How much does each customer spend per visit to the website?

    $212
    Repeat customer rate What percentage of customers have made more than one purchase over time? 65%
    Lifetime customer value Over the course of their interaction with the company, what is the typical value each customer brings? $1566

    Input the results of this exercise into Section 3.1 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    3.2.C Identify key success factors for the project

    30 minutes per technology

    Effective project management involves optimizing four key success factors (Clarke, 1999)

    • Communication: Communicate the expected changes to stakeholders, making sure that everyone who needs to know does know. Example: Make sure customer service representatives know their duties will be impacted by the conversational UI well before the proof-of-concept project begins.
    • Clarity: All involved in the project should be apprised of what the project is intended to accomplish and what the project is not intended to accomplish. Example: The conversational commerce project is not intended to be rolled out to the entire customer base all at once; it is not intended to disrupt normal online sales.
    • Compartmentalization: The working group should suggest some ways that the project can be broken down to facilitate its effective implementation. Example: Sales provides details of customers who might be amenable to a trial, IT secures a vendor, customer service writes a script.
    • Flexibility: The working group’s final output should not be treated as gospel. Ensure that the document can be altered to account for unexpected events. Example: The conversational commerce platform might drive sales of a particular product more than others, necessitating adjustments at the warehouse and shipping level.

    Input the results of this exercise into Section 3.0 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    3.2.D Outline the project’s scope

    10 minutes per technology

    Create a high-level outline of the project’s scope.

    • Questions to consider: Broadly speaking, what are the project’s goals? What is the desired future state? Where in the company will the project be rolled out? What are some of the company’s goals that the project is not designed to cover?
    • Be sure to avoid scope creep! Remember: The goal of the proof-of-concept project is to produce a minimum case for viability in a carefully defined area. Reserve a detailed accounting of costs and benefits for the post-proof-of-concept stage.
    • Example: The conversational user interface will only be rolled out in an e-commerce setting. Other business units (HR, for example) are beyond the scope of this particular project.

    “Although scope creep is not the only nemesis a project can have, it does tend to have the farthest reach. Without a properly defined project and/or allowing numerous changes along the way, a project can easily go over budget, miss the deadline, and wreak havoc on project success.”
    – University Alliance, Villanova University

    Input the results of this exercise into Section 3.0 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    3.2.E Identify the structure of the team responsible for the proof-of-concept project

    10 minutes per technology

    Brainstorm who will be involved in project implementation.

    • Refer back to the list of stakeholders identified in 3.1.a. Which stakeholders should be involved in implementing the proof-of-concept plan?
    • What business units do they represent?
    • Who should be accountable for the project? At a high level, sketch the roles of each of the participants. Who will be responsible for doing the work? Who will approve it? Who needs to be informed at every stage? Who are the company’s internal subject matter experts?

    Example

    Name/Title Role
    IT Manager Negotiate the contract for the software with vendor
    CMO Promote the conversational interface to customers

    Input the results of this exercise into Section 3.0 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    3.2.F Estimate the resources required by the project

    10 minutes per technology

    Time and Money

    • Recall: Costs can be operational, capital, or opportunity.
    • Revisit the Disruptive Technology Value-Readiness and SWOT Analysis Tool. Record the capital and operational expenses expected to be associated with each technology, and add detail where possible (use exact figures from particular vendors instead of percentages).
    • Write the names and titles of each expected participant in the project on a whiteboard. Next to each name, write the number of hours they are expected to devote to the project and include a rough estimate of the cost of their participation to the company. Use full-time employee equivalent (FTE measures) as a base.
    • Outline how other necessary resources (space, tools, expertise, etc.) will be secured.

    Example: Conversational Commerce

    • OpEx: $149/month + 2.9¢/transaction* (2,000 estimated transactions)
    • CapEx: $0!
    • IT Manager: 5 hours at $100/hour
    • IT Technician: 40 hours at $45/hour
    • CMO: 1 hour at $300/hour
    • Customer Service Representative: 10 hours at $35/hour
    • *Estimated total cost for a one-month proof-of-concept project: $3,157

    *This number is a sample taken from the vendor Rhombus

    Input the results of this exercise into Section 3.0 of the Proof of Concept Template.

    3.2.G Be aware of common IT project concerns

    Of projects that did not meet business expectations or were cancelled, how significant were the following issues?

    A bar graph is depicted, comparing small, medium, and large businesses for the following datasets: Over budget; Project failed to be delivered on time; Breach of scope; Low quality; Failed to deliver expected benefit or value

    This survey data did not specifically address innovation projects.

    • Disruptive technology projects will be under increased scrutiny in comparison to other projects.
    • Be sure to meet deadlines and stay within budget.
    • Be cognizant that your projects can go out of scope, and there will be projects that may have to be cancelled due to low quality. Remember: Even a failed test is a learning opportunity!

    Info-Tech’s CIO-CEO Alignment Survey, N=225

    Organization size was determined by the number of IT employees within the organization

    Small = 10 or fewer IT staff, medium = 11 to 25 IT staff, and large/enterprise = 26 or greater IT staff

    3.2.H Communicate your working group’s findings and successes to a wide audience

    Advertise the group’s successes and help prevent airline magazine syndrome from occurring.

    • Share your group’s results internally:
      • Run your own analysis by senior management and then share it across the organization.
      • Maintain a list of technologies that the working group has analyzed and solicit feedback from the wider organization.
      • Post summaries of the technologies in a publicly available repository. The C-suite may not read it right away, but it will be easy to provide when they ask.
      • If senior management has declined to proceed with a certain technology, avoid wasting time and resources on it. However, include notes about why the technology was rejected.
    • These postings will also act as an advertisement for the group. Use the garnered interest to attract visionaries for the next cycle.
    • These postings will help to reiterate the innovative value of the IT department and help bring you to the decision-making table.

    “Some CIOs will have to battle the bias that they belong in the back office and shouldn’t be included in product architecture planning. CIOs must ‘sell’ IT’s strength in information architecture.”
    – Chris Curran, Chief Technologist, PwC (Curran, 2014)

    Info-Tech Insight

    Cast a wide net. By sharing your results with as many people as possible within your organization, you’ll not only attract more attention to your working group, but you will also get more feedback and ideas.

    3.2.I Hand off the completed proof-of-concept project plan

    The proof of concept template is filled out – now what?

    • The core working group is responsible for producing a vision of the future and outlining new technology’s disruptive potential. The actual implementation of the proof of concept (purchasing the hardware, negotiating the SLA with the vendor) is beyond the working group’s responsibilities.
    • If the proof of concept goes ahead, the facilitator should block some time to evaluate the completed project against the key performance indicators identified in the initial plan.
    • A cure for airline magazine syndrome: Be prepared when executives ask about new technology. Present them with the results of the shortlist analysis and the proof-of-concept plan. A clear accounting of the value, readiness, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats posed by each technology, along with its impact on business processes, is an invaluable weapon against poor technology choices.

    Use section 3.2.b to identify the decision-making stakeholder who has the most to gain from a successful proof-of-concept project. Self-interest is a powerful motivator – the project is more likely to succeed in the hands of a passionate champion.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Set a date for the first meeting of the new iteration of the disruptive technology working group before the last meeting is done. Don’t risk pushing it back indefinitely.

    3.2.J Hand off the completed proof-of-concept project plan

    Record the results of the proof of concept. Keep track of what worked and what didn’t.

    Repeat the process regularly.

    • Finalize the proof of concept template, but don’t stop there: Keep your ear to the ground; follow tech developments using the sources identified in step 1.2.
    • Continue expanding the potential longlist with independent research: Be prepared to expand your longlist. Remember, the more technologies you have on the longlist, the more potential airline magazine syndrome cures you have access to.
    • Have the results of the previous session’s proof of concept plan on hand: At the start of each new iteration, conduct a review. What technologies were successful beyond the proof of concept phase? Which parts of the process worked? Which parts did not? How could they be improved?

    Info-Tech Insight

    The key is in anticipation. This is not a one-and-done exercise. Technology innovation operates at a faster pace than ever before, well below the Moores Law "18 month" timeline as an example. Success is in making EDIT a repeatable process.

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    Research contributors and experts

    Nitin Babel

    Nitin Babel, Co-Founder, niki.ai

    Nitin Babel, MSc, co-created conversational commerce platform niki.ai in early 2015. Since then, the technology has been featured on the front page of the Economic Times, and has secured the backing of Ratan Tata, former chairman of the Tata Group, one of the largest companies in the world.

    Mark Hubbard

    Mark Hubbard, Senior Vice President, FirstOnSite

    Mark is the SVP for Information Technology in Canada with FirstOnSite, a full service disaster recovery and property restoration company. Mark has over 25 years of technology leadership guiding global organizations through the development of strategic and tactical plans to strengthen their technology platforms and implement business aligned technology strategies.

    Chris Green

    Chris Green, Enterprise Architect, Boston Private
    Chris is an IT architect with over 15 years’ experience designing, building, and implementing solutions. He is a results-driven leader and contributor, skilled in a broad set of methods, tools, and platforms. He is experienced with mobile, web, enterprise application integration, business process, and data design.

    Andrew Kope

    Andrew Kope, Head of Data Analytics
    Big Blue Bubble
    Andrew Kope, MSc, oversees a team that develops and maintains a user acquisition tracking solution and a real-time metrics dashboard. He also provides actionable recommendations to the executive leadership of Big Blue Bubble – one of Canada’s largest independent mobile game development studios.

    Jason Hong

    Jason Hong, Associate Professor, School of Computer Science, Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

    Jason Hong is a member of the faculty at Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science. His research focus lies at the intersection of human-computer interaction, privacy and security, and systems. He is a New America National Cyber Security Fellow (2015-2017) and is widely published in academic and industry journals.

    Tim Lalonde

    Tim Lalonde, Vice President, Mid-Range

    Tim Lalonde is the VP of Technical Operations at Mid-Range. He works with leading-edge companies to be more competitive and effective in their industries. He specializes in developing business roadmaps leveraging technology that create and support change from within — with a focus on business process re-engineering, architecture and design, business case development and problem-solving. With over 30 years of experience in IT, Tim’s guiding principle remains simple: See a problem, fix a problem.

    Jon Mavor

    Jon Mavor, Co-Founder and CTO, Envelop VR
    Jon Mavor is a programmer and entrepreneur, whose past work includes writing the graphics engine for the PC game Total Annihilation. As Chief Technology Officer of Envelop VR, a virtual reality start-up focused on software for the enterprise, Jon has overseen the launch of Envelop for Windows’s first public beta.

    Dan Pitt

    Dan Pitt, President, Palo Alto Innovation Advisors
    Dan Pitt is a network architect who has extensive experience in both the academy and industry. Over the course of his career, Dan has served as Executive Director of the Open Networking Foundation, Dean of Engineering at Santa Clara University, Vice President of Technology and Academic Partnerships at Nortel, Vice President of the Architecture Lab at Bay Networks, and, currently, as President of Palo Alto Innovation Advisors, where he advises and serves as an executive for technology start-ups in the Palo Alto area and around the world.

    Courtney Smith

    Courtney Smith, Co-Founder, Executive Creative Director
    PureMatter

    Courtney Smith is an accomplished creative strategist, storyteller, writer, and designer. Under her leadership, PureMatter has earned hundreds of creative awards and been featured in the PRINT International Design Annual. Courtney has juried over 30 creative competitions, including Creativity International. She is an invited member of the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts.

    Emmanuel Tsekleves

    Emmanuel Tsekleves, Senior Lecturer in Design Interactions, University of Lancaster
    Dr. Emmanuel Tsekleves is a senior lecturer and writer based out of the United Kingdom. Emmanuel designs interactions between people, places, and products by forging creative design methods along with digital technology. His design-led research in the areas of health, ageing, well-being, and defence has generated public interest and attracted media attention by the national press, such as the Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, The Times, the Daily Mail, Discovery News, and several other international online media outlets.

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    Sustain and Grow the Maturity of Innovation in Your Enterprise

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}91|cart{/j2store}
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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

    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.

      Integrate Threat Intelligence Into Your Security Operations

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      • Parent Category Name: Threat Intelligence & Incident Response
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      • Organizations have limited visibility into their threat landscape, and as such are vulnerable to the latest attacks, hindering business practices, workflow, revenue generation, and damaging their public image.
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      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      1. Information alone is not actionable. A successful threat intelligence program contextualizes threat data, aligns intelligence with business objectives, and then builds processes to satisfy those objectives.
      2. Your security controls are diminishing in value (if they haven’t already). As technology in the industry evolves, threat actors will inevitably adopt new tools, tactics, and procedures; a threat intelligence program can provide relevant situational awareness to stay on top of the rapidly-evolving threat landscape.
      3. Your organization might not be the final target, but it could be a primary path for attackers. If you exist as a third-party partner to another organization, your responsibility in your technology ecosystem extends beyond your own product/service offerings. Threat intelligence provides visibility into the latest threats, which can help you avoid becoming a backdoor in the next big data breach.

      Impact and Result

      • Assess the needs and intelligence requirements of key stakeholders.
      • Garner organizational buy-in from senior management.
      • Identify organizational intelligence gaps and structure your efforts accordingly.
      • Understand the different collection solutions to identify which best supports your needs.
      • Optimize the analysis process by leveraging automation and industry best practices.
      • Establish a comprehensive threat knowledge portal.
      • Define critical threat escalation protocol.
      • Produce and share actionable intelligence with your constituency.
      • Create a deployment strategy to roll out the threat intelligence program.
      • Integrate threat intelligence within your security operations.

      Integrate Threat Intelligence Into Your Security Operations Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should implement a threat intelligence 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. Plan for a threat intelligence program

      Assess current capabilities and define an ideal target state.

      • Integrate Threat Intelligence Into Your Security Operations – Phase 1: Plan for a Threat Intelligence Program
      • Security Pressure Posture Analysis Tool
      • Threat Intelligence Maturity Assessment Tool
      • Threat Intelligence Project Charter Template
      • Threat Intelligence RACI Tool
      • Threat Intelligence Management Plan Template
      • Threat Intelligence Policy Template

      2. Design an intelligence collection strategy

      Understand the different collection solutions to identify which best supports needs.

      • Integrate Threat Intelligence Into Your Security Operations – Phase 2: Design an Intelligence Collection Strategy
      • Threat Intelligence Prioritization Tool
      • Threat Intelligence RFP MSSP Template

      3. Optimize the intelligence analysis process

      Begin analyzing and acting on gathered intelligence.

      • Integrate Threat Intelligence Into Your Security Operations – Phase 3: Optimize the Intelligence Analysis Process
      • Threat Intelligence Malware Runbook Template

      4. Design a collaboration and feedback program

      Stand up an intelligence dissemination program.

      • Integrate Threat Intelligence Into Your Security Operations – Phase 4: Design a Collaboration and Feedback Program
      • Threat Intelligence Alert Template
      • Threat Intelligence Alert and Briefing Cadence Schedule Template
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      Make the Case for Product Delivery

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      • Parent Category Name: Architecture & Strategy
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      • Organizations are traditionally organized to deliver initiatives in specific periods of time. This is in contention with product-centric delivery practices. This form of delivery acknowledges the reality that solutions of all shapes and sizes deliver continual and evolving business value over their lifetime.
      • Delivering multiple products together creates additional challenges because each product has its own pedigree, history, and goals.
      • Product owners struggle to prioritize changes to deliver product value. This creates a gap and conflict between product and enterprise goals.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Delivering products doesn’t mean you will stop delivering projects! Product-centric delivery is intended to address the misalignment between the long-term delivery of value that organizations demand and the nature of traditional project-focused environments.

      Impact and Result

      • We will help you build a proposal deck to make the case to your stakeholders for product-centric delivery.
      • You will build this proposal deck by answering key questions about product-centric delivery so you can identify:
        • A common definition of product.
        • How this form of delivery differs from traditional project-centric approaches.
        • Key challenges and benefits.
        • The capabilities needed to effectively own products and deliver value.
        • What you are asking of stakeholders.
        • A roadmap of how to get started.

      Make the Case for Product Delivery Research & Tools

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

      1. Make the Case for Product Delivery Deck – A guide to help align your organization on the practices to deliver what matters most.

      This project will help you define “product” for your organization, define your drivers and goals for moving to product delivery, understand the role of product ownership, lay out the case to your stakeholders, and communicate what comes next for your transition to product.

      • Make the Case for Product Delivery Storyboard

      2. Make the Case for Product Delivery Presentation Template – A template to help you capture and detail your case for product delivery.

      Build a proposal deck to help make the case to your stakeholders for product-centric delivery.

      • Make the Case for Product Delivery Presentation Template

      3. Make the Case for Product Delivery Workbook – A tool to capture the results of exercises to build your case to change your product delivery method.

      This workbook is designed to capture the results of the exercises in the Make the Case for Product Delivery Storyboard. Each worksheet corresponds to an exercise in the storyboard. The workbook is also a living artifact that should be updated periodically as the needs of your team and organization change.

      • Make the Case for Product Delivery Workbook
      [infographic]

      Further reading

      Make the Case for Product Delivery

      Align your organization on the practices to deliver what matters most.

      Table of Contents

      Define product

      Define your drivers and goals

      Understand the role of product ownership

      Communicate what comes next

      Make the case to your stakeholders

      Appendix: Additional research

      Appendix: Product delivery strategy communication

      Appendix: Manage stakeholder influence

      Appendix: Product owner capability details

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge
      • Products are the lifeblood of an organization. They deliver the capabilities needed to deliver value to customers, internal users, and stakeholders.
      • Organizations are under pressure to align the value they provide with the organization’s goals and overall company vision.
      • You need to clearly convey the direction and strategy of your product portfolio to gain alignment, support, and funding from your organization.
      Common Obstacles
      • IT organizations are traditionally organized to deliver initiatives in specific periods of time. This is in contention with product-centric delivery.
      • Product delivery acknowledges the reality that solutions of all shapes and sizes deliver continual and evolving business value over their lifetime.
      • Delivering multiple products together creates additional challenges because each product has its own pedigree, history, and goals.
      • Product owners struggle to prioritize changes to deliver product value. This creates a gap and conflict between product and enterprise goals.
      Info-Tech’s Approach
      • Info-Tech will enable you to build a proposal deck to make the case to your stakeholders for product-centric delivery.
      • You will build this proposal deck by answering key questions about product-centric delivery so you can identify:
        • A common definition of product.
        • How this form of delivery differs from traditional project-centric approaches.
        • Key challenges and benefits.
        • The capabilities needed to effectively own products and deliver value.
        • What you are asking of stakeholders.
        • A roadmap of how to get started.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Delivering products doesn’t mean you will stop delivering projects! Product-centric delivery is intended to address the misalignment between the long-term delivery of value that organizations demand and the nature of traditional project-focused environments.

      Many executives perceive IT as being poorly aligned with business objectives

      Info-Tech’s CIO Business Vision Survey data highlights the importance of IT initiatives in supporting the business in achieving its strategic goals.

      However, Info-Tech’s CEO-CIO Alignment Survey (2021; N=58) data indicates that CEOs perceive IT to be poorly aligned to business’ strategic goals.

      Info-Tech CEO-CIO Alignment Diagnostics, 2021 (N=58)

      40% Of CEOs believe that business goals are going unsupported by IT.

      34% Of business stakeholders are supporters of their IT departments (n=334).

      40% Of CIOs/CEOs are misaligned on the target role for IT.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Great technical solutions are not the primary driver of IT success. Focusing on delivery of digital products that align with organizational goals will produce improved outcomes and will foster an improved relationship between business and IT.

      Increase product success by involving IT, business, and customers in your product roadmaps, planning, and delivery

      Product management and delivery seek to promote improved relationships among IT, business, and customers, a critical driver for business satisfaction.

      IT

      Stock image of an IT professional.

      1

      Collaboration

      IT, business, and customers work together through all stages of the product lifecycle, from market research through the roadmapping and delivery processes and into maintenance and retirement. The goal is to ensure the risks and dependencies are realized before work is committed.

      Stakeholders, Customers, and Business

      Stock image of a business professional.

      2

      Communication

      Prioritize high-value modes of communication to break down existing silos and create common understanding and alignment across functions. This approach increases transparency and visibility across the entire product lifecycle.

      3

      Integration

      Explore methods to integrate the workflows, decision making, and toolsets among the business, IT, and customers. The goal is to become more reactive to changes in business and customer expectations and more proactive about market trends.

      Product does not mean the same thing to everyone

      Do not expect a universal definition of products.
      Every organization and industry has a different definition of what a product is. Organizations structure their people, processes, and technologies according to their definition of the products they manage. Conflicting product definitions between teams increase confusion and misalignment of product roadmaps.

      “A product [is] something (physical or not) that is created through a process and that provides benefits to a market.” (Mike Cohn, Founding Member of Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance) “A product is something ... that is created and then made available to customers, usually with a distinct name or order number.” (TechTarget) “A product is the physical object ... , software or service from which customer gets direct utility plus a number of other factors, services, and perceptions that make the product useful, desirable [and] convenient.” (Mark Curphey)

      Organizations need a common understanding of what a product is and how it pertains to the business.

      This understanding needs to be accepted across the organization.

      “There is not a lot of guidance in the industry on how to define [products]. This is dangerous because what will happen is that product backlogs will be formed in too many areas. All that does is create dependencies and coordination across teams … and backlogs.” (Chad Beier, “How Do You Define a Product?” Scrum.org)

      Products enable the long-term and continuous delivery of value

      Diagram laying out the lifecycles and roadmaps contributing to the 'Continuous delivery of value'. Beginning with 'Project Lifecycle' in which Projects with features and services end in a Product Release that is disconnected from the continuum. Then the 'Hybrid Lifecycle' and 'Product Lifecycle' which are connected by a 'Product Roadmap' and 'Product Backlog' have Product Releases that connect to the continuum.

      Phase 1

      Build the case for product-centric delivery

      Phase 1
      1.1 Define product
      1.2 Define your drivers and goals
      1.3 Understand the role of product ownership
      1.4 Communicate what comes next
      1.5 Make the case to your stakeholders

      This phase will walk you through the following activities:

      • Define product in your context.
      • Define your drivers and goals for moving to product delivery.
      • Understand the role of product ownership.
      • Communicate what comes next for your transition to product.
      • Lay out the case to your stakeholders.

      This phase involves the following participants:

      • Product owners
      • Product managers
      • Development team leads
      • Portfolio managers
      • Business analysts

      Step 1.1

      Define product

      Activities
      • 1.1.1 Define “product” in your context
      • 1.1.2 Consider examples of what is (and is not) a product in your organization
      • 1.1.3 Identify the differences between project and product delivery

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Product owners
      • Product managers
      • Development team leads
      • Portfolio managers
      • Business analysts

      Outcomes of this step

      • A clear definition of product in your organization’s context.

      Make the Case for Product Delivery

      Step 1.1 Step 1.2 Step 1.3 Step 1.4 Step 1.5

      Exercise 1.1.1 Define “product” in your context

      30-60 minutes

      Output: Your enterprise/organizational definition of products and services

      Participants: Product owners, Product managers, Development team leads, Portfolio managers, Business analysts

      1. Discuss what “product” means in your organization.
      2. Create a common, enterprise-wide definition for “product.”
      “A product [is] something (physical or not) that is created through a process and that provides benefits to a market.” (Mike Cohn, Founding Member of Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance) “A product is something ... that is created and then made available to customers, usually with a distinct name or order number.” (TechTarget) “A product is the physical object ... , software or service from which customer gets direct utility plus a number of other factors, services, and perceptions that make the product useful, desirable [and] convenient.” (Mark Curphey)

      Record the results in the Make the Case for Product-Centric Delivery Workbook.

      Example: What is a product?

      Not all organizations will define products in the same way. Take this as a general example:

      “A tangible solution, tool, or service (physical or digital) that enables the long-term and evolving delivery of value to customers and stakeholders based on business and user requirements.”

      Info-Tech Insight

      A proper definition of product recognizes three key facts:

      1. Products are long-term endeavors that don’t end after the project finishes.
      2. Products are not just “apps” but can be software or services that drive the delivery of value.
      3. There is more than one stakeholder group that derives value from the product or service.
      Stock image of an open human head with gears and a city for a brain.

      How do we know what is a product?

      What isn’t a product:
      • Features (on their own)
      • Transactions
      • Unstructured data
      • One-time solutions
      • Non-repeatable processes
      • Solutions that have no users or consumers
      • People or teams
      You have a product if the given item...
      • 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

      Exercise 1.1.2 Consider examples of what is (and is not) a product in your organization

      15 minutes

      Output: Examples of what is and isn’t a product in your specific context.

      Participants: Product owners, Product managers, Development team leads, Portfolio managers, Business analysts

      1. Leverage the definition you created in exercise 1.1.1 and the explanation on the slide What is a product?
      2. Pick examples that effectively show the difference between products and non-products and facilitate a conversation on the ones that seem to be on the line. Specific server instances, or instances of providing a service, are worthwhile examples to consider.
      3. From the list you come up with, take the top three examples and put them into the Make the Case for Product Delivery Presentation Template.
      Example:
      What isn’t a product?
      • Month-end SQL scripts to close the books
      • Support Engineer doing a password reset
      • Latest research project in R&D
      What is a product?
      • Self-service password reset portal
      • Oracle ERP installation
      • Microsoft Office 365

      Record the results in the Make the Case for Product Delivery Workbook.

      Product delivery practices should consider everything required to support it, not just what users see.

      Cross-section of an iceberg above and below water with visible product delivery practices like 'Funding', 'External Relationships', and 'Stakeholder Management' above water and internal product delivery practices like 'Product Governance', 'Business Functionality', and 'R&D' under water. There are far more processes below the water.

      Products and services share the same foundation and best practices

      For the purpose of this blueprint, product/service and product owner/service owner are used interchangeably. Product is used for consistency but would apply to services as well.

      Product = Service

      “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)

      Exercise 1.1.3 Identify the differences between project and product delivery

      30-60 minutes

      Output: List of differences between project and product delivery

      Participants: Product owners, Product managers, Development team leads, Portfolio managers, Business analysts

      1. Consider project delivery and product delivery.
      2. Discuss what some differences are between the two.
        Note: This exercise is not about identifying the advantages and disadvantages of each style of delivery. This is to identify the variation between the two.
      Theme Project Delivery (Current) Product Delivery (Future)
      Timing Defined start and end Does not end until the product is no longer needed
      Funding Funding projects Funding products and teams
      Prioritization LoB sponsors Product owner
      Capacity Management Project management Managed by product team

      Record the results in the Make the Case for Product Delivery Workbook.

      Identify the differences between a project-centric and a product-centric organization

      Project Product
      Fund projects — Funding –› Fund products or teams
      Line of business sponsor — Prioritization –› Product owner
      Makes specific changes to a product —Product management –› Improves product maturity and support
      Assignment of people to work — Work allocation –› Assignment of work to product teams
      Project manager manages — Capacity management –› Team manages capacity

      Info-Tech Insights

      • Product ownership should be one of your first areas of focus when transitioning from project to product delivery.
      • 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

      Diagram laying out the lifecycles and roadmaps contributing to the 'Continuous delivery of value'. Beginning with 'Project Lifecycle' in which Projects with features and services end in a Product Release that is disconnected from the continuum. Then the 'Hybrid Lifecycle' and 'Product Lifecycle' which are connected by a 'Product Roadmap' and 'Product Backlog' have Product Releases that connect to the continuum. Projects within products

      Regardless of whether you recognize yourself as a product-based or project-based shop, the same basic principles should apply.

      The purpose of projects is to deliver the scope of a product release. The shift to product delivery leverages a product roadmap and backlog as the mechanism for defining and managing the scope of the release.

      Eventually, teams progress to continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) where they can release on demand or as scheduled, requiring org change management.

      Step 1.2

      Define your drivers and goals

      Activities
      • 1.2.1 Understand your drivers for product-centric delivery
      • 1.2.2 Define the goals for your product-centric organization

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Product owners
      • Product managers
      • Development team leads
      • Portfolio managers
      • Business analysts

      Outcomes of this step

      • A clear understanding of your motivations and desired outcomes for moving to product delivery.

      Make the Case for Product Delivery

      Step 1.1 Step 1.2 Step 1.3 Step 1.4 Step 1.5

      Exercise 1.2.1 Understand your drivers for product-centric delivery

      30-60 minutes

      Output: Organizational drivers to move to product-centric delivery.

      Participants: Product owners, Product managers, Development team leads, Portfolio managers, Business analysts

      1. Identify your pain points in the current delivery model.
      2. What is the root cause of these pain points?
      3. How will a product-centric delivery model fix the root cause (drivers)?
      Pain Points
      • Lack of ownership
      Root Causes
      • Siloed departments
      Drivers
      • Accountability

      Record the results in the Make the Case for Product Delivery Workbook.

      Exercise 1.2.2 Define the goals for your product-centric organization

      30 minutes

      Output: Goals for product-centric delivery

      Participants: Product owners, Product managers, Development team leads, Portfolio managers, Business analysts

      1. Review the differences between project and product delivery from exercise 1.1.3 and the list of drivers from exercise 1.2.1.
      2. Define your goals for achieving a product-centric organization.
        Note: Your drivers may have already covered the goals. If so, review if you would like to change the drivers based on your renewed understanding of the differences between project and product delivery.
      Pain Points
      • Lack of ownership
      Root Causes
      • Siloed departments
      Drivers
      • Accountability
      Goals
      • End-to-end ownership

      Record the results in the Make the Case for Product Delivery Workbook.

      Step 1.3

      Understand the role of product ownership

      Activities
      • 1.3.1 Identify product ownership capabilities

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Product owners
      • Product managers
      • Development team leads
      • Portfolio managers
      • Business analysts

      Outcomes of this step

      • Product owner capabilities that you agree are critical to start your product transformation.

      Make the Case for Product Delivery

      Step 1.1 Step 1.2 Step 1.3 Step 1.4 Step 1.5

      Accountability for the delivery of value through product ownership is not optional

      Tree of 'Enterprise Goals and Priorities' leading to 'Product' through a 'Product Family'.

      Info-Tech Insight

      People treat the assignment of accountability for products (aka product ownership) as optional. Without assigning accountability up front, your transition to product delivery will stall. Accountable individuals will be focused on the core outcome for product delivery, which is the delivery of the right value, at the right time, to the right people.

      Description of the tree levels shown in the diagram on the left. First is 'Enterprise Goals and Priorities', led by 'Executive Leadership' using the 'Enterprise Strategic Roadmap'. Second is 'Product Family', led by 'Product Manager' using the 'Product Family Roadmap'. Last is 'Product', led by the 'Product Owner' using the 'Product Roadmap' and 'Backlog' on the strategic end, and 'Releases' on the Tactical end. In the holistic context, 'Product Family is considered 'Strategic' while 'Product' is 'Tactical'.

      Recognize the different product owner perspectives

      Business
      • Customer facing, revenue generating
      Technical
      • IT systems and tools
      Operations
      • Keep the lights on processes

      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?).

      Info-Tech Insight

      Recognize that product owners represent one of three primary perspectives. Although all share the same capabilities, how they approach their responsibilities is influenced by their perspective.

      “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 Product Owners”)

      Implement the Info-Tech product owner capability model

      As discussed in Build a Better Product Owner, most product owners operate with an 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', 'Leadership', 'Product Lifecycle Management', '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

      Details on product ownership capabilities can be found in the appendix.

      Exercise 1.3.1 Identify product ownership capabilities

      60 minutes

      Output: Product owner capability mapping

      Participants: Product owners, Product managers, Development team leads, Portfolio managers, Business analysts

      1. Write down the capabilities product owners need to perform their duties (one per sticky note) in order to describe product ownership in your organization. Consider people, processes, and tools.
      2. Mark each capability with a plus (current capability), circle (some proficiency), or dash (missing capability).
      3. Discuss each capability and place on the appropriate quadrant.

      'Product Owner Capabilities': 'Vision', 'Leadership', 'Product Lifecycle Management', 'Value Realization'.

      Record the results in the Make the Case for Product Delivery Workbook.

      Differentiate between product owners and product managers

      Product Owner (Tactical Focus)
      • Backlog management and prioritization
      • Epic/story definition, refinement in conjunction with business stakeholders
      • Sprint planning with Scrum Master
      • Working with Scrum Master to minimize disruption to team velocity
      • Ensuring alignment between business and Scrum teams during sprints
      • Profit and loss (P&L) product analysis and monitoring
      Product Manager (Strategic Focus)
      • Product strategy, positioning, and messaging
      • Product vision and product roadmap
      • Competitive analysis and positioning
      • New product innovation/definition
      • Release timing and focus (release themes)
      • Ongoing optimization of product-related marketing and sales activities
      • P&L product analysis and monitoring

      Info-Tech Insight

      “Product owner” and “product manager” are terms that should be adapted to fit your culture and product hierarchy. These are not management relationships but rather a way to structure related products and services that touch the same end users.

      Step 1.4

      Communicate what comes next

      Activities
      • 1.4.1 How do we get started?

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Product owners
      • Product managers
      • Development team leads
      • Portfolio managers
      • Business analysts

      Outcomes of this step

      • A now, next, later roadmap indicating your overall next steps.

      Make the Case for Product Delivery

      Step 1.1 Step 1.2 Step 1.3 Step 1.4 Step 1.5

      Make a plan in order to make a plan!

      Consider some of the techniques you can use to validate your strategy.

      Cyclical diagram of the 'Continuous Delivery of Value' within 'Business Value'. Surrounding attributes are 'User Centric', 'Adaptable', 'Accessible', 'Private & Secured', 'Informative & Insightful', 'Seamless Application Connection', 'Relationship & Network Building', 'Fit for Purpose'.

      Go to your backlog and prioritize the elements that need to be answered sooner rather than later.

      Possible areas of focus:

      • Regulatory requirements or questions to answer around accessibility, security, privacy.
      • Stress testing any new processes against situations that may occur.
      Learning Milestones

      The completion of a set of artifacts dedicated to validating business opportunities and hypotheses.

      Possible areas of focus:

      • Align teams on product strategy prior to build
      • Market research and analysis
      • Dedicated feedback sessions
      • Provide information on feature requirements
      Stock image of people learning.
      Sprint Zero (AKA Project-before-the-project)

      The completion of a set of key planning activities, typically the first sprint.

      Possible areas of focus:

      • Focus on technical verification to enable product development alignment
      • Sign off on architectural questions or concerns
      Stock photo of a person writing on a board of sticky notes.

      The “Now, Next, Later” roadmap

      Use this when deadlines and delivery dates are not strict. This is best suited for brainstorming a product plan when dependency mapping is not required.

      • Now
        What are you going to do now?
      • Next
        What are you going to do very soon?
      • Later
        What are you going to do in the future?
      A priority map laid out as a half rainbow with 'Now' as the inner, 'Next' as the middle, and 'Later' as the outer. Various 'Features', 'Releases', and an 'MVP' are mapped into the sections.
      (Source: “Tips for Agile product roadmaps & product roadmap examples,” Scrum.org, 2017)

      Exercise 1.4.1 How do we get started?

      30-60 minutes

      Output: Product transformation critical steps and basic roadmap

      Participants: Product owners, Product managers, Development team leads, Portfolio managers, Business analysts

      1. Identify what the critical steps are for the organization to embrace product-centric delivery.
      2. Group each critical step by how soon you need to address it:
        • Now: Let’s do this ASAP.
        • Next: Sometime very soon, let’s do these things.
        • Later: Much further off in the distance, let’s consider these things.
      A priority map laid out as a half rainbow with 'Now' as the inner, 'Next' as the middle, and 'Later' as the outer. Various 'Features', 'Releases', and an 'MVP' are mapped into the sections.
      (Source: “Tips for Agile product roadmaps & product roadmap examples,” Scrum.org, 2017)

      Record the results in the Make the Case for Product Delivery Workbook.

      Example

      Example table for listing tasks to complete Now, Next, or Later

      Step 1.5

      Make the case to your stakeholders

      Activities
      • 1.5.1 Identify what support you need from your stakeholders
      • 1.5.2 Build your pitch for product delivery

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Product owners
      • Product managers
      • Development team leads
      • Portfolio managers
      • Business analysts

      Outcomes of this step

      • A deliverable that helps make the case for product delivery.

      Make the Case for Product Delivery

      Step 1.1 Step 1.2 Step 1.3 Step 1.4 Step 1.5

      Develop a stakeholder strategy to define your product owner landscape

      Stakeholder Influence

      Stakeholders are a critical cornerstone to product ownership. They provide the context, alignment, and constraints that influence or control what a product owner is able to accomplish.

      Product teams operate within this network of stakeholders who represent different perspectives within the organization.

      See the appendix for activities and guidance on how to devise a strategy for managing stakeholders.

      Image of four puzzle pieces being put together, labelled 'Product Lifecycle', 'Project Delivery', 'Operational Support', 'and Stakeholder Management'.

      Exercise 1.5.1 Identify what support you need from your stakeholders

      30 minutes

      Output: Clear understanding of stakeholders, what they need from you, and what you need from them.

      Participants: Product owners, Product managers, Development team leads, Portfolio managers, Business analysts

      1. If you don’t yet know who your stakeholders are, consider completing one or more of the stakeholder management exercises in the appendix.
      2. Identify your key stakeholders who have an interest in solution delivery.
      3. Consider their perspective on product-centric delivery. (For example: For head of support, what does solution delivery mean to them?)
      4. Identify what role each stakeholder would play in the transformation.
        • This role represents what you need from them for this transformation to product-centric delivery.
      Stakeholder
      What does solution delivery mean to them?
      What do you need from them in order to be successful?

      Record the results in the Make the Case for Product Delivery Workbook.

      Exercise 1.5.2 Build your pitch deck

      30 minutes (and up)

      Output: A completed presentation to help you make the case for product delivery.

      Participants: Product owners, Product managers, Development team leads, Portfolio managers, Business analysts

      1. Take the results from the Make the Case for Product Delivery Workbook and transfer them into the presentation template.
      2. Follow the instructions on each page listed in the instruction bubbles to know what results to place where.
      3. This is meant to be a template; you are welcome to add and remove slides as needed to suit your audience!

      Sample of slides from the Make the Case for Product Delivery Workbook with instruction bubbles overlaid.

      Record the results in the Make the Case for Product Delivery Workbook.

      Appendix

      Additional research to start your journey

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Product Delivery

      Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision

      • Build a product vision your organization can take from strategy through execution.

      Build a Better Product Owner

      • Strengthen the product owner role in your organization by focusing on core capabilities and proper alignment.

      Build Your Agile Acceleration Roadmap

      • Quickly assess the state of your Agile readiness and plan your path forward to higher value realization.

      Implement Agile Practices That Work

      • Improve collaboration and transparency with the business to minimize project failure.

      Implement DevOps Practices That Work

      • Streamline business value delivery through the strategic adoption of DevOps practices.

      Deliver Digital Products at Scale

      • Deliver value at the scale of your organization through defining enterprise product families.

      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.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Application Portfolio Management

      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 for Small Enterprises

      • There is no one-size-fits-all rationalization. Tailor your framework to meet your goals.

      Streamline Application Maintenance

      • Effective maintenance ensures the long-term value of your applications.

      Build an Application Rationalization Framework

      • Manage your application portfolio to minimize risk and maximize value.

      Modernize Your Applications

      • Justify modernizing your application portfolio from both business and technical perspectives.

      Review Your Application Strategy

      • Ensure your applications enable your business strategy.

      Application Portfolio Management Foundations

      • Ensure your application portfolio delivers the best possible return on investment.

      Streamline Application Management

      • Move beyond maintenance to ensuring exceptional value from your apps.

      Optimize Applications Release Management

      • Facilitate ongoing alignment between Agile teams and the business with a set of targeted service offerings.

      Embrace Business-Managed Applications

      • Empower the business to implement their own applications with a trusted business-IT relationship.

      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 IT 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

      Org 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 IT 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

      • Measure employee sentiment to drive IT performance

      Set Meaningful Employee Performance Measures

      • Set holistic measures to inspire employee performance.

      Master Organizational Change Management Practices

      • PMOs, if you don't know who is responsible for org change, it's you.

      Appendix

      Product delivery strategy communication

      Product roadmaps guide delivery and communicate your strategy

      In Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision, we demonstrate how the product roadmap is core to value realization. The product roadmap is your communicated path, and as a product owner, you use it to align teams and changes to your defined goals while aligning your product to enterprise goals and strategy.

      Diagram on how to get from product owner capabilities to 'Business Value Realization' through 'Product Roadmap' with a 'Tiered Backlog', 'Delivery Capacity and Throughput' via a 'Product Delivery Pipeline'.
      (Adapted from: Pichler, “What Is Product Management?”)

      Info-Tech Insight

      The quality of your product backlog – and your ability to realize business value from your delivery pipeline – is directly related to the input, content, and prioritization of items in your product roadmap.

      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.

      Two-part diagram showing the 'Product Backlog' segmented into '1. Current: Features/ Stories', '2. Near-term: Capabilities', and '3. Future: Epics', and then the 'Product Roadmap' with the same segments placed into a timeline.

      Multiple roadmap views can communicate differently, yet tell the same truth

      Product managers and product owners have many responsibilities, and a roadmap can be a useful tool to complete those objectives through communication or organization of tasks.

      However, not all roadmaps address the correct audience and achieve those objectives. Care must be taken to align the view to the given audience.

      Pie Chart showing the surveyed most important reason for using a product roadmap. From largest to smallest are 'Communicate a strategy', 'Plan and prioritize', 'Communicate milestones and releases', 'Get consensus on product direction', and 'Manage product backlog'.
      Surveyed most important reason for using a product roadmap (Source: ProductPlan, 2018)

      Audience
      Business/ IT leaders Users/Customers Delivery teams
      Roadmap View
      Portfolio Product Technology
      Objectives
      To provide a snapshot of the portfolio and priority apps To visualize and validate product strategy To coordinate and manage teams and show dev. progress
      Artifacts
      Line items or sections of the roadmap are made up of individual apps, and an artifact represents a disposition at its highest level. Artifacts are generally grouped by various product teams and consist of strategic goals and the features that realize those goals. Artifacts are grouped by the teams who deliver that work and consist of features and technical enablers that support those features.

      Appendix

      Managing stakeholder influence

      From Build a Better Product Owner

      Step 1.3 (from Build a Better Product Owner)

      Manage Stakeholder Influence

      Activities
      • 1.3.1 Visualize interrelationships to identify key influencers
      • 1.3.2 Group your product owners into categories
      • 1.3.3 Prioritize your stakeholders
      • 1.3.4 Delegation Poker: Reach better decisions

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      To be successful, product owners need to identify and manage all stakeholders for their products. This step will build a stakeholder map and strategy.

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Product owners
      • Product managers
      • Development team leads
      • Portfolio managers
      • Delivery managers
      • Business analysts

      Outcomes of this step

      • Relationships among stakeholders and influencers
      • Categorization of stakeholders and influencers
      • Stakeholder and influencer prioritization
      • Better understanding of decision-making approaches and delegation
      Product Owner Foundations
      Step 1.1 Step 1.2 Step 1.3

      Develop a product owner stakeholder strategy

      Stakeholder Influence

      Stakeholders are a critical cornerstone to product ownership. They provide the context, alignment, and constraints that influence or control what a product owner is able to accomplish.

      Product owners operate within this 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 accomplishing these missing pieces, product owners will encounter obstacles, resistance, or unexpected changes.

      Image of four puzzle pieces being put together, labelled 'Product Lifecycle', 'Project Delivery', 'Operational Support', 'and Stakeholder Management'.

      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.

      Legend
      Black arrow with a solid line and single direction. Black arrows indicate the direction of professional influence
      Green arrow with a dashed line and bi-directional. Dashed green arrows indicate bidirectional, informal influence relationships

      Info-Tech Insight

      Your stakeholder map defines the influence landscape your product operates in. 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.

      1.3.1 Visualize interrelationships to identify key influencers

      60 minutes

      Input: List of product stakeholders

      Output: Relationships among stakeholders and influencers

      Materials: Whiteboard/flip charts, Markers, Build a Better Product Owner Workbook

      Participants: Product owners, Product managers, Development team leads, Portfolio managers, Business analysts

      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.
        1. Use black arrows to indicate the direction of professional influence.
        2. Use dashed green arrows to indicate bidirectional, informal influence relationships.
      5. Record the results in the Build a Better Product Owner Workbook.

      Record the results in the Build a Better Product Owner Workbook.

      Categorize your stakeholders with a prioritization map

      A stakeholder prioritization map helps product owners categorize their stakeholders by their level or influence and ownership in the product and/or teams.

      Stakeholder prioritization map split into four quadrants along two axes, 'Influence', and 'Ownership/Interest': 'Players' (high influence, high interest); 'Mediators' (high influence, low interest); 'Noisemakers' (low influence, high interest); 'Spectators' (low influence, low interest). Source: Info-Tech Research Group

      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.

      1.3.2 Group your product owners into categories

      30 minutes

      Input: Stakeholder map

      Output: Categorization of stakeholders and influencers

      Materials: Whiteboard/flip charts, Markers, Build a Better Product Owner Workbook

      Participants: Product owners, Product managers, Development team leads, Portfolio managers, Business analysts

      1. Identify your stakeholder’s 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 Build a Better Product Owner Workbook.
      Same stakeholder prioritization map as before but with example positions mapped onto it.
      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 Build a Better Product Owner Workbook.

      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 prioritization table with 'Stakeholder Category' as row headers ('Player', 'Mediator', 'Noisemaker', 'Spectator') and 'Level of Support' as column headers ('Supporter', 'Evangelist', 'Neutral', 'Blocker'). Importance ratings are 'Critical', 'High', 'Medium', 'Low', and 'Irrelevant'.

      Consider the three dimensions for 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 the focus of your attention. The table to the right indicates how stakeholders are ranked.

      1.3.3 Prioritize your stakeholders

      30 minutes

      Input: Stakeholder matrix, Stakeholder prioritization

      Output: Stakeholder and influencer prioritization

      Materials: Whiteboard/flip charts, Markers, Build a Better Product Owner Workbook

      Participants: Product owners, Product managers, Development team leads, Portfolio managers, Business analysts

      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 Build a Better Product Owner Workbook.
      Stakeholder Category Level of Support Prioritization
      CMO Spectator Neutral Irrelevant
      CIO Player Supporter Critical

      Record the results in the Build a Better Product Owner Workbook.

      Define strategies for engaging stakeholders by type

      Stakeholder strategy map assigning stakeholder strategies to stakeholder categories, as described in the adjacent table.

      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 the Mediators and Players are met.

      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.

      Appendix

      Product owner capability details

      From Build a Better Product Owner

      Develop product owner capabilities

      Capability 'Vision' with sub-capabilities 'Market Analysis, 'Business Alignment', and 'Product Roadmap'.

      Each capability has three components needed for successful product ownership.

      Definitions are on the following slides.

      Central diagram title 'Product Owner Capabilities'.

      Define the skills and activities in each component that are directly related to your product and culture.

      Capability 'Leadership' with sub-capabilities 'Soft Skills', 'Collaboration', and 'Decision Making'.
      Capability 'Product Lifecycle Management' with sub- capabilities 'Plan', 'Build', and 'Run'. Capability 'Value Realization' with sub-capabilities 'KPIs', 'Financial Management', and 'Business Model'.

      Capabilities: Vision

      Market Analysis

      • Unique solution: Identify the target users and unique value your product provides that is not currently being met.
      • Market size: Define the size of your user base, segmentation, and potential growth.
      • Competitive analysis: Determine alternative solutions, products, or threats that affect adoption, usage, and retention.

      Business Alignment

      • SWOT analysis: Complete a SWOT analysis for your end-to-end product lifecycle. Use Info-Tech’s Business SWOT Analysis Template.
      • Enterprise alignment: Align product to enterprise goals, strategies, and constraints.
      • Delivery strategy: Develop a delivery strategy to achieve value quickly and adapt to internal and external 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.
      • Go to market strategy: Create organizational change management, communications, and a user implementation approach.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Data comes from many places and may still not tell the complete story.

      Capability 'Vision' with sub-capabilities 'Market Analysis, 'Business Alignment', and 'Product Roadmap'.

      “Customers are best heard through many ears.” (Thomas K. Connellan, Inside the Magic Kingdom)

      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.

      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' with sub-capabilities 'Soft Skills', 'Collaboration', and 'Decision Making'.

      “Everything walks the walk. Everything talks the talk.” (Thomas K. Connellan, Inside the Magic Kingdom)

      Capabilities: Product lifecycle management

      Plan

      • Product backlog: Follow a schedule for backlog intake, refinement, 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 the 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.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Product owners must actively manage the full lifecycle of the product.

      Capability 'Product Lifecycle Management' with sub- capabilities 'Plan', 'Build', and 'Run'.

      “Pay fantastic attention to detail. Reward, recognize, celebrate.” (Thomas K. Connellan, Inside the Magic Kingdom)

      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.

      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.

      Capability 'Value Realization' with sub-capabilities 'KPIs', 'Financial Management', and 'Business Model'.

      “The competition is anyone the customer compares you with.” (Thomas K. Connellan, Inside the Magic Kingdom)

      Avoid common capability gaps

      Vision

      • Focusing solely on backlog refining (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

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      Research Contributors and Experts

      Photo of Emily Archer, Lead Business Analyst, Enterprise Consulting, authentic digital agency.

      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.

      Photo of David Berg, Founder & CTO, Strainprint Technologies Inc.

      David Berg
      Founder & CTO
      Strainprint Technologies Inc.

      David Berg is a product commercialization expert that has spent the last 20 years of his career 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 the goal to develop an understanding of treatment behavior, interactions, and chemical drivers to guide future product development.

      Research Contributors and Experts

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      Kathy Borneman
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      Photo of Charlie Campbell, Product Owner, Merchant e-Solutions.

      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

      Photo of Yarrow Diamond, Sr. Director, Business Architecture, Financial Services.

      Yarrow Diamond
      Sr. Director, Business Architecture
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      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.

      Photo of Cari J. Faanes-Blakey, CBAP, PMI-PBA, Enterprise Business Systems Analyst, Vertex, Inc.

      Cari J. Faanes-Blakey, CBAP, PMI-PBA
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      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

      Photo of Kieran Gobey, Senior Consultant Professional Services, Blueprint Software Systems.

      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.

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      Rupert Kainzbauer
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      Rupert Kainzbauer is an experienced senior leader with a passion for defining and delivering products that deliver real customer and commercial benefit. Together 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

      Photo of Saeed Khan, Founder, Transformation Labs.

      Saeed Khan
      Founder,
      Transformation Labs

      Saeed Khan has been working in high tech for 30 years in both Canada and the US and has held a number of leadership roles in Product Management over 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.

      Photo of Hoi Kun Lo, Product Owner, Nielsen.

      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

      Photo of Abhishek Mathur, Sr Director, Product Management, Kasisto, Inc.

      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.

      Photo of Jeff Meister, Technology Advisor and Product Leader.

      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

      Photo of Vincent Mirabelli, Principal, Global Project Synergy Group.

      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.

      Photo of Oz Nazili, VP, Product & Growth, TWG.

      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

      Photo of Mark Pearson, Principal IT Architect, First Data Corporation.

      Mark Pearson
      Principal IT Architect
      First Data Corporation

      Mark Pearson is an executive business leader grounded in the process, data, technology, and operations of software-driven business. He knows the enterprise software landscape and is skilled in product, technology, and operations design and delivery within information technology organizations, outsourcing firms, and software product companies.

      Photo of Brenda Peshak, Product Owner, Widget Industries, LLC.

      Brenda Peshak
      Product Owner,
      Widget Industries, LLC

      Brenda Peshak is skilled in business process, analytical skills, Microsoft Office Suite, communication, and customer relationship management (CRM). She is a strong product management professional with a Master’s focused in Business Leadership (MBL) from William Penn University.

      Research Contributors and Experts

      Photo of Mike Starkey, Director of Engineering, W.W. Grainger.

      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.

      Photo of Anant Tailor, Cofounder & Head of Product, Dream Payments Corp.

      Anant Tailor
      Cofounder & 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’s 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

      Photo of Angela Weller, Scrum Master, Businessolver.

      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.

      Grow Your Own PPM Solution

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      • Parent Category Name: Portfolio Management
      • Parent Category Link: /portfolio-management
      • As portfolio manager, you’re responsible for supporting the intake of new project requests, providing visibility into the portfolio of in-flight projects, and helping to facilitate the right approval and prioritization decisions.
      • You need a project portfolio management (PPM) tool that promotes the maintenance and flow of good data to help you succeed in these tasks. However, while throwing expensive technology at bad process rarely works, many organizations take this approach to solve their PPM problems.
      • Commercial PPM solutions are powerful and compelling, but they are also expensive, complex, and hard to use. When a solution is not properly adopted, the data can be unreliable and inconsistent, defeating the point of purchasing a tool in the first place.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Your choice of PPM solution must be in tune with your organizational PPM maturity to ensure that you are prepared to sustain the tool use without having the corresponding PPM processes collapse under its own weight.
      • A spreadsheet-based homegrown PPM solution can provide key capabilities of an optimized PPM solution with a high level of sophistication and complexity without the prohibitive capital and labor costs demanded by commercial PPM solution.
      • Focus on your PPM decision makers that will consume the reports and insights by investigating their specific reporting needs.

      Impact and Result

      • Think outside the commercial box. Develop an affordable, adoptable, and effective PPM solution using widely available tools based on Info-Tech’s ready-to-deploy templates.
      • Make your solution sustainable. When it comes to portfolio management, high level is better. A tool that is accurate and maintainable will provide more value than one that strives for precise data yet is ultimately unmaintainable.
      • Report success. A PPM tool needs to foster portfolio visibility in order to engage and inform the executive layer and support effective decision making.

      Grow Your Own PPM Solution Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

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

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

      1. Right-size your PPM solution

      Scope an affordable, adoptable, and effective PPM solution with Info-Tech's Portfolio Manager 2017 workbook.

      • Grow Your Own PPM Solution – Phase 1: Right-Size Your PPM Solution
      • Portfolio Manager 2017 Cost-in-Use Estimation Tool
      • None

      2. Get to know Portfolio Manager 2017

      Learn how to use Info-Tech's Portfolio Manager 2017 workbook and create powerful reports.

      • Grow Your Own PPM Solution – Phase 2: Meet Portfolio Manager 2017
      • Portfolio Manager 2017
      • Portfolio Manager 2017 (with Actuals)
      • None
      • None
      • None

      3. Implement your homegrown PPM solution

      Plan and implement an affordable, adoptable, and effective PPM solution with Info-Tech's Portfolio Manager 2017 workbook.

      • Grow Your Own PPM Solution – Phase 3: Implement Your PPM Solution
      • Portfolio Manager 2017 Operating Manual
      • Stakeholder Engagement Workbook
      • Portfolio Manager Debut Presentation for Portfolio Owners
      • Portfolio Manager Debut Presentation for Data Suppliers

      4. Outgrow your own PPM solution

      Develop an exit strategy from your home-grown solution to a commercial PPM toolset. In this video, we show a rapid transition from the Excel dataset shown on this page to a commercial solution from Meisterplan. Christoph Hirnle of Meisterplan is interviewed starting at 9 minutes.

      • None
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Grow Your Own PPM Solution

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

      1 Scope a Homegrown PPM Solution for Your Organization

      The Purpose

      Assess the current state of project portfolio management capability at your organization. The activities in this module will inform the next modules by exploring your organization’s current strengths and weaknesses and identifying areas that require improvement.

      Set up the workbook to generate a fully functional project portfolio workbook that will give you a high-level view into your portfolio.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A high-level review of your current project portfolio capability is used to decide whether a homegrown PPM solution is an appropriate choice

      Cost-benefit analysis is done to build a business case for supporting this choice

      Activities

      1.1 Review existing PPM strategy and processes.

      1.2 Perform a cost-benefit analysis.

      Outputs

      Confirmation of homegrown PPM solution as the right choice

      Expected benefits for the PPM solution

      2 Get to Know Portfolio Manager 2017

      The Purpose

      Define a list of requirements for your PPM solution that meets the needs of all stakeholders.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A fully customized PPM solution in your chosen platform

      Activities

      2.1 Introduction to Info-Tech's Portfolio Manager 2017: inputs, outputs, and the data model.

      2.2 Gather requirements for enhancements and customizations.

      Outputs

      Trained project/resource managers on the homegrown solution

      A wish list of enhancements and customizations

      3 Implement Your Homegrown PPM Solution

      The Purpose

      Determine an action plan regarding next steps for implementation.

      Implement your homegrown PPM solution. The activities outlined in this step will help to promote adoption of the tool throughout your organization.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A set of processes to integrate the new homegrown PPM solution into existing PPM activities

      Plans for piloting the new processes, process improvement, and stakeholder communication

      Activities

      3.1 Plan to integrate your new solution into your PPM processes.

      3.2 Plan to pilot the new processes.

      3.3 Manage stakeholder communications.

      Outputs

      Portfolio Manager 2017 operating manual, which documents how Portfolio Manager 2017 is used to augment the PPM processes

      Plan for a pilot run and post-pilot evaluation for a wider rollout

      Communication plan for impacted PPM stakeholders

      Optimize Social Media Strategy by Service

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      • Parent Category Name: Marketing Solutions
      • Parent Category Link: /marketing-solutions
      • Many organizations are jumping the gun on service selection and missing valuable opportunities to tap into conversations their consumers are having about them.
      • Companies are struggling to harness real benefits from social media because they dive into content and engagement strategy without spending the appropriate amount of time on social media service selection.
      • After organizations have selected the appropriate social media services, clients fail to understand best practices for participating in conversations and therefore are unable to optimize their success on each service.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Conventional wisdom dictates that you should pick the social network where you have the greatest subscriber base to reach, but this is irrelevant. Organizations need to consider all the social media services available when selecting services, to ensure they are optimizing their social media strategy and interacting with the right people.
      • In today’s social media landscape there is a wide variety of social media services to choose from. Services range from hot micro-blogging services, like Twitter, to more niche social multimedia services, like Flickr or Vimeo.
      • Each department should manage its set of relevant services regardless of platform. For example a marketing manager should manage all social media services in marketing, rather than have one person manage all Twitter feeds, one person manage all Facebook pages, etc.
      • The services your organization selects shouldn’t operate as islands. Consider not only how the services will fit with each other, but also how they will fit with existing channels. Use a market coverage model to ensure the services you select are complementing each other.
      • The landscape for social media services changes rapidly. It is essential to conduct an audit of services to maintain an optimal mix of services. Conduct the audit semi-annually for best effect.

      Impact and Result

      • Learn about the importance of choosing the correct services to ensure you are reaching your consumers and not wasting time playing with the wrong people.
      • Understand the business use cases for each service and best practices for using them.
      • Leverage different social media services to create a market coverage model that balances social media services with your products/services and business objectives.
      • Identify the risks associated with specific platforms and ensure IT works to mitigate them.
      • Create a plan for conducting a Social Media Service Audit to stay on top of changing trends.

      Optimize Social Media Strategy by Service Research & Tools

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

      1. Create the right social media service mix

      Understand the different social media services, their unique value propositions for customer interaction, and the content and timing best practices for each.

      • Storyboard: Optimize Social Media Strategy by Service
      • Social Media Service Selection Tool

      2. Execute a plan for social service selection and management

      Leverage different social media services to create a market coverage model and assign responsibilities.

      3. Perform a semi-annual social media service audit

      Conduct an audit to stay on top of changing trends.

      • Social Media Services Audit Template
      [infographic]

      Bring Visibility to Your Day-to-Day Projects

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      • Parent Category Name: Portfolio Management
      • Parent Category Link: /portfolio-management
      • As an IT leader, you are responsible for getting new things done while keeping the old things running. These “new things” can come in many forms, e.g. service requests, incidents, and officially sanctioned PMO projects, as well as a category of “unofficial” projects that have been initiated through other channels.
      • These unofficial projects get called many things by different organizations (e.g. level 0 projects,BAU projects, non-PMO projects, day-to-day projects), but they all have the similar characteristics: they are smaller and less complex than larger projects or officially sanctioned projects; they are larger and more risky than operational tasks or incidents; and they are focused on the needs of a specific functional unit and tend to stay within those units to get done.
      • Because these day-to-day projects are small, emergent, team-specific, operationally vital, yet generally perceived as being strategically unimportant, top-level leadership has a limited understanding of them when they are approving and prioritizing major projects. As a result, they approve projects with no insight into how your team’s capacity is already stretched thin by existing demands.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Senior leadership cannot contrast the priority of things that are undocumented. As an IT leader, you need to ensure day-to-day projects receive the appropriate amount of documentation without drowning your team in a process that the types of project don’t warrant.
      • Don’t bleed your project capacity dry by leaving the back door open. When executive oversight took over the strategic portfolio, we assumed they’d resource those projects as a priority. Instead, they focused on “alignment,” “strategic vision,” and “go to market” while failing to secure and defend the resource capacity needed. To focus on the big stuff, you need to sweat the small stuff.

      Impact and Result

      • Develop a method to consistently identify and triage day-to-day projects across functional teams in a standard and repeatable way.
      • Establish a way to balance and prioritize the operational necessity of day-to-day projects against the strategic value of major projects.
      • Build a repeatable process to document and report where the time goes across all given pockets of demand your team faces.

      Bring Visibility to Your Day-to-Day Projects Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should put more portfolio management structure around your day-to-day projects, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

      1. Uncover your organization’s hidden pockets of day-to-day projects

      Define an organizational standard for identifying day-to-day projects and triaging them in relation to other categories of projects.

      • Bring Visibility to Your Day-to-Day Projects – Phase 1: Uncover Your Organization’s Hidden Pockets of Day-to-Day Projects
      • Day-to-Day Project Definition Tool
      • Day-to-Day Project Supply/Demand Calculator

      2. Establish ongoing day-to-day project visibility

      Build a process for maintaining reliable day-to-day project supply and demand data.

      • Bring Visibility to Your Day-to-Day Projects – Phase 2: Establish Ongoing Day-to-Day Project Visibility
      • Day-to-Day Project Process Document
      • Day-to-Day Project Intake and Prioritization Tool
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Bring Visibility to Your Day-to-Day Projects

      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 Analyze the Current State of Day-to-Day Projects

      The Purpose

      Assess the current state of project portfolio management and establish a realistic target state for the management of day-to-day projects.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Realistic and well-informed workshop goals.

      Activities

      1.1 Begin with introductions and workshop expectations activity.

      1.2 Perform PPM SWOT analysis.

      1.3 Assess pain points and analyze root causes.

      Outputs

      Realistic workshop goals and expectations

      PPM SWOT analysis

      Root cause analysis

      2 Establish Portfolio Baselines for Day-to-Day Projects

      The Purpose

      Establish a standard set of baselines for day-to-day projects that will help them to be identified and managed in the same way across different functional teams.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Standardization of project definitions and project value assessments across different functional teams.

      Activities

      2.1 Formalize the definition of a day-to-day project and establish project levels.

      2.2 Develop a project value scorecard for day-to-day projects.

      2.3 Analyze the capacity footprint of day-to-day projects.

      Outputs

      Project identification matrix

      Project value scorecard

      A capacity overview to inform baselines

      3 Build a Target State Process for Day-to-Day Projects

      The Purpose

      Establish a target state process for tracking and monitoring day-to-day projects at the portfolio level.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Standardization of how day-to-day projects are managed and reported on across different functional teams.

      Activities

      3.1 Map current state workflows for the intake and resource management practices (small and large projects).

      3.2 Perform a right-wrong-missing-confusing analysis.

      3.3 Draft a target state process for the initiation of day-to-day projects and for capacity planning.

      Outputs

      Current state workflows

      Right-wrong-missing-confusing analysis

      Target state workflows

      4 Prepare to Implement Your New Processes

      The Purpose

      Start to plan the implementation of your new processes for the portfolio management of day-to-day projects.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      An implementation plan, complete with communication plans, timelines, and goals.

      Activities

      4.1 Perform a change impact and stakeholder management analysis.

      4.2 Perform a start-stop-continue activity.

      4.3 Define an implementation roadmap.

      Outputs

      Change impact and stakeholder analyses

      Start-stop-continue retrospective

      Implementation roadmap

      State of Hybrid Work in IT

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      • Parent Category Name: Attract & Select
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      Hybrid work is here, but there is no consensus among industry leaders on how to do it right. IT faces the dual challenge of supporting its own employees while enabling the success of the broader organization. In the absence of a single best practice to adopt, how can IT departments make the right decisions when it comes to the new world of hybrid?

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Don’t make the mistake of emulating the tech giants, unless they are your direct competition. Instead, look to organizations that have walked your path in terms of scope, organizational goals, industry, and organizational structure. Remember, your competitors are not just those who compete for the same customers but also those who compete for your employees.
      • Hybrid and remote teams require more attention, connection, and leadership from managers. The shift from doing the day-to-day to effectively leading is critical for the success of nontraditional work models. As hybrid and remote work become engrained in society, organizations must ensure that the concept of the “working manager” is as obsolete as the rotary telephone.

      Impact and Result

      Read this concise report to learn:

      • What other IT organizations are doing in the new hybrid world.
      • How hybrid has impacted infrastructure, operations, and business relations.
      • How to succeed at building a highly effective hybrid team.
      • How Info-Tech can help you make hybrid an asset for your IT department.

      State of Hybrid Work in IT Research & Tools

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

      1. State of Hybrid Work in IT: A Trend Report – A walkthrough of the latest data on the impact of the hybrid work revolution in IT.

      Read this report to learn how IT departments are using the latest trends in hybrid work for greater IT effectiveness. Understand what work models are best for IT, how IT can support a remote organization, and how hybrid work changes team dynamics.

      • State of Hybrid Work in IT: A Trends Report

      Infographic

      Further reading

      State of Hybrid Work in IT: A Trend Report

      When tech giants can’t agree and best practices change by the minute, forge your own path to your next normal.

      Hybrid is here. Now how do we do this?

      The pandemic has catapulted hybrid work to the forefront of strategic decisions an organization needs to make. According to our State of Hybrid Work in IT survey conducted in July of 2022, nearly all organizations across all industries are continuing some form of hybrid or remote work long-term (n=518). Flexible work location options are the single greatest concern for employees seeking a new job. IT departments are tasked with not only solving hybrid work questions for their own personnel but also supporting a hybrid-first organization, which means significant changes to technology and operations.

      Faced with decisions that alter the very foundation of how an organization functions, IT leaders are looking for best practices and coming up empty. The world of work has changed quickly and unexpectedly. If you feel you are “winging it” in the new normal, you are not alone.

      95% of organizations are continuing some form of hybrid or remote work.

      n=518

      47% of respondents look at hybrid work options when evaluating a new employer, vs. 46% who look at salary.

      n=518

      Hybrid work model decision tree

      Your organization, your employees, your goals – your hybrid work

      The days of a “typical” workplace have passed. When it comes to the new world of hybrid work, there is no best-of-breed example to follow.

      Among the flood of contradictory decisions made by industry leaders, your IT organization must forge its own path, informed by the needs of your employees and your organizational goals.

      All IT work models can support the broader organization. However, IT is more effective in a hybrid work mode.

      Stay informed on where your industry is headed, but learn from, rather than follow, industry leaders.

      All industries reported primarily using partial, balanced & full hybrid work models.

      All industries reported some fully remote work, ranging from 2-10% of organizations surveyed.

      Construction and healthcare & life sciences did not require any fully in-office work. Other industries, between 1-12% required fully in-office work.

      The image contains a screenshot of the Enablement of Organizational Goals.

      Move beyond following tech giants

      The uncomfortable truth about hybrid work is that there are many viable models, and the “best of breed” depends on who you ask. In the post-pandemic workspace, for every work location model there is an industry leader that has made it functional. And yet this doesn’t mean that every model will be viable for your organization.

      In the absence of a single best practice, rely on an individualized cost-benefit assessment rooted in objective feasibility criteria. Every work model – whether it continues your status quo or overhauls the working environment – introduces risk. Only in the context of your particular organization does that risk become quantifiable.

      Don’t make the mistake of emulating the tech giants, unless they are your direct competition. Instead, look to organizations that have walked your path in terms of scope, organizational goals, industry, and organizational structure.

      External

      Internal

      Political

      Economic

      Social

      Technological

      Legal

      Environmental

      Operations

      Culture

      Resources

      Risk

      Benefit

      Employee Preferences

      Comparative

      Your competitors

      Info-Tech Insight

      Remember, your competitors are not just those who compete for the same customers but also those who compete for your employees.

      IT must balance commitments to both the organization and its employees

      IT has two roles: to effectively support the broader organization and to function effectively within the department. It therefore has two main stakeholder relationships: the organization it supports and the employees it houses. Hybrid work impacts both. Don't make the mistake of overweighting one relationship at the expense of the other. IT will only function effectively when it addresses both.

      Track your progress with the right metrics

      IT and the organization

      • Business satisfaction with IT
      • Perception of IT value

      Diagnostic tool: Business Vision

      IT and its employees

      • Employee engagement

      Diagnostic tool:
      Employee Engagement Surveys

      This report contains:

      1. IT and the Organization
        1. IT Effectiveness
          in a Hybrid World
        2. The Impact of Hybrid on Infrastructure & Operations
      2. IT and Its Employees
        1. What Hybrid Means for the IT Workforce
        2. Leadership for Hybrid IT Teams

      This report is based on organizations like yours

      The image contains graphs that demonstrate demographics of organizations.

      This report is based on organizations like yours

      The image contains two graphs that demonstrate a breakdown of departments in an organization.

      This report is based on organizations like yours

      The image contains two graphs that demonstrate the workforce type and operating budget.


      This report is based on organizations like yours

      The image contains two graphs that demonstrate organization maturity and effectiveness score.

      At a high level, hybrid work in IT is everywhere

      INDUSTRY

      • Arts & Entertainment (including sports)
      • Retail & Wholesale
      • Utilities
      • Transportation & Warehousing
      • Not-for-Profit (incl. professional associations)
      • Education
      • Professional Services
      • Manufacturing
      • Media, Information, Telecom & Technology
      • Construction
      • Gaming & Hospitality
      • Government
      • Healthcare & Life Sciences
      • Financial Services (incl. banking & insurance)

      ORGANIZATIONAL SIZE

      Small

      <100

      Medium

      101-5,000

      Large

      >5,000

      Employees

      POSITION LEVEL

      • Executive
      • Director
      • Supervisor/Manager
      • Student/Contractor/Team Member

      100% of industries, organizational sizes, and position levels reported some form of hybrid or remote work.

      Work model breakdown at the respondent level

      5% 21% 30% 39% 5%

      No Remote
      Work

      Partial Hybrid

      Balanced Hybrid

      Full Hybrid

      Full Remote

      Work

      n=516

      Industry lens: Work location model

      The image contains a screenshot of a graph that demonstrates the work location model with the work model breakdown at the respondent level.

      Percentage of IT roles currently in a hybrid or remote work arrangement

      The image contains a screenshot of two graphs that demonstrate the percentage of IT roles currently in a hybrid or remote work arrangement.

      Work location model by organization size

      The image contains a screenshot of a graph that demonstrates work location model by organization size.

      Hybrid work options

      The image contains a screenshot of two pie graphs that demonstrate hybrid work options.

      Expense reimbursement

      28% 27% 22% 26% 13% 4%

      None

      Internet/home phone

      Just internet

      Home office setup

      Home utilities

      Other

      NOTES

      n=518

      Home office setup: One-time lump-sum payment

      Home utilities: Gas, electricity, lights, etc.

      Other: Office supplies, portion of home rent/mortgage payments, etc.

      01 TECHNOLOGY

      IT and the Organization

      Section 1

      The promise of hybrid work for IT department effectiveness and the costs of making it happen

      In this section:

      1. IT Effectiveness in a Hybrid World
      2. The Impact of Hybrid on Infrastructure & Operations

      Hybrid work models in IT bolster effectiveness

      IT’s effectiveness, meaning its ability to enable organizational goal attainment, is its ultimate success metric. In the post-pandemic world, this indicator is intimately tied to IT’s work location model, as well as IT’s ability to support the work location model used by the broader organization.

      In 2022, 90% of organizations have embraced some form of hybrid work (n=516). And only a small contingent of IT departments have more than 90% of roles still working completely in office, with no remote work offered (n=515).

      This outcome was not unexpected, given the unprecedented success of remote work during the pandemic. However, the implications of this work model were far less certain. Would productivity remain once the threat of layoffs had passed? Would hybrid work be viable in the long term, once the novelty wore off? Would teams be able to function collaboratively without meeting face to face? Would hybrid allow a great culture
      to continue?

      All signs point to yes. For most IT departments, the benefits of hybrid work outweigh its costs. IT is significantly more effective when some degree of remote or hybrid work is present.

      The image contains a screenshot of a graph on how hybrid work models in IT bolster effectiveness.

      n=518

      Remote Work Effectiveness Paradox

      When IT itself works fully onsite, lower effectiveness is reported (6.2). When IT is tasked with supporting fully, 100% remote organizations (as opposed to being fully remote only within IT), lower effectiveness is reported then as well (5.9). A fully remote organization means 100% virtual communication, so the expectations placed on IT increase, as do the stakes of any errors. Of note, hybrid work models yield consistent effectiveness scores when implemented at both the IT and organizational levels.

      IT has risen to the challenge of hybrid

      Despite the challenges initially posed by hybrid and remote organizations, IT has thrived through the pandemic and into this newly common workplace.

      Most organizations have experienced an unchanged or increased level of service requests and incidents. However, for the majority of organizations, service desk support has maintained (58%) or improved (35%). Only 7% of IT organizations report decreased service desk support.

      Is your service desk able to offer the same level of support compared to the pre-pandemic/pre-hybrid work model?

      The image contains a screenshot of a graph that demonstrates service desk levels.

      How has the volume of your service requests/incidents changed?

      The image contains a screenshot of a graph that demonstrates volume of service requests/incidents changed.

      Has hybrid work impacted your customer satisfaction scores?

      The image contains a graph that demonstrates if hybrid work impacted customer satisfaction scores.

      Industry lens: Volume of service requests

      It is interesting to note that service request volumes have evolved similarly across industries, mirroring the remarkable consistency with which hybrid work has been adopted across disparate fields, from construction to government.

      Of note are two industries where the volume of service requests mostly increased: government and media, information, telecom & technology.

      With the global expansion of digital products and services through the pandemic, it’s no surprise to see volumes increase for media, information, telecom & technology. With government, the shift from on premises to rapid and large-scale hybrid or remote work for administrative and knowledge worker roles likely meant additional support from IT to equip employees and end users with the necessary tools to carry out work offsite.

      How has the volume of your service requests/incidents changed?

      The image contains a screenshot of a graph that demonstrates the volume of service requests/incidents changed.

      The transition to hybrid was worth the effort

      Hybrid and remote work have been associated with greater productivity and organizational benefits since before the pandemic. During emergency remote work, doubts arose about whether productivity would be maintained under such extreme circumstances and were quickly dispelled. The promise of remote productivity held up.

      Now, cautiously entering a “new normal,” the question has emerged again. Will long-term hybrid work bring the same benefits?

      The expectations have held up, with hybrid work benefits ranging from reduced facilities costs to greater employee performance.

      Organizational hybrid work may place additional strain on IT,
      but it is clear IT can handle the challenge. And when it does,
      the organizational benefits are tremendous.

      88% of respondents reported increased or consistent Infrastructure & Operations customer satisfaction scores.

      What benefits has the organization achieved as a result of moving to a hybrid work model?

      The image contains a bar graph that demonstrates the benefits of a hybrid work model.

      n=487

      Hybrid has sped up modernization of IT processes and infrastructure

      Of the organizations surveyed, the vast majority reported significant changes to both the process and the technology side of IT operations. Four key processes affected by the move to hybrid were:

      • Incident management
      • Service request support
      • Asset management
      • Change management

      Within Infrastructure & Operations, the area with the greatest degree
      of change was network architecture (reported by 44% of respondents), followed closely by service desk (41%) and recovery workspaces and mitigations (40%).

      63% of respondents reported changes to conference room technology to support hybrid meetings.

      n=496

      IT Infrastructure & Operations changes, upgrades, and modernization

      The image contains a screenshot of a bar graph that demonstrates IT Infrastructure & Operations Changes, Upgrades, and Modernizations.

      What process(es) had the highest degree of change in response to supporting hybrid work?

      The image contains a screenshot of a bar graph that demonstrates the highest degree of change in response to supporting hybrid work.

      Hybrid has permanently changed deployment strategy

      Forty-five percent of respondents reported significant changes to deployment as a result of hybrid work, with an additional 42% reporting minor changes. Only 13% of respondents stated that their deployment processes remained unchanged following the shift to hybrid work.

      With the ever-increasing globalization of business, deployment modernization practices such as the shift to zero touch are no longer optional or a bonus. They are a critical part of business operation that bring efficiency benefits beyond just supporting hybrid work.

      The deployment changes brought on by hybrid span across industries. Even in manufacturing, with the greatest proportion of respondents reporting “no change” to deployment practices (33%), most organizations experienced some degree of change.

      Has a hybrid work model led you to make any changes to your deployment, such as zero touch, to get equipment to end users?

      The image contains a graph to demonstrate if change was possible with hybrid models.

      Industry lens: Deployment changes

      Has a hybrid work model led you to make any changes to your deployment, such as zero touch, to get equipment to end users?

      The image contains a screenshot of a graph that demonstrates deployment changes at an industry lens.

      Hybrid work has accelerated organizational digitization

      Over half of respondents reported significantly decreased reliance on printed copies as a result of hybrid. While these changes were on the horizon for many organizations even before the pandemic, the necessity of keeping business operations running during lockdowns meant that critical resources could be invested in these processes. As a result, digitization has leapt forward.

      This represents an opportunity for businesses to re-evaluate their relationships with printing vendors. Resources spent on printing can be reduced or reallocated, representing additional savings as a result of moving to hybrid. Additionally, many respondents report a willingness – and ability – from vendors to partner with organizations in driving innovation and enabling digitization.

      With respect to changes pertaining to hard copies/printers as a result of your hybrid work model:

      The image contains a screenshot of a bar graph that demonstrates how hybrid work has accelerated organizational digitization.

      Hybrid work necessitates network and communications modernization

      The majority (63%) of respondents reported making significant changes to conference room technology as a result of hybrid work. A significant proportion (30%) report that such changes were not needed, but this includes organizations who had already set up remote communication.

      An important group is the remaining 8% of respondents, who cite budgetary restrictions as a key barrier in making the necessary technology upgrades. Ensure the business case for communication technology appropriately reflects the impact of these upgrades, and reduce the impact of legacy technology where possible:

      • Recognize not just meeting efficiency but also the impact on culture, engagement, morale, and external and internal clients.
      • Connect conference room tech modernization to the overall business goals and work it into the IT strategy.
      • Leverage the scheduling flexibility available in hybrid work arrangements to reduce reliance on inadequate conference technology by scheduling in-person meetings where possible and necessary.

      Have you made changes/upgrades
      to the conference room technology to support hybrid meetings?
      (E.g. Some participants joining remotely, some participants present in a conference room)

      The image contains a screenshot of a graph that demonstrates if network and communications modernization was needed.

      How we can help

      Metrics

      Resources

      Create a Work-From-Anywhere IT Strategy

      Stabilize Infrastructure & Operations During Work-From-Anywhere

      Sustain Work-From-Home in the New Normal

      Establish a Communication & Collaboration Systems Strategy

      Modernize the Network

      Simplify Remote Deployment With Zero-Touch Provisioning

      For a comprehensive list of resources, visit
      Info-Tech’s Hybrid Workplace Research Center

      02 PEOPLE

      IT and Its Employees

      Section 2

      Cultivate the dream team in a newly hybrid world

      In this section:

      1. What Hybrid Means for the IT Workforce
      2. Leadership for IT Hybrid Teams

      Hybrid means permanent change to how IT hires

      Since before the pandemic, the intangibles of having a job that works with your lifestyle have been steadily growing in importance. Considerations like flexible work options, work-life balance, and culture are more important to employees now than they were two years ago, and employers must adapt.

      Salary alone is no longer enough to recruit the best talent, nor is it the key to keeping employees engaged and productive. Hybrid work options are the single biggest concern for IT professionals seeking new employment, just edging out salary. This means employers must not offer just some work flexibility but truly embrace a hybrid environment.

      The image contains a screenshot of several graphs that compare results from 2019 to 2021 on what is important to employees.

      What are you considering when looking at a potential employer?

      The image contains a screenshot of a bar graph that demonstrates what needs to be considered when looking at a potential employer.

      A recession may not significantly impact hybrid work decisions overall

      Declining economic conditions suggest that a talent market shift may be imminent. Moving toward a recession may mean less competition for top talent, but this doesn't mean hybrid will be left behind as a recruitment tactic.

      Just over half of IT organizations surveyed are considering expanding hybrid work or moving to fully remote work even in a recession. Hybrid work is a critical enabler of organizational success when resources are scarce, due to the productivity benefits and cost savings it has demonstrated. Organizations that recognize this and adequately invest in hybrid tools now will have equipped themselves with an invaluable tool for weathering a recession storm, should one come.

      What impact could a potential recession in the coming year have on your decisions around your work location?

      The image contains a screenshot of a graph that demonstrates the potential impact of a recession.

      Hybrid work may help small organizations in a declining economy

      The potential for a recession has a greater impact on the workforce decisions of small organizations. They likely face greater financial pressures than medium and large-sized organizations, pressures that could necessitate halting recruitment efforts or holding firm on current salaries and health benefits.

      A reliance on intangible benefits, like the continuation of hybrid work, may help offset some of negative effects of such freezes, including the risk of lower employee engagement and productivity. Survey respondents indicated that hybrid work options (47%) were slightly more important to them than salary/compensation (46%) and significantly more important than benefits (29%), which could work in favor of small organizations in keeping the critical employees needed to survive an economic downturn.

      Small

      Medium Large
      90% 82% 66%

      Currently considering some form of hiring/salary freeze or cutbacks, if a recession occurs

      NOTES

      n=520

      Small: <101 employees

      Medium: 101-5000 employees

      Large: >5,000 employees

      Hybrid mitigates the main challenge of remote work

      One advantage of hybrid over remote work is the ability to maintain an in-office presence, which provides a failsafe should technology or other barriers stand in the way of effective distance communication. To take full advantage of this, teams should coordinate tasks with location, so that employees get the most out of the unique benefits of working in office and remotely.

      Activities to prioritize for in-office work:

      • Collaboration and brainstorming
      • Team-building activities
      • Introductions and onboarding

      Activities to prioritize for remote work:

      • Individual focus time

      As a leader, what are your greatest concerns with hybrid work?

      The image contains a bar graph that demonstrates concerns about hybrid work as an employer.

      Hybrid necessitates additional effort by managers

      When it comes to leading a hybrid team, there is no ignoring the impact of distance on communication and team cohesion. Among leaders’ top concerns are employee wellbeing and the ability to pick up on signs of demotivation among team members.

      The top two tactics used by managers to mitigate these concerns center on increasing communication:

      • Staying available through instant messaging.
      • Increasing team meetings.

      Tactics most used by highly effective IT departments

      The image contains a screenshot of tactics most used by highly effective IT departments.

      Team success is linked to the number of tools at the manager’s disposal

      The most effective hybrid team management tools focus on overcoming the greatest obstacle introduced by remote work: barriers to communication and connection.

      The most effective IT organizations use a variety of tactics. For managers looking to improve hybrid team effectiveness, the critical factor is less the tactic used and more the ability to adapt their approach to their team’s needs and incorporate team feedback. As such, IT effectiveness is linked to the total number of tactics used by managers.

      IT department effectiveness

      The image contains a screenshot of a graph that demonstrates IT department effectiveness.

      Autonomy is key to hybrid team success

      Not all hybrid work models are created equal. IT leaders working with hybrid teams have many decisions to make, from how many days will be spent in and out of office to how much control employees get over which days they work remotely.

      Employee and manager preferences are largely aligned regarding the number of days spent working remotely or onsite: Two to three days in office is the most selected option for both groups, although overall manager preferences lean slightly toward more time spent in office.

      Comparison of leader and employee preference for days in-office

      The image contains a screenshot of a graph that compares leader and employee preference for days in-office.

      Do employees have a choice in the days they work in office/offsite?

      The image contains a screenshot of a graph that demonstrates if employees have a choice in the days they work in office or offsite.

      For most organizations, employees get a choice of which days they spend working remotely. This autonomy can range from complete freedom to a choice between several pre-approved days depending on team scheduling needs.

      Work is still needed to increase autonomy in hybrid teams

      Organizations’ success in establishing hybrid team autonomy varies greatly post pandemic. Responses are roughly equally split between staff feeling more, less, or the same level of autonomy as before the pandemic. Evaluated in the context of most organizations continuing a hybrid approach, this leads to the conclusion that not all hybrid implementations are being conducted equally effectively when it comes to employee empowerment.

      As an employee, how much control do you have over the decisions related to where, when, and how you work currently?

      The image contains a screenshot of a graph that demonstrates autonomy in hybrid teams.

      Connectedness in hybrid teams lags behind

      A strong case can be made for fostering autonomy and empowerment on hybrid teams. Employees who report lower levels of control than before the pandemic also report lower engagement indicators, such as trust in senior leadership, motivation, and intention to stay with the organization. On the other hand, employees experiencing increased levels of control report gains in these areas.

      The only exception to these gains is the sense of team connectedness, which employees experiencing more control report as lower than before the pandemic. A greater sense of connectedness among employees reporting decreased control may be related to more mandatory in-office time or a sense of connection over shared team-level disengagement.

      These findings reinforce the need for hybrid teams to invest in team building and communication practices and confirm that significant benefits are to be had when a sense of autonomy can be successfully instilled.

      Employees who experience less control than before the pandemic report lowered engagement indicators ... except sense of connectedness

      The image contains a screenshot of a graph that demonstrates less control, means lowered engagement.

      Employees who experience more control than before the pandemic report increased engagement indicators ... except sense of connectedness

      The image contains a screenshot of a graph that demonstrates more control, means increased engagement.

      Case study: Hybrid work at Microsoft Canada

      The Power of Intentionality

      When the pandemic hit, technology was not in question. Flexible work options had been available and widely used, and the technology to support them was in place.

      The leadership team turned their focus to ensuring their culture survived and thrived. They developed a laser-focused approach for engaging their employees by giving their leaders tools to hold conversations. The dialogue was ongoing to allow the organization to adapt to the fast pace of changing conditions.

      Every tactic, plan, and communication started with the question, “What outcome are we striving for?”

      With a clear outcome, tools were created and leaders supported to drive the desired outcome.

      “We knew we had the technology in place. Our concern was around maintaining our strong culture and ensuring continued engagement and connection with our employees.”

      Lisa Gibson, Chief of Staff, Microsoft Canada

      How we can help

      Metrics

      Resources

      Webinar: Effectively Manage Remote Teams

      Build a Better Manager: Manage Your People

      Info-Tech Leadership Training

      Adapt Your Onboarding Process to a Virtual Environment

      Virtual Meeting Primer

      For a comprehensive list of resources, visit
      Info-Tech’s Hybrid Workplace Research Center

      Recommendations

      The last two years have been a great experiment, but it’s not over.

      BE INTENTIONAL

      • Build a team charter on how and when to communicate.
      • Create necessary tools/templates.

      INVOLVE EMPLOYEES

      • Conduct surveys and focus groups.
        Have conversations to understand sentiment.

      ALLOW CHOICE

      • Provide freedom for employees to have some level of choice in hybrid arrangements.

      BE TRANSPARENT

      • Disclose the rationale.
      • Share criteria and decision making.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Hybrid and remote teams require more attention, connection, and leadership from managers. The shift from doing the day-to-day to effectively leading is critical for the success of nontraditional work models. As hybrid and remote work become engrained in society, organizations must ensure that the concept of the “working manager” is as obsolete as the rotary telephone.

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      Mitigate the Risk of Cloud Downtime and Data Loss

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}412|cart{/j2store}
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      • Parent Category Name: DR and Business Continuity
      • Parent Category Link: /business-continuity
      • Senior leadership is asking difficult questions about the organization’s dependency on third-party cloud services and the risk that poses.
      • IT leaders have limited control over third-party incidents and that includes cloud services. Yet they are on the hot seat when cloud services go down.
      • While vendors have swooped in to provide resilience options for the more-common SaaS solutions, it is not the case for all cloud services.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • No control over the software does not mean no recovery options. Solutions range from designing an IT workaround using alternate technologies to pre-defined third-party service continuity options (e.g. see options for O365) to business workarounds.
      • Even where there is limited control, you can at least define an incident response plan to streamline notification, assessment, and implementation of workarounds. Leadership wants more options than simply waiting for the service to come back online.
      • At a minimum, IT’s responsibility is to identify and communicate risk to senior leadership. That starts with a vendor review to identify SLA issues and overall resilience gaps.

      Impact and Result

      • Follow a structured process to assess cloud resilience risk.
      • Identify opportunities to mitigate risk – at the very least, ensure critical data is protected.
      • Summarize cloud services risk, mitigation options, and incident response for senior leadership.

      Mitigate the Risk of Cloud Downtime and Data Loss Research & Tools

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

      1. Mitigate the Risk of Cloud Downtime and Data Loss – Step-by-step guide to assess risk, identify risk mitigation options, and create an incident response plan.

      Even where there is limited control, you can define an incident response plan to streamline notification, assessment, and implementation of workarounds.

      • Mitigate the Risk of Cloud Downtime and Data Loss Storyboard

      2. Cloud Services Incident Risk and Mitigation Review – Review your key cloud vendors’ SLAs, incident preparedness, and data protection strategy.

      At a minimum, IT’s responsibility is to identify and communicate risk to senior leadership. That starts with a vendor review to identify SLA and overall resilience gaps.

      • Cloud Services Incident Risk and Mitigation Review Tool

      3. SaaS Incident Response Workflows – Use these examples to guide your efforts to create cloud incident response workflows.

      The examples illustrate different approaches to incident response depending on the criticality of the service and options available.

      • SaaS Incident Response Workflows (Visio)
      • SaaS Incident Response Workflows (PDF)

      4. Cloud Services Resilience Summary – Use this template to capture your results.

      Summarize cloud services risk, mitigation options, and incident response for senior leadership.

      • Cloud Services Resilience Summary
      [infographic]

      Further reading

      Mitigate the Risk of Cloud Downtime and Data Loss

      Resilience and disaster recovery in an increasingly Cloudy and SaaSy world.

      Analyst Perspective

      If you think cloud means you don’t need a response plan, then get your resume ready.

      Frank Trovato

      Most organizations are now recognizing that they can’t ignore the risk of a cloud outage or data loss, and the challenge is “what can I do about it?” since there is limited control.

      If you still think “it’s in the cloud, so I don’t need to worry about it,” then get your resume ready. When O365 goes down, your executives are calling IT, not Microsoft, for an answer of what’s being done and what can they do in the meantime to get the business up and running again.

      The key is to recognize what you can control and what actions you can take to evaluate and mitigate risk. At a minimum, you can ensure senior leadership is aware of the risk and define a plan for how you will respond to an incident, even if that is limited to monitoring and communicating status.

      Often you can do more, including defining IT workarounds, backing up your SaaS data for additional protection, and using business process workarounds to bridge the gap, as illustrated in the case studies in this blueprint.

      Frank Trovato
      Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Use this blueprint to expand your DRP and BCP to account for cloud services

      As more applications are migrated to cloud-based services, disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity plans (BCP) must include an understanding of cloud risks and actions to mitigate those risks. This includes evaluating vendor and service reliability and resilience, security measures, data protection capabilities, and technology and business workarounds if there is a cloud outage or incident.

      Use the risk assessments and cloud service incident response plans developed through this blueprint to supplement your DRP and BCP as well as further inform your crisis management plans (e.g. account for cloud risks in your crisis communication planning).

      Overall Business Continuity Plan

      IT Disaster Recovery Plan

      A plan to restore IT application and infrastructure services following a disruption.

      Info-Tech’s Disaster Recovery Planning blueprint provides a methodology for creating the IT DRP. Leverage this blueprint to validate and provide inputs for your IT DRP.

      BCP for Each Business Unit

      A set of plans to resume business processes for each business unit.

      Info-Tech’s Develop a Business Continuity Plan blueprint provides a methodology for creating business unit BCPs as part of an overall BCP for the organization.

      Crisis Management Plan

      A plan to manage a wide range of crises, from health and safety incidents to business disruptions to reputational damage.

      Info-Tech’s Implement Crisis Management Best Practices blueprint provides a framework for planning a response to any crisis, from health and safety incidents to reputational damage.

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge

      Common Obstacles

      Info-Tech’s Approach

      • Senior leadership is asking difficult questions about the organization’s dependency on third-party cloud services and the risk that poses.
      • Migrating to cloud services transfers much of the responsibility for day-to-day platform maintenance but not accountability for resilience.
      • IT leaders are often responsible for not just the organization’s IT DRP but also BCP and other elements of overall resilience. Cloud risk adds another element IT leaders need to consider.
      • IT leaders have limited control over third-party incidents and that includes cloud services. With SaaS services in particular, recovery or continuity options may be limited.
      • While vendors have swooped in to provide resilience options for the more common SaaS solutions, that is not the case for all cloud services.
      • Part of the solution is defining business process workarounds and that depends on cooperation from business leaders.
      • At a minimum, IT’s responsibility is to identify and communicate risk to senior leadership. That starts with a vendor review to identify SLA and overall resilience gaps.
      • Adapt how you approach downtime and data loss risk, particularly for SaaS solutions where there is limited or no control over the system.
      • Even where there is limited control, you can define an incident response plan to streamline notification, assessment, and implementation of workarounds. Leadership wants more options than simply waiting for the service to come back online.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Asking vendors about their DRP, BCP, and overall resilience has become commonplace. Expect your vendors to provide answers so you can assess risk. Furthermore, your vendor may have additional offerings to increase resilience or recommendations for third parties who can further assist your goals of improving cloud service resilience.

      Key deliverable

      Cloud Services Resilience Summary

      Provide leadership with a summary of cloud risk, downtime workarounds implemented, and additional data protection.

      The image contains a screenshot of the Cloud Services Resilience Summary.

      Additional tools and templates in this blueprint

      Cloud Services Incident Risk and Mitigation Review Tool

      Use this tool to gather vendor input, evaluate vendor SLAs and overall resilience, and track your own risk mitigation efforts.

      The image contains a screenshot of the Cloud Services Incident Risk and Mitigation Review Tool.

      SaaS Incident Response Workflows

      Use the examples in this document as a model to develop your own incident response workflows for cloud outages or data loss.

      The image contains a screenshot of the SaaS Incident Response Workflows.

      This blueprint will step you through the following actions to evaluate and mitigate cloud services risk

      1. Assess your cloud risk
      • Review your cloud services to determine potential impact of downtime/data loss, vendor SLA gaps, and vendor’s current resilience.
    • Identify options to mitigate risk
      • Explore your cloud vendor’s resilience offerings, third-party solutions, DIY recovery options, and business workarounds.
    • Create an incident response plan
      • Document your cloud risk mitigation strategy and incident response plan, which might include a failover strategy, data protection, and/or business continuity.

      Cloud Risk Mitigation

      Identify options to mitigate risk

      Create an incident response plan

      Assess risk

      Phase 1: Assess your cloud risk

      Phase 1

      Phase 2

      Phase 3

      Assess your cloud risk

      Identify options to mitigate risk

      Create an incident response plan

      Cloud does not guarantee uptime

      Public cloud services (e.g. Azure, GCP, AWS) and popular SaaS solutions experience downtime every year.

      A few cloud outage examples:

      • Microsoft Azure AD outage, March 15, 2022:
        Many users could not log into O365, Dynamics, or the Azure Portal.
        Cause: software change.
      • Three AWS outages in December 2021: December 7 (Netflix and others impacted), December 15 (Duo, Zoom, Slack, others), December 20 (Slack, Epic Games, others). Cause: network issues, power outage.
      • Salesforce outage, May 12, 2022: Users could not access the Lightning platform. Cause: expired certificate.

      Cloud availability

      • Migrating to cloud services can improve availability, as they typically offer more resilience than most organizations can afford to implement themselves.
      • However, having multiple data centers, zones, and regions doesn’t prevent all outages, as we see every year with even the largest cloud vendors.

      DR challenges for IaaS, PaaS, and cloud-native

      While there are limits to what you control, often traditional “failover” DR strategy can apply.

      High-level challenges and resilience options:

      • IaaS: No control over the hardware, but you can failover to another region. This is fairly similar to traditional DR.
      • PaaS: No control over the software platform (e.g. SQL server as a service), but you can back up your data and explore vendor options to replicate your environment.
      • Cloud-native applications: As with PaaS, you can back up your data and explore vendor options to replicate your environment.

      Plan for resilience

      • Include DR requirements when designing cloud service implementation. For example, for IaaS solutions, identify what data would need to be replicated and what services may need to be “always on” (e.g. database services where high-availability is demanded).
      • Similarly, for PaaS and cloud-native solutions, consult your vendor regarding options to build in resilience options (e.g. ability to failover to another environment).

      DR challenges for SaaS solutions

      SaaS is the biggest challenge because you have no control over any part of the base application stack.

      High-level challenges and resilience options:

      • No control over the hardware (or the facility, maintenance processes, and so on).
      • No control over the base application (control is limited to configuration settings and add-on customizations or integrations).
      • Options to back up your data will depend on the service.

      Note: The rest of this blueprint is focused primarily on SaaS resilience due to the challenges listed here. For other cloud services, leverage traditional DR strategies and vendor management to mitigate risk (as summarized on the previous slides).

      Focus on what you can control

      • For SaaS solutions in particular, you must toss out traditional DR. If Salesforce has an outage, you won’t be involved in recovering the system.
      • Instead, DR for SaaS needs to focus on improving resilience where you do have control and implementing business workarounds to bridge the gap.

      Evaluate your cloud services to clarify your specific risks

      Time and money is limited, so focus first on cloud services that are most critical and evaluate the vendors’ SLA and existing resilience capabilities.

      The activities on the next two slides will evaluate risk through two approaches:

      Activity 1: Estimate potential impact of downtime and data loss to quantify the risk and determine which cloud services are most critical and need to be prioritized. This is done through a business impact analysis that assesses:

      • Impact on revenue or costs (if applicable).
      • Impact on reputation (e.g. customer impact).
      • Impact on regulatory compliance and health and safety (if applicable).

      Activity 2: Review the vendor to identify risks and gaps. Specifically, evaluate the following:

      • Incident Management SLAs (e.g. does the SLA include RTO/RPO commitments? Do they meet your requirements?)
      • Incident Response Preparedness (e.g. does the vendor have a DRP, BCP, and security incident response plan?)
      • Data Protection (e.g. does their backup strategy and data security meet your standards?)

      Activity 1: Quantify potential impact and prioritize cloud services using a business impact analysis (BIA)

      1-3 hours

      1. Download the latest version of our DRP BIA: DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool. The tool includes instructions.
      2. Include the cloud services you want to assess in the list of applications/systems (see the tool excerpt below), and follow the BIA methodology outlined in the Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan blueprint.
      3. Use the results to quantify potential impact and prioritize your efforts on the most-critical cloud services.

      The image contains a screenshot of the DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool.

      Materials
      • DRP BIA Tool
      Participants
      • Core group of IT management and staff who can provide a well-rounded perspective on potential impact. They will create the first draft of the BIA.
      • Review the draft BIA with relevant business leaders to refine and validate the results.

      Activity 2: Review your key cloud vendors’ SLAs, incident preparedness, and data protection strategy

      1-3 hours

      Use the Cloud Services Incident Risk and Mitigation Review Tool as follows:

      1. Send the Vendor Questionnaire tab to your cloud vendors to gather input, and review your existing agreements.
      2. Copy the vendor responses into the tool (see the instructions in the tool) and evaluate. See the example excerpt below.
      3. Identify action items to clarify gaps or address risks. Some action items might not be defined yet and will need to wait until you have had a chance to further explore risk mitigation options.

      The image contains a screenshot of the Cloud Services Incident Risk and Mitigation Review Tool.

      Materials
      • Cloud Services Incident Risk and Mitigation Review Tool
      Participants
      • Core group of IT management and staff tasked with evaluating and improving cloud services’ resilience.

      Phase 2: Identify options to mitigate risk

      Phase 1

      Phase 2

      Phase 3

      Assess your cloud risk

      Identify options to mitigate risk

      Create an incident response plan

      Consult your vendor to identify options to improve resilience, as a starting point

      Your vendor might also be able to suggest third parties that offer additional support, backup, or service continuity options.

      • The Vendor Questionnaire tab in the Cloud Services Incident Risk and Mitigation Review Tool includes a section at the bottom where your vendor can name additional options to improve resilience (e.g. premium support packages, potentially their own DR services).
      • If your vendor has not completed that part of the questionnaire, meet with them to discuss this. Asking service vendors about resilience has become commonplace, so they should be prepared to answer questions about their own offerings and potentially can name trusted third-party vendors who can further assist you.
      • Leverage Info-Tech’s advisory services to evaluate options outlined by your vendor and potential third-party options (e.g. enterprise backup solutions that support backing up SaaS data).

      Some SaaS solutions have plenty of resilience options; others not so much

      • The pervasiveness of O365 has led vendors to close the service continuity gap, with options to send and receive email during an outage and back up your data.
      • With many SaaS solutions, there isn’t going to be a third-party service continuity option, but you might still be able to at least back up your data and implement business process workarounds to close the service gap.

      Example SaaS risk and mitigation: O365

      Risk

      • Several outages every year (e.g. MS Teams July 20, 2022).
      • SLA exceptions include “Scheduled Downtime,” which can occur with just five days’ notice.
      • The Recycling Bin is your data backup, depending on your setup.

      Options to mitigate risk (not an exhaustive list):

      • Third-party solutions for email service continuity.
      • Several backup vendors (e.g. Veeam, Rubrik) can protect most of your O365 suite.
      • Business continuity workarounds leveraging synced OneDrive, SharePoint, and Outlook (access to calendar invites).

      Example SaaS risk and mitigation: Salesforce

      Risk

      • Downtime has been infrequent, but Salesforce did have a major outage in May 2021 (DNS issue) and May 2022 (expired certificate).
      • At the time of this writing, the Main Services Agreement does not commit to a specific uptime value and specifies the usual exclusions.
      • Similarly, there are limited commitments regarding data protection.

      Options to mitigate risk (not an exhaustive list):

      • Salesforce provides a backup and restore service offering.
      • In addition, some third-party vendors support backing up Salesforce data for additional protection against data corruption or data loss.
      • Business continuity workarounds can further reduce the impact of downtime (e.g. record updates in MS Word and leverage Outlook for contact info until Salesforce is recovered).

      Establish a baseline standard for risk mitigation, regardless of cloud service

      At a minimum, set a goal to review vendor risk at least annually, define standard processes for monitoring outages, and review options to back up your SaaS data.

      Example baseline standard for cloud risk mitigation

      • Review vendor risk at least annually. This includes reviewing SLAs, vendor’s incident preparedness (e.g. do they have a current DRP, BCP, and Security IRP?), and the vendor’s data protection strategy.
      • Incident response plans must include, at a minimum, steps to monitor vendor outage and communicate status to relevant stakeholders. Where possible, business process workarounds are defined to bridge the service gap.
      • For critical data (based on your BIA and an evaluation of risk), maintain your own backups of SaaS data for additional protection.

      Embed risk mitigation standards into existing IT operations

      • Include specific SLA requirements, including incident management processes, in your RFP process and annual vendor review.
      • Define cloud incident response in your incident management procedures.
      • Include cloud data considerations in your backup strategy reviews.

      Phase 3: Create an incident response plan

      Phase 1

      Phase 2

      Phase 3

      Assess your cloud risk

      Identify options to mitigate risk

      Create an incident response plan

      Activity 1: Review the example incident response workflows and case studies as a starting point

      1-3 hours

      1. Review the SaaS Incident Response Workflows examples. The examples illustrate different approaches to incident response depending on the criticality of the service and options available.
      2. Review the case studies on the next few slides, which further illustrate the resilience and incident response solutions implemented.
      3. Note the key elements:
      • Detection
      • Assessment
      • Monitoring status / contacting the vendor
      • Communication with key stakeholders
      • Invoking workarounds, if applicable

      Example SaaS Incident Response Workflow Excerpt

      The image contains a screenshot of an example of the SaaS Incident Response Workflow Excerpt.
      Materials
      • SaaS Incident Response Workflows examples
      Participants
      • Core group of IT management and staff tasked with evaluating and improving cloud services’ resilience.
      • Relevant business process owners to provide input and define business workarounds, where applicable.

      Case Study 1: Recovery plan for critical fundraising event

      If either critical SaaS dependency fails, the following plan is executed:

      1. Donors are redirected to a predefined alternate donation page hosted by a different service. The alternate page connects to the backup payment processing service (with predefined integrations).
      2. Marketing communications support the redirect.
      3. While the backup solution doesn’t gather as much data, the payment details provide enough information to follow up with donors where necessary.

      Criticality justified a failover option

      The Annual Day of Giving generates over 50% of fundraising for the year. It’s critically dependent on two SaaS solutions that host the donation page and payment processing.

      To mitigate the risk, the organization implemented the ability to failover to an alternate “environment” – much like a traditional DR solution – supported by workarounds to manage data collection.

      Case Study 2: Protecting customer data

      Daily exports from a SaaS-hosted donations site reduce potential data loss:

      1. Daily exports to a CRM support donor profile updates and follow-ups (tax receipts, thank-you letters, etc.).
      2. The exports also mitigate the risk of data loss due to an incident with the SaaS-hosted donation site.
      3. This company is exploring more-frequent exports to further reduce the risk of data loss.

      Protecting your data gives you options

      For critical data, do you want to rely solely on the vendor’s default backup strategy?

      If your SaaS vendor is hit by ransomware or if their backup frequency doesn’t meet your needs, having your own data backup gives you options.

      It can also support business process workarounds that need to access that data while waiting for SaaS recovery.

      Case Study 3: Recovery plan for payroll

      To enable a more accurate payroll workaround, the following is done:

      1. After each payroll run, export the payroll data from the SaaS solution to a secure location.
      2. If there is a SaaS outage when payroll must be submitted, the exported data can be modified and converted to an ACH file.
      3. The ACH file is submitted to the bank, which has preapproved this workaround.

      BCP can bridge the gap

      When leadership looks to IT to mitigate cloud risk, include BCP in the discussion.

      Payroll is a good example where the best recovery option might be a business continuity workaround.

      IT often still has a role in business continuity workarounds, as in this case study: specifically, providing a solution to modify and convert the payroll data to an ACH file.

      Activity 2: Run tabletop planning exercises as a starting point to build your incident response plan

      1-3 hours

      1. Follow the tabletop planning instructions provided in the Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan blueprint.
      2. Run the exercise for each cloud service. Keep the scenario generic at first (e.g. cloud service is down with no reported root cause) so you can focus on your response. Capture response steps and gaps.
      3. Add complexity in subsequent exercises (e.g. data loss plus downtime), and use that to expand and refine the workflow as needed.
      4. Use the resulting workflows as the core piece of your incident response plan.
      5. Supplement the workflow with relevant checklists or procedures. At this point you can choose to incorporate this into your DRP or BCP or maintain these documents as supplements to those plans.
        See the DRP Case Study and BCP Case Study for an example of DRP-BCP documentation.

      Example tabletop planning results excerpt with gaps identified

      The image contains an example tabletop planning results excerpt with gaps identified.

      Materials
      • SaaS Incident Response Workflows examples
      Participants
      • Core group of IT management and staff tasked with evaluating and improving cloud services’ resilience.
      • Review results with relevant business process owners to provide input and define business workarounds where applicable.

      Activity 3: Summarize cloud services resilience to inform senior leadership of current risks and mitigation efforts

      1-3 hours

      1. Use the Cloud Services Resilience Summary example as a template to capture the following:
      • The results of your vendor review (i.e. incident management SLAs, incident response preparedness, data protections strategy).
      • The current state of your downtime workarounds and additional data loss protection.
      • Your baseline standard for cloud services risk mitigation.
      • Summary of resilience, risks, workarounds, and data loss protection for each individual cloud service that you have reviewed.
    • Present the results to senior leadership to:
      • Highlight risks to inform business decisions to mitigate or accept those risks.
      • Summarize actions already taken to mitigate risks.
      • Communicate next steps (e.g. action items to address remaining risks).

      Cloud Services Resilience Summary – Table of Contents

      The image contains a screenshot of Cloud Services Resilience Summary – Table of Contents.
      Materials
      • Cloud Services Resilience Summary
      Participants
      • Core group of IT management and staff tasked with evaluating and improving cloud services’ resilience.
      • Review results with relevant business process owners to provide input and define business workarounds where applicable.

      Summary: For cloud services, after evaluating risk, IT must adapt how they approach risk mitigation

      1. Identify failover options where possible
      • A failover strategy is possible for many cloud services (e.g. IaaS replication to another region, or failing over SaaS to an alternate solution as in case study 1).
    • At least protect your data
      • Explore supplementary backup options to protect against ransomware, data corruption, or data loss and support business continuity workarounds (see case study 2).
    • Leverage BCP to close the gap
      • This doesn’t absolve IT of its role in mitigating cloud incident risk, but business process workarounds can bridge the gap where IT options are limited (see case study 3).

      Related Info-Tech Research

      IT DRP Maturity Assessment

      Get an objective assessment of your DRP program and recommendations for improvement.

      Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan

      Close the gap between your DR capabilities and service continuity requirements.

      Develop a Business Continuity Plan

      Streamline the traditional approach to make BCP development manageable and repeatable.

      Implement Crisis Management Best Practices

      Don’t be another example of what not to do. Implement an effective crisis response plan to minimize the impact on business continuity, reputation, and profitability.

      Enable Product Delivery – Executive Leadership Workshop

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}353|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): N/A
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      • Parent Category Name: Development
      • Parent Category Link: /development
      • You need to clearly convey the direction and strategy of your product portfolio to gain alignment, support, and funding from your organization.
      • IT organizations are traditionally organized to deliver initiatives in specific periods of time. This conflicts with product delivery, which continuously delivers value over the lifetime of a product.
      • Delivering multiple products together creates additional challenges because each product has its own pedigree, history, and goals.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Empowered product managers and product owners are the key to ensuring your delivery teams are delivering the right value at the right time to the right stakeholders.
      • Establishing operationally aligned product families helps bridge the gap between enterprise priorities and product enhancements.
      • Leadership must be aligned to empower and support Agile values and product teams to unlock the full value realization within your organization.

      Impact and Result

      • Common understanding of product management and Agile delivery.
      • Commitment to support and empower product teams.

      Enable Product Delivery – Executive Leadership Workshop Research & Tools

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

      1. Enabling Product Delivery – Executive workshop to align senior leadership with their transition to product management and delivery.

      • Enabling Product Delivery – Executive Workshop Storyboard

      2. Enabling Product Delivery –Executive Workshop Outcomes.

      • Enabling Product Delivery – Executive Workshop Outcomes
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Enable Product Delivery – Executive Leadership Workshop

      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 Understanding Your Top Challenges

      The Purpose

      Understand the drivers for your product transformation.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Define the drivers for your transition to product-centric delivery.

      Activities

      1.1 What is driving your organization to become product focused?

      Outputs

      List of challenges and drivers

      2 Transitioning From Projects to Product-Centric Delivery

      The Purpose

      Understand the product transformation journey and differences.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Identify the cultural, behavioral, and leadership changes needed for a successful transformation.

      Activities

      2.1 Define the differences between projects and product delivery

      Outputs

      List of differences

      3 Enterprise Agility and the Value of Change

      The Purpose

      Understand why smaller iterations increase value realization and decrease accumulated risk.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Leverage smaller iterations to reduce time to value and accumulated risk to core operations.

      Activities

      3.1 What is business agility?

      Outputs

      Common understanding about the value of smaller iterations

      4 Defining Products and Product Management in Your Context

      The Purpose

      Establish an organizational starting definition of products.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Tailor product management to meet the needs and vision of your organization.

      Activities

      4.1 What is a product? Who are your consumers?

      4.2 Identify enablers and blockers of product ownership

      4.3 Define a set of guiding principles for product management

      Outputs

      Product definition

      List of enablers and blockers of product ownership

      Set of guiding principles for product management

      5 Connecting Product Management to Agile Practices

      The Purpose

      Understand the relationship between product management and product delivery.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Optimize product management to prioritize the right changes for the right people at the right time.

      Activities

      5.1 Discussions

      Outputs

      Common understanding

      6 Commit to Empowering Agile Product Teams

      The Purpose

      Personalize and commit to supporting product teams.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Embrace leadership and cultural changes needed to empower and support teams.

      Activities

      6.1 Your management culture

      6.2 Personal Cultural Stop, Start, and Continue

      6.3 Now, Next, Later to support product owners

      Outputs

      Your management culture map

      Personal Cultural Stop, Start, and Continue list

      Now, Next, Later roadmap

      Further reading

      Enable Product Delivery – Executive Leadership Workshop

      Strengthen product management in your organization through effective executive leadership by focusing on product teams, core capabilities, and proper alignment.

      Objective of this workshop

      To develop a common understanding and foundation for product management so we, as leaders, better understand how to lead product owners, product managers, and their teams.

      Enable Product Delivery - Executive Leadership Workshop

      Learn how enterprise agility can provide lasting value to the organization

      Clarify your role in supporting your teams to deliver lasting value to stakeholders and customers

      1. Understanding Your Top Challenges
        • Define your challenges, goals, and opportunities Agile and product management will impact.
      2. Transitioning from Projects to Product-centric Delivery
        • Understand the shift from fixed delivery to continuous improvement and delivery of value.
      3. Enterprise Agility and the Value of Change
        • Organizations need to embrace change and leverage smaller delivery cycles.
      4. Defining Your "Products" and Product Management
        • Define products in your culture and how to empower product delivery teams.
      5. Connecting Product Management to Agile Practices
        • Use product ownership to drive increased ROI into your product delivery teams and lifecycles.
      6. Commit to Empowering Agile Product Teams
        • Define the actions and changes you must make for this transformation to be successful.

      Your Product Transformation Journey

      1. Make the Case for Product Delivery
        • Align your organization with the practices to deliver what matters most
      2. Enable Product Delivery – Executive Workshop
        • One-day executive workshop – align and prepare your leadership
        • Audience: Senior executives and IT leadership.
          Size: 8-16 people
          Time: 6 hours
      3. Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision
        • Enhance product backlogs, roadmapping, and strategic alignment
        • Audience: Product Owners/Mangers
          Size: 10-20 people
          Time: 3-4 days
      4. Deliver Your Digital Products at Scale
        • Scale Product Families to Align Enterprise Goals
        • Audience: Product Owners/Mangers
          Size: 10-20 people
          Time: 3-4 days
      5. Mature and Scale Product Ownership
        • Align and mature your product owners
        • Audience: Product Owners/Mangers
          Size: 8-16 people
          Time: 2-4 days

      Repeat workshops with different companies, operating units, departments, or teams as needed.

      What is a workshop?

      We WILL ENGAGE in discussions and activities:

      • Flexible, to accommodate the needs of the group.
      • Open forum for discussion and questions.
      • Share your knowledge, expertise, and experiences (roadblocks and success stories).
      • Everyone is part of the process.
      • Builds upon itself.

      This workshop will NOT be:

      • A lecture or class.
      • A monologue that never ends.
      • Technical training.
      • A presentation.
      • Us making all the decisions.

      Roles within the workshop

      We each have a role to play to make our workshop successful!

      Facilitators

      • Introduce the best practice framework used by Info-Tech.
      • Ask questions about processes, procedures, and assumptions.
      • Guide for the methodology.
      • Liaison for any other relevant Info-Tech research or services.

      Participants

      • Contribute and speak out as much as needed.
      • Provide expertise on the current processes and technology.
      • Ask questions.
      • Provide feedback.
      • Collaborate and work together to produce solutions.

      Understanding Your Top Challenges

      • Understanding Your Top Challenges
      • Transitioning From Projects to Product-Centric Delivery
      • Enterprise Agility and the Value of Change
      • Defining Your Products and Product Management
      • Connecting Product Management to Agile Practices
      • Commit to Empowering Agile Product Teams
      • Wrap-Up and Retrospective

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge

      • Products are the lifeblood of an organization. They deliver the capabilities needed to deliver value to customers, internal users, and stakeholders.
      • The shift to becoming a product organization is intended to continually increase the value you provide to the broader organization as you grow and evolve.
      • You need to clearly convey the direction and strategy of your product portfolio to gain alignment, support, and funding from your organization.

      Common Obstacles

      • IT organizations are traditionally organized to deliver initiatives in specific periods of time. This conflicts with product delivery, which continuously delivers value over the lifetime of a product.
      • Delivering multiple products together creates additional challenges because each product has its own pedigree, history, and goals.
      • Product owners struggle to prioritize changes to deliver product value. This creates a gap and conflict between product and enterprise goals.

      Info-Tech's Approach

      Info-Tech's approach will guide you through:

      • Understanding the top challenges driving your product initiative.
      • Improving your transitioning from projects to product-centric delivery.
      • Enhancing enterprise agility and the value of change.
      • Defining products and product management in your context.
      • Connecting product management to Agile practices.
      • Committing to empowering Agile Product teams.
      This is an image of an Info-Tech Thought Map for Accelerate Your Transition to Product Delivery
      This is an image of an Info-Tech Thought Map for Delier on your Digital Product Vision
      This is an image of an Info-Tech Thought Map for Deliver Digital Products at Scale via Enterprise Product Families.
      This is an image of an Info-Tech Thought Map for What We Mean by an Applcation Department Strategy.

      What is driving your organization to become product focused?

      30 minutes

      • Team introductions:
        • Share your name and role
        • What are the key challenges you are looking to solve around product management?
        • What blockers or challenges will we need to overcome?

      Capture in the Enable Product Delivery – Executive Leadership Workshop Outcomes and Next Steps.

      Input

      • Organizational knowledge
      • Goals and challenges

      Output

      • List of key challenges
      • List of workshop expectations
      • Parking lot items

      Transitioning From Projects to Product-Centric Delivery

      • Understanding Your Top Challenges
      • Transitioning From Projects to Product-Centric Delivery
      • Enterprise Agility and the Value of Change
      • Defining Your Products and Product Management
      • Connecting Product Management to Agile Practices
      • Commit to Empowering Agile Product Teams
      • Wrap-Up and Retrospective

      Define the differences between projects and product delivery

      30 minutes

      • Consider project delivery and product delivery.
      • Discussion:
        • What are some differences between the two?

      Capture in the Enable Product Delivery – Executive Leadership Workshop Outcomes and Next Steps.

      Input

      • Organizational knowledge
      • Internal terms and definitions

      Output

      • List of differences between projects and product delivery

      Define the differences between projects and product delivery

      15 minutes

      Project Delivery

      vs

      Product Delivery

      Point in time

      What is changed

      Method of funding changes

      Needs an owner

      Input

      • Organizational knowledge
      • Internal terms and definitions

      Output

      • List of differences between projects and product delivery

      Capture in the Enable Product Delivery – Executive Leadership Workshop Outcomes and Next Steps.

      Identify the differences between a project-centric and a product-centric organization

      Project

      Product

      Fund Projects

      Funding

      Fund Products or Teams

      Line of Business Sponsor

      Prioritization

      Product Owner

      Makes Specific Changes
      to a Product

      Product Management

      Improve Product Maturity
      and Support

      Assign People to Work

      Work Allocation

      Assign Work
      to Product Teams

      Project Manager Manages

      Capacity Management

      Team Manages Capacity

      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

      This is an image showing the relationship between the project lifecycle, a hybrid lifecycle, and a product lifecycle.

      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.

      While Agile and product are intertwined, they are not the same!

      Delivering products does not necessarily require an Agile mindset. However, Agile methods help facilitate the journey because product thinking is baked into them.

      This image shows the product delivery maturity process from waterfall to continuous integration and delivery.

      Product roadmaps guide delivery and communicate your strategy

      In Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision, we demonstrate how the product roadmap is core to value realization. The product roadmap is your communicated path, and as a product owner, you use it to align teams and changes to your defined goals while aligning your product to enterprise goals and strategy.

      This is an image adapted from Pichler, What is Product Management.

      Adapted from: Pichler, "What Is Product Management?"

      Info-Tech Insight

      The quality of your product backlog – and your ability to realize business value from your delivery pipeline – is directly related to the input, content, and prioritization of items in your product roadmap.

      Determine the Future of Microsoft Project in Your Organization

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      • Parent Category Name: Project Management Office
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      • You use Microsoft tools to manage your work, projects, and/or project portfolio.
      • Its latest offering, Project for the web, is new and you’re not sure what to make of it. Microsoft says it will soon replace Microsoft Project and Project Online, but the new software doesn’t seem to do what the old software did.
      • The organization has adopted M365 for collaboration and work management. Meetings happen on Teams, projects are scoped a bit with Planner, and the operations group uses Azure Boards to keep track of what they need to get done.
      • Despite your reservations about the new project management software, Microsoft software has become even more ubiquitous.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • The various MS Project offerings (but most notably the latest, Project for the web) hold the promise of integrating with the rest of M365 into a unified work management solution. However, out of the box, Project for the web and the various platforms within M365 are all disparate utilities that need to be pieced together in a purpose-built manner to make use of them for holistic work management purposes. If you’re looking for a cohesive product out of the box, look elsewhere. If you’re looking to assemble a wide array of work, project, and portfolio management functions across different functions and departments, you may have found what you seek.
      • Rather than choosing tools based on your gaps, assess your current maturity level so that you optimize your investment in the Microsoft landscape.

      Impact and Result

      Follow Info-Tech’s path in this blueprint to:

      • Perform a tool audit to trim your work management tool landscape.
      • Navigate the MS Project and M365 licensing landscape.
      • Make sense of what to do with Project for the web and take the right approach to rolling it out (i.e. DIY or MS Gold Partner driven) based upon your needs.
      • Create an action plan to inform next steps.

      After following the program in this blueprint, you will be prepared to advise the organization on how to best leverage the rapidly shifting work management options within M365 and the place of MS Project within it.

      Determine the Future of Microsoft Project in Your Organization Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should make sense of the MS Project and M365 landscapes, 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. Determine your tool needs

      Assess your work management tool landscape, current state maturity, and licensing needs to inform a purpose-built work management action plan.

      • M365 Task Management Tool Guide
      • M365 Project Management Tool Guide
      • M365 Project Portfolio Management Tool Guide
      • Tool Audit Workbook
      • Force Field Analysis Tool
      • Microsoft Project & M365 Licensing Tool
      • Project Portfolio Management Maturity Assessment Workbook (With Tool Analysis)
      • Project Management Maturity Assessment Workbook (With Tool Analysis)

      2. Weigh your MS Project implementation options

      Get familiar with Project for the web’s extensibility as well as the MS Gold Partner ecosystem as you contemplate the best implementation approach(s) for your organization.

      • None
      • None

      3. Finalize your implementation approach

      Prepare a boardroom-ready presentation that will help you communicate your MS Project and M365 action plan to PMO and organizational stakeholders.

      • Microsoft Project & M365 Action Plan Template

      Infographic

      Workshop: Determine the Future of Microsoft Project in 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 Assess Driving Forces and Risks

      The Purpose

      Assess the goals and needs as well as the risks and constraints of a work management optimization.

      Take stock of your organization’s current work management tool landscape.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Clear goals and alignment across workshop participants as well as an understanding of the risks and constraints that will need to be mitigated to succeed.

      Current-state insight into the organization’s work management tool landscape.

      Activities

      1.1 Review the business context.

      1.2 Explore the M365 work management landscape.

      1.3 Identify driving forces for change.

      1.4 Analyze potential risks.

      1.5 Perform current-state analysis on work management tools.

      Outputs

      Business context

      Current-state understanding of the task, project, and portfolio management options in M365 and how they align with the organization’s ways of working

      Goals and needs analysis

      Risks and constraints analysis

      Work management tool overview

      2 Determine Tool Needs and Process Maturity

      The Purpose

      Determine your organization’s work management tool needs as well as its current level of project management and project portfolio management process maturity.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      An understanding of your tooling needs and your current levels of process maturity.

      Activities

      2.1 Review tool audit dashboard and conduct the final audit.

      2.2 Identify current Microsoft licensing.

      2.3 Assess current-state maturity for project management.

      2.4 Define target state for project management.

      2.5 Assess current-state maturity for project portfolio management.

      2.6 Define target state for project portfolio management.

      Outputs

      Tool audit

      An understanding of licensing options and what’s needed to optimize MS Project options

      Project management current-state analysis

      Project management gap analysis

      Project portfolio management current-state analysis

      Project portfolio management gap analysis

      3 Weigh Your Implementation Options

      The Purpose

      Take stock of your implementation options for Microsoft old project tech and new project tech.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      An optimized implementation approach based upon your organization’s current state and needs.

      Activities

      3.1 Prepare a needs assessment for Microsoft 365 and Project Plan licenses.

      3.2 Review the business case for Microsoft licensing.

      3.3 Get familiar with Project for the web.

      3.4 Assess the MS Gold Partner Community.

      3.5 Conduct a feasibility test for PFTW.

      Outputs

      M365 and Project Plan needs assessment

      Business case for additional M365 and MS Project licensing

      An understand of Project for the web and how to extend it

      MS Gold Partner outreach plan

      A go/no-go decision for extending Project for the web on your own

      4 Finalize Implementation Approach

      The Purpose

      Determine the best implementation approach for your organization and prepare an action plan.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A purpose-built implementation approach to help communicate recommendations and needs to key stakeholders.

      Activities

      4.1 Decide on the implementation approach.

      4.2 Identify the audience for your proposal.

      4.3 Determine timeline and assign accountabilities.

      4.4 Develop executive summary presentation.

      Outputs

      An implementation plan

      Stakeholder analysis

      A communication plan

      Initial executive presentation

      5 Next Steps and Wrap-Up (offsite)

      The Purpose

      Finalize your M365 and MS Project work management recommendations and get ready to communicate them to key stakeholders.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Time saved in developing and communicating an action plan.

      Stakeholder buy-in.

      Activities

      5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days.

      5.2 Set up review time for workshop deliverables and to discuss next steps.

      Outputs

      Finalized executive presentation

      A gameplan to communicate your recommendations to key stakeholders as well as a roadmap for future optimization

      Further reading

      Determine the Future of Microsoft Project in Your Organization

      View your task management, project management, and project portfolio management options through the lens of M365.

      EXECUTIVE BRIEF

      Analyst Perspective

      Microsoft Project is an enigma

      Microsoft Project has dominated its market since being introduced in the 1980s, yet the level of adoption and usage per license is incredibly low.

      The software is ubiquitous, mostly considered to represent its category for “Project Management.” Yet, the software is conflated with its “Portfolio Management” offerings as organizations make platform decisions with Microsoft Project as the incorrectly identified incumbent.

      And incredibly, Microsoft has dominated the next era of productivity software with the “365” offerings. Yet, it froze the “Project” family of offerings and introduced the not-yet-functional “Project for the web.”

      Having a difficult time understanding what to do with, and about, Microsoft Project? You’re hardly alone. It’s not simply a question of tolerating, embracing, or rejecting the product: many who choose a competitor find they’re still paying for Microsoft Project-related licensing for years to come.

      If you’re in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, use this research to understand your rapidly shifting landscape of options.

      (Barry Cousins, Project Portfolio Management Practice Lead, Info-Tech Research Group)

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge

      You use Microsoft (MS) tools to manage your work, projects, and/or project portfolio.

      Their latest offering, Project for the web, is new and you’re not sure what to make of it. Microsoft says it will soon replace Microsoft Project and Project Online, but the new software doesn’t seem to do what the old software did.

      The organization has adopted M365 for collaboration and work management. Meetings happen on Teams, projects are scoped a bit with Planner, and the operations group uses Azure Boards to keep track of what they need to get done.

      Despite your reservations about the new project management software, Microsoft software has become even more ubiquitous.

      Common Obstacles

      M365 provides the basic components for managing tasks, projects, and project portfolios, but there is no instruction manual for making those parts work together.

      M365 isn’t the only set of tools at play. Business units and teams across the organization have procured other non-Microsoft tools for work management without involving IT.

      Microsoft’s latest project offering, Project for the web, is still evolving and you’re never sure if it is stable or ready for prime time. The missing function seems to involve the more sophisticated project planning disciplines, which are still important to larger, longer, and costlier projects.

      Common Obstacles

      Follow Info-Tech’s path in this blueprint to:

      • Perform a tool audit to trim your work management tool landscape.
      • Navigate the MS Project and M365 licensing landscape.
      • Make sense of what to do with Project for the web and take the right approach to rolling it out (i.e. DIY or MS Gold Partner driven) for your needs.
      • Create an action plan to inform next steps.

      After following the program in this blueprint, you will be prepared to advise the organization on how to best leverage the rapidly shifting work management options within M365 and the place of MS Project within it.

      M365 and, within it, O365 are taking over

      Accelerated partly by the pandemic and the move to remote work, Microsoft’s market share in the work productivity space has grown exponentially in the last two years.

      70% of Fortune 500 companies purchased 365 from Sept. 2019 to Sept. 2020. (Thexyz blog, 2020)

      In its FY21 Q2 report, Microsoft reported 47.5 million M365 consumer subscribers – an 11.2% increase from its FY20 Q4 reporting. (Office 365 for IT Pros, 2021)

      As of September 2020, there were 258,000,000 licensed O365 users. (Thexyz blog, 2020)

      In this blueprint, we’ll look at what the what the phenomenal growth of M365 means for PMOs and project portfolio practitioners who identify as Microsoft shops

      The market share of M365 warrants a fresh look at Microsoft’s suite of project offerings

      For many PMO and project portfolio practitioners, the footprint of M365 in their organizations’ work management cultures is forcing a renewed look at Microsoft’s suite of project offerings.

      The complicating factor is this renewed look comes at a transitional time in Microsoft’s suite of project and portfolio offerings.

      • The market dominance of MS Project Server and Project Online are wanning, with Microsoft promising the end-of-life for Online sometime in the coming years.
      • Project Online’s replacement, Project for the web, is a viable task management and lightweight project management tool, but its viability as a replacement for the rigor of Project Online is at present largely a question mark.
      • Related to the uncertainty and promise around Project for the web, the Dataverse and the Power Platform offer a glimpse into a democratized future of work management tools but anything specific about that future has yet to solidify.

      Microsoft Project has 66% market share in the project management tool space. (Celoxis, 2018)

      A copy of MS project is sold or licensed every 20 seconds. (Integent, 2013)

      MS Project is evolving to meet new work management realities

      It also evolved to not meet the old project management realities.

      • The lines between traditional project management and operational task management solutions are blurring as organizations struggle to keep up with demands.
      • To make the software easier to use, modern work management doesn’t involve the complexities from days past. You won’t find anywhere to introduce complex predecessor-successor relationships, unbalanced assignments with front-loading or back-loading, early-start/late-finish, critical path, etc.
      • “Work management” is among the latest buzzwords in IT consulting. With Project for the web (PFTW), Azure Boards, and Planner, Microsoft is attempting to compete with lighter and better-adopted tools like Trello, Basecamp, Asana, Wrike, and Monday.com.
      • Buyers of project and work management software have struggled to understand how PFTW will still be usable if it gets the missing project management function from MS Project.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Beware of the Software Granularity Paradox.

      Common opinion 1: “Plans and estimates that are granular enough to be believable are too detailed to manage and maintain.”

      Common opinion 2: “Plans simple enough to publish aren’t detailed enough to produce believable estimates.”

      In other words, software simple enough to get widely adopted doesn’t produce believable plans. Software that can produce believable plans is too complex to use at scale.

      A viable task and project management option must walk the line between these dichotomies.

      M365 gives you the pieces, but it’s on PMO users to piece them together in a viable way

      With the new MS Project and M365, it’s on PMOs to avoid the granularity paradox and produce a functioning solution that fits with the organization’s ways of working.

      Common perception still sees Microsoft Project as a rich software tool. Thus, when we consider the next generation of Microsoft Project, it’s easy to expect a newer and friendlier version of what we knew before.

      In truth, the new solution is a collection of partially integrated but largely disparate tools that each satisfy a portion of the market’s needs. While it looks like a rich collection of function when viewed through high-level requirements, users will find:

      • Overlaps, where multiple tools satisfy the same functional requirement (e.g. “assign a task”)
      • Gaps, where a tool doesn’t quite do enough and you’re forced to incorporate another tool (e.g. reverting back to Microsoft Project for advanced resource planning)
      • Islands, where tools don’t fluently talk to each other (e.g. Planner data integrated in real-time with portfolio data, which requires clunky, unstable, decentralized end-user integrations with Microsoft Power Automate)
      A colourful arrangement of Microsoft programs arranged around a pile of puzzle pieces.

      Info-Tech's approach

      Use our framework to best leverage the right MS Project offerings and M365 components for your organization’s work management needs.

      The Info-Tech difference:

      1. A simple to follow framework to help you make sense of a chaotic landscape.
      2. Practical and tactical tools that will help you save time.
      3. Leverage industry best practices and practitioner-based insights.
      An Info-Tech framework titled 'Determine the Future of Microsoft Project in Your Organization, subtitle 'View your task, project, and portfolio management options through the lens of Microsoft 365'. There are four main sections titled 'Background', 'Approaches', 'Deployments', and 'Portfolio Outcomes'. In '1) Background' are 'Analyze Content', 'Assess Constraints', and 'Determine Goals and Needs'. In '2) Approaches' are 'DIY: Are you ready to do it yourself?' 'Info-Tech: Can our analysts help?', and 'MS Gold Partner: Are you better off with a third party?'. In '3) Deployments' are five sections: 'Personal Task Management', Barriers to Portfolio Outcomes: Isolated to One Person. 'Team Task Management', Barriers to Portfolio Outcomes: Isolated to One Team. 'Project Portfolio Management', Barriers to Portfolio Outcomes: Isolated to One Project. 'Project Management', Barriers to Portfolio Outcomes: Functionally Incomplete. 'Enterprise Project and Portfolio Management', Barriers to Portfolio Outcomes: Underadopted. In '4) Portfolio Outcomes' are 'Informed Steering Committee', 'Increased Project Throughput', 'Improved Portfolio Responsiveness', 'Optimized Resource Utilization', and 'Reduced Monetary Waste'.

      Determine the Future of Microsoft Project in Your Organization

      View your task, project, and portfolio management options through the lens of Microsoft 365.

      1. Background

      • Analyze Content
      • Assess Constraints
      • Determine Goals and Needs

      2. Approaches

      • DIY – Are you ready to do it yourself?
      • Info-Tech – Can our analysts help?
      • MS Gold Partner – Are you better off with a third party?

      3. Deployments

        Task Management

      • Personal Task Management
        • Who does it? Knowledge workers
        • What is it? To-do lists
        • Common Approaches
          • Paper list and sticky notes
          • Light task tools
        • Applications
          • Planner
          • To Do
        • Level of Rigor 1/5
        • Barriers to Portfolio Outcomes: Isolated to One Person
      • Team Task Management
        • Who does it? Groups of knowledge workers
        • What is it? Collaborative to-do lists
        • Common Approaches
          • Kanban boards
          • Spreadsheets
          • Light task tools
        • Applications
          • Planner
          • Azure Boards
          • Teams
        • Level of Rigor 2/5
        • Barriers to Portfolio Outcomes: Isolated to One Team
      • Project Management

      • Project Portfolio Management
        • Who does it? PMO Directors, Portfolio Managers
        • What is it?
          • Centralized list of projects
          • Request and intake handling
          • Aggregating reporting
        • Common Approaches
          • Spreadsheets
          • PPM software
          • Roadmaps
        • Applications
          • Project for the Web
          • Power Platform
        • Level of Rigor 3/5
        • Barriers to Portfolio Outcomes: Isolated to One Project
      • Project Management
        • Who does it? Project Managers
        • What is it? Deterministic scheduling of related tasks
        • Common Approaches
          • Spreadsheets
          • Lists
          • PM software
          • PPM software
        • Applications
          • Project Desktop Client
        • Level of Rigor 4/5
        • Barriers to Portfolio Outcomes: Functionally Incomplete
      • Enterprise Project and Portfolio Management

      • Enterprise Project and Portfolio Management
        • Who does it? PMO and ePMO Directors, Portfolio Managers, Project Managers
        • What is it?
          • Centralized request and intake handling
          • Resource capacity management
          • Deterministic scheduling of related tasks
        • Common Approaches
          • PPM software
        • Applications
          • Project Online
          • Project Desktop Client
          • Project Server
        • Level of Rigor 5/5
        • Barriers to Portfolio Outcomes: Underadopted

      4. Portfolio Outcomes

      • Informed Steering Committee
      • Increased Project Throughput
      • Improved Portfolio Responsiveness
      • Optimized Resource Utilization
      • Reduced Monetary Waste

      Info-Tech's methodology for Determine the Future of MS Project for Your Organization

      1. Determine Your Tool Needs

      2. Weigh Your MS Project Implementation Options

      3. Finalize Your Implementation Approach

      Phase Steps

      1. Survey the M365 Work Management Tools
      2. Perform a Process Maturity Assessment to Help Inform Your M365 Starting Point
      3. Consider the Right MS Project Licenses for Your Stakeholders
      1. Get Familiar With Extending Project for the Web Using Power Apps
      2. Assess the MS Gold Partner Community
      1. Prepare an Action Plan

      Phase Outcomes

      1. Work Management Tool Audit
      2. MS Project and Power Platform Licensing Needs
      3. Project Management and Project Portfolio Management Maturity Assessment
      1. Project for the Web Readiness Assessment
      2. MS Gold Partner Outreach Plan
      1. MS Project and M365 Action Plan Presentation

      Insight Summary

      Overarching blueprint insight: Microsoft Parts Sold Separately. Assembly required.

      The various MS Project offerings (but most notably the latest, Project for the web) hold the promise of integrating with the rest of M365 into a unified work management solution. However, out of the box, Project for the web and the various platforms within M365 are all disparate utilities that need to be pieced together in a purpose-built manner to make use of them for holistic work management purposes.

      If you’re looking for a cohesive product out of the box, look elsewhere. If you’re looking to assemble a wide array of work, project, and portfolio management functions across different functions and departments, you may have found what you seek

      Phase 1 insight: Align your tool choice to your process maturity level.

      Rather than choosing tools based on your gaps, make sure to assess your current maturity level so that you optimize your investment in the Microsoft landscape.

      Phase 2 insight: Weigh your options before jumping into Microsoft’s new tech.

      Microsoft’s new Project plans (P1, P3, and P5) suggest there is a meaningful connection out of the box between its old tech (Project desktop, Project Server, and Project Online) and its new tech (Project for the web).

      However, the offerings are not always interoperable.

      Phase 3 insight: Keep the iterations small as you move ahead with trials and implementations.

      Organizations are changing as fast as the software we use to run them.

      If you’re implementing parts of this platform, keep the changes small as you monitor the vendors for new software versions and integrations.

      Blueprint deliverables

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

      Key deliverable: Microsoft Project & M365 Action Plan Template

      The Action Plan will help culminate and present:

      • Context and Constraints
      • DIY Implementation Approach
      Or
      • MS Partner Implementation Approach
      • Future-State Vision and Goals
      Samples of Info-Tech's key deliverable 'Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan Template'.

      Tool Audit Workbook

      Sample of Info-Tech deliverable 'Tool Audit Workbook'.

      Assess your organization's current work management tool landscape and determine what tools drive value for individual users and teams and which ones can be rationalized.

      Force Field Analysis

      Sample of Info-Tech deliverable 'Force Field Analysis'.

      Document the driving and resisting forces for making a change to your work management tools.

      Maturity Assessments

      Sample of Info-Tech deliverable 'Maturity Assessments'.

      Use these assessments to identify gaps in project management and project portfolio management processes. The results will help guide process improvement efforts and measure success and progress.

      Microsoft Project & M365 Licensing Tool

      Sample of Info-Tech deliverable 'Microsoft Project and M365 Licensing Tool'.

      Determine the best licensing options and approaches for your implementation of Microsoft Project.

      Curate your work management tools to harness valuable portfolio outcomes

      • Increase Project Throughput

        Do more projects by ensuring the right projects and the right amount of projects are approved and executed.
      • Support an Informed Steering Committee

        Easily compare progress of projects across the portfolio and enable the leadership team to make decisions.
      • Improve portfolio responsiveness

        Make the portfolio responsive to executive steering when new projects and changing priorities need rapid action.
      • Optimize Resource Utilization

        Assign the right resources to approved projects and minimize the chronic over-allocation of resources that leads to burnout.
      • Reduce Monetary Waste

        Terminate low-value projects early and avoid sinking additional funds into unsuccessful ventures.

      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 8 calls over the course of 3 to 4 months.

        Introduction

      • Call #1: Scope requirements, objectives, and your specific challenges.
      • Phase 1

      • Call #2: Explore the M365 work management landscape.
      • Call #3: Discuss Microsoft Project Plans and their capabilities.
      • Call #4: Assess current-state maturity.
      • Phase 2

      • Call #5: Get familiar with extending Project for the web using Power Apps.
      • Call #6: Assess the MS Gold Partner Community.
      • Phase 3

      • Call #7: Determine approach and deployment.
      • Call #8: Discuss action plan.

      Workshop Overview

      Contact your account representative for more information.
      workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8889

      Day 1
      Assess Driving Forces and Risks

      Day 2
      Determine Tool Needs and Process Maturity

      Day 3
      Weigh Your Implementation Options

      Day 4
      Finalize Implementation Approach

      Day 5
      Next Steps and Wrap-Up (offsite)

      Activities

      • 1.1 Review the business context.
      • 1.2 Explore the M365 work management landscape.
      • 1.3 Identify driving forces for change.
      • 1.4 Analyze potential risks.
      • 1.5 Perform current-state analysis on work management tools.
      • 2.1 Review tool audit dashboard and conduct the final audit.
      • 2.2 Identify current Microsoft licensing.
      • 2.3 Assess current-state maturity for project management.
      • 2.4 Define target state for project management.
      • 2.5 Assess current-state maturity for project portfolio management.
      • 2.6 Define target state for project portfolio management.
      • 3.1 Prepare a needs assessment for Microsoft 365 and Project Plan licenses.
      • 3.2 Review the business case for Microsoft licensing.
      • 3.3 Get familiar with Project for the web.
      • 3.4 Assess the MS Gold Partner Community.
      • 3.5 Conduct a feasibility test for PFTW.
      • 4.1 Decide on the implementation approach.
      • 4.2 Identify the audience for your proposal.
      • 4.3 Determine timeline and assign accountabilities.
      • 4.4 Develop executive summary presentation.
      • 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. Force Field Analysis
      2. Tool Audit Workbook
      1. Tool Audit Workbook
      2. Project Management Maturity Assessment
      3. Portfolio Management Maturity Assessment
      1. Microsoft Project and M365 Licensing Tool
      1. Microsoft Project & M365 Action Plan
      1. Microsoft Project & M365 Action Plan

      Determine the Future of Microsoft Project for Your Organization

      Phase 1: Determine Your Tool Needs

      Phase 1: Determine Your Tool Needs

      Phase 2: Weigh Your Implementation Options Phase 3: Finalize Your Implementation Approach
      • Step 1.1: Survey the M365 work management landscape
      • Step 1.2: Explore the Microsoft Project Plans and their capabilities
      • Step 1.3: Assess the maturity of your current PM & PPM capabilities
      • Step 2.1: Get familiar with extending Project for the web using Power Apps
      • Step 2.2: Assess the MS Gold Partner Community
      • Step 3.1: Prepare an action plan

      Phase Outcomes

      • Tool Audit
      • Microsoft Project Licensing Analysis
      • Project Management Maturity Assessment
      • Project Portfolio Management Maturity Assessments

      Step 1.1

      Survey the M365 Work Management Landscape

      Activities

      • 1.1.1 Distinguish between task, project, and portfolio capabilities
      • 1.1.2 Review Microsoft’s offering for task, project, and portfolio management needs
      • 1.1.4 Assess your organizational context and constraints
      • 1.1.3 Explore typical deployment options

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Assessing your organization’s context for project and project portfolio management
      • Documenting the organization’s constraints
      • Establishing the organization’s goals and needs

      This step involves the following participants:

      • PMO Director
      • Resource Managers
      • Project Managers
      • Knowledge Workers

      Outcomes of Step

      • Knowledge of the Microsoft ecosystem as it relates to task, project, and portfolio management
      • Current organizational context and constraints

      Don’t underestimate the value of interoperability

      The whole Microsoft suite is worth more than the sum of its parts … if you know how to put it together.

      38% of the worldwide office suite market belongs to Microsoft. (Source: Statistica, 2021)

      1 in 3 small to mid-sized organizations moving to Microsoft Project say they are doing so because it integrates well with Office 365. (Source: CBT Nuggets, 2018)

      There’s a gravity to the Microsoft ecosystem.

      And while there is no argument that there are standalone task management tools, project management tools, or portfolio management tools that are likely more robust, feature-rich, and easier to adopt, it’s rare that you find an ecosystem that can do it all, to an acceptable level.

      That is the value proposition of Microsoft: the ubiquity, familiarity, and versatility. It’s the Swiss army knife of software products.

      The work management landscape is evolving

      With M365, Microsoft is angling to become the industry leader, and your organization’s hub, for work management.

      Workers lose up to 40% of their time multi-tasking and switching between applications. (Bluescape, 2018)

      25 Context switches – On average, workers switch between 10 apps, 25 times a day. (Asana, 2021)

      “Work management” is among the latest buzzwords in IT consulting.

      What is work management? It was born of a blurring of the traditional lines between operational or day-to-day tasks and project management tasks, as organizations struggle to keep up with both operational and project demands.

      To make the software easier to use, modern work management doesn’t involve the complexities from days past. You won’t find anywhere to introduce complex predecessor-successor relationships, unbalanced assignments with front-loading or back-loading, early-start/late-finish, critical path, etc.

      Indeed, with Project for the web, Azure Boards, Planner, and other M365 utilities, Microsoft is attempting to compete with lighter and better-adopted tools (e.g. Trello, Wike, Monday.com).

      The Microsoft world of work management can be understood across three broad categories

      1. Task Management

        Task management is essentially the same as keeping track of a to-do list. While you can have a project-related task, you can also have a non-project-related task. The sum of project and non-project tasks make up the work that you need to complete.
      2. Project Management

        Project management (PM) is a methodical approach to planning and guiding project processes from start to finish. Implementing PM processes helps establish repeatable steps and controls that enable project success. Documentation of PM processes leads to consistent results and dependable delivery on expectations.
      3. Portfolio Management

        Project portfolio management (PPM) is a strategic approach to approving, prioritizing, resourcing, and reporting on project. In addition, effective PPM should nurture the completion of projects in the portfolio in the most efficient way and track the extent to which the organization is realizing the intended benefits from completed projects.

      The slides ahead explain each of these modes of working in the Microsoft ecosystem in turn. Further, Info-Tech’s Task, Project, and Project Portfolio Management Tool Guides explain these areas in more detail.

      Use Info-Tech’s Tool Guides assess your MS Project and M365 work management options

      Lean on Info-Tech’s Tool Guides as you navigate Microsoft’s tasks management, project management, and project portfolio management options.

      • The slides ahead take you through a bird’s-eye view of what your MS Project and M365 work management options look like across Info-Tech’s three broad categories
      • In addition to these slides, Info-Tech has three in-depth tool guides that take you through your operational task management, project management, and project portfolio management options in MS Project and M365.
      • These tool guides can be leveraged as you determine whether Microsoft has the required toolset for your organization’s task, project, and project portfolio management needs.

      Download Info-Tech’s Task Management, Project Management, and Project Portfolio Management Tool Guides

      Task Management Overview

      What is task management?

      • It is essentially the same as keeping track of a to-do list. While you can have a project-related task, you can also have a non-project-related task. The sum of project and non-project tasks make up the work that you need to complete.

      What are the benefits of task management using applications within the MS suite?

      • Many organizations already own the tools and don't have to go out and buy something separately.
      • There is easy integration with other MS applications.

      What is personal task management?

      • Tools that allow you to structure work that is visible only to you. This can include work from tasks you are going to be completing for yourself and tasks you are completing as part of a larger work effort.

      What is team task management?

      • Tools that allow users to structure work that is visible to a group. When something is moved or changed, it affects what the group is seeing because it is a shared platform.

      Get familiar with the Microsoft product offerings for task management

      A diagram of Microsoft products and what they can help accomplish. It starts on the right with 'Teams' and 'Outlook'. Both can flow through to 'Personal Task Management' with products 'Teams Tasks' and 'To-Do', but Teams also flows into 'Team Task Management' with products 'Planner' and 'Project for the web'. See the next two slides for more details on these modes of working.

      Download the M365 Task Management Tool Guide

      Personal Task Management

      The To-Do list

      • Who does it?
        • Knowledge workers
      • What is it?
        • How each knowledge worker organizes their individual work tasks in M365
      • When is it done?
        • As needed throughout the day
      • Where is it done?
        • Paper
        • Digital location
      • How is it done?
        • DIY and self-developed
        • Usually not repeatable and evolves depending on work location and tools available
        • Not governed

      Microsoft differentiator:

      Utilities like Planner and To-Do make it easier to turn what are often ad hoc approaches into a more repeatable process.

      Team Task Management

      The SharedTo-Do list

      • Who does it?
        • Groups of knowledge workers
      • What is it?
        • Temporary and permanent collections of knowledge workers
      • When is it done?
        • As needed or on a pre-determined cadence
      • Where is it done?
        • Paper
        • Digital location
      • How is it done?
        • User norms are established organically and adapted based upon the needs of the team.
        • To whatever extent processes are repeatable in the first place, they remain repeatable only if the team is a collective.
        • Usually governed within the team and not subject to wider visibility.

      Microsoft differentiator:

      Teams has opened personal task management tactics up to more collaborative approaches.

      Project Management Overview

      2003

      Project Server: This product serves many large enterprise clients, but Microsoft has stated that it is at end of life. It is appealing to industries and organizations where privacy is paramount. This is an on-premises system that combines servers like SharePoint, SQL, and BI to report on information from Project Desktop Client. To realize the value of this product, there must be adoption across the organization and engagement at the project-task level for all projects within the portfolio.

      2013

      Project Online: This product serves many medium enterprise clients. It is appealing for IT departments who want to get a rich set of features that can be used to intake projects, assign resources, and report on project portfolio health. It is a cloud solution built on the SharePoint platform, which provides many users a sense of familiarity. However, due to the bottom-up reporting nature of this product, again, adoption across the organization and engagement at the project task level for all projects within the portfolio is critical.

      2020

      Project for the web: This product is the newest on the market and is quickly being evolved. Many O365 enthusiasts have been early adopters of Project for the web despite its limited features when compared to Project Online. It is also a cloud solution that encourages citizen developers by being built on the MS Power Platform. This positions the product well to integrate with Power BI, Power Automate, and Power Apps. It is, so far, the only MS product that lends itself to abstracted portfolio management, which means it doesn’t rely on project task level engagement to produce portfolio reports. The portfolio can also run with a mixed methodology by funneling Project, Azure Boards, and Planner boards into its roadmap function.

      Get familiar with the Microsoft product offerings for project management

      A diagram of Microsoft products and what they can help accomplish in Personal and Team Project Management. Products listed include 'Project Desktop Client', 'Project Online', 'SharePoint', 'Power Platform', 'Azure DevOps', 'Project for the web', Project Roadmap', 'Project Home', and 'Project Server'. See the next slide for more details on personal and team project management as modes of working.

      Download the M365 Project Management Tool Guide

      Project Management

      Orchestrating the delivery of project work

      • Who does it?
        • Project managers
      • What is it?
        • Individual project managers developing project plans and schedules in the MS Project Desktop Client
      • When is it done?
        • Throughout the lifecycle of the project
      • Where is it done?
        • Digital location
      • How is it done?
        • Used by individual project managers to develop and manage project plans.
        • Common approaches may or may not involve reconciliation of resource capacity through integration with Active Directory.
        • Sometimes usage norms are established by organizational project management governance standards, though individual use of the desktop client is largely ungoverned.

      Microsoft differentiator:

      For better or worse, Microsoft’s core solution is veritably synonymous with project management itself and has formally contributed to the definition of the project management space.

      Project Portfolio Management Overview

      Optimize what you’re already using and get familiar with the Power Platform.

      What does PPM look like within M365?

      • The Office suite in the Microsoft 365 suite boasts the world’s most widely used application for the purposes of abstracted and strategic PPM: Excel. For the purposes of PPM, Excel is largely implemented in a suboptimal fashion, and as a result, organizations fail to gain PPM adoption and maturation through its use.
      • Until very recently, Microsoft toolset did not explicitly address abstracted PPM needs.
      • However, with the latest version of M365 and Project for the web, Microsoft is boasting of renewed PPM capabilities from its toolset. These capabilities are largely facilitated through what Microsoft is calling its Power Platform (i.e. a suite of products that includes Power, Power Apps, and Power Automate).

      Explore the Microsoft product offering for abstracted project portfolio management

      A diagram of Microsoft products for 'Adaptive or Abstracted Portfolio Management'. Products listed include 'Excel', 'MS Lists', 'Forms', 'Teams', and the 'Power Platform' products 'Power BI', 'Power Apps', and 'Power Automate'. See the next slide for more details on adaptive or abstracted portfolio management as a mode of working.

      Download the M365 Project Portfolio Management Tool Guide

      Project Portfolio Management

      Doing the right projects, at the right time, with the right resources

      • Who does it?
        • PMO directors; portfolio managers
      • What is it?
        A strategic approach to approving, prioritizing, resourcing, and reporting on projects using applications in M365 and Project for the web. In distinction to enterprise PPM, a top-down or abstracted approach is applied, meaning PPM data is not tied to project task details.
      • Where is it done?
        • Digital tool, either homegrown or commercial
      • How is it done?
        • Currently in M365, PPM approaches are largely self-developed, though Microsoft Gold Partners are commonly involved.
        • User norms are still evolving, along with the software’s (Project for the web) function.

      Microsoft differentiator:

      Integration between Project for the web and Power Apps allows for custom approaches.

      Project Portfolio Management Overview

      Microsoft’s legacy project management toolset has contributed to the definition of traditional or enterprise PPM space.

      A robust and intensive bottom-up approach that requires task level roll-ups from projects to inform portfolio level data. For this model to work, reconciliation of individual resource capacity must be universal and perpetually current.

      If your organization has low or no maturity with PPM, this approach will be tough to make successful.

      In fact, most organizations under adopt the tools required to effectively operate with the traditional project portfolio management. Once adopted and operationalized, this combination of tools gives the executives the most precise view of the current state of projects within the portfolio.

      Explore the Microsoft product offering for enterprise project portfolio management

      A diagram of Microsoft products for 'Enterprise or Traditional Portfolio Management'. Products listed include 'Project Desktop Client', 'SharePoint', 'Project Online', 'Azure DevOps', 'Project Roadmaps', and 'Project Home'. See the next slide for more details on this as a mode of working.

      Download the M365 Project Portfolio Management Tool Guide

      Enterprise Project and Portfolio Management

      Bottom-up approach to managing the project portfolio

      • Who does it?
        • PMO and ePMO directors; portfolio managers
        • Project managers
      • What is it?
        • A strategic approach to approving, prioritizing, resourcing, and reporting on projects using applications in M365 and Project for the web. In distinction to enterprise PPM, a top-down or abstracted approach is applied, meaning PPM data is not tied to project task details.
      • Where is it done?
        • Digital tool that is usually commercial.
      • How is it done?
        • Microsoft Gold Partner involvement is highly likely in successful implementations.
        • Usage norms are long established and customized solutions are prevalent.
        • To be successful, use must be highly governed.
        • Reconciliation of individual resource capacity must be universal and perpetually current.

      Microsoft differentiator:

      Microsoft’s established network of Gold Partners helps to make this deployment a viable option.

      Assess your current tool ecosystem across work management categories

      Use Info-Tech’s Tool Audit Workbook to assess the value and satisfaction for the work management tools currently in use.

      • With the modes of working in mind that have been addressed in the previous slides and in Info-Tech’s Tool Guides, the activity slides ahead encourage you to engage your wider organization to determine all of the ways of working across individuals and teams.
      • Depending on the scope of your work management optimization, these engagements may be limited to IT or may extend to the business.
      • Use Info-Tech’s Tool Audit Workbook to help you gather and make sense of the tool data you collect. The result of this activity is to gain insight into the tools that drive value and fail to drive value across your work management categories with a view to streamline the organization’s tool ecosystem.

      Download Info-Tech’s Tool Audit Workbook

      Sample of Info-Tech's Tool Audit Workbook.

      1.2.1 Compile list of tools

      1-3 hours

      Input: Information on tools used to complete task, project, and portfolio tasks

      Output: Analyzed list of tools

      Materials: Whiteboard/Flip Charts, Tool Audit Workbook

      Participants: Portfolio Manager (PMO Director), PMO Admin Team, Project Managers, Business Stakeholders

      1. Identify the stakeholder groups that are in scope. For each group that you’ve identified, brainstorm the different tools and artifacts that are necessary to get the task, project, and project portfolio management functions done.
      2. Make sure to record the tool name and specify its category (standard document, artifact, homegrown solution, or commercial solution).
      3. Think about and discuss how often the tool is being used for each use case across the organization. Document whether its use is required. Then assess reporting functionality, data accuracy, and cost.
      4. Lastly, give a satisfaction rating for each use case.

      Excerpt from the Tool Audit Workbook

      Excerpt from Info-Tech's Tool Audit Workbook on compiling tools.

      1.2.1 Review dashboard

      1-3 hours

      Input: List of key PPM decision points, List of who is accountable for PPM decisions, List of who has PPM decision-making authority

      Output: Prioritized list of PPM decision-making support needs

      Materials: Whiteboard/Flip Charts, Tool Audit Workbook

      Participants: Portfolio Manager (PMO Director), PMO Admin Team, CIO

      Discuss the outputs of the Dashboards tab to inform your decision maker on whether to pass or fail the tool for each use case.

      Sample of a BI dashboard used to evaluate the usefulness of tools. Written notes include: 'Slice the data based on stakeholder group, tool, use case, and category', and 'Review the results of the questionnaire by comparing cost and satisfaction'.

      1.2.1 Execute final audit

      1 hour

      Input: List of key PPM decision points, List of who is accountable for PPM decisions, List of who has PPM decision-making authority

      Output: Prioritized list of PPM decision-making support needs

      Materials: Whiteboard/Flip Charts, Tool Audit Workbook

      Participants: Portfolio Manager (PMO Director), PMO Admin Team, CIO

      1. Using the information available, schedule time with the leadership team to present the results.
      2. Identify the accountable party to make the final decision on what current tools pass or fail the final audit.
      3. Mind the gap presented by the failed tools and look to possibilities within the M365 and Microsoft Project suite. For each tool that is deemed unsatisfactory for the future state, mark it as “Fail” in column O on tab 2 of the Tool Audit Workbook. This will ensure the item shows in the “Fail” column on tab 4 of the tool when you refresh the data.
      4. For each of the tools that “fail” your audit and that you’re going to make recommendations to rationalize in a future state, try to capture the annual total current-state spending on licenses, and the work modes the tool currently supports (i.e. task, project, and/or portfolio management).
      5. Additionally, start to think about future-state replacements for each tool within or outside of the M365/MS Project platforms. As we move forward to finalize your action plan in the last phase of this blueprint, we will capture and present this information to key stakeholders.

      Document your goals, needs, and constraints before proceeding

      Use Info-Tech’s Force Field Analysis Tool to help weigh goals and needs against risks and constraints associated with a work management change.

      • Now that you have discussed the organization’s ways of working and assessed its tool landscape – and made some initial decisions on some tool options that might need to change across that landscape – gather key stakeholders to define (a) why a change is needed at this time and (b) to document some of the risks and constraints associated with changing.
      • Info-Tech’s Force Field Analysis Tool can be used to capture these data points. It takes an organizational change management approach and asks you to consider the positive and negative forces associated with a work management tool change at this time.
      • The slides ahead walk you through a force field analysis activity and help you to navigate the relevant tabs in the Tool.

      Download Info-Tech's Force Field Analysis Tool

      Sample of Info-Tech's Force Field Analysis Tool.

      1.2.1 Identify goals and needs (1 of 2)

      Use tab 1 of the Force Field Analysis Workbook to assess goals and needs.

      30 minutes

      Input: Opportunities associated with determining the use case for Microsoft Project and M365 in your organization

      Output: Plotted opportunities based on probability and impact

      Materials: Whiteboard/Flip Charts, Force Field Analysis Tool

      Participants: Portfolio Manager (PMO Director), PMO Admin Team, Project Managers

      1. Brainstorm opportunities associated with exploring and/or implementing Microsoft Project and the Microsoft 365 suite of products for task, project, and project portfolio management.
      2. Document relevant opportunities in tab 1 of the Force Field Analysis Tool. For each driving force for the change (note: a driving force can include goals and needs) that is identified, provide a category that explains why the driving force is a concern (i.e. with this force is the organization looking to mature, integrate, scape, or accelerate?).
      3. In addition, assess the ease of achieving or realizing each goal or need and the impact of realizing them on the PMO and/or the organization.
      4. See the next slide for a screenshot that helps you navigate tab 1 of the Tool.

      Download the Force Field Analysis Tool

      1.2.1 Identify goals and needs (2 of 2)

      Screenshot of tab 1 of the Force Field Analysis Workbook.

      Screenshot of tab 1 of the Force Field Analysis Workbook. There are five columns referred to as columns B through F with the headings 'Opportunities', 'Category', 'Source', 'Ease of Achieving', and 'Impact on PMO/Organization'.

      In column B on tab 1, note the specific opportunities the group would like to call out.

      In column C, categorize the goal or need being articulated by the list of drop-down options: will it accelerate the time to benefit? Will it help to integrate systems and data sources? Will it mature processes and the organization overall? Will it help to scale across the organization? Choose the option that best aligns with the opportunity.

      In column D, categorize the source of the goal or need as internal or external.

      In column E, use the drop-down menus to indicate the ease of realizing each goal or need for the organization. Will it be relatively easy to manifest or will there be complexities to implementing it?

      In column F, use the drop-down menus to indicate the positive impact of realizing or achieving each need on the PMO and/or the organization.

      On tab 3 of the Force Field Analysis Workbook, your inputs on tab 1 are summarized in graphical form from columns B to G. On tab 3, these goals and needs results are contrasted with your inputs on tab 2 (see next slide).

      1.2.2 Identify risk and constraints (1 of 2)

      Use tab 2 of the Force Field Analysis Workbook to assess opposing forces to change.

      30 minutes

      Input: Risks associated with determining the use case for Microsoft Project and M365 in your organization

      Output: Plotted risks based on probability and impact

      Materials: Whiteboard/Flip Charts, Force Field Analysis Tool

      Participants: Portfolio Manager (PMO Director), PMO Admin Team, Project Managers

      1. With the same working group from 1.2.1, brainstorm risks, constraints, and other opposing forces pertaining to your potential future state.
      2. Document relevant opposing forces in tab 2 of the Force Field Analysis Tool. For each opposing force for the change (note: a driving force can include goals and needs) that is identified, provide a category that explains why the opposing force is a concern (i.e. will it impact or is it impacted by time, resources, maturity, budget, or culture?).
      3. In addition, assess the likelihood of the risk or constraint coming to light and the negative impact of it coming to light for your proposed change.
      4. See the next slide for a screenshot that helps you navigate tab 2 of the Force Field Analysis Tool.

      Download the Force Field Analysis Tool

      1.2.2 Identify risk and constraints (2 of 2)

      Screenshot of tab 2 of the Force Field Analysis Workbook.

      Screenshot of tab 2 of the Force Field Analysis Workbook. There are five columns referred to as columns B through F with the headings 'Risks and Constraints', 'Category', 'Source', 'Likelihood of Constraint/Risk/Resisting Force Being Felt', and 'Impact to Derailing Goals and Needs'.

      In column B on tab 2, note the specific risks and constraints the group would like to call out.

      In column C, categorize the risk or constraint being articulated by the list of drop-down options: will it impact or is it impacted by time, resources, budget, culture or maturity?

      In column D, categorize the source of the goal or need as internal or external.

      In column E, use the drop-down menus to indicate the likelihood of each risk or constraint materializing during your implementation. Will it definitely occur or is there just a small chance it could come to light?

      In column F, use the drop-down menus to indicate the negative impact of the risk or constraint to achieving your goals and needs.

      On tab 3 of the Force Field Analysis Workbook, your inputs on tab 2 are summarized in graphical form from columns I to N. On tab 3, your risk and constraint results are contrasted with your inputs on tab 1 to help you gauge the relative weight of driving vs. opposing forces.

      Step 1.2

      Explore the Microsoft Project Plans and their capabilities

      Activities

      • 1.1.1 Review the Microsoft 365 licensing features
      • 1.1.2 Explore the Microsoft Project Plan licenses
      • 1.1.3 Prepare a needs assessment for Microsoft 365 and Project Plan licenses

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Review the suite of task management, project management, and project portfolio management options available in Microsoft 365.
      • Prepare a preliminary checklist of required M365 apps for your stakeholders.

      This step usually involves the following participants:

      • PMO/Portfolio Manager
      • Project Managers
      • CIO and other executive stakeholders
      • Other project portfolio stakeholders (project and IT workers)

      Outcomes of Step

      • Preliminary requirements for an M365 project management and project portfolio management tool implementation

      Microsoft recently revamped its project plans to balance its old and new tech

      Access to the new tech, Project for the web, comes with all license types, while Project Online Professional and Premium licenses have been revamped as P3 and P5.

      Navigating Microsoft licensing is never easy, and Project for the web has further complicated licensing needs for project professionals.

      As we’ll cover in step 2.1 of this blueprint, Project for the web can be extended beyond its base lightweight work management functionality using the Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI). Depending on the scope of your implementation, this can require additional Power Platform licensing.

      • In this step, we will help you understand the basics of what’s already included in your enterprise M365 licensing as well as what’s new in Microsoft’s recent Project licensing plans (P1, P3, and P5).
      • As we cover toward the end of this step, you can use Info-Tech’s MS Project and M365 Licensing Tool to help you understand your plan and licensing needs. Further assistance on licensing can be found in the Task, Project, and Portfolio Management Tool Guides that accompany this blueprint and Info-Tech’s Modernize Your Microsoft Licensing for the Cloud Era.

      Download Info-Tech’s Modernize Your Microsoft Licensing for the Cloud Era

      Licensing features for knowledge workers

      Please note that licensing packages are frequently subject to change. This is up to date as of August 2021. For the most up-to-date information on licensing, visit the Microsoft website.

      Bundles are extremely common and can be more cost effective than à la carte options for the Microsoft products.

      The biggest differentiator between M365 and O365 is that the M365 product also includes Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility and Security.

      The color coding in the diagram indicates that the same platform/application suite is available.

      Platform or Application M365 E3 M365 E5 O365 E1 O365 E3 O365 E5
      Microsoft Forms X X X X X
      Microsoft Lists X X X X X
      OneDrive X X X X X
      Planner X X X X X
      Power Apps for Office 365 X X X X X
      Power Automate for Office X X X X X
      Power BI Pro X X
      Power Virtual Agents for Teams X X X X X
      SharePoint X X X X X
      Stream X X X X X
      Sway X X X X X
      Teams X X X X X
      To Do X X X X X

      Get familiar with Microsoft Project Plan 1

      Please note that licensing packages are frequently subject to change. This is up to date as of August 2021. For the most up to date information on licensing, visit the Microsoft website.

      Who is a good fit?

      • New project managers
      • Zero-allocation project managers
      • Individuals and organizations who want to move out of Excel into something less fragile (easily breaking formulas)

      What does it include?

      • Access to Project Home, a landing page to access all project plans you’ve created or have been assigned to.
      • Access to Grid View, Board View, and Timeline (Gantt) View to plan and manage your projects with Project for the web
      • Sharing Project for the web plans across Microsoft Teams channels
      • Co-authoring on project plans

      When does it make sense?

      • Lightweight project management
      • No process to use bottom-up approach for resourcing data
      • Critical-path analysis is not required
      • Organization does not have an appetite for project management rigor

      Get familiar with Microsoft Project Plan 3

      Please note that licensing packages are frequently subject to change. This is up to date as of August 2021. For the most up to date information on licensing, visit the Microsoft website.

      Who is a good fit?

      • Experienced and dedicated project managers
      • Organizations with complex projects
      • Large project teams are required to complete project work
      • Organizations have experience using project management software

      What does it include?

      Everything in Project Plan 1 plus the following:

      • Reporting through Power BI Report template apps (note that there are no pre-built reports for Project for the web)
      • Access to build a Roadmap of projects from Project for the web and Azure DevOps with key milestones, statuses, and deadlines
      • Project Online to submit and track timesheets for project teams
      • MS Project Desktop Client to support resource management

      When does it make sense?

      • Project management is an established discipline at the organization
      • Critical-path analysis is commonly used
      • Organization has some appetite for project management rigor
      • Resources are expected to submit timesheets to allow for more precise resource management data

      Get familiar with Microsoft Project Plan 5

      Please note that licensing packages are frequently subject to change. This is up to date as of August 2021. For the most up to date information on licensing, visit the Microsoft website.

      Who is a good fit?

      • Experienced and dedicated project managers
      • Experienced and dedicated PMO directors
      • Dedicated portfolio managers
      • Organizations proficient at sustaining data in a standard tool

      What does it include?

      Everything in Project Plan 3 plus the following:

      • Portfolio selection and optimization
      • Demand management
      • Enterprise resource planning and management through deterministic task and resource scheduling
      • MS Project Desktop Client to support resource management

      When does it make sense?

      • Project management is a key success factor at the organization
      • Organization employs a bottom-up approach for resourcing data
      • Critical-path analysis is required
      • Formal project portfolio management processes are well established
      • The organization is willing to either put in the time, energy, and resources to learn to configure the system through DIY or is willing to leverage a Microsoft Partner to help them do so

      What’s included in each plan (1 of 2)

      Plan details are up to date as of September 2021. Plans and pricing can change often. Visit the Microsoft website to validate plan options and get pricing details.
      MS Project Capabilities Info-Tech's Editorial Description P1 P3 P5
      Project Home Essentially a landing page that allows you to access all the project plans you've created or that you're assigned to. It amalgamates plans created in Project for the web, the Project for the web app in Power Apps, and Project Online. X X X
      Grid view One of three options in which to create your project plans in Project for the web (board view and timeline view are the other options). You can switch back and forth between the options. X X X
      Board view One of three options in which to create your project plans in Project for the web (grid view and timeline view are the other options). You can switch back and forth between the options. X X X
      Timeline (Gantt) view One of three options in which to create your project plans in Project for the web (board view and grid view are the other options). You can switch back and forth between the options. X X X
      Collaboration and communication This references the ability to add Project for the web project plans to Teams channels. X X X
      Coauthoring Many people can have access to the same project plan and can update tasks. X X X
      Project planning and scheduling For this the marketing lingo says "includes familiar scheduling tools to assign project tasks to team members and use different views like Grid, Board, and Timeline (Gantt chart) to oversee the schedule." Unclear how this is different than the project plans in the three view options above. X X X

      X - Functionality Included in Plan

      O - Functionality Not Included in Plan

      What’s included in each plan (2 of 2)

      Plan details are up to date as of September 2021. Plans and pricing can change often. Visit the Microsoft website to validate plan options and get pricing details.
      MS Project Capabilities Info-Tech's Editorial Description P1 P3 P5
      Reporting This seems to reference Excel reports and the Power BI Report Template App, which can be used if you're using Project Online. There are no pre-built reports for Project for the web, but third-party Power Apps are available. O X X
      Roadmap Roadmap is a platform that allows you to take one or more projects from Project for the web and Azure DevOps and create an organizational roadmap. Once your projects are loaded into Roadmap you can perform additional customizations like color status reporting and adding key days and milestones. O X X
      Timesheet submission Project Online and Server 2013 and 2016 allow team members to submit timesheets if the functionality is required. O X X
      Resource management The rich MS Project client supports old school, deterministic project scheduling at the project level. O X X
      Desktop client The full desktop client comes with P3 and P5, where it acts as the rich editor for project plans. The software enjoys a multi-decade market dominance as a project management tool but was never paired with an enterprise collaboration server engine that enjoyed the same level of success. O X X
      Portfolio selection and optimization Portfolio selection and optimization has been offered as part of the enterprise project and portfolio suite for many years. Most people taking advantage of this capability have used a Microsoft Partner to formalize and operationalize the feature. O O X
      Demand Management Enterprise demand management is targeted at the most rigorous of project portfolio management practices. Most people taking advantage of this capability have used a Microsoft Partner to formalize and operationalize the feature. O O X
      Enterprise resource planning and management The legacy MS Project Online/Server platform supports enterprise-wide resource capacity management through an old-school, deterministic task and resource scheduling engine, assuming scaled-out deployment of Active Directory. Most people succeeding with this capability have used a Microsoft Partner to formalize and operationalize the feature. O O X

      X - Functionality Included in Plan

      O - Functionality Not Included in Plan

      Use Info-Tech’s MS Project and M365 Licensing Tool

      Leverage the analysis in Info-Tech’s MS Project & M365 Licensing Tool to help inform your initial assumptions about what you need and how much to budget for it.

      • The Licensing Tool can help you determine what Project Plan licensing different user groups might need as well as additional Power Platform licensing that may be required.
      • It consists of four main tabs: two set-up tabs where you can validate the plan and pricing information for M365 and MS Project; an analysis tab where you set up your user groups and follow a survey to assess their Project Plan needs; and another analysis tab where you can document your Power Platform licensing needs across your user groups.
      • There is also a business case tab that breaks down your total licensing needs. The outputs of this tab can be used in your MS Project & M365 Action Plan Template, which we will help you develop in phase three of this blueprint.

      Download Info-Tech's Microsoft Project & M365 Licensing Tool

      Sample of Info-Tech's Microsoft Project and M365 Licensing Tool.

      1.2.1 Conduct a needs assessment

      1-2 hours

      Input: List of key user groups/profiles, Number of users and current licenses

      Output: List of Microsoft applications/capabilities included with each license, Analysis of user group needs for Microsoft Project Plan licenses

      Materials: Microsoft Project & 365 Licensing Tool

      Participants: Portfolio Manager (PMO Director), PMO Admin Team, Project Managers

      1. As a group, analyze the applications included in your current or desired 365 license and calculate any additional Power Platform licensing needs.
      2. Screenshot of the 'Application/Capabilities' screen from the 'Microsoft Project and M365 Licensing Tool'.
      3. Within the same group, use the drop-down menus to analyze your high-level MS Project requirements by selecting whether each capability is necessary or not.
      4. Your inputs to the needs assessment will determine the figures in the Business Case tab. Consider exporting this information to PDF or other format to distribute to stakeholders.
      5. Screenshot of the 'Business Case' tab from the 'Microsoft Project and M365 Licensing Tool'.

      Download Info-Tech's Microsoft Project & M365 Licensing Tool

      Step 1.3

      Assess the maturity of your current PM & PPM capabilities

      Activities

      • Assess current state project and project portfolio management processes and tools
      • Determine target state project and project portfolio management processes and tools

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Assess current state project and project portfolio management processes and tools
      • Determine target state project and project portfolio management processes and tools

      This step usually involves the following participants:

      • PMO/Portfolio Manager
      • Project Managers
      • CIO and other executive stakeholders
      • Other project portfolio stakeholders (project and IT workers)

      Outcomes of Step

      • Current and target state maturity for project management and project portfolio management processes

      Project portfolio management and project management are more than tools

      Implementing commercial tools without a matching level of process discipline is a futile exercise, leaving organizations frustrated at the wasted time and money.

      • The tool is only as good as the data that is input. There is often a misunderstanding that a tool will be “automatic.” While it is true that a tool can help make certain processes easier and more convenient by aggregating information, enhancing reporting, and coauthoring, it will not make up the data. If data becomes stale, the tool is no longer valid for accurate decision making.
      • Getting people onboard and establishing a clear process is often the hardest part. As IT folk, it can be easy to get wrapped up in the technology. All too often excitement around tools can drown out the important requisites around people and process. The reality is people and process are a necessary condition for a tool to be successful. Having a tool will not be sufficient to overcome obstacles like poor stakeholder buy-in, inadequate governance, and the absence of a standard operating procedure.

      • Slow is the way to go. When deciding what tools to purchase, start small and scale up rather than going all in and all too often ending up with many unused features and fees.

      "There's been a chicken-egg debate raging in the PPM world for decades: What comes first, the tool or the process? It seems reasonable to say, ‘We don't have a process now, so we'll just adopt the one in the tool.’ But you'll soon find out that the tool doesn't have a process, and you needed to do more planning and analysis before buying the tool." (Barry Cousins, Practice Lead, Project Portfolio Management)

      Assess your process maturity to determine the right tool approach

      Take the time to consider and reflect on the current and target state of the processes for project portfolio management and project management.

      Project Portfolio Management

      • Status and Progress Reporting
        1. Intake, Approval, and Prioritization

          PPM is the practice of selecting the right projects and ensuring the organization has the necessary resources to complete them. PPM should enable executive decision makers to make sense of the excess of demand and give IT the ability to prioritize those projects that are most valuable to the business.
        2. Resource Management

        3. Project Management

          1. Initiation
          2. Planning
          3. Execution
          4. Monitoring and Controlling
          5. Closing
          Tailor a project management framework to fit your organization. Formal methodologies aren’t always the best fit. Take what you can use from formal frameworks and define a right-sized approach to your project management processes.
        4. Project Closure

        5. Benefits Tracking

      Info-Tech’s maturity assessment tools can help you match your tools to your maturity level

      Use Info-Tech’s Project Portfolio Management Maturity Assessment Tool and Project Management Maturity Assessment Tool.

      • The next few slides in this step take you through using our maturity assessment tools to help gauge your current-state and target-state maturity levels for project management (PM) and project portfolio management (PPM).
      • In addition to the process maturity assessments, these workbooks also help you document current-state support tools and desired target-state tools.
      • The outputs of these workbooks can be used in your MS Project & M365 Action Plan Template, which we will help you develop in phase three of this blueprint.

      Download Info-Tech’s Project Portfolio Management Maturity Assessment Tool and Project Management Maturity Assessment Tool

      Samples of Info-Tech's Project Portfolio Management Maturity Assessment Tool and Project Management Maturity Assessment Tool.

      Conduct a gap analysis survey for both project and project portfolio management.

      • Review the category and activity statements: For each gap analysis tab in the maturity assessments, use the comprehensive activity statements to identify gaps for the organization.
      • Assess the current state: To assess the current state, evaluate whether the statement should be labeled as:
        • Absent: There is no evidence of any activities supporting this process.
        • Initial: Activity is ad hoc and not well defined.
        • Defined: Activity is established and there is moderate adherence to its execution.
        • Repeatable: Activity is established, documented, repeatable, and integrated with other phases of the process.
        • Managed: Activity execution is tracked by gathering qualitative and quantitative feedback

      Once this is documented, take some time to describe the type of tool being used to do this (commercial, home-grown, standardized document) and provide additional details, where applicable.

      Define the target state: Repeat the assessment of activity statements for the target state. Then gauge the organizational impact and complexity of improving each capability on a scale of very low to very high.

      Excerpt from Info-Tech's Project Portfolio Management Maturity Assessment Tool, the 'PPM Current State Target State Maturity Assessment Survey'. It has five columns whose purpose is denoted in notes. Column 1 'Category within the respective discipline'; Column 2 'Statement to consider'; Column 3 'Select the appropriate answer for current and target state'; Column 4 'Define the tool type'; Column 5 'Provide addition detail about the tool'.

      Analyze survey results for project and project portfolio management maturity

      Take stock of the gap between current state and target state.

      • What process areas have the biggest gap between current and target state?
      • What areas are aligned across current and target state?

      Identify what areas are currently the least and most mature.

      • What process area causes the most pain in the organization?
      • What process area is the organization’s lowest priority?

      Note the overall current process maturity.

      • After having done this exercise, does the overall maturity come as a surprise?
      • If so, what are some of the areas that were previously overlooked?
      A table and bar graph documenting and analysis of maturity survey results. The table has four columns labelled 'Process Area', 'Current Process Completeness', 'Current Maturity Level', and 'Target State Maturity'. Rows headers in the 'Process Area' column are 'Intake, Approval, and Prioritization', 'Resource Management', 'Portfolio Reporting', 'Project Closure and Benefits Realization', 'Portfolio Administration', and finally 'Overall Maturity'. The 'Current Process Completeness' column's values are in percentages. The 'Current Maturity Level' and 'Target State Maturity' columns' values can be one of the following: 'Absent', 'Initial', 'Defined', 'Repeatable', or 'Managed'. The bar chart visualizes the levels of the 'Target State' and 'Current State' with 'Absent' from 0-20%, 'Initial' from 20-40%, 'Defined' from 40-60%, 'Repeatable' from 60-80%, and 'Managed' from 80-100%.
      • Identify process areas with low levels of maturity
      • Spot areas of inconsistency between current and target state.
      • Assess the overall gap to get a sense of the magnitude of the effort required to get to the target state.
      • 100% doesn’t need to be the goal. Set a goal that is sustainable and always consider the value to effort ratio.

      Screenshot your results and put them into the MS Project and M365 Action Plan Template.

      Review the tool overview and plan to address gaps (tabs 3 & 4)

      Tool Overview:

      Analyze the applications used to support your project management and project portfolio management processes.

      Look for:

      • Tools that help with processes across the entire PM or PPM lifecycle.
      • Tools that are only used for one specific process.

      Reflect on the overlap between process areas with pain points and the current tools being used to complete this process.

      Consider the sustainability of the target-state tool choice

      Screenshot of a 'Tool Overview' table. Chart titled 'Current-to-Target State Supporting Tools by PPM Activity' documenting the current and target states of different supporting tools by PPM Activity. Tools listed are 'N/A', 'Standardized Document', 'Homegrown Tool', and 'Commercial Tool'.

      You have the option to create an action plan for each of the areas of improvement coming out of your maturity assessment.

      This can include:

      • Tactical Optimization Action: What is the main action needed to improve capability?
      • Related Actions: Is there a cross-over with any actions for other capabilities?
      • Timeframe: Is this near-term, mid-term, or long-term?
      • Proposed Start Date
      • Proposed Go-Live Date
      • RACI: Who will be responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed?
      • Status: What is the status of this action item over time?

      Determine the Future of Microsoft Project for Your Organization

      Phase 2: Weigh Your Implementation Options

      Phase 1: Determine Your Tool Needs

      Phase 2: Weigh Your Implementation Options

      Phase 3: Finalize Your Implementation Approach
      • Step 1.1: Survey the M365 work management landscape
      • Step 1.2: Perform a process maturity assessment to help inform your M365 starting point
      • Step 1.3: Consider the right MS Project licenses for your stakeholders
      • Step 2.1: Get familiar with extending Project for the web using Power Apps
      • Step 2.2: Assess the MS Gold Partner Community
      • Step 3.1: Prepare an action plan

      Phase Outcomes

      • A decision on how best to proceed (or not proceed) with Project for the web
      • A Partner outreach plan

      Step 2.1

      Get familiar with extending Project for the web using Power Apps

      Activities

      • Get familiar with Project for the web: how it differs from Microsoft’s traditional project offerings and where it is going
      • Understand the basics of how to extend Project for the web in Power Apps
      • Perform a feasibility test

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Get familiar with Project for the web
      • Understand the basics of how to extend Project for the web in Power Apps
      • Perform a feasibility test to determine if taking a DIY approach to extending Project for the web is right for your organization currently

      This step usually involves the following participants:

      • Portfolio Manager (PMO Director)
      • Project Managers
      • Other relevant PMO stakeholders

      Outcomes of Step

      • A decision on how best to proceed (or not proceed) with Project for the web

      Project for the web is the latest of Microsoft’s project management offerings

      What is Project for the web?

      • First introduced in 2019 as Project Service, Project for the web (PFTW) is Microsoft’s entry into the world of cloud-based work management and lightweight project management options.
      • Built on the Power Platform and leveraging the Dataverse for data storage, PFTW integrates with the many applications that M365 users are already employing in their day-to-day work management and collaboration activities.
      • It is available as a part of your M365 subscription with the minimum activation of P1 license – it comes with P3 and P5 licenses as well.
      • From a functionality and user experience perspective, PFTW is closer to applications like Planner or Azure Boards than it is to traditional MS Project options.

      What does it do?

      • PFTW allows for task and dependency tracking and basic timeline creation and scheduling and offers board and grid view options. It also allows real-time coauthoring of tasks among team members scheduled to the same project.
      • PFTW also comes with a product/functionality Microsoft calls Roadmap, which allows users to aggregate multiple project timelines into a single view for reporting purposes.

      What doesn't it do?

      • With PFTW, Microsoft is offering noticeably less traditional project management functionality than its existing solutions. Absent are table stakes project management capabilities like critical path, baselining, resource load balancing, etc.

      Who is it for?

      • Currently, in its base lightweight project management option, PFTW is targeted toward occasional or part-time project managers (not the PMP-certified set) tasked with overseeing and/or collaborating on small to mid-sized initiatives and projects.

      Put Project for the web in perspective

      Out of the box, PFTW occupies a liminal space when it comes to work management options

      • More than a task management tool, but not quite a full project management tool
      • Not exactly a portfolio management tool, yet some PPM reporting functionality is inherent in the PFTW through Roadmap

      The table to the right shows some of the functionality in PFTW in relation to the task management functionality of Planner and the enterprise project and portfolio management functionality of Project Online.

      Table 2.1a Planner Project for the web Project Online
      Coauthoring on Tasks X X
      Task Planning X X X
      Resource Assignments X X X
      Board Views X X X
      MS Teams Integration X X X
      Roadmap X X
      Table and Gantt Views X X
      Task Dependency Tracking X X
      Timesheets X
      Financial Planning X
      Risks and Issues Tracking X
      Program Management X
      Advanced Portfolio Management X

      Project for the web will eventually replace Project Online

      • As early as 2018 Microsoft has been foreshadowing a transition away from the SharePoint-backed Project environments of Server and Online toward something based in Common Data Service (CDS) – now rebranded as the Dataverse.
      • Indeed, as recently as the spring of 2021, at its Reimagine Project Management online event, Microsoft reiterated its plans to sunset Project Online and transition existing Online users to the new environment of Project for the web – though it provided no firm dates when this might occur.
        • The reason for this move away from Online appears to be an acknowledgment that the rigidity of the tool is awkward in our current dynamic, collaborative, and overhead-adverse work management paradigm.
        • To paraphrase a point made by George Bullock, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, for Microsoft at the Reimagine Project Management event, teams want to manage work as they see fit, but the rigidity of legacy solutions doesn’t allow for this, leading to a proliferation of tools and data sprawl. (This comment was made during the “Overview of Microsoft Project” session during the Reimagine event.)

      PFTW is Microsoft’s proposed future-state antidote to this challenge. Its success will depend on how well users are able to integrate the solution into a wider M365 work management setting.

      "We are committed to supporting our customers on Project Online and helping them transition to Project for the Web. No end-of-support has been set for Project Online, but when the time comes, we will communicate our plans on the transition path and give you plenty of advance notice." (Heather Heide, Program Manager, Microsoft Planner and Project. This comment was made during the “Overview of Microsoft Project” session during the Reimagine event.)

      Project for the web can be extended beyond its base lightweight functionality

      Project for the web can be extended to add more traditional and robust project and project portfolio management functionality using the Power Platform.

      Microsoft plans to sunset Project Online in favor of PFTW will at first be a head-scratcher for those familiar with the extensive PPM functionality in Project Online and underwhelmed by the project and portfolio management in PFTW.

      However, having built the solution upon the Power Platform, Microsoft has made it possible to take the base functionality in PFTW and extend it to create a more custom, organizationally specific user experience.

      • With a little taste of what can be done with PFTW by leveraging the Power Platform – and, in particular, Power Apps – it becomes more obvious how we, as users, can begin to evolve the base tool toward a more traditional PPM solution and how, in time, Microsoft’s developers may develop the next iteration of PFTW into something more closely resembling Project Online.

      Before users get too excited about using these tools to build a custom PPM approach, we should consider the time, effort, and skills required. The slides ahead will take you through a series of considerations to help you gauge whether your PMO is ready to go it alone in extending the solution.

      Extending the tool enhances functionality

      Table 2.1a in this step displayed the functionality in PFTW in relation to the task management tool Planner and the robust PPM functionality in Online.

      The table to the right shows how the functionality in PFTW can differ from the base solution and Project Online when it is extended using the model-driven app option in Power Apps.

      Caveat: The list of functionality and processes in this table is sample data.

      This functionality is not inherent in the solution as soon as you integrate with Power Apps. Rather it must be built – and your success in developing these functions will depend upon the time and skills you have available.

      Table 2.1b Project for the web PFTW extended with PowerApps Project Online
      Critical Path X
      Timesheets X
      Financial Planning X X
      Risks and Issues Tracking X X
      Program Management X
      Status Updates X
      Project Requests X
      Business Cases X
      Project Charters X
      Resource Planning and Capacity Management X X
      Project Change Requests X

      Get familiar with the basics of Power Apps before you decide to go it alone

      While the concept of being able to customize and grow a commercial PPM tool is enticing, the reality of low-code development and application maintenance may be too much for resource-constrained PMOs.

      Long story short: Extending PFTW in Power Apps is time consuming and can be frustrating for the novice to intermediate user.

      It can take days, even weeks, just to find your feet in Power Apps, let alone to determine requirements to start building out a custom model-driven app. The latter activity can entail creating custom columns and tables, determining relationships between tables to get required outputs, in addition to basic design activities.

      Time-strapped and resource-constrained practitioners should pause before committing to this deployment approach. To help better understand the commitment, the slides ahead cover the basics of extending PFTW in Power Apps:

      1. Dataverse environments.
      2. Navigating Power App Designer and Sitemap Designer
      3. Customizing tables and forms in the Dataverse

      See Info-Tech’s M365 Project Portfolio Management Tool Guide for more information on Power Apps in general.

      Get familiar with Power Apps licensing

      Power Apps for 365 comes with E1 through E5 M365 licenses (and F3 and F5 licenses), though additional functionality can be purchased if required.

      While extending Project for the web with Power Apps does not at this time, in normal deployments, require additional licensing from what is included in a E3 or E5 license, it is not out of the realm of possibility that a more complex deployment could incur costs not included in the Power Apps for 365 that comes with your enterprise agreement.

      The table to the right shows current additional licensing options.

      Power Apps, Per User, Per App Plan

      Per User Plan

      Cost: US$10 per user per app per month, with a daily Dataverse database capacity of 40 MB and a daily Power Platform request capacity of 1,000. Cost: US$40 per user per month, with a daily Dataverse database capacity of 250 MB and a daily Power Platform request capacity of 5,000.
      What's included? This option is marketed as the option that allows organizations to “get started with the platform at a lower entry point … [or those] that run only a few apps.” Users can run an application for a specific business case scenario with “the full capabilities of Power Apps” (meaning, we believe, that unlicensed users can still submit data via an app created by a licensed user). What's included? A per-user plan allows licensed users to run unlimited canvas apps and model-driven apps – portal apps, the licensing guide says, can be “provisioned by customers on demand.” Dataverse database limits (the 250 MB and 5,000 request capacity mentioned above) are pooled at the per tenant, not the per user plan license, capacity.

      For more on Power Apps licensing, refer to Info-Tech’s Modernize Your Microsoft Licensing for the Cloud Era for more information.

      What needs to be configured?

      Extending Project for the web requires working with your IT peers to get the right environments configured based upon your needs.

      • PFTW data is stored in the Microsoft Dataverse (formerly Common Data Service or CDS).
      • The organization’s Dataverse can be made up of one to many environments based upon its needs. Environments are individual databases with unique proprieties in terms of who can access them and what applications can store data in them.
      • Project for the web supports three different types of environments: default, production, and sandbox.
      • You can have multiple instances of a custom PFTW app deployed across these environments and across different users – and the environment you choose depends upon the use case of each instance.

      Types of Environments

      • Default Environment

        • It is the easiest to deploy and get started with the PFTW Power App in the default environment. However, it is also the most restricted environment with the least room for configuration.
        • Microsoft recommends this environment for simple deployments or for projects that span the organization. This is because everyone in the organization is by default a member of this environment – and, with the least room for configuration, the app is relatively straightforward.
        • At minimum, you need one project license to deploy PFTW in the default environment.
      • Production Environment

        • This environment affords more flexibility for how a custom app can be configured and deployed. Unlike the default environment, deploying a production environment is a manual process (through the Power Platform Admin Center) and security roles need to be set to limit users who can access the environment.
        • Because users can be limited, production environments can be used to support more advanced deployments and can support diverse processes for different teams.
        • At present, you need at least five Project licenses to deploy to production environments.
      • Sandbox Environment

        • This environment is for users who are responsible for the creation of custom apps. It offers the same functionality as a production environment but allows users to make changes without jeopardizing a production environment.

      Resources to provide your IT colleagues with to help in your PFTW deployment:

      1. Project for the web admin help (Product Documentation, Microsoft)
      2. Advanced deployment for Project for the web (Video, Microsoft)
      3. Get Started with Project Power App (Product Support Documentation, Microsoft)
      4. Project for the Web Security Roles (Product Support Documentation, Microsoft)

      Get started creating or customizing a model-driven app

      With the proper environments procured, you can now start extending Project for the web.

      • Navigate to the environment you would like to extend PFTW within. For the purposes of the slides ahead, we’ll be using a sandbox environment for an example. Ensure you have the right access set up for production and sandbox environments of your own (see links on previous slide for more assistance).
      • To begin extending PFTW, the two core features you need to be familiar with before you start in Power Apps are (1) Tables/Entities and (2) the Power Apps Designer – and in particular the Site Map.

      From the Power Apps main page in 365, you can change your environment by selecting from the options in the top right-hand corner of the screen.

      Screenshot of the Power Apps “Apps” page in a sandbox environment. The Project App will appear as “Project” when the application is installed, though it is also easy to create an app from scratch.

      Model-driven apps are built around tables

      In Power Apps, tables (formerly called entities and still referred to as entities in the Power Apps Designer) function much like tables in Excel: they are containers of columns of data for tracking purposes. Tables define the data for your app, and you build your app around them.

      In general, there are three types of tables:

      • Standard: These are out-of-the box tables included with a Dataverse environment. Most standard tables can be customized.
      • Managed: These are tables that get imported into an environment as part of a managed solution. Managed tables cannot be customized.
      • Custom: These types of tables can either be imported from another solution or created directly in the Dataverse environment. To create custom tables, users need to have System Administrator or System Customizer security roles within the Dataverse.

      Tables can be accessed under Data banner on the left-hand panel of your Power Apps screen.

      The below is a list of standard tables that can be used to customize your Project App.

      A screenshot of the 'Data' banner in 'Power Apps' and a list of table names.

      Table Name

      Display Name

      msdyn_project Project
      msdyn_projectchange Change
      msdyn_projectprogram Program
      msdyn_projectrequest Request
      msdyn_projectrisk Risk
      msdyn_projectissue Issue
      msdyn_projectstatusreport Status

      App layouts are designed in the Power App Designer

      You configure tables with a view to using them in the design of your app in the Power Apps Designer.

      • If you’re customizing a Project for the web app manually installed into your production or sandbox environment, you can access Designer by highlighting the app from your list of apps on the Apps page and clicking “Edit” in the ribbon above.
        • If you’re creating a model-driven app from scratch, Designer will open past the “Create a New App” intro screen.
        • If you need to create separate apps in your environment for different PMOs or business units, it is as easy to create an app from scratch as it is to customize the manual install.
      • The App Designer is where you can design the layout of your model-driven app and employ the right data tables.
      Screenshot of the 'App Designer' screen in 'Power Apps'.

      The Site Map determines the navigation for your app, i.e. it is where you establish the links and pages users will navigate. We will review the basics of the sitemap on the next few slides.

      The tables that come loaded into your Project Power App environment (at this time, 37) via the manual install will appear in the Power Apps Designer in the Entity View pane at the bottom of the page. You do not have to use all of them in your design.

      Navigate the Sitemap Designer

      With the components of the previous two slides in mind, let’s walk through how to use them together in the development of a Project app.

      As addressed in the previous slide, the sitemap determines the navigation for your app, i.e. it is where you establish the links and the pages that users will navigate.

      To get to the Sitemap Designer, highlight the Project App from your list of apps on the Apps page and click “Edit” in the ribbon above. If you’re creating a model-driven app from scratch, Designer will open past the “Create a New App” intro screen.

      • To start designing your app layout, click the pencil icon beside the Site Map logo on the App Designer screen.
      • This will take you into the Sitemap Designer (see screenshot to the right). This is where you determine the layout of your app and the relevant data points (and related tables from within the Dataverse) that will factor into your Project App.
      • In the Sitemap Designer, you simply drag and drop the areas, groups, and subareas you want to see in your app’s user interface (see next slide for more details).
      Screenshot of the 'Sitemap Designer' in 'Power Apps'.

      Use Areas, Groups, and Subareas as building blocks for your App

      Screenshots of the main window and the right-hand panel in the 'Sitemap Designer', and of the subarea pop-up panel where you connect components to data tables. The first two separate elements into 'Area', 'Group', and 'Subarea'.

      Drag and drop the relevant components from the panel on the right-hand side of the screen into the main window to design the core pieces that will be present within your user interface.

      For each subarea in your design, use the pop-up panel on the right-hand side of the screen to connect your component the relevant table from within your Dataverse environment.

      How do Areas, Groups, and Subareas translate into an app?

      Screenshots of the main window in the 'Sitemap Designer' and of a left-hand panel from a published 'Project App'. There are notes defining the terms 'Area', 'Group', and 'Subarea' in the context of the screenshot.

      The names or titles for your Areas and Groups can be customized within the Sitemap Designer.

      The names or titles for your Subareas is dependent upon your table name within the Dataverse.

      Area: App users can toggle the arrows to switch between Areas.

      Group: These will change to reflect the chosen Area.

      Subarea: The tables and forms associated with each subarea.

      How to properly save and publish your changes made in the Sitemap Designer and Power Apps Designer:

      1. When you are done making changes to your components within the Sitemap Designer, and want your changes to go live, hit the “Publish” button in the top right corner; when it has successfully published, select “Save and Close.”
      2. You will be taken back to the Power App Designer homepage. Hit “Save,” then “Publish,” and then finally “Play,” to go to your app or “Save and Close.”

      How to find the right tables in the Dataverse

      While you determine which tables will play into your app in the Sitemap Designer, you use the Tables link to customize tables and forms.

      Screenshots of the tables search screen and the 'Tables' page under the 'Data' banner in 'Power Apps'.

      The Tables page under the Data banner in Power Apps houses all of the tables available in your Dataverse environment. Do not be overwhelmed or get too excited. Only a small portion of the tables in the Tables folder in Power Apps will be relevant when it comes to extending PFTW.

      Find the table you would like to customize and/or employ in your app and select it. The next slides will look at customizing the table (if you need to) and designing an app based upon the table.

      To access all the tables in your environment, you’ll need to ensure your filter is set correctly on the top right-hand corner of the screen, otherwise you will only see a small portion of the tables in your Dataverse environment.

      If you’re a novice, it will take you some time to get familiar with the table structure in the Dataverse.

      We recommend you start with the list of tables listed on slide. You can likely find something there that you can use or build from for most PPM purposes.

      How to customize a table (1 of 3)

      You won’t necessarily need to customize a table, but if you do here are some steps to help you get familiar with the basics.

      Screenshot of the 'Columns' tab, open in the 'msdyn_project table' in 'Power Apps'.

      In this screenshot, we are clicked into the msdyn_project (display name: Project) table. As you can see, there are a series of tabs below the name of the table, and we are clicked into the Columns tab. This is where you can see all of the data points included in the table.

      You are not able to customize all columns. If a column that you are not able to customize does not meet your needs, you will need to create a custom column from the “+Add column” option.

      “Required” or “Optional” status pertains to when the column or field is used within your app. For customizable or custom columns this status can be set when you click into each column.

      How to customize a table (2 of 3)

      Create a custom “Status” column.

      By way of illustrating how you might need to customize a table, we’ll highlight the “msdyn_project_statecode” (display name: Project Status) column that comes preloaded in the Project (msdyn_project) table.

      • The Project Status column only gives you a binary choice. While you are able to customize what that binary choice is (it comes preloaded with “Active” and “Inactive” as the options) you cannot add additional choices – so you cannot set it to red/yellow/green, the most universally adopted options for status in the project portfolio management world.
      • Because of this, let’s look at the effort involved in creating a choice and adding a custom column to your table based upon that choice.
      Screenshots of the '+New choice' button in the 'Choices' tab and the 'New choice' pane that opens when you click it.

      From within the Choices tab, click “+New choice” option to create a custom choice.

      A pane will appear to the right of your screen. From there you can give your choice a name, and under the “Items” header, add your list of options.

      Click save. Your custom choice is now saved to the Choices tab in the Dataverse environment and can be used in your table. Further customizations can be made to your choice if need be.

      How to customize a table (3 of 3)

      Back in the Tables tab, you can put your new choice to work by adding a column to a table and selecting your custom choice.

      Screenshots of the pop-up window that appear when you click '+Add Column', and details of what happens when you select the data type 'Choice'.

      Start by selecting “+ Add Column” at the top left-hand side of your table. A window will appear on the right-hand side of the page, and you will have options to name your column and choose the data type.

      As you can see in this screenshot to the left, data type options include text, number and date types, and many more. Because we are looking to use our custom choice for this example, we are going to choose “Choice.”

      When you select “Choice” as your data type, all of the choice options available or created in your Dataverse environment will appear. Find your custom choice – in this example the one name “RYG Status” – and click done. When the window closes, be sure to select “Save Table.”

      How to develop a Form based upon your table (1 of 3 – open the form editor)

      A form is the interface users will engage with when using your Project app.

      When the Project app is first installed in your environment, the main user form will be lacking, with only a few basic data options.

      This form can be customized and additional tabs can be added to your user interface.

      1. To do this, go to the table you want to customize.
      2. In the horizontal series of tabs at the top of the screen, below the table title select the “Forms” option.
      3. Click on the main information option or select Edit Form for the form with “Main” under its form type. A new window will open where you can customize your form.
      Screenshot of the 'Forms' tab, open in the 'msdyn_project' table in 'Power Apps'.

      Select the Forms tab.

      Start with the form that has “Main” as its Format Type.

      How to develop a Form based upon your table (2 of 3 – add a component)

      Screenshot of the 'Components' window in 'Power Apps' with a list of layouts as a window to the right of the main screen where you can name and format the chosen layout.

      You can add element like columns or sections to your form by selecting the Components window.

      In this example, we are adding a 1-Column section. When you select that option from the menu options on the left of the screen, a window will open to the right of the screen where you can name and format the section.

      Choose the component you would like to add from the layout options. Depending on the table element you are looking to use, you can also add input options like number inputs and star ratings and pull in related data elements like a project timeline.

      How to develop a Form based upon your table (3 of 3 – add table columns)

      Screenshot of the 'Table Columns' window in 'Power Apps' and instructions for adding table columns.

      If you click on the “Table Columns” option on the left-hand pane, all of the column options from within your table will appear in alphabetical order.

      When clicked within the form section you would like to add the new column to, select the column from the list of option in the left-hand pane. The new data point will appear within the section. You can order and format section elements as you would like.

      When you are done editing the form, click the “Save” icon in the top right-hand corner. If you are ready for your changes to go live within your Project App, select the “Publish” icon in the top right-hand corner. Your updated form will go live within all of the apps that use it.

      The good and the bad of extending Project for the web

      The content in this step has not instructed users how to extend PFTW; rather, it has covered three basic core pieces of Power Apps that those interesting in PFTW need to be aware of: Dataverse environments, the Power Apps and Sitemaps Designers, and Tables and associated Forms.

      Because we have only covered the very tip of the iceberg, those interested in going further and taking a DIY approach to extending PFTW will need to build upon these basics to unlock further functionality. Indeed, it takes work to develop the product into something that begins to resemble a viable enterprise project and portfolio management solution. Here are some of the good and the bad elements associated with that work:

      The Good:

      • You can right-size and purpose build: add as much or as little project management rigor as your process requires. Related, you can customize the solution in multiple ways to suit the needs of specific business units or portfolios.
      • Speed to market: it is possible to get up and running quickly with a minimum-viable product.

      The Bad:

      • Work required: to build anything beyond MVP requires independent research and trial and error.
      • Time required: to build anything beyond MVP requires time and skills that many PMOs don’t have.
      • Shadow support costs: ungoverned app creation could have negative support and maintenance impacts across IT.

      "The move to Power Platform and low code development will […increase] maintenance overhead. Will low code solution hit problems at scale? [H]ow easy will it be to support hundreds or thousands of small applications?

      I can hear the IT support desks already complaining at the thought of this. This part of the puzzle is yet to hit real world realities of support because non developers are busy creating lots of low code applications." (Ben Hosking, Software Developer and Blogger, "Why low code software development is eating the world")

      Quick start your extension with the Accelerator

      For those starting out, there is a pre-built app you can import into your environment to extend the Project for the web app without any custom development.

      • If the DIY approach in the previous slides was overwhelming, and you don’t have the budget for a MS Partner route in the near-term, this doesn’t mean that evolving your Project for the web app is unattainable.
      • Thanks to a partnership between OnePlan (one of the MS Gold Partners we detail in the next step) and Microsoft, Project for the web users have access to a free resource to help them evolve the base Project app. It’s called the “Project for the web Accelerator” (commonly referred to as “the Accelerator” for short).
      • Users interested in learning more about, and accessing, this free resource should refer to the links below:
        1. The Future of Microsoft Project Online (source: OnePlan).
        2. Introducing the Project Accelerator (source: Microsoft).
        3. Project for the web Accelerator (source: GitHub)
      Screen shot from one of the dashboards that comes with the Accelerator (image source: GitHub).

      2.1.1 Perform a feasibility test (1 of 2)

      15 mins

      As we’ve suggested, and as the material in this step indicates, extending PFTW in a DIY fashion is not small task. You need a knowledge of the Dataverse and Power Apps, and access to the requisite skills, time, and resources to develop the solution.

      To determine whether your PMO and organization are ready to go it alone in extending PFTW, perform the following activity:

      1. Convene a collection of portfolio, project, and PMO staff.
      2. Using the six-question survey on tab 5 of the Microsoft Project & M365 Licensing Tool (see screenshot to the right) as a jumping off point for a discussion, consider the readiness of your PMO or project organization to undertake a DIY approach to extending and implementing PFTW at this time.
      3. You can use the recommendations on tab 5 of the Microsoft Project & 365 Licensing Tool to inform your next steps, and input the gauge graphic in section 4 of the Microsoft Project & M365 Action Plan Template.
      Screenshots from the 'Project for the Web Extensibility Feasibility Test'.

      Go to tab 5 of the Microsoft Project & M365 Licensing Tool

      See next slide for additional activity details

      2.1.1 Perform a feasibility test (2 of 2)

      Input: The contents of this step, The Project for the Web Extensibility Feasibility Test (tab 5 in the Microsoft Project & 365 Licensing Tool)

      Output: Initial recommendations on whether to proceed and how to proceed with a DIY approach to extending Project for the web

      Materials: The Project for the Web Extensibility Feasibility Test (tab 5 in the Microsoft Project & 365 Licensing Tool)

      Participants: Portfolio Manager (PMO Director), Project Managers, Other relevant PMO stakeholders

      Step 2.2

      Assess the Microsoft Gold Partner Community

      Activities

      • Review what to look for in a Microsoft Partner
      • Determine whether your needs would benefit from reaching out to a Microsoft Partner
      • Review three key Partners from the North American market
      • Create a Partner outreach plan

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Review what to look for in a Microsoft Partner.
      • Determine whether your needs would benefit from reaching out to a Microsoft Partner.
      • Review three key Partners from the North American market.

      This step usually involves the following participants:

      • Portfolio Manager (PMO Director)
      • Project Managers
      • Other relevant PMO stakeholders

      Outcomes of Step

      • A better understanding of MS Partners
      • A Partner outreach plan

      You don’t have to go it alone

      Microsoft has an established community of Partners who can help in your customizations and implementations of Project for the web and other MS Project offerings.

      If the content in the previous step seemed too technical or overly complex in a way that scared you away from a DIY approach to extending Microsoft’s latest project offering (and at some point in the near future, soon to be its only project offering), Project for the web, fear not.

      You do not have to wade into the waters of extending Project for the web alone, or for that matter, in implementing any other MS Project solution.

      Instead, Microsoft nurtures a community of Silver and Gold partners who offer hands-on technical assistance and tool implementation services. While the specific services provided vary from partner to partner, all can assist in the customization and implementation of any of Microsoft’s Project offerings.

      In this step we will cover what to look for in a Partner and how to assess whether you are a good candidate for the services of a Partner. We will also highlight three Partners from within the North American market.

      The basics of the Partner community

      What is a Microsoft Partner?

      Simply put, an MS Gold Partner is a software or professional services organization that provides sales and services related to Microsoft products.

      They’re resellers, implementors, integrators, software manufacturers, trainers, and virtually any other technology-related business service.

      • Microsoft has for decades opted out of being a professional services organization, outside of its very “leading edge” offerings from MCS (Microsoft Consulting Services) for only those technologies that are so new that they aren’t yet supported by MS Partners.
      • As you can see in the chart on the next slide, to become a silver or gold certified partner, firms must demonstrate expertise in specific areas of business and technology in 18 competency areas that are divided into four categories: applications and infrastructure, business applications, data and AI, and modern workplace and security.

      More information on what it takes to become a Microsoft Partner:

      1. Partner Center (Document Center, Microsoft)
      2. Differentiate your business by attaining Microsoft competencies (Document Center, Microsoft)
      3. Partner Network Homepage (Webpage, Microsoft)
      4. See which partner offer is right for you (Webpage, Microsoft)

      Types of partnerships and qualifications

      Microsoft Partner Network

      Microsoft Action Pack

      Silver Competency

      Gold Competency

      What is it?

      The Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) is a community that offers members tools, information, and training. Joining the MPN is an entry-level step for all partners. The Action Pack is an annual subscription offered to entry-level partners. It provides training and marketing materials and access to expensive products and licenses at a vastly reduced price. Approximately 5% of firms in the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) are silver partners. These partners are subject to audits and annual competency exams to maintain silver status. Approximately 1% of firms in the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN) are gold partners. These partners are subject to audits and annual competency exams to maintain Gold status.

      Requirements

      Sign up for a membership Annual subscription fee While requirements can vary across competency area, broadly speaking, to become a silver partner firms must:
      • Pass regular exams and skills assessments, with at least two individuals on staff with Microsoft Certified Professional Status.
      • Hit annual customer, revenue, and licensing metrics.
      • Pay the annual subscription fee.
      While requirements can vary across competency area, broadly speaking, to become a gold partner firms must:
      • Pass regular exams and skills assessments, with at least two individuals on staff with Microsoft Certified Professional Status.
      • Hit annual customer, revenue, and licensing metrics.
      • Pay the annual subscription fee.

      Annual Fee

      No Cost $530 $1800 $5300

      When would a MS Partner be helpful?

      • Project management and portfolio management practitioners might look into procuring the services of a Microsoft Partner for a variety of reasons.
      • Because services vary from partner to partner (help to extend Project for the web, implement Project Server or Project Online, augment PMO staffing, etc.) we won’t comment on specific needs here.
      • Instead, the three most common conditions that trigger the need are listed to the right.

      Speed

      When you need to get results faster than your staff can grow the needed capabilities.

      Cost

      When the complexity of the purchase decision, implementation, communication, training, configuration, and/or customization cannot be cost-justified for internal staff, often because you’ll only do it once.

      Expertise & Skills

      When your needs cannot be met by the core Microsoft technology without significant extension or customization.

      Canadian Microsoft Partners Spotlight

      As part of our research process for this blueprint, Info-Tech asked Microsoft Canada for referrals and introductions to leading Microsoft Partners. We spent six months collaborating with them on fresh research into the underlying platform.

      These vendors are listed below and are highlighted in subsequent slides.

      Spotlighted Partners:

      Logo for One Plan. Logo for PMO Outsource Ltd. Logo for Western Principles.

      Please Note: While these vendors were referred to us by Microsoft Canada and have a footprint in the Canadian market, their footprints extend beyond this to the North American and global markets.

      A word about our approach

      Photo of Barry Cousins, Project Portfolio Management Practice Lead, Info-Tech Research Group.
      Barry Cousins
      Project Portfolio Management Practice Lead
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Our researchers have been working with Microsoft Project Online and Microsoft Project Server clients for years, and it’s fair to say that most of these clients (at some point) used a Microsoft Partner in their deployment. They’re not really software products, per se; they’re platforms. As a Microsoft Partner in 2003 when Project Server got its first big push, I heard it loud and clear: “Some assembly required. You might only make 7% on the licensing, but the world’s your oyster for services.”

      In the past few years, Microsoft froze the market for major Microsoft Project decisions by making it clear that the existing offering is not getting updates while the new offering (Project for the web) doesn’t do what the old one did. And in a fascinating timing coincidence, the market substantially adopted Microsoft 365 during that period, which enables access to Project for the web.

      Many of Info-Tech’s clients are justifiably curious, confused, and concerned, while the Microsoft Partners have persisted in their knowledge and capability. So, we asked Microsoft Canada for referrals and introductions to leading Microsoft Partners and spent six months collaborating with them on fresh research into the underlying platform.

      Disclosure: Info-Tech conducted collaborative research with the partners listed on the previous slide to produce this publication. Market trends and reactions were studied, but the only clients identified were in case studies provided by the Microsoft Partners. Info-Tech’s customers have been, and remain, anonymous. (Barry Cousins, Project Portfolio Management Practice Lead, Info-Tech Research Group)

      MS Gold Partner Spotlight:

      OnePlan

      Logo for One Plan.
      Headquarters: San Marcos, California, and Toronto, Ontario
      Number of Employees: ~80
      Active Since: 2007 (as EPMLive)
      Website: www.oneplan.ai

      Who are they?

      • While the OnePlan brand has only been the marketplace for a few years, the company has been a major player in MS Gold Partner space for well over a decade.
      • Born out of EPMLive in the mid-aughts, OnePlan Solutions has evolved through a series of acquisitions, including Upland, Tivitie, and most recently Wicresoft.

      What do they do?

      • Software: Its recent rebranding is largely because OnePlan Solutions is as much a software company as it is a professional services firm. The OnePlan software product is an impressive solution that can be used on its own to facilitate the portfolio approaches outlined on the next slide and that can also integrate with the tools your organization is already using to manage tasks (see here for a full rundown of the solutions within the Microsoft stack and beyond OnePlan can integrate with).
      • Beyond its ability to integrate with existing solutions, as a software product, OnePlan has modules for resource planning, strategic portfolio planning, financial planning, time tracking, and more.

      • PPM Consulting Services: The OnePlan team also offers portfolio management consulting services. See the next slide for a list of its approaches to project portfolio management.

      Markets served

      • US, Canada, Europe, and Australia

      Channel Differentiation

      • OnePlan scales to all the PPM needs of all industry types.
      • Additionally, OnePlan offers insights and functionality specific to the needs of BioTech-Pharma.

      What differentiates OnePlan?

      • OnePlan co-developed the Project Accelerator for Project for the web with Microsoft. The OnePlan team’s involvement in developing the Accelerator and making it free for users to access suggests it is aligned to and has expertise in the purpose-built and collaborative vision behind Microsoft’s move away from Project Online and toward the Power Platform and Teams collaboration.
      • 2021 MS Gold Partner of the Year. At Microsoft’s recent Microsoft Inspire event, OnePlan was recognized as the Gold Partner of the Year for Project and Portfolio Management as well as a finalist for Power Apps and Power Automate.
      • OnePlan Approaches: Below is a list of the services or approaches to project portfolio management that OnePlan provides. See its website for more details.
        • Strategic Portfolio Management: Align work to objectives and business outcomes. Track performance against the proposed objectives outcomes.
        • Agile Portfolio Management: Implement Agile practices across the organization, both at the team and executive level.
        • Adaptive Portfolio Management: Allow teams to use the project methodology and tools that best suit the work/team. Maintain visibility and decision making across the entire portfolio.
        • Professional Services Automation: Use automation to operate with greater efficiency.

      "OnePlan offers a strategic portfolio, financial and resource management solution that fits the needs of every PMO. Optimize your portfolio, financials and resources enterprise wide." (Paul Estabrooks, Vice President at OnePlan)

      OnePlan Case Study

      This case study was provided to Info-Tech by OnePlan.

      Brambles

      INDUSTRY: Supply Chain & Logistics
      SOURCE: OnePlan

      Overview: Brambles plays a key role in the delivery or return of products amongst global trading partners such as manufacturers, distributors and retailers.

      Challenge

      Brambles had a variety of Project Management tools with no easy way of consolidating project management data. The proliferation of project management solutions was hindering the execution of a long-term business transformation strategy. Brambles needed certain common and strategic project management processes and enterprise project reporting while still allowing individual project management solutions to be used as part of the PPM platform.

      Solution

      As part of the PMO-driven business transformation strategy, Brambles implemented a project management “operating system” acting as a foundation for core processes such as project intake, portfolio management, resource, and financial planning and reporting while providing integration capability for a variety of tools used for project execution.

      OnePlan’s new Adaptive PPM platform, combining the use of PowerApps and OnePlan, gives Brambles the desired PPM operating system while allowing for tool flexibility at the execution level.

      Results

      • Comprehensive picture of progress across the portfolio.
      • Greater adoption by allowing flexibility of work management tools.
      • Modern portfolio management solution that enables leadership to make confident decision.

      Solution Details

      • OnePlan
      • Project
      • Power Apps
      • Power Automate
      • Power BI
      • Teams

      Contacting OnePlan Solutions

      www.oneplan.ai

      Joe Larscheid: jlarscheid@oneplan.ai
      Paul Estabrooks: pestabrooks@oneplan.ai
      Contact Us: contact@oneplan.ai
      Partners: partner@oneplan.ai

      Partner Resources. OnePlan facilitates regular ongoing live webinars on PPM topics that anyone can sign up for on the OnePlan website.

      For more information on upcoming webinars, or to access recordings of past webinars, see here.

      Additional OnePlan Resources

      1. How to Extend Microsoft Teams into a Collaborative Project, Portfolio and Work Management Solution (on-demand webinar, OnePlan’s YouTube channel)
      2. What Does Agile PPM Mean To The Modern PMO (on-demand webinar, OnePlan’s YouTube channel)
      3. OnePlan is fused with the Microsoft User Experience (blog article, OnePlan)
      4. Adaptive Portfolio Management Demo – Bringing Order to the Tool Chaos with OnePlan (product demo, OnePlan’s YouTube channel)
      5. How OnePlan is aligning with Microsoft’s Project and Portfolio Management Vision (blog article, OnePlan)
      6. Accelerating Office 365 Value with a Hybrid Project Portfolio Management Solution (product demo, OnePlan’s YouTube channel)

      MS Gold Partner Spotlight:

      PMO Outsource Ltd.

      Logo for PMO Outsource Ltd.

      Headquarters: Calgary, Alberta, and Mississauga, Ontario
      Website: www.pmooutsource.com

      Who are they?

      • PMO Outsource Ltd. is a Microsoft Gold Partner and PMI certified professional services firm based in Alberta and Ontario, Canada.
      • It offers comprehensive project and portfolio management offerings with a specific focus on project lifecycle management, including demand management, resource management, and governance and communication practices.

      What do they do?

      • Project Online and Power Platform Expertise. The PMO Outsource Ltd. team has extensive knowledge in both Microsoft’s old tech (Project Server and Desktop) and in its newer, cloud-based technologies (Project Online, Project for the web, the Power Platform, and Dynamics 365). As the case study in two slides demonstrates, PMO Outsource Ltd. Uses its in-depth knowledge of the Microsoft suite to help organizations automate project and portfolio data collection process, create efficiencies, and encourage cloud adoption.
      • PPM Consulting Services: In addition to its Microsoft platform expertise, the PMO Outsource Ltd. team also offers project and portfolio management consulting services, helping organizations evolve their process and governance structures as well as their approaches to PPM tooling.

      Markets served

      • Global

      Channel Differentiation

      • PMO Outsource Ltd. scales to all the PPM needs of all industry types.

      What differentiates PMO Outsource Ltd.?

      • PMO Staff Augmentation. In addition to its technology and consulting services, PMO Outsource Ltd. offers PMO staff augmentation services. As advertised on its website, it offers “scalable PMO staffing solutions. Whether you require Project Managers, Business Analysts, Admins or Coordinators, [PMO Outsource Ltd.] can fulfill your talent search requirements from a skilled pool of resources.”
      • Multiple and easy-to-understand service contract packages. PMO Outsource Ltd. offers many prepackaged service offerings to suit PMOs’ needs. Those packages include “PMO Management, Admin, and Support,” “PPM Solution, Site and Workflow Configuration,” and “Add-Ons.” For full details of what’s included in these services packages, see the PMO Outsource Ltd. website.
      • PMO Outsource Ltd. Services: Below is a list of the services or approaches to project portfolio management that PMO Outsource Ltd. Provides. See its website for more details.
        • Process Automation, Workflows, and Tools. Facilitate line of sight by tailoring Microsoft’s technology to your organization’s needs and creating custom workflows.
        • PMO Management Framework. Receive a professionally managed PPM methodology as well as governance standardization of processes, tools, and templates.
        • Custom BI Reports. Leverage its expertise in reporting and dashboarding to create the visibility your organization needs.

      "While selecting an appropriate PPM tool, the PMO should not only evaluate the standard industry tools but also analyze which tool will best fit the organization’s strategy, budget, and culture in the long run." (Neeta Manghnani, PMO Strategist, PMO Outsource Ltd.)

      PMO Outsource Ltd. Case Study

      This case study was provided to Info-Tech by PMO Outsource Ltd.

      SAMUEL

      INDUSTRY: Manufacturing
      SOURCE: PMO Outsource Ltd.

      Challenge

      • MS Project 2013 Server (Legacy/OnPrem)
      • Out-of-support application and compliance with Office 365
      • Out-of-support third-party application for workflows
      • No capability for resource management
      • Too many manual processes for data maintenance and server administration

      Solution

      • Migrate project data to MS Project Online
      • Recreate workflows using Power Automate solution
      • Configure Power BI content packs for Portfolio reporting and resource management dashboards
      • Recreate OLAP reports from legacy environment using Power BI
      • Cut down nearly 50% of administrative time by automating PMO/PPM processes
      • Save costs on Server hardware/application maintenance by nearly 75%

      Full Case Study Link

      • For full details about how PMO Outsource Ltd. assisted Samuel in modernizing its solution and creating efficiencies, visit the Microsoft website where this case study is highlighted.

      Contacting PMO Outsource Ltd.

      www.pmooutsource.com

      700 8th Ave SW, #108
      Calgary, AB T2P 1H2
      Telephone : +1 (587) 355-3745
      6045 Creditview Road, #169
      Mississauga, ON L5V 0B1
      Telephone : +1 (289) 334-1228
      Information: info@pmooutsource.com
      LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pmo-outsource/

      Partner Resources. PMO Outsource Ltd.’s approach is rooted within a robust and comprehensive PPM framework that is focused on driving strategic outcomes and business success.

      For a full overview of its PPM framework, see here.

      Additional PMO Outsource Ltd. Resources

      1. 5 Benefits of PPM tools and PMO process automation (blog article, PMO Outsource Ltd.)
      2. Importance of PMO (blog article, PMO Outsource Ltd.)
      3. Meet the Powerful and Reimagined PPM tool for Everyone! (video, PMO Outsource Ltd. LinkedIn page)
      4. MS Project Tips: How to add #Sprints to an existing Project? (video, PMO Outsource Ltd. LinkedIn page)
      5. MS Project Tips: How to add a milestone to your project? (video, PMO Outsource Ltd. LinkedIn page)
      6. 5 Benefits of implementing Project Online Tools (video, PMO Outsource Ltd. LinkedIn page)

      MS Gold Partner Spotlight:

      Western Principles

      Logo for Western Principles.

      Headquarters: Vancouver, British Columbia
      Years Active: 16 Years
      Website: www.westernprinciples.com

      Who are they?

      • Western Principles is a Microsoft Gold Partner and UMT 360 PPM software provider based in British Columbia with a network of consultants across Canada.
      • In the last sixteen years, it has successfully conducted over 150 PPM implementations, helping in the implementation, training, and support of Microsoft Project offerings as well as UMT360 – a software solution provider that, much like OnePlan, enhances the PPM capabilities of the Microsoft platform.

      What do they do?

      • Technology expertise. The Western Principles team helps organizations maximize the value they are getting form the Microsoft Platform. Not only does it offer expertise in all the solutions in the MS Project ecosystem, it also helps organizations optimize their use and understanding of Teams, SharePoint, the Power Platform, and more. In addition to the Microsoft platform, Western Principles is partnered with many other technology providers, including UMT360 for strategic portfolio management, the Simplex Group for project document controls, HMS for time sheets, and FluentPro for integration, back-ups, and migrations.
      • PPM Consulting Services: In addition to its technical services and solutions, Western Principles offers PPM consulting and staff augmentation services.

      Markets served

      • Canada

      Channel Differentiation

      • Western Principles scales to all the PPM needs of all industry types, public and private sector.
      • In addition, its website offers persona-specific information based on the PPM needs of engineering and construction, new product development, marketing, and more.

      What differentiates Western Principles?

      • Gold-certified UMT 360 partner. In addition to being a Microsoft Gold Partner, Western Principles is a gold-certified UMT 360 partner. UMT 360 is a strategic portfolio management tool that integrates with many other work management solutions to offer holistic line of sight into the organization’s supply-demand pain points and strategic portfolio management needs. Some of the solutions UMT 360 integrates with include Project Online and Project for the web, Azure DevOps, Jira, and many more. See here for more information on the impressive functionality in UMT360.
      • Sustainment Services. Adoption can be the bane of most PPM tool implementations. Among the many services Western Principles offers, its “sustainment services” stand out. According to Western Principles’ website, these services are addressed to those who require “continual maintenance, change, and repair activities” to keep PPM systems in “good working order” to help maximize ROI.
      • Western Principles Services: In addition to the above, below is a list of some of the services that Western Principles offers. See its website for a full list of services.
        • Process Optimization: Determine your requirements and process needs.
        • Integration: Create a single source of truth.
        • Training: Ensure your team knows how to use the systems you implement.
        • Staff Augmentation: Provide experienced project team members based upon your needs.

      "One of our principles is to begin with the end in mind. This means that we will work with you to define a roadmap to help you advance your strategic portfolio … and project management capabilities. The roadmap for each customer is different and based on where you are today, and where you need to get to." (Western Principles, “Your Strategic Portfolio Management roadmap,” Whitepaper)

      Contacting Western Principles

      www.westernprinciples.com

      610 – 700 West Pender St.
      Vancouver, BC V6C 1G8
      +1 (800) 578-4155
      Information: info@westernprinciples.com
      LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/western-principle...

      Partner Resources. Western Principles provides a multitude of current case studies on its home page. These case studies let you know what the firm is working on this year and the type of support it provides to its clientele.

      To access these case studies, see here.

      Additional Western Principles Resources

      1. Program and Portfolio Roll ups with Microsoft Project and Power BI (video, Western Principles YouTube Channel)
      2. Dump the Spreadsheets for Microsoft Project Online (video, Western Principles YouTube Channel)
      3. Power BI for Project for the web (video, Western Principles YouTube Channel)
      4. How to do Capacity Planning and Resource Management in Microsoft Project Online [Part 1 & Part 2] (video, Western Principles YouTube Channel)
      5. Extend & Integrate Microsoft Project (whitepaper, Western Principles)
      6. Your COVID-19 Return-to-Work Plan (whitepaper, Western Principles)

      Watch Info-Tech’s Analyst-Partner Briefing Videos to lean more

      Info-Tech was able to sit down with the partners spotlighted in this step to discuss the current state of the PPM market and Microsoft’s place within it.

      • All three partners spotlighted in this step contributed to Info-Tech’s research process for this publication.
      • For two of the partners, OnePlan and PMO Outsource Ltd., Info-Tech was able to record a conversation where our analysts and the partners discuss Microsoft’s current MS Project offerings, the current state of the PPM tool market, and the services and the approaches of each respective partner.
      • A third video briefing with Western Principles has not happened yet due to logistical reasons. We are hoping we can include a video chat with our peers at Western Principles in the near future.
      Screenshot form the Analyst-Partner Briefing Videos. In addition to the content covered in this step, you can use these videos for further information about the partners to inform your next steps.

      Download Info-Tech’s Analyst-Partner Briefing Videos (OnePlan & PMO Outsource Ltd.)

      2.2.1 Create a partner outreach plan

      1-3 hours

      Input: Contents of this step, List of additional MS Gold Partners

      Output: A completed partner outreach program

      Materials: MS Project & M365 Action Plan Template

      Participants: Portfolio Manager (PMO Director), PMO Admin Team, Project Managers, CIO

      1. With an understanding of the partner ecosystem, compile a working group of PMO peers and stakeholders to produce a gameplan for engaging the MS Gold Partner ecosystem.
        • For additional partner options see Microsoft’s Partner Page.
      2. Using slide 20 in Info-Tech’s MS Project and M365 Action Plan Template, document the Partners you would want or have scheduled briefings with.
        • As you go through the briefings and research process, document the pros and cons and areas of specialized associated with each vendor for your particular work management implementation.

      Download the Microsoft Project & M365 Action Plan Template

      2.2.2 Document your PM and PPM requirements

      1-3 hours

      Input: Project Portfolio Management Maturity Assessment, Project Management Maturity Assessment

      Output: MS Project & M365 Action Plan Template

      Materials: Project Portfolio Management Maturity Assessment, Project Management Maturity Assessment, MS Project & M365 Action Plan Template

      Participants: Portfolio Manager (PMO Director), PMO Admin Team, Project Managers, CIO

      1. As you prepare to engage the Partner Community, you should have a sense of where your project management and project portfolio management gaps are to better communicate your tooling needs.
      2. Leverage tab 4 from both your Project Portfolio Management Assessment and Project Management Assessment from step 1.3 of this blueprint to help document and communicate your requirements. Those tabs prioritize your project and portfolio management needs by highest impact for the organization.
      3. You can use the outputs of the tab to inform your inputs on slide 23 of the MS Project & M365 Action Plan Template to present to organizational stakeholders and share with the Partners you are briefing with.

      Download the Microsoft Project & M365 Action Plan Template

      Determine the Future of Microsoft Project for Your Organization

      Phase 3: Finalize Your Implementation Approach

      Phase 1: Determine Your Tool NeedsPhase 2: Weigh Your Implementation Options

      Phase 3: Finalize Your Implementation Approach

      • Step 1.1: Survey the M365 work management landscape
      • Step 1.2: Perform a process maturity assessment to help inform your M365 starting point
      • Step 1.3: Consider the right MS Project licenses for your stakeholders
      • Step 2.1: Get familiar with extending Project for the web using Power Apps
      • Step 2.2: Assess the MS Gold Partner Community
      • Step 3.1: Prepare an action plan

      Phase Outcomes

      An action plan concerning what to do with MS Project and M365 for your PMO or project organization.

      Step 3.1

      Prepare an action plan

      Activities

      • Compile the current state results
      • Prepare an Implementation Roadmap
      • Complete your presentation deck

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Assess the impact of organizational change for the project
      • Develop your vision for stakeholders
      • Compile the current state results and document the implementation approach
      • Create clarity through a RACI and proposed implementation timeline

      This step usually involves the following participants:

      • Portfolio Manager (PMO Director)
      • PMO Admin Team
      • Business Analysts
      • Project Managers

      Outcomes of Step

      • Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan

      Assess the impact of organizational change

      Be prepared to answer: “What’s in it for me?”

      Before jumping into licensing and third-party negotiations, ensure you’ve clearly assessed the impact of change.

      Tailor the work effort involved in each step, as necessary:

      1. Assess the impact
        • Use the impact assessment questions to identify change impacts.
      2. Plan for change
        • Document the impact on each stakeholder group.
        • Anticipate their response.
        • Curate a compelling message for each stakeholder group.
        • Develop a communication plan.
      3. Act according to plan
        • Identify your executive sponsor.
        • Enable the sponsor to drive change communication.
        • Coach managers on how they can drive change at the individual level.

      Impact Assessment Questions

      • Will the change impact how our clients/customers receive, consume, or engage with our products/services?
      • Will there be a price increase?
      • Will there be a change to compensation and/or rewards?
      • Will the vision or mission of the job change?
      • Will the change span multiple locations/time zones?
      • Are multiple products/services impacted by this change?
      • Will staffing levels change?
      • Will this change increase the workload?
      • Will the tools of the job be substantially different?
      • Will a new or different set of skills be needed?
      • Will there be a change in reporting relationships?
      • Will the workflow and approvals be changed?
      • Will there be a substantial change to scheduling and logistics?

      Master Organizational Change Management Practices blueprint

      Develop your vision for stakeholders

      After careful analysis and planning, it’s time to synthesize your findings to those most impacted by the change.

      Executive Brief

      • Prepare a compelling message about the current situation.
      • Outline the considerations the working group took into account when developing the action plan.
      • Succinctly describe the recommendations proposed by the working group.

      Goals

      • Identify the goals for the project.
      • Explain the details for each goal to develop the organizational rationale for the project.
      • These goals are the building blocks for the change communication that the executive sponsor will use to build a coalition of sponsors.

      Future State Vision

      • Quantify the high-level costs and benefits of moving forward with this project.
      • Articulate the future- state maturity level for both the project and project portfolio management process.
      • Reiterate the organizational rationale and drivers for change.

      "In failed transformations, you often find plenty of plans, directives, and programs, but no vision…A useful rule of thumb: If you can’t communicate the vision to someone in five minutes or less and get a reaction that signifies both understanding and interest, you are not yet done…" (John P. Kotter, Leading Change)

      Get ready to compile the analysis completed throughout this blueprint in the subsequent activities. The outputs will come together in your Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan.

      Use the Microsoft Project & M365 Action Plan Template to help communicate your vision

      Our boardroom-ready presentation and communication template can be customized using the outputs of this blueprint.

      • Getting stakeholders to understand why you are recommending specific work management changes and then communicating exactly what those changes are and what they will cost is key to the success of your work management implementation.
      • To that end, the slides ahead walk you through how to customize the Microsoft Project & M365 Action Plan Template.
      • Many of the current-state analysis activities you completed during phase 1 of this blueprint can be directly made use of within the template as can the decisions you made and requirements you documented during phase 2.
      • By the end of this step, you will have a boardroom-ready presentation that will help you communicate your future-state vision.
      Screenshot of Info-Tech's Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan Template with a note to 'Update the presentation or distribution date and insert your name, role, and organization'.

      Download Info-Tech’s Microsoft Project & M365 Action Plan Template

      3.1.1 Compile current state results

      1-3 hours

      Input: Force Field Analysis Tool, Tool Audit Workbook, Project Management Maturity Assessment Tool, Project Portfolio Management Maturity Assessment Tool

      Output: Section 1: Executive Brief, Section 2: Context and Constraints

      Materials: Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan Template

      Participants: PMO Director, PMO Admin Team, Business Analysts, Project Managers

      1. As a group, review the results of the tools introduced throughout this blueprint. Use this information along with organizational knowledge to document the business context and current state.
      2. Update the driving forces for change and risks and constraints slides using your outputs from the Force Field Analysis Tool.
      3. Update the current tool landscape, tool satisfaction, and tool audit results slides using your outputs from the Tool Audit Workbook.
      4. Update the gap analysis results slides using your outputs from the Project Management and Project Portfolio Management Maturity Assessment Tools.

      Screenshots of 'Business Context and Current State' screen from the 'Force Field Analysis Tool', the 'Tool Audit Results' screen from the 'Tool Audit Workbook', and the 'Project Portfolio Management Gap Analysis Results' screen from the 'PM and PPM Maturity Assessments Tool'.

      Download the Microsoft Project & M365 Action Plan Template

      3.2.1 Option A: Prepare a DIY roadmap

      1-3 hours; Note: This is only applicable if you have chosen the DIY route

      Input: List of key PPM decision points, List of who is accountable for PPM decisions, List of who has PPM decision-making authority

      Output: Section 3: DIY Implementation Approach

      Materials: Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan Template

      Participants: PMO Director, PMO Admin Team, Business Analysts, Project Managers

      1. As a group, review the results of the Microsoft Project and M365 Licensing Tool. Use this information along with organizational knowledge and discussion with the working group to complete Section 3: DIY Implementation Approach.
      2. Copy and paste your results from tab 5 of the Microsoft Project and M365 Licensing Tool. Update the Implementation Approach slide to detail the rationale for selecting this option.
      3. Update the Action Plan to articulate the details for total and annual costs of the proposed licensing solution.
      4. Facilitate a discussion to determine roles and responsibilities for the implementation. Based on the size, risk, and complexity of the implementation, create a reasonable timeline.
      Screenshots from the 'Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan Template' outlining the 'DIY Implementation Approach'.

      Download the Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan Template

      3.2.1 Option b: Prepare a Partner roadmap

      1-3 hours; Note: This is only applicable if you have chosen the Partner route

      Input: Microsoft Project and M365 Licensing Tool, Information on Microsoft Partners

      Output: Section 4: Microsoft Partner Implementation Route

      Materials: Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan Template

      Participants: PMO Director, PMO Admin Team, Business Analysts, Project Managers

      1. As a group, review the results of the Microsoft Project and M365 Licensing Tool. Use this information along with organizational knowledge and discussion with the working group to complete Section 4: Microsoft Partner Implementation Route.
      2. Copy and paste your results from tab 5 of the Microsoft Project and M365 Licensing Tool. Update the Implementation Approach slide to detail the rationale for selecting this option.
      3. Develop an outreach plan for the Microsoft Partners you are planning to survey. Set targets for briefing dates and assign an individual to own any back-and-forth communication. Document the pros and cons of each Partner and gauge interest in continuing to analyze the vendor as a possible solution.
      4. Facilitate a discussion to determine roles and responsibilities for the implementation. Based on the size, risk, and complexity of the implementation, create a reasonable timeline.

      Screenshots from the 'Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan Template' outlining the 'Microsoft Partner Implementation Route'.

      Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan Template

      3.1.2 Complete your presentation deck

      1-2 hours

      Input: Outputs from the exercises in this blueprint

      Output: Section 5: Future-State Vision and Goals

      Materials: Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan Template

      Participants: PMO Director, PMO Admin Team, Business Analysts, Project Managers

      1. Put the finishing touches on your presentation deck by documenting your future- state vision and goals.
      2. Prepare to present to your stakeholders.
        • Understand your audience, their needs and priorities, and their degree of knowledge and experiences with technology. This informs what to include in your presentation and how to position the message and goal.
      3. Review the deck beginning to end and check for spelling, grammar, and vertical logic.
      4. Practice delivering the vision for the project through several practice sessions.

      Screenshots from the 'Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan Template' regarding finishing touches.

      Microsoft Project and M365 Action Plan Template

      Pitch your vision to key stakeholders

      There are multiple audiences for your pitch, and each audience requires a different level of detail when addressed. Depending on the outcomes expected from each audience, a suitable approach must be chosen. The format and information presented will vary significantly from group to group.

      Audience

      Key Contents

      Outcome

      Business Executives

      • Section 1: Executive Brief
      • Section 2: Context and Constraints
      • Section 5: Future-State Vision and Goals
      • Identify executive sponsor

      IT Leadership

      • Sections 1-5 with a focus on Section 3 or 4 depending on implementation approach
      • Get buy-in on proposed project
      • Identify skills or resourcing constraints

      Business Managers

      • Section 1: Executive Brief
      • Section 2: Context and Constraints
      • Section 5: Future-State Vision and Goals
      • Get feedback on proposed plan
      • Identify any unassessed risks and organizational impacts

      Business Users

      • Section 1: Executive Brief
      • Support the organizational change management process

      Summary of Accomplishment

      Problem Solved

      Knowledge Gained
      • How you work: Work management and the various ways of working (personal and team task management, strategic project portfolio management, formal project management, and enterprise project and portfolio management).
      • Where you need to go: Project portfolio management and project management current- and target-state maturity levels.
      • What you need: Microsoft Project Plans and requisite M365 licensing.
      • The skills you need: Extending Project for the web.
      • Who you need to work with: Get to know the Microsoft Gold Partner community.
      Deliverables Completed
      • M365 Tool Guides
      • Tool Audit Workbook
      • Force Field Analysis Tool
      • Project Portfolio Management Maturity Assessment Tool
      • Project Management Maturity Assessment Tool
      • Microsoft Project & M365 Action Plan Template

      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.

      Photo of Barry Cousins.
      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:

      Perform a work management tool audit

      Gain insight into the tools that drive value or fail to drive value across your work management landscape with a view to streamline the organization’s tool ecosystem.

      Prepare an action plan for your tool needs

      Prepare the right work management tool recommendations for your IT teams and/or business units and develop a boardroom-ready presentation to communicate needs and next steps.

      Research Contributors and Experts

      Neeta Manghnani
      PMO Strategist
      PMO Outsource Ltd.

      Photo of Neeta Manghnani, PMO Strategist, PMO Outsource Ltd.
      • Innovative, performance-driven executive with significant experience managing Portfolios, Programs & Projects, and technical systems for international corporations with complex requirements. A hands-on, dynamic leader with over 20 years of experience guiding and motivating cross-functional teams. Highly creative and brings a blend of business acumen and expertise in multiple IT disciplines, to maximize the corporate benefit from capital investments.
      • Successfully deploys inventive solutions to automate processes and improve the functionality, scalability and security of critical business systems and applications. Leverages PMO/PPM management and leadership skills to meet the strategic goals and business initiatives.

      Robert Strickland
      Principal Consultant & Owner
      PMO Outsource Ltd.

      Photo of Robert Strickland, Principal Consultant and Owner, PMO Outsource Ltd.
      • Successful entrepreneur, leader, and technologist for over 15 years, is passionate about helping organizations leverage the value of SharePoint, O365, Project Online, Teams and the Power Platform. Expertise in implementing portals, workflows and collaboration experiences that create business value. Strategic manager with years of successful experience building businesses, developing custom solutions, delivering projects, and managing budgets. Strong transformational leader on large implementations with a technical pedigree.
      • A digital transformation leader helping clients move to the cloud, collaborate, automate their business processes and eliminate paper forms, spreadsheets and other manual practices.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      • Develop a Project Portfolio Management Strategy
        Time is money; spend it wisely.
      • Establish Realistic IT Resource Management Practices
        Holistically balance IT supply and demand to avoid overallocation.
      • Tailor Project Management Processes to Fit Your Projects
        Spend less time managing processes and more time delivering results

      Bibliography

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      Advisicon. “Project Online vs Project for the Web.” YouTube, 13 Nov. 2013. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Branscombe, Mary. “Is Project Online ready to replace Microsoft Project?” TechRepublic, 23 Jan. 2020. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Chemistruck, Dan. “The Complete Office 365 and Microsoft 365 Licensing Comparison.” Infused Innovations, 4 April 2019. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “Compare Project management solutions and costs.” Microsoft. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Day to Day Dynamics 365. “Microsoft Project for the web - Model-driven app.” YouTube, 29 Oct. 2019. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “Deploying Project for the web.” Microsoft, 24 Aug. 2021. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “Differentiate your business by attaining Microsoft competencies.” Microsoft, 26 Jan. 2021. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “Extend & Integrate Microsoft Project.” Western Principles. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “Get Started with Project Power App.” Microsoft. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Hosking, Ben. “Why low code software development is eating the world.” DevGenius, May 2021. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “How in the World is MS Project Still a Leading PM Software?” CBT Nuggets, 12 Nov. 2018. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Integent. “Project for the Web - Create a Program Entity and a model-driven app then expose in Microsoft Teams.” YouTube, 25 Mar. 2020. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “Introducing the Project Accelerator.” Microsoft, 10 Mar. 2021. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “Join the Microsoft Partner Network.” Microsoft. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Kaneko, Judy. “How Productivity Tools Can Lead to a Loss of Productivity.” Bluescape, 2 Mar. 2018 Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Kotter, John. Leading Change. Harvard Business School Press, 1996.

      Leis, Merily. “What is Work Management.” Scoro. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Liu, Shanhong. “Number of Office 365 company users worldwide as of June 2021, by leading country.” Statistica, 2021. Web.

      Manghnani, Neeta. “5 Benefits of PPM tools and PMO process automation.” PMO Outsource Ltd., 11 Apr. 2021. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “Microsoft 365 and Office 365 plan options.” Microsoft, 31 Aug. 2021. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “Microsoft 365 for enterprise.” Microsoft. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021

      “Microsoft Office 365 Usage Statistics.” Thexyz blog, 18 Sept. 2020. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “Microsoft Power Apps, Microsoft Power Automate and Microsoft Power Virtual Agents Licensing Guide.” Microsoft, June 2021. Web.

      “Microsoft Project service description.” Microsoft, 31 Aug. 2021. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “Microsoft Project Statistics.” Integent Blog, 12 Dec. 2013. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Nanji, Aadil . Modernize Your Microsoft Licensing for the Cloud Era. Info-Tech Research Group, 12 Mar. 2020. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “Number of Office 365 company users worldwide as of June 2021, by leading country.” Statista, 8 June 2021. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “Overcoming disruption in a digital world.” Asana. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Pajunen, Antti. “Customizing and extending Project for the web.” Day to Day Dynamics 365, 20 Jan. 2020. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “Partner Center Documentation.” Microsoft. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Pragmatic Works. “Building First Power Apps Model Driven Application.” YouTube, 21 June 2019. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “Project architecture overview.” Microsoft, 27 Mar. 2020. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “Project for the web Accelerator.” GitHub. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “Project for the web admin help.” Microsoft, 28 Oct. 2019. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “Project for the Web – The New Microsoft Project.” TPG. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “Project for the Web Security Roles.” Microsoft, 1 July 2021. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “Project Online: Project For The Web vs Microsoft Project vs Planner vs Project Online.” PM Connection, 30 Nov. 2020. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Redmond, Tony. “Office 365 Insights from Microsoft’s FY21 Q2 Results.” Office 365 for IT Pros, 28 Jan. 2021. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Reimagine Project Management with Microsoft. “Advanced deployment for Project for the web.” YouTube, 4 Aug. 2021. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Reimagine Project Management with Microsoft. “Overview of Microsoft Project.” YouTube, 29 July 2021. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “See which partner offer is right for you.” Microsoft. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Shalomova, Anna. “Microsoft Project for Web 2019 vs. Project Online: What’s Best for Enterprise Project Management?” FluentPro, 23 July 2020. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Speed, Richard. “One Project to rule them all: Microsoft plots end to Project Online while nervous Server looks on.” The Register, 28 Sept. 2018. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Spataro, Jared. “A new vision for modern work management with Microsoft Project.” Microsoft, 25 Sept. 2018. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Stickel, Robert. “OnePlan Recognized as Winner of 2021 Microsoft Project & Portfolio Management Partner of the Year.” OnePlan, 8 July 2021. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Stickel, Robert. “The Future of Project Online.” OnePlan, 2 Mar. 2021. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Stickel, Robert. “What It Means to be Adaptive.” OnePlan, 24 May 2021. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “The Future of Microsoft Project Online.” OnePlan. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Weller, Joe. “Demystifying Microsoft Project Licensing.” Smartsheet, 10 Mar. 2016. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Western Principles Inc. “Dump the Spreadsheets for Microsoft Project Online.” YouTube, 2 July 2020. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Western Principles Inc. “Project Online or Project for the web? Which project management system should you use?” YouTube, 11 Aug. 2020. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      “What is Power Query?” Microsoft, 22 July 2021. Web.

      Wicresoft. “The Power of the New Microsoft Project and Microsoft 365.” YouTube, 29 May 2020. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Wicresoft. “Why the Microsoft Power Platform is the Future of PPM.” YouTube, 11 June 2020. Accessed 17 Sept. 2021.

      Develop an IT Infrastructure Services Playbook

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}451|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 10.0/10 Overall Impact
      • member rating average dollars saved: 2 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: Operations Management
      • Parent Category Link: /i-and-o-process-management
      • Infrastructure and operations teams are managing deployments on- and off-premises, and across multiple infrastructure services providers.
      • Though automation tools speed up the delivery process, documentation is always pushed off so the team can meet urgent deadlines.
      • Without documented delivery processes, wait times are longer, controls are adequate but ad hoc, builds are non-standard, and errors are more likely to be introduced in production.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Prioritize in-demand services to add to the playbook. Pilot a few services to get value from the project quickly.
      • Do not get lost in automation or tooling. You do not need a complex tool or back-end automation to get value from this project.
      • Learn, then iterate. With a few completed service processes, it is much easier to identify opportunities for service automation.

      Impact and Result

      • Prioritize in-demand services for documentation and standardization.
      • Build service workflows and document service requirements in the services playbook.
      • Create a costing model and track costs to deliver defined services.
      • Leverage data on costs and service requirements to improve service delivery.

      Develop an IT Infrastructure Services Playbook Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read this Executive Brief to find out why you should create an infrastructure services playbook, 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 infrastructure services

      Produce a prioritized list of high-demand infrastructure services.

      • Develop an IT Infrastructure Services Playbook – Phase 1: Define and Prioritize Infrastructure Services
      • Infrastructure Services Playbook

      2. Build workflows and an infrastructure services playbook

      Design workflows and create the first draft of the infrastructure services playbook.

      • Develop an IT Infrastructure Services Playbook – Phase 2: Build Workflows and an Infrastructure Services Playbook
      • Infrastructure Service Workflows (Visio)
      • Infrastructure Service Workflows (PDF)

      3. Identify costs and mature service delivery capabilities

      Build a service rate sheet to track costs and develop better service capabilities.

      • Develop an IT Infrastructure Services Playbook – Phase 3: Identify Costs and Mature Service Delivery Capabilities
      • Service Rate Sheet
      • Infrastructure Service Catalog Mind Map Example
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Develop an IT Infrastructure Services 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 Define and Prioritize Infrastructure Services

      The Purpose

      Define and prioritize infrastructure services.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Identify candidate services for the Playbook.

      Activities

      1.1 Define the services you own.

      1.2 Prioritize infrastructure services.

      Outputs

      Affinity map of infrastructure services

      Service pain points and root causes

      A list of high-demand infrastructure services

      2 Build the Infrastructure Services Playbook

      The Purpose

      Build workflows and an infrastructure services playbook.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Produce a draft infrastructure services playbook.

      Activities

      2.1 Design workflow for service delivery.

      2.2 Add steps and requirements to the Services Playbook.

      Outputs

      Documented service workflows

      Infrastructure Services Playbook

      3 Identify Costs and Mature Service Delivery Capabilities

      The Purpose

      Identify costs and mature service delivery capabilities.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Build an infrastructure service rate sheet.

      Define next steps for infrastructure service capabilities.

      Activities

      3.1 Optimize infrastructure cost estimates.

      3.2 Mature your I&O organization into a service broker.

      Outputs

      Service Rate Sheet

      Master list of infrastructure services

      Action plan for Playbook implementation

      Further reading

      Develop an IT Infrastructure Services Playbook

      Automation, SDI, and DevOps – build a cheat sheet to manage a changing Infrastructure & Operations environment.

      Table of contents

      Analyst Perspective

      Executive Summary

      Project Overview

      Summary and Conclusion

      ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

      Technology is changing how infrastructure services are delivered.

      "Managing a hybrid infrastructure environment is challenge enough. Add to this the pressure on IT Operations to deliver services faster and more continuously – it’s a recipe for boondoggle deployments, overcommitted staff, end-user frustration, and operational gridlock.

      It’s not every service you provide that causes problems, so prioritize a few in-demand, painful services. Build and maintain durable, flexible processes that enable your team to provide consistent, repeatable services at a standard cost. Identify opportunities to improve service delivery.

      You’ll save the business time and money and your own team significant grief." (Andrew Sharp, Research Manager, Infrastructure & Operations, Info-Tech Research Group)

      Your infrastructure and operations team is a service provider; standardize, document, and communicate service capabilities

      This Research is Designed For:

      • CTOs and Infrastructure Managers
      • Service Level Managers
      • ITSM Managers and Process Owners

      This Research Will Help You:

      • Inventory services that IT Infrastructure & Operations (I&O) provides to the business (servers, storage, and network).
      • Standardize services and track costs.
      • Articulate the value of these services to business owners.
      • Develop a catalog of infrastructure services.

      This Research Will Also Assist:

      • CIOs
      • Application Development Managers
      • Security Managers
      • Auditors

      This Research Will Help Them:

      • Understand the complexities of technical service delivery.
      • Make better strategic IT infrastructure decisions.

      Executive summary

      Situation

      • Infrastructure and operations teams are managing deployments on- and off-premises and across multiple infrastructure service providers.
      • Though automation tools speed up the delivery process, documentation is always pushed off so the team can meet urgent deadlines.

      Complication

      • Cloud providers have set the bar high for ease of access to stable infrastructure services.
      • Without documented delivery processes, wait times are longer, controls are adequate but ad hoc, builds are non-standard, and errors are more likely to be introduced in production.

      Resolution

      • Prioritize in-demand services for documentation and standardization.
      • Build service workflows and document service requirements in the services playbook.
      • Create a costing model and track costs to deliver defined services.
      • Leverage data on costs and service requirements to improve service delivery.

      Info-Tech Insight

      1. Keep it simple. Work through a few in-demand services to get early value from the project.
      2. Don’t get lost in automation or tooling. You don’t need a complex tool or back-end automation to get value from standardized services.
      3. Do then iterate. With a few completed service processes, it’s much easier to identify opportunities for service automation.

      Create an infrastructure services playbook to improve efficiency, support DevOps, and streamline service delivery

      Begin building an infrastructure services playbook by defining the services you provide. This will also help your team support changes to service delivery (e.g. more use of cloud services and the shift to DevOps).

      In this blueprint, the first step will be to document infrastructure services to:

      1. Clarify infrastructure capabilities and achievable service levels.

        Document infrastructure services to clarify achievable service levels with given resources and what you will need to meet service-level requirement gaps. Establishing your ability to meet customer demands is the first step toward becoming a broker of internal or external services.
      2. Standardize infrastructure service delivery.

        Sometimes, it’s extremely important to do the exact same thing every time (e.g. server hardening). Sometimes, your team needs room to deviate from the script. Create a playbook that allows you to standardize service delivery as needed.
      3. Make good strategic infrastructure decisions.

        Knowledge is power. Defined services and capabilities will help you make important strategic infrastructure decisions around capacity planning and when outsourcing is appropriate.

      Review and optimize infrastructure service delivery as you shift to more cloud-based services

      If you can’t standardize and streamline how you support cloud services, you risk AppDev and business leaders circumventing the I&O team.

      Logo for 'vmware'.

      Example:

      Create a new server resource in a virtual environment vs. public cloud

      In a virtualized environment, provisioning processes can still be relatively siloed.

      In a software-defined environment, many steps require knowledge across the infrastructure stack. Better documentation will help your team deliver services outside their area of specialty.

      Logo for 'Microsoft Azure'.
      • Identify CPU requirements for a virtual machine (VM)
      • Calculate VM memory requirements
      • Configure the floppy drive for a VM
      • Configure IDE devices for a VM
      • Configure SCSI adapters for a VM
      • Configure network adapters for a VM
      • Configure VM priority for host CPU resources
      • Server is live

      • Complete SDI code development & review, version control, build status, etc.
      • Identify software and specifications for the instance you want to use
      • Review configuration, storage, and security settings
      • Secure the instance with an existing key pair or create a new key pair
      • Update documentation – public IP address, physical & logical connections, data flows, etc.
      • Launch and connect to instance
      • Server is live

      Strengthen DevOps with an infrastructure playbook

      The purpose behind DevOps is to reduce friction and deliver faster, more continuous, more automated services through the use of cross-functional teams.

      DevOps: bridging Applications Development and Infrastructure & Operations by embracing a culture, practices, and tools born out of Lean and Agile methodologies.

      • Create a common language across functions.
      • Ensure that all service steps are documented.
      • Move towards more standard deployments.
      • Increase transparency within the IT department.
      • Cultivate trust across teams.
      • Build the foundation for automated services.
      A colorful visualization of the DevOps cycle. On the Development side is 'Feedback', Plan', 'Build', 'Integrate', then over to the Operations side is 'Deploy', and 'Operate', then back to Dev with 'Feedback', starting the cycle over again.

      "The bar has been raised for delivering technology products and services – what was good enough in previous decades is not good enough now." (Kim, Humble, Debois, Willis (2016))

      Leverage an infrastructure services playbook to improve service delivery, one step at a time

      Crawl

      • Prioritize infrastructure services that are good candidates for standardization.
      • Document the steps and requirements to deliver the service.
      • Use the playbook and workflows internally as you gather requirements and deliver on requests.
      • Track costs internally.

      Walk

      • Provide infrastructure clients with the playbook and allow them to make requests against it.
      • Update and maintain existing documentation.
      • Automate, where possible.
      • Showback costs to the business.

      Run

      • Provide infrastructure customers with scripts to provision infrastructure resources.
      • Audit requests before fulfilling them.
      • Chargeback costs, as needed.
      A turtle smiles happily on four legs, simply content to be alive. Another turtle moves quickly on two legs, seemingly in a runner's trance, eyes closed, oblivious to the fact that another turtle has beaten him to finish line.

      Focus on in-demand infrastructure services — PHASE 1

      Standardize in-demand, repeatable services first.

      Demand for infrastructure services is usually driven by external requests or operational requirements. Prioritize services based on criticality, durability, frequency, availability, and urgency requirements.

      Scheduling Delays
      • Dealing with a slew of capital projects driven by a major funding initiative, the IT team of a major US transit system is struggling to execute on basic operational tasks.

      • Action:
      • A brainstorming and prioritization exercise identifies web server deployment as their most in-demand service.
      • Identifying breakdowns in web server deployment helps free up resources for other tasks and addresses a serious pain point.
      Think outside the box
      • On a new project for a sporting goods client, the IT department for a marketing firm deploys and supports a “locker” kiosk that users engage with for a chance to win a gift.

      • Action:
      • As the campaign proves successful, the I&O Manager creates a playbook to guide kiosk support and deployment in the future, including required skills, timelines, success metrics, and costs.
      Keep it standard, keep it safe
      • An IT audit at a higher education institution finds that no standard process for server hardening has been defined or documented by the infrastructure team.

      • Action:
      • Improving IT security is a strategic priority for the department.
      • The infrastructure team decides to standardize and document processes, guidelines, and configurations for hardening OS, SCCM, SaltStack, scripting, and patching.

      Leverage service workflows to populate the playbook — PHASE 2

      Infrastructure as Code is breaking down traditional infrastructure silos and support models.

      1. Document the workflow to deliver the service. Identify pain points and target broken processes first.
        Provision –› Configure –› Run –› Quiesce –› Destroy
      2. Define logical expected results and metrics for problematic steps in the process. Identify challenges and possible improvements to each problematic step.
        Building and deploying toolsets is taking a long time
        Start
        • Create a baseline offering for common requests.
        • Make clear that non-standard requests will take time to fulfil.
        Stop
        • Move to just one web server.
        Continue
        • Use weekly drop-ins to communicate the change.
      3. Document skills and roles, approvers, and pre-requirements to fill out the documentation, as needed. Use the documented process to guide internal process and align with external expectations.

      Cross-silo knowledge is needed: In a software-defined environment, building and launching a new server requires knowledge across the stack.

      • Complete SDI code development & review, version control, build status, etc.
      • Identify software and specifications for the instance you want to use
      • Review configuration, storage, and security settings
      • Secure the instance with an existing key pair, or create a new key pair
      • Update documentation – public IP address, physical & logical connections, data flows, etc.
      • Launch and connect to the instance
      • Server is live

      Take a progressive approach to cost tracking — PHASE 3

      Infrastructure & Operations are bound by two metrics:

      1. Are systems up?
      2. Is technology delivered as efficiently as possible?

      Because tracking cost is integral to efficiency, cost and budget management, by proxy, is one of the most important Infrastructure & Operations metrics.

      Cost management is not a numbers game. It is an indicator of how well infrastructure is managed.

      Track costs in a practical way that delivers value to your organization:

      1. Build and leverage an internal rate sheet to help estimate cost to serve.
      2. Showback rate sheet to help managers and architects make better infrastructure decisions.
      3. Chargeback costs to defined cost centers.

      Project overview

      Use Info-Tech’s methodology to get value faster from your infrastructure services playbook.

      Phases

      Phase 1: Define and prioritize infrastructure services Phase 2: Build the infrastructure services playbook Phase 3: Identify costs and mature service delivery capabilities

      Steps

      1.1 Define the services you own 2.1 Design workflows for service delivery 3.1 Estimate infrastructure service costs
      1.2 Prioritize infrastructure services 2.2 Add steps and requirements to the services playbook 3.2 Mature your I&O organization into a service broker

      Tools & Templates

      Infrastructure Services Playbook Infrastructure Service Workflows Service Rate Sheet

      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

      Guided Implementation Overview

      Your Trusted Advisor is just a call away.

      Scoping
      (Call 1)

      Scope requirements, objectives, and stakeholders. Review the playbook toolset and methodology, and establish fit-for-need.

      Identify Services
      (Call 2)

      Brainstorm common infrastructure services your group provides. Consolidate the list and identify priority services.

      Create Service Workflows
      (Calls 3-4)

      Build Visio workflows for 2-3 priority services.

      Populate the Playbook
      (Calls 4-5)

      Add data to the playbook based on infrastructure service workflows

      Create a Rate Sheet for Costs
      (Call 6)

      Build a rate sheet that allows you to calculate costs for additional

      Your Guided Implementation will pair you with an advisor from our analyst team for the duration of your infrastructure services project.

      Workshop Overview

      Module 1
      (Day 1)
      Module 1
      (Day 1)
      Module 1
      (Day 1)
      Offsite deliverables wrap-up (Day 5)
      Activities
      Define and Prioritize Infrastructure Services

      1.1 Assess current maturity of services and standardization processes.

      1.2 Identify, group, and break out important infrastructure services.

      1.3 Define service delivery pain points and perform root-cause analysis.

      1.4 Prioritize services based on demand criteria.

      Build the Infrastructure Services Playbook

      2.1 Determine criteria for standard versus custom services.

      2.2 Document standard workflows for better alignment and consistent delivery.

      2.3 Build a flowchart for the identified high-demand service(s).

      2.4 Outline information as it relates to the service lifecycle in the Playbook template.

      Identify Costs and Mature Service Delivery Capabilities

      4.1 Gather information for the rate sheet.

      4.2 Choose an allocation method for overhead costs.

      4.3 Select the right approach in the crawl, walk, run model for your organization.

      4.4 Discuss the promotion plan and target revision dates for playbook and rate sheet.

      Deliverables
      1. High-demand infrastructure services list
      1. Right-sized criteria for standardization
      2. Service workflows
      3. Infrastructure Services Playbook
      1. Service Rate Sheet
      2. Deployment plan

      Develop an IT Infrastructure Services Playbook

      PHASE 1

      Define and Prioritize Infrastructure Services

      Step 1.1: Define the services you own

      PHASE 1

      Define and prioritize infrastructure services

      1.1

      Define the services you own

      1.2

      Prioritize infrastructure services

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Define “infrastructure service”
      • Brainstorm service offerings
      • Consolidate services with affinity map

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Infrastructure Manager
      • I&O SMEs

      Results & Insights

      • Results: Consolidated list of end-to-end services
      • Insights: Avoid analysis paralysis by brainstorming without restrictions. It is more effective to cut down in Step 1.2 rather than risk neglecting important services for the playbook.

      Consider a range of infrastructure services

      Your infrastructure team is a service provider to the applications team – and sometimes other users as well.

      Service Requests
      • A developer requests a new web server.
      • The marketing department asks for a database to support a six-month digital marketing campaign.
      Projects
      • A new service is promoted to production.
      Operations
      • Firewall rules are updated to support server, network, or security posture changes.
      • Standard practices are followed and maintained to harden a range of different operating systems.
      • Engineers follow a standard process to integrate new tools and entitlements into Active Directory.
      • Patches and firmware updates are applied to core infrastructure components as needed.
      Problems
      • A database batch job often breaks on overnight batch jobs and requires manual intervention to check and restart.
      A visualization of the word 'Infrastructure Services' being orbited by 'Service Requests', 'Projects', 'Operations', and 'Problems'.

      IT infrastructure & operations teams deliver services that fulfil requests, support projects, resolve problems, and operate systems.

      Hire or Develop a World-Class CISO

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}243|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: Security Strategy & Budgeting
      • Parent Category Link: /security-strategy-and-budgeting
      • It is difficult to find a “unicorn”: a candidate who is already fully developed in all areas.
      • The role of the CISO has changed so much in the past three years, it is unclear what competencies are most important.
      • Current CISOs need to scope out areas of future development.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      The new security leader must be strategic, striking a balance between being tactical and taking a proactive security stance. They must incorporate security into business practices from day one and enable secure adoption of new technologies and business practices.

      Impact and Result

      • Clarify the competencies that are important to your organizational needs and use them to find a candidate with those specific strengths.
      • If you are a current CISO, complete a self-assessment and identify your high-priority competency gaps so you can actively work to develop those areas.
      • Create an actionable plan to develop the CISO’s capabilities and regularly reassess these items to ensure constant improvement.

      Hire or Develop a World-Class CISO Research & Tools

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

      1. Hire of Develop a World-Class CISO Deck – A step-by-step guide on finding or developing the CISO that best fits your organization.

      Use this blueprint to hire or develop a world-class Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) with the competencies that suit your specific organizational needs. Once you have identified the right candidate, create a plan to develop your CISO.

      • Hire or Develop a World-Class CISO – Phases 1-4

      2. CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool – Determine which competencies your organization needs and which competencies your CISO needs to work on.

      This tool will help you determine which competencies are a priority for your organizational needs and which competencies your CISO needs to develop.

      • CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool

      3. CISO Stakeholder Power Map Template – Visualize stakeholder and CISO relationships.

      Use this template to identify stakeholders who are key to your security initiatives and to understand your relationships with them.

      • CISO Stakeholder Power Map Template

      4. CISO Stakeholder Management Strategy Template – Develop a strategy to improve stakeholder and CISO relationships.

      Create a strategy to cultivate your stakeholder relationships and manage each relationship in the most effective way.

      • CISO Stakeholder Management Strategy Template

      5. CISO Development Plan Template – Develop a plan to support a world-class CISO.

      This tool will help you create and implement a plan to remediate competency gaps.

      • CISO Development Plan Template

      Infographic

      Further reading

      Hire or Develop a World-Class CISO

      Find a strategic and security-focused champion for your business.

      Analyst Perspective

      Create a plan to become the security leader of tomorrow

      The days are gone when the security leader can stay at a desk and watch the perimeter. The rapidly increasing sophistication of technology, and of attackers, has changed the landscape so that a successful information security program must be elastic, nimble, and tailored to the organization’s specific needs.

      The Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) is tasked with leading this modern security program, and this individual must truly be a Chief Officer, with a finger on the pulses of the business and security processes at the same time. The modern, strategic CISO must be a master of all trades.

      A world-class CISO is a business enabler who finds creative ways for the business to take on innovative processes that provide a competitive advantage and, most importantly, to do so securely.

      Cameron Smith, Research Lead, Security and Privacy

      Cameron Smith
      Research Lead, Security & Privacy
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge

      • CEOs/CXOs are looking to hire or develop a senior security leader and aren’t sure where to start.
      • Conversely, security practitioners are looking to upgrade their skill set and are equally stuck in terms of what an appropriate starting point is.
      • Organizations are looking to optimize their security plans and move from a tactical position to a more strategic one.

      Common Obstacles

      • It is difficult to find a “unicorn”: a candidate who is already fully developed in all areas.
      • The role of the CISO has changed so much in the past three years, it is unclear what competencies are most important.
      • You are a current CISO and need to scope out your areas of future development.

      Info-Tech’s Approach

      • Clarify the competencies that are important to your organizational needs and use them to find a candidate with those specific strengths.
      • If you are a current CISO, complete a self-assessment and identify your high-priority competency gaps so you can actively work to develop those areas.
      • Create an actionable plan to develop the CISO’s capabilities and regularly reassess these items to ensure constant improvement.

      Info-Tech Insight
      The new security leader must be strategic, striking a balance between being tactical and taking a proactive security stance. They must incorporate security into business practices from day one and enable secure adoption of new technologies and business practices.

      Your challenge

      This Info-Tech blueprint will help you hire and develop a strategic CISO

      • Security without strategy is a hacker’s paradise.
      • The outdated model of information security is tactical, where security acts as a watchdog and responds.
      • The new security leader must be strategic, striking a balance between being tactical and taking a proactive security stance. They must incorporate security into business practices from day one and enable secure adoption of new technologies and business practices.

      Around one in five organizations don’t have an individual with the sole responsibility for security1

      1 Navisite

      Info-Tech Insight
      Assigning security responsibilities to departments other than security can lead to conflicts of interest.

      Common obstacles

      It can be difficult to find the right CISO for your organization

      • The smaller the organization, the less likely it will have a CISO or equivalent position.
      • Because there is a shortage of qualified candidates, qualified CISOs can demand high salaries and many CISO positions will go unfilled.
      • It is easier for larger companies to attract top CISO talent, as they generally have more resources available.

      Source: Navisite

      Only 36% of small businesses have a CISO (or equivalent position).

      48% of mid-sized businesses have a CISO.

      90% of large organizations have a CISO.

      Source: Navisite

      Strategic versus tactical

      CISOs should provide leadership based on a strategic vision 1

      Strategic CISO Tactical CISO

      Proactive

      Focus is on protecting hyperdistributed business processes and data

      Elastic, flexible, and nimble

      Engaged in business design decisions

      Speaks the language of the audience (e.g. business, financial, technical)

      Reactive

      Focus is on protecting current state

      Perimeter and IT-centric approach

      Communicates with technical jargon

      1 Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology

      Info-Tech has identified three key behaviors of the world-class CISO

      To determine what is required from tomorrow’s security leader, Info-Tech examined the core behaviors that make a world-class CISO. These are the three areas that a CISO engages with and excels in.

      Later in this blueprint, we will review the competencies and skills that are required for your CISO to perform these behaviors at a high level.

      Align

      Aligning security enablement with business requirements

      Enable

      Enabling a culture of risk management

      Manage

      Managing talent and change

      Info-Tech Insight
      Through these three overarching behaviors, you can enable a security culture that is aligned to the business and make security elastic, flexible, and nimble to maintain the business processes.

      Info-Tech’s approach

      Understand what your organization needs in a CISO: Consider the core competencies of a CISO. Assess: Assess candidates' core competencies and the CISO's stakeholder relationships. Plan improvements: Identify resources to close competency gaps and an approach to improve stakeholder relationships. Executive development: Decide next steps to support your CISO moving forward and regularly reassess to measure progress.

      Info-Tech’s methodology to Develop or Hire a World-Class CISO

      1. Launch 2. Assess 3. Plan 4. Execute
      Phase Steps
      1. Understand the core competencies
      2. Measure security and business satisfaction and alignment
      1. Assess stakeholder relationships
      2. Assess core competencies
      1. Identify resources to address your CISO’s competency gaps
      2. Plan an approach to improve stakeholder relationships
      1. Decide next actions and support your CISO moving forward
      2. Regularly reassess to measure development and progress
      Phase Outcomes

      At the end of this phase, you will have:

      • Determined the current gaps in satisfaction and business alignment for your IT security program.
      • Identified the desired qualities in a security leader, specific to your current organizational needs.

      At the end of this phase, you will have:

      • Used the core competencies to help identify the ideal candidate.
      • Identified areas for development in your new or existing CISO.
      • Determined stakeholder relationships to cultivate.

      At the end of this phase, you will have:

      • Created a high-level plan to address any deficiencies.
      • Improved stakeholder relations.

      At the end of this phase, you will have:

      • Created an action-based development plan, including relevant metrics, due dates, and identified stakeholders. This plan is the beginning, not the end. Continually reassessing your organizational needs and revisiting this blueprint’s method will ensure ongoing development.

      Blueprint deliverables

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

      CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool

      Assess the competency levels of a current or prospective CISO and identify areas for improvement.

      Stakeholder Power Map Template

      Visualize the importance of various stakeholders and their concerns.

      Stakeholder Management Strategy Template

      Document a plan to manage stakeholders and track actions.

      Key deliverable:

      CISO Development Plan Template

      The CISO Development Plan Template is used to map specific activities and time frames for competency development to address gaps and achieve your goal.

      Strategic competencies will benefit the organization and the CISO

      Career development should not be seen as an individual effort. By understanding the personal core competencies that Info-Tech has identified, the individual wins by developing relevant new skills and the organization wins because the CISO provides increased value.

      Organizational Benefits Individual Benefits
      • Increased alignment between security and business objectives
      • Development of information security that is elastic, nimble, and flexible for the business
      • Reduction in wasted efforts and resources, and improvement in efficiency of security and the organization as a whole
      • True synergy between security and business stakeholders, where the goals of both groups are being met
      • Increased opportunity as you become a trusted partner within your organization
      • Improved relationships with peers and stakeholders
      • Less resistance and more support for security initiatives
      • More involvement and a stronger role for security at all levels of the organization

      Measured value of a world-class CISO

      Organizations with a CISO saw an average of $145,000 less in data breach costs.1

      However, we aren’t talking about hiring just any CISO. This blueprint seeks to develop your CISO’s competencies and reach a new level of effectiveness.

      Organizations invest a median of around $375,000 annually in their CISO.2 The CISO would have to be only 4% more effective to represent $15,000 more value from this position. This would offset the cost of an Info-Tech workshop, and this conservative estimate pales in comparison to the tangible and intangible savings as shown below.

      Your specific benefits will depend on many factors, but the value of protecting your reputation, adopting new and secure revenue opportunities, and preventing breaches cannot be overstated. There is a reason that investment in information security is on the rise: Organizations are realizing that the payoff is immense and the effort is worthwhile.

      Tangible cost savings from having a world-class CISO Intangible cost savings from having a world-class CISO
      • Cost savings from incident reduction.
      • Cost savings achieved through optimizing information security investments, resulting in savings from previously misdiagnosed issues.
      • Cost savings from ensuring that dollars spent on security initiatives support business strategy.
      • More opportunities to create new business processes through greater alignment between security and business.
      • Improved reputation and brand equity achieved through a proper evaluation of the organization’s security posture.
      • Continuous improvement achieved through a good security assessment and measurement strategy.
      • Ability to plan for the future since less security time will be spent firefighting and more time will be spent engaged with key stakeholders.

      1 IBM Security
      2 Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc.

      Case Study

      In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity

      SOURCE
      Kyle Kennedy
      CISO, CyberSN.com

      Challenge
      The security program identified vulnerabilities at the database layer that needed to be addressed.

      The decision was made to move to a new vendor. There were multiple options, but the best option in the CISO’s opinion was a substantially more expensive service that provided more robust protection and more control features.

      The CISO faced the challenge of convincing the board to make a financial investment in his IT security initiative to implement this new software.

      Solution
      The CISO knew he needed to express this challenge (and his solution!) in a way that was meaningful for the executive stakeholders.

      He identified that the business has $100 million in revenue that would move through this data stream. This new software would help to ensure the security of all these transactions, which they would lose in the event of a breach.

      Furthermore, the CISO identified new business plans in the planning stage that could be protected under this initiative.

      Results
      The CISO was able to gain support for and implement the new database platform, which was able to protect current assets more securely than before. Also, the CISO allowed new revenue streams to be created securely.

      This approach is the opposite of the cautionary tales that make news headlines, where new revenue streams are created before systems are put in place to secure them.

      This proactive approach is the core of the world-class CISO.

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

      Guided Implementation

      What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

      Launch Assess Plan Execute

      Call #1: Review and discuss CISO core competencies.

      Call #2: Discuss Security Business Satisfaction and Alignment diagnostic results.

      Call #3: Discuss the CISO Stakeholder Power Map Template and the importance of relationships.

      Call #4: Discuss the CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool.

      Call #5: Discuss results of the CISO Core Competency Evaluation and identify resources to close gaps.

      Call #6: Review organizational structure and key stakeholder relationships.

      Call #7: Discuss and create your CISO development plan and track your development

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

      A typical GI is 6 to 10 calls over the course of 3 to 6 months.

      Phase 1

      Launch

      Phase 1
      1.1 Understand Core Competencies
      1.2 Measure Security and Business Satisfaction and Alignment

      Phase 2
      2.1 Assess Stakeholder Relationships
      2.2 Assess the Core Competencies

      Phase 3
      3.1 Identify Resources to Address Competency Gaps
      3.2 Plan Approach to Improve Stakeholder Relationships

      Phase 4
      4.1 Decide Next Actions and Support Your CISO Moving Forward
      4.2 Regularly Reassess to Measure Development and Progress

      This phase will walk you through the following activities:

      • Review and understand the core competencies of a world-class CISO.
      • Launch your diagnostic survey.
      • Evaluate current business satisfaction with IT security.
      • Determine the competencies that are valuable to your IT security program’s needs.

      Hire or Develop a World-Class CISO

      Case study

      Mark Lester
      InfoSec Manager, SC Ports Authority

      An organization hires a new Information Security Manager into a static and well-established IT department.

      Situation: The organization acknowledges the need for improved information security, but there is no framework for the Security Manager to make successful changes.

      Challenges Next Steps
      • The Security Manager is an outsider in a company with well-established habits and protocols. He is tasked with revamping the security strategy to create unified threat management.
      • Initial proposals for information security improvements are rejected by executives. It is a challenge to implement changes or gain support for new initiatives.
      • The Security Manager will engage with individuals in the organization to learn about the culture and what is important to them.
      • He will assess existing misalignments in the business so that he can target problems causing real pains to individuals.

      Follow this case study throughout the deck to see this organization’s results

      Step 1.1

      Understand the Core Competencies of a World-Class CISO

      Activities

      Review core competencies the security leader must develop to become a strategic business partner

      This step involves the following participants:

      • CEO or other executive seeking to hire/develop a CISO

      or

      • Current CISO seeking to upgrade capabilities

      Outcomes of this step
      Analysis and understanding of the eight strategic CISO competencies required to become a business partner

      Launch

      Core competencies

      Info-Tech has identified eight core competencies affecting the CISO’s progression to becoming a strategic business partner.

      Business Acumen
      A CISO must focus primarily on the needs of the business.

      Leadership
      A CISO must be a security leader and not simply a practitioner.

      Communication
      A CISO must have executive communication skills

      Technical Knowledge
      A CISO must have a broad technical understanding.

      Innovative Problem Solving
      A good CISO doesn’t just say “no,” but rather finds creative ways to say “yes.”

      Vendor Management
      Vendor and financial management skills are critical to becoming a strategic CISO.

      Change Management
      A CISO improves security processes by being an agent of change for the organization.

      Collaboration
      A CISO must be able to use alliances and partnerships strategically.

      1.1 Understand the core competencies a CISO must focus on to become a strategic business partner

      < 1 hour

      Over the next few slides, review each world-class CISO core competency. In Step 1.2, you will determine which competencies are a priority for your organization.

      CISO Competencies Description
      Business Acumen

      A CISO must focus primarily on the needs of the business and how the business works, then determine how to align IT security initiatives to support business initiatives. This includes:

      • Contributing to business growth with an understanding of the industry, core functions, products, services, customers, and competitors.
      • Understanding the business’ strategic direction and allowing it to securely capitalize on opportunities.
      • Understanding the key drivers of business performance and the use of sound business practice.
      Leadership

      A CISO must be a security leader, and not simply a practitioner. This requires:

      • Developing a holistic view of security, risk, and compliance for the organization.
      • Fostering a culture of risk management.
      • Choosing a strong team. Having innovative and reliable employees who do quality work is a critical component of an effective department.
        • This aspect involves identifying talent, engaging your staff, and managing their time and abilities.

      1.1 Understand the core competencies (continued)

      CISO Competencies Description
      Communication

      Many CISOs believe that using technical jargon impresses their business stakeholders – in fact, it only makes business stakeholders become confused and disinterested. A CISO must have executive communication skills. This involves:

      • Clearly communicating with business leaders in meaningful language (i.e. business, financial, social) that they understand by breaking down the complexities of IT security into simple and relatable concepts.
      • Not using acronyms or technological speak. Easy-to-understand translations will go a long way.
      • Strong public speaking and presentation abilities.
      Technical Knowledge

      A CISO must have a broad technical understanding of IT security to oversee a successful security program. This includes:

      • Understanding key security and general IT technologies and processes.
      • Assembling a complementary team, because no individual can have deep knowledge in all areas.
      • Maintaining continuing education to stay on top of emerging technologies and threats.

      1.1 Understand the core competencies (continued)

      CISO Competencies Description
      Innovative Problem Solving

      A good CISO doesn’t just say “no,” but rather finds creative ways to say “yes.” This can include:

      • Taking an active role in seizing opportunities created by emerging technologies.
      • Facilitating the secure implementation of new, innovative revenue models.
      • Developing solutions for complex business problems that require creativity and ingenuity.
      • Using information and technology to drive value around the customer experience.
      Vendor Management

      With the growing use of “anything as a service,” negotiation, vendor, and financial management skills are critical to becoming a strategic CISO.

      • The CISO must be able to evaluate service offerings and secure favorable contracts with the right provider. It is about extracting the maximum value from vendors for the dollars you are spending.
      • Vendor products must be aligned with future business plans to create maximum ongoing value.
      • The CISO must develop financial management skills. This includes the ability to calculate total cost of ownership, return on investment, and project spending over multiyear business plans.

      1.1 Understand the core competencies (continued)

      CISO Competencies Description
      Change Management

      A world-class CISO improves security processes by being an agent of change for the organization. This involves:

      • Leading, guiding, and motivating teams to adopt a responsible risk management culture.
      • Communicating important and complex ideas in a persuasive way.
      • Demonstrating an ability to change themselves and taking the initiative in adopting more efficient behaviors.
      • Handling unplanned change, such as unforeseen attacks or personnel changes, in a professional and proactive manner.
      Collaboration

      A CISO must be able to use alliances and partnerships strategically to benefit both the business and themselves. This includes:

      • Identifying formal and informal networks and constructive relationships to enable security development.
      • Leveraging stakeholders to influence positive outcomes for the organization.
      • Getting out of the IT or IT security sphere and engaging relationships in diverse areas of the organization.

      Step 1.2

      Evaluate satisfaction and alignment between the business and IT security

      Activities

      • Conduct the Information Security Business Satisfaction and Alignment diagnostic
      • Use your results as input into the CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool

      This step involves the following participants:

      • CEO or other executive seeking to hire/develop a CISO

      or

      • Current CISO seeking to upgrade capabilities

      Outcomes of this step
      Determine current gaps in satisfaction and alignment between information security and your organization.

      If seeking to hire/develop a CISO: Your diagnostic results will help develop a profile of the ideal CISO candidate to use as a hiring and interview guide.

      If developing a current CISO, use your diagnostic results to identify existing competency gaps and target them for improvement.

      For the CISO seeking to upgrade capabilities: Use the core competencies guide to self-assess and identify competencies that require improvement.

      Launch

      1.2 Get started by conducting Info-Tech’s Information Security Business Satisfaction and Alignment diagnostic

      Suggested Time: One week for distribution, completion, and collection of surveys
      One-hour follow-up with an Info-Tech analyst

      The primary goal of IT security is to protect the organization from threats. This does not simply mean bolting everything down, but it means enabling business processes securely. To do this effectively requires alignment between IT security and the overall business.

      • Once you have completed the diagnostic, call Info-Tech to review your results with one of our analysts.
      • The results from this assessment will provide insights to inform your entries in the CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool.

      Call an analyst to review your results and provide you with recommendations.

      Info-Tech Insight
      Focus on the high-priority competencies for your organization. You may find a candidate with perfect 10s across the board, but a more pragmatic strategy is to find someone with strengths that align with your needs. If there are other areas of weakness, then target those areas for development.

      1.2 Use Info-Tech’s CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool to understand your organizational needs

      After completing the Info-Tech diagnostic, use the CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool to determine which CISO competencies are a priority for your organization.

      • Your diagnostic results will indicate where your information security program is aligned well or poorly with your business.
      • For example, the diagnostic may show significant misalignment between information security and executives over the level of external compliance. The CISO behavior that would contribute to solving this is aligning security enablement with business requirements.
        • This misalignment may be due to a misunderstanding by either party. The competencies that will contribute to resolving this are communication, technical knowledge, and business acumen.
        • This mapping method is what will be used to determine which competencies are most important for your needs at the present moment.

      Download the CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool

      1.2 Use Info-Tech’s CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool to understand your organizational needs

      After completing the Info-Tech diagnostic, use the CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool to determine which CISO competencies are a priority for your organization.

      1. Starting on Tab 2: CISO Core Competencies, use your understanding of each competency from section 1.1 along with the definitions described in the tool.
        • For each competency, assign a degree of importance using the drop-down menu in the second column from the right.
        • Importance ratings will range from not at all important at the low end to critically important at the high end.
        • Your importance score will be influenced by several factors, including:
          • The current alignment of your information security department.
          • Your organizational security posture.
          • The size and structure of your organization.
          • The existing skills and maturity within your information security department.

      Download the CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool

      1.2 Use Info-Tech’s CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool to understand your organizational needs

      After completing the Info-Tech diagnostic, use the CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool to determine which CISO competencies are a priority for your organization.

      1. Still on Tab 2. CISO Core Competencies, you will now assign a current level of effectiveness for each competency.
        • This will range from foundational at a low level of effectiveness up to capable, then inspirational, and at the highest rating, transformational.
        • Again, this rating will be very specific to your organization, depending on your structure and your current employees.
        • Fundamentally, these scores will reflect what you want to improve in the area of information security. This is not an absolute scale, and it will be influenced by what skills you want to support your goals and direction as an organization.

      Download the CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool

      Phase 2

      Assess

      Phase 1
      1.1 Understand Core Competencies
      1.2 Measure Security and Business Satisfaction and Alignment

      Phase 2
      2.1 Assess Stakeholder Relationships
      2.2 Assess the Core Competencies

      Phase 3
      3.2 Plan Approach to Improve Stakeholder Relationships

      Phase 4
      4.1 Decide Next Actions and Support Your CISO Moving Forward
      4.2 Regularly Reassess to Measure Development and Progress

      This phase will walk you through the following activities:

      • Use the CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool to create and implement an interview guide.
      • Assess and analyze the core competencies of your prospective CISOs. Or, if you are a current CISO, use the CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool as a self-analysis and identify areas for personal development.
      • Evaluate the influence, impact, and support of key executive business stakeholders using the CISO Stakeholder Power Map Template.

      Hire or Develop a World-Class CISO

      Case study

      Mark Lester
      InfoSec Manager, SC Ports Authority

      The new Security Manager engages with employees to learn the culture.

      Outcome: Understand what is important to individuals in order to create effective collaboration. People will engage with a project if they can relate it to something they value.

      Actions Next Steps
      • The Security Manager determines that he must use low-cost small wins to integrate with the organizational culture and create trust and buy-in and investment will follow.
      • The Security Manager starts a monthly newsletter to get traction across the organization, create awareness of his mandate to improve information security, and establish himself as a trustworthy partner.
      • The Security Manager will identify specific ways to engage and change the culture.
      • Create a persuasive case for investing in information security based on what resonates with the organization.

      Follow this case study throughout the deck to see this organization’s results

      Step 2.1

      Identify key stakeholders for the CISO and assess current relationships

      Activities

      Evaluate the power, impact, and support of key stakeholders

      This step involves the following participants:

      • CEO or other executive seeking to hire/develop a CISO

      or

      • Current CISO seeking to upgrade capabilities

      Outcomes of this step

      • Power map of executive business stakeholders
      • Evaluation of each stakeholder in terms of influence, impact, and current level of support

      Assess

      Identify key stakeholders who own business processes that intersect with security processes

      Info-Tech Insight
      Most organizations don’t exist for the sole purpose of doing information security. For example, if your organization is in the business of selling pencils, then information security is in business to enable the selling of pencils. All the security in the world is meaningless if it doesn’t enable your primary business processes. The CISO must always remember the fundamental goals of the business.

      The above insight has two implications:

      1. The CISO needs to understand the key business processes and who owns them, because these are the people they will need to collaborate with. Like any C-level, the CISO should be one of the most knowledgeable people in the organization regarding business processes.
      2. Each of these stakeholders stands to win or lose depending on the performance of their process, and they can act to either block or enable your progress.
        • To work effectively with these stakeholders, you must learn what is important to them, and pose your initiatives so that you both benefit.

      When people are not receptive to the CISO, it’s usually because the CISO has not been part of the discussion when plans were being made. This is the heart of proactivity.

      You need to be involved from the start … from the earliest part of planning.

      The job is not to come in late and say “No” ... the job is to be involved early and find creative and intelligent ways to say “Yes.”

      The CISO needs to be the enabling security asset that drives business.

      – Elliot Lewis, CEO at Keyavi Data

      Evaluate the importance of business stakeholders and the support necessary from them

      The CISO Stakeholder Power Map Template is meant to provide a visualization of the CISO’s relationships within the organization. This should be a living document that can be updated throughout the year as relationships develop and the structure of an organization changes.

      At a glance, this tool should show:

      • How influential each stakeholder is within the company.
      • How supportive they currently are of the CISO’s initiatives.
      • How strongly each person is impacted by IT security activities.

      Once this tool has been created, it provides a good reference as the CISO works to develop lagging relationships. It shows the landscape of influence and impact within the organization, which may help to guide the CISO’s strategy in the future.

      Evaluate the importance of business stakeholders and the support necessary from them

      Download the CISO Stakeholder Power Map Template

      Evaluate the importance of business stakeholders and the support necessary from them

      1. Identify key stakeholders.
        1. Focus on owners of important business processes.
      2. Evaluate and map each stakeholder in terms of:
        1. Influence (up/down)
        2. Support (left/right)
        3. Impact (size of circle)
        4. Involvement (color of circle)
      3. Decide whether the level of support from each stakeholder needs to change to facilitate success.

      Evaluate the importance of business stakeholders and the support necessary from them

      Info-Tech Insight
      Some stakeholders must work closely with your incoming CISO. It is worth consideration to include these individuals in the interview process to ensure you will have partners that can work well together. This small piece of involvement early on can save a lot of headache in the future.

      Where can you find your desired CISO?

      Once you know which competencies are a priority in your new CISO, the next step is to decide where to start looking. This person may already exist in your company.

      Internal

      Take some time to review your current top information security employees or managers. It may be immediately clear that certain people will or will not be suitable for the CISO role. For those that have potential, proceed to Step 2.2 to map their competencies.

      Recruitment

      If you do not have any current employees that will fit your new CISO profile, or you have other reasons for wanting to bring in an outside individual, you can begin the recruitment process. This could start by posting the position for applications or by identifying and targeting specific candidates.

      Ready to start looking for your ideal candidate? You can use Info-Tech’s Chief Information Security Officer job description template.

      Use the CISO job description template

      Alternatives to hiring a CISO

      Small organizations are less able to muster the resources required to find and retain a CISO,

      Technical Counselor Seat

      In addition to having access to our research and consulting services, you can acquire a Technical Counselor Seat from our Security & Risk practice, where one of our senior analysts would serve with you on a retainer. You may find that this option saves you the expense of having to hire a new CISO altogether.

      Virtual CISO

      A virtual CISO, or vCISO, is essentially a “CISO as a service.” A vCISO provides an organization with an experienced individual that can, on a part-time basis, lead the organization’s security program through policy and strategy development.

      Why would an organization consider a vCISO?

      • A vCISO can provide services that are flexible, technical, and strategic and that are based on the specific requirements of the organization.
      • They can provide a small organization with program maturation within the organization’s resources.
      • They can typically offer depth of experience beyond what a small business could afford if it were to pursue a full-time CISO.

      Source: InfoSec Insights by Sectigo Store

      Why would an organization not consider a vCISO?

      • The vCISO’s attention is divided among their other clients.
      • They won’t feel like a member of your organization.
      • They won’t have a deep understanding of your systems and processes.

      Source: Georgia State University

      Step 2.2

      Assess CISO candidates and evaluate their current competency

      Activities

      Assess CISO candidates in terms of desired core competencies

      or

      Self-assess your personal core competencies

      This step involves the following participants:

      • CEO or other executive seeking to hire/develop a CISO

      or

      • Current CISO seeking to upgrade capabilities

      and

      • Any key stakeholders or collaborators you choose to include in the assessment process

      Outcomes of this step

      • You have assessed your requirements for a CISO candidate.
      • The process of hiring is under way, and you have decided whether to hire a CISO, develop a CISO, or consider a Counselor Seat as another option.

      Assess

      2.2 Use Info-Tech’s CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool to assess your CISO candidate

      Use Info-Tech’s CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool to assess your CISO candidate

      Download the CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool

      Info-Tech Insight
      The most important competencies should be your focus. Unless you are lucky enough to find a candidate that is perfect across the board, you will see some areas that are not ideal. Don’t forget the importance you assigned to each competency. If a candidate is ideal in the most critical areas, you may not mind that some development is needed in a less important area.

      2.2 Use Info-Tech’s CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool to evaluate your candidates

      After deciding the importance of and requirements for each competency in Phase 1, assess your CISO candidates.

      Your first pass on this tool will be to look at internal candidates. This is the develop a CISO option.

      1. In the previous phase, you rated the Importance and Current Effectiveness for each competency in Tab 2. CISO Core Competencies. In this step, use Tab 3. Gap Analysis to enter a Minimum Level and a Desired Level for each competency. Keep in mind that it may be unrealistic to expect a candidate to be fully developed in all aspects.
      2. Next, enter a rating for your candidate of interest for each of the eight competencies.
      3. This scorecard will generate an overall suitability score for the candidate. The color of the output (from red to green) indicates the suitability, and the intensity of the color indicates the importance you assigned to that competency.

      Download the CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool

      2.2 Use Info-Tech’s CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool to evaluate your candidates

      • If the internal search does not identify a suitable candidate, you will want to expand your search.
      • Repeat the scoring process for external candidates until you find your new CISO.
      • You may want to skip your external search altogether and instead contact Info-Tech for more information on our Counselor Seat options.

      Download the CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool

      Phase 3

      Plan

      Phase 1
      1.1 Understand Core Competencies
      1.2 Measure Security and Business Satisfaction and Alignment

      Phase 2
      2.1 Assess Stakeholder Relationships
      2.2 Assess the Core Competencies

      Phase 3
      3.1 Identify Resources to Address Competency Gaps
      3.2 Plan Approach to Improve Stakeholder Relationships

      Phase 4
      4.1 Decide Next Actions and Support Your CISO Moving Forward
      4.2 Regularly Reassess to Measure Development and Progress

      This phase will walk you through the following activities:

      • Create a plan to develop your competency gaps.
      • Construct and consider your organizational model.
      • Create plan to cultivate key stakeholder relationships.

      Hire or Develop a World-Class CISO

      Case study

      Mark Lester
      InfoSec Manager, SC Ports Authority

      The new Security Manager changes the security culture by understanding what is meaningful to employees.

      Outcome: Engage with people on their terms. The CISO must speak the audience’s language and express security terms in a way that is meaningful to the audience.

      Actions Next Steps
      • The Security Manager identifies recent events where ransomware and social engineering attacks were successful in penetrating the organization.
      • He uses his newsletter to create organization-wide discussion on this topic.
      • This very personal example makes employees more receptive to the Security Manager’s message, enabling the culture of risk management.
      • The Security Manager will leverage his success in improving the information security culture and awareness to gain support for future initiatives.

      Follow this case study throughout the deck to see this organization’s results

      Step 3.1

      Identify resources for your CISO to remediate competency gaps

      Activities

      Create a plan to remediate competency gaps

      This step involves the following participants:

      • CEO or other executive seeking to hire/develop a CISO
      • The newly hired CISO

      or

      • Current CISO seeking to upgrade capabilities

      Outcomes of this step

      • Identification of core competency deficiencies
      • A plan to close the gaps

      Plan

      3.1 Close competency gaps with Info-Tech’s Cybersecurity Workforce Development Training

      Resources to close competency gaps

      Info-Tech’s Cybersecurity Workforce Training develops critical cybersecurity skills missing within your team and organization. The leadership track provides the same deep coverage of technical knowledge as the analyst track but adds hands-on support and has a focus on strategic business alignment, program management, and governance.

      The program builds critical skills through:

      • Standardized curriculum with flexible projects tailored to business needs
      • Realistic cyber range scenarios
      • Ready-to-deploy security deliverables
      • Real assurance of skill development

      Info-Tech Insight
      Investing in a current employee that has the potential to be a world-class CISO may take less time, effort, and money than finding a unicorn.

      Learn more on the Cybersecurity Workforce Development webpage

      3.1 Identify resources for your CISO to remediate competency gaps

      < 2 hours

      CISO Competencies Description
      Business Acumen

      Info-Tech Workshops & Blueprints

      Actions/Activities

      • Take a business acumen course: Acumen Learning, What the CEO Wants You to Know: Building Business Acumen.
      • Meet with business stakeholders. Ask them to take you through the strategic plan for their department and then identify opportunities where security can provide support to help drive their initiatives.
      • Shadow another C-level executive. Understand how they manage their business unit and demonstrate an eagerness to learn.
      • Pursue an MBA or take a business development course.

      3.1 Identify resources for your CISO to remediate competency gaps (continued)

      < 2 hours

      CISO Competencies Description
      Leadership

      Info-Tech Training and Blueprints

      Action/Activities

      • Communicate your vision for security to your team. You will gain buy-in from your employees by including them in the creation of your program, and they will be instrumental to your success.

      Info-Tech Insight
      Surround yourself with great people. Insecure leaders surround themselves with mediocre employees that aren’t perceived as a threat. Great leaders are supported by great teams, but you must choose that great team first.

      3.1 Identify resources for your CISO to remediate competency gaps (continued)

      < 2 hours

      CISO Competencies Description
      Communication

      Info-Tech Workshops & Blueprints

      Build and Deliver an Optimized IT Update Presentation: Show IT’s value and relevance by dropping the technical jargon and speaking to the business in their terms.

      Master Your Security Incident Response Communications Program: Learn how to talk to your stakeholders about what’s going on when things go wrong.

      Develop a Security Awareness and Training Program That Empowers End Users: Your weakest link is between the keyboard and the chair, so use engaging communication to create positive behavior change.

      Actions/Activities

      Learn to communicate in the language of your audience (whether business, finance, or social), and frame security solutions in terms that are meaningful to your listener.

      Technical Knowledge

      Actions/Activities

      • In many cases, the CISO is progressing from a strong technical background, so this area is likely a strength already.
      • However, as the need for executive skills are being recognized, many organizations are opting to hire a business or operations professional as a CISO. In this case, various Info-Tech blueprints across all our silos (e.g. Security, Infrastructure, CIO, Apps) will provide great value in understanding best practices and integrating technical skills with the business processes.
      • Pursue an information security leadership certification: GIAC, (ISC)², and ISACA are a few of the many organizations that offer certification programs.

      3.1 Identify resources for your CISO to remediate competency gaps (continued)

      < 2 hours

      CISO Competencies Description
      Innovative Problem Solving

      Info-Tech Workshops & Blueprints

      Actions/Activities

      Vendor Management

      Info-Tech Blueprints & Resources

      Actions/Activities

      3.1 Identify resources for your CISO to remediate competency gaps (continued)

      < 2 hours

      CISO Competencies Description
      Change Management

      Info-Tech Blueprints

      Actions/Activities

      • Start with an easy-win project to create trust and support for your initiatives.
      Collaboration

      Info-Tech Blueprints

      Actions/Activities

      • Get out of your office. Have lunch with people from all areas of the business. Understanding the goals and the pains of employees throughout your organization will help you to design effective initiatives and cultivate support.
      • Be clear and honest about your goals. If people know what you are trying to do, then it is much easier for them to work with you on it. Being ambiguous or secretive creates confusion and distrust.

      3.1 Create the CISO’s personal development plan

      • Use Info-Tech’s CISO Development Plan Template to document key initiatives that will close previously identified competency gaps.
      • The CISO Development Plan Template is used to map specific actions and time frames for competency development, with the goal of addressing competency gaps and helping you become a world-class CISO. This template can be used to document:
        • Core competency gaps
        • Security process gaps
        • Security technology gaps
        • Any other career/development goals
      • If you have a coach or mentor, you should share your plan and report progress to that person. Alternatively, call Info-Tech to speak with an executive advisor for support and advice.
        • Toll-Free: 1-888-670-8889

      What you will need to complete this exercise

      • CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool results
      • Information Security Business Satisfaction and Alignment diagnostic results
      • Insights gathered from business stakeholder interviews

      Step 3.2

      Plan an approach to improve your relationships

      Activities

      • Review engagement strategies for different stakeholder types
      • Create a stakeholder relationship development plan

      This step involves the following participants:

      • CEO or other executive seeking to hire/develop a CISO
      • The newly hired CISO

      or

      • Current CISO seeking to upgrade capabilities

      Outcomes of this step

      • Stakeholder relationship strategy deliverable

      Plan

      Where should the CISO sit?

      Where the CISO sits in the organization can have a big impact on the security program.

      • Organizations with CISOs in the C-suite have a fewer security incidents.1
      • Organizations with CISOs in the C-suite generally have better IT ability.1
      • An organization whose CISO reports to the CIO risks conflict of interest.1
      • 51% of CISOs believe their effectiveness can be hampered by reporting lines.2
      • Only half of CISOs feel like they are in a position to succeed.2

      A formalized security organizational structure assigns and defines the roles and responsibilities of different members around security. Use Info-Tech’s blueprint Implement a Security Governance and Management Program to determine the best structure for your organization.

      Who the CISO reports to, by percentage of organizations3

      Who the CISO reports to, by percentage of organizations

      Download the Implement a Security Governance and Management Program blueprint

      1. Journal of Computer Science and Information
      2. Proofpoint
      3. Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc

      3.2 Make a plan to manage your key stakeholders

      Managing stakeholders requires engagement, communication, and relationship management. To effectively collaborate and gain support for your initiatives, you will need to build relationships with your stakeholders. Take some time to review the stakeholder engagement strategies for different stakeholder types.

      Influence Mediators
      (Satisfy)
      Key Players
      (Engage)
      Spectators
      (Monitor)
      Noisemakers
      (Inform)
      Support for you

      When building relationships, I find that what people care about most is getting their job done. We need to help them do this in the most secure way possible.

      I don’t want to be the “No” guy, I want to enable the business. I want to find to secure options and say, “Here is how we can do this.”

      – James Miller, Information Security Director, Xavier University

      Download the CISO Stakeholder Management Strategy Template

      Key players – Engage

      Goal Action
      Get key players to help champion your initiative and turn your detractors into supporters. Actively involve key players to take ownership.
      Keep It Positive Maintain a Close Relationship
      • Use their positive support to further your objectives and act as your foundation of support.
      • Key players can help you build consensus among other stakeholders.
      • Get supporters to be vocal in your town halls.
      • Ask them to talk to other stakeholders over whom they have influence.
      • Get some quick wins early to gain and maintain stakeholder support and help convert them to your cause.
      • Use their influence and support to help persuade blockers to see your point of view.
      • Collaborate closely. Key players are tuned in to information streams that are important. Their advice can keep you informed and save you from being blindsided.
      • Keep them happy. By definition, these individuals have a stake in your plans and can be affected positively or negatively. Going out of your way to maintain relationships can be well worth the effort.

      Info-Tech Insight
      Listen to your key players. They understand what is important to other business stakeholders, and they can provide valuable insight to guide your future strategy.

      Mediators – Satisfy

      Goal Action
      Turn mediators into key players Increase their support level.
      Keep It Positive Maintain a Close Relationship
      • Make stakeholders part of the conversation by consulting them for input on planning and strategy.
      • Sample phrases:
        • “I’ve heard you have experience in this area. Do you have time to answer a few questions?”
        • “I’m making some decisions and I would value your thoughts. Can I get your perspective on this?”
      • Enhance their commitment by being inclusive. Encourage their support whenever possible.
      • Make them feel acknowledged and solicit feedback.
      • Listen to blockers with an open mind to understand their point of view. They may have valuable insight.
      • Approach stakeholders on their individual playing fields.
        • They want to know that you understand their business perspective.
      • Stubborn mediators might never support you. If consulting doesn’t work, keep them informed of important decision-making points and give them the opportunity to be involved if they choose to be.

      Info-Tech Insight
      Don’t dictate to stakeholders. Make them feel like valued contributors by including them in development and decision making. You don’t have to incorporate all their input, but it is essential that they feel respected and heard.

      Noisemakers – Inform

      Goal Action
      Have noisemakers spread the word to increase their influence. Encourage noisemakers to influence key stakeholders.
      Keep It Positive Maintain a Close Relationship
      • Identify noisemakers who have strong relationships with key stakeholders and focus on them.
        • These individuals may not have decision-making power, but their opinions and advice may help to sway a decision in your favor.
      • Look for opportunities to increase their influence over others.
      • Put effort into maintaining the positive relationship so that it doesn’t dwindle.
      • You already have this group’s support, but don’t take it for granted.
      • Be proactive, pre-emptive, and transparent.
      • Address issues or bad news early and be careful not to exaggerate their significance.
      • Use one-on-one meetings to give them an opportunity to express challenges in a private setting.
      • Show individuals in this group that you are a problem-solver:
        • “The implementation was great, but we discovered problems afterward. Here is what we’re doing about it.”

      Spectators – Monitor

      Goal Action
      Keep spectators content and avoid turning them into detractors. Keep them well informed.
      Keep It Positive Maintain a Close Relationship
      • A hands-on approach is not required with this group.
      • Keep them informed with regular, high-altitude communications and updates.
      • Use positive, exciting announcements to increase their interest in your initiatives.
      • Select a good venue for generating excitement and assessing the mood of spectators.
      • Spectators may become either supporters or blockers. Monitor them closely and keep in touch with them to stop these individuals from becoming blockers.
      • Listen to questions from spectators carefully. View any engagement as an opportunity to increase participation from this group and generate a positive shift in interest.

      3.2 Create the CISO’s stakeholder management strategy

      Develop a strategy to manage key stakeholders in order to drive your personal development plan initiatives.

      • The purpose of the CISO Stakeholder Management Strategy Template is to document the results of the power mapping exercise, create a plan to proactively manage stakeholders, and track the actions taken.
      • Use this in concert with Info-Tech’s CISO Stakeholder Power Map Template to help visualize the importance of key stakeholders to your personal development. You will document:
        • Stakeholder role and type.
        • Current relationship with the stakeholder.
        • Level of power/influence and degree of impact.
        • Current and desired level of support.
        • Initiatives that require the stakeholder’s engagement.
        • Actions to be taken – along with the status and results.

      What you will need to complete this exercise

      • Completed CISO Stakeholder Power Map
      • Security Business Satisfaction and Alignment Diagnostic results

      Download the CISO Stakeholder Management Strategy Template

      Phase 4

      Execute

      Phase 1
      1.1 Understand Core Competencies
      1.2 Measure Security and Business Satisfaction and Alignment

      Phase 2
      2.1 Assess Stakeholder Relationships
      2.2 Assess the Core Competencies

      Phase 3
      3.1 Identify Resources to Address Competency Gaps
      3.2 Plan Approach to Improve Stakeholder Relationships

      Phase 4
      4.1 Decide Next Actions and Support Your CISO Moving Forward
      4.2 Regularly Reassess to Measure Development and Progress

      This phase will walk you through the following activities:

      • Populate the CISO Development Plan Template with appropriate targets and due dates.
      • Set review and reassess dates.
      • Review due dates with CISO.

      Hire or Develop a World-Class CISO

      Case study

      Mark Lester
      InfoSec Manager, SC Ports Authority

      The new Security Manager leverages successful cultural change to gain support for new security investments.

      Outcome: Integrating with the business on a small level and building on small successes will lead to bigger wins and bigger change.

      Actions Next Steps
      • By fostering positive relationships throughout the organization, the Security Manager has improved the security culture and established himself as a trusted partner.
      • In an organization that had seen very little change in years, he has used well developed change management, business acumen, leadership, communication, collaboration, and innovative problem-solving competencies to affect his initiatives.
      • He can now return to the board with a great deal more leverage in seeking support for security investments.
      • The Security Manager will leverage his success in improving the information security culture and awareness to gain support for future initiatives.

      Step 4.1

      Decide next actions and support your CISO moving forward

      Activities

      • Complete the Info-Tech CISO Development Plan Template
      • Create a stakeholder relationship development plan

      This step involves the following participants:

      • CEO or other executive seeking to hire/develop a CISO
      • The newly hired CISO

      or

      • Current CISO seeking to upgrade capabilities

      Outcomes of this step

      Next actions for each of your development initiatives

      Execute

      Establish a set of first actions to set your plan into motion

      The CISO Development Plan Template provides a simple but powerful way to focus on what really matters to execute your plan.

      • By this point, the CISO is working on the personal competency development while simultaneously overseeing improvements across the security program, managing stakeholders, and seeking new business initiatives to engage with. This can be a lot to juggle effectively.
      • Disparate initiatives like these can hinder progress by creating confusion.
      • By distilling your plan down to Subject > Action > Outcome, you immediately restore focus and turn your plans into actionable items.
      • The outcome is most valuable when it is measurable. This makes progress (or lack of it) very easy to track and assess, so choose a meaningful metric.
      Item to Develop
      (competency/process/tech)
      First Action Toward Development
      Desired Outcome, Including a Measurable Indicator

      Download the CISO Development Plan Template

      4.1 Create a CISO development plan to keep all your objectives in one place

      Use Info-Tech’s CISO Development Plan Template to create a quick and simple yet powerful tool that you can refer to and update throughout your personal and professional development initiatives. As instructed in the template, you will document the following:

      Your Item to Develop The Next Action Required The Target Outcome
      This could be a CISO competency, a security process item, a security technology item, or an important relationship (or something else that is a priority). This could be as simple as “schedule lunch with a stakeholder” or “email Info-Tech to schedule a Guided Implementation call.” This part of the tool is meant to be continually updated as you progress through your projects. The strength of this approach is that it focuses your project into simple actionable steps that are easily achieved, rather than looking too far down the road and seeing an overwhelming task ahead. This will be something measurable like “reduce spending by 10%” or “have informal meeting with leaders from each department.”

      Info-Tech Insight
      A good plan doesn’t require anything that is outside of your control. Good measurable outcomes are behavior based rather than state based.
      “Increase the budget by 10%” is a bad goal because it is ultimately reliant on someone else and can be derailed by an unsupportive executive. A better goal is “reduce spending by 10%.” This is something more within the CISO’s control and is thus a better performance indicator and a more achievable goal.

      4.1 Create a CISO development plan to keep all your objectives in one place

      Below you will find sample content to populate your CISO Development Plan Template. Using this template will guide your CISO in achieving the goals identified here.

      The template itself is a metric for assessing the development of the CISO. The number of targets achieved by the due date will help to quantify the CISO’s progress.

      You may also want to include improvements to the organization’s security program as part of the CISO development plan.

      Area for Development Item for Development Next Action Required Key Stakeholders/ Owners Target Outcome Due Date Completed
      Core Competencies:
      Communication
      Executive
      communication
      Take economics course to learn business language Course completed [Insert date] [Y/N]
      Core Competencies:
      Communication
      Improve stakeholder
      relationships
      Email Bryce from finance to arrange lunch Improved relationship with finance department [Insert date] [Y/N]
      Technology Maturity: Security Prevention Identity and access management (IAM) system Call Info-Tech to arrange call on IAM solutions 90% of employees entered into IAM system [Insert date] [Y/N]
      Process Maturity: Response & Recovery Disaster recovery Read Info-Tech blueprint on disaster recovery Disaster recovery and backup policies in place [Insert date] [Y/N]

      Check out the First 100 Days as CISO blueprint for guidance on bringing improvements to the security program

      4.1 Use your action plan to track development progress and inform stakeholders

      • As you progress toward your goals, continually update the CISO development plan. It is meant to be a living document.
      • The Next Action Required should be updated regularly as you make progress so you can quickly jump in and take meaningful actions without having to reassess your position every time you open the plan. This is a simple but very powerful method.
      • To view your initiatives in customizable ways, you can use the drop-down menu on any column header to sort your initiatives (i.e. by due date, completed status, area for development). This allows you to quickly and easily see a variety of perspectives on your progress and enables you to bring upcoming or incomplete projects right to the top.
      Area for Development Item for Development Next Action Required Key Stakeholders/ Owners Target Outcome Due Date Completed
      Core Competencies:
      Communication
      Executive
      communication
      Take economics course to learn business language Course completed [Insert date] [Y/N]
      Core Competencies:
      Communication
      Improve stakeholder
      relationships
      Email Bryce from finance to arrange lunch Improved relationship with finance department [Insert date] [Y/N]
      Technology Maturity: Security Prevention Identity and access management (IAM) system Call Info-Tech to arrange call on IAM solutions 90% of employees entered into IAM system [Insert date] [Y/N]
      Process Maturity: Response & Recovery Disaster recovery Read Info-Tech blueprint on disaster recovery Disaster recovery and backup policies in place [Insert date] [Y/N]

      Step 4.2

      Regularly reassess to track development and progress

      Activities

      Create a calendar event for you and your CISO, including which items you will reassess and when

      This step involves the following participants:

      • CEO or other executive seeking to hire/develop a CISO
      • The newly hired CISO

      or

      • Current CISO seeking to upgrade capabilities

      Outcomes of this step

      Scheduled reassessment of the CISO’s competencies

      Execute

      4.2 Regularly evaluate your CISO’s progress

      < 1 day

      As previously mentioned, your CISO development plan is meant to be a living document. Your CISO will use this as a companion tool throughout project implementation, but periodically it will be necessary to re-evaluate the entire program to assess your progress and ensure that your actions are still in alignment with personal and organizational goals.

      Info-Tech recommends performing the following assessments quarterly or twice yearly with the help of our executive advisors (either over the phone or onsite).

      1. Sit down and re-evaluate your CISO core competencies using the CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool.
      2. Analyze your relationships using the CISO Stakeholder Power Map Template.
      3. Compare all of these against your previous results to see what areas you have strengthened and decide if you need to focus on a different area now.
      4. Consider your CISO Development Plan Template and decide whether you have achieved your desired outcomes. If not, why?
      5. Schedule your next reassessment, then create a new plan for the upcoming quarter and get started.
      Materials
      • Laptop
      • CISO Development Plan Template
      Participants
      • CISO
      • Hiring executive (possibly)
      Output
      • Complete CISO and security program development plan

      Summary of Accomplishment

      Knowledge Gained

      • Understanding of the competencies contributing to a successful CISO
      • Strategic approach to integrate the CISO into the organization
      • View of various CISO functions from a variety of business and executive perspectives, rather than just a security view

      Process Optimized

      • Hiring of the CISO
      • Assessment and development of stakeholder relationships for the CISO
      • Broad planning for CISO development

      Deliverables Completed

      • IT Security Business Satisfaction and Alignment Diagnostic
      • CISO Core Competency Evaluation Tool
      • CISO Stakeholder Power Map Template
      • CISO Stakeholder Management Strategy Template
      • CISO Development Plan Template

      If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through an Info-Tech workshop or Guided Implementation

      Contact your account representative for more information

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

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Build an Information Security Strategy
      Your security strategy should not be based on trying to blindly follow best practices but on a holistic risk-based assessment that is risk aware and aligns with your business context.

      The First 100 Days as CISO
      Every CISO needs to follow Info-Tech’s five-step approach to truly succeed in their new position. The meaning and expectations of a CISO role will differ from organization to organization and person to person, but the approach to the new position will be relatively the same.

      Implement a Security Governance and Management Program
      Business and security goals should be the same. Businesses cannot operate without security, and security's goal is to enable safe business operations.

      Research Contributors

      • Mark Lester, Information Security Manager, South Carolina State Ports Authority
      • Kyle Kennedy, CISO, CyberSN.com
      • James Miller, Information Security Director, Xavier University
      • Elliot Lewis, Vice President Security & Risk, Info-Tech Research Group
      • Andrew Maroun, Enterprise Security Lead, State of California
      • Brian Bobo, VP Enterprise Security, Schneider National
      • Candy Alexander, GRC Security Consultant, Towerall Inc.
      • Chad Fulgham, Chairman, PerCredo
      • Ian Parker, Head of Corporate Systems Information Security Risk and Compliance, Fujitsu EMEIA
      • Diane Kelly, Information Security Manager, Colorado State Judicial Branch
      • Jeffrey Gardiner, CISO, Western University
      • Joey LaCour, VP & Chief Security, Colonial Savings
      • Karla Thomas, Director IT Global Security, Tower Automotive
      • Kevin Warner, Security and Compliance Officer, Bridge Healthcare Providers
      • Lisa Davis, CEO, Vicinage
      • Luis Brown, Information Security & Compliance Officer, Central New Mexico Community College
      • Peter Clay, CISO, Qlik
      • Robert Banniza, Senior Director IT Center Security, AMSURG
      • Tim Tyndall, Systems Architect, Oregon State

      Bibliography

      Dicker, William. "An Examination of the Role of vCISO in SMBs: An Information Security Governance Exploration." Dissertation, Georgia State University, May 2, 2021. Accessed 30 Sep. 2022.

      Heidrick & Struggles. "2022 Global Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Survey" Heidrick & Struggles International, Inc. September 6, 2022. Accessed 30 Sep. 2022.

      IBM Security. "Cost of a Data Breach Report 2022" IBM. August 1, 2022. Accessed 9 Nov. 2022.

      Mehta, Medha. "What Is a vCISO? Are vCISO Services Worth It?" Infosec Insights by Sectigo, June 23, 2021. Accessed Nov 22. 2022.

      Milica, Lucia. “Proofpoint 2022 Voice of the CISO Report” Proofpoint. May 2022. Accessed 6 Oct. 2022.

      Navisite. "The State of Cybersecurity Leadership and Readiness" Navisite. November 9, 2021. Accessed 9 Nov. 2022.

      Shayo, Conrad, and Frank Lin. “An Exploration of the Evolving Reporting Organizational Structure for the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) Function” Journal of Computer Science and Information Technology, vol. 7, no. 1, June 2019. Accessed 28 Sep. 2022.

      Improve Your IT Recruitment Process

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}578|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: Attract & Select
      • Parent Category Link: /attract-and-select

      Business and IT leaders aiming to recruit and select the best talent need to:

      • Get involved in the talent acquisition process at key moments.
      • Market their organization to top talent through an authentic employer brand.
      • Create engaging and accurate job ads.
      • Leverage purposeful sourcing for anticipated talent needs.
      • Effectively assess candidates with a strong interview process.
      • Set up new employees for success.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      To create a great candidate experience, IT departments must be involved in the process at key points, recruitment and selection is not a job for HR alone!

      Impact and Result

      • Use this how-to guide to articulate an authentic (employee value proposition) EVP and employer brand.
      • Perform an analysis of current sourcing methods and build an action plan to get IT involved.
      • Create an effective and engaging job ad to insure the right people are applying.
      • Train hiring managers to effectively deliver interviews that correctly assess candidate suitability.
      • Get links to in-depth Info-Tech resources and tools.

      Improve Your IT Recruitment Process Research & Tools

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

      1. Improve Your IT Recruitment Process – A guide to help you attract and select the best talent.

      Train your IT department to get involved in the recruitment process to attract and select the best talent.

      • Improve Your IT Recruitment Process Capstone Deck

      2. Improve Your IT Recruitment Process Workbook – A tool to document your action plans.

      Use this tool in conjunction with the Improve you IT Recruitment Process to document your action plans

      • Improve Your IT Recruitment Process Workbook

      3. Interview Guide Template – A template to organize interview questions and their rating scales, take notes during the interview, and ensure all interviews follow a similar structure.

      To get useful information from an interview, the interviewer should be focused on what candidates are saying and how they are saying it, not on what the next question will be, what probes to ask, or how they will score the responses. This Interview Guide Template will help interviewers stay focused and collect good information about candidates.

      • Interview Guide Template

      4. IT Behavioral Interview Question Library – A tool that contains a complete list of sample questions aligned with core, leadership, and IT competencies.

      Hiring managers can choose from a comprehensive collection of core, functional, and leadership competency-based behavioral interview questions.

      • IT Behavioral Interview Question Library

      5. Job Ad Template – A template to allow complete documentation of the characteristics, responsibilities, and requirements for a given job posting in IT.

      Use this template to develop a well-written job posting that will attract the star candidates and, in turn, deflect submission of irrelevant applications by those unqualified.

      • Job Ad Template

      6. Idea Catalog – A tool to evaluate virtual TA solutions.

      The most innovative technology isn’t necessarily the right solution. Review talent acquisition (TA) solutions and evaluate the purpose each option serves in addressing critical challenges and replacing critical in-person activities.

      • Idea Catalog: Adapt the Talent Acquisition Process to a Virtual Environment
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Improve Your IT Recruitment Process

      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 Employee Value Proposition and Employer Branding

      The Purpose

      Establish the employee value proposition (EVP) and employer brand.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Have a well-defined EVP that you communicate through your employer brand.

      Activities

      1.1 Gather feedback.

      1.2 Build key messages.

      1.3 Assess employer brand.

      Outputs

      Content and themes surrounding the EVP

      Draft EVP and supporting statements

      A clearer understanding of the current employer brand and how it could be improved

      2 Job Ads and Sourcing

      The Purpose

      Develop job postings and build a strong sourcing program.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Create the framework for an effective job posting and analyze existing sourcing methods.

      Activities

      2.1 Review and update your job ads.

      2.2 Review the effectiveness of existing sourcing programs.

      2.3 Review job ads and sourcing methods for bias.

      Outputs

      Updated job ad

      Low usage sourcing methods identified for development

      Minimize bias present in ads and sourcing methods

      3 Effective Interviewing

      The Purpose

      Create a high-quality interview process to improve candidate assessment.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Training on being an effective interviewer.

      Activities

      3.1 Create an ideal candidate scorecard.

      3.2 Map out your interview process.

      3.3 Practice behavioral interviews.

      Outputs

      Ideal candidate persona

      Finalized interview and assessment process

      Practice interviews

      4 Onboarding and Action Plan

      The Purpose

      Drive employee engagement and retention with a robust program that acclimates, guides, and develops new hires.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Evaluation of current onboarding practice.

      Activities

      4.1 Evaluate and redesign the onboarding program.

      Outputs

      Determine new onboarding activities to fill identified gaps.

      Further reading

      Improve Your IT Recruitment Process

      Train your IT department to get involved in the recruitment process to attract and select the best talent.

      Own the IT recruitment process

      Train your IT department to get involved in the recruitment process to attract and select the best talent.

      Follow this blueprint to:

      • Define and communicate the unique benefits of working for your organization to potential candidates through a strong employer brand.
      • Learn best practices around creating effective job postings.
      • Target your job posting efforts on the areas with the greatest ROI.
      • Create and deliver an effective, seamless, and positive interview and offer process for candidates.
      • Acclimate new hires and set them up for success.

      Get involved at key moments of the candidate experience to have the biggest impact


      Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and Employer Brand



      Job Postings and a Strong Sourcing Program

      Effective Interviewing

      Onboarding: Setting up New Hires For Success

      Awareness Research Application Screening Interview and Assessment Follow Up Onboarding

      RECRUIT QUALITY STAFF

      Hiring talent is critical to organizational success

      Talent is a priority for the entire organization:

      Respondents rated “recruitment” as the top issue facing organizations today (McLean & Company 2022 HR Trends Report).

      37% of IT departments are outsourcing roles to fill internal skill shortages (Info-Tech Talent Trends 2022 Survey).

      Yet bad hires are alarmingly common:

      Hiring is one of the least successful business processes, with three-quarters of managers reporting that they have made a bad hire (Robert Half, 2021).

      48% of survey respondents stated improving the quality of hires was the top recruiting priority for 2021 (Jobvite, 2021).

      Workshop overview

      Prework

      Day 1

      Day 2

      Day 3

      Day 4

      Post work

      Current Process and Job Descriptions Documented

      Establish the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and Employer Brand

      Develop Job Postings and Build a Strong Sourcing Program

      Effective Interviewing

      Onboarding and Action Planning

      Putting the Action Plan Into Action!

      Activities

      • Recruitment Process Mapped Out and Stakeholders Identified
      • Prepare a JD and JP for Four Priority Jobs
      • Collect Information on Where Your Best Candidates Are Coming From

      1.1 Introduce the Concept of an EVP

      1.2 Brainstorm Unique Benefits of Working at Your Organization

      1.2 Employer Brand Introduction

      2.1 What Makes an Attractive Job Posting

      2.2 Create the Framework for Job Posting

      2.3 Improve the Sourcing Process

      2.4 Review Process for Bias

      3.1 Creating an Interview Process

      3.2 Selecting Interview Questions

      3.3 Avoiding Bias During Interviews

      3.4 Practice Interviews

      4.1 Why Onboarding Matters

      4.2 Acclimatize New Hires and Set Them Up for Success

      4.3 Action Plan

      5.1 Review Outputs and Select Priorities

      5.2 Consult With HR and Senior Management to Get Buy-In

      5.3 Plan to Avoid Relapse Behaviors

      Deliverables

      1. EVP draft completed
      2. Employer brand action plan
      1. Organization-specific job posting framework
      2. Sourcing Plan Template for four priority jobs
      3. Sourcing action plan
      1. Completed Interview Guide Template
      2. Managers practice a panel interview
      1. Onboarding best practices
      2. Action plan

      Enhance Your Recruitment Strategies

      The way you position the organization impacts who is likely to apply to posted positions.

      Develop a strong employee value proposition

      What is an employee value proposition?

      And what are the key components?

      The employee value proposition is your opportunity to showcase the unique benefits and opportunities of working at your organization, allowing you to attract a wider pool of candidates.

      AN EMPLOYEE VALUE PROPOSITION IS:

      AN EMPLOYEE VALUE PROPOSITION IS NOT:

      • An authentic representation of the employee experience
      • Aligned with organizational culture
      • Fundamental to all stages of the employee lifecycle
      • A guide to help investment in programs and policies
      • Short and succinct
      • What the employee can do for you
      • A list of programs and policies
      • An annual project

      THE FOUR KEY COMPONENTS OF AN EMPLOYEE VALUE PROPOSITION

      Rewards

      Organizational Elements

      Working Conditions

      Day-to-Day Job Elements

      • Compensation
      • Health Benefits
      • Retirement Benefits
      • Vacation
      • Culture
      • Customer Focus
      • Organization Potential
      • Department Relationships
      • Senior Management Relationships
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Working Environment
      • Employee Empowerment
      • Development
      • Rewards & Recognition
      • Co-Worker Relationships
      • Manager Relationships

      Creating a compelling EVP that presents a picture of your employee experience, with a focus on diversity, will attract a wide pool of diverse candidates to your team. This can lead to many internal and external benefits for your organization.

      How to collect information on your EVP

      Existing Employee Value Proposition: If your organization or IT department has an existing employee value proposition, rather than starting from scratch, we recommend leveraging that and moving to the testing phase to see if the EVP still resonates with staff and external parties.

      Employee Engagement Results: If your organization does an employee engagement survey, review the results to identify the areas in which the IT organization is performing well. Identify and document any key comment themes in the report around why employees enjoy working for the organization or what makes your IT department a great place to work.

      Social Media Sites. Prepare for the good, the bad, and the ugly. Social media websites like Glassdoor and Indeed make it easier for employees to share their experiences at an organization honestly and candidly. While postings on these sites won’t relate exclusively to the IT department, they do invite participants to identify their department in the organization. You can search these to identify any positive things people are saying about working for the organization and potentially opportunities for improvement (which you can use as a starting point in the retention section of this report).

      1.1 Gather feedback

      1. Download the Improve Your IT Recruitment Workbook.
      2. On tab 1.1, brainstorm the top five things you value most about working at the organization. Ask yourself what would fall in each category and identify any key themes. Be sure to take note of any specific quotes you have.
      3. Brainstorm limitations that the organization currently has in each of those areas.

      Download the Recruitment Workbook

      Input

      Output
      • Employee opinions
      • Employee responses to four EVP components
      • Content for EVP

      Materials

      Participants

      • Recruitment Workbook
      • Diverse employees
      • Different departments
      • Different role levels

      1.2 Build key messages

      1. Go to tab 1.2 in your workbook
      2. Identify themes from activity 1.1 that would be considered current strengths of you organization.
      3. Identify themes from activity 1.2 that are aspirational elements of your organization.
      4. Identify up to four key statements to focus on for the EVP, ensuring that your EVP speaks to at least one of the five categories above.
      5. Integrate these into one overall statement.

      Examples below.

      Input

      Output
      • Feedback from focus groups
      • EVP and supporting statements

      Materials

      Participants

      • Workbook handout
      • Pen and paper for documenting responses
      • IT leadership team

      Sample EVPs

      Shopify

      “We’re Shopify. Our mission is to make commerce better for everyone – but we’re not the workplace for everyone. We thrive on change, operate on trust, and leverage the diverse perspectives of people on our team in everything we do. We solve problems at a rapid pace. In short, we get shit done.”

      Bettercloud

      “At Bettercloud, we have a smart, ambitious team dedicated to delighting our customers. Our culture of ownership and transparency empowers our team to achieve goals they didn’t think possible. For all those on board, it’s going to be a challenging and rewarding journey – and we’re just getting started.”

      Ellevest

      “As a team member at Ellevest, you can expect to make a difference through your work, to have a direct impact on the achievement of a very meaningful mission, to significantly advance your career trajectory, and to have room for fun and fulfillment in your daily life. We know that achieving a mission as critical as ours requires incredible talent and teamwork, and team is the most important thing to us.”

      Sources: Built In, 2021; Workology, 2022

      Ensure your EVP resonates with employees and prospects

      Test your EVP with internal and external audiences.

      INTERNAL TEST REVOLVES AROUND THE 3A’s

      EXTERNAL TEST REVOLVES AROUND THE 3C’s

      ALIGNED: The EVP is in line with the organization’s purpose, vision, values, and processes. Ensure policies and programs are aligned with the organization’s EVP.

      CLEAR: The EVP is straightforward, simple, and easy to understand. Without a clear message in the market, even the best intentioned EVPs can be lost in confusion.

      ACCURATE: The EVP is clear and compelling, supported by proof points. It captures the true employee experience, which matches the organization’s communication and message in the market.

      COMPELLING: The EVP emphasizes the value created for employees and is a strong motivator to join this organization. A strong EVP will be effective in drawing in external candidates. The message will resonate with them and attract them to your organization.

      ASPIRATIONAL: The EVP inspires both individuals and the IT organization as a whole. Identify and invest in the areas that are sure to generate the highest returns for employees.

      COMPREHENSIVE: The EVP provides enough information for the potential employee to understand the true employee experience and to self-assess whether they are a good fit for your organization. If the EVP lacks depth, the potential employee may have a hard time understanding the benefits and rewards of working for your organization.

      Want to learn more?

      Recruit IT Talent

      • Improve candidate experience to hire top IT talent.

      Recruit and Retain More Women in IT

      • Gender diversity is directly correlated to IT performance.

      Recruit and Retain People of Color in IT

      • Good business, not just good philanthropy.

      Enhance Your Recruitment Strategies

      The way you position the organization impacts who is likely to apply to posted positions.

      Market your EVP to potential candidates: Employer Brand

      Employer brand includes how you market the EVP internally and externally – consistency is key

      The employer brand is the perception internal and external stakeholders hold of the organization and exists whether it has been curated or not. Curating the employer brand involves marketing the organization and employee experience. Grounding your employer brand in your EVP enables you to communicate and market an accurate portrayal of your organization and employee experience and make you desirable to both current and potential employees.

      The image contains a picture of several shapes. There is a trapezoid that is labelled EVP, and has a an arrow pointing to the text beside it. There is also an arrowing pointing down from it to another trapezoid that is labelled Employer Brand.

      The unique offering an employer provides to employees in return for their effort, motivating them to join or remain at the organization.

      The perception internal and external stakeholders hold of the organization.

      Alignment between the EVP, employer brand, and corporate brand is the ideal branding package. An in-sync marketing strategy ensures stakeholders perceive and experience the brand the same way, creating brand ambassadors.

      The image contains three circles that are connected. The circles are labelled: EVP, Employer Brand, Corporate Brand.

      Ensure your branding material creates a connection

      How you present your employer brand is just as important as the content. Ideally, you want the viewer to connect with and personalize the material for the message to have staying power. Use Marketing’s expertise to help craft impactful promotional materials to engage and excite the viewer.

      Visuals

      Images are often the first thing viewers notice. Use visuals that connect to your employer brand to engage the viewer’s attention and increase the likelihood that your message will resonate. However, if there are too many visuals this may detract from your content – balance is key!

      Language

      Wordsmithing is often the most difficult aspect of marketing. Your message should be accurate, informative, and engaging. Work with Marketing to ensure your wording is clever and succinct – the more concise, the better.

      Composition

      Integrate visuals and language to complete your marketing package. Ensure that the text and images are balanced to draw in the viewer.

      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.

      The image contains a picture of Steve Thornton.

      “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.

      The image contains a picture of Robert Leahy.

      Interview with Robert Leahy

      Chief Information Officer, Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA

      2.1 Assess your organization’s employer brand

      1. Go to tab 2.1 in the Improve Your IT Recruitment Workbook.
      2. Put yourself in the shoes of someone on the outside looking in. If they were to look up your organization, what impression would they be given about what is like to work there?
      3. Run a Google search on your organization with key words “jobs,” “culture,” and “working environment” to see what a potential candidate would see when they begin researching your organization.
      4. You can use sites like:

      • Glassdoor
      • Indeed company pages
      • LinkedIn company pages
      • Social media
      • Your own website
    • Identify what your organization is doing well and record that under the “Continue” box in your workbook.
    • Record anything your organization should stop doing under the “Stop” box.
    • Brainstorm some ideas that your organization should think about implementing to improve the employer brand under the “Start” Box.
    • Input Output
      • Existing branding material on the internet
      • A clearer understanding of the current employer brand and how it could be improved
      Materials Participants
      • Workbook handout
      • Senior IT Leaders

      Want to learn more?

      Recruit IT Talent

      • Improve candidate experience to hire top IT talent.

      Recruit and Retain More Women in IT

      • Gender diversity is directly correlated to IT performance.

      Recruit and Retain People of Color in IT

      • Good business, not just good philanthropy.

      Enhance Your Recruitment Strategies

      The way you position the organization impacts who is likely to apply to posted positions.

      Create engaging job ads to attract talent to the organization

      We have a job description; can I just post that on Indeed?

      A job description is an internal document that includes sections such as general job information, major responsibilities, key relationships, qualifications, and competencies. It communicates job expectations to incumbents and key job data to HR programs.

      A job ad is an externally facing document that advertises a position with the intent of attracting job applicants. It contains key elements from the job description as well as information on the organization and its EVP.

      Write an Effective Job Ad

      • Ensure that your job ad speaks to the audience you are targeting through the language you use.
        • E.g. If you are hiring for a creative role, use creative language and formatting. If you are writing for students, emphasize growth opportunities.
      • Highlight the organization’s EVP.
      • Paint an accurate picture of key aspects of the role but avoid the nitty gritty as it may overwhelm applicants.
      • Link to your organization’s website and social media platforms so applicants can easily find more information.

      A job description informs a job ad, it doesn’t replace it. Don’t be lulled into using a job description as a posting when there’s a time crunch to fill a position. Refer to job postings as job advertisements to reinforce that their purpose is to attract attention and talent.

      An effective job posting contains the following elements:

      Position Title
      • Clearly defined job titles are important for screening applicants as this is one of the first things the candidate will read.
      • Indicating the earnings range that the position pays cuts out time spent on reviewing candidates who may never accept the position and saves them from applying to a job that doesn’t match what they are looking for.
      Company
      • Provide a brief description of the organization including the products or services it offers, the corporate culture, and any training and career development programs.
      Summary Description
      • Describe briefly why the position exists. In other words, what is the position's primary purpose? The statement should include the overall results the job is intended to produce and some of the key means by which the position achieves these results.
      Responsibilities
      • Use bullet points to list the fundamental accountabilities of the position. Candidates want to know what they will be doing on a day-to-day basis.
      • Begin each responsibility or accountability statement with an action word and follow with a brief phrase to describe what is done to accomplish the function.
      Position Characteristics
      • Give examples of key problems and thinking challenges encountered by the position. Describe the type of analysis or creativity required to resolve these problems.
      • Provide examples of final decision-making authority. The examples should reflect the constraints placed on the position by people, policies, and/or procedures.
      Position Requirements
      • List all formal education and certifications required.
      • List all knowledge and experience required.
      • List all personal attributes required.
      Work Conditions
      • List all work conditions that the employee must accommodate. This could include any sensory, physical, or mental requirements of the position or any special conditions of employment, such as hours.
      Process to Apply
      • Include the methods in which the organization wants to receive applications and contact information of who will receive the applications.

      Bottom Line: A truly successful job posting ferrets out those hidden stars that may be over cautious and filters out hundreds of applications from the woefully under qualified.

      The do’s and don’ts of an inclusive job ad

      DON’T overlook the power of words. Avoid phrases like “strong English language skills” as this may deter non-native English speakers from applying and a “clean-shaven” requirement can exclude candidates whose faith requires them to maintain facial hair.

      DON’T post a long requirements list. A study showed that the average jobseeker spends only 49.7 seconds reviewing a listing before deciding it's not a fit.*

      DON’T present a toxic work culture; phrases such as “work hard, play hard” can put off many candidates and play into the “bro- culture” stereotype in tech.

      Position Title: Senior Lorem Ipsum

      Salary Band: $XXX to $XXX

      Diversity is a core value at ACME Inc. We believe that diversity and inclusion is our strength, and we’re passionate about building an environment where all employees are valued and can perform at their best.

      As a … you will …

      Our ideal candidate ….

      Required Education and Experience

      • Bachelor’s degree in …
      • Minimum five (5) years …

      Required Skills

      Preferred Skills

      At ACME Inc. you will find …

      DO promote pay equity by being up front and honest about salary expectations.

      DO emphasize your organization’s commitment to diversity and an inclusive workplace by adding an equity statement.

      DO limit your requirements to “must haves” or at least showcase them first before the “nice-to-haves.”

      DO involve current employees or members of your employee resource groups when creating job descriptions to ensure that they ask for what you really need.

      DO focus on company values and criteria that are important to the job, not just what’s always been done.

      *Source: Ladders, 2013

      Before posting the job ad complete the DEI job posting validation checklist

      Does the job posting highlight your organization’s EVP

      Does the job posting avoid words that might discourage women, people of color, and other members of underrepresented groups from applying?

      Has the position description been carefully reviewed and revised to reflect current and future expectations for the position, rather than expectations informed by the persons who have previously held the job?

      Has the hiring committee eliminated any unnecessary job skills or requirements (college degree, years or type of previous experience, etc.) that might negatively impact recruitment of underrepresented groups?

      Has the hiring committee posted the job in places (job boards, websites, colleges, etc.) where applicants from underrepresented groups will be able to easily view or access it?

      Have members of the hiring committee attended job fairs or other events hosted by underrepresented groups?

      Has the hiring committee asked current employees from underrepresented groups to spread the word about the position?

      Has the hiring committee worked with the marketing team to ensure that people from diverse groups are featured in the organization’s website, publications, and social media?

      es the job description clearly demonstrate the organization’s and leadership’s commitment to DEI?

      *Source: Recruit and Retain People of Color in IT

      3.1 Review and update your job ads

      1. Download the Job Ad Template.
      2. Look online or ask HR for an example of a current job advertisement you are using.
      • If you don’t have one, you can use a job description as a starting point.
    • Review all the elements of the job ad and make sure they align with the list on the previous slide, adding or changing, as necessary. Your job ad should be no more than two pages long.
    • Using the tools on the previous two slides, review your first draft to ensure the job posting is free of language or elements that will discourage diverse candidates from applying.
    • Review your job advertisement with HR to get feedback or to use as a template going forward.
    • Input Output
      • Existing job ad or job description
      • Updated job ad
      Materials Participants
      • Job ad or job description
      • Job Ad Template
      • Hiring Managers

      Want to learn more?

      Recruit IT Talent

      • Improve candidate experience to hire top IT talent.

      Recruit and Retain More Women in IT

      • Gender diversity is directly correlated to IT performance.

      Recruit and Retain People of Color in IT

      • Good business, not just good philanthropy.

      Enhance Your Recruitment Strategies

      Focus on key programs and tactics to improve the effectiveness of your sourcing approach.

      Get involved with sourcing to get your job ad seen

      To meet growing expectations, organizations need to change the way they source

      Social Media

      Social media has trained candidates to expect:

      • Organizations to stay in touch and keep track of them.
      • A personalized candidate experience.
      • To understand organizational culture and a day in the life.

      While the focus on the candidate experience is important throughout the talent acquisition process, social media, technology, and values have made it a critical component of sourcing.

      Technology

      Candidates expect to be able to access job ads from all platforms.

      • Today, close to 90% of candidates use a mobile platform to job hunt (SmartRecruiters, 2022).
      • However, only 36% of organizations are optimizing their job postings for mobile. (The Undercover Recruiter, 2021)

      Job ads must be clear, concise, and easily viewed on a mobile device.

      Candidate Values

      Job candidate’s values are changing.

      • There is a growing focus on work/life balance, purpose, innovation, and career development. Organizations need to understand candidate values and highlight how the EVP aligns with these interests.

      Authenticity remains important.

      • Clearly and accurately represent your organization and its culture.

      Focus on key programs and tactics to improve the effectiveness of your sourcing approach

      Internal Talent Mobility (ITM) Program

      Social Media Program

      Employee Referral Program

      Alumni Program

      Campus Recruiting Program

      Other Sourcing Tactics

      Take advantage of your current talent with an internal talent mobility program

      What is it?

      Positioning the right talent in the right place, at the right time, for the right reasons, and supporting them appropriately.

      Internal Talent Mobility (ITM) Program

      Social Media Program

      Employee Referral Program

      Alumni Program

      Campus Recruiting Program

      Other Sourcing Tactics

      ITM program benefits:

      1. Retention
      2. Provide opportunities to develop professionally, whether in the current role or through promotions/lateral moves. Keep strong performers and high-potential employees committed to the organization.

      3. Close Skills Gap
      4. Address rapid change, knowledge drain due to retiring Baby Boomers, and frustration associated with time to hire or time to productivity.

      5. Cost/Time Savings
      6. Reduce spend on talent acquisition, severance, time to productivity, and onboarding.

      7. Employee Engagement
      8. Increase motivation and productivity by providing increased growth and development opportunities.

      9. EVP
      10. Align with the organization’s offering and what is important to the employees from a development perspective.

      11. Employee & Leadership Development
      12. Support and develop employees from all levels and job functions.

      Leverage social media to identify and connect with talent

      Internal Talent Mobility (ITM) Program

      Social Media Program

      Employee Referral Program

      Alumni Program

      Campus Recruiting Program

      Other Sourcing Tactics

      What is it? The widely accessible electronic tools that enable anyone to publish and access information, collaborate on common efforts, and build relationships.

      Learning to use social media effectively is key to sourcing the right talent.

      • Today, 92% of organizations leverage social media for talent acquisition.
      • 80% of employers find passive candidates through social media – second only to referrals.
      • 86% percent of job seekers used social media for their most recent job search.
      (Ku, 2021)

      Benefits of social media:

      • Provides access to candidates who may not know the organization.
      • Taps extended networks.
      • Facilitates consistent communication with candidates and talent in pipelines.
      • Personalizes the candidate experience.
      • Provides access to extensive data.

      Challenges of social media:

      With the proliferation of social media and use by most organizations, social media platforms have become overcrowded. As a result:

      • Organizations are directly and very apparently competing for talent with competitors.
      • Users are bombarded with information and are tuning out.

      “It is all about how we can get someone’s attention and get them to respond. People are becoming jaded.”

      – Katrina Collier, Social Recruiting Expert, The Searchologist

      Reap the rewards of an employee referral program

      Internal Talent Mobility (ITM) Program

      Social Media Program

      Employee Referral Program

      Alumni Program

      Campus Recruiting Program

      Other Sourcing Tactics

      What is it? Employees recommend qualified candidates. If the referral is hired, the referring employee typically receives some sort of reward.

      Benefits of an employee referral program:

      1. Lower Recruiting Costs
      2. 55% of organizations report that hiring a referral is less expensive that a non-referred candidate (Clutch, 2020).

      3. Decreased time to fill
      4. The average recruiting lifecycle for an employee referral is 29 days, compared with 55 days for a non referral (Betterup, 2022).

      5. Decreased turnover
      6. 46% percent of employees who were referred stay at their organization for a least one year, compared to 33% of career site hires (Betterup, 2022).

      7. Increased quality of hire
      8. High performers are more likely to refer other high performers to an organization (The University of Chicago Press, 2019).

      Avoid the Like Me Bias: Continually evaluate the diversity of candidates sourced from the employee referral program. Unless your workforce is already diverse, referrals can hinder diversity because employees tend to recommend people like themselves.

      Tap into your network of former employees

      Internal Talent Mobility (ITM) Program

      Social Media Program

      Employee Referral Program

      Alumni Program

      Campus Recruiting Program

      Other Sourcing Tactics

      What is it? An alumni referral program is a formalized way to maintain ongoing relationships with former employees of the organization.

      Successful organizations use an alumni program:

      • 98% of the F500 have some sort of Alumni program (LinkedIn, 2019).

      Benefits of an alumni program:

      1. Branding
      • Alumni are regarded as credible sources of information. They can be a valuable resource for disseminating and promoting the employer brand.
    • Source of talent
      • Boomerang employees are doubly valuable as they understand the organization and also have developed skills and industry experience.
        • Recover some of the cost of turnover and cost per hire with a pool of prequalified candidates who will more quickly reach full productivity.
    • Referral potential
      • Developing a robust alumni network provides access to a larger network through referrals.
      • Alumni already know what is required to be successful in the organization so they can refer more suitable candidates.

      Make use of a campus recruiting program

      Internal Talent Mobility (ITM) Program

      Social Media Program

      Employee Referral Program

      Alumni Program

      Campus Recruiting Program

      Other Sourcing Tactics

      What is it? A formalized means of attracting and hiring individuals who are about to graduate from schools, colleges, or universities.

      Almost 70% of companies are looking to employ new college graduates every year (HR Shelf, 2022).

      Campus recruitment benefits:

      • Increases employer brand awareness among talent entering the workforce.
      • Provides the opportunity to interact with large groups of potential candidates at one time.
      • Presents the opportunity to identify and connect with high-quality talent before they graduate and are actively looking for positions.
      • Offers access to a highly diverse audience.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Target schools that align with your culture and needs. Do not just focus on the most prestigious schools: they are likely more costly, have more intense competition, and may not actually provide the right talent.

      Identify opportunities to integrate non-traditional techniques

      Internal Talent Mobility (ITM) Program

      Social Media Program

      Employee Referral Program

      Alumni Program

      Campus Recruiting Program

      Other Sourcing Tactics

      1. Professional industry associations
      • Tap into candidates who have the necessary competencies.

      5. Not-for-profit intermediaries

      • Partner with not-for-profits to tap into candidates in training or mentorship programs.
      • Example:
        • Year Up (General)
        • Bankwork$ (Banking)
        • Youth Build (Construction)
        • iFoster (Grocery)

      American Expresscreated a boot camp for software engineers in partnership with Year Up and Gateway Community College to increase entry-level IT hires.

      Results:

      • Annually hire 80-100 interns from Year Up.
      • Improved conversion rates: 72% of Year Up interns versus 60% of traditional interns.
      • Increased retention: 44 (Year Up) versus 18 months (traditional).
      (HBR, 2016)

      2. Special interest groups

      • Use for niche role sourcing.
      • Find highly specialized talent.
      • Drive diversity (Women in Project Management).

      6. Gamification

      • Attract curiosity and reaffirm innovation at your organization.
      • Communicate the EVP.
      3. Customers
      • Access those engaged with the organization.
      • Add the employer brand to existing messaging.

      PwC (Hungary) created Multiploy, a two-day game that allows students to virtually experience working in accounting or consulting at the organization.

      Results:

      • 78% of students said they wanted to work for PwC.
      • 92% indicated they had a more positive view of the firm.
      • Increase in the number of job applicants.
      (Zielinski, 2015)

      4. Exit interviews

      • Ask exiting employees “where should we recruit someone to replace you?”
      • Leverage their knowledge to glean insight into where to find talent.

      Partner with other organizational functions to build skills and leverage existing knowledge

      Use knowledge that already exists in the organization to improve talent sourcing capabilities.

      Marketing

      HR

      Marketing knows how to:

      • Build attention-grabbing content.
      • Use social media platforms effectively.
      • Effectively promote a brand.
      • Use creative methods to connect with people.

      HR knows how to:

      • Organize recruitment activities.
      • Identify the capabilities of various technologies available to support sourcing.
      • Solve issues that may arise along the way

      To successfully partner with other departments in your organization:

      • Acknowledge that they are busy. Like IT, they have multiple competing priorities.
      • Present your needs and prioritize them. Create a list of what you are looking for and then be willing to just pick your top need. Work with the other department to decide what needs can and cannot be met.
      • Present the business case. Emphasize how partnering is mutually beneficial. For example, illustrate to Marketing that promoting a strong brand with candidates will improve the organization’s overall reputation because often, candidates are customers.
      • Be reasonable and patient. You are asking for help, so be moderate in your expectations and flexible in working with your partner.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Encourage your team to seek out, and learn from, employees in different divisions. Training sessions with the teams may not always be possible but one-on-one chats can be just as effective and may be better received.

      5.1 Review the effectiveness of existing sourcing programs

      1. As a group review the description of each program as defined on previous slides. Ensure that everyone understands the definitions.
      2. In your workbook, look for the cell Internal Talent Mobility under the title; you will find five rows with the following
      • This program is formally structured and documented.
      • This program is consistently applied across the organization.
      • Talent is sourced this way on an ad hoc basis.
      • Our organization currently does not source talent this way.
      • There are metrics in place to assess the effectiveness of this program.
    • Ask everyone in the group if they agree with the statement for each column; once everyone has had a chance to answer each of the questions, discuss any discrepancies which exist.
    • After coming to a consensus, record the answers.
    • Repeat this process for the other four sourcing programs (social media, employee referral program, alumni network program, and campus recruiting program).
    • InputOutput
      • Existing knowledge on sourcing approach
      • Low usage sourcing methods identified for development
      MaterialsParticipants
      • Workbook
      • Hiring Managers

      Want to learn more?

      Recruit IT Talent

      • Improve candidate experience to hire top IT talent.

      Recruit and Retain More Women in IT

      • Gender diversity is directly correlated to IT performance.

      Recruit and Retain People of Color in IT

      • Good business, not just good philanthropy.

      Enhance Your Recruitment Strategies

      Interviews are the most often used yet poorly executed hiring tool.

      Create a high-quality interview process to improve candidate assessment

      Everyone believes they’re a great interviewer; self-assess your techniques, and “get real” to get better

      If you…

      • Believe everything the candidate says.
      • Ask mostly hypothetical questions: "What would you do in a situation where…"
      • Ask gimmicky questions: "If you were a vegetable, what vegetable would you be?"
      • Ask only traditional interview questions: "What are your top three strengths?”
      • Submit to a first impression bias.
      • Have not defined what you are looking for before the interview.
      • Ignore your gut feeling in an attempt to be objective.
      • Find yourself loving a candidate because they are just like you.
      • Use too few or too many interviewers in the process.
      • Do not ask questions to determine the motivational fit of the candidate.
      • Talk more than the interviewee.
      • Only plan and prepare for the interview immediately before it starts.

      …then stop. Use this research!

      Most interviewers are not effective, resulting in many poor hiring decisions, which is costly and counter-productive

      Most interviewers are not effective…

      • 82% of organizations don’t believe they hire highly talented people (Trost, 2022).
      • Approximately 76% of managers and HR representatives that McLean & Company interviewed agreed that the majority of interviewers are not very effective.
      • 66% of hiring managers come to regret their interview-based hiring decisions (DDI, 2021).

      …because, although everyone knows interviewing is a priority, most don’t make it one.

      • Interviewing is often considered an extra task in addition to an employee’s day-to-day responsibilities, and these other responsibilities take precedence.
      • It takes time to effectively design, prepare for, and conduct an interview.
      • Employees would rather spend this time on tasks they consider to be an immediate priority.

      Even those interviewers who are good at interviewing, may not be good enough.

      • Even a good interviewer can be fooled by a great interviewee.
      • Some interviewees talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk. They have great interviewing abilities but not the skills required to be successful in the specific position for which they are interviewing.
      • Even if the interviewer is well trained and prepared to conduct a strong interview, they can get caught up with an interviewee that seems very impressive on the surface, and end up making a bad hire.

      Preparing the Perfect Interview

      Step 5: Define decision rights

      Establish decision-making authority and veto power to mitigate post-interview conflicts over who has final say over a candidate’s status.

      Follow these steps to create a positive interview experience for all involved.

      Step 1: Define the ideal candidate profile; determine the attributes of the ideal candidate and their relative importance

      Define the attributes of the ideal candidate…

      Ideal candidate = Ability to do the job + Motivation to do the job + Fit

      Competencies

      • Education
      • Credentials
      • Technical skills
      • Career path
      • Salary expectations
      • Passion
      • Potential
      • Personality
      • Managerial style/preference

      Experiences

      • Years of service
      • Specific projects
      • Industry

      Data for these come from:

      • Interviews
      • Personality tests
      • Gut instinct or intuition

      Data for these come from:

      • Resumes
      • Interviews
      • Exercises and tests
      • References

      Caution: Evaluating for “organizational or cultural fit” can lead to interviewers falling into the trap of the “like me” bias, and excluding diverse candidates.

      …then determine the importance of the attributes.

      Non-negotiable = absolutely required for the job!

      Usually attributes that are hard to train, such as writing skills, or expensive to acquire after hire, such as higher education or specific technical skills.

      An Asset

      Usually attributes that can be trained, such as computer skills. It’s a bonus if the new hire has it.

      Nice-to-have

      Attributes that aren’t necessary for the job but beneficial. These could help in breaking final decision ties.

      Deal Breakers: Also discuss and decide on any deal breakers that would automatically exclude a candidate.

      The job description is not enough; meet with stakeholders to define and come to a consensus on the ideal candidate profile

      Definition of the Ideal Candidate

      • The Hiring Manager has a plan for the new hire and knows the criteria that will best fulfill that mandate.
      • The Executive team may have specific directives for what the ideal candidate should look like, depending on the level and critical nature of the position.
      • Industry standards, which are defined by regulatory bodies, are available for some positions. Use these to identify skills and abilities needed for the job.
      • Competitor information such as job descriptions and job reviews could provide useful data about a similar role in other organizations.
      • Exit interviews can offer insight into the most challenging aspects of the job and identify skills or abilities needed for success.
      • Current employees who hold the same or a similar position can explain the nuances of the day-to-day job and what attributes are most needed on the team.

      “The hardest work is accurately defining what kind of person is going to best perform this job. What are their virtues? If you’ve all that defined, the rest is not so tough.”

      – VP, Financial Services

      Use a scorecard to document the ideal candidate profile and help you select a superstar

      1. Download the Workbook and go to tab 6.1.
      2. Document the desired attributes for each category of assessment: Competencies, Experiences, Fit, and Motivation. You can find an Attribute Library on the next tab.
      3. Rank each attribute by level of priority: Required, Asset, or Nice-to-Have.
      4. Identify deal breakers that would automatically disqualify a candidate from moving forward.
      InputOutput
      • Job description
      • Stakeholder input
      • Ideal candidate persona
      MaterialsParticipants
      • Workbook
      • Hiring Managers

      To identify questions for screening interviews, use the Screening Interview Template

      A screening interview conducted by phone should have a set of common questions to identify qualified candidates for in-person interviews.

      The Screening Interview Template will help you develop a screening interview by providing:

      • Common screening questions that can be modified based on organizational needs and interview length.
      • Establishing an interview team.
      • A questionnaire format so that the same questions are asked of all candidates and responses can be recorded.

      Once completed, this template will help you or HR staff conduct candidate screening interviews with ease and consistency. Always do screening interviews over the phone or via video to save time and money.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Determine the goal of the screening interview – do you want to evaluate technical skills, communication skills, attitude, etc.? – and create questions based on this goal. If evaluating technical skill, have someone with technical competency conduct the interview.

      The image contains screenshots of the Screening Interview Template.

      Step 2: Choose interview types and techniques that best assess the ideal candidate attributes listed on the position scorecard

      There is no best interview type or technique for assessing candidates, but there could be a wrong one depending on the organization and job opening.

      • Understanding common interviewing techniques and types will help inform your own interviewing strategy and interview development.
      • Each interview technique and type has its own strengths and weakness and can be better suited for a particular organizational environment, type of job, or characteristic being assessed.
      The image contains a diagram to demonstrate the similarities and differences of Interview Technique and Interview Type. There is a Venn Diagram, the right circle is labelled: Interview Technique, and the right is: Interview Type. There is a double sided arrow below that has the following text: Unstructure, Semi-Structured, and Structured.

      Unstructured: A traditional method of interviewing that involves no constraints on the questions asked, no requirements for standardization, and a subjective assessment of the candidate. This format is the most prone to bias.

      Semi-Structured: A blend of structured and unstructured, where the interviewer will ask a small list of similar questions to all candidates along with some questions pertaining to the resume.

      Structured: An interview consisting of a standardized set of job-relevant questions and a scoring guide. The goal is to reduce interviewer bias and to help make an objective and valid decision about the best candidate.

      No matter which interview types or techniques you use, aim for it to be as structured as possible to increase its validity

      The validity of the interview increases as the degree of interview structure increases.

      Components of a highly structured interview include:

      1. Interview questions are derived from a job analysis (they are job related).
      2. Interview questions are standardized (all applicants are asked the same questions).
      3. Prompting, follow-up questioning, probing, and/or elaboration on questions are limited. Try to identify all prompts, follow-ups, and probes beforehand and include them in the interview guide so that all candidates get the same level of prompting and probing.
      4. Interview questions focus on behaviors or work samples rather than opinions or self-evaluations.
      5. Interviewer access to ancillary information (e.g. resumes, letters of reference, test scores, transcripts) is controlled. Sometimes limiting access to these documents can limit interviewer biases.
      6. Questions from the candidate are not allowed until after the interview. This allows the interviewer to stay on track and not go off the protocol.
      7. Each answer is rated during the interview using a rating scale tailored to the question (this is preferable to rating dimensions at the end of the interview and certainly preferable to just making an overall rating or ranking at the end).
      8. Rating scales are “anchored” with behavioral examples to illustrate scale points (e.g. examples of a “1,” “3,” or “5” answer).
      9. Total interview score is obtained by summing across scores for each of the questions.

      The more of these components your interview has, the more structured it is, and the more valid it will be.

      Step 3: Prepare interview questions to assess the attributes you are looking for in a candidate

      The purpose of interviewing is to assess, not just listen. Questions are what help you do this.

      Preparing questions in advance allows you to:

      • Match each question to a position requirement (included in your scorecard) to ensure that you assess all required attributes. Everything assessed should be job relevant!
      • Determine each question’s weighting, if applicable.
      • Give each candidate a chance to speak to all their job-relevant attributes.
      • Keep records should an unselected candidate decide to contest the decision.

      If you don’t prepare in advance:

      • You’ll be distracted thinking about what you are going to ask next and not be fully listening.
      • You likely won’t ask the same questions of all candidates, which impacts the ability to compare across candidates and doesn’t provide a fair process for everyone.
      • You likely won’t ask the questions you need to elicit the information needed to make the right decision.
      • You could ask illegal questions (see Acquire the Right Hires with Effective Interviewing for a list of questions not to ask in an interview).

      Use the Interview Question Planning Guide tab in the Candidate Interview Strategy and Planning Guide to prepare your interview questions.

      Use these tips to draft interview questions:

      • Use job analysis output, in particular the critical incident technique, to develop structured interview questions.
      • Search online or in books for example interview questions for the target position to inform interview question development. Just remember that candidates access these too, so be sure to ask for specific examples, include probing questions, and adapt or modify questions to change them.
      • Situational questions: The situation should be described in sufficient detail to allow an applicant to visualize it accurately and be followed by “what would you do?” Scoring anchors should reflect effective, typical, and ineffective behaviors.
      • Behavioral questions: Should assess a behavioral dimension (e.g. meeting deadlines) and apply to a variety of situations that share the underlying dimension (e.g. at work or school). Scoring anchors should be applicable to a variety of situations and reflect effective, typical, and ineffective behavior.

      Conduct an effective screening interview by listening to non-verbal cues and probing

      Follow these steps to conduct an effective screening interview:

      Introduce yourself and ask if now is a good time to talk. (Before calling, prepare your sales pitch on the organization and the position.)

      You want to catch candidates off guard so that they don’t have time to prepare scripted answers; however, you must be courteous to their schedule.

      Provide an overview of the position, then start asking pre-set questions. Take a lot of notes.

      It is important to provide candidates with as much information as possible about the position – they are deciding whether they are interested in the role as much as you are deciding whether they are suitable.

      Listen to how the questions are answered. Ask follow-up questions when appropriate and especially if the candidate seems to be holding something back.

      If there are long pauses or the candidate’s voice changes, there may be something they aren’t telling you that you should know.

      Be alert to inconsistencies between the resume and answers to the questions and address them.

      It’s important to get to the bottom of issues before the in-person interview. If dates, titles, responsibilities, etc. seem to be inconsistent, ask more questions.

      Ask candidates about their salary expectations.

      It’s important to ensure alignment of the salary expectations early on. If the expectations are much higher than the range, and the candidate doesn’t seem to be open to the lower range, there is no point interviewing them. This would be a waste of everyone’s time.

      Answer the applicant’s questions and conclude the interview.

      Wait until after the interview to rate the applicant.

      Don’t allow yourself to judge throughout the interview, or it could skew questions. Rate the applicant once the interview is complete.

      When you have a shortlist of candidates to invite to an in-person interview, use the Candidate Communication Template to guide you through proper phone and email communications.

      Don’t just prepare top-level interview questions; also prepare probing questions to probe to gain depth and clarity

      Use probing to drill down on what candidates say as much as possible and go beyond textbook answers.

      Question (traditional): “What would you identify as your greatest strength?”

      Answer: Ability to work on a team.

      Top-level interview questions set the stage for probing.

      Your interview script should contain the top two levels of questions in the pyramid and a few probes that you will likely need to ask. You can then drill down further depending on the candidate’s answers.

      Follow-Up Question:

      “Can you outline a particular example when you were able to exercise your teamwork skills to reach a team goal?”

      Probing questions start with asking what, when, who, why, and how, and gain insight into a candidate’s thought process, experiences, and successes.

      Probing Level 1:

      Probe around the what, how, who, when, and where. “How did you accomplish that?”

      How to develop probes? By anticipating the kinds of responses that candidates from different backgrounds or with different levels of experience are likely to give as a response to an interview question. Probes should provide a clear understanding of the situation, the behavior, and the outcome so that the response can be accurately scored. Common probes include:

      • What did you do? What was the outcome?
      • When did this take place (and how long did it take)?
      • Who was involved?
      • Were you leading or being led?
      • How did you accomplish what you did?
      • Why did you take those steps?

      Tailor probes to the candidate’s answers to evoke meaningful and insightful responses.

      Probing Level 2:

      Allow for some creativity.

      “What would you do differently if you were to do it again?”

      Conduct effective interviews and assessments

      Mitigate inherent biases of assessors by integrating formal assessments with objective anchors and clear criteria to create a more inclusive process.

      Consider leveraging behavioral interview questions in your interview to reduce bias.

      • In the past, companies were pushing the boundaries of the conventional interview, using unconventional questions to find top talent, e.g. “what color is your personality?” The logic was that the best people are the ones who don’t necessarily show perfectly on a resume, and they were intent on finding the best.
      • However, many companies have stopped using these questions after extensive statistical analysis revealed there was no correlation between candidates’ ability to answer them and their future performance on the job.
      • Asking behavioral interview questions based on the competency needs of the role is the best way to uncover if the candidates will be able to execute on the job.

      Assessments are created by people that have biases. This often means that assessments can be biased, especially with preferences towards a Western perspective. Even if the same assessments are administered, the questions will be interpreted differently by candidates with varying cultural backgrounds and lived experiences. If assessments do not account for this, it ultimately leads to favoring the answers of certain demographic groups, often ones similar to those who developed the assessment.

      Creating an interview question scorecard

      Attribute you are evaluating

      Probing questions prepared

      Area to take notes

      The image contains a screenshot of an Interview question scorecard.

      Exact question you will ask

      Place to record score

      Anchored scale with definitions of a poor, ok and great answer

      Step 4: Assemble an interview team

      HR and the direct reporting supervisor should always be part of the interview. Make a good impression with a good interview team.

      The must-haves:

      • The Future Manager should always be involved in the process. They should be comfortable with the new hire’s competencies and fit.
      • Human Resources should always be involved in the process – they maintain consistency, legality, and standardization. It’s their job to know the rules and follow them. HR may coordinate and maintain policy standards and/or join in assessing the candidate.
      • There should always be more than just one interviewer, even if it is not at the same time. This helps keep the process objective, allows for different opinions, and gives the interviewee exposure to multiple individuals in the company. But, try to limit the number of panel members to four or less.

      “At the end of the day, it’s the supervisor that has to live with the person, so any decision that does not involve the supervisor is a very flawed process.” – VP, Financial Services

      The nice-to-haves:

      • Future colleagues can offer benefits to both the interviewee and the colleague by:
        • Giving the candidate some insight into what their day-to-day job would be.
        • Relaxing the candidate; allowing for a less formal, less intimidating conversation.
        • Introducing potential teammates for a position that is highly collaborative.
        • Offering the interviewer an excellent professional development opportunity – a chance to present their understanding of what they do.
      • Executives should take part in interviewing for executive hiring, individuals that will report to an executive, or for positions that are extremely important. Executive time is scarce and expensive, so only use it when absolutely necessary.

      Record the interview team details in the Candidate Interview Strategy and Planning Guide template.

      Assign interviewers roles inside and outside the actual interview

      Define Interview Process Roles

      Who Should… Contact candidates to schedule interviews or communicate decisions?

      Who Should… Be responsible for candidate welcomes, walk-outs, and hand-offs between interviews?

      Who Should… Define and communicate each stakeholder’s role?

      Who Should… Chair the preparation and debrief meetings and play the role of the referee when trying to reach a consensus?

      Define Interview Roles

      • Set a role for each interviewer so they know what to focus on and where they fit into the process (e.g. Interviewer A will assess fit). Don’t ad hoc the process and allow everyone to interview based on their own ideas.
      • Consider interviewer qualifications and the impact of the new employee on each interviewer, when deciding the roles of each interviewer (i.e. who will interview for competency and who will interview for fit).
        • For example, managers may be most impacted by technical competencies and should be the interviewer to evaluate the candidate for technical competency.

      “Unless you’ve got roles within the panel really detailed and agreed upon, for example, who is going to take the lead on what area of questions, you end up with a situation where nobody is in charge or accountable for the final interview assessment." – VP, Financial Services

      Info-Tech Insight

      Try a Two Lens Assessment: One interviewer assesses the candidate as a project leader while another assesses them as a people leader for a question such as “Give me an example of when you exercised your leadership skills with a junior team member.”

      Step 5: Set decision rights in stone and communicate them in advance to manage stakeholder expectations and limit conflict

      All interviewers must understand their decision-making authority prior to the interview. Misunderstandings can lead to resentment and conflict.

      It is typical and acceptable that you, as the direct reporting manager, should have veto power, as do some executives.

      Veto Power

      Direct Supervisor or Manager

      Decision Makers: Must Have Consensus

      Other Stakeholders

      Direct Supervisor’s Boss

      Direct Supervisor

      Contributes Opinion

      HR Representative

      Peer

      After the preliminary interview, HR should not be involved in making the decision unless they have a solid understanding of the position.

      Peers can make an unfair assessment due to perceived competition with a candidate. Additionally, if a peer doesn’t want a candidate to be hired and the direct supervisor does hire the candidate, the peer may hold resentment against that candidate and set the team up for conflict.

      The decision should rest on those who will interact with the candidate on a daily basis and who manage the team or department that the candidate will be joining.

      The decisions being made can include whether or not to move a candidate onto the next phase of the hiring process or a final hiring decision. Deciding decision rights in advance defines accountability for an effective interview process.

      Create your interview team, assessments, and objective anchor scale

      1. Download the Behavioral Interview Question Library as a reference.
      2. On tab 9 of your workbook, document all the members of the team and their respective roles in the interview process. Fill in the decision-making authority section to ensure every team member is held accountable to their assigned tasks and understands how their input will be used.
      3. For each required attribute in the Ideal Candidate Scorecard, chose one to two questions from the library that can properly evaluate that attribute.
      4. Copy and paste the questions and probing questions into the Interview Guide Template.
      5. Create an objective anchor scale and clearly define what a poor, ok, and great answer to each question is.

      Download the Behavioral Interview Question Library

      Input Output
      • List of possible team members
      • Ideal Candidate Scorecard
      • Finalized hiring panel
      • Finalized interview and assessment process
      Materials Participants
      • IT Behavioral Interview Question Library
      • Workbook
      • Interview Guide Template
      • IT leadership team
      • IT staff members

      Conduct an effective, professional, and organized in-person interview

      Give candidates a warm, genuine greeting. Introduce them to other interviewers present. Offer a drink. Make small talk.

      “There are some real advantages to creating a comfortable climate for the candidate; the obvious respect for the individual, but people really let their guard down.”

      – HR Director, Financial Services

      Give the candidate an overview of the process, length, and what to expect of the interview. Indicate to the candidate that notes will be taken during the interview.

      If shorter than an hour, you probably aren’t probing enough or even asking the right questions. It also looks bad to candidates if the interview is over quickly.

      Start with the first question in the interview guide and make notes directly on the interview guide (written or typed) for each question.

      Take lots of notes! You think you’ll remember what was said, but you won’t. It also adds transparency and helps with documentation.

      Ask the questions in the order presented for interview consistency. Probe and clarify as needed (see next slide).

      Keep control of the interview by curtailing any irrelevant or long-winded responses.

      After all interview questions are complete, ask candidates if there was anything about their qualifications that was missed that they want to highlight.

      Lets you know they understand the job and gives them the feeling they’ve put everything on the table.

      Ask if the candidate has any questions. Respond to the questions asked.

      Answer candidate questions honestly because fit works both ways. Ensure candidates leave with a better sense of the job, expectations, and organizational culture.

      Review the compensation structure for the position and provide a realistic preview of the job and organization.

      Provide each candidate with a fair chance by maintaining a consistent interview process.

      Tell interviewees what happens next in the process, the expected time frame, and how they will be informed of the outcome. Escort them out and thank them for the interview.

      The subsequent slides provide additional detail on these eight steps to conducting an effective interview.

      Avoid these common biases and mistakes

      Common Biases

      Like-me effect: An often-unconscious preference for, and unfairly positive evaluation of, a candidate based on shared interests, personalities, and experiences, etc.

      Status effect: Overrating candidates based on the prestige of previously held positions, titles, or schools attended.

      Recency bias: Placing greater emphasis on interviews held closer to the decision-making date.

      Contrast effect: Rating candidates relative to those who precede or follow them during the interview process, rather than against previously determined data.

      Solution

      Assess candidates by using existing competency-based criteria.

      Common Mistakes

      Negative tone: Starting the interview on a negative or stressful note may derail an otherwise promising candidate.

      Poor interview management: Letting the candidate digress may leave some questions unanswered and reduce the interview value.

      Reliance of first impressions: Basing decisions on first impressions undermines the objectivity of competency-based selection.

      Failure to ask probing questions: Accepting general answers without asking follow-up questions reduces the evidentiary value of the interview.

      Solution

      Follow the structured interview process you designed and practiced.

      Ask the questions in the order presented in the interview guide, and probe and clarify as needed

      Do...

      Don’t…

      Take control of the interview by politely interrupting to clarify points or keep the interviewee on topic.

      Use probing to drill down on responses and ask for clarification. Ask who, what, when, why, and how.

      Be cognizant of confidentiality issues. Ask for a sample of work from a past position.

      Focus on knowledge or information gaps from previous interviews that need to be addressed in the interview.

      Ensure each member of a panel interview speaks in turn and the lead is given due respect to moderate.

      Be mean when probing. Intimidation actually works against you and is stressful for candidates. When you’re friendly, candidates will actually open up more.

      Interrupt or undermine other panel members. Their comments and questions are just as valid as yours are, and treating others unprofessionally gives a bad impression to the candidate.

      Ask illegal questions. Questions about things like religion, disability, and marital and family status are off limits.

      When listening to candidate responses, watch for tone, body language, and red flags

      Do...

      While listening to responses, also watch out for red and yellow flags.

      Listen to how candidates talk about their previous bosses – you want it to be mainly positive. If their discussion of past bosses reflects a strong sense of self-entitlement or a consistent theme of victimization, this could be a theme in their behavior and make them hard to work with.

      Red Flag

      A concern about something that would keep you from hiring the person.

      Yellow Flag

      A concern that needs to be addressed, but wouldn’t keep you from hiring the person.

      Pay attention to body language and tone. They can tell you a lot about candidate motivation and interest.

      Listen to what candidates want to improve. It’s an opportunity to talk about development and advancement opportunities in the organization.

      Not all candidates have red flags, but it is important to keep them in mind to identify potential issues with the candidate before they are hired.

      Don’t…

      Talk too much! You are there to listen. Candidates should do about 80% of the talking so you can adequately evaluate them. Be friendly, but ensure to spend the time allotted assessing, not chatting.

      If you talk too much, you may end up hiring a weak candidate because you didn’t perceive weaknesses or not hire a strong candidate because you didn’t identify strengths.

      What if you think you sense a red or yellow flag?

      Following the interview, immediately discuss the situation with others involved in the recruitment process or those familiar with the position, such as HR, another hiring manager, or a current employee in the role. They can help evaluate if it’s truly a matter of concern.

      Increase hiring success: Give candidates a positive perception of the organization in the interview

      Great candidates want to work at great organizations.

      When the interviewer makes a positive impression on a candidate and provides a positive impression of the organization it carries forward after they are hired.

      In addition, better candidates can be referred over the course of time due to higher quality networking.

      As much as choosing the right candidate is important to you, make sure the right candidate wants to choose you and work for your organization.

      The image contains a screenshot of a graph to demonstrate the percent of successful hires relates strongly to interviewers giving candidates a positive perception of the organization.

      Interview advice seems like common sense, but it’s often not heeded, resulting in poor interviews

      Don’t…

      Believe everything candidates say. Most candidates embellish and exaggerate to find the answers they think you want. Use probing to drill down to specifics and take them off their game.

      Ask gimmicky questions like “what color is your soul?” Responses to these questions won’t give you any information about the job. Candidates don’t like them either!

      Focus too much on the resume. If the candidate is smart, they’ve tailored it to match the job posting, so of course the person sounds perfect for the job. Read it in advance, highlight specific things you want to ask, then ignore it.

      Oversell the job or organization. Obviously you want to give candidates a positive impression, but don’t go overboard because this could lead to unhappy hires who don’t receive what you sold them. Candidates need to evaluate fit just as much as you.

      Get distracted by a candidate’s qualifications and focus only on their ability to do the job. Just because they are qualified does not mean they have the attitude or personality to fit the job or culture.

      Show emotion at any physical handicap. You can’t discriminate based on physical disability, so protect the organization by not drawing attention to it. Even if you don’t say anything, your facial expression may.

      Bring a bad day or excess baggage into the interview, or be abrupt, rushed, or uninterested in the interview. This is rude behavior and will leave a negative impression with candidates, which could impact your chances of hiring them.

      Submit to first impression bias because you’ll spend the rest of the interview trying to validate your first impression, wasting your time and the candidate’s. Remain as objective as possible and stick to the interview guide to stay focused on the task at hand.

      “To the candidate, if you are meeting person #3 and you’re hearing questions that person #1 and #2 asked, the company doesn’t look too hot or organized.” – President, Recruiting Firm

      Practice behavioral interviews

      1. In groups of at least three:
      • Assign one person to act as the manager conducting the interview, a second person to act as the candidate, and a third to observe.
      • The observer will provide feedback to the manager at the end of the role play based on the information you just learned.
      • Observers – please give feedback on the probing questions and body language.
    • Managers, select an interview question from the list your group put together during the previous exercise. Take a few minutes to think about potential probing questions you could follow up with to dig for more information.
    • Candidates, try to act like a real candidate. Please don’t make it super easy on the managers – but don’t make it impossible either!
    • Once the question has been asked and answered:
      • How did it go?
      • Were you able to get the candidate to speak in specifics rather than generalities? What tips do you have for others?
      • What didn’t go so well? Any surprises?
      • What would you do differently next time?
      • If this was a real hiring situation, would the information you got from just that one question help you make a hiring decision for the role?
    • Now switch roles and select a new interview question to use for this round. Repeat until everyone has had a chance to practice.
    • Input Output
      • Interview questions and scorecard
      • Practice interviews
      Materials Participants
      • IT Behavioral Interview Question Library
      • Workbook
      • Hiring Manager
      • Interview Panel Members

      Download the Behavioral Interview Question Library

      Record best practices, effective questions, and candidate insights for future use and current strategy

      Results and insights gained from evaluations need to be recorded and assessed to gain value from them going forward.

      • To optimize evaluation, all feedback should be forwarded to a central point so that the information can be shared with all stakeholders. HR can serve in this role.
      • Peer evaluations should be shared shortly after the interview. Immediate feedback that represents all the positive and negative responses is instructional for interviewers to consider right away.
      • HR can take a proactive approach to sharing information and analyzing and improving the interview process in order to collaborate with hiring departments for better talent management.
      • Collecting information about effective and ineffective interview questions will guide future interview revision and development efforts.

      Evaluations Can Inform Strategic Planning and Professional Development

      Strategic Planning

      • Survey data can be used to inform strategic planning initiatives in recruiting.
      • Use the information to build a case to the executive team for training, public relations initiatives, or better candidate management systems.

      Professional Development

      • Survey data from all evaluations should be used to inform future professional development initiatives.
      • Interview areas where all team members show weaknesses should be training priorities.
      • Individual weaknesses should be integrated into each professional development plan.

      Want to learn more?

      Recruit IT Talent

      • Improve candidate experience to hire top IT talent.

      Recruit and Retain More Women in IT

      • Gender diversity is directly correlated to IT performance.

      Recruit and Retain People of Color in IT

      • Good business, not just good philanthropy.

      Develop a Comprehensive Onboarding Plan

      Drive employee engagement and retention with a robust program that acclimates, guides, and develops new hires.

      Onboarding should pick up where candidate experience leaves off

      Do not confuse onboarding with orientation

      Onboarding ≠ Orientation

      Onboarding is more than just orientation. Orientation is typically a few days of completing paperwork, reading manuals, and learning about the company’s history, strategic goals, and culture. By contrast, onboarding is three to twelve months dedicated to welcoming, acclimating, guiding, and developing new employees – with the ideal duration reflecting the time to productivity for the role.

      A traditional orientation approach provides insufficient focus on the organizational identification, socialization, and job clarity that a new hire requires. This is a missed opportunity to build engagement, drive productivity, and increase organizational commitment. This can result in early disengagement and premature departure.

      Effective onboarding positively impacts the organization and bottom line

      Over the long term, effective onboarding has a positive impact on revenue and decreases costs.

      The benefits of onboarding:

      • Save money and frustration
        • Shorten processing time, reduce administrative costs, and improve compliance.
      • Boost revenue
        • Help new employees become productive faster – also reduce the strain on existing employees who would normally be overseeing them or covering a performance shortfall.
      • Drive engagement and reduce turnover
        • Quickly acclimate new hires to your organization’s environment, culture, and values.
      • Reinforce culture and employer brand
        • Ensure that new hires feel a connection to the organization’s culture.

      Onboarding drives new hire engagement from day one

      The image contains a graph to demonstrate the increase in overall engagement in relation to onboarding.

      When building an onboarding program, retain the core aims: acclimate, guide, and develop

      The image contains a picture of a circle with a smaller circle inside it, and a smaller circle inside that one. The smallest circle is labelled Acclimate, the medium sized circle is labelled Guide, and the biggest circle is labelled Develop.

      Help new hires feel connected to the organization by clearly articulating the mission, vision, values, and what the company does. Help them understand the business model, the industry, and who their competitors are. Help them feel connected to their new team members by providing opportunities for socialization and a support network.

      Help put new hires on the path to high performance by clearly outlining their role in the organization and how their performance will be evaluated.

      Help new hires receive the experience and training they require to become high performers by helping them build needed competencies.

      We recommend a three-to-twelve-month onboarding program, with the performance management aspect of onboarding extending out to meet the standard organizational performance management cycle.

      Info-Tech Insight

      The length of the onboarding program should align with the average time to productivity for the role(s). Consider the complexity of the role, the industry, and the level of the new hire when determining program length.

      For example, call center workers who are selling a straight-forward product may only require a three-month onboarding, while senior leaders may require a year-long program.

      Watch for signs that you aren’t effectively acclimating, guiding, and developing new hires

      Our primary and secondary research identified the following as the most commonly stated reasons why employees leave organizations prematurely. These issues will be addressed throughout the next section.

      Acclimate

      Guide

      Develop

      • Onboarding experience is misaligned from the employer’s brand.
      • Socialization and/or integration into the existing culture is left to the employee.
      • Key role expectations or role usefulness is not clearly communicated.
      • Company strategy is unclear.
      • Opportunities for advancement are unclear.
      • Coaching, counseling, and/or support from co-workers and/or management is lacking.
      • The organization fails to demonstrate that it cares about the new employee’s needs.

      “Onboarding is often seen as an entry-level HR function. It needs to rise in importance because it’s the first impression of the organization and can be much more powerful than we sometimes give it credit for. It should be a culture building and branding program.” – Doris Sims, SPHR, The Succession Consultant, and Author, Creative Onboarding Programs

      Use the onboarding tabs in the workbook to evaluate and redesign the onboarding program

      1. On tab 10, brainstorm challenges that face the organization's current onboarding program. Identify if they fall into the "acclimate," "guide," or "develop" category. Next, record the potential impact of this challenge on the overall effectiveness of the onboarding program.
      2. On tab 11, record each existing onboarding activity. Then, identify if that activity will be kept or if it should be retired. Next, document if the activity fell into the "acclimate," "guide," or "develop" category.
      3. On tab 12, document gaps that currently exist in the onboarding program. Modify the timeline along the side of the tab to ensure it reflects the timeline you have identified.
      4. On tab 13, document the activities that will occur in the new onboarding program. This should be a combination of current activities that you want to retain and new activities that will be added to address the gaps noted on tab 12. For each activity, identify if it will fall in the acclimate, guide, or develop section. Add any additional notes. Before moving on, make sure that there are no categories that have no activities (e.g. no guide activities).
      Input Output
      • Existing onboarding activities
      • Determine new onboarding activities
      • Map out onboarding responsibilities
      Materials Participants
      • Workbook
      • Hiring Managers
      • HR

      Review the administrative aspects of onboarding and determine how to address the challenges

      The image contains tabs, three main large tabs are labelled: Acclimate, Guide, and Develop. There are smaller tabs in between that are in relation to the three main ones.

      Sample challenges

      Potential solutions

      Some paperwork cannot be completed digitally (e.g. I-9 form in the US).

      Where possible, complete forms with digital signatures (e.g. DocuSign). Where not possible, begin the process earlier and mail required forms to employees to sign and return, or scan and email for the employee to print and return.

      Required compliance training material is not available virtually.

      Seek online training options where possible. Determine the most-critical training needs and prioritize the replication of materials in audio/video format (e.g. recorded lecture) and distribute virtually.

      Employees may not have access to their equipment immediately due to shipping or supply issues.

      Delay employee start dates until you can set them up with the proper equipment and access needed to do their job.

      New hires can’t get answers to their questions about benefits information and setup.

      Schedule a meeting with an HR representative or benefits vendor to explain how benefits will work and how to navigate employee self-service or other tools and resources related to their benefits.

      Info-Tech Insight

      One of the biggest challenges for remote new hires is the inability to casually ask questions or have conversations without feeling like they’re interrupting. Until they have a chance to get settled, providing formal opportunities for questions can help address this.

      Review how company information is shared during onboarding and how to address the challenges

      The image contains tabs, three main large tabs are labelled: Acclimate, Guide, and Develop. There are smaller tabs in between that are in relation to the three main ones.

      Sample challenges

      Potential solutions

      Key company information such as organizational history, charts, or the vision, mission, and values cannot be clearly learned by employees on their own.

      Have the new hire’s manager call to walk through the important company information to provide a personal touch and allow the new hire to ask questions and get to know their new manager.

      Keeping new hires up to date on crisis communications is important, but too much information may overwhelm them or cause unnecessary stress.

      Sharing the future of the organization is a critical part of the company information stage of onboarding and the ever-changing nature of the COVID-19 crisis is informing many organizations’ future right now. Be honest but avoid over-sharing plans that may change.

      New hires can’t get answers to their questions about benefits information and setup.

      Schedule a meeting with an HR representative or benefits vendor to explain how benefits will work and how to navigate employee self-service or other tools and resources related to their benefits.

      Review the socialization aspects of onboarding and determine how to address the challenges

      The image contains tabs, three main large tabs are labelled: Acclimate, Guide, and Develop. There are smaller tabs in between that are in relation to the three main ones.

      Sample challenges

      Potential solutions

      Team introductions via a team lunch or welcome event are typically done in person.

      Provide managers with a calendar of typical socialization events in the first few weeks of onboarding and provide instructions and ideas for how to schedule replacement events over videoconferencing.

      New hires may not have a point of contact for informal questions or needs if their peers aren’t around them to help.

      If it doesn’t already exist, create a virtual buddy program and provide instructions for managers to select a buddy from the new hire’s team. Explain that their role is to field informal questions about the company, team, and anything else and that they should book weekly meetings with the new hire to stay in touch.

      New hires will not have an opportunity to learn or become a part of the informal decision-making networks at the organization.

      Hiring managers should consider key network connections that new hires will need by going through their own internal network and asking other team members for recommendations.

      New hires will not be able to casually meet people around the office.

      Provide the employee with a list of key contacts for them to reach out to and book informal virtual coffee chats to introduce themselves.

      Adapt the Guide phase of onboarding to a virtual environment

      The image contains tabs, three main large tabs are labelled: Acclimate, Guide, and Develop. There are smaller tabs in between that are in relation to the three main ones.

      Sample challenges

      Potential solutions

      Performance management (PM) processes have been paused given the current crisis.

      Communicate to managers that new hires still need to be onboarded to the organization’s performance management process and that goals and feedback need to be introduced and the review process outlined even if it’s not currently happening.

      Goals and expectations differ or have been reprioritized during the crisis.

      Ask managers to explain the current situation at the organization and any temporary changes to goals and expectations as a result of new hires.

      Remote workers often require more-frequent feedback than is mandated in current PM processes.

      Revamp PM processes to include daily or bi-weekly touchpoints for managers to provide feedback and coaching for new hires for at least their first six months.

      Managers will not be able to monitor new hire work as effectively as usual.

      Ensure there is a formal approach for how employees will keep their managers updated on what they're working on and how it's going, for example, daily scrums or task-tracking software.

      For more information on adapting performance management to a virtual environment, see Info-Tech’s Performance Management for Emergency Work-From-Home research.

      Take an inventory of training and development in the onboarding process and select critical activities

      The image contains tabs, three main large tabs are labelled: Acclimate, Guide, and Develop. There are smaller tabs in between that are in relation to the three main ones.

      Categorize the different types of formal and informal training in the onboarding process into the following three categories. For departmental and individual training, speak to managers to understand what is required on a department and role basis:

      Organizational

      Departmental

      Individual

      For example:

      • Employee self-service overview
      • Health and safety/compliance training
      • Core competencies

      For example:

      • Software training (e.g. Salesforce)
      • Job shadowing to learn how to work equipment or to learn processes

      For example:

      • Mentoring
      • External courses
      • Support to work toward a certification

      In a crisis, not every training can be translated to a virtual environment in the short term. It’s also important to focus on critical learning activities versus the non-critical. Prioritize the training activities by examining the learning outcomes of each and asking:

      • What organizational training does every employee need to be a productive member of the organization?
      • What departmental or individual training do new hires need to be successful in their role?

      Lower priority or non-critical activities can be used to fill gaps in onboarding schedules or as extra activities to be completed if the new hire finds themselves with unexpected downtime to fill.

      Determine how onboarding training will be delivered virtually

      The image contains tabs, three main large tabs are labelled: Acclimate, Guide, and Develop. There are smaller tabs in between that are in relation to the three main ones.

      Who will facilitate virtual training sessions?

      • For large onboarding cohorts, consider live delivery via web conferencing where possible. This will create a more engaging training program and will allow new hires to interact with and ask questions of the presenter.
      • For individual new hires or small cohorts, have senior leaders or key personnel from across the organization record different trainings that are relevant for their role.
        • For example, training sessions about organizational culture can be delivered by the CEO or other senior leader, while sales training could be delivered by a sales executive.

        If there is a lack of resources, expertise, or time, outsource digital training to a content provider or through your LMS.

      What existing or free tools can be leveraged to immediately support digital training?

      • Laptops and PowerPoint to record training sessions that are typically delivered in-person
      • YouTube/Vimeo to host recorded lecture-format training
      • Company intranet to host links and files needed to complete training
      • Web conferencing software to host live training/orientation sessions (e.g. Webex)
      • LMS to host and track completion of learning content

      Want to learn more?

      Recruit IT Talent

      • Improve candidate experience to hire top IT talent.

      Recruit and Retain More Women in IT

      • Gender diversity is directly correlated to IT performance.

      Recruit and Retain People of Color in IT

      • Good business, not just good philanthropy.

      Adapt Your Onboarding Process to a Virtual Environment

      • Develop short-term solutions with a long-term outlook to quickly bring in new talent.

      Bibliography

      2021 Recruiter Nation Report. Survey Analysis, Jobvite, 2021. Web.

      “5 Global Stats Shaping Recruiting Trends.” The Undercover Recruiter, 2022. Web.

      Barr, Tavis, Raicho Bojilov, and Lalith Munasinghe. "Referrals and Search Efficiency: Who Learns What and When?" The University of Chicago Press, Journal of Labor Economics, vol. 37, no. 4, Oct. 2019. Web.

      “How to grow your team better, faster with an employee referral program.” Betterup, 10 Jan. 2022. Web.

      “Employee Value Proposition: How 25 Companies Define Their EVP.” Built In, 2021. Web.

      Global Leadership Forecast 2021. Survey Report, DDI World, 2021. Web.

      “Connecting Unemployed Youth with Organizations That Need Talent.” Harvard Business Review, 3 November 2016. Web.

      Ku, Daniel. “Social Recruiting: Everything You Need To Know for 2022.” PostBeyond, 26 November 2021. Web.

      Ladders Staff. “Shedding light on the job search.” Ladders, 20 May 2013. Web.

      Merin. “Campus Recruitment – Meaning, Benefits & Challenges.” HR Shelf, 1 February 2022. Web.

      Mobile Recruiting. Smart Recruiters, 2020. Accessed March 2022.

      Roddy, Seamus. “5 Employee Referral Program Strategies to Hire Top Talent.” Clutch, 22 April 2020. Web.

      Sinclair, James. “What The F*dge: That's Your Stranger Recruiting Budget?” LinkedIn, 11 November 2019. Web.

      “Ten Employer Examples of EVPs.” Workology, 2022. Web

      “The Higher Cost of a Bad Hire.” Robert Half, 15 March 2021. Accessed March 2022.

      Trost, Katy. “Hiring with a 90% Success Rate.” Katy Trost, Medium, 8 August 2022. Web.

      “Using Social Media for Talent Acquisition.” SHRM, 20 Sept. 2017. Web.

      The challenge of corporate security management

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      • Parent Category Name: Security and Risk
      • Parent Category Link: /security-and-risk

      Corporate security management is a vital aspect in every modern business, regardless of business area or size. At Tymans Group we offer expert security management consulting to help your business set up proper protocols and security programs. More elaborate information about our security management consulting services and solutions can be found below.

      Corporate security management components

      You may be experiencing one or more of the following:

      • The risk goals should support business goals. Your business cannot operate without security, and security is there to conduct business safely. 
      • Security governance supports security strategy and security management. These three components form a protective arch around your business. 
      • Governance and management are like the legislative branch and the executive branch. Governance tells people what to do, and management's job is to verify that they do it.

      Our advice with regards to corporate security management

      Insight

      To have a successful information security strategy, take these three factors into account:

      • Holistic: your view must include people, processes, and technology.
      • Risk awareness: Base your strategy on the actual risk profile of your company and then add the appropriate best practices.
      • Business-aligned: When your strategic security plan demonstrates alignment with the business goals and supports it, embedding will be much more straightforward.

      Impact and results of our corporate security management approach

      • The approach of our security management consulting company helps to provide a starting point for realistic governance and realistic corporate security management.
      • We help you by implementing security governance and managing it, taking into account your company's priorities, and keeping costs to a minimum.

      The roadmap

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

      Get up to speed

      Read up on why you should build your customized corporate information security governance and management system. Review our methodology and understand the four ways we can support you.

      Align your security objectives with your business goals

      Determine the company's risk tolerance.

      • Implement a Security Governance and Management Program – Phase 1: Align Business Goals With Security Objectives (ppt)
      • Information Security Governance and Management Business Case (ppt)
      • Information Security Steering Committee Charter (doc)
      • Information Security Steering Committee RACI Chart (doc)
      • Security Risk Register Tool (xls)

      Build a practical governance framework for your company

      Our best-of-breed security framework makes you perform a gap analysis between where you are and where you want to be (your target state). Once you know that, you can define your goals and duties.

      • Implement a Security Governance and Management Program – Phase 2: Develop an Effective Governance Framework (ppt)
      • Information Security Charter (doc)
      • Security Governance Organizational Structure Template (doc)
      • Security Policy Hierarchy Diagram (ppt)
      • Security Governance Model Facilitation Questions (ppt)
      • Information Security Policy Charter Template (doc)
      • Information Security Governance Model Tool (Visio)
      • Pdf icon 20x20
      • Information Security Governance Model Tool (PDF)

      Now that you have built it, manage your governance framework.

      There are several essential management activities that we as a security management consulting company suggest you employ.

      • Implement a Security Governance and Management Program – Phase 3: Manage Your Governance Framework (ppt)
      • Security Metrics Assessment Tool (xls)
      • Information Security Service Catalog (xls)
      • Policy Exception Tracker (xls)
      • Information Security Policy Exception Request Form (doc)
      • Security Policy Exception Approval Workflow (Visio)
      • Security Policy Exception Approval Workflow (PDF)
      • Business Goal Metrics Tracking Tool (xls)

      Book an online appointment for more advice

      We are happy to tell you more about our corporate security management solutions and help you set up fitting security objectives. As a security management consulting firm we offer solutions and advice, based on our own extensive experience, which are practical and people-orientated. Discover our services, which include data security management and incident management and book an online appointment with CEO Gert Taeymans to discuss any issues you may be facing regarding risk management or IT governance.

      cybersecurity

      Get the Most Out of Your CRM

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      • Parent Category Name: Customer Relationship Management
      • Parent Category Link: /customer-relationship-management
      • Application optimization is essential to stay competitive and productive in today’s digital environment.
      • Enterprise applications often involve large capital outlay, unquantified benefits, and high risk of failure.
      • Customer relationship management (CRM) application portfolios are often messy with multiple integration points, distributed data, and limited ongoing end-user training.
      • User dissatisfaction is common.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      A properly optimized CRM ecosystem will reduce costs and increase productivity.

      Impact and Result

      • Build an ongoing optimization team to conduct application improvements.
      • Assess your CRM application(s) and the environment in which they exist. Take a business-first strategy to prioritize optimization efforts.
      • Validate CRM 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 CRM Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should optimize your CRM, 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. Map current-state capabilities

      Gather information around the application:

      • Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook

      2. Assess your current state

      Assess CRM and related environment. Perform CRM process assessment. Assess user satisfaction across key processes, applications, and data. Understand vendor satisfaction

      • CRM Application Inventory Tool

      3. Build your optimization roadmap

      Build your optimization roadmap: process improvements, software capability improvements, vendor relationships, and data improvement initiatives.

      Infographic

      Workshop: Get the Most Out of Your CRM

      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 CRM Application Vision

      The Purpose

      Define your CRM application vision.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Develop an ongoing application optimization team.

      Realign CRM and business goals.

      Understand your current system state capabilities.

      Explore CRM and related costs.

      Activities

      1.1 Determine your CRM optimization team.

      1.2 Align organizational goals.

      1.3 Inventory applications and interactions.

      1.4 Define business capabilities.

      1.5 Explore CRM-related costs (optional).

      Outputs

      CRM optimization team

      CRM business model

      CRM optimization goals

      CRM system inventory and data flow

      CRM process list

      CRM and related costs

      2 Map Current-State Capabilities

      The Purpose

      Map current-state capabilities.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Complete a CRM process gap analysis to understand where the CRM is underperforming.

      Review the CRM 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 CRM processes.

      2.2 Perform an application portfolio assessment.

      2.3 Review vendor satisfaction.

      Outputs

      CRM process gap analysis

      CRM application portfolio assessment

      CRM software reviews survey

      3 Assess CRM

      The Purpose

      Assess CRM.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Learn which processes 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 CRM cost optimization opportunities (optional).

      Outputs

      CRM process optimization priorities

      CRM vendor optimization opportunities

      CRM 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 Identify key optimization areas.

      4.2 Build your CRM optimization roadmap and next steps.

      Outputs

      CRM optimization roadmap

      Further reading

      Get the Most Out of Your CRM

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

      Get the Most Out of Your CRM

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

      EXECUTIVE BRIEF

      Analyst Perspective

      Focus optimization on organizational value delivery.

      Customer relationship management (CRM) systems are at the core of a customer-centric strategy to drive business results. They are critical to supporting marketing, sales, and customer service efforts.

      CRM systems are expensive, their benefits are difficult to quantify, and they often suffer from poor user satisfaction. Post implementation, technology evolves, organizational goals change, and the health of the system is not monitored. This is complicated in today’s digital landscape with multiple integration points, siloed data, and competing priorities.

      Too often organizations jump into the selection of replacement systems without understanding the health of their current systems. IT leaders need to stop reacting and 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 adoption, and create an optimization roadmap that will drive a cohesive technology strategy that delivers results.

      This is a picture of Lisa Highfield

      Lisa Highfield
      Research Director,
      Enterprise Applications
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge

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

      Enterprise applications often involve large capital outlay and unquantified benefits.

      CRM application portfolios are often messy. Add to that poor processes, distributed data, and lack of training – business results and user dissatisfaction is common.

      Technology owners are often distributed across the business. Consolidation of optimization efforts is key.

      Common Obstacles

      Enterprise applications involve large numbers of processes and users. Without a clear focus on organizational needs, decisions about what and how to optimize can become complicated.

      Competing and conflicting priorities may undermine optimization value by focusing on the approaches that would only benefit one line of business rather than the entire organization.

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

      Info-Tech’s Approach

      Build an ongoing optimization team to conduct application improvements.

      Assess your CRM application(s) and the environment in which they exist. Take a business-first strategy to prioritize optimization efforts.

      Validate CRM 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.

      Info-Tech Insight

      CRM implementation should not be a one-and-done exercise. A properly optimized CRM ecosystem will reduce costs and increase productivity.

      This is an image of the thought model: Get the Most Out of Your CRM

      Insight Summary

      Continuous assessment and optimization of customer relationship management (CRM) systems is critical to their success.

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

      CRM platforms are the applications that provide functional capabilities and data management around the customer experience (CX).

      Marketing, sales, and customer service are enabled through CRM technology.

      CRM technologies facilitate an organization’s relationships with customers, service users, employees, and suppliers.

      CRM technology is critical to managing the lifecycle of these relationships, from lead generation, to sales opportunities, to ongoing support and nurturing of these relationships.

      Customer experience management (CXM)

      CRM platforms sit at the core of a well-rounded customer experience management ecosystem.

      Customer Relationship Management

      • Web Experience Management Platform
      • E-Commerce & Point-of-Sale Solutions
      • Social Media Management Platform
      • Customer Intelligence Platform
      • Customer Service Management Tools
      • Marketing Management Suite

      Customer relationship management suites are one piece of the overall customer experience management ecosystem, alongside tools such as customer intelligence platforms and adjacent point solutions for sales, marketing, and customer service. Review Info-Tech’s CXM blueprint to build a complete, end-to-end customer interaction solution portfolio that encompasses CRM alongside other critical components. The CXM blueprint also allows you to develop strategic requirements for CRM based on customer personas and external market analysis.

      CRM by the numbers

      1/3

      Statistical analysis of CRM projects indicate failures vary from 18% to 69%. Taking an average of those analyst reports, about one-third of CRM projects are considered a failure.
      Source: CIO Magazine, 2017

      85%

      Companies that apply the principles of behavioral economics outperform their peers by 85% in sales growth and more than 25% in gross margin.
      Source: Gallup, 2012

      40%

      In 2019, 40% of executives name customer experience the top priority for their digital transformation.
      Source: CRM Magazine, 2019

      CRM dissatisfaction

      Drivers of Dissatisfaction

      Business Data People and Teams Technology
      • Misaligned objectives
      • Product fit
      • Changing priorities
      • Lack of metrics
      • Access to data
      • Data hygiene
      • Data literacy
      • One view of the customer
      • User adoption
      • Lack of IT support
      • Training (use of data and system)
      • Vendor relations
      • Systems integration
      • Multichannel complexity
      • Capability shortfall
      • Lack of product support

      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 customer relationship management.

      Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service, along with IT, can only optimize CRM with the full support of each other. The cooperation of the departments is crucial when trying to improve CRM technology capabilities and customer interaction.

      Application optimization is risky without a plan

      Avoid the common pitfalls.

      • Not considering application optimization as a business and IT partnership that requires continuous formal engagement of all participants.
      • Not having a good understanding of 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 effort, and not 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.”
      – Ernese Norelus, Sreeni Pamidala, and Oliver Senti
      Medium, 2020

      Info-Tech’s methodology for Get the Most Out of Your CRM

      1. Map Current-State Capabilities 2. Assess Your Current State 3. Build Your Optimization Roadmap
      Phase Steps
      1. Identify stakeholders and build your CRM optimization team
      2. Build a CRM strategy model
      3. Inventory current system state
      4. Define business capabilities
      1. Conduct a gap analysis for CRM processes
      2. Assess user satisfaction
      3. Review your satisfaction with the vendor and product
      1. Identify key optimization areas
      2. Compile optimization assessment results
      Phase Outcomes
      1. Stakeholder map
      2. CRM optimization team
      3. CRM business model
      4. Strategy alignment
      5. Systems inventory and diagram
      6. Business capabilities map
      7. Key CRM processes list
      1. Gap analysis for CRM-related processes
      2. Understanding of user satisfaction across applications and processes
      3. Insight into CRM data quality
      4. Quantified satisfaction with the vendor and product
      1. Application optimization plan

      Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook

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

      Key deliverable:

      CRM Optimization Roadmap (Tab 8)

      This image contains a screenshot from Tab 9 of the Get the most out of your CRM WorkshopThis image contains a screenshot from Tab 9 of the Get the most out of your CRM Workshop

      Complete an assessment of processes, user satisfaction, data quality, and vendor management using the Workbook or the APA diagnostic.

      CRM Business Model (Tab 2)

      This image contains a screenshot from Tab 2 of the Get the most out of your CRM Workshop

      Align your business and technology goals and objectives in the current environment.

      Prioritized CRM Optimization Goals (Tab 3)

      This image contains a screenshot from Tab 3 of the Get the most out of your CRM Workshop

      Identify and prioritize your CRM optimization goals.

      Application Portfolio Assessment (APA)

      This image contains a screenshot of the Application Portfolio Assessment

      Assess IT-enabled user satisfaction across your CRM portfolio.

      Prioritized Process Assessment (Tab 5)

      This image contains a screenshot from Tab 5 of the Get the most out of your CRM Workshop

      Understand areas for improvement.

      Case Study

      Align strategy and technology to meet consumer demand.

      INDUSTRY - Entertainment
      SOURCE - Forbes, 2017

      Challenge

      Beginning as a mail-out service, Netflix offered subscribers a catalog of videos to select from and have mailed to them directly. Customers no longer had to go to a retail store to rent a video. However, the lack of immediacy of direct mail as the distribution channel resulted in slow adoption.

      Blockbuster was the industry leader in video retail but was lagging in its response to industry, consumer, and technology trends around customer experience

      Solution

      In response to the increasing presence of tech-savvy consumers on the internet, Netflix invested in developing its online platform as its primary distribution channel. The benefit of doing so was two-fold: passive brand advertising (by being present on the internet) and meeting customer demands for immediacy and convenience. Netflix also recognized the rising demand for personalized service and created an unprecedented, tailored customer experience.

      Results

      Netflix’s disruptive innovation is built on the foundation of great customer experience management. Netflix is now a $28-billion company, which is tenfold what Blockbuster was worth.

      Netflix used disruptive technologies to innovatively build a customer experience that put it ahead of the long-time, video rental industry leader, Blockbuster.

      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

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

      Call #2:

      Build the CRM team.

      Align organizational goals.

      Call #4:

      Conduct gap analysis for CRM processes.

      Prepare application portfolio assessment.

      Call #5:

      Understand product satisfaction and vendor management.

      Look for CRM cost optimization opportunities (optional).

      Call #7:

      Identify key optimization areas.

      Build out optimization roadmap and next steps.

      Call #3:

      Map current state.

      Inventory CRM processes.

      Explore CRM-related costs.

      Call #6:

      Review APA results.

      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.

      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
      Define Your CRM Application Vision Map Current-State Capabilities Assess CRM Build the Optimization Roadmap Next Steps and Wrap-Up (offsite)

      Activities

      1.1 Determine your CRM optimization team

      1.2 Align organizational goals

      1.3 Inventory applications and interactions

      1.4 Define business capabilities

      1.5 Explore CRM-related costs

      2.1 Conduct gap analysis for CRM processes

      2.2 Perform an application portfolio assessment

      2.3 Review vendor satisfaction

      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 CRM cost optimization opportunities (optional)

      4.1 Identify key optimization areas

      4.2 Build your CRM optimization roadmap and next steps

      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. CRM optimization team
      2. CRM business model
      3. CRM optimization goals
      4. CRM system inventory and data flow
      5. CRM process list
      6. CRM and related costs
      1. CRM process gap analysis
      2. CRM application portfolio assessment
      3. CRM software reviews survey
      1. CRM process optimization priorities
      2. CRM vendor optimization opportunities
      3. CRM cost optimization
      1. CRM optimization roadmap

      Phase 1

      Map Current-State Capabilities

      • 1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team
      • 1.2 Build a CRM Strategy Model
      • 1.3 Inventory Current System State
      • 1.4 Define Business Capabilities
      • 1.5 Understand CRM Costs

      Get the Most Out of Your CRM

      This phase will walk you through the following activities:

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

      This phase involves the following participants:

      • Product Owners
      • CMO
      • Departmental leads – Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, or other
      • Applications Director
      • Senior Business Analyst
      • Senior Developer
      • Procurement Analysts

      Inventory of CRM and related systems

      Develop an integration map to specify which applications will interface with each other.

      This is an image of an integration map, integrating the following Terms to CRM: Telephony Systems; Directory Services; Email; Content Management; Point Solutions; ERP

      Integration is paramount: your CRM application often integrates with other applications within the organization. Create an integration map to reflect a system of record and the exchange of data. To increase customer engagement, channel integration is a must (i.e. with robust links to unified communications solutions, email, and VoIP telephony systems).

      CRM plays a key role in the more holistic customer experience framework. However, it is heavily influenced by and often interacts with many other platforms.

      Data is one key consideration that needs to be considered here. If customer information is fragmented, it will be nearly impossible to build a cohesive view of the customer. Points of integration (POIs) are the junctions between the CRM(s) and other applications where data is flowing to and from. They are essential to creating value, particularly in customer insight-focused and omnichannel-focused deployments.

      Customer expectations are on the rise

      CRM strategy is a critical component of customer experience (CX).

      CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

      1. Thoughtfulness is in
        Connect with customers on a personal level
      2. Service over products
        The experience is more important than the product
      3. Culture is now number one
        Culture is the most overlooked piece of customer experience strategy
      4. Engineering and service finally join forces
        Companies are combining their technology and service efforts to create
        strong feedback loops
      5. The B2B world is inefficiently served
        B2B needs to step up with more tools and a greater emphasis placed on
        customer experience

      Source: Forbes, 2019

      Build a cohesive CRM strategy that aligns business goals with CRM capabilities.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Customers expect to interact with organizations through the channels of their choice. Now more than ever, you must enable your organization to provide tailored customer experiences.

      IT is critical to the success of your CRM strategy

      Today’s shared digital landscape of the CIO and CMO

      CIO

      • IT Operations
      • Service Delivery and Management
      • IT Support
      • IT Systems and Application
      • IT Strategy and Governance
      • Cybersecurity

      Collaboration and Partnership

      • Digital Strategy = Transformation
        Business Goals | Innovation | Leadership | Rationalization
      • Customer Experience
        Architecture | Design | Omnichannel Delivery | Management
      • Insight (Market Facing)
        Analytics | Business Intelligence | Machine Learning | AI
      • Marketing Integration + Operating Model
        Apps | Channels | Experiences | Data | Command Center
      • Master Data
        Customer | Audience | Industry | Digital Marketing Assets

      CMO

      • PEO Media
      • Brand Management
      • Campaign Management
      • Marketing Tech
      • Marketing Ops
      • Privacy, Trust, and Regulatory Requirements

      Info-Tech Insight

      Technology is the key enabler of building strong customer experiences: IT must stand shoulder to shoulder with the business to develop a technology framework for customer relationship management.

      Step 1.1

      Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

      Activities

      1.1.1 Identify the stakeholders whose support will be critical to success

      1.1.2 Select your CRM optimization team

      Map Current-State Capabilities

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

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

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Stakeholders
      • Project sponsors and leaders

      Outcomes of this step

      • Stakeholder map
      • CRM optimization team composition

      CRM optimization stakeholders

      Understand the roles necessary to get the most out of your CRM.

      Understand the role of each player within your optimization initiative. Look for listed participants on the activity slides to determine when each player should be involved.

      Info-Tech Insight

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

      Title

      Roles Within CRM Optimization Initiative

      Optimization Sponsor

      • Owns the project at the management/C-suite level
      • Responsible for breaking down barriers and ensuring alignment with organizational strategy
      • CMO, VP od Marketing, VP of Sales, VP of Customer Care, or similar

      Optimization Initiative Manager

      • Typically IT individual(s) that oversee day-to-day 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 Leads/
      Product Owners

      • Works alongside the Optimization Initiative Manager to ensure that the strategy is aligned with business needs
      • In this case, likely to be a marketing, sales, or customer service lead
      • Product Owners
      • Sales Director, Marketing Director, Customer Care Director, or similar

      CRM Optimization Team

      • Comprised of individuals whose knowledge and skills are crucial to optimization success
      • Responsible for driving day-to-day activities, coordinating communication, and making process and design decisions
      • Project Manager, Business Lead, CRM Manager, Integration Manager, Application SMEs, Developers, Business Process Architects, and/or similar SMEs

      Steering Committee

      • Comprised of C-suite/management level individuals that act as the CRM optimization decision makers.
      • Responsible for validating goals and priorities, defining the optimization scope, enabling adequate resourcing, and managing change
      • Project Sponsor, Project Manager, Business Lead, CMO, Business Unit SMEs, or similar

      1.1.1 Identify stakeholders critical to success

      1 hour

      1. Hold a meeting to identify the stakeholders that should be included in the project’s steering committee.
      2. Finalize selection of steering committee members.
      3. Contact members to ensure their willingness to participate.
      4. Document the steering committee members and the milestone/presentation expectations for reporting project progress and results.

      Input

      • Stakeholder interviews
      • Business process owners list

      Output

      • CRM optimization stakeholders
      • Steering committee members

      Materials

      • N/A

      Participants

      • Product Owners
      • CMO
      • Departmental Leads – Sales, Marketing, Customer Service (and others)
      • Applications Director
      • Senior Business Analyst
      • Senior Developer
      • Procurement Analyst

      The CRM optimization team

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

      Don’t let your core team become too large when trying to include all relevant stakeholders. Carefully limiting the size of the optimization team will enable effective decision making while still including functional business units such as Marketing, Sales, Service, and Customer Service.

      Required Skills/Knowledge

      Suggested Optimization Team Members

      Business

      • Understanding of the customer
      • Departmental processes
      • Sales Manager
      • Marketing Manager
      • Customer Service Manager

      IT

      • Product Owner
      • Application developers
      • Enterprise architects
      • CRM Application Manager
      • Business Process Manager
      • Data Stewards
      Other
      • Operations
      • Administrative
      • Change management
      • Operations Manager
      • CFO
      • Change Management Manager

      1.1.2 Select your CRM optimization team

      30 minutes

      1. Have the CMO and other key stakeholders discuss and determine who will be involved in the CRM optimization project.
        • Depending on the initiative and the size of the organization the size of the team will vary.
        • Key business leaders in key areas – Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, and IT – should be involved.
      2. Document the members of your optimization team in the Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook, tab “1. Optimization Team.”
        • Depending on your initiative and size of your organization, the size of this team will vary.

      Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook

      Input

      • Stakeholders

      Output

      • List of CRM Optimization Team members

      Materials

      • Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook

      Participants

      • Product Owners
      • CMO
      • Departmental Leads – Sales, Marketing, Customer Service
      • Applications Director
      • Senior Business Analyst
      • Senior Developer
      • Procurement Analyst

      Step 1.2

      Build a CRM Strategy Model

      Activities

      • 1.2.1 Explore environmental factors and technology drivers
      • 1.2.2 Discuss challenges and pain points
      • 1.2.3 Discuss opportunities and benefits
      • 1.2.4 Align CRM strategy with organizational goals

      Map Current-State Capabilities

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

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

      This step involves the following participants:

      • CRM Optimization Team

      Outcomes of this step

      • CRM business model
      • Strategy alignment

      Align the CRM 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 future state.

      Unified Strategy

      • The CRM optimization can be and should be linked, with metrics, to the corporate strategy and ultimate business objectives.

      CRM Strategy

      Your CRM Strategy:

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

      CRM 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 CRM capabilities. Effective alignment between Sales, Marketing, Customer Service, Operations, 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.

      Sample CRM objectives

      Increase Revenue

      Enable lead scoring

      Deploy sales collateral management tools

      Improve average cost per lead via a marketing automation tool

      Enhance Market Share

      Enhance targeting effectiveness with a CRM

      Increase social media presence via an SMMP

      Architect customer intelligence analysis

      Improve Customer Satisfaction

      Reduce time-to-resolution via better routing

      Increase accessibility to customer service with live chat

      Improve first contact resolution with customer KB

      Increase Customer Retention

      Use a loyalty management application

      Improve channel options for existing customers

      Use customer analytics to drive targeted offers

      Create Customer-Centric Culture

      Ensure strong training and user adoption programs

      Use CRM to provide 360-degree view of all customer interactions

      Incorporate the voice of the customer into product development

      Identifying organizational objectives of high priority will assist in breaking down business needs and CRM objectives. This exercise will better align the CRM systems with the overall corporate strategy and achieve buy-in from key stakeholders.

      CRM business model Template

      This image contains a screenshot of the CRM business model template

      Understand objectives for creating a strong CRM strategy

      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 employee retention, operation excellence, and financial performance. Technology drivers are technological changes that have created the need for a new CRM enablement strategy. Many organizations turn to technology systems to help them obtain a competitive edge. External considerations are factors taking place outside of the organization that are impacting 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
      • Employee engagement
      • Productivity
      • Operational efficiency
      • Deployment model (i.e. SaaS)
      • Integration
      • Reporting capabilities
      • Fragmented technologies
      • Economic and political factors, the labor market
      • Competitive influencers
      • Compliance regulations

      Info-Tech Insight

      One of the biggest drivers for CRM adoption is the ability to make decisions through consolidated data. 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 CRM.
      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 and markers to capture key findings.
      3. Consider environmental factors: external considerations, organizational drivers, technology drivers, and key functional requirements.
      4. Use the Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook, tab “2. Business Model,” to complete this exercise.

      Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook

      This is a screenshot of the CRM Business Model the following boxes highlighted in purple boxes.  CRM business Needs; Environmental Factors; 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

      Create a realistic CRM foundation by identifying the challenges and barriers to the project

      There are several different factors that may stifle the success of an CRM portfolio. Organizations creating an CRM 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 towards CRM technology and 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 new CRM system(s.)

      Questions

      • Is a CRM 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
      • Poor implementation
      • Need for reliance on consultants

      1.2.2 Discuss challenges and pain points

      30 minutes

      1. Identify challenges with current systems and processes.
      2. Brainstorm potential barriers to success. Use a whiteboard and markers to capture key findings.
      3. Consider the project barriers: functional gaps, technical gaps, process gaps, and barriers to CRM success.
      4. Use the Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook, tab “2. Business Model,” to complete this exercise.

      Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook

      This is a screenshot of the CRM Business Model the following boxes highlighted in purple boxes.  Barriers

      Functional Gaps

      Technical Gaps

      Process Gaps

      Barriers to Success

      • No sales tracking within core CRM
      • Inconsistent reporting – data quality concerns
      • Duplication of data
      • Lack of system integration
      • Cultural mindset
      • Resistance to change
      • Lack of training
      • Funding

      1.2.3 Discuss opportunities and benefits

      30 minutes

      1. Identify opportunities and benefits from an integrated system.
      2. Brainstorm potential enablers for successful CRM enablement and the ideal portfolio.
      3. Consider the project enablers: business benefits, IT benefits, organizational benefits, and enablers of CRM success.
      4. Use the Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook, tab “2. Business Model,” to complete this exercise.
      This is a screenshot of the CRM Business Model the following boxes highlighted in purple boxes.  Enablers

      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 to Strategic Objectives

      1.2.4 Align CRM strategy with organizational goals

      1 hour

      1. Discuss your corporate objectives (organizational goals). Choose three to five corporate objectives that are a priority for the organization in the current year.
      2. Break into groups and assign each group one corporate objective.
      3. For each objective, produce several ways an optimized CRM system will meet the given objective.
      4. Think about the modules and CRM functions that will help you realize these benefits.
      5. Use the Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook, tab “2. Business Model,” to complete this exercise.
      Increase Revenue

      CRM Benefits

      • Increase sales by 5%
      • Expand to new markets
      • Offer new product
      • Identify geographies underperforming
      • Build out global customer strategy
      • Allow for customer segmentation
      • Create targeted marketing campaigns

      Input

      • Organizational goals
      • CRM strategy model

      Output

      • Optimization benefits map

      Materials

      • Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook

      Participants

      • Product Owners
      • CMO
      • Departmental Leads – Sales, Marketing, Customer Service
      • Applications Director
      • Senior Business Analyst
      • Senior Developer
      • Procurement Analyst

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook

      Step 1.3

      Inventory Current System State

      Activities

      1.3.1 Inventory applications and interactions

      Map Current-State Capabilities

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Inventory applications
      • Map interactions between systems

      This step involves the following participants:

      • CRM Optimization Team
      • Enterprise Architect
      • Data Architect

      Outcomes of this step

      • Systems inventory
      • Systems diagram

      1.3.1 Inventory applications and interactions

      1-3 hours

      1. Individually list all electronic systems involved in the organization. This includes anything related to customer information and interactions, such as CRM, ERP, e-commerce, finance, email marketing, and social media, etc.
      2. Document data flows into and out of each system to the ERP. Refer to the example on the next slide (CRM data flow).
      3. Review the processes in place (e.g. reporting, marketing, data moving into and out of systems). Document manual processes. Identify integration points. If flowcharts exist for these processes, it may be useful to provide these to the participants.
      4. If possible, diagram the system. Include information direction flow. Use the sample CRM map, if needed.

      This image contains an example of a CRM Data Flow

      CRM data flow

      This image contains an example of a CRM Data Flow

      Be sure to include enterprise applications that are not included in the CRM application portfolio. Popular systems to consider for POIs include billing, directory services, content management, and collaboration tools.

      When assessing the current application portfolio that supports CRM, the tendency will be to focus on the applications under the CRM umbrella, relating mostly to Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service. Be sure to include systems that act as input to, or benefit due to outputs from, the CRM or similar applications.

      Sample CRM map

      This image contains an example of a CRM map

      Step 1.4

      Define Business Capabilities

      Activities

      1.4.1 Define business capabilities

      1.4.2 List your key CRM processes

      Map Current-State Capabilities

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Define your business capabilities
      • List your key CRM processes

      This step involves the following participants:

      • CRM Optimization Team
      • Business Architect

      Outcomes of this step

      • Business capabilities map
      • Key CRM processes list

      Business capability map (Level 0)

      This image contains a screenshot of a business capability map.  an Arrow labeled CRM points to the Revenue Generation section. Revenue Generation: Marketing; Sales; Customer Service.

      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.
      • Typically will 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.

      Capability vs. process vs. feature

      Understanding the difference

      When examining CRM optimization, it is important we approach this from the appropriate layer.

      Capability:

      • The ability of an entity (e.g. organization or department) to achieve its objectives (APQC, 2017).
      • An ability that an organization, person, or system possesses. Typically expressed in general and high-level terms and typically require a combination of organization, people, processes, and technology to achieve (TOGAF).

      Process:

      • Can be manual or technology enabled. A process is a series of interrelated activities that convert inputs into results (outputs). Processes consume resources, require standards for repeatable performance, and respond to control systems that direct the quality, rate, and cost of performance. The same process can be highly effective in one circumstance and poorly effective in another with different systems, tools, knowledge, and people (APQC, 2017).

      Feature:

      • Is a distinguishing characteristic of a software item (e.g. performance, portability, or functionality) (IEEE, 2005).

      In today’s complex organizations, it can be difficult to understand where inefficiencies stem from and how performance can be enhanced.
      To fix problems and maximize efficiencies business capabilities and processes need to be examined to determine gaps and areas of lagging performance.

      Info-Tech’s CRM framework and industry tools such as the APQC’s Process Classification Framework can help make sense of this.

      1.4.1 Define business capabilities

      1-3 hours

      1. Look at the major functions or processes within the scope of CRM.
      2. Compile an inventory of current systems that interact with the chosen processes. In its simplest form, document your application inventory in a spreadsheet (see tab 3 of the CRM Application Inventory Tool). For large organizations, interview representatives of business domains to help create your list of applications.
      3. Make sure to include any processes that are manual versus automated.
      4. Use your current state drawing from activity 1.3.1 to link processes to applications for further effect.

      CRM Application Inventory Tool

      Input

      • Current systems
      • Key processes
      • APQC Framework
      • Organizational process map

      Output

      • List of key business processes

      Materials

      • CRM Application Inventory Tool
      • CRM APQC Framework
      • Whiteboard, PowerPoint, or flip charts
      • Pens/markers

      Participants

      • CRM Optimization Team

      CRM process mapping

      This image contains two screenshots.  one is of the business capability map seen earlier in this blueprint, and the other includes the following operating model: Objectives; Value Streams; Capabilities; Processes

      The operating model

      An operating model is a framework that drives operating decisions. It helps to set the parameters for the scope of CRM 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.

      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 governmental 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 product and services offered.
      • Relationships with consumers continue after the sale of a product and services.
      • Continued customer support and 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.

      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

      1. Manage Customer Service
      2. Develop and Manage Human Capital
      3. Manage Information Technology (IT)
      4. Manage Financial Resources
      5. Acquire, Construct, and Manage Assets
      6. Manage Enterprise Risk, Compliance, Remediation, and Resiliency
      7. Manage External Relationships
      8. Develop and Manage Business Capabilities

      Source: APQC, 2020

      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.

      Go to this link

      Process mapping hierarchy

      This image includes explanations for the following PCF levels:  Level 1 - Category; Level 2 - Process Group; Level 3 - Process; Level 4 - Activity; Level 5 - Task

      APQC provides a process classification framework. It allows organizations to effectively define their processes and manage them appropriately.

      THE APQC PROCESS CLASSIFICATION FRAMEWORK (PCF)® was developed by non-profit APQC, a global resource for benchmarking and best practices, and its member companies as an open standard to facilitate improvement through process management and benchmarking, regardless of industry, size, or geography. The PCF organizes operating and management processes into 12 enterprise level categories, including process groups and over 1,000 processes and associated activities. To download the full PCF or industry-specific versions of the PCF as well as associated measures and benchmarking, visit www.apqc.org/pcf.

      Cross-industry classification framework

      Level 1 Level 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 sales strategy Develop 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.

      1.4.2 List your key CRM processes

      1-3 hours

      1. Reflect on your organization’s CRM capabilities and processes.
      2. Refer to tab 4, “Process Importance,” in your Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook. You can use your own processes if you prefer. Consult tab 10. “Framework (Reference)” in the Workbook to explore additional capabilities.
      3. Use your CRM goals as a guide.

      Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook

      This is a screenshot from the APQC Cross-Industry Process Classification Framework, adapted to list key CRM processes

      *Adapted from the APQC Cross-Industry Process Classification Framework, 2019.

      Step 1.5

      Understand CRM Costs

      Activities

      1.5.1 List CRM-related costs (optional)

      Map Current-State Capabilities

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Define your business capabilities
      • List your key CRM processes

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Finance Representatives
      • CRM Optimization Team

      Outcomes of this step

      • Current CRM and related operating costs

      1.5.1 List CRM-related costs (optional)

      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
      3. Use the Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook, tab “9. Costs (Optional),” to complete this exercise.

      This is a screenshot of an example of a table which lays out CRM and Associated Costs.

      Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook

      Phase 2

      Assess Your Current State

      • 2.1 Conduct a Gap Analysis for CRM Processes
      • 2.2 Assess User Satisfaction
      • 2.3 Review Your Satisfaction With the Vendor and Product

      Get the Most Out of Your CRM

      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:

      • CRM optimization team
      • Users across functional areas of your CRM and related technologies

      Step 2.1

      Conduct a Gap Analysis for CRM Processes

      Activities

      • 2.1.1 Determine process relevance
      • 2.1.2 Perform process gap analysis

      Assess Your Current State

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Determine process relevance
      • Perform a gap analysis

      This step involves the following participants:

      • CRM optimization team

      Outcomes of this step

      • Gap analysis for CRM-related processes (current vs. desired state)

      2.1.1 Determine process relevance

      1-3 hours

      1. Open tab “4. Process Importance,” in the Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook.
      2. Rate each process for level of importance to your organization on the following scale:
        • Crucial
        • Important
        • Secondary
        • Unimportant
        • Not applicable

      This image contains a screenshot of tab 4 of the Get the most out of your CRM Workbook.

      Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook

      2.1.2 Perform process gap analysis

      1-3 hours

      1. Open tab “5. Process Assessment,” in the Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook.
      2. For each line item, identify your current state and your desired state on the following scale:
        • Not important
        • Poor
        • Moderate
        • Good
        • Excellent

      This is a screenshot of Tab 5 of the Get the Most Out of your CRM Workshop

      Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook

      Step 2.2

      Assess User Satisfaction

      Activities

      • 2.2.1 Prepare and complete a user satisfaction survey
      • 2.2.2 Enter user satisfaction

      Assess Your Current State

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Preparation and completion of an application portfolio assessment (APA)
      • Entry of the user satisfaction scores into the workbook

      This step involves the following participants:

      • CRM optimization team
      • Users across functional areas of CRM and related technologies

      Outcomes of this step

      • Understanding of user satisfaction across applications and processes
      • Insight into CRM data quality

      Benefits of the Application Portfolio Assessment

      This is a screenshot of the application  Overview tab

      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.

      This is a screenshot of the Finance Overview tab

      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.

      This is a screenshot of the application  Overview tab

      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.

      2.2.1 Prepare and complete a user satisfaction survey

      1 hour

      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 support they receive from the IT team.

      1. Download the CRM Application Inventory Tool.
      2. Complete the “Demographics” tab (tab 2).
      3. Complete the “Inventory” tab (tab 3).
        1. Complete the inventory by treating each process within the organization as a separate row. Use the processes identified in the process gap analysis as a reference.
        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: Use the method of choice to elicit current user satisfaction for each of the processes identified as important to the organization.

      1. List processes identified as important (from the Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook, tab 4, “Process Importance”).
      2. Gather user contact information by department.
      3. Ask users to rate satisfaction: Extremely Satisfied, Satisfied, Neutral, Dissatisfied, and Extremely Dissatisfied (on Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook, tab 5. “Process Assessment”).

      This image contains a screenshot of the CRM Application Inventory Tool Tab

      Understand user satisfaction across capabilities and departments within your organization.

      Download the CRM Application Inventory Tool

      2.2.2 Enter user satisfaction

      20 minutes

      Using the results from the Application Portfolio Assessment or your own user survey:

      1. Open your Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook, tab “5. Process Assessment.”
      2. For each process, record up to three different department responses.
      3. Enter the answers to the survey for each line item using the drop-down options:
        • Extremely Satisfied
        • Satisfied
        • Neutral
        • Dissatisfied
        • Extremely Dissatisfied

      This is a screenshot of Tab 5 of the Get the most out of your CRM Workbook

      Understand user satisfaction across capabilities and departments within your organization.

      Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook

      Step 2.3

      Review Your Satisfaction With the Vendor and Product

      Activities

      2.3.1 Rate your vendor and product satisfaction

      2.3.2 Enter SoftwareReviews scores from your CRM Product Scorecard (optional)

      Assess Your Current State

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

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

      This step involves the following participants:

      • CRM Owner(s)
      • Procurement Representative
      • Vendor Contracts Manager

      Outcomes of this step

      • Quantified satisfaction with vendor and product

      Use a SoftwareReviews Product Scorecard to evaluate your satisfaction compared to other organizations.

      This is a screenshot of the SoftwareReviews Product Scorecard

      Source: SoftwareReviews, March 2019

      Where effective IT leaders spend their time

      This image contains two lists.  One list is where CIOs with  data-verified=80% satisfaction score, and the other list is CIOs with <80% satisfaction score.">

      Info-Tech Insight

      The data shows that effective IT leaders invest a significant amount of time (8%) on vendor management initiatives.

      Be proactive in managing you calendar and block time for these important tasks.

      CIOs who prioritize vendor management see improved results

      Analysis of CIOs’ calendars revealed that how CIOs spend their time has a correlation to both stakeholder IT satisfaction and CEO-CIO alignment.

      Those CIOs that prioritized vendor management were more likely to have a business satisfaction score greater than 80%.

      This image demonstrates that CIOs who spend time with the team members of their direct reports delegate management responsibilities to direct reports and spend less time micromanaging, and CIOs who spend time on vendor management align rapidly changing business needs with updated vendor offerings.

      2.3.1 Rate your vendor and product satisfaction

      30 minutes

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

      Option 1 (recommended): Conduct a satisfaction survey using SoftwareReviews. This option allows you to see your results in the context of the vendor landscape.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook

      Option 2: Use your Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook, tab “6. Vendor Optimization,” to review your satisfaction with your software.

      SoftwareReviews’ Customer Relationship Management

      This is a screenshot of tab 6 of the Get the most out of your CRM Workbook.

      2.3.2 Enter SoftwareReviews scores (optional)

      30 minutes

      1. Download the scorecard for your CRM product from the SoftwareReviews website. (Note: Not all products are represented or have sufficient data, so a scorecard may not be available.)
      2. Use your Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook, tab “6. Vendor Optimization,” to record the scorecard results.
      3. Use your Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook, tab “6. Vendor Optimization,” to flag areas where your score may be lower than the product scorecard. Brainstorm ideas for optimization.

      Download the Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook

      SoftwareReviews’ Customer Relationship Management

      This is a screenshot of the optional vendor optimization scorecard

      Phase 3

      Build Your Optimization Roadmap

      • 3.1 Identify Key Optimization Areas
      • 3.2 Compile Optimization Assessment Results

      Get the Most Out of Your CRM

      This phase will walk you through the following activities:

      • Identify key optimization areas
      • Create an optimization roadmap

      This phase involves the following participants:

      • CRM Optimization Team

      Build your optimization roadmap

      Address process gaps

      • CRM and related technologies are invaluable to sales, marketing, and customer service enablement, but they must have supported processes driven by business goals.
      • Identify areas where capabilities need to be improved and work towards.

      Support user satisfaction

      • The best technology in the world won’t deliver business results if it is 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 a set of 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 those of your peers and work towards building a process that is best fit for your organization.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Enabling a high-performing, customer-centric sales, marketing, and customer service operations program requires excellent management practices and continuous optimization efforts.

      Technology portfolio and architecture is important, but we must go deeper. Taking a holistic view of CRM 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 CRM optimization initiative will drive business-IT alignment, identify IT automation priorities, and dig deep into continuous process improvement.

      Step 3.1

      Identify Key Optimization Areas

      Activities

      • 3.1.1 Explore process gaps
      • 3.1.2 Analyze user satisfaction
      • 3.1.3 Assess data quality
      • 3.1.4 Analyze product satisfaction and vendor management

      Build Your Optimization Roadmap

      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:

      • CRM Optimization Team

      Outcomes of this step

      • Application optimization plan

      3.1.1 Explore process gaps

      1 hour

      1. Review the compiled CRM Process Assessment in the Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook, tab “7. Process Prioritization.”
      2. These are processes you should prioritize.
      • The activities in the rest of Step 3.1 help you create optimization strategies for the different areas of improvement these processes relate to: user satisfaction, data quality, product satisfaction, and vendor management.
    • Consolidate your optimization strategies in the Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook, tab “8. Optimization Roadmap.” (See next slide for screenshot.)
    • This image consists of the CRM Process Importance Rankings

      Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook

      Plan your product optimization strategy for each area of improvement

      This is a screenshot from the Get the most out of your CRM Workbook, with the Areas of Improvement column  highlighted in a red box.

      3.1.2 Analyze user satisfaction

      1 hour

      1. Use the APA survey results from activity 2.2.1 (or your own internal survey) to identify areas where the organization is performing low in user satisfaction across the CRM portfolio.
        1. Understand application portfolio and IT service satisfaction.
        2. Identify cost savings opportunities from unused or unimportant apps.
        3. Build a roadmap for improving user IT services.
        4. Manage needs by department and seniority.
      2. Consolidate your optimization strategies in the Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook, tab “8. Optimization Roadmap.” (See next slide for screenshot.)

      this is an image of the Business & IT Communications Overview Tab from the Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook

      Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook

      Plan your user satisfaction optimization strategy

      This is a screenshot from the Get the most out of your CRM Workbook, with the Optimization Strategies column  highlighted in a red box.

      Next steps in improving your data quality

      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 it by healing it at the source of the problem.
      • Data governance enables data-driven insight. Think of governance as a structure for making better use of data.
      • Every enterprise application involves data integration. Any change in the application and database ecosystem requires you to solve a data integration problem.
      • A data warehouse is a project; but successful data warehousing is a program. An effective data warehouse requires planning beyond the technology implementation.
      • 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.
      • 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 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.
      • Governance, not technology, needs to be the core support system for enabling a data warehouse program.
      • Implement a set of data quality initiatives that are aligned with overall business objectives and aimed at addressing data practices and the data itself.
      • Data governance powers the organization up the data value chain through policies and procedures, master data management, data quality, and data architecture.
      • Build your data integration practice with a firm foundation in governance and reference architecture. Ensure your process is scalable and sustainable.
      • Leverage an approach that focuses on constructing a data warehouse foundation that can address a combination of operational, tactical, and ad hoc business needs.
      • Develop a prioritized data quality improvement project roadmap and long-term improvement strategy.
      • Create a roadmap to prioritize initiatives and delineate responsibilities among data stewards, data owners, and members of the data governance steering committee.
      • Support the flow of data through the organization and meet the organization’s requirements for data latency, availability, and relevancy.
      • Invest time and effort to put together pre-project governance to inform and provide guidance to your data warehouse implementation.
      • Build related practices with more confidence and less risk after achieving an appropriate level of data quality.
      • Ensure buy-in from the business and IT stakeholders. Communicate initiatives to end users and executives to reduce resistance.
      • Data availability must be frequently reviewed and repositioned to continue to grow with the business.
      • 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

      3.1.3 Assess data quality

      1 hour

      1. Use your APA survey results (if available) to identify areas where the organization is performing low in data quality initiatives. Common areas for improvement include:
        • Overall data quality management
        • Effective data governance
        • Poor data integration
        • The need to implement extensible data warehousing
      2. Consolidate your optimization strategies in the Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook, tab “8. Optimization Roadmap.” (See next slide for screenshot.)

      This is an image of the Business & IT Communications Overview tab from the Get the most out of your CRM Workbook

      Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook

      Plan your data quality optimization strategy

      This is a screenshot from the Get the most out of your CRM Workbook, with the Optimization Strategies column  highlighted in a red box.

      Use Info-Tech’s vendor management initiative (VMI)

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

      A crowd chart is depicted, with quadrants for strategic value, and Vendor spend/switching cost.

      Info-Tech Insight

      A VMI is a formalized process within an organization, responsible 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 this blueprint, assess your current maturity and build the process around a model that reflects the needs of your organization.

      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

      3.1.4 Analyze product satisfaction and vendor management

      1 hour

      1. Use the Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook, tab “6. Vendor Optimization.”
      2. Download the SoftwareReviews Vendor Scorecard.
      3. Using the scorecards, compare your results with those of your peers.
      4. Consolidate areas of improvement and optimization strategies in the Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook, tab “8. Optimization Roadmap.” (See next slide for screenshot.)

      See previous slide for help around implementing a vendor management initiative.

      This is a screenshot from the Get the most out of your CRM Workbook, with the Areas for Optimization column  highlighted in a red box.

      Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook

      Plan your vendor management optimization strategy

      This is a screenshot from the Get the most out of your CRM Workbook, with the Optimization Strategies column  highlighted in a red box.

      Step 3.2

      Compile Optimization Assessment Results

      Activities

      • 3.2.1 Identify key optimization areas

      Build Your Optimization Roadmap

      This step will guide you through the following activities:

      • Use your work from previous activities and prioritization to build your list of optimization activities and lay them out on a roadmap

      This step involves the following participants:

      • CRM Optimization Team

      Outcomes of this step

      • Application optimization plan

      3.2.1 Identify key optimization areas

      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. Consolidate your findings and identify optimization priorities (Step 3.1).
      2. Prioritize those most critical to the organization, easiest to change, and whose impact will be highest.
      3. Use the information gathered from exercise 1.5.1 on Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook, tab “9. Costs (Optional).”
      4. These costs could affect the priority or timeline of the initiatives. Consolidate your thoughts on your Get the Most Out of Your CRM Workbook, tab 8, “Optimization Roadmap.” Note: There is no column specific to costs on tab 8.

      This is meant as a high-level roadmap. For formal, ongoing optimization project management, refer to “Build a Better Backlog” (Phase 2 of the Info-Tech blueprint Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision).

      This is a screenshot from the Get the most out of your CRM Workbook, with the Priority; Owner; and Timeline columns highlighted in a red box.

      Next steps: Manage your technical debt

      Use a holistic assessment of the “interest” paid on technical debt to quantify and prioritize risk and enable the business make better decisions.

      • Technical debt is an IT risk, which in turn is a category of business risk.
      • The business must decide how to manage business risk.
      • At the same time, business decision makers may not be aware of technical debt or be able to translate technical challenges into business risk. IT must help the business make decisions around IT risk by describing the risk of technical debt in business terms and by outlining the options available to address risk.
      • Measure the ongoing business impact (the “interest” paid on technical debt) to establish the business risk of technical debt. Consider a range of possible impacts including direct costs, lost goodwill, lost flexibility and resilience, and health, safety, and compliance impacts.
      • When weighing these impacts, the business may choose to accept the risk of technical debt if the cost of addressing the debt outweighs the benefit. But it’s critically important that the business accepts that risk – not IT.

      Manage Your Technical Debt

      Take it a step further…

      Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision

      Phase 2: Build a Better Product Backlog

      Build a structure for your backlog that supports your product vision.

      Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision

      Build a better backlog

      An ongoing CRM optimization effort is best facilitated through a continuous Agile process. Use info-Tech’s developed tools to build out your backlog.

      The key to a better backlog is a common structure and guiding principles that product owners and product teams can align to.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Exceptional customer value begins with a clearly defined backlog focused on items that will create the greatest human and business benefits.

      Activity Participants

      Backlog Activity

      Quality Filter

      Product Manager

      Product Owner

      Dev Team

      Scrum Master

      Business

      Architects

      Sprint

      Sprint Planning

      “Accepted”

      Ready

      Refine

      “Ready”

      Qualified

      Analysis

      “Qualified”

      Ideas

      Intake

      “Backlogged”

      A product owner and the product backlog are critical to realize the benefits of Agile development

      A product owner is accountable for defining and prioritizing the work that will be of the greatest value to the organization and its customers. The backlog is the key to facilitating this process and accomplishing the most fundamental goals of delivery.

      For more information on the role of a product owner, see Build a Better Product Owner.

      Highly effective Agile teams spend 28% of their time on product backlog management and roadmapping (Quantitative Software Management, 2015).

      1. Manage Stakeholders

      • Stakeholders need to be kept up to speed on what the future holds for a product, or at least they should be heard. This task falls to the product owner.

      2. Inform and Protect the Team

      • The product owner is a servant leader of the team. They need to protect the team from all the noise and give them the time they need to focus on what they do best: develop.

      3. Maximize Value to the Product

      • Sifting through all of these voices and determining what is valuable, or what is most valuable, falls to the product owner.

      A backlog stores and organizes PBIs at various stages of readiness.

      Your backlog must give you a holistic understanding of demand for change in the product

      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.

      Ideas; Qualified; Ready

      3 - IDEAS

      Composed of raw, vague, and potentially large ideas that have yet to go through any formal valuation.

      2 - QUALIFIED

      Researched and qualified PBIs awaiting refinement.

      1 - READY

      Discrete, refined PBIs that are ready to be placed in your development teams’ sprint plans.

      Summary of Accomplishment

      Get the Most Out of Your CRM

      CRM technology is critical to facilitate an organization’s relationships with customers, service users, employees, and suppliers. CRM 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 CRM allows organizations to proactively implement continuous assessment and optimization of a customer relationship management system. This includes:

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

      This formal CRM 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
      1-866-670-8889

      Research Contributors

      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.

      Scott Bickley

      Scott Bickley
      Practice Lead & Principal Research Director
      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.

      Andy Neil

      Andy Neil
      Practice Lead, Applications
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Andy is 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. “Data-driven Estimation, Management Lead to High Quality.” Quantitative Software Management Inc. 2015. Web.

      Chappuis, Bertil, and Brian Selby. “Looking beyond Technology to Drive Sales Operations.” McKinsey & Company, 24 June 2016. Web.

      Cross-Industry Process Classification Framework (PCF) Version 7.2.1. APQC, 26 Sept. 2019. Web.

      Fleming, John, and Hater, James. “The Next Discipline: Applying Behavioral Economics to Drive Growth and Profitability.” Gallup, 22 Sept. 2012. Accessed 6 Oct. 2020.

      Hinchcliffe, Dion. “The evolving role of the CIO and CMO in customer experience.” ZDNet, 22 Jan. 2020. Web.

      Karlsson, Johan. “Backlog Grooming: Must-Know Tips for High-Value Products.” Perforce. 18 May 2018. Web. Feb. 2019.

      Klie, L. “CRM Still Faces Challenges, Most Speakers Agree: CRM systems have been around for decades, but interoperability and data siloes still have to be overcome.” CRM Magazine, vol. 23, no. 5, 2019, pp. 13-14.

      Kumar, Sanjib, et al. “Improvement of CRM Using Data Mining: A Case Study at Corporate Telecom Sector.” International Journal of Computer Applications, vol. 178, no. 53, 2019, pp. 12-20, doi:10.5120/ijca2019919413.

      Morgan, Blake. “50 Stats That Prove The Value Of Customer Experience.” Forbes, 24 Sept. 2019. Web.

      Norelus, Ernese, et al. “An Approach to Application Modernization: Discovery and Assessment Phase.” IBM Garage, Medium, 24 Feb 2020. Accessed 4 Mar. 2020.

      “Process Frameworks.” APQC, 4 Nov. 2020. Web.

      “Process vs. Capability: Understanding the Difference.” APCQ, 2017. Web.

      Rubin, Kenneth S. "Essential Scrum: A Practical Guide to the Most Popular Agile Process." Pearson Education, 2012.

      Savolainen, Juha, et al. “Transitioning from Product Line Requirements to Product Line Architecture.” 29th Annual International Computer Software and Applications Conference (COMPSAC'05), IEEE, vol. 1, 2005, pp. 186-195, doi: 10.1109/COMPSAC.2005.160

      Smith, Anthony. “How To Create A Customer-Obsessed Company Like Netflix.” Forbes, 12 Dec. 2017. Web.

      “SOA Reference Architecture – Capabilities and the SOA RA.” The Open Group, TOGAF. Web.

      Taber, David. “What to Do When Your CRM Project Fails.” CIO Magazine, 18 Sept. 2017. Web.

      “Taudata Case Study.” Maximizer CRM Software, 17 Jan. 2020. Web.

      Develop Meaningful Service Metrics

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}399|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 9.5/10 Overall Impact
      • member rating average dollars saved: $20,308 Average $ Saved
      • member rating average days saved: 30 Average Days Saved
      • Parent Category Name: Service Management
      • Parent Category Link: /service-management
      • IT organizations measure services from a technology perspective but rarely from a business goal or outcome perspective.
      • Most organizations do a poor job of identifying and measuring service outcomes over the duration of a service’s lifecycle – never ensuring the services remain valuable and meet expected long-term ROI.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Service metrics are critical to ensuring alignment of IT service performance and business service value achievement.
      • Service metrics reinforce positive business and end-user relationships by providing user-centric information that drives responsiveness and consistent service improvement.
      • Poorly designed metrics drive unintended and unproductive behaviors that have negative impacts on IT and produce negative service outcomes.

      Impact and Result

      Effective service metrics will provide the following service gains:

      • Confirm service performance and identify gaps.
      • Drive service improvement to maximize service value.
      • Validate performance improvements while quantifying and demonstrating business value.
      • Ensure service reporting aligns with end-user experience.
      • Achieve and confirm process and regulatory compliance.

      Which will translate into the following relationship gains:

      • Embed IT into business value achievement.
      • Improve the relationship between the business and IT.
      • Achieve higher customer satisfaction (happier end users receiving expected service, the business is able to identify how things are really performing).
      • Reinforce desirable actions and behaviors from both IT and the business.

      Develop Meaningful Service Metrics Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should develop meaningful service metrics, 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:

      • Develop Meaningful Service Metrics – Executive Brief
      • Develop Meaningful Service Metrics – Phases 1-3

      1. Design the metrics

      Identify the appropriate service metrics based on stakeholder needs.

      • Develop Meaningful Service Metrics to Ensure Business and User Satisfaction – Phase 1: Design the Metrics
      • Metrics Development Workbook

      2. Design reports and dashboards

      Present the right metrics in the most interesting and stakeholder-centric way possible.

      • Develop Meaningful Service Metrics to Ensure Business and User Satisfaction – Phase 2: Design Reports and Dashboards
      • Metrics Presentation Format Selection Guide

      3. Implement, track, and maintain

      Run a pilot with a smaller sample of defined service metrics, then continuously validate your approach and make refinements to the processes.

      • Develop Meaningful Service Metrics to Ensure Business and User Satisfaction – Phase 3: Implement, Track, and Maintain
      • Metrics Tracking Tool
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Develop Meaningful Service Metrics

      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 Design the Metrics

      The Purpose

      Define stakeholder needs for IT based on their success criteria and identify IT services that are tied to the delivery of business outcomes.

      Derive meaningful service metrics based on identified IT services and validate that metrics can be collected and measured.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Design meaningful service metrics from stakeholder needs.

      Validate that metrics can be collected and measured.

      Activities

      1.1 Determine stakeholder needs, goals, and pain points.

      1.2 Determine the success criteria and related IT services.

      1.3 Derive the service metrics.

      1.4 Validate the data collection process.

      1.5 Validate metrics with stakeholders.

      Outputs

      Understand stakeholder priorities

      Adopt a business-centric perspective to align IT and business views

      Derive meaningful business metrics that are relevant to the stakeholders

      Determine if and how the identified metrics can be collected and measured

      Establish a feedback mechanism to have business stakeholders validate the meaningfulness of the metrics

      2 Design Reports and Dashboards

      The Purpose

      Determine the most appropriate presentation format based on stakeholder needs.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Ensure the metrics are presented in the most interesting and stakeholder-centric way possible to guarantee that they are read and used.

      Activities

      2.1 Understand the different presentation options.

      2.2 Assess stakeholder needs for information.

      2.3 Select and design the metric report.

      Outputs

      Learn about infographic, scorecard, formal report, and dashboard presentation options

      Determine how stakeholders would like to view information and how the metrics can be presented to aid decision making

      Select the most appropriate presentation format and create a rough draft of how the report should look

      3 Implement, Track, and Maintain Your Metrics

      The Purpose

      Run a pilot with a smaller sample of defined service metrics to validate your approach.

      Make refinements to the implementation and maintenance processes prior to activating all service metrics.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      High user acceptance and usability of the metrics.

      Processes of identifying and presenting metrics are continuously validated and improved.

      Activities

      3.1 Select the pilot metrics.

      3.2 Gather data and set initial targets.

      3.3 Generate the reports and validate with stakeholders.

      3.4 Implement the service metrics program.

      3.5 Track and maintain the metrics program.

      Outputs

      Select the metrics that should be first implemented based on urgency and impact

      Complete the service intake form for a specific initiative

      Create a process to gather data, measure baselines, and set initial targets

      Establish a process to receive feedback from the business stakeholders once the report is generated

      Identify the approach to implement the metrics program across the organization

      Set up mechanism to ensure the success of the metrics program by assessing process adherence and process validity

      Further reading

      Develop Meaningful Service Metrics

      Select IT service metrics that drive business value.

      ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

      Are you measuring and reporting what the business needs to know?

      “Service metrics are one of the key tools at IT’s disposal in articulating and ensuring its value to the business, yet metrics are rarely designed and used for that purpose.

      Creating IT service metrics directly from business and stakeholder outcomes and goals, written from the business perspective and using business language, is critical to ensuring that the services that IT provides are meeting business needs.

      The ability to measure, manage, and improve IT service performance in relation to critical business success factors, with properly designed metrics, embeds IT in the value chain of the business and ensures IT’s focus on where and how it enables business outcomes.”

      Valence Howden,
      Senior Manager, CIO Advisory
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Our understanding of the problem

      This Research Is Designed For:
      • CIO
      • IT VPs
      This Research Will Help You:
      • Align business/IT objectives (design top-down or outside-in)
      • Significantly improve the relationship between the business and IT aspects of the organization
      • Reinforce desirable actions and behaviors
      This Research Will Also Assist:
      • Service Level Managers
      • Service Owners
      • Program Owners
      This Research Will Help Them
      • Identify unusual deviations from the normal operating state
      • Drive service improvement to maximize service value
      • Validate the value of performance improvements while quantifying and demonstrating benefits realization

      Executive summary

      Situation

      • IT organizations measure services from a technology perspective yet rarely measure services from a business goal/outcome perspective.
      • Most organizations do a poor job of identifying and measuring service outcomes over the duration of a service’s lifecycle – never ensuring the services remain valuable and meet expected long-term ROI.

      Complication

      • IT organizations have difficulty identifying the right metrics to demonstrate the value of IT services to the business in tangible terms.
      • IT metrics, as currently designed, reinforce division between the IT and business perspectives of service performance. They drive siloed thinking and finger-pointing within the IT structure, and prevent IT resources from understanding how their work impacts business value.

      Resolution

      • Our program enables IT to develop the right service metrics to tie IT service performance to business value and user experience.
      • Ensure the metrics you implement have immediate stakeholder value, reinforcing alignment between IT and the business while influencing behavior in the desired direction.
      • Make sure that your metrics are defined in relation to the business goals and drivers, ensuring they will provide actionable outcomes.

      Info-Tech Insight

      1. Service metrics are critical to ensuring alignment of IT service performance and business service value achievement.
      2. Service metrics reinforce positive business and end-user relationships by providing user-centric information that drives responsiveness and consistent service improvement.
      3. Poorly designed metrics drive unintended and unproductive behaviors, which have negative impacts on IT and produce negative service outcomes.

      Service metrics 101

      What are service metrics?

      Service metrics measure IT services in a way that relates to a business outcome. IT needs to measure performance from the business perspective using business language.

      Why do we need service metrics?

      To ensure the business cares about the metrics that IT produces, start with business needs to make sure you’re measuring the right things. This will give IT the opportunity talk to the right stakeholders and develop metrics that will meet their business needs.

      Service metrics are designed with the business perspective in mind, so they are fully aligned with business objectives.

      Perspectives Matter

      Different stakeholders will require different types of metrics. A CEO may require metrics that provide a snapshot of the critical success of the company while a business manager is more concerned about the performance metrics of their department.

      What are the benefits of implementing service metrics?

      Service metrics help IT communicate with the business in business terms and enables IT to articulate how and where they provide business value. Business stakeholders can also easily understand how IT services contribute to their success.

      The majority of CIOs feel metrics relating to business value and stakeholder satisfaction require significant improvement

      A significantly higher proportion of CIOs than CEOs feel that there is significant improvement necessary for business value metrics and stakeholder satisfaction reporting. Stacked horizontal bar chart presenting survey results from CIOs and CXOs of 'Business Value Metrics'. Answer options are 'Effective', 'Some Improvement Necessary', 'Significant Improvement Necessary', and 'Not Required'.N=364

      Stacked horizontal bar chart presenting survey results from CIOs and CXOs of 'Stakeholder Satisfaction Reporting'. Answer options are 'Effective', 'Some Improvement Necessary', 'Significant Improvement Necessary', and 'Not Required'.N=364

      (Source: Info-Tech CIO-CXO Alignment Diagnostic Survey)

      Meaningless metrics are a headache for the business

      A major pitfall of many IT organizations is that they often provide pages of technical metrics that are meaningless to their business stakeholders.

      1. Too Many MetricsToo many metrics are provided and business leaders don’t know what to do with these metrics.
      2. Metrics Are Too TechnicalIT provides technical metrics that are hard to relate to business needs, and methods of calculating metrics are not clearly understood, articulated, and agreed on.
      3. Metrics Have No Business ValueService metrics are not mapped to business goals/objectives and they drive incorrect actions or spend.
      When considering only CEOs who said that stakeholder satisfaction reporting needed significant improvement, the average satisfaction score goes down to 61.6%, which is a drop in satisfaction of 12%.

      A bar that says 73% dropping to a bar that says 61%. Description above.

      (Source: Info-Tech Research Group CIO-CXO Alignment Diagnostic Survey)

      Poorly designed metrics hurt IT’s image within the organization

      By providing metrics that do not articulate the value of IT services, IT reinforces its role as a utility provider and an outsider to strategic decisions.

      When the CIOs believe business value metrics weren’t required, 50% of their CEOs said that significant improvements were necessary.

      Pie Chart presenting the survey results from CEOs regarding 'Business Value Metrics'. Description above.

      (Source: Info-Tech Research Group CIO-CXO Alignment Diagnostic Survey)
      1. Reinforce the wrong behaviorThe wrong metrics drive us-against-them, siloed thinking within IT, and meeting metric targets is prioritized over providing meaningful outcomes.
      2. Do not reflect user experienceMetrics don’t align with actual business/user experience, reinforcing a poor view of IT services.
      3. Effort ≠ ValueInvesting dedicated resources and effort to the achievement of the wrong metrics will only leave IT more constrained for other important initiatives.

      Articulate meaningful service performance that supports the achievement of business outcomes

      Service metrics measure the performance of IT services and how they enable or drive the activity outcomes.

      A business process consists of multiple business activities. In many cases, these business activities require one or more supporting IT services.

      A 'Business Process' broken down to its parts, multiple 'Business Activities' and their 'IT Services'. For each business process, business stakeholders and their goals and objectives should be identified.

      For each business activity that supports the completion of a business process, define the success criteria that must be met in order to produce the desirable outcome.

      Identify the IT services that are used by business stakeholders for each business activity. Measure the performance of these services from a business perspective to arrive at the appropriate service metrics.

      Differentiate between different types of metrics

      Stakeholders have different goals and objectives; therefore, it is critical to identify what type of metrics should be presented to each stakeholder.

      Business Metrics

      Determine Business Success

      Business metrics are derived from a pure business perspective. These are the metrics that the business stakeholders will measure themselves on, and business success is determined using these metrics.

      Arrow pointing right.

      Service Metrics

      Manage Service Value to the Business

      Service metrics are used to measure IT service performance against business outcomes. These metrics, while relating to IT services, are presented in business terms and are tied to business goals.

      Arrow pointing right.

      IT Metrics

      Enable Operational Excellence

      IT metrics are internal to the IT organization and used to manage IT service delivery. These metrics are technical, IT-specific, and drive action for IT. They are not presented to the business, and are not written in business language.

      Implementing service metrics is a key step in becoming a service provider and business partner

      As a prerequisite, IT organizations must have already established a solid relationship with the business and have a clear understanding of its critical business-facing services.

      At the very least, IT needs to have a service-oriented view and understand the specific needs and objectives associated with each stakeholder.

      Visualization of 'Business Relationship Management' with an early point on the line representing 'Service Provider: Establish service-oriented culture and business-centric service delivery', and the end of the line being 'Strategic Partner'.

      Once IT can present service metrics that the business cares about, it can continue on the service provider journey by managing the performance of services based on business needs, determine and influence service demand, and assess service value to maximize benefits to the business.

      Which processes drive service metrics?

      Both business relationship management (BRM) and service level management (SLM) provide inputs into and receive outputs from service metrics.

      Venn Diagram of 'Business Relationship Management', 'Service Metrics', and 'Service Level Management'.

      Business Relationship Management

      BRM works to understand the goals and objectives of the business and inputs them into the design of the service metrics.

      Service Metrics

      BRM leverages service metrics to help IT organizations manage the relationship with the business.

      BRM articulates and manages expectations and ensures IT services are meeting business requirements.

      Which processes drive service metrics?

      Both BRM and SLM provide inputs into and receive outputs from service metrics.

      Venn Diagram of 'Business Relationship Management', 'Service Metrics', and 'Service Level Management'.

      Service Level Management

      SLM works with the business to understand service requirements, which are key inputs in designing the service metrics.

      Service Metrics

      SLM leverages service metrics in overseeing the day-to-day delivery of IT services. It ensures they are provided to meet expected service level targets and objectives.

      Effective service metrics will deliver both service gains and relationship gains

      Effective service metrics will provide the following service gains:

      • Confirm service performance and identify gaps
      • Drive service improvement to maximize service value
      • Validate performance improvements while quantifying and demonstrating business value
      • Ensure service reporting aligns with end-user experience
      • Achieve and confirm process and regulatory compliance
          Which will translate into the following relationship gains:
          • Embed IT into business value achievement
          • Improve relationship between the business and IT
          • Achieve higher customer satisfaction (happier end users receiving expected service, the business is able to identify how things are really performing)
          • Reinforce desirable actions and behaviors from both IT and the business

      Don’t let conventional wisdom become your roadblock

      Conventional Wisdom

      Info-Tech Perspective

      Metrics are measured from an application or technology perspective Metrics need to be derived from a service and business outcome perspective.
      The business doesn’t care about metrics Metrics are not usually designed to speak in business terms about business outcomes. Linking metrics to business objectives creates metrics that the business cares about.
      It is difficult to have a metrics discussion with the business It is not a metrics/number discussion, it is a discussion on goals and outcomes.
      Metrics are only presented for the implementation of the service, not the ongoing outcome of the service IT needs to focus on service outcome and not project outcome.
      Quality can’t be measured Quality must be measured in order to properly manage services.

      Our three-phase approach to service metrics development

      Let Info-Tech guide you through your service metrics journey

      1

      2

      3

      Design Your Metrics Develop and Validate Reporting Implement, Track, and Maintain
      Sample of Phase 1 of Info-Tech's service metric development package, 'Design Your Metrics'. Sample of Phase 2 of Info-Tech's service metric development package, 'Develop and Validate Reporting'. Sample of Phase 3 of Info-Tech's service metric development package, 'Implement, Track, and Maintain'.
      Start the development and creation of your service metrics by keeping business perspectives in mind, so they are fully aligned with business objectives. Identify the most appropriate presentation format based on stakeholder preference and need for metrics. Track goals and success metrics for your service metrics programs. It allows you to set long-term goals and track your results over time.

      CIOs must actively lead the design of the service metrics program

      The CIO must actively demonstrate support for the service metrics program and lead the initial discussions to determine what matters to business leaders.

      1. Lead the initiative by defining the need
        Show visible support and demonstrate importance
      2. Articulate the value to both IT and the business
        Establish the urgency and benefits
      3. Select and assemble an implementation group
        Find the best people to get the job done
      4. Drive initial metrics discussions: goals, objectives, actions
        Lead brainstorming with senior business leaders
      5. Work with the team to determine presentation formats and communication methods
        Identify the best presentation approach for senior stakeholders
      6. Establish a feedback loop for senior management
        Solicit feedback on improvements
      7. Validate the success of the metrics
        Confirm service metrics support business outcomes

      Measure the success of your service metrics

      It is critical to determine if the designed service metrics are fulfilling their intended purpose. The process of maintaining the service metrics program and the outcomes of implementing service metrics need to be monitored and tracked.

      Validating Service Metrics Design

      Target Outcome

      Related Metrics

      The business is enabled to identify and improve service performance to their end customer # of improvement initiatives created based on service metrics
      $ cost savings/revenue generated due to actions derived from service metrics

      Procedure to validate the usefulness of IT metrics

      # / % of service metrics added/removed per year

      Alignment between IT and business objectives and processes Business’ satisfaction with IT

      Measure the success of your service metrics

      It is critical to determine if the designed service metrics are fulfilling their intended purpose. The process of maintaining the service metrics program and the outcomes of implementing service metrics need to be monitored and tracked.

      Validating Service Metrics Process

      Target Outcome

      Related Metrics

      Properly defined service metrics aligned with business goals/outcomes
      Easy understood measurement methodologies
      % of services with (or without) defined service metrics

      % of service metrics tied to business goals

      Consistent approach to review and adjust metrics# of service metrics adjusted based on service reviews

      % of service metrics reviewed on schedule

      Demonstrate monetary value and impact through the service metrics program

      In a study done by the Aberdeen Group, organizations engaged in the use of metrics benchmarking and measurement have:
      • 88% customer satisfaction rate
      • 60% service profitability
      • 15% increase in workforce productivity over the last 12 months

      Stock image of a silhouette of three people's head and shoulders.
      (Source: Aberdeen Group. “Service Benchmarking and Measurement.”)

      A service metric is defined for: “Response time for Business Application A

      The expected response time has not been achieved and this is visible in the service metrics. The reduced performance has been identified as having an impact of $250,000 per month in lost revenue potential.

      The service metric drove an action to perform a root-cause analysis, which identified a network switch issue and drove a resolution action to fix the technology and architect redundancy to ensure continuity.

      The fix eliminated the performance impact, allowing for recovery of the $250K per month in revenue, improved end-user confidence in the organization, and increased use of the application, creating additional revenue.

      Implementing and measuring a video conferencing service

      CASE STUDY
      Industry: Manufacturing | Source: CIO interview and case material
      Situation

      The manufacturing business operates within numerous countries and requires a lot of coordination of functions and governance oversight. The company has monthly meetings, both regional and national, and key management and executives travel to attend and participate in the meetings.

      Complication

      While the meetings provide a lot of organizational value, the business has grown significantly and the cost of business travel has started to become prohibitive.

      Action

      It was decided that only a few core meetings would require onsite face-to-face meetings, and for all other meetings, the company would look at alternative means. The face-to-face aspect of the meetings was still considered critical so they focused on options to retain that aspect.

      The IT organization identified that they could provide a video conferencing service to meet the business need. The initiative was approved and rolled out in the organization.

      Result:

      IT service metrics needed to be designed to confirm that the expected value outcome of the implementation of video conferencing was achieved.

      Under the direction of the CIO, the business goals and needs driving use of the service (i.e. reduction in travel costs, efficiency, no loss of positive outcome) were used to identify success criteria and key questions to confirm success.

      With this information, the service manager was able to implement relevant service metrics in business language and confirmed an 80% adoption rate and a 95% success rate in term meetings running as expected and achieving core outcomes.

      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

      Develop meaningful service metrics to ensure business and user satisfaction

      1. Design the Metrics 2. Design Reports and Dashboards 3. Implement, Track, and Maintain
      Supporting Tool icon

      Best-Practice Toolkit

      1. Defining stakeholder needs for IT based on their success criteria
      2. Derive meaningful service metrics based on identified IT services and validate with business stakeholders
      3. Validate metrics can be collected and measured
      4. Determine calculation methodology
      1. Presentation format selected based on stakeholder needs and preference for information
      2. Presentation format validated with stakeholders
      1. Identify metrics that will be presented first to the stakeholders based on urgency or impact of the IT service
      2. Determine the process to collect data, select initial targets, and integrate with SLM and BRM functions
      3. Roll out the metrics implementation for a broader audience
      4. Establish roles and timelines for metrics maintenance

      Guided Implementations

      • Design metrics based on business needs
      • Validate the metrics
      • Select presentation format
      • Review metrics presentation design
      • Select and implement pilot metrics
      • Determine rollout process and establish maintenance/tracking mechanism
      Associated Activity icon

      Onsite Workshop

      Module 1:
      Derive Service Metrics From Business Goals
      Module 2:
      Select and Design Reports and Dashboards
      Module 3:
      Implement, Track, and Maintain Your Metrics to Ensure Success
      Phase 1 Outcome:
      • Meaningful service metrics designed from stakeholder needs
      Phase 2 Outcome:
      • Appropriate presentation format selected for each stakeholder
      Phase 3 Outcome:
      • Metrics implemented and process established to maintain and track program success

      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
      Design the Metrics
      Determine Presentation Format and Implement Metrics
      Gather Service Level Requirements
      Monitor and Improve Service Levels

      Activities

      • 1.1 Determine stakeholder needs
      • 1.2 Determine success criteria and key performance indicators
      • 1.3 Derive metrics
      • 1.4 Validate the metric collection
      • 2.1 Discuss stakeholder needs/preference for data and select presentation format
      • 2.2 Select and design the metric report
      • Requirements
      • 3.1 Determine the business requirements
      • 3.2 Negotiate service levels
      • 3.3 Align operational level agreements (OLAs) and supplier contracts
      • 4.1 Conduct service report and perform service review
      • 4.2 Communicate service review
      • 4.3 Remediate issues using action plan
      • 4.4 Proactive prevention

      Deliverables

      1. Metrics Development Workbook
      1. Metrics Presentation Format Selection Guide
      2. Metrics Tracking Tool
      1. Service Level Management SOP
      2. Service Level Agreement
      1. Service Level Report
      2. Service Level Review
      3. Business Satisfaction Report

      Develop Meaningful Service Metrics to Ensure Business and User Satisfaction

      PHASE 1

      Design the Metrics

      Step (1): Design the Metrics

      PHASE 1 PHASE 2 PHASE 3

      1.1

      Derive the Service Metrics

      1.2

      Validate the Metrics

      2.1

      Determine Reporting Format

      3.1

      Select Pilot Metrics

      3.2

      Activate and Maintain Metrics

      This step involves the following participants:

      • CIO
      • Business Relationship Manager (BRM)
      • Service Level Manager (SLM)

      Outcomes of this step

      • Defined stakeholder needs for IT based on their success criteria
      • Identified IT services that are tied to the delivery of business outcomes
      • Derived meaningful service metrics based on identified IT services and validated with business stakeholders
      • Validated that metrics can be collected and measured
      • Determined calculation methodology

      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: Design the Metrics

      Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 4 weeks
      Step 1.1: Design Metrics Step 1.2: Validate the Metrics
      Start with an analyst kick-off call:
      • Determine the stakeholder and their needs
      • Identify IT services that are tied to the delivery of business outcomes
      • Derive the service metrics
      Review findings with analyst:
      • For the selected metrics, identify the data source for collection
      • Validate whether or not the data can be created
      • Create a calculation method for the metrics
      Then complete these activities…
      • Using the methodology provided, identify additional stakeholders and map out their success criteria, including KPIs to determine the appropriate service metrics
      Then complete these activities…
      • Determine whether the designed metrics are measurable, and if so, how
      With these tools & templates:
      • Metrics Development Workbook
      With these tools & templates:
      • Metrics Development Workbook

      Design your service metrics – overview

      Figure representing 'CIO'. Step 1
      Derive your service metrics

      Metrics Worksheet

      Figure representing 'SLM' and/or 'BRM'. Step 2
      Validate your metrics

      Metrics Worksheet

      Figures representing 'CIO', 'SLM', and/or 'BRM'. Step 3
      Confirm with stakeholders

      Metrics Tracking Sheet

      A star.

      Defined IT Service Metrics

      Deriving the right metrics is critical to ensuring that you will generate valuable and actionable service metrics.

      Derive your service metrics from business objectives and needs

      Service metrics must be designed with the business perspective in mind so they are fully aligned with business objectives.

      Thus, IT must start by identifying specific stakeholder needs. The more IT understands about the business, the more relevant the metrics will be to the business stakeholders.

      1. Who are your stakeholders?
      2. What are their goals and pain points?
      3. What do the stakeholders need to know?
      4. What do I need to measure?
      5. Derive your service metrics

      Derive your service metrics

      Supporting Tool icon 1.1 Metrics Development Workbook

      This workbook guides the development and creation of service metrics that are directly tied to stakeholder needs.

      This process will ensure that your service metrics are designed with the business perspective in mind so they are fully aligned with business objectives.

      1. Who are the relevant stakeholders?
      2. What are the goals and pain points of your stakeholders?
      3. What do the stakeholders need to know?
      4. What does IT need to measure?
      5. What are the appropriate IT metrics?

      Download the Metrics Development Workbook.

      Sample of Info-Tech's Metrics Development Workbook.

      Determine your stakeholders

      Supporting Tool icon 1.1 0.5 Hour

      Who are your stakeholders?

      1. Identify the primary stakeholders of your service metrics. Stakeholders are the people who have a very specific need to know about how IT services affect their business outcomes. Different stakeholders can have different perspective on the same IT service metric.Most often, the primary target of service metrics are the business stakeholders, e.g. VP of a business unit.
      2. Identify any additional stakeholders. The CIO is also a stakeholder since they are effectively the business relationship manager for the senior leaders.

      Video Conferencing Case Study
      Manufacturing company

      For this phase, we will demonstrate how to derive the service metrics by going through the steps in the methodology.

      At a manufacturing company, the CIO’s main stakeholder is the CEO, whose chief concern is to improve the financial position of the company.

      Identify goals and pain points of your stakeholders

      Supporting Tool icon 1.2 0.5 Hour

      What are their goals and pain points?

      1. Clearly identify each stakeholder’s business goals and outcomes. These would be particular business goals related to a specific business unit.
      2. Identify particular pain points for each business unit to understand what is preventing them from achieving the desirable business outcome.

      VC Case Study

      One of the top initiatives identified by the company to improve financial performance was to reduce expense.

      Because the company has several key locations in different states, company executives used to travel extensively to carry out meetings at each location.

      Therefore, travel expenses represent a significant proportion of operational expenses and reducing travel costs is a key goal for the company’s executives.

      What do the stakeholders need to know?

      Supporting Tool icon 1.3 0.5 Hour

      What do the stakeholders need to know?

      1. Identify the key things that the stakeholders would need to know based on the goals and pain points derived from the previous step.These are your success criteria and must be met to successfully achieve the desired goals.

      VC Case Study

      The CEO needs to have assurance that without executives traveling to each location, remote meetings can be as effective as in-person meetings.

      These meetings must provide the same outcome and allow executives to collaborate and make similar strategic decisions without the onsite, physical presence.

      Therefore, the success criteria are:

      • Reduced travel costs
      • Effective collaboration
      • High-quality meetings

      What do I need to measure?

      Supporting Tool icon 1.4 1 Hour

      What does IT need to measure?

      1. Identify the IT services that are leveraged to achieve the business goals and success criteria.
      2. Identify the users of those services and determine the nature of usage for each group of users.
      3. Identify the key indicators that must be measured for those services from an IT perspective.

      VC Case Study

      The IT department decides to implement the video conferencing service to reduce the number of onsite meetings. This technology would allow executives to meet remotely with both audio and video and is the best option to replicate a physical meeting.

      The service is initially available to senior executives and will be rolled out to all internal users once the initial implementation is deemed successful.

      To determine the success of the service, the following needs to be measured:

      1. Outcomes of VC meetings
      2. Quality of the VC meetings
      3. Reduction in travel expenses

      Derive service metrics

      Supporting Tool icon 1.5 0.5 Hour

      Derive your service metrics

      1. Derive the service metrics that are meaningful to business stakeholders based on the IT services and the key indicators identified in the previous steps.
      2. Distinguish between service metrics and business metrics. You may identify some business metrics in addition to the IT metrics, and although these are important, IT doesn’t own the process of tracking and reporting business metrics.

      VC Case Study

      In the previous step, IT identified that it must measure the outcomes of VC meetings, quality of the VC meetings, and the reduction in travel expenses. From these, the appropriate service metrics can be derived to answer the needs of the CEO.

      IT needs to measure:

      1. Percent of VC meetings successfully delivered
      2. Growth of number of executive meetings conducted via VC
      Outcomes

      IT also identified the following business metrics:

      1. Reduction in percent of travel expense/spend
      2. Reduction in lost time due to travel

      Validate your metrics

      Once appropriate service metrics are derived from business objectives, the next step is to determine whether or not it is viable to actually measure the metrics.

      Can you measure it? The first question IT must answer is whether the metric is measurable. IT must identify the data source, validate its ability to collect the data, and specify the data requirement. Not all metrics can be measured!
      How will you measure it? If the metric is measurable, the next step is to create a way to measure the actual data. In most cases, simple formulas that can be easily understood are the best approach.
      Define your actions Metrics must be used to drive or reinforce desirable outcomes and behaviors. Thus, IT must predetermine the necessary actions associated with the different metric levels, thresholds, or trends.

      Determine if you can measure the identified metric

      Supporting Tool icon 1.6 0.5 Hour

      INSTRUCTIONS

      1. Determine what data sources are available. Make sure that you know where the information you need is captured, or will need to be captured. This would include:
        • A ticket/request system
        • An auto discovery tool
        • A configuration management database ( CMDB)
      2. Confirm that IT has the ability to collect the information.
        • If the necessary data is already contained in an identified data source, then you can proceed.
        • If not, consider whether it’s possible to gather the information using current sources and systems.
        • Understand the constraints and cost/ROI to implement new technology or revise processes and data gathering to produce the data.

      VC Case Study

      Using the metric derived from the video conferencing service example, IT wants to measure the % of VC meetings successfully delivered.

      What are the data sources?

      • Number of VC meetings that took place
      • Number of service incidents
      • User survey

      Determine if you can measure the identified metric

      Supporting Tool icon 1.6 0.5 Hour

      INSTRUCTIONS

      1. Understand your data requirements
        • To produce relevant metrics from your data, you need to ensure the level of quality and currency that provides you with useful information. You need to define:
          • The level of detail that has to be captured to make the data useful.
          • The consistency of the data, and how it needs to be entered or gathered.
          • The accuracy of the data. This includes how current the data needs to be, how quickly changes have to be made, and how data quality will be verified.

      VC Case Study

      Data requirement for percent of successful VC meetings:

      • Level of detail – user category, location, date/time,
      • Consistency – how efficiently are VC-related incidents opened and closed? Is the data collected and stored consistently?
      • Accuracy – is the information entered accurately?

      Create the calculation to measure it

      Supporting Tool icon 1.7 0.5 Hour

      Determine how to calculate the metrics.

      INSTRUCTIONS
      1. Develop the calculations that will be used for each accepted metric. The measurement needs to be clear and straightforward.
      2. Define the scope and assumptions for each calculation, including:
        • The defined measurement period (e.g. monthly, weekly)
        • Exclusions (e.g. nonbusiness hours, during maintenance windows)

      VC Case Study

      Metric: Percent of VC meetings delivered successfully

      IT is able to determine the total number of VC meetings that took place and the number of VC service requests to the help desk.

      That makes it possible to use the following formula to determine the success percentage of the VC service:

      ((total # VC) – (# of VC with identified incidents)) / (total # VC) * 100

      Define the actions to be taken for each metric

      Supporting Tool icon 1.7 1.5 Hour

      INSTRUCTIONS

      Centered on the defined metrics and their calculations, IT can decide on the actions that should be driven out of each metric based on one of the following scenarios:
      • Scenario 1: Ad hoc remedial action and root-cause investigation. If the reason for the result is unknown, determining root cause or identifying trends is required to determine required actions.
      • Scenario 2: Predefined remedial action. A set of predetermined actions associated with different results. This is useful when the meaning of the results is clear and points to specific issues within the environment.
      • Scenario 3: Nonremedial action. The metrics may produce a result that reinforces or supports company direction and strategy, or identifies an opportunity that may drive a new initiative or idea.

      VC Case Study

      If the success rate of the VC meetings is below 90%, IT needs to focus on determining if there is a common cause and identify if this is a consistent downward trend.

      A root-cause analysis is performed that identifies that network issues are causing difficulties, impacting the connection quality and usability of the VC service.

      Validate the confirmed metrics with the business

      Supporting Tool icon 1.8 1 Hour

      INPUT: Selected service metrics, Discussion with the business

      OUTPUT: Validated metrics with the business

      Materials: Metrics with calculation methodology

      Participants: IT and business stakeholders, Service owners

      INSTRUCTIONS

      1. Once you have derived the appropriate metrics and established that the metrics are measurable, you must go back to the targeted stakeholders and validate that the selected metrics will provide the right information to meet their identified goals and success criteria.
      2. Add confirmed metrics to the Metrics Tracking Tool, in the Metrics Tracking Plan tab.
      Service Metric Corresponding
      Business Goal
      Measurement
      Method
      Defined Actions

      Example: Measuring the online banking service at a financial institution

      Who are IT’s stakeholders? The financial institution provides various banking solutions to its customers. Retail banking is a core service offered by the bank and the VP of retail banking is a major stakeholder of IT.
      What are their goals and pain points? The VP of retail banking’s highest priorities are to increase revenue, increase market share, and maintain the bank’s brand and reputation amongst its customers.
      What do they need to know? In order to measure success, the VP of retail banking needs to determine performance in attracting new clients, retaining clients, expanding into new territory, and whether they have increased the number of services provided to existing clients.
      What does IT need to measure? The recent implementation of an online banking service is a key initiative that will keep the bank competitive and help retail banking meet its goals. The key indicators of this service are: the total number of clients, the number of products per client, percent of clients using online banking, number of clients by segment, service, territory.
      Derive the service metrics Based on the key indicators, IT can derive the following service metrics:
      1. Number of product applications originated from online banking
      2. Customer satisfaction/complaints
      As part of the process, IT also identified some business metrics, such as the number of online banking users per month or the number of times a client accesses online banking per month.

      Design service metrics to track service performance and value

      CASE STUDY
      Industry: Manufacturing | Source: CIO
      Challenge Solution Results
      The IT organization needed to generate metrics to show the business whether the video conferencing service was being adopted and if it was providing the expected outcome and value.

      Standard IT metrics were technical and did not provide a business context that allowed for easy understanding of performance and decision making.

      The IT organization, working through the CIO and service managers, sat down with the key business stakeholders of the video conferencing service.

      They discussed the goals for the meeting and defined the success criteria for those goals in the context of video conference meeting outcomes.

      The success criteria that were discussed were then translated into a set of questions (key performance indicators) that if answered, would show that the success criteria were achieved.

      The service manager identified what could be measured to answer the defined questions and eliminated any metrics that were either business metrics or non-IT related.

      The remaining metrics were identified as the possible service metrics, and the ability to gather the information and produce the metric was confirmed.

      Service metrics were defined for:

      1. Percent of video conference meetings delivered successfully
      2. Growth in the number of executive meetings conducted via video conference

      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 Valence Howden, Senior Manager, CIO Advisory, Info-Tech Research Group.
      • 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 your stakeholders'. Determine stakeholder needs, goals, and pain points

      The onsite analyst will help you select key stakeholders and analyze their business objectives and current pain points.

      1.2

      Sample of activity 1.2 'Identify goals and pain points of your stakeholders'. Determine the success criteria and related IT services

      The analyst will facilitate a discussion to uncover the information that these stakeholders care about. The group will also identify the IT services that are supporting these objectives.

      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:

      1.5

      Sample of activity 1.5 'Derive service metrics'. Derive the service metrics

      Based on the key performance indicators obtained in the previous page, derive meaningful business metrics that are relevant to the stakeholders.

      1.6

      Sample of activity 1.6 'Determine if you can measure the identified metric'. Validate the data collection process

      The analyst will help the workshop group determine whether the identified metrics can be collected and measured. If so, a calculation methodology is created.

      1.7

      Sample of activity 1.7 'Create the caluclation to measure it'. Validate metrics with stakeholders

      Establish a feedback mechanism to have business stakeholders validate the meaningfulness of the metrics.

      Develop Meaningful Service Metrics to Ensure Business and User Satisfaction

      PHASE 2

      Design Reports and Dashboards

      Step (2): Design Reports and Dashboards

      PHASE 1PHASE 2PHASE 3

      1.1

      Derive the Service Metrics

      1.2

      Validate the Metrics

      2.1

      Determine Reporting Format

      3.1

      Select Pilot Metrics

      3.2

      Activate and Maintain Metrics

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Business Relationship Manager
      • Service Level Manager
      • Business Stakeholders

      Outcomes of this step

      • Presentation format selected based on stakeholder needs and preference for information
      • Presentation format validated with stakeholders

      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: Design Reports and Dashboards

      Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 3 weeks
      Step 2.1: Select Presentation Format Step 2.2: Review Design
      Start with an analyst kick-off call:
      • Review the different format of metrics presentation and discuss the pros/cons of each format
      • Discuss stakeholder needs/preference for data
      • Select the presentation format
      Review findings with analyst:
      • Discuss stakeholder feedback based on selected presentation format
      • Modify and adjust the presentation format as needed
      Then complete these activities…
      • Design the metrics using the selected format
      Then complete these activities…
      • Finalize the design for metrics presentation
      With these tools & templates:
      • Metrics Presentation Format Selection Guide
      With these tools & templates:
      • Metrics Presentation Format Selection Guide

      Design the reports – overview

      Figure representing 'SLM' and/or 'BRM'. Step 1
      Understand the pros and cons of different reporting styles
      Figure representing 'SLM' and/or 'BRM'. Step 2
      Determine your reporting and presentation style

      Presentation Format Selection

      Figure representing 'SLM' and/or 'BRM'. Step 3
      Design your metrics reports
      A star.

      Validated Service Reports

      The design of service metrics reporting is critically important. The reporting style must present the right information in the most interesting and stakeholder-centric way possible to ensure that it is read and used.

      The reports must also display information in a way that generates actions. If your stakeholders cannot make decisions, kick off activities, or ask questions based on your reports, then they have no value.

      Determine the right presentation format for your metrics

      Most often, metrics are presented in the following ways:

      Dashboard
      (PwC. “Mega-Trends and Implications.”)
      Sample of the 'Dashboard' metric presentation format.
      Infographic
      (PwC. “Healthcare’s new entrants.”)
      Sample of the 'Infographic' metric presentation format.
      Report
      (PwC Blogs. “Northern Lights.”)
      Sample of the 'Report' metric presentation format.
      Scorecard
      (PwC. “Annual Report 2015.”)
      Sample of the 'Scorecard' metric presentation format.

      Understand the advantages and disadvantages of each reporting style – Dashboard

      A dashboard is a reporting method that provides a dynamic at-a-glance view of key metrics from the perspective of key stakeholders. It provides a quick graphical way to process important performance information in real time.

      Features

      Typically web-based

      Dynamic data that is updated in real time

      Advantage

      Aggregates a lot of information into a single view

      Presents metrics in a simplistic style that is well understood

      Provides a quick point-in-time view of performance

      Easy to consume visual presentation style

      Disadvantage

      Complicated to set up well.
      Requires additional technology support: programming, API, etc.

      Promotes a short-term outlook – focus on now, no historical performance and no future trends. Doesn’t provide the whole picture and story.

      Existing dashboard tools are often not customized enough to provide real value to each stakeholder.

      Dashboards present real-time metrics that can be accessed and viewed at any time

      Sample of the 'Dashboard' metric presentation format.
      (Source: PwC. “Mega-Trends and Implications.”)
      Metrics presented through online dashboards are calculated in real time, which allows for a dynamic, current view into the performance of IT services at any time.

      Understand the advantages and disadvantages of each reporting style – Infographic

      An infographic is a graphical representation of metrics or data, which is used to show information quickly and clearly. It’s based on the understanding that people retain and process visual information more readily than written details.

      Features

      Turns dry into attractive –transforms data into eye-catching visual memory that is easier to retain

      Can be used as the intro to a formal report

      There are endless types of infographics

      Advantage

      Easily consumable

      Easy to retain

      Eye catching

      Easily shared

      Spurs conversation

      Customizable

      Disadvantage

      Require design expertise and resources

      Can be time consuming to generate

      Could be easily misinterpreted

      Message can be lost with poor design

      Infographics allow for completely unique designs

      Sample of the 'Infographic' metric presentation format.
      (Source: PwC. “Healthcare’s new entrants…”)
      There is no limit when it comes to designing an infographic. The image used here visually articulates the effects of new entrants pulling away the market.

      Understand the advantages and disadvantages of each reporting style – Formal Report

      A formal report is a more structured and official reporting style that contains detailed research, data, and information required to enable specific business decisions, and to help evaluate performance over a defined period of time.

      Definition

      Metrics can be presented as a component of a periodic, formal report

      A physical document that presents detailed information to a particular audience

      Advantage

      More detailed, more structured and broader reporting period

      Formal, shows IT has put in the effort

      Effectively presents a broader and more complete story

      Targets different stakeholders at the same time

      Disadvantage

      Requires significant effort and resources

      Higher risk if the report does not meet the expectation of the business stakeholder

      Done at a specific time and only valuable for that specific time period

      Harder to change format

      Formal reports provide a detailed view and analysis of performance

      Sample of the 'Formal Report' metric presentation format.
      (Source: PwC Blogs. “Northern Lights: Where are we now?”)
      An effective report incorporates visuals to demonstrate key improvements.

      Formal reports can still contain visuals, but they are accompanied with detailed explanations.

      Understand the advantages and disadvantages of each reporting style – Scorecard

      A scorecard is a graphic view of the progress and performance over time of key performance metrics. These are in relation to specified goals based on identified critical stakeholder objectives.

      Features

      Incorporates multiple metrics effectively.

      Scores services against the most important organizational goals and objectives. Scorecards may tie back into strategy and different perspectives of success.

      Advantage

      Quick view of performance against objectives

      Measure against a set of consistent objectives

      Easily consumable

      Easy to retain

      Disadvantage

      Requires a lot of forethought

      Scorecards provide a time-bound summary of performance against defined goals

      Sample of the 'Scorecard' metric presentation format.
      (PwC. “Annual Report 2015.”)
      Scorecards provide a summary of performance that is directly linked to the organizational KPIs.

      Determine your report style

      Supporting Tool icon 2.1 Metrics Presentation Format Selection Guide

      In this section, you will determine the optimal reporting style for the service metrics.

      This guide contains four questions, which will help IT organizations identify the most appropriate presentation format based on stakeholder preference and needs for metrics.

      1. Who is the relevant stakeholder?
      2. What are the defined actions for the metric?
      3. How frequently does the stakeholder need to see the metric?
      4. How does the stakeholder like to receive information?
      Sample of Info-Tech's Metrics Presentation Format Selection Guide.
      Download the Metrics Presentation Format Selection Guide.

      Determine your best presentation option

      Supporting Tool icon 2.1 2 Hours

      INPUT: Identified stakeholder and his/her role

      OUTPUT: Proper presentation format based on need for information

      Materials: Metrics Presentation Format Selection Guide

      Participants: BRM, SLM, Program Manager

      After deciding on the report type to be used to present the metric, the organization needs to consider how stakeholders will consume the metric.

      There are three options based on stakeholder needs and available presentation options within IT.

      1. Paper-based presentation is the most traditional form of reporting and works well with stakeholders who prefer physical copies. The report is produced at a specific time and requires no additional IT capability.
      2. Online documents stored on webpages, SharePoint, or another knowledge management system could be used to present the metrics. This allows the report to be linked to other information and easily shared.
      3. Online dashboards and graphics can be used to have dynamic, real-time reporting and anytime access. These webpages can be incorporated into an intranet and allow the user to view the metrics at any time. This will require IT to continuously update the data in order to maintain the accuracy of the metrics.

      Design your metric reports with these guidelines in mind

      Supporting Tool icon 2.2 30 Minutes
      1. Stakeholder-specificThe report must be driven by the identified stakeholder needs and preferences and articulate the metrics that are important to them.
      2. ClarityTo enable decision making and drive desired actions, the metrics must be clear and straightforward. They must be presented in a way that clearly links the performance measurement to the defined outcome without leading to different interpretations of the results.
      3. SimplicityThe report must be simple to read, understand, and analyze. The language of the report must be business-centric and remove as much complexity as possible in wording, imaging, and context.

      Be sure to consider access rights for more senior reports. Site and user access permissions may need to be defined based on the level of reporting.

      Metrics reporting on the video conferencing service

      CASE STUDY
      Industry: Manufacturing | Source: CIO Interview
      The Situation

      The business had a clear need to understand if the implementation of video conferencing would allow previously onsite meetings to achieve the same level of effectiveness.

      Reporting Context

      Provided reports had always been generated from an IT perspective and the business rarely used the information to make decisions.

      The metrics needed to help the business understand if the meetings were remaining effective and be tied into the financial reporting against travel expenses, but there would be limited visibility during the executive meetings.

      Approach

      The service manager reviewed the information that he had gathered to confirm how often they needed information related to the service. He also met with the CIO to get some insight into the reports that were already being provided to the business, including the ones that were most effective.

      Considerations

      The conversations identified that there was no need for a dynamic real-time view of the performance of the service, since tracking of cost savings and utility would be viewed monthly and quarterly. They also identified that the item would be discussed within a very small window of time during the management meetings.

      The Solution

      It was determined that the best style of reporting for the metric was an existing scorecard that was produced monthly, using some infographics to ensure that the information is clear at a glance to enable quick decision making.

      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 Valence Howden, Senior Manager, CIO Advisory, Info-Tech Research Group.
      • 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 presentation format option slide 'Determine the right presentation format for your metrics'. Understand the different presentation options

      The onsite analyst will introduce the group to the communication vehicles of infographic, scorecard, formal report, and dashboard.

      2.1

      Sample of activity 2.1 'Determine your best presentation option'. Assess stakeholder needs for information

      For selected stakeholders, the analyst will facilitate a discussion on how stakeholders would like to view information and how the metrics can be presented to aid decision making.

      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:

      2.2

      Sample of activity 2.2 'Design your metric reports with these guidelines in mind'. Select and design the metric report

      Based on the discussion, the working group will select the most appropriate presentation format and create a rough draft of how the report should look.

      Develop Meaningful Service Metrics to Ensure Business and User Satisfaction

      PHASE 3

      Implement, Track, and Maintain Your Metrics

      Step (3): Implement, Track, and Maintain Your Metrics

      PHASE 1PHASE 2PHASE 3

      1.1

      Derive the Service Metrics

      1.2

      Validate the Metrics

      2.1

      Determine Reporting Format

      3.1

      Select Pilot Metrics

      3.2

      Activate and Maintain Metrics

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Service Level Manager
      • Business Relationship Manager
      • Service Metrics Program Manager

      Activities in this step

      • Determine the first batch of metrics to be implemented as part of the pilot program
      • Create a process to collect and validate data, determine initial targets, and integrate with SLM and BRM functions
      • Present the metric reports to the relevant stakeholders and incorporate the feedback into the metric design
      • Establish a standard process and roll out the implementation of metrics in batches
      • Establish a process to monitor and track the effectiveness of the service metrics program and make adjustments when necessary

      Phase 3 outline

      Associated Activity icon Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

      Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

      Guided Implementation 3: Implement, Track, and Maintain Your Metrics

      Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 4 weeks
      Step 3.1: Select and Launch Pilot Metrics Step 3.2: Track and Maintain the Metrics
      Start with an analyst kick-off call:
      • Identify metrics that will be presented first to the stakeholders based on urgency or impact of the IT service
      • Determine the process to collect data, select initial targets, and integrate with SLM and BRM functions
      Review findings with analyst:
      • Review the success of metrics and discuss feedback from stakeholders
      • Roll out the metrics implementation to a broader audience
      • Establish roles and timelines for metrics maintenance
      Then complete these activities…
      • Document the first batch of metrics
      • Document the baseline, initial targets
      • Create a plan to integrate with SLM and BRM functions
      Then complete these activities…
      • Create a document that defines how the organization will track and maintain the success of the metrics program
      • Review the metrics program periodically
      With these tools & templates:
      • Metrics Tracking Tool
      With these tools & templates:
      • Metrics Tracking Tool

      Implement, Track, and Maintain the Metrics

      Figure representing 'SLM' and/or 'BRM'. Step 1
      Run your pilot

      Metrics Tracking Tool

      Figure representing 'SLM' and/or 'BRM'. Step 2
      Validate success

      Metrics Tracking Tool

      Figure representing 'SLM' and/or 'BRM'. Step 3
      Implement your metrics program in batches

      Metrics Tracking Tool

      A star.

      Active Service Metrics Program

      Once you have defined the way that you will present the metrics, you are ready to run a pilot with a smaller sample of defined service metrics.

      This allows you to validate your approach and make refinements to the implementation and maintenance processes where necessary, prior to activating all service metrics.

      Track the performance of your service metrics

      Supporting Tool icon 3.1

      The Metrics Tracking Tool will enable you to track goals and success metrics for your service metrics programs. It allows you to set long-term goals and track your results over time.

      There are three sections in this tool:
      1. Metrics Tracking Plan. Identify the metrics to be tracked and their purpose.
      2. Metrics Tracking Actuals. Monitor and track the actual performance of the metrics.
      3. Remediation Tracking. Determine and document the steps that need to be taken to correct a sub-performing metric.
      Sample of Info-Tech's Metrics Tracking Tool.

      Select pilot metrics

      Supporting Tool icon 3.1 30 Minutes

      INPUT: Identified services, Business feedback

      OUTPUT: Services with most urgent need or impact

      Materials: Service catalog or list of identified services

      Participants: BRM, SLM, Business representatives

      To start the implementation of your service metrics program and drive wider adoption, you need to run a pilot using a smaller subset of metrics.

      INSTRUCTIONS

      To determine the sample for the pilot, consider metrics that:

      • Are related to critical business services and functions
      • or
      • Address known/visible pain points for the business
      • or
      • Were designed for supportive or influential stakeholders

      Metrics that meet two or more criteria are ideal for the pilot

      Collect and validate data

      Supporting Tool icon 3.2 1 Hour

      INPUT: Identified metrics

      OUTPUT: A data collection mythology, Metrics tracking

      Materials: Metrics

      Participants: SLM, BRM, Service owner

      You will need to start collection and validation of your identified data in order to calculate the results for your pilot metrics.

      INSTRUCTIONS

      1. Initiate data collection
        • Use the data sources identified during the design phase and initiate the data collection process.
      2. Determine start date
        • If historical data can be retrieved and gathered, determine how far back you want your measurements to start.
      3. Compile data and validate
        • Ensure that the information is accurate and up to date. This will require some level of data validation and audit.
      4. Run the metric
        • Use the defined calculation and source data to generate the metrics result.
      5. Record metrics results
        • Use the metrics tracking sheet to track the actual results.

      Determine initial targets

      Supporting Tool icon 3.3 1 Hour

      INPUT: Historical data/baseline data

      OUTPUT: Realistic initial target for improvement

      Materials: Metrics Tracking Tool

      Participants: BRM, SLM, Service owner

      INSTRUCTIONS

      Identify an initial service objective based on one or more of the following options:

      1. Establish an initial target using historical data and trends of performance.
      2. Establish an initial target based on stakeholder-identified requirements and expectations.
      3. Run the metrics report over a defined period of time and use the baseline level of achievement to establish an initial target.

      The target may not always be a number - it could be a trend. The initial target will be changed after review with stakeholders

      Integrate with SLM and BRM processes

      Supporting Tool icon 3.4 1 Hour

      INPUT: SLM and BRM SOPs or responsibility documentations

      OUTPUT: Integrate service metrics into the SLM/BRM role

      Materials: SLM / BRM reports

      Participants: SLM, BRM, CIO, Program manager, Service manager

      The service metrics program is usually initiated, used, and maintained by the SLM and BRM functions.

      INSTRUCTIONS

      Ensure that the metrics pilot is integrated with those functions by:

      1. Engaging with SLM and BRM functions/resources
        • Identify SLM and BRM resources associated with or working on the services where the metrics are being piloted
        • Obtain their feedback on the metrics/reporting
      2. Integrating with the existing reporting and meeting cycles
        • Ensure the metrics will be calculated and available for discussion at standing meetings and with existing reports
      3. Establishing the metrics review and validation cycle for these metrics
        • Confirm the review and validation period for the metrics in order to ensure they remain valuable and actionable

      Generate reports and present to stakeholders

      Supporting Tool icon 3.5 1 Hour

      INPUT: Identified metrics, Selected presentation format

      OUTPUT: Metrics reports that are ready for distribution

      Materials: Metrics Presentation Format Selection Guide

      Participants: BRM, SLM, CIO, Business representatives

      INSTRUCTIONS

      Once you have completed the calculation for the pilot metrics:

      1. Confirm the report style for the selected metrics (as defined in Phase 2)
      2. Generate the reporting for the pilot metrics
      3. Present the pilot metric reports to the identified BRM and SLM resources who will present the reporting to the stakeholders
      4. Gather feedback from Stakeholders on metrics - results and process
      5. Create and execute remediation plans for any actions identified from the metrics
      6. Initiate the review cycle for metrics (to ensure they retain value)

      Plan the rollout and implementation of the metrics reporting program

      Supporting Tool icon 3.6 1 Hour

      INPUT: Feedback from pilot, Services in batch

      OUTPUT: Systematic implementation of metrics

      Materials: Metrics Tracking Tool

      Participants: BRM, SLM, Program manager

      Upon completion of the pilot, move to start the broader implementation of metrics across the organization:

      INSTRUCTIONS

      1. Identify the service metrics that you will implement. They can be selected based on multiple criteria, including:
        • Organizational area/business unit
        • Service criticality
        • Pain points
        • Stakeholder engagement (detractors, supporters)
      2. Create a rollout plan for implementation in batches, identifying expected launch timelines, owners, targeted stakeholders, and communications plans
      3. Use the implementation plan from the pilot to roll out each batch of service metrics:
        • Collect and validate data
        • Determine target(s)
        • Integrate with BRM and SLM
        • Generate and communicate reports to stakeholders

      Maintain the service metrics

      Supporting Tool icon 3.7 1.5 Hour

      INPUT: Feedback from business stakeholders

      OUTPUT: Modification to individual metrics or to the process

      Materials: Metrics Tracking Tool, Metrics Development Workbook

      Participants: CIO, BRM, SLM, Program manager, Service owner

      Once service metrics and reporting become active, it is necessary to determine the review time frame for your metrics to ensure they remain useful.

      INSTRUCTIONS

      1. Confirm and establish a review time frame with stakeholders (e.g. annually, bi-annually, after organizational or strategic changes).
      2. Meet with stakeholders by the review date to discuss the value of existing metrics and validate:
        • Whether the goals associated with the metrics are still valid
        • If the metric is still necessary
        • If there is a more effective way to present the metrics
      3. Track actions based on review outcomes and update the remediation tracking sheet.
      4. Update tracking sheet with last complete review date.

      Maintain the metrics

      Supporting Tool icon 3.7

      Based on the outcome of the review meeting, decide what needs to be done for each metric, using the following options:

      Add

      A new metric is required or an existing metric needs large-scale changes (example: calculation method or scope).
      Triggers metrics design as shown in phases 1 and 2.

      Change

      A minor change is required to the presentation format or data. Note: a major change in a metric would be performed through the Add option.

      Remove

      The metric is no longer required, and it needs to be removed from reporting and data gathering. A final report date for that metric should be determined.

      Maintain

      The metric is still useful and no changes are required to the metric, its measurement, or how it’s reported.

      Ensuring metrics remain valuable

      VC CASE STUDY
      Industry: Manufacturing | Source: CIO Interview

      Reviewing the value of active metrics

      When the video conferencing service was initially implemented, it was performed as a pilot with a group of executives, and then expanded for use throughout the company. It was understood that prior to seeing the full benefit in cost reduction and increased efficiency and effectiveness, the rate of use and adoption had to be understood.

      The primary service metrics created for the service were based on tracking the number of requests for video conference meetings that were received by the IT organization. This identified the growth in use and could be used in conjunction with financial metrics related to travel to help identify the impact of the service through its growth phase.

      Once the service was adopted, this metric continued to be tracked but no longer showed growth or expanded adoption.

      The service manager was no longer sure this needed to be tracked.

      Key Activity

      The metrics around requests for video conference meetings were reviewed at the annual metrics review meeting with the business. The service manager asked if the need for the metric, the goal of tracking adoption, was still important for the business.

      The discussion identified that the adoption rate was over 80%, higher than anticipated, and that there was no value in continuing to track this metric.

      Based on the discussion, the adoption metrics were discontinued and removed from data gathering and reporting, while a success rate metric was added (how many meetings ran successfully and without issue) to ensure the ongoing value of the video conferencing service.

      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 Valence Howden, Senior Manager, CIO Advisory, Info-Tech Research Group.
      • 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 'Select pilot metrics'. Select the pilot metrics

      The onsite analyst will help the workshop group select the metrics that should be first implemented based on the urgency and impact of these metrics.

      3.2

      Sample of activity 3.2 'Collect and validate data'. Gather data and set initial targets

      The analyst will help the group create a process to gather data, measure baselines, and set initial targets.

      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:

      3.5

      Sample of activity 3.5 'Generate reports and present to stakeholders'. Generate the reports and validate with stakeholders

      The Info-Tech analyst will help the group establish a process to receive feedback from the business stakeholders once the report is generated.

      3.6

      Sample of activity 3.6 'Plan the rollout and implementation of the metrics reporting program'. Implement the service metrics program

      The analyst will facilitate a discussion on how to implement the metrics program across the organization.

      3.7

      Sample of activity 3.7 'Maintain the service metrics'. Track and maintain the metrics program

      Set up a mechanism to ensure the success of the metrics program by assessing process adherence and process validity.

      Insight breakdown

      Insight 1

      Service metrics are critical to ensuring alignment of IT service performance and business service value achievement.

      Insight 2

      Service metrics reinforce positive business and end-user relationships by providing user-centric information that drives responsiveness and consistent service improvement.

      Insight 3

      Poorly designed metrics drive unintended and unproductive behaviors that have negative impacts on IT and produce negative service outcomes.

      Summary of accomplishment

      Knowledge Gained

      • Follow a methodology to identify metrics that are derived from business objectives.
      • Understand the proper presentation format based on stakeholder needs for information.
      • Establish a process to ensure the metrics provided will continue to provide value and aid decision making.

      Processes Optimized

      • Metrics presentation to business stakeholders
      • Metrics maintenance and tracking

      Deliverables Completed

      • Metrics Development Workbook
      • Metrics Presentation Format Selection Guide
      • Metrics Tracking Tool

      Research contributors and experts

      Name Organization
      Joe Evers Joe Evers Consulting
      Glen Notman Associate Partner, Citihub
      David Parker Client Program Manager, eHealth Ontario
      Marianne Doran Collins CIO, The CIO-Suite, LLC
      Chris Kalbfleisch Manager, Service Management, eHealth Ontario
      Joshua Klingenberg BHP Billiton Canada Inc.

      Related Info-Tech research

      Stock image of a menu. Design & Build a User-Facing Service Catalog
      The user-facing service catalog is the go-to place for IT service-related information.
      Stock image of a laptop keyboard. Unleash the True Value of IT by Transforming Into a Service Provider
      Earn your seat at the table and influence business strategy by becoming an IT service provider.

      Bibliography

      Pollock, Bill. “Service Benchmarking and Measurement: Using Metrics to Drive Customer Satisfaction and Profits.” Aberdeen Group. June 2009. http://722consulting.com/ServiceBenchmarkingandMeasurement.pdf

      PwC. “Mega-Trends and Implications.” RMI Discussion. LinkedIn SlideShare. September 2015. http://www.slideshare.net/AnandRaoPwC/mega-trends-and-implications-to-retirement

      PwC. “Healthcare’s new entrants: Who will be the industry’s Amazon.com?” Health Research Institute. April 2014. https://www.pwc.com/us/en/health-industries/healthcare-new-entrants/assets/pwc-hri-new-entrant-chart-pack-v3.pdf

      PwC. “Northern Lights: Where are we now?” PwC Blogs. 2012. http://pwc.blogs.com/files/12.09.06---northern-lights-2--summary.pdf

      PwC. “PwC’s key performance indicators

      Take Advantage of Big Tech Layoffs

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}573|cart{/j2store}
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      • Parent Category Name: Attract & Select
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      Tech layoffs have been making the news over the past year, with thousands of Big Tech employees having been laid off. After years of record low unemployment in IT, many leaders are looking to take advantage of these layoffs to fill their talent gaps.

      However, IT leaders need to determine their response – wait and see the impact of the recession on budgets and candidate expectations, or dive in and secure great talent to execute today on strategic needs. This research is designed to help those IT leaders who are looking to take advantage employee effective talents to secure talent.

      • With the impact of the economic slowdown still unknown, the first question IT leaders need to ask is whether now is the time to act.
      • Even with these layoffs, IT unemployment rates are at record lows, with many organizations continuing to struggle to attract talent. While these layoffs have opened a window, IT leaders need to act quickly to secure great talent.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      The “where has the talent gone?” puzzle has been solved. Many tech firms over-hired and were able to outcompete everyone, but it wasn’t sustainable. This correction won’t impact unemployment numbers in the short term – the job force is just in flux right now.

      Impact and Result

      This research is designed to help IT leaders understand the talent market and to provide winning tactics to those looking to take advantage of the layoffs to fill their hiring needs.

      Take Advantage of Big Tech Layoffs Research & Tools

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

      1. Take Advantage of Big Tech Layoffs Storyboard – A snapshot of the current talent market in IT and quick tactics IT leaders can employ to improve their hiring process to find and attract tech talent.

      Straightforward tactics you can execute to successfully recruit IT staff impacted by layoffs.

      • Take Advantage of Big Tech Layoffs Storyboard

      2. IT Talent Acquisition Optimization Tool – Use this tool to document the current and future talent acquisition process.

      To hire efficiently, create a clear, consistent talent acquisition process. The IT Talent Acquisition Process Optimization Tool will help to:

    • Map out the current talent acquisition workflow
    • Identify areas of opportunity and potential gaps in the current process
      • IT Talent Acquisition Optimization Tool
      [infographic]

      Further reading

      Take Advantage of Big Tech Layoffs

      Simple tactics to secure the right talent in times of economic uncertainty.

      Why are the layoffs making the news?

      After three years of record low unemployment rates in IT and organizations struggling to hire IT talent into their organization, the window appears to be opening with tens of thousands layoffs from Big Tech employers.

      Big brand organizations such as Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Twitter, Netflix, and Meta have been hitting major newswires, but these layoffs aren't exclusive to the big names. We've also seen smaller high-growth tech organizations following suit. In fact, in 2022, it's estimated that there were more than 160,997 layoffs across over 1,045 tech organizations. This trend has continued into 2023. By mid-February 2023, there were already 108,754 employees laid off at 385 tech companies (Layoffs.fyi).(1)

      While some of these layoffs have been openly connected to economic slowdown, others are pointing to the layoffs being a correction for over-hiring during the pandemic. It is also important to note that many of these workers were not IT employees, as these organizations also saw cuts across other areas of the business such as sales, marketing, recruitment, and operations.

      (1)This global database is constantly being updated, and these numbers are changing on an ongoing basis. For up-to-date statistics, see https://layoffs.fyi

      While tech layoffs have been making the news, so far many of these layoffs have been a correction to over-hiring, with most employees laid off finding work, if they want it, within three months.

      IT leaders need to determine their response – wait and see the impact of the recession on budgets and candidate expectations or dive in and secure great talent to execute today on strategic needs.

      This research is designed to help IT leaders understand the talent market and provide winning strategies to those looking to take advantage of the layoffs to fill their hiring needs.

      Three key drivers for Big Tech layoffs

      Economic uncertainty

      Globally, economists are predicting an economic slowdown, though there is not a consistent prediction on the impact. We have seen an increase in interest rates and inflation, as well as reduced investment budgets.

      Over-hiring during the pandemic

      High growth and demand for digital technologies and services during the early pandemic led to over-hiring in the tech industry. Many organizations overestimated the future demand and had to rebalance staffing as a result.

      New automation investments

      Many tech organizations that have conducted layoffs are still in a growth mindset. This is demonstrated though new tech investments by these companies in products like chatbots and RPA to semi-automate processes to reduce the need for certain roles.

      Despite layoffs, the labor market remains competitive

      There were at least 160,997 layoffs from more than 1,045 tech companies last year (2022). (Layoffs.fyi reported as of Feb 21/2023)

      But just because Big Tech is laying people off doesn't mean the IT job market has cooled.

      Between January and October 2022 technology- focused job postings rose 25% compared to the same period in 2021, and there were more than 375,000 tech jobs posted in October of 2022.
      (Dice: Tech Jobs Report.)

      Info-Tech Insight

      The "where has the talent gone?" puzzle has been solved. Many tech firms over-hired and were able to outcompete everyone, but it wasn't sustainable. This correction won't impact unemployment numbers in the short term – the job force is just in flux right now.

      So far, many of the layoffs have been a market correction

      Tech Layoffs Since COVID-19

      This is an image of a combo line graph plotting the number of tech layoffs from Q1 2020 to Q4 2022.

      Source: Layoffs.fyi - Tech Layoff Tracker and Startup Layoff Lists

      Tech Companies Layoffs vs. Early Pandemic Hiring # of People

      This is an image of a bar graph plotting Tech Companies Layoffs vs. Early Pandemic Hiring # of People

      Source: Yahoo Finance. Q4 '19 to Q3 '22

      Tech Layoffs between 2020 Q3- 2022 Q1 remained very low across the sector. In fact, outside of the initial increase at the start of the pandemic, layoffs have remained at historic low levels of around 1% (HBR, 2023). While the layoffs look significant in isolation, when you compare these numbers to pandemic hiring and growth for these organizations, the figures are relatively small.

      The first question IT leaders need to ask is whether now is the time to act

      The big gamble many CIOs face is whether to strike now to secure talent or to wait to better understand the impact of the recession. While two-thirds of IT professionals are still expecting their budgets to increase in 2023, CIOs must account for the impact of inflation and the recession on their IT budgets and staffing decisions (see Info-Tech's CEO-CIO Alignment Program).

      Ultimately, while unemployment is low today, it's common to see unemployment numbers drop right before a recession. If that is the case, then we will see more talent entering the market, possibly at more competitive salaries. But organizations that wait to hire risk not having the staff they need to execute on their strategy and finding themselves in a hiring freeze. CIOs need to decide on how to approach the economic uncertainty and where to place their bets.

      Looking ahead to 2023, how do you anticipate your IT spending will change compared to spending in 2022?

      This is an image of anticipated changes to IT spending compared to 2022 for the following categories: Decrease of more than 30%; Decrease between 16-30%; Decrease between 6-15%; Decrease between 1-5%; No Change; Increase between 1-5%; Increase between 6-15%; Increase between 16-30%; Increase of more than 30%

      Info-Tech's CEO-CIO Alignment Program

      Organizations ready to take advantage will need to act fast when layoffs happen

      Organizations looking to fill hiring needs or grow their IT/digital organization will need to be strategic and efficient when it comes to recruitment. Regardless of the number of layoffs, it continues to be an employee market when it comes to IT roles.

      While it is likely that the recession will impact unemployment rates, so far, the market remains hot, and the number of open roles continues to grow. This means that organizations that want to take advantage need to act quickly when news hits.

      Leaders not only need to compete with other organizations for talent, but the other challenge hiring organizations will need to compete with is that many in tech received generous severance packages and will be considering taking time off. To take advantage, leaders need to establish a plan and a clear employee value proposition to entice these highly skilled workers to get off the bench.

      Why you need to act fast:

      • Unemployment rates remain low:
        • Tech unemployment's rates in the US dropped to 1.5% in January 2023 (CompTIA), compared to overall unemployment which is at 3.4% in the US as of January 2023 (Yahoo Finance). While the layoffs look significant, we can see that many workers have been rehired into the labor market.
      • Long time-to-hire results in lost candidates:
        • According to Info-Tech's IT Talent Trend Report, 58% of IT leaders report time-to-hire is longer than two months. This timing increases for tech roles which require unique skills or higher seniority. IT leaders who can increase the timeline for their requirement process are much more likely to be able to take advantage of tech layoffs.

      IT must take a leading role in IT recruitment to take advantage of layoffs

      A personal connection is the differentiator when it comes to talent acquisition

      There is a statistically significant relationship between IT leadership involvement in talent acquisition and the effectiveness of this process in the IT department. The more involved they are, the higher the effectiveness.(1)

      More IT leadership involvement

      An image of two upward facing arrows. The left arrow is faded purple, and the right arrow is dark purple.

      Higher recruitment effectiveness

      Involved leaders see shorter times to hire

      There is a statistically significant relationship between IT leadership involvement in the talent acquisition process and time to fill vacant positions. The more involved they are, the shorter the time to hire.(2)

      Involved leaders are an integral part of effective IT departments

      There is a statistically significant relationship between IT leadership involvement in talent acquisition and overall IT department effectiveness. Those that are more involved have higher levels of effectiveness.(3)

      Increased IT Leadership in Recruitment Is Directly Correlated to Recruitment Effectiveness.

      This is an image of a combo bar graph plotting Overall Effectiveness for IT leadership involvement in recruitment.

      Focus your layoff recruitment strategy on critical and strategic roles

      If you are ready to take advantage of tech layoffs, focus hiring on critical and strategic roles, rather than your operational backfills. Roles related to security, cloud migration, data and analytics, and digital transformation are more likely to be shielded from budget cuts and are logical areas to focus on when looking to recruit from Big Tech organizations.

      Additionally, within the IT talent market, scarcity is focused in areas with specialized skill sets, such as security and architecture, which are dynamic and evolving faster than other skill sets. When looking to recruit in these areas, it's critical that you have a targeted recruitment approach; this is why tech layoffs represent a strong opportunity to secure talent in these specialized areas.

      ROLES DIFFICULT TO FILL

      An image of a bar graph plotting roles by difficulty to fill.

      Info-Tech Talent Trends 2022 Survey

      Four quick tactics to take advantage of Big Tech layoffs

      TALENT ACQUISITION PROCESS TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF LAYOFFS

      This is an image of the talent acquisition process to take advantage of layoffs. It involves the following four steps: 1 Prepare organization and job ads for recruitment.  2 Actively track and scan for layoff activity.  3 Prioritize and screen candidates using salary benchmarks and keywords.  4 Eliminate all unnecessary hiring process steps.

      Guided Implementation

      What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

      Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4

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

      Call #2: IT job ad review.

      Call #4: Identify screening and sourcing opportunities.

      Call #5: Review your IT talent acquisition process.

      Call #3: Employee value proposition review.

      Call #7: Refine your talent acquisition process.

      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.

      Tactics to take advantage of tech layoffs

      Activities

      1.1 Spot check your employee value proposition
      1.2 Update job advertisements
      1.3 Document your talent acquisition process
      1.4 Refine your talent acquisition process

      This step involves the following participants:

      • IT executive leadership
      • IT hiring manager
      • Human resources
      • Marketing/public relations

      Outcomes of this step

      Streamlined talent acquisition process tailored to take advantage of tech layoffs.

      This is an image of the talent acquisition process to take advantage of layoffs. It involves the following fo steps: 1 Prepare organization and job ads for recrtment.  2 Actively track and scan for layoff aivity.  3 Prioritize and screen candidates using salary benchmarks and kwords.  4 Eliminate all unnecessary hiring process steps.

      Requisition: update job ads and secure approval to hire

      Critical steps:

      1. Ensure you have secured budget and hiring approval.
      2. Identify an IT recruitment partner within the IT organization who will be accountable for working with HR throughout the process and who will actively track and scan for recruitment opportunities.
      3. Update your IT job descriptions.
      4. Spot check your employee value proposition (EVP) to appeal to targeted candidates (Exercise 1.1).
      5. Write employee job ads for relevant skills and minimum viable experience (Exercise 1.2).
      6. Work with HR to develop your candidate outreach messages – ensure that your outreach is empathetic, aligns with your EVP, and focuses on welcoming them to apply to a role.

      The approval process to activate a requisition can be one of the longest stages in the talent acquisition process. Ensure all your roles are up to date and approved so you can trigger outreach as soon as news hits; otherwise, you'll be late before you've even begun.

      Your employee value proposition (EVP) is a key tool for attracting and retaining talent

      Any updates to your EVP need to be a genuine reflection of the employee experience at your organization – and should resonate internally and externally.

      Internal (retention) perspective: These characteristics help to retain new and existing talent by ensuring that new hires' expectations are met and that the EVP is experienced throughout the organization.

      External (attraction) perspective: These characteristics help to attract talent and are targeted so the right candidates are motivated to join, while those who aren't a good fit will self-select out.

      McLean & Company's Employee Value Proposition Framework

      This is an image of McLean & Company's Employee Value Proposition Framework.  It is divided into Retain and Attract.  under Retain, are the following three headings: Aligned; Accurate; Aspirational.  Under Attract are: Compelling; Clear; Comprehensive.

      Source: McLean & Company

      1.1 Spot check your EVP

      1-3 hours

      1. Review your existing IT employee value proposition. If you do not have an EVP, see Info-Tech's comprehensive research Improve the IT Recruitment Process to draft a new EVP.
      2. Invite a representative group of employees to participate in a working group to improve your employee value proposition. Ask each participant to brainstorm the top five things they value most about working at the organization.
      3. Consider the following categories: work environment, career advancement, benefits, and ESG and diversity impact. Brainstorm as a group if there is anything unique your organization offers with regard to these categories.
      4. Compare your notes to your existing EVP, identify up to four key statements to focus on for the EVP, ensuring that your EVP speaks to at least one of the categories above. Remove any statements that no longer speak to who you are as an organization or what you offer.

      Input

      • Existing employee value proposition
      • Employee Engagement Surveys (If Available)

      Output

      • Updated employee value proposition

      Materials

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Job ad template

      Participants

      • Representative group of internal employees.
      • HR
      • Marketing/PR (if possible)

      Four critical factors considered by today's job seeker

      1. Be specific about remote work policies: Include verbiage about whether there is an option to work hybrid or remote. 81% of job seekers stated that whether a job is remote, hybrid, or in-person was a top factor in whether they'd accept an offer (Benefits Canada, 2022).
      2. Career advancement and stability: "37% of Gen Z employees and 25% of millennial employees are currently looking for a job that offers career progression transparency — or, in other words, a job with clear opportunities for growth. This is significantly higher than our findings for older generations Gen X (18%) and baby boomers (7%)," (Lattice, 2021).
      3. Unique benefits: Consider your unique benefits – it's not the Big Tech "fun perks" like slides and ping pong that drive interest. Employees are increasingly looking for roles with long-term benefits programs. 90% of job seekers consider higher pension contributions to be a key factor, and 85% are considering bonuses/profit sharing" (Benefits Canada, 2022). Candidates may accept lower total compensation in exchange for flexibility, culture, work/life balance that was lacking in the start-up scene or the mega-vendors' fast-paced world.
      4. ESG and diversity impact: Include details of how the candidate will make a societal impact through their role, and how the company is acting on climate and sustainability. "Nearly two in five [Gen Z's and millennials] say they have rejected a job or assignment because it did not align with their values," (Deloitte Global, 2022).

      Update or establish job ads for candidate outreach

      Take the time up front to update your IT job descriptions and to write effective job advertisements. A job advertisement is an external-facing document that advertises a position with the intent of attracting job applicants. It contains key elements from the job description as well as information on the organization and its EVP. A job description informs a job ad, it doesn't replace it.
      When updating job descriptions and job ads, it's critical that your requirements are an accurate representation of what you need in the position. For the job ads especially, focus on the minimum requirements for the role, highlight your employee value proposition, and ensure that they are using inclusive language.
      Don't be lulled into using a job description as a posting when there's a time crunch to fill a position – use your preparation time to complete this key step.

      Three tips to consider when building a job ad

      Include the minimum desired requirements

      Include the required skills, responsibilities, and certifications required. Instead of looking for a unicorn, look for what you need and a demonstrated ability to learn. 70% of business executives say they are getting creative about sourcing for skills rather than just considering job experience (Deloitte Insights, 2022).

      Strategically include certifications

      When including certifications, ensure you have validated the process to be certified – i.e. if you are hiring for a role with 3-5 years' experience, ensure that the certification does not take 5-10 years of experience be eligible.

      Use inclusive language

      Consider having a review group within your IT organization to ensure the language is inclusive, that the responsibilities don't read as overly complex, and that it is an accurate representation of the organization's culture.

      1.2 Update or build job ads

      1-3 hours

      1. Begin with a copy of the job ad you are looking to fill, if you haven't begun to draft the role, start with Info-Tech's Job Description Library and Info-Tech's Job Ad Template.
      2. Review the job accountabilities, rank each responsibility based on its importance and volume of work. Determine if there are any responsibilities that are uncommon to be executed by the role and remove unnecessary responsibilities.
      3. For each of the job accountabilities, identify if there is a level of experience, knowledge or competency that would be the minimum bar for a candidate. Remove technical skills, specific technologies, and competencies that aren't directly relevant to the role, responsibilities or values.
      4. Review the education and requirements, and ensure that any certification or educational background is truly needed or suggested.
      5. Use the checklist on the following tab to review and update your job ad.

      Input

      • Job description
      • Employee value proposition
      • Job ad template

      Output

      • Completed job ad

      Materials

      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Web share

      Participants

      • Representative group of internal employees.
      • HR
      • Marketing/PR (if possible)

      1.2 Job ad checklist:

      A job ad needs to be two things: effective and inclusive.

      Effective

      The job ad does include:

      The organization's logo.
      Description of the organization.
      Information about benefits.
      A link to the organization's website and social media platforms.
      Steps in the application process and what candidates can expect.

      The job ad:

      Paints an accurate picture of key aspects of the role.
      Tells a story to show potential candidates how the role and organization will fit into their career path (outlines potential career paths, growth opportunities, training, etc.).
      Does not contain too many details and tasks that would overwhelm applicants.
      Highlights the employer brand in a manner that conveys the EVP and markets the organization to attract potential applicants.
      Includes creative design or formatting to make the ad stand out.
      The job ad speaks to the audience by using targeted language (e.g. using creative language when recruiting for a creative role).
      The job ad has been reviewed by HR, Marketing, PR.

      Inclusive

      The job ad does NOT include:

      Industry jargon or abbreviations that are not spelled out.
      Personality characteristics and unnecessary adjectives that would deter qualified candidates (e.g. extroverted, aggressive, competitive).
      A list of specific academic disciplines or schools, GPA requirements, or inflated degree requirements.

      The job ad:

      Uses gender-neutral language and does not contain terms that indicate traits that are typically associated with a specific gender.
      Can be viewed and applications can be completed on mobile devices.
      Focuses on results, day-to-day requirements, competencies, and transferrable skills.
      Includes design that is accessible (e.g. alternative text is provided for images, clear posting structure with headings, color is not used to convey information).

      Sourcing: Set up news trackers and review layoff source lists

      • Set up news and social media trackers to track layoff updates, and ensure you have an IT staff member on standby to complete a more detailed opportunity analysis when layoffs happen.
      • Use layoff source lists such as Layoffs.fyi to actively track organizations that have laid people off, noting the industry, location, and numbers in order to identify potential candidates. Limit your future analysis to locations that would be geographically possible to hire from.
      • Review open-source lists of laid-off employees to quickly identify potential candidates for your organization.
      • Many organizations that have completed layoffs have established outplacement programs to help laid-off staff find new roles. Set a plan in motion with HR to reach out to organizations once a layoff has occurred to understand their layoff support program.

      The key to successful sourcing is for IT to take an active role in identifying which organizations impacted by layoffs would be a good fit, and to quickly respond by searching open-source lists and LinkedIn to reach out potential candidates.

      Consider leveraging open-source lists

      Layoffs.fyi has been tracking and reporting on layoffs since the start of COVID-19. While they are not an official source of information, the site has more than a million views per month and is a strong starting point for IT leaders looking to source candidates from tech layoffs beyond the big organizations that are making the news.

      The site offers a view of companies with layoffs by location, industry, and the source of the info. Additionally, it often lists the names and contact information of laid-off employees, which you can leverage to start your deeper LinkedIn outreach or candidate screening.

      This is an image of two screenshots of open source lists from Layoffs.fyi

      Screenshots from Layoffs.fyi.

      Screening: Prioritize by considering salary benchmarks and keywords

      • Determine a set of consistent pre-screening questions to leverage while screening candidates, which every candidate must answer, including knockout questions.
      • Prioritize by going for salary ranges you can afford: It is important to be aware of what companies are paying within the tech arena, so you know if your salary bands are within a competitive range.
      • Pre-screen resumes using appropriate keywords that are critical for the role, and widen the terms if you do not have enough candidates. Given the pool you are looking to recruit from, consider removing criteria specifically related to education or certifications; instead, prioritize skills and on-the-job experience.

      Screening is one of the most time-consuming stages of the TA process. For each open position, it can take 23 hours to screen resumes (Toolbox, 2021). In fact, 52% of TA leaders believe that screening candidates from a large pool of applicants is the hardest part of recruitment (Ideal, 2021).

      Compensation comparison reports

      Keep in mind that the market may be shifting rapidly as layoffs proliferate, so what the data shows, particularly on free-to-use sites with little data-checking, may not be current and may be overstated. Info-Tech does not provide salary analysis; however, there are publicly available reports and online websites with self-reported data.

      This list contains several market data sources for the tech industry, which may be a good starting point for comparison. Info-Tech is not affiliated with or endorsing any of these market data sources.

      Aon Global Cyber Security Compensation and Talent Survey
      Aon – Radford Surveys Radford Global Technology Survey
      Culpepper Comprehensive Compensation Survey Solution for Technology-Focused Companies
      Modis 2022 IT Compensation Guide
      Motion Recruitment 2023 Tech Salary Guide
      Mondo 2022 Salary Guide for roles & jobs across the technology, creative & digital marketing industries.
      Willis Towers Watson Willis Towers Watson Data Services - Artificial Intelligence and Digital Talent
      Willis Towers Watson 2022 Artificial Intelligence and Digital Talent Survey Report - Canada
      Willis Towers Watson 2022 Artificial Intelligence and Digital Talent Survey Report - U.S.
      Michael Page Salary Guide 2022 for the Greater Toronto Area Technology Industry
      Willis Towers Watson Willis Towers Watson Data Services - Tech, Media, and Gaming
      Willis Towers Watson 2022 Tech, Media and Gaming Executive Survey Report - Canada
      Willis Towers Watson 2022 Tech, Media and Gaming Middle Management, Professional and Support Survey Report - Canada
      Willis Towers Watson 2022 Tech, Media and Gaming Executive Survey Report - U.S.
      Willis Towers Watson 2022 Tech, Media and Gaming Middle Management, Professional and Support Survey Report - U.S.

      Work with your HR partner to streamline your talent acquisition process

      A slow talent acquisition process presents multiple risks to your ability to recruit. Candidates are likely having multiple hiring conversations, and you could lose a good candidate just by being slower than another organization. Additionally, long hiring processes are also an indicator of a high level of bureaucracy in an organization, which may turn off tech candidates who are used to faster-paced decision making.

      Reducing your time-to-hire needs to be a strategic priority, and companies that manage to do this are reaping the benefits: There is a statistically significant relationship between time to fill vacant positions and overall IT department effectiveness. The shorter the time to fill a position, the higher the effectiveness (Bika, 2019).

      Key Considerations for Optimizing your Talent Acquisition Process

      Key Considerations for Optimizing your Talent Acquisition Process

      Review the end-to-end experience

      50%

      of job seekers surveyed had "declined a job offer due to poor [candidate] experience," (Echevarria, 2020).

      Reduce the time to hire

      55%

      "of candidates believe that it should take one to two weeks from the first interview to being offered the job," (Duszyński, 2021).

      Be clear on Timelines

      83%

      "of candidates say it would greatly improve the overall experience if employers provided a clear timeline of the hiring process," (Miller, n.d.).

      Time to hire: Identify solutions to drive efficient hiring

      1. Document all steps between screening and hiring and remove any unnecessary steps.
      2. Create clearly defined interview guides to ensure consistent questioning by interviewers.
      3. Enable hiring managers to schedule their own interviews.
      4. Determine who needs to approve an offer. Streamline the number of approvals, if possible.
      5. Eliminate unnecessary background checks. Many companies have eliminated reference checks, for example, after determining that it was it was not adding value to their decision.
      6. Identify and track key metrics across your talent acquisition process.

      It is critical to partner with your HR department on optimizing this process, as they are typically the process owners and will have deep knowledge of the rationale for decisions. Together, you can identify some opportunities to streamline the process and improve the time to hire.

      4.1 Document your TA process

      1-3 hours

      1. If you have a documented talent acquisition process, begin with that; if not, open the IT Talent Acquisition Process Optimization Tool and map the stages of the talent acquisition process with your HR leader. Stages are the top level in the process (e.g. requisition, sourcing, screening).
      2. Identify all the stakeholders involved in IT talent acquisition and document these in the tool.
      3. Next, identify the steps required for each stage. These are more detailed actions that together will complete the stage (e.g. enter requisition into ATS, intake meeting). Ask subject matter experts to add steps to their portion of the process and document these in the cells.
      4. For each step in the stage, record the time required and the number of people who are involved.

      Input

      • Existing talent acquisition (TA) process document
      • Any TA process metrics
      • Info-Tech's Talent Acquisition Process Optimization Tool

      Output

      • Documented TA process

      Materials

      • Info-Tech's Talent Acquisition Process Optimization Tool
      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Sticky notes

      Participants

      • HR
      • IT leaders
      • Hiring manager

      Download the IT Talent Acquisition Process Optimization Tool

      Example of steps in each stage of the TA process

      Activities

      Requisition

      Source

      Screen

      Interview & Assess

      Offer

      Background Check

      Vacancy identified Posted on website Resumes screened in system Interviews scheduled Offer letter drafted Reference checks conducted
      Requisition submitted Posted on job boards Resume screened by recruited First round interviews Offer letter sent Medical checks conducted
      Requisition approved Identification of layoff sources Resumed reviewed by hiring manager Assessment Negotiations Other background checks conducted
      Job description updated Review layoff source lists Screening calls Second round interview First date confirmed
      Job ad updated Screening questions developed Candidates selected
      Intake meeting

      4.2 Refine your TA process

      1-3 hours

      1. Collectively identify any:
        1. Inconsistent applications: Activities that are done differently by different participants.
        2. Bottlenecks: A place in the process where activity is constrained and holds up next steps.
        3. Errors: When a mistake occurs requiring extra time, resources, or rework.
        4. Lack of value: An activity that adds little to no value (often a legacy activity).
      2. Work with HR to identify any proposed solutions to improve consistency, reduce bottlenecks, errors, or eliminate steps that lack value. Document your proposed solutions in tab 3 of the IT Talent Acquisition Optimization Tool.
      3. Identify any new steps needed that would drive greater efficiency, including the tactics suggested in this research. Document any proposed solutions in tab 3.
      4. For each proposed solution, evaluate the general level of effort and impact required to move forward with that solution and select the appropriate classification from the drop-down.
      5. Determine if you will move forward with the proposed solution at this time. Update the TA workflow with your decisions.

      Input

      • Existing talent acquisition (TA) process document
      • Any TA process metrics
      • Info-Tech's Talent Acquisition Process Optimization Tool

      Output

      • Documented TA process

      Materials

      • Info-Tech's Talent Acquisition Process Optimization Tool
      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Sticky notes

      Participants

      • HR
      • IT leaders
      • Hiring manager

      Use Info-Tech's IT Talent Acquisition Optimization Tool to document current challenges & target solutions.

      Map your process and identify opportunities to streamline

      This is an image of the talent aquisitions workflow page from Info-Tech's Map your process and identify opportunities to streamline

      Brainstorm and select solutions to improve your process

      This is an image of the Effort Analysis page from Info-Tech's Brainstorm and select solutions to improve your process

      Key considerations when optimizing your process

      • Put yourself in each stakeholder's shoes (candidate, HR, hiring manager). Think through what they need from the process.
      • Challenge assumptions and norms. It can be tempting to get caught up in "how we do it today." Think beyond how it is today.
      • Question timing of activities and events. Identify if they are occurring when they need to.
      • Rebalance work to align with priorities. Identify if work can be redistributed or condensed to use time more efficiently.
      • Distinguish when consistency will add value and when there should be process flexibility.
      • Question the value. For each activity, ask "What value does this activity add?"

      Select metrics to measure Talent Acquisition process improvement

      METRICS INFORMATION
      Metric Definition Calculation
      Average applicants per posting The average number of applicants received per post. Number of applications / Number of postings
      Average number of interviews for open job positions Average number of interviews for open job positions. Total number of interviews / Total number of open job positions
      Average external time to fill Average number of calendar days from when the requisition is issued to when a candidate accepts the position from outside the organization. External days to fill / External candidates
      Pipeline throughput Percentage of candidates advancing through to the next stage. (Number of candidates in chosen stage / Number of candidates in preceding stage) * 100
      External offer acceptance rate Percentage of job offers extended to external candidates that were accepted. (Number of job offers that are accepted / Number of job offers extended) * 100
      Percentage of target group hired The percentage of a target group that was hired. Number of FTE hired / Target number of FTE to be hired
      Average time to hire Average number of calendar days between first contact with the candidate and when they accept the offer. Sum of number of days between first contact and offer acceptance / External candidates
      Quality of hire Percentage of new hires achieving a satisfactory appraisal at their first assessment. New hires who achieve a satisfactory rating at their first appraisal / Total number of new hires
      Vacancy rate Percentage of positions being actively recruited for at the end of the reporting period. Count of vacant positions / (Headcount + Vacant positions)

      Bibliography

      "81% of Employees Factoring Hybrid Work Into Job Search: Survey." BenefitsCanada.com, 16 June 2022.
      Andre, Louie. "40 Notable Candidate Experience Statistics: 2023 Job Application Trends & Challenges." Financesonline.Com, 15 Mar. 2023.
      Bika, Nikoletta. "Key Hiring Metrics: Useful Benchmarks for Tech Roles." Recruiting Resources: How to Recruit and Hire Better, 10 Jan. 2019.
      "Bureau of Labor Statistics Labor Market Revisions Contribute to Conflicting Signals in Latest Tech Employment Data, CompTIA Analysis Finds." CompTIA, 3 Feb. 2023. Press release.
      Byrnes, Amy. "ICIMS Insights Workforce Report: Time to Press the Reset Button?" ICIMS | The Leading Cloud Recruiting Software, 1 Dec. 2022.
      Cantrell, Sue, et al. "The Skills-Based Organization: A New Operating Model for Work and the Workforce." Deloitte Insights, 8 Sept. 2022.
      deBara, Deanna. "Top Findings from Lattice's Career Progression Survey." Lattice, 13 Sept. 2021. Accessed 16 Feb. 2023.
      Duszyński, Maciej. "Candidate Experience Statistics (Survey of 1,000+ Americans)." Zety, 14 Oct. 2019.
      Duszyński, Maciej. "Candidate Experience Statistics." Zety, 2021.
      Echevarria, Desiree. "2020 Candidate Experience Report." Career Plug, 17 Mar. 2021.
      Ghosh, Prarthana. "Candidate Screening and Selection Process: The Complete Guide for 2021." Spiceworks, 26 Feb. 2021. Accessed 22 Jun. 2021
      "Introduction - Dice Tech Job Report: Tech Hiring Trends by Location, Industry, Role and Skill." Accessed 16 Feb. 2023.
      Lee, Roger. "Tech Layoff Tracker and Startup Layoff Lists." Layoffs.fyi. Accessed 16 Feb. 2023.
      Miller, Kandace. "Candidate Experience And Engagement Metrics You Should Be Tracking." ConveyIQ, n.d. Accessed 16 Feb. 2023.
      Min, Ji-A. "Resume Screening: A How-To Guide for Recruiters." Ideal, 15 Mar. 2021. Web.
      Palmeri, Shelby. "2023 Candidate Experience Research: Strategies for Recruiting." CareerPlug, 6 Feb. 2023.
      Semenova, Alexandra. "Jobs Report: U.S. Economy Adds 517,000 Jobs in January, Unemployment Rate Falls to 3.4% as Labor Market Stuns." Yahoo!Finance, 3 Feb. 2023.
      Sozzi, Brian. "Big Tech Layoffs: What Companies Such as Amazon and Meta Have in Common." Yahoo!News, 6 Feb. 2023.
      Tarki, Atta. "Despite Layoffs, It's Still a Workers' Labor Market." Harvard Business Review, 30 Jan. 2023.
      The Deloitte Global 2022 Gen Z and Millennial Survey. Deloitte Global, 2022. Accessed 16 Feb. 2023.
      "Uncover the Employee Value Proposition." McLean & Company, 21 Jun. 2022. Accessed 22 Feb. 2023.

      Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy

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      • Parent Category Name: Service Desk
      • Parent Category Link: /service-desk
      • Tier 2 and 3 specialists lose time and resources working on tickets instead of more complex projects.
      • The service desk finds themselves resolving the same incidents over and over, wasting manual work on tasks that could be automated.
      • Employees expect modern, consumer-like experiences when they need help; they want to access information and resources from wherever they are and have the tools to solve their problems themselves without waiting for help.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • It can be difficult to overcome the mindset that difficult functions need to be escalated. Shift left involves a cultural change to the way the service desk works, and overcoming objections and getting buy-in up front is critical.
      • Many organizations have built a great knowledgebase but fail to see the value of it over time as it becomes overburdened with overlapping and out-of-date information. Knowledge capture, updating, and review must be embedded into your processes if you want to keep the knowledgebase useful.
      • Similarly, the self-service portal is often deployed out of the box with little input from end users and fails to deliver its intended benefits. The portal needs to be designed from the end user’s point of view with the goal of self-resolution if it will serve its purpose of deflecting tickets.

      Impact and Result

      • Embrace a shift-left strategy by moving repeatable service desk tasks and requests into lower-cost delivery channels such as self-help tools and automation.
      • Shift work from Tier 2 and 3 support to Tier 1 through good knowledge management practices that empower the first level of support with documented solutions to recurring issues and free up more specialized resources for project work and higher value tasks.
      • Shift knowledge from the service desk to the end user by enabling them to find their own solutions. A well-designed and implemented self-service portal will result in fewer logged tickets to the service desk and empowered, satisfied end users.
      • Shift away manual repetitive work through the use of AI and automation.
      • Successfully shifting this work left can reduce time to resolve, decrease support costs, and increase end-user satisfaction.

      Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to understand why a shift-left strategy can help to optimize your service desk, review Info-Tech's methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

      1. Prepare to shift left

      Assess whether you’re ready to optimize the service desk with a shift-left strategy, get buy-in for the initiative, and define metrics to measure success.

      • Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy – Phase 1: Prepare to Shift Left
      • Shift-Left Prerequisites Assessment
      • Shift-Left Strategy
      • Shift-Left Stakeholder Buy-In Presentation

      2. Design shift-left model

      Build strategy and identify specific opportunities to shift service support left to Level 1 through knowledge sharing and other methods, to the end-user through self-service, and to automation and AI.

      • Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy – Phase 2: Design Shift Left Model
      • Shift-Left Action Plan
      • Knowledge Management Workflows (Visio)
      • Knowledge Management Workflows (PDF)
      • Self-Service Portal Checklist
      • Self-Service Resolution Workflow (Visio)
      • Self-Service Resolution Workflow (PDF)

      3. Implement and communicate

      Identify, track, and implement specific shift-left opportunities and document a communications plan to increase adoption.

      • Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy – Phase 3: Implement & Communicate
      • Incident Management Workflow (Visio)
      • Incident Management Workflow (PDF)
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy

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

      1 Prepare to Shift Left

      The Purpose

      Define how shift left would apply in your organization, get buy-in for the initiative, and define metrics to measure success.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Defined scope and objectives for the shift-left initiative

      Buy-in for the program

      Metrics to keep the project on track and evaluate success

      Activities

      1.1 Review current service desk structure

      1.2 Discuss challenges

      1.3 Review shift-left model and discuss how it would apply in your organization

      1.4 Complete the Shift-Left Prerequisites Assessment

      1.5 Complete a RACI chart for the project

      1.6 Define and document objectives

      1.7 Review the stakeholder buy-in presentation

      1.8 Document critical success factors

      1.9 Define KPIs and metrics

      Outputs

      Shift-left scope

      Completed shift-left prerequisites assessment

      RACI chart

      Defined objectives

      Stakeholder buy-in presentation

      Critical success factors

      Metrics to measure success

      2 Plan to Shift to Level 1

      The Purpose

      Build strategy and identify specific opportunities to shift service support left to Level 1 through knowledge sharing and other methods.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Identified initiatives to shift work to Level 1

      Documented knowledge management process workflows and strategy

      Activities

      2.1 Identify barriers to Level 1 resolution

      2.2 Discuss knowledgebase challenges and areas for improvement

      2.3 Optimize KB input process

      2.4 Optimize KB usage process

      2.5 Optimize KB review process

      2.6 Discuss and document KCS strategy and roles

      2.7 Document knowledge success metrics

      2.8 Brainstorm additional methods of increasing FLR

      Outputs

      KB input workflow

      KB usage workflow

      KB review workflow

      KCS strategy and roles

      Knowledge management metrics

      Identified opportunities to shift to Level 1

      3 Plan to Shift to End User and Automation

      The Purpose

      Build strategy and identify specific opportunities to shift service support left to the end user through self-service and to automation and AI.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Identified initiatives to shift work to self-service and automation

      Evaluation of self-service portal and identified opportunities for improvement

      Activities

      3.1 Review existing self-service portal and discuss vision

      3.2 Identify opportunities to improve portal accessibility, UI, and features

      3.3 Evaluate the user-facing knowledgebase

      3.4 Optimize the ticket intake form

      3.5 Document plan to improve, communicate, and evaluate portal

      3.6 Map the user experience with a workflow

      3.7 Document your AI strategy

      3.8 Identify candidates for automation

      Outputs

      Identified opportunities to improve portal

      Improvements to knowledgebase

      Improved ticket intake form

      Strategy to communicate and measure success of portal

      Self-service resolution workflow

      Strategy to apply AI and automation

      Identified opportunities to shift tasks to automation

      4 Build Implementation and Communication Plan

      The Purpose

      Build an action plan to implement shift left, including a communications strategy.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Action plan to track and implement shift-left opportunities

      Communications plan to increase adoption

      Activities

      4.1 Examine process workflows for shift-left opportunities

      4.2 Document shift-left-specific responsibilities for each role

      4.3 Identify and track shift-left opportunities in the action plan

      4.4 Brainstorm objections and responses

      4.5 Document communications plan

      Outputs

      Incident management workflow with shift-left opportunities

      Shift left responsibilities for key roles

      Shift-left action plan

      Objection handling responses

      Communications plan

      Infrastructure & Operations Priorities 2022

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      • Parent Category Name: Disruptive & Emerging Technologies
      • Parent Category Link: /disruptive-emerging-technologies
      • The expectation amongst IT professionals for permanent transformational change has gone up 30% year over year. Further, 47% expect a lot of permanent change in 2022.
      • We are experiencing a great rate of change concurrent with a low degree of predictability.
      • How do you translate a general trend into a specific priority you can work on?

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Trends don’t matter but pressure does: Trends can be analyzed based on the pressure they exert (or not) on your I&O practice. Organizing trends into categories based on source makes for a more successful and contextual analysis.
      • Different prioritization is being demanded in 2022. For the foreseeable future prioritization is about drawing a line, below which you can ignore items with a clean conscience.
      • The priorities you choose to advocate for will be how your leadership is evaluated in the upcoming year.

      Impact and Result

      • By reading through this publication, you will begin to address the age-old problem “You don’t know what you don’t know.”
      • More importantly you will have a framework to dive deeper into the trends most relevant to you and your organization.
      • Info-Tech can help you turn your strong opinion into a compelling case for your stakeholders.

      Infrastructure & Operations Priorities 2022 Research & Tools

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

      1. Infrastructure & Operations Priorities 2022 – A framework to dive deeper into the trends most relevant to you and your organization

      Discover Info-Tech's four trends for Infrastructure & Operations leaders.

      • Infrastructure & Operations Priorities Report for 2022

      Infographic

      Establish Data Governance – APAC Edition

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      • Parent Category Name: Data Management
      • Parent Category Link: /data-management
      • Organisations are faced with challenges associated with changing data landscapes, evolving business models, industry disruptions, regulatory and compliance obligations, and changing and maturing user landscapes and demands for data.
      • Although the need for a data governance program is often evident, organisations miss the mark when their data governance efforts are not directly aligned to delivering measurable business value by supporting key strategic initiatives, value streams, and their underlying business capabilities.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Your organisation’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.
      • 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 organisation’s enterprise governance function. It should not be perceived as an IT pet project, but rather as a business-driven initiative.

      Impact and Result

      Info-Tech’s approach to establishing and sustaining effective data governance is anchored in the strong alignment of organisational value streams and their business capabilities with key data governance dimensions and initiatives.

      • Align with enterprise governance, business strategy and 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, supported by an operating model that effectively manages change and communication and fosters a culture of data excellence.

      Establish Data Governance – APAC Edition 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 organisation 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 – APAC

      2. Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook – A structured tool to assist with establishing effective data governance practices.

      This workbook will help your organisation understand the business and user context by leveraging your business capability map and value streams, developing data use cases using Info-Tech's framework for building data use cases, and gauging the current state of your organisation's data culture.

      • Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook – APAC

      3. Data Use Case Framework Template – An exemplar template to highlight and create relevant use cases around the organisation’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 organisation. This template provides a framework for data requirements and a mapping methodology for creating use cases.

      • Data Use Case Framework Template – APAC

      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 organisation plan the sequence of activities, capture start dates and expected completion dates, and create a roadmap that can be effectively communicated to the organisation.

      • Data Governance Initiative Planning and Roadmap Tool – APAC

      5. Business Data Catalogue – 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 organisation.

      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 Catalogue – APAC

      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 – APAC

      7. Data Policies – A set of policy templates to support the data governance framework for the organisation.

      This set of policies supports the organisation's use and management of data to ensure that it efficiently and effectively serves the needs of the organisation.

      • Data Governance Policy – APAC
      • Data Classification Policy, Standard, and Procedure – APAC
      • Data Quality Policy, Standard, and Procedure – APAC
      • Data Management Definitions – APAC
      • Metadata Management Policy, Standard, and Procedure – APAC
      • Data Retention Policy and Procedure – APAC
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Establish Data Governance – APAC Edition

      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 organisation 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 organisation.

      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 organisation.

      Assess where the organisation 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 organisational 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 organisation 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 prioritise 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

      Prioritised initiatives with dependencies mapped out.

      A clearly communicated plan for data governance that will have full business backing.

      Activities

      4.1 Identify and prioritise 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

      Initialised roadmap

      Initialised RACI

      Further reading

      Establish Data Governance

      Deliver measurable business value.

      Analyst Perspective

      Establish a data governance program that brings value to your organisation.

      Picture of analyst

      Data governance does not sit as an island on its own in the organisation – it must align with and be driven by your enterprise governance. As you build out data governance in your organisation, 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 organisation'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 organisation. Promote and drive the responsible and ethical use of data while helping to build and foster an organisational 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 organisations is growing at an exponential rate, creating a need to adopt a formal approach to governing data. However, many organisations 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

      Organisations 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, organisations 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 organisational value streams and their business capabilities with key data governance dimensions and initiatives. Organisations 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 organisation'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 organisations build and sustain an effective data governance program.

      • Your organisation has recognised 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 organisation, 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 organisation 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 organisations include:

      • Gaps in communicating the strategic value of data and data governance to the organisation. 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 organisation 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 organisational drivers for doing so. How is data governance going to support the organisation'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 organisation.
      • 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 organisational performance through leveraging data.

      Respond to industry disruptors

      Optimise 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 organisation 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 optimised and supported by data governance.

      Data Driven

      You are differentiating and competing on data and analytics; described as a 'data first' organisation. You're collaborating through data. Data is an asset.

      Data governance is essential for any organisation 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 organisation.
      • 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.

      Organisational 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 organisation.
      • 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: Organisational 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 Organisation & Data Storytellers.

      Traditional data governance organisational 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 organisations follow a similar pattern when establishing committees, councils, and cross-functional groups. Most organisations 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 organisation.

      A triangular model is depicted and is split into three tiers to show the traditional data governance organisational 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 centres of excellence to accelerate data initiatives, when only about 1 in 4 executives reported that their organisation 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, organisations 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 organisations.

      40% of organisations say individuals within the business do not trust data insights.

      66% of organisations say a backlog of data debt is impacting new data management initiatives.

      33% of organisations are not able to get value from a new system or technology investment.

      30% of organisations 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)

      Organisations suspect 28% of their customer and prospect data is inaccurate in some way. (Source: Experian, 2020)

      Only 51% of organisations consider the current state of their CRM or ERP data to be clean, allowing them to fully leverage it. (Source: Experian, 2020)

      35% of organisations 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 catalogue
      • 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 organisation.

      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 organisation's fiscal cycle, typical or potential year-end demands, and monthly/quarterly reporting periods and audits. Initiatives such as these are likely to monopolise 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 organisation's current data culture, perception of data, value of data, and knowledge gaps.

      Use Case Build and Prioritisation

      Build a use case that is tied to business capabilities. Prioritise accordingly.

      Business Data Glossary

      Build and/or refresh the business' glossary for addressing data definitions and standardisation 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 organisation'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 organisation. It must continuously align with the organisation'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 organisation.

      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 organisation'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 organisation. 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 organisation.

      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 Organisation's Current Data Culture
      1. Formulate an Actionable Roadmap and Right-Sized Plan
      Phase Outcomes
      • Your organisation's business capabilities and value streams
      • A business capability map for your organisation
      • Categorisation of your organisation'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 organisation's current data culture
      • A data governance roadmap and target-state plan comprising of prioritised 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 organisation.

      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 organisation'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 organisation.

      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 organisation scores across 10 areas relating to data culture.

      Key deliverable:

      Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook

      Blueprint deliverables

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

      Data Governance Initiative Planning and Roadmap Tool

      Leverage this tool to assess your current data governance capabilities and plot your target state accordingly.

      This tool will help you plan the sequence of activities, capture start dates and expected completion dates, and create a roadmap that can be effectively communicated to the organisation.

      Data Governance Program Charter Template

      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 Policy

      This policy establishes uniformed 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 organisation

      Other Deliverables:

      • Data Governance Initiative Planning and Roadmap Tool
      • Data Governance Program Charter Template
      • Data Governance Policy

      Blueprint benefits

      Defined data accountability & responsibility

      Shared knowledge & common understanding of data assets

      Elevated trust & confidence in traceable data

      Improved data ROI & reduced data debt

      Support for ethical use and handling of data in a culture of excellence

      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 organisation'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 Organisation'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 organisation's business capabilities and value streams
      • A business capability map for your organisation
      • Categorisation of your organisation'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 organisation's current data culture
      • A data governance roadmap and target-state plan comprising of prioritised 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 organisation. 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 organisation
      • 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 prioritise 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 prioritise 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. Initialised roadmap
      2. Initialised RACI
      3. Completed Business Data Glossary (BDG)

      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 Organisation'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 Categorise Your Organisation'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 organisation'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 organisation
      • Map your organisation's strategic objectives to value streams and capabilities to communicate how objectives are realised with the support of data

      Outcomes of this step

      • A foundation for data governance initiative planning that's aligned with the organisation'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 organisation's existing business capability map or initiate the formulation of a business capability map:

      1. 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 organisation creates and captures value) and their business capabilities are reflective of the organisation's current business environment.
      2. 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 organisation's value streams. Meet with senior leadership and other key business stakeholders to define how your organisation 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 organisation

      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 organisation's value streams

      Value streams connect business goals to the organisation's value realisation activities. These value realisation activities, in turn, depend on data.

      If the organisation 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 organisation?
      • Engage with these stakeholders to define and validate how the organisation 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 organisation's products and/or services help them accomplish that?
        • What are the benefits your organisation delivers to them and how does your organisation deliver those benefits?
        • How do your stakeholders receive those benefits?

      Align data governance to the organisation's value realisation activities.

      Value streams enable the organisation to create or capture value in the market in which it operates by engaging in a set of interconnected activities.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Your organisation'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 organisation's value realisation activities.

      Example value stream descriptions for: Retail Banking

      Value streams enable the organisation 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 organisation's value realisation activities.

      Example value stream descriptions for: Higher Education

      Value streams enable the organisation 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 organisation's value realisation activities.

      Example value stream descriptions for: Local Government

      Value streams enable the organisation 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 organisation's value realisation activities.

      Example value stream descriptions for: Manufacturing

      Value streams enable the organisation 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 organisation's value realisation activities.

      Example value stream descriptions for: Retail

      Model example of value streams for retail

      Value streams enable the organisation 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 organisation'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 organisation 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:

      • Analyse the value streams to identify and describe the organisation'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 organisation, remove the ones that don't, and add any needed.

      Align data governance to the organisation's value realisation activities.

      Info-Tech Insight

      A business capability map can be thought of as a visual representation of your organisation'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 organisation'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 realisation 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 organisation'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 realisation 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 organisation'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 realisation 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 organisation'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 realisation 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 organisation'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 realisation 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 Categorise Your Organisation's Key Capabilities

      Determine which capabilities are considered high priority in your organisation.

      1. Categorise or heatmap the organisation's key capabilities. Consult with senior and other key business stakeholders to categorise and prioritise 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 prioritising 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 organisation. Highlight these capabilities and prioritise programs that support them.
      3. Identify competitive advantage differentiators. Focus on capabilities that give your organisation an edge over rivals or other players in your industry.

      This categorisation/prioritisation exercise helps highlight prime areas of opportunity for building use cases, determining prioritisation, and the overall optimisation of data and data governance.

      Input

      • Strategic insight from senior business stakeholders on the business capabilities that drive value for the organisation

      Output

      • Business capabilities categorised and prioritised (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 categorisation 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 organisation's competitive advantage creators.

      Example: Retail

      Example of business capabilities categorisation 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 organisation 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 organisation'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 organisation.
      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 prioritise the data initiatives that deliver the most value to the organisation.

      Input

      • Strategic objectives as outlined by the organisation's business strategy and confirmed by senior leaders

      Output

      • A strategy map that maps your organisational 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 organisation is looking to achieve.
      • Value streams enable an organisation 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 prioritise the data initiatives that deliver the most value to the organisation.

      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 categorised 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 organisation

      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 organisational 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 organisation.

      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.

      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 organisation.

      1. Bring together key business stakeholders (data owner, stewards, SMEs) from a particular line of business as well 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 organisation.

      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 organisation.

      Leveraging your business capability map, build use cases that align with the organisation'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 organisation (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 prioritised and leveraged for informing the business case and the data governance capabilities optimisation 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 Organisation'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 organisation'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 of the core components of an effective data governance program
      • An understanding your organisation's current data governance capabilities

      Leverage Info-Tech's: Data Governance Initiative Planning and Roadmap Tool to assess your current data governance capabilities and plot your target state accordingly.

      This tool will help your organisation plan the sequence of activities, capture start dates and expected completion dates, and create a roadmap that can be effectively communicated to the organisation.

      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 organisation'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 organisational 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 organisation's data governance program.
      • For organisations 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 organisation'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-organisational vision and strategy for data.
      • Owns and drives the data strategy; ensures it supports the overall organisational strategic direction and business goals.
      • Leads the organisational data initiatives, including data governance
      • Is accountable for the policy, strategy, data standards, and data literacy necessary for the organisation 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 organisation: "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 organisation 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 organisation, data owners will typically have the highest stake in that data.
      • Data owners needs 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 catalogue build, related tools and technology, policy management, etc.
      • Hold the influence needed to drive change in behaviour and culture.
      • Act as ambassadors of data and its value as an organisational strategic asset.

      Right-size your data governance organisational structure

      • Most organisations 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 organisation.
      • Your data governance structure has to work for your organisation, and it has to evolve as the organisation evolves.
      • Formulate your blend of data governance roles, committees, councils, and cross-functional groups, that make sense for your organisation.
      • Your data governance organisational structure should not add complexity or bureaucracy to your organisation'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 organisational structure.

      Example of a Data Governance Organisational 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 organisation'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 organisation.

      '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 organisation and manages risks while building and fostering a culture of data excellence along the way. Some organisations 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 organised, 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 organisations, sectors, and industries. Every organisation has its own particular drivers and mandates, so the level and rigour applied will also vary.
      • The key is to determine what style will work best in your organisation, taking into consideration your organisational culture, executive leadership support (present and ongoing), catalysts such as other enterprise-wide transformative and modernisation 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 organisation, 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 organisation 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 organisations invest in change management to build data supporters and convert the sceptics. 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 organisational 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 organisation'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 realisation of tangible business value are a must for sustaining, growing, and scaling your data governance program.
      • Aligning your data governance to the organisation's value realisation 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 organisation. 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 standardise 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 organisation.
      • 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 organisation.
      • Data policies can be thought of as formal statements and are typically created, approved, and updated by the organisation'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 standardise 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 organisation'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 organisation.

      Examples of data policies:

      • Data Classification Policy
      • Data Retention Policy
      • Data Entry Policy
      • Data Backup Policy
      • Data Provenance Policy
      • Data Management Policy

      See Info-Tech's Data Governance Policy Template: This policy establishes uniformed 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 organisation.

      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

      'Organisational 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 organisation'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 catalogue 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 realise its full return without building up the organisation's data literacy.
      • Data literacy is about filling data knowledge gaps across all levels of the organisation.
      • 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 organisation'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 organisation.

      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 catalogue 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 organisation'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 organisation'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 organisations 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 organisation'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 organisations 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 organisation 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 organisation regularly audits and monitors its data security.

      Ethical Use & Handling of Data

      Data governance will support your organisation's ethical use and handling of data by facilitating definition around important factors, such as:

      • What are the various data assets in the organisation 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 organisation'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 organisation's direct stakeholders and/or the public at large, lead to a loss of trust and confidence in the organisation's products and services, lead to financial loss, and impact the organisation's brand, reputation, and legal standing.
      • Data governance plays a vital role is 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 organisation to define, categorise, and confidently make decisions about its data.

      Step 2.2

      Gauge Your Organisation's Current Data Culture

      Activities

      2.2.1 Gauge Your Organisation'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 organisation's data culture

      Outcomes of this step

      • An understanding of your organisational data culture

      2.2.1 Gauge Your Organisation'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 organisation'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 organisation'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 organisation who should receive the survey

      Output

      • Your organisation'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 organisation

      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 organisation
      • 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 prioritised 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 prioritised initiatives

      Download Info-Tech's Data Governance Planning and Roadmapping Workbook

      See Info-Tech's 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.

      Outcomes of this step

      • A foundation for data governance initiative planning that's aligned with the organisation'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 organisation.

      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 organisation's fiscal cycle, typical or potential year-end demands, and monthly/quarterly reporting periods and audits. Initiatives such as these are likely to monopolise 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 organisation's current data culture, perception of data, value of data, and knowledge gaps.

      Use Case Build and Prioritisation

      Build a use case that is tied to business capabilities. Prioritise accordingly.

      Business Data Glossary/catalogue

      Build and/or refresh the business' glossary for addressing data definitions and standardisation 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 & Prioritisation

      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

      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.

      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 formalise 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 catalogue starting with identified and prioritised 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, rationalise, 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 organisation).
      • Define and formalise 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 organisation's PMO, conduct 'Data Governance 101' for the PMO.

      Defining data governance roles and organisational structure at Organisation

      The approach employed for defining the data governance roles and supporting organisational structure for .

      Key Considerations:

      • The data owner and data steward roles are formally defined and documented within the organisation. Their involvement is clear, well-defined, and repeatable.
      • There are data owners and data stewards for each data domain within the organisation. 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 organisation 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 organisation. 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 organisation'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 catalogue
      • 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 organisational 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 organisation, 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 organisation 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 organisation believe in the initiative, understand the anticipated outcomes, and take some level of responsibility for its success.

      Changes to organisational 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 organisational 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 organisation'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 organisation, 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 organisation. 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 organisation

      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 organisation 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 organisation continues to incorporate best methods and practices as the organisation 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 organisation.

      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 organisation.

      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 organisation, 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 formalised process for implementing new policies, rules, guidelines, and technologies, and managing organisational data.
      • Detail data ownership and accountability for decision making, and identify and resolve data issues throughout the organisation.
      • 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 standardised data policies will help validate how data governance will benefit them and the organisation.

      Leverage the data governance program to communicate and promote the value of data within the organisation

      The data governance program is responsible for continuously promoting the value of data to the organisation. The data governance program should seek a variety of ways to educate the organisation 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 organisational change, refer to Info-Tech's Master Organisational 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 organisations 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 centralised website.
      • Link this repository to other policies' taxonomies of your organisation. E.g. HR policies to provide a single interface for employees to access guidance across the organisation.
      • Reassess policies annually at a minimum. myPolicies can remind you to update the organisation'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 organisations, 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 organisation'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 Authorisation, Identification, and Authentication Policy Template
      • Data Protection Policy

      Compliance

      • Archiving Policy
      • Data Classification Policy
      • Data Retention Policy

      Leverage data management-related policies to standardise 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 organisation. 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 organisation. 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 Virtualisation Policy:

      This policy aims to assure the organisation, staff, and other interested parties that data integration, replication, and virtualisation risks are taken seriously. Staff must use the policy (and supporting guidelines) when deciding whether to integrate, replicate, or virtualise 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 organisation.

      • 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 organisational lines of business

      A data governance program will impact all data-driven business units within the organisation.

      • 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 organisation. 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 organisation to maintain reliable and useful data.

      Data standards and procedural guidelines will vary from company to company.

      Examples include:

      • Data modelling 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 organisational 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 organisation'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 organisation, 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 organisational 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 organisation. That disruption doesn't have to be detrimental if you are prepared to manage the change proactively and effectively.

      Other Deliverables:

      The list of supporting deliverables will help to kick start on some of the Data Governance initiatives

      • Data Classification Policy, Standard, and Procedure
      • Data Quality Policy, Standard, and Procedure
      • Metadata Management Policy, Standard, and Procedure
      • Data Retention Policy and Procurement

      Screenshot from Data Classification Policy, Standard, and Procedure

      Data Classification Policy, Standard, and Procedure

      Screenshot from Data Retention Policy and Procedure

      Data Retention Policy and Procedure

      Screenshot from Metadata Management Policy, Standard, and Procedure

      Metadata Management Policy, Standard, and Procedure

      Screenshot from Data Quality Policy, Standard, and Procedure

      Data Quality Policy, Standard, and Procedure

      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

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      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.

      Petzold, Bryan, et al. “Designing Data Governance That Delivers Value.” McKinsey & Company, 26 June 2020. Accessed 25 June 2021.

      Redman, Thomas, et al. “Only 3% of Companies’ Data Meets Basic Quality Standards.” Harvard Business Review. 11 Sept 2017.

      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.

      Reduce Shadow IT With a Service Request Catalog

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}302|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 10.0/10 Overall Impact
      • member rating average dollars saved: $129,999 Average $ Saved
      • member rating average days saved: 35 Average Days Saved
      • Parent Category Name: Asset Management
      • Parent Category Link: /asset-management
      • Shadow IT: The IT team is regularly surprised to discover new products within the organization, often when following up on help desk tickets or requests for renewals from business users or vendors.
      • Renewal Management: The contracts and asset teams need to be aware of upcoming renewals and have adequate time to review renewals.
      • Over-purchasing: Contracts may be renewed without a clear picture of usage, potentially renewing unused applications.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      There is a direct correlation between service delivery dissatisfaction and increases in shadow IT. Whether the goal is to reduce shadow IT or gain control, improved customer service and fast delivery are key to making lasting changes.

      Impact and Result

      Our blueprint will help you design a service that draws the business to use it. If it is easier for them to buy from IT than it is to find their own supplier, they will use IT.

      A heavy focus on customer service, design optimization, and automation will provide a means for the business to get what they need, when they need it, and provide visibility to IT and security to protect organizational interests.

      This blueprint will help you:

      • Design the request service
      • Design the request catalog
      • Build the request catalog
      • Market the service

      Reduce Shadow IT With a Service Request Catalog Research & Tools

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

      1. Reduce Shadow IT With a Service Request Catalog – A step-by-step document that walks you through creation of a request service management program.

      Use this blueprint to create a service request management program that provides immediate value.

      • Reduce Shadow IT With a Service Request Catalog Storyboard

      2. Nonstandard Request Assessment – A template for documenting requirements for vetting and onboarding new applications.

      Use this template to define what information is needed to vet and onboard applications into the IT environment.

      • Nonstandard Request Assessment

      3. Service Request Workflows – A library of workflows used as a starting point for creating and fulfilling requests for applications and equipment.

      Use this library of workflows as a starting point for creating and fulfilling requests for applications and equipment in a service catalog.

      • Service Request Workflows

      4. Application Portfolio – A template to organize applications requested by the business and identify which items are published in the catalog.

      Use this template as a starting point to create an application portfolio and request catalog.

      • Application Portfolio

      5. Reduce Shadow IT With a Service Request Catalog Communications Template – A presentation and communications plan to announce changes to the service and introduce a catalog.

      Use this template to create a presentation and communications plan for launching the new service and service request catalog.

      • Reduce Shadow IT with a Service Request Catalog Communications Template
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Reduce Shadow IT With a Service Request 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 Design the Service

      The Purpose

      Collaborate with the business to determine service model.

      Collaborate with IT teams to build non-standard assessment process.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Designed a service for service requests, including new product intake.

      Activities

      1.1 Identify challenges and obstacles.

      1.2 Complete customer journey map.

      1.3 Design process for nonstandard assessments.

      Outputs

      Nonstandard process.

      2 Design the Catalog

      The Purpose

      Design the service request catalog management process.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Ensure the catalog is kept current and is integrated with IT service catalog if applicable.

      Activities

      2.1 Determine what will be listed in the catalog.

      2.2 Determine process to build and maintain the catalog, including roles, responsibilities, and workflows.

      2.3 Define success and determine metrics.

      Outputs

      Catalog scope.

      Catalog design and maintenance plan.

      Defined success metrics

      3 Build and Market the Catalog

      The Purpose

      Determine catalog contents and how requests will be fulfilled.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Catalog framework and service level agreements will be defined.

      Create communications documents.

      Activities

      3.1 Determine how catalog items will be displayed.

      3.2 Complete application categories for catalog.

      3.3 Create deployment categories and SLAs.

      3.4 Design catalog forms and deployment workflows.

      3.5 Create roadmap.

      3.6 Create communications plan.

      Outputs

      Catalog workflows and SLAs.

      Roadmap.

      Communications deck.

      4 Breakout Groups – Working Sessions

      The Purpose

      Create an applications portfolio.

      Prepare to populate the catalog.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Portfolio and catalog contents created.

      Activities

      4.1 Using existing application inventory, add applications to portfolio and categorize.

      4.2 Determine which applications should be in the catalog.

      4.3 Determine which applications are packaged and can be easily deployed.

      Outputs

      Application Portfolio.

      List of catalog items.

      Further reading

      Reduce Shadow IT With a Service Request Catalog

      Foster business partnerships with sourcing-as-a-service.

      Analyst Perspective

      Improve the request management process to reduce shadow IT.

      In July 2022, Ivanti conducted a study on the state of the digital employee experience, surveying 10,000 office workers, IT professionals, and C-suite executives. Results of this study indicated that 49% of employees are frustrated by their tools, and 26% of employees were considering quitting their jobs due to unsuitable tech. 42% spent their own money to gain technology to improve their productivity. Despite this, only 21% of IT leaders prioritized user experience when selecting new tools.

      Any organization’s workers are expected to be productive and contribute to operational improvements or customer experience. Yet those workers don’t always have the tools needed to do the job. One option is to give the business greater control, allowing them to choose and acquire the solutions that will make them more productive. Info-Tech's blueprint Embrace Business-Managed Applications takes you down this path.

      However, if the business doesn’t want to manage applications, but just wants have access to better ones, IT is positioned to provide services for application and equipment sourcing that will improve the employee experience while ensuring applications and equipment are fully managed by the asset, service, and security teams.

      Improving the request management and deployment practice can give the business what they need without forcing them to manage license agreements, renewals, and warranties.

      Photo of Sandi Conrad

      Sandi Conrad
      ITIL Managing Professional
      Principal Research Director, IT Infrastructure & Operations,
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Your challenge

      This research is designed to help organizations that are looking to improve request management processes and reduce shadow IT.

      Shadow IT: The IT team is regularly surprised to discover new products within the organization, often when following up on help desk tickets or requests for renewals from business users or vendors.

      Renewal management: The contracts and asset teams need to be aware of upcoming renewals and have adequate time to review renewals.

      Over-purchasing and over-spending: Contracts may be renewed without a clear picture of utilization, potentially renewing unused applications. Applications or equipment may be purchased at retail price where corporate, government, or educational discounts exist.

      Info-Tech Insight

      To increase the visibility of the IT environment, IT needs to transform the request management process to create a service that makes it easier for the business to access the tools they need rather than seeking them outside of the organization.

      609
      Average number of SaaS applications in large enterprises

      40%
      On average, only 60% of provisioned SaaS licenses are used, with the remaining 40% unused.

      — Source: Zylo, SaaS Trends for IT Leaders, 2022

      Common obstacles

      Too many layers of approvals and a lack of IT workers makes it difficult to rethink service request fulfillment.

      Delays: The business may not be getting the applications they need from IT to do their jobs or must wait too long to get the applications approved.

      Denials: Without IT’s support, the business is finding alternative options, including SaaS applications, as they can be bought and used without IT’s input or knowledge.

      Threats: Applications that have not been vetted by security or installed without their knowledge may present additional threats to the organization.

      Access: Self-serve isn’t mature enough to support an applications catalog.

      A diagram that shows the number of SaaS applications being acquired outside of IT is increasing year over year, and that business units are driving the majority of SaaS spend.

      8: average number of applications entering the organization every 30 days

      — Source: Zylo, SaaS Trends for Procurement, 2022

      Info-Tech’s approach

      Improve the request management process to create sourcing-as-a-service for the business.

      • Improve customer service
      • Reduce shadow IT
      • Gain control in a way that keeps the business happy

      1. Design the service

      Collaborate with the business

      Identify the challenges and obstacles

      Gain consensus on priorities

      Design the service

      2. Design the catalog

      Determine catalog scope

      Create a process to build and maintain the catalog

      Define metrics for the request management process

      3. Build the catalog

      Determine descriptions for catalog items

      Create definitions for license types, workflows, and SLAs

      Create application portfolio

      Design catalog forms and workflows

      4. Market the service

      Create a roadmap

      Determine messaging

      Build a communications plan

      Blueprint deliverables

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

      Communications Presentation

      Photo of Communications Presentation

      Application Portfolio

      Photo of Application Portfolio

      Visio Library

      Photo of Visio Library

      Nonstandard Request Assessment

      Photo of Nonstandard Request Assessment

      Create a request management process and service catalog to improve delivery of technology to the business

      Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data Strategy

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      • Parent Category Name: Data Management
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      • The volume and variety of data that organizations have been collecting and producing have been growing exponentially and show no sign of slowing down.
      • At the same time, business landscapes and models are evolving, and users and stakeholders are becoming more and more data centric, with maturing expectations and demands.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • As the CDO or equivalent data leader in your organization, a robust and comprehensive data strategy is the number one tool in your toolkit for delivering on your mandate of creating measurable business value from data.
      • A data strategy should never be formulated disjointed from the business. Ensure the data strategy aligns with the business strategy and supports the business architecture.
      • Building and fostering a data-driven culture will accelerate and sustain adoption of, appetite for, and appreciation for data and hence drive the ROI on your various data investments.

      Impact and Result

      • Formulate a data strategy that stitches all of the pieces together to better position you to unlock the value in your data:
        • Establish the business context and value: Identify key business drivers for executing on an optimized data strategy, build compelling and relevant use cases, understand your organization’s culture and appetite for data, and ensure you have well-articulated vision, principles, and goals for your data strategy
        • Ensure you have a solid data foundation: Understand your current data environment, data management enablers, people, skill sets, roles, and structure. Know your strengths and weakness so you can optimize appropriately.
        • Formulate a sustainable data strategy: Round off your strategy with effective change management and communication for building and fostering a data-driven culture.

      Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data Strategy Research & Tools

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

      1. Data Strategy Research – A step-by-step document to facilitate the formulation of a data strategy that brings together the business context, data management foundation, people, and culture.

      Data should be at the foundation of your organization’s evolution. The transformational insights that executives and decision makers are constantly seeking to leverage can be unlocked with a data strategy that makes high-quality, trusted, and relevant data readily available to the users who need it.

      • Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data Strategy – Phases 1-3

      2. Data Strategy Stakeholder Interview Guide and Findings – A template to support you in your meetings or interviews with key stakeholders as you work on understanding the value of data within the various lines of business.

      This template will help you gather insights around stakeholder business goals and objectives, current data consumption practices, the types or domains of data that are important to them in supporting their business capabilities and initiatives, the challenges they face, and opportunities for data from their perspective.

      • Data Strategy Stakeholder Interview Guide and Findings

      3. Data Strategy Use Case Template – An exemplar template to demonstrate the business value of your data strategy.

      Data strategy optimization anchored in a value proposition will ensure that the data strategy focuses on driving the most valuable and critical outcomes in support of the organization’s enterprise strategy. The template will help you facilitate deep-dive sessions with key stakeholders for building use cases that are of demonstrable value not only to their relevant lines of business but also to the wider organization.

      • Data Strategy Use Case Template

      4. Chief Data Officer – A job description template that includes a detailed explication of the responsibilities and expectations of a CDO.

      Bring data to the C-suite by creating the Chief Data Officer role. This position is designed to bridge the gap between the business and IT by serving as a representative for the organization's data management practices and identifying how the organization can leverage data as a competitive advantage or corporate asset.

      • Chief Data Officer

      5. Data Strategy Document Template – A structured template to plan and document your data strategy outputs.

      Use this template to document and formulate your data strategy. Follow along with the sections of the blueprint Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data Strategy and complete the template as you progress.

      • Data Strategy Document Template
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data 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 Establish Business Context and Value: Understand the Current Business Environment

      The Purpose

      Establish the business context for the business strategy.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Substantiates the “why” of the data strategy.

      Highlights the organization’s goals, objectives, and strategic direction the data must align with.

      Activities

      1.1 Data Strategy 101

      1.2 Intro to Tech’s Data Strategy Framework

      1.3 Data Strategy Value Proposition: Understand stakeholder’s strategic priorities and the alignment with data

      1.4 Discuss the importance of vision, mission, and guiding principles of the organization’s data strategy

      1.5 Understand the organization’s data culture – discuss Data Culture Survey results

      1.6 Examine Core Value Streams of Business Architecture

      Outputs

      Business context; strategic drivers

      Data strategy guiding principles

      Sample vision and mission statements

      Data Culture Diagnostic Results Analysis

      2 Business-Data Needs Discovery: Key Business Stakeholder Interviews

      The Purpose

      Build use cases of demonstrable value and understand the current environment.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      An understanding of the current maturity level of key capabilities.

      Use cases that represent areas of concern and/or high value and therefore need to be addressed.

      Activities

      2.1 Conduct key business stakeholder interviews to initiate the build of high-value business-data cases

      Outputs

      Initialized high-value business-data cases

      3 Understand the Current Data Environment & Practice: Analyze Data Capability and Practice Gaps and Develop Alignment Strategies

      The Purpose

      Build out a future state plan that is aimed at filling prioritized gaps and that informs a scalable roadmap for moving forward on treating data as an asset.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A target state plan, formulated with input from key stakeholders, for addressing gaps and for maturing capabilities necessary to strategically manage data.

      Activities

      3.1 Understand the current data environment: data capability assessment

      3.2 Understand the current data practice: key data roles, skill sets; operating model, organization structure

      3.3 Plan target state data environment and data practice

      Outputs

      Data capability assessment and roadmapping tool

      4 Align Business Needs with Data Implications: Initiate Roadmap Planning and Strategy Formulation

      The Purpose

      Consolidate business and data needs with consideration of external factors as well as internal barriers and enablers to the success of the data strategy. Bring all the outputs together for crafting a robust and comprehensive data strategy.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A consolidated view of business and data needs and the environment in which the data strategy will be operationalized.

      An analysis of the feasibility and potential risks to the success of the data strategy.

      Activities

      4.1 Analyze gaps between current- and target-state

      4.2 Initiate initiative, milestone and RACI planning

      4.3 Working session with Data Strategy Owner

      Outputs

      Data Strategy Next Steps Action Plan

      Relevant data strategy related templates (example: data practice patterns, data role patterns)

      Initialized Data Strategy on-a-Page

      Further reading

      Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data Strategy

      Key to building and fostering a data-driven culture.

      ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

      Data Strategy: Key to helping drive organizational innovation and transformation

      "In the dynamic environment in which we operate today, where we are constantly juggling disruptive forces, a well-formulated data strategy will prove to be a key asset in supporting business growth and sustainability, innovation, and transformation.

      Your data strategy must align with the organization’s business strategy, and it is foundational to building and fostering an enterprise-wide data-driven culture."

      Crystal Singh,

      Director – Research and Advisory

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Our understanding of the problem

      This Research is Designed For:

      • Chief data officers (CDOs), chief architects, VPs, and digital transformation directors and CIOs who are accountable for ensuring data can be leveraged as a strategic asset of the organization.

      This Research Will Help You:

      • Put a strategy in place to ensure data is available, accessible, well integrated, secured, of acceptable quality, and suitably visualized to fuel decision making by the organizations’ executives.
      • Align data management plans and investments with business requirements and the organization’s strategic plans.
      • Define the relevant roles for operationalizing your data strategy.

      This Research Will Also Assist:

      • Data architects and enterprise architects who have been tasked with supporting the formulation or optimization of the organization’s data strategy.
      • Business leaders creating plans for leveraging data in their strategic planning and business processes.
      • IT professionals looking to improve the environment that manages and delivers data.

      This Research Will Help Them:

      • Get a handle on the current situation of data within the organization.
      • Understand how the data strategy and its resulting initiatives will affect the operations, integration, and provisioning of data within the enterprise.

      Executive Summary

      Situation

      • The volume and variety of data that organizations have been collecting and producing have been growing exponentially and show no sign of slowing down. At the same time, business landscapes and models are evolving, and users and stakeholders are becoming more and more data centric, with maturing and demanding expectations.

      Complication

      • As organizations pivot in response to industry disruptions and changing landscapes, a reactive and piecemeal approach leads to data architectures and designs that fail to deliver real and measurable value to the business.
      • Despite the growing focus on data, many organizations struggle to develop a cohesive business-driven strategy for effectively managing and leveraging their data assets.

      Resolution

      Formulate a data strategy that stitches all of the pieces together to better position you to unlock the value in your data:

      • Establish the business context and value: Identify key business drivers for executing on an optimized data strategy, build compelling and relevant use cases, understand your organization’s culture and appetite for data, and ensure you have well-articulated vision, principles, and goals for your data strategy.
      • Ensure you have a solid data foundation: Understand your current data environment, data management enablers, people, skill sets, roles, and structure. Know your strengths and weakness so you can optimize appropriately.
      • Formulate a sustainable data strategy: Round off your strategy with effective change management and communication for building and fostering a data-driven culture.

      Info-Tech Insight

      1. As the CDO or equivalent data leader in your organization, a robust and comprehensive data strategy is the number one tool in your toolkit for delivering on your mandate of creating measurable business value from data.
      2. A data strategy should never be formulated disjointed from the business. Ensure the data strategy aligns with the business strategy and supports the business architecture.
      3. Building and fostering a data-driven culture will accelerate and sustain adoption of, appetite for, and appreciation for data and hence drive the ROI on your various data investments.

      Why do you need a data strategy?

      Your data strategy is the vehicle for ensuring data is poised to support your organization’s strategic objectives.

      The dynamic marketplace of today requires organizations to be responsive in order to gain or maintain their competitive edge and place in their industry.

      Organizations need to have that 360-degree view of what’s going on and what’s likely to happen.

      Disruptive forces often lead to changes in business models and require organizations to have a level of adaptability to remain relevant.

      To respond, organizations need to make decisions and should be able to turn to their data to gain insights for informing their decisions.

      A well-formulated and robust data strategy will ensure that your data investments bring you the returns by meeting your organization’s strategic objectives.

      Organizations need to be in a position where they know what’s going on with their stakeholders and anticipate what their stakeholders’ needs are going to be.

      Data cannot be fully leveraged without a cohesive strategy

      Most organizations today will likely have some form of data management in place, supported by some of the common roles such as DBAs and data analysts.

      Most will likely have a data architecture that supports some form of reporting.

      Some may even have a chief data officer (CDO), a senior executive who has a seat at the C-suite table.

      These are all great assets as a starting point BUT without a cohesive data strategy that stitches the pieces together and:

      • Effectively leverages these existing assets
      • Augments them with additional and relevant key roles and skills sets
      • Optimizes and fills in the gaps around your current data management enablers and capabilities for the growing volume and variety of data you’re collecting
      • Fully caters to real, high-value strategic organizational business needs

      you’re missing the mark – you are not fully leveraging the incredible value of your data.

      Cross-industry studies show that on average, less than half of an organization’s structured data is actively used in making decisions

      And, less than 1% of its unstructured data is analyzed or used at all. Furthermore, 80% of analysts' time is spent simply discovering and preparing, data with over 70% of employees having access to data they should not. Source: HBR, 2017

      Organizational drivers for a data strategy

      Your data strategy needs to align with your organizational strategy.

      Main Organizational Strategic Drivers:

      1. Stakeholder Engagement/Service Excellence
      2. Product and Service Innovations
      3. Operational Excellence
      4. Privacy, Risk, and Compliance Management

      “The companies who will survive and thrive in the future are the ones who will outlearn and out-innovate everyone else. It is no longer ‘survival of the fittest’ but ‘survival of the smartest.’ Data is the element that both inspires and enables this new form of rapid innovation.– Joel Semeniuk, 2016

      A sound data strategy is the key to unlocking the value in your organization’s data.

      Data should be at the foundation of your organization’s evolution.

      The transformational insights that executives are constantly seeking to leverage can be unlocked with a data strategy that makes high-quality, well-integrated, trustworthy, relevant data readily available to the business users who need it.

      Whether hoping to gain a better understanding of your business, trying to become an innovator in your industry, or having a compliance and regulatory mandate that needs to be met, any organization can get value from its data through a well-formulated, robust, and cohesive data strategy.

      According to a leading North American bank, “More than one petabyte of new data, equivalent to about 1 million gigabytes” is entering the bank’s systems every month. – The Wall Street Journal, 2019

      “Although businesses are at many different stages in unlocking the power of data, they share a common conviction that it can make or break an enterprise.”– Jim Love, ITWC CIO and Chief Digital Officer, IT World Canada, 2018

      Data is a strategic organizational asset and should be treated as such

      The expression “Data is an asset” or any other similar sentiment has long been heard.

      With such hype, you would have expected data to have gotten more attention in the boardrooms. You would have expected to see its value reflected on financial statements as a result of its impact in driving things like acquisition, retention, product and service development and innovation, market growth, stakeholder satisfaction, relationships with partners, and overall strategic success of the organization.

      The time has surely come for data to be treated as the asset it is.

      “Paradoxically, “data” appear everywhere but on the balance sheet and income statement.”– HBR, 2018

      “… data has traditionally been perceived as just one aspect of a technology project; it has not been treated as a corporate asset.”– “5 Essential Components of a Data Strategy,” SAS

      According to Anil Chakravarthy, who is the CEO of Informatica and has a strong vantage point on how companies across industries leverage data for better business decisions, “what distinguishes the most successful businesses … is that they have developed the ability to manage data as an asset across the whole enterprise.”– McKinsey & Company, 2019

      How data is perceived in today’s marketplace

      Data is being touted as the oil of the digital era…

      But just like oil, if left unrefined, it cannot really be used.

      "Data is the new oil." – Clive Humby, Chief Data Scientist

      Source: Joel Semeniuk, 2016

      Enter your data strategy.

      Data is being perceived as that key strategic asset in your organization for fueling innovation and transformation.

      Your data strategy is what allows you to effectively mine, refine, and use this resource.

      “The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data.”– The Economist, 2017

      “Modern innovation is now dependent upon this data.”– Joel Semeniuk, 2016

      “The better the data, the better the resulting innovation and impact.”– Joel Semeniuk, 2016

      What is it in it for you? What opportunities can data help you leverage?

      GOVERNMENT

      Leveraging data as a strategic asset for the benefit of citizens.

      • The strategic use of data can enable governments to provide higher-quality services.
      • Direct resources appropriately and harness opportunities to improve impact.
      • Make better evidence-informed decisions and better understand the impact of programs so that funds can be directed to where they are most likely to deliver the best results.
      • Maintain legitimacy and credibility in an increasingly complex society.
      • Help workers adapt and be competitive in a changing labor market.
      • A data strategy would help protect citizens from the misuse of their data.

      Source: Privy Council Office, Government of Canada, 2018

      What is it in it for you? What opportunities can data help you leverage?

      FINANCIAL

      Leveraging data to boost traditional profit and loss levers, find new sources of growth, and deliver the digital bank.

      • One bank used credit card transactional data (from its own terminals and those of other banks) to develop offers that gave customers incentives to make regular purchases from one of the bank’s merchants. This boosted the bank’s commissions, added revenue for its merchants, and provided more value to the customer (McKinsey & Company, 2017).
      • In terms of enhancing productivity, a bank used “new algorithms to predict the cash required at each of its ATMs across the country and then combined this with route-optimization techniques to save money” (McKinsey & Company, 2017).

      A European bank “turned to machine-learning algorithms that predict which currently active customers are likely to reduce their business with the bank.” The resulting understanding “gave rise to a targeted campaign that reduced churn by 15 percent” (McKinsey & Company, 2017).

      A leading Canadian bank has built a marketplace around their data – they have launched a data marketplace where they have productized the bank’s data. They are providing data – as a product – to other units within the bank. These other business units essentially represent internal customers who are leveraging the product, which is data.

      Through the use of data and advanced analytics, “a top bank in Asia discovered unsuspected similarities that allowed it to define 15,000 microsegments in its customer base. It then built a next-product-to-buy model that increased the likelihood to buy three times over.” Several sets of big data were explored, including “customer demographics and key characteristics, products held, credit-card statements, transaction and point-of-sale data, online and mobile transfers and payments, and credit-bureau data” (McKinsey & Company, 2017).

      What is it in it for you? What opportunities can data help you leverage?

      HEALTHCARE

      Leveraging data and analytics to prevent deadly infections

      The fifth-largest health system in the US and the largest hospital provider in California uses a big data and advanced analytics platform to predict potential sepsis cases at the earliest stages, when intervention is most helpful.

      Using the Sepsis Bio-Surveillance Program, this hospital provider monitors 120,000 lives per month in 34 hospitals and manages 7,500 patients with potential sepsis per month.

      Collecting data from the electronic medical records of all patients in its facilities, the solution uses natural language processing (NLP) and a rules engine to continually monitor factors that could indicate a sepsis infection. In high-probability cases, the system sends an alarm to the primary nurse or physician.

      Since implementing the big data and predictive analytics system, this hospital provider has seen a significant improvement in the mortality and the length of stay in ICU for sepsis patients.

      At 28 of the hospitals which have been on the program, sepsis mortality rates have dropped an average of 5%.

      With patients spending less time in the ICU, cost savings were also realized. This is significant, as sepsis is the costliest condition billed to Medicare, the second costliest billed to Medicaid and the uninsured, and the fourth costliest billed to private insurance.

      Source: SAS, 2019

      What is it in it for you? What opportunities can data help you leverage?

      RETAIL

      Leveraging data to better understand customer preferences, predict purchasing, drive customer experience, and optimize supply and demand planning.

      Netflix is an example of a big brand that uses big data analytics for targeted advertising. With over 100 million subscribers, the company collects large amounts of data. If you are a subscriber, you are likely familiar with their suggestions messages of the next series or movie you should catch up on. These suggestions are based on your past search data and watch data. This data provides Netflix with insights into your interests and preferences for viewing (Mentionlytics, 2018).

      “For the retail industry, big data means a greater understanding of consumer shopping habits and how to attract new customers.”– Ron Barasch, Envestnet | Yodlee, 2019

      The business case for data – moving from platitudes to practicality

      When building your business case, consider the following:

      • What is the most effective way to communicate the business case to executives?
      • How can CDOs and other data leaders use data to advance their organizations’ corporate strategy?
      • What does your data estate look like? Are you looking to leverage and drive value from your semi-structured and unstructured data assets?
      • Does your current organizational culture support a data-driven one? Does the organization have a history of managing change effectively?
      • How do changing privacy and security expectations alter the way businesses harvest, save, use, and exchange data?

      “We’re the converted … We see the value in data. The battle is getting executive teams to see it our way.”– Ted Maulucci, President of SmartONE Solutions Inc. IT World Canada, 2018

      Where do you stack up? What is your current data management maturity?

      Info-Tech’s IT Maturity Ladder denotes the different levels of maturity for an IT department and its different functions. What is the current state of your data management capability?

      Innovator - Transforms the Business. Business Partner - Expands the Business. Trusted Operator - Optimizes the Business. Firefighter - Supports the Business. Unstable - Struggles to Support.

      Info-Tech Insight

      You are best positioned to successfully execute on a data strategy if you are currently at or above the Trusted Operator level. If you find yourself still at the Unstable or Firefighter stage, your efforts are best spent on ensuring you can fulfill your day-to-day data and data management demands. Improving this capability will help build a strong data management foundation.

      Guiding principles of a data strategy

      Value of Clearly Defined Data Principles

      • Guiding principles help define the culture and characteristics of your practice by describing your beliefs and philosophy.
      • Guiding principles act as the heart of your data strategy, helping to shape initiative plans and day-to-day behaviors related to the use and treatment of the organization’s data assets.

      “Organizational culture can accelerate the application of analytics, amplify its power, and steer companies away from risky outcomes.”– McKinsey, 2018

      Build a Robust and Comprehensive Data Strategy

      Business Strategy and Current Environment connect with the Data Strategy. Data Strategy includes: Organizational Drivers and Data Value, Data Strategy Objectives and Guiding Principles, Data Strategy Vision and Mission, Data Strategy Roadmap, People: Roles and Organizational Structure, Data Culture and Data Literacy, Data Management and Tools, Risk and Feasibility.

      Follow Info-Tech’s methodology for effectively leveraging the value out of your data

      Some say it’s the new oil. Or the currency of the new business landscape. Others describe it as the fuel of the digital economy. But we don’t need platitudes — we need real ways to extract the value from our data. – Jim Love, CIO and Chief Digital Officer, IT World Canada, 2018

      1. Business Context. 2. Data and Resources Foundation. 3. Effective Data Strategy

      Our practical step-by-step approach helps you to formulate a data strategy that delivers business value.

      1. Establish Business Context and Value: In this phase, you will determine and substantiate the business drivers for optimizing the data strategy. You will identify the business drivers that necessitate the data strategy optimization and examine your current organizational data culture. This will be key to ensuring the fruits of your optimization efforts are being used. You will also define the vision, mission, and guiding principles and build high-value use cases for the data strategy.
      2. Ensure You Have a Solid Data and Resources Foundation: This phase will help you ensure you have a solid data and resources foundation for operationalizing your data strategy. You will gain an understanding of your current environment in terms of data management enablers and the required resources portfolio of key people, roles, and skill sets.
      3. Formulate a Sustainable Data Strategy: In this phase, you will bring the pieces together for formulating an effective data strategy. You will evaluate and prioritize the use cases built in Phase 1, which summarize the alignment of organizational goals with data needs. You will also create your strategic plan, considering change management and communication.

      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.

      Take Action on Service Desk Customer Feedback

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      • IT leaders lack information to help inform and prioritize where improvements are most needed.
      • The service desk relies only on traditional metrics such as time to respond or percentage of SLAs met, but no measures of customer satisfaction with the service they receive.
      • There are signs of dissatisfied users, but no mechanism in place to formally capture those perceptions in order to address them.
      • Even if transactional (ticket) surveys are in use, often nothing is done with the data collected or there is a low response rate, and no broader satisfaction survey is in place.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • If customer satisfaction is not being measured, it’s often because service desk leaders don’t know how to design customer satisfaction surveys, don’t have a mechanism in place to collect feedback, or lack the resources to take accountability for a customer feedback program.
      • If customer satisfaction surveys are in place, it can be difficult to get full value out of them if there is a low response rate due to poor survey design or administration, or if leadership doesn’t understand the value of / know how to analyze the data.
      • It can actually be worse to ask your customers for feedback and do nothing with it than not asking for feedback at all. Customers may end up more dissatisfied if they take the time to provide value then see nothing done with it.

      Impact and Result

      • Understand how to ask the right questions to avoid survey fatigue.
      • Design and implement two complementary satisfaction surveys: a transactional survey to capture satisfaction with individual ticket experiences and inform immediate improvements, and a relationship survey to capture broader satisfaction among the entire user base and inform longer-term improvements.
      • Build a plan and assign accountability for customer feedback management, including analyzing feedback, prioritizing customer satisfaction insights and using them to improve performance, and communicating the results back to your users and stakeholders.

      Take Action on Service Desk Customer Feedback Research & Tools

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

      1. Take Action on Service Desk Customer Feedback Deck – A step-by-step document that walks you through how to measure customer satisfaction, design and implement transactional and relationship surveys, and analyze and act on user feedback.

      Whether you have no Service Desk customer feedback program in place or you need to improve your existing process for gathering and responding to feedback, this deck will help you design your surveys and act on their results to improve CSAT scores.

      • Take Action on Service Desk Customer Feedback Storyboard

      2. Transactional Service Desk Survey Template – A template to design a ticket satisfaction survey.

      This template provides a sample transactional (ticket) satisfaction survey. If your ITSM tool or other survey mechanism allows you to design or write your own survey, use this template as a starting point.

      • Transactional Service Desk Survey Template

      3. Sample Size Calculator – A tool to calculate the sample size needed for your survey.

      Use the Sample Size Calculator to calculate your ideal sample size for your relationship surveys.

    • Desired confidence level
    • Acceptable margin of error
    • Company population size
    • Ideal sample size
      • Sample Size Calculator

      4. End-User Satisfaction Survey Review Workflows – Visio templates to map your review process for both transactional and relationship surveys

      This template will help you map out the step-by-step process to review collected feedback from your end-user satisfaction surveys, analyze the data, and act on it.

      • End-User Satisfaction Survey Review Workflows

      Infographic

      Further reading

      Take Action on Service Desk Customer Feedback

      Drive up CSAT scores by asking the right questions and effectively responding to user feedback.

      EXECUTIVE BRIEF

      Analyst Perspective

      Collecting feedback is only half the equation.

      The image contains a picture of Natalie Sansone.

      Natalie Sansone, PhD


      Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Often when we ask service desk leaders where they need to improve and if they’re measuring customer satisfaction, they either aren’t measuring it at all, or their ticket surveys are turned on but they get very few responses (or only positive responses). They fail to see the value of collecting feedback when this is their experience with it.

      Feedback is important because traditional service desk metrics can only tell us so much. We often see what’s called the “watermelon effect”: metrics appear “green”, but under the surface they’re “red” because customers are in fact dissatisfied for reasons unmeasured by standard internal IT metrics. Customer satisfaction should always be the goal of service delivery, and directly measuring satisfaction in addition to traditional metrics will help you get a clearer picture of your strengths and weaknesses, and where to prioritize improvements.

      It’s not as simple as asking customers if they were satisfied with their ticket, however. There are two steps necessary for success. The first is collecting feedback, which should be done purposefully, with clear goals in mind in order to maximize the response rate and value of responses received. The second – and most critical – is acting on that feedback. Use it to inform improvements and communicate those improvements. Doing so will not only make your service desk better, increasing satisfaction through better service delivery, but also will make your customers feel heard and valued, which alone increases satisfaction.

      The image contains a picture of Emily Sugerman.

      Emily Sugerman, PhD


      Research Analyst, Infrastructure & Operations

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge

      Common Obstacles

      Info-Tech’s Approach

      • The service desk relies only on traditional metrics such as time to respond, or percentage of SLAs met, but not on measures of customer satisfaction with the service they receive.
      • There are signs of dissatisfied users (e.g. shadow IT, users avoid the service desk, go only to their favorite technician) but no mechanism in place to formally capture those perceptions.
      • Transactional ticket surveys were turned on when the ITSM tool was implemented, but either nobody responds to them, or nobody does anything with the data received.
      • IT leaders lack information to help inform and prioritize where improvements are most needed.
      • Service desk leaders don’t know how to design survey questions to ask their users for feedback and/or they don’t have a mechanism in place to survey users.
      • If customer satisfaction surveys are in place, nothing is done with the results because service desk leaders either don’t understand the value of analyzing the data or don’t know how to analyze the data.
      • Executives only want a single satisfaction number to track and don’t understand the value of collecting more detailed feedback.
      • IT lacks the resources to take accountability for the feedback program, or existing resources don’t have time to do anything with the feedback they receive.
      • Understand how to ask the right questions to avoid survey fatigue (where users get overwhelmed and stop responding).
      • Design and implement a transactional survey to capture satisfaction with individual ticket experiences and use the results to inform immediate improvements.
      • Design and implement a relationship survey to capture broader satisfaction among the entire user base and use the results to inform longer-term improvements.
      • Build a plan and assign accountability for analyzing feedback, using it to prioritize and make actionable improvements to address feedback, and communicating the results back to your users and stakeholders.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Asking your customers for feedback then doing nothing with it is worse than not asking for feedback at all. Your customers may end up more dissatisfied than they were before, if their opinion is sought out and then ignored. It’s valuable to collect feedback, but the true value for both IT and its customers comes from acting on that feedback and communicating those actions back to your users.

      Traditional service desk metrics can be misleading

      The watermelon effect

      When a service desk appears to hit all its targets according to the metrics it tracks, but service delivery is poor and customer satisfaction is low, this is known as the “watermelon effect”. Service metrics appear green on the outside, but under the surface (unmeasured), they’re red because customers are dissatisfied.

      Traditional SLAs and service desk metrics (such as time to respond, average resolution time, percentage of SLAs met) can help you understand service desk performance internally to prioritize your work and identify process improvements. However, they don’t tell you how customers perceive the service or how satisfied they are.

      Providing good service to your customers should be your end goal. Failing to measure, monitor, and act on customer feedback means you don’t have the whole picture of how your service desk is performing and whether or where improvements are needed to maximize satisfaction.

      There is a shift in ITSM to focus more on customer experience metrics over traditional ones

      The Service Desk Institute (SDI) suggests that customer satisfaction is the most important indicator of service desk success, and that traditional metrics around SLA targets – currently the most common way to measure service desk performance – may become less valuable or even obsolete in the future as customer experience-focused targets become more popular. (Service Desk Institute, 2021)

      SDI conducted a Customer Experience survey of service desk professionals from a range of organizations, both public and private, from January to March 2018. The majority of respondents said that customer experience is more important than other metrics such as speed of service or adherence to SLAs, and that customer satisfaction is more valuable than traditional metrics. (SDI, 2018).

      The image contains a screenshot of two pie graphs. The graph on the left is labelled: which of these is most important to your service desk? Customer experience is first with 54%. The graph on the right is labelled: Which measures do you find more value in? Customer satisfaction is first with 65%.

      However, many service desk leaders aren’t effectively measuring customer feedback

      Not only is it important to measure customer experience and satisfaction levels, but it’s equally important to act on that data and feed it into a service improvement program. However, many IT leaders are neglecting either one or both of those components.

      Obstacles to collecting feedback

      Obstacles to acting on collected feedback

      • Don’t understand the value of measuring customer feedback.
      • Don’t have a good mechanism in place to collect feedback.
      • Don’t think that users would respond to a survey (either generally unresponsive or already inundated with surveys).
      • Worried that results would be negative or misleading.
      • Don’t know what questions to ask or how to design a survey.
      • Don’t understand the importance of analyzing and acting on feedback collected.
      • Don’t know how to analyze survey data.
      • Lack of resources to take accountability over customer feedback (including analyzing data, monitoring trends, communicating results).
      • Executives or stakeholders only want a satisfaction score.

      A strong customer feedback program brings many benefits to IT and the business

      Insight into customer experience

      Gather insight into both the overall customer relationship with the service desk and individual transactions to get a holistic picture of the customer experience.

      Data to inform decisions

      Collect data to inform decisions about where to spend limited resources or time on improvement, rather than guessing or wasting effort on the wrong thing.

      Identification of areas for improvement

      Better understand your strengths and weaknesses from the customer’s point of view to help you identify gaps and priorities for improvement.

      Customers feel valued

      Make customers feel heard and valued; this will improve your relationship and their satisfaction.

      Ability to monitor trends over time

      Use the same annual relationship survey to be able to monitor trends and progress in making improvements by comparing data year over year.

      Foresight to prevent problems from occurring

      Understand where potential problems may occur so you can address and prevent them, or who is at risk of becoming a detractor so you can repair the relationship.

      IT staff coaching and engagement opportunities

      Turn negative survey feedback into coaching and improvement opportunities and use positive feedback to boost morale and engagement.

      Take Action on Service Desk Customer Feedback

      The image contains a screenshot of a Thought Model titled: Take Action on Service Desk Customer Feedback.

      Info-Tech’s methodology for measuring and acting on service desk customer feedback

      Phase

      1. Understand how to measure customer satisfaction

      2. Design and implement transactional surveys

      3. Design and implement relationship surveys

      4. Analyze and act on feedback

      Phase outcomes

      Understand the main types of customer satisfaction surveys, principles for survey design, and best practices for surveying your users.

      Learn why and how to design a simple survey to assess satisfaction with individual service desk transactions (tickets) and a methodology for survey delivery that will improve response rates.

      Understand why and how to design a survey to assess overall satisfaction with the service desk across your organization, or use Info-Tech’s diagnostic.

      Measure and analyze the results of both surveys and build a plan to act on both positive and negative feedback and communicate the results with the organization.

      Insight Summary

      Key Insight:

      Asking your customers for feedback then doing nothing with it is worse than not asking for feedback at all. Your customers may end up more dissatisfied than they were before if they’re asked for their opinion then see nothing done with it. It’s valuable to collect feedback, but the true value for both IT and its customers comes from acting on that feedback and communicating those actions back to your users.

      Additional insights:

      Insight 1

      Take the time to define the goals of your transactional survey program before launching it – it’s not as simple as just deploying the default survey of your ITSM tool out of the box. The objectives of the survey – including whether you want to keep a pulse on average satisfaction or immediately act on any negative experiences – will influence a range of key decisions about the survey configuration.

      Insight 2

      While transactional surveys provide useful indicators of customer satisfaction with specific tickets and interactions, they tend to have low response rates and can leave out many users who may rarely or never contact the service desk, but still have helpful feedback. Include a relationship survey in your customer feedback program to capture a more holistic picture of what your overall user base thinks about the service desk and where you most need to improve.

      Insight 3

      Satisfaction scores provide valuable data about how your customers feel, but don’t tell you why they feel that way. Don’t neglect the qualitative data you can gather from open-ended comments and questions in both types of satisfaction surveys. Take the time to read through these responses and categorize them in at least a basic way to gain deeper insight and determine where to prioritize your efforts.

      Understand how to measure customer satisfaction

      Phase 1

      Understand the main types of customer satisfaction surveys, principles for survey design, and best practices for surveying your users.

      Phase 1:

      Phase 2:

      Phase 3:

      Phase 4:

      Understand how to measure customer satisfaction

      Design and implement transactional surveys

      Design and implement relationship surveys

      Analyze and act on feedback

      Three methods of surveying your customers

      Transactional

      Relationship

      One-off

      Also known as

      Ticket surveys, incident follow-up surveys, on-going surveys

      Annual, semi-annual, periodic, comprehensive, relational

      One-time, single, targeted

      Definition

      • Survey that is tied to a specific customer interaction with the service desk (i.e. a ticket).
      • Assesses how satisfied customers are with how the ticket was handled and resolved.
      • Sent immediately after ticket is closed.
      • Short – usually 1 to 3 questions.
      • Survey that is sent periodically (i.e. semi-annually or annually) to the entire customer base to measure overall relationship with the service desk.
      • Assesses customer satisfaction with their overall service experience over a longer time period.
      • Longer – around 15-20 questions.
      • One-time survey sent at a specific, targeted point in time to either all customers or a subset.
      • Often event-driven or project-related.
      • Assesses satisfaction at one time point, or about a specific change that was implemented, or to inform a specific initiative that will be implemented.

      Pros and cons of the three methods

      Transactional

      Relationship

      One-off

      Pros

      • Immediate feedback
      • Actionable insights to immediately improve service or experience
      • Feeds into team coaching
      • Multiple touchpoints allow for trending and monitoring
      • Comprehensive insight from broad user base to improve overall satisfaction
      • Reach users who don’t contact the service desk often or respond to ticket surveys
      • Identify unhappy customers and reasons for dissatisfaction
      • Monitor broader trends over time
      • Targeted insights to measure the impact of a specific change or perception at a specific point of time

      Cons

      • Customer may become frustrated being asked to fill out too many surveys
      • Can lead to survey fatigue and low response rates
      • Tend to only see responses for very positive or negative experiences
      • High volume of data to analyze
      • Feedback is at a high-level
      • Covers the entire customer journey, not a specific interaction
      • Users may not remember past interactions accurately
      • A lot of detailed data to analyze and more difficult to turn into immediate action
      • Not as valuable without multiple surveys to see trends or change

      Which survey method should you choose?

      Only relying on one type of survey will leave gaps in your understanding of customer satisfaction. Include both transactional and relationship surveys to provide a holistic picture of customer satisfaction with the service desk.

      If you can only start with one type, choose the type that best aligns with your goals and priorities:

      If your priority is to identify larger improvement initiatives the service desk can take to improve overall customer satisfaction and trust in the service desk:

      If your priority is to provide customers with the opportunity to let you know when transactions do not go well so you can take immediate action to make improvements:

      Start with a relationship survey

      Start with a transactional survey

      The image contains a screenshot of a bar graph on SDI's 2018 Customer Experience in ITSM report.

      Info-Tech Insight

      One-off surveys can be useful to assess whether a specific change has impacted satisfaction, or to inform a planned change/initiative. However, as they aren’t typically part of an on-going customer feedback program, the focus of this research will be on transactional and relationship surveys.

      3 common customer satisfaction measures

      The three most utilized measures of customer satisfaction include CSAT, CES, and NPS.

      CSAT CES NPS
      Name Customer Satisfaction Customer Effort Score Net Promoter score
      What it measures Customer happiness Customer effort Customer loyalty
      Description Measures satisfaction with a company overall, or a specific offering or interaction Measures how much effort a customer feels they need to put forth in order to accomplish what they wanted Single question that asks consumers how likely they are to recommend your product, service, or company to other people
      Survey question How satisfied are/were you with [company/service/interaction/product]? How easy was it to [solve your problem/interact with company/handle my issue]? Or: The [company] made it easy for me to handle my issue How likely are you to recommend [company/service/product] to a friend?
      Scale 5, 7, or 10 pt scale, or using images/emojis 5, 7, or 10 pt scale 10-pt scale from highly unlikely to highly likely
      Scoring Result is usually expressed as a percentage of satisfaction Result usually expressed as an average Responses are divided into 3 groups where 0-6 are detractors, 7-8 are passives, 9-10 are promoters
      Pros
      • Well-suited for specific transactions
      • Simple and able to compare scores
      • Simple number, easy to analyze
      • Effort tends to predict future behavior
      • Actionable data
      • Simple to run and analyze
      • Widely used and can compare to other organizations
      • Allows for targeting customer segments
      Cons
      • Need high response rate to have representative numberEasy to ask the wrong questions
      • Not as useful without qualitative questions
      • Only measures a small aspect of the interaction
      • Only useful for transactions
      • Not useful for improvement without qualitative follow-up questions
      • Not as applicable to a service desk as it measures brand loyalty

      When to use each satisfaction measure

      The image contains a screenshot of a diagram that demonstrates which measure to use based off of what you would like to access, and which surveys it aligns with.

      How to choose which measure(s) to incorporate in your surveys

      The best measures are the ones that align with your specific goals for collecting feedback.

      • Most companies will use multiple satisfaction measures. For example, NPS can be tracked to monitor the overall customer sentiment, and CSAT used for more targeted feedback.
      • For internal-facing IT departments, CSAT is the most popular of the three methods, and NPS may not be as useful.
      • Choose your measure and survey types based on what you are trying to achieve and what kind of information you need to make improvements.
      • Remember that one measure alone isn’t going to give you actionable feedback; you’ll need to follow up with additional measures (especially for NPS and CES).
      • For CSAT surveys, customize the satisfaction measures in as many ways as you need to target the questions toward the areas you’re most interested in.
      • Don’t stick to just these three measures or types of surveys – there are other ways to collect feedback. Experiment to find what works for you.
      • If you’re designing your own survey, keep in mind the principles on the next slide.

      Info-Tech Insight

      While we focus mainly on traditional survey-based approaches to measuring customer satisfaction in this blueprint, there’s no need to limit yourselves to surveys as your only method. Consider multiple techniques to capture a wider audience, including:

      • Customer journey mapping
      • Focus groups with stakeholders
      • Lunch and learns or workshop sessions
      • Interviews – phone, chat, in-person
      • Kiosks

      Principles for survey design

      As you design your satisfaction survey – whether transactional or relational – follow these guidelines to ensure the survey delivers value and gets responses.

      1. Focus on your goal
      2. Don’t include unnecessary questions that won’t give you actionable information; it will only waste respondents’ time.

      3. Be brief
      4. Keep each question as short as possible and limit the total number of survey questions to avoid survey fatigue.

      5. Include open-ended questions
      6. Most of your measures will be close-ended, but include at least one comment box to allow for qualitative feedback.

      7. Keep questions clear and concise
      8. Ensure that question wording is clear and specific so that all respondents interpret it the same way.

      9. Avoid biased or leading questions
      10. You won’t get accurate results if your question leads respondents into thinking or answering a certain way.

      11. Avoid double-barreled questions
      12. Don’t ask about two different things in the same question – it will confuse respondents and make your data hard to interpret.

      13. Don’t restrict responses
      14. Response options should include all possible opinions (including “don’t know”) to avoid frustrating respondents.

      15. Make the survey easy to complete
      16. Pre-populate information where possible (e.g. name, department) and ensure the survey is responsive on mobile devices.

      17. Keep questions optional
      18. If every question is mandatory, respondents may leave the survey altogether if they can’t or don’t want to answer one question.

      19. Test your survey
      20. Test your survey with your target audience before launching, and incorporate feedback - they may catch issues you didn’t notice.

      Prevent survey fatigue to increase response rates

      If it takes too much time or effort to complete your survey – whether transactional or relational – your respondents won’t bother. Balance your need to collect relevant data with users’ needs for a simple and worthwhile task in order to get the most value out of your surveys.

      There are two types of survey fatigue:

      1. Survey response fatigue
      2. Occurs when users are overwhelmed by too many requests for feedback and stop responding.

      3. Survey taking fatigue
      4. Occurs when the survey is too long or irrelevant to users, so they grow tired and abandon the survey.

      Fight survey fatigue:

      • Make it as easy as possible to answer your survey:
        • Keep the survey as short as possible.
        • For transactional surveys, allow respondents to answer directly from email without having to click a separate link if possible.
        • Don’t make all questions mandatory or users may abandon it if they get to a difficult or unapplicable question.
        • Test the survey experience across devices for mobile users.
      • Communicate the survey’s value so users will be more likely to donate their time.
      • Act on feedback: follow up on both positive and negative responses so users see the value in responding.
      • Consider attaching an incentive to responding (e.g. name entered in a monthly draw).

      Design and implement transactional surveys

      Phase 2

      Learn why and how to design a simple survey to assess satisfaction with individual service desk transactions (tickets) and a methodology for survey delivery that will improve response rates.

      Phase 1:

      Phase 2:

      Phase 3:

      Phase 4:

      Understand how to measure customer satisfaction

      Design and implement transactional surveys

      Design and implement relationship surveys

      Analyze and act on feedback

      Use transactional surveys to collect immediate and actionable feedback

      Recall the definition of a transactional survey:

      • Survey that is tied to a specific customer interaction with the service desk (i.e. a ticket).
      • Assesses how satisfied customers are with how the ticket was handled and resolved.
      • Sent immediately after ticket is closed.
      • Short – usually 1 to 3 questions.

      Info-Tech Insight

      While feedback on transactional surveys is specific to a single transaction, even one negative experience can impact the overall perception of the service desk. Pair your transactional surveys with an annual relationship survey to capture broader sentiment toward the service desk.

      Transactional surveys serve several purposes:

      • Gives end users a mechanism to provide feedback when they want to.
      • Provides continual insight into customer satisfaction throughout the year to monitor for trends or issues in between broader surveys.
      • Provides IT leaders with actionable insights into areas for improvement in their processes, knowledge and skills, or customer service.
      • Gives the service desk the opportunity to address any negative experiences or perceptions with customers, to repair the relationship.
      • Feeds into individual or team coaching for service desk staff.

      Make key decisions ahead of launching your transactional surveys

      If you want to get the most of your surveys, you need to do more than just click a button to enable out-of-the-box surveys through your ITSM tool. Make these decisions ahead of time:

      Decision Considerations For more guidance, see
      What are the goals of your survey? Are you hoping to get an accurate pulse of customer sentiment (if so, you may want to randomly send surveys) or give customers the ability to provide feedback any time they have some (if so, send a survey after every ticket)? Slide 25
      How many questions will you ask? Keep the survey as short as possible – ideally only one mandatory question. Slide 26
      What questions will you ask? Do you want a measure of NPS, CES, or CSAT? Do you want to measure overall satisfaction with the interaction or something more specific about the interaction? Slide 27
      What will be the response options/scale? Keep it simple and think about how you will use the data after. Slide 28
      How often will you send the survey? Will it be sent after every ticket, every third ticket, or randomly to a select percentage of tickets, etc.? Slide 29
      What conditions would apply? For example, is there a subset of users who you never want to receive a survey or who you always want to receive a survey? Slide 30
      What mechanism/tool will you use to send the survey? Will your ITSM tool allow you to make all the configurations you need, or will you need to use a separate survey tool? If so, can it integrate to your ITSM solution? Slide 30

      Key decisions, continued

      Decision Considerations For more guidance, see
      What will trigger the survey? Typically, marking the ticket as either ‘resolved’ or ‘closed’ will trigger the survey. Slide 31
      How long after the ticket is closed will you send the survey? You’ll want to leave enough time for the user to respond if the ticket wasn’t resolved properly before completing a survey, but not so much time that they don’t remember the ticket. Slide 31
      Will the survey be sent in a separate email or as part of the ticket resolution email? A separate email might feel like too many emails for the user, but a link within the ticket closure email may be less noticeable. Slide 32
      Will the survey be embedded in email or accessed through a link? If the survey can be embedded into the email, users will be more likely to respond. Slide 32
      How long will the survey link remain active, and will you send any reminders? Leave enough time for the user to respond if they are busy or away, but not so much time that the data would be irrelevant. Balance the need to remind busy end users with the possibility of overwhelming them with survey fatigue. Slide 32
      What other text will be in the main body of the survey email and/or thank you page? Keep messaging short and straightforward and remind users of the benefit to them. Slide 33
      Where will completed surveys be sent/who will have access? Will the technician assigned to the ticket have access or only the manager? What email address/DL will surveys be sent to? Slide 33

      Define the goals of your transactional survey program

      Every survey should have a goal in mind to ensure only relevant and useful data is collected.

      • Your survey program must be backed by clear and actionable goals that will inform all decisions about the survey.
      • Survey questions should be structured around that goal, with every question serving a distinct purpose.
      • If you don’t have a clear plan for how you will action the data from a particular question, exclude it.
      • Don’t run a survey just for the sake of it; wait until you have a clear plan. If customers respond and then see nothing is done with the data, they will learn to avoid your surveys.

      Your survey objectives will also determine how often to send the survey:

      If your objective is:

      Keep a continual pulse on average customer satisfaction

      Gain the opportunity to act on negative feedback for any poor experience

      Then:

      Send survey randomly

      Send survey after every ticket

      Rationale:

      Sending a survey less often will help avoid survey fatigue and increase the chances of users responding whether they have good, bad, or neutral feedback

      Always having a survey available means users can provide feedback every time they want to, including for any poor experience – giving you the chance to act on it.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Service Managers often get caught up in running a transactional survey program because they think it’s standard practice, or they need to report a satisfaction metric. If that’s your only objective, you will fail to derive value from the data and will only turn customers away from responding.

      Design survey content and length

      As you design your survey, keep in mind the following principles:

      1. Keep it short. Your customers won’t bother responding if they see a survey with multiple questions or long questions that require a lot of reading, effort, or time.
      2. Make it simple. This not only makes it easier for your customers to complete, but easier for you to track and monitor.
      3. Tie your survey to your goals. Remember that every question should have a clear and actionable purpose.
      4. Don’t measure anything you can’t control. If you won’t be able to make changes based on the feedback, there’s no value asking about it.
      5. Include an (optional) open-ended question. This will allow customers to provide more detailed feedback or suggestions.

      Q: How many questions should the survey contain?

      A: Ideally, your survey will have only one mandatory question that captures overall satisfaction with the interaction.

      This question can be followed up with an optional open-ended question prompting the respondent for more details. This will provide a lot more context to the overall rating.

      If there are additional questions you need to ask based on your goals, clearly make these questions optional so they don’t deter respondents from completing the survey. For example, they can appear only after the respondent has submitted their overall satisfaction response (i.e. on a separate, thank you page).

      Additional (optional) measures may include:

      • Customer effort score (how easy or difficult was it to get your issue resolved?)
      • Customer service skills of the service desk
      • Technical skills/knowledge of the agents
      • Speed or response or resolution

      Design question wording

      Tips for writing survey questions:

      • Be clear and concise
      • Keep questions as short as possible
      • Cut out any unnecessary words or phrasing
      • Avoid biasing, or leading respondents to select a certain answer
      • Don’t attempt to measure multiple constructs in a single question.

      Sample question wording:

      How satisfied are you with this support experience?

      How would you rate your support experience?

      Please rate your overall satisfaction with the way your issue was handled.

      Instead of this….

      Ask this….

      “We strive to provide excellent service with every interaction. Please rate how satisfied you are with this interaction.”

      “How satisfied were you with this interaction?”

      “How satisfied were you with the customer service skills, knowledge, and responsiveness of the technicians?”

      Choose only one to ask about.

      “How much do you agree that the service you received was excellent?”

      “Please rate the service you received.”

      “On a scale of 1-10, thinking about your most recent experience, how satisfied would you say that you were overall with the way that your ticket was resolved?”

      “How satisfied were you with your ticket resolution?”

      Choose response options

      Once you’ve written your survey question, you need to design the response options for the question. Put careful thought into balancing ease of responding for the user with what will give you the actionable data you need to meet your goals. Keep the following in mind:

      When planning your response options, remember to keep the survey as easy to respond to as possible – this means allowing a one-click response and a scale that’s intuitive and simple to interpret.

      Think about how you will use the responses and interpret the data. If you choose a 10-point scale, for example, what would you classify as a negative vs positive response? Would a 5-point scale suffice to get the same data?

      Again, use your goals to inform your response options. If you need a satisfaction metric, you may need a numerical scale. If your goal is just to capture negative responses, you may only need two response options: good vs bad.

      Common response options:

      • Numerical scale (e.g. very dissatisfied to very satisfied on a 5-point scale)
      • Star rating (E.g. rate the experience out of 5 stars)
      • Smiley face scale
      • 2 response options: Good vs Bad (or Satisfied vs Dissatisfied)

      Investigate the capabilities of your ITSM tool. It may only allow one built-in response option style. But if you have the choice, choose the simplest option that aligns with your goals.

      Decide how often to send surveys

      There are two common choices for when to send ticket satisfaction surveys:

      After random tickets

      After every ticket

      Pros

      • May increase response rate by avoiding survey fatigue.
      • May be more likely to capture a range of responses that more accurately reflect sentiment (versus only negative).
      • Gives you the opportunity to receive feedback whenever users have it.
      • If your goal is to act on negative feedback whenever it arises, that’s only possible if you send a survey after every ticket.

      Cons

      • Overrepresents frequent service desk users and underrepresents infrequent users.
      • Users who have feedback to give may not get the chance to give it/service desk can’t act on it.
      • Customers who frequently contact the service desk will be overwhelmed by surveys and may stop responding.
      • Customers may only reply if they have very negative or positive feedback.

      SDI’s 2018 Customer Experience in ITSM survey of service desk professionals found:

      Almost two-thirds (65%) send surveys after every ticket.

      One-third (33%) send surveys after randomly selected tickets are closed.

      Info-Tech Recommendation:

      Send a survey after every ticket so that anyone who has feedback gets the opportunity to provide it – and you always get the chance to act on negative feedback. But, limit how often any one customer receives a ticket to avoid over-surveying them – restrict to anywhere between one survey a week to one per month per customer.

      Plan detailed survey logistics

      Decision #1

      Decision #2

      What tool will you use to deliver the survey?

      What (if any) conditions apply to your survey?

      Considerations

      • How much configuration does your ITSM tool allow? Will it allow you to configure the survey according to your decisions? Many ITSM tools, especially mid-market, do not allow you to change the response options or how often the survey is sent.
      • How does the survey look and act on mobile devices? If a customer receives the survey on their phone, they need to be able to easily respond from there or they won’t bother at all.
      • If you wish to use a different survey tool, does it integrate with your ITSM solution? Would agents have to manually send the survey? If so, how would they choose who to send the survey to, and when?

      Considerations

      Is there a subset of users who you never want to receive a survey (e.g. a specific department, location, role, or title)?

      Is there a subset of users who you always want to receive a survey, no matter how often they contact the service desk (e.g. VIP users, a department that scored low on the annual satisfaction survey, etc.)?

      Are there certain times of the year that you don’t want surveys to go out (e.g. fiscal year end, holidays)?

      Are there times of the day that you don’t want surveys to be sent (e.g. only during business hours; not at the end of the day)?

      Recommendations

      The built-in functionality of your ITSM tool’s surveys will be easiest to send and track; use it if possible. However, if your tool’s survey module is limited and won’t give you the value you need, consider a third-party solution or survey tool that integrates with your ITSM solution and won’t require significant manual effort to send or review the surveys.

      Recommendations

      If your survey module allows you to apply conditions, think about whether any are necessary to apply to either maximize your response rate (e.g. don’t send a survey on a holiday), avoid annoying certain users, or seek extra feedback from dissatisfied users.

      Plan detailed survey logistics

      Decision #2

      Decision #1

      What will trigger the survey?

      When will the survey be sent?

      Considerations

      • Usually a change of ticket status triggers the survey, but you may have the option to send it after the ticket is marked ‘resolved’ or ‘closed’. The risk of sending the survey after the ticket is ‘resolved’ is the issue may not actually be resolved yet, but waiting until it’s ‘closed’ means the user may be less likely to respond as more time has passed.
      • Some tools allow for a survey to be sent after every agent reply.
      • Some have the option to manually generate a survey, which may be useful in some cases; those cases would need to be well defined.

      Considerations

      • Once you’ve decided the trigger for the survey, decide how much time should pass after that trigger before the survey is sent.
      • The amount of time you choose will be highly dependent on the trigger you choose. For example, if you want the ‘resolved’ status to send a survey, you may want to wait 24h to send the survey in case the user responds that their issue hasn’t been properly resolved.
      • If you choose ‘closed’ as your trigger, you may want the survey to be sent immediately, as waiting any longer could further reduce the response rate.
      • Your average resolution time may also impact the survey wait time.

      Recommendations

      Only send the survey once you’re sure the issue has actually been resolved; you could further upset the customer if you ask them how happy they are with the resolution if resolution wasn’t achieved. This means sending the survey once the user confirms resolution (which closes ticket) or the agent closes the ticket.

      Recommendations

      If you are sending the survey upon ticket status moving to ‘resolved’, wait at least 24 hours before sending the survey in case the user responds that their issue wasn’t actually resolved. However, if you are sending the survey after the ticket has been verified resolved and closed, you can send the survey immediately while the experience is still fresh in their memory.

      Plan detailed survey logistics

      Decision #1

      Decision #2

      How will the survey appear in email?

      How long will the survey remain active?

      Considerations

      • If the survey link is included within the ticket resolution email, it’s one less email to fatigue users, but users may not notice there is a survey in the email.
      • If the survey link is included in its own separate email, it will be more noticeable to users, but could risk overwhelming users with too many emails.
      • Can users view the entire survey in the email and respond directly within the email, or do they need to click on a link and respond to the survey elsewhere?

      Considerations

      • Leaving the survey open at least a week will give users who are out of office or busy more time to respond.
      • However, if users respond to the survey too long after their ticket was resolved, they may not remember the interaction well enough to give any meaningful response.
      • Will you send any reminders to users to complete the survey? It may improve response rate, or may lead to survey fatigue from reaching out too often.

      Recommendations

      Send the survey separately from the ticket resolution email or users will never notice it. However, if possible, have the entire survey embedded within the email so users can click to respond directly from their email without having to open a separate link. Reduce effort, to make users more likely to respond.

      Recommendations

      Leave enough time for the user to respond if they are busy or away, but not so much time that the data will be irrelevant. Balance the need to remind busy end users, with the possibility of overwhelming them with survey fatigue. About a week is typical.

      Plan detailed survey logistics

      Decision #1

      Decision #2

      What will the body of the email/messaging say?

      Where will completed surveys be sent?

      Considerations

      • Communicate the value of responding to the survey.
      • Remember, the survey should be as short and concise as possible. A lengthy body of text before the actual survey can deter respondents.
      • Depending on your survey configuration, you may have a ‘thank you’ page that appears after respondents complete the survey. Think about what messaging you can save for that page and what needs to be up front.
      • Ensure there is a clear reference to which ticket the survey is referencing (with the subject of the ticket, not just ticket number).

      Considerations

      • Depending on the complexity of your ITSM tool, you may designate email addresses to receive completed surveys, or configure entire dashboards to display results.
      • Decide who needs to receive all completed surveys in order to take action.
      • Decide whether the agent who resolved the ticket will have access to the full survey response. Note that if they see negative feedback, it may affect morale.
      • Are there any other stakeholders who should receive the immediate completed surveys, or can they view summary reports and dashboards of the results?

      Recommendations

      Most users won’t read a long message, especially if they see it multiple times, so keep the email short and simple. Tell users you value their feedback, indicate which interaction you’re asking about, and say how long the survey should take. Thank them after they submit and tell them you will act on their feedback.

      Recommendations

      Survey results should be sent to the Service Manager, Customer Experience Lead, or whoever is the person responsible for managing the survey feedback. They can choose how to share feedback with specific agents and the service desk team.

      Response rates for transactional surveys are typically low…

      Most IT organizations see transactional survey response rates of less than 20%.

      The image contains a screenshot of a SDI survey taken to demonstrate customer satisfaction respond rate.

      Source: SDI, 2018

      SDI’s 2018 Customer Experience in ITSM survey of service desk professionals found that 69% of respondents had survey response rates of 20% or less. However, they did not distinguish between transactional and relationship surveys.

      Reasons for low response rates:

      • Users tend to only respond if they had a very positive or very negative experience worth writing about, but don’t typically respond for interactions that go as expected or were average.
      • Survey is too long or complicated.
      • Users receive too many requests for feedback.
      • Too much time has passed since the ticket was submitted/resolved and the user doesn’t remember the interaction.
      • Users think their responses disappear into a black hole or aren’t acted upon so they don’t see the value in taking the time to respond. Or, they don’t trust the confidentiality of their responses.

      “In my experience, single digits are a sign of a problem. And a downward trend in response rate is also a sign of a problem. World-class survey response rates for brands with highly engaged customers can be as high as 60%. But I’ve never seen it that high for internal support teams. In my experience, if you get a response rate of 15-20% from your internal customers then you’re doing okay. That’s not to say you should be content with the status quo, you should always be looking for ways to increase it.”

      – David O’Reardon, Founder & CEO of Silversix

      … but there are steps you can take to maximize your response rate

      It is still difficult to achieve high response rates to transactional surveys, but you can at least increase your response rate with these strategies:

      1. Reduce frequency
      2. Don’t over-survey any one user or they will start to ignore the surveys.

      3. Send immediately
      4. Ask for feedback soon after the ticket was resolved so it’s fresh in the user’s memory.

      5. Make it short and simple
      6. Keep the survey short, concise, and simple to respond to.

      7. Make it easy to complete
      8. Minimize effort involved as much as possible. Allow users to respond directly from email and from any device.

      9. Change email messaging
      10. Experiment with your subject line or email messaging to draw more attention.

      11. Respond to feedback
      12. Respond to customers who provide feedback – especially negative – so they know you’re listening.

      13. Act on feedback
      14. Demonstrate that you are acting on feedback so users see the value in responding.

      Use Info-Tech’s survey template as a starting point

      Once you’ve worked through all the decisions in this step, you’re ready to configure your transactional survey in your ITSM solution or survey tool.

      As a starting point, you can leverage Info-Tech’s Transactional Service Desk Survey Templatee to design your templates and wording.

      Make adjustments to match your decisions or your configuration limitations as needed.

      Refer to the key decisions tables on slides 24 and 25 to ensure you’ve made all the configurations necessary as you set up your survey.

      The image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech's survey templates.

      Design and implement relationship surveys

      Phase 3

      Understand why and how to design a survey to assess overall satisfaction with the service desk across your organization, or use Info-Tech’s diagnostic.

      Phase 1:

      Phase 2:

      Phase 3:

      Phase 4:

      Understand how to measure customer satisfaction

      Design and implement transactional surveys

      Design and implement relationship surveys

      Analyze and act on feedback

      How can we evaluate overall Service Desk service quality?

      Evaluating service quality in any industry is challenging for both those seeking feedback and those consuming the service: “service quality is more difficult for the consumer to evaluate than goods quality.”

      You are in the position of trying to measure something intangible: customer perception, which “result[s] from a comparison of consumer expectations with actual service performance,” which includes both the service outcome and also “the process of service delivery”

      (Source: Parasuraman et al, 1985, 42).

      Your mission is to design a relationship survey that is:

      • Comprehensive but not too long.
      • Easy to understand but complex enough to capture enough detail.
      • Able to capture satisfaction with both the outcome and the experience of receiving the service.

      Use relationship surveys to measure overall service desk service quality

      Recall the definition of a relationship survey:

      • Survey that is sent periodically (i.e. semi-annually or annually) to the entire customer base to measure the overall relationship with the service desk.
      • Shows you where your customer experience is doing well and where it needs improving.
      • Asks customers to rate you based on their overall experience rather than on a specific product or interaction.
      • Longer and more comprehensive than transactional surveys, covering multiple dimensions/ topics.

      Relationship surveys serve several purposes:

      • Gives end users an opportunity to provide overall feedback on a wider range of experiences with IT.
      • Gives IT the opportunity to respond to feedback and show users their voices are heard.
      • Provides insight into year-over-year trends and customer satisfaction.
      • Provides IT leaders the opportunity to segment the results by demographic (e.g. by department, location, or seniority) and target improvements where needed most.
      • Feeds into strategic planning and annual reports on user experience and satisfaction

      Info-Tech Insight

      Annual relationship surveys provide great value in the form of year-over-year internal benchmarking data, which you can use to track improvements and validate the impact of your service improvement efforts.

      Understand the gaps that decrease service quality

      The Service Quality Model (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry, 1985) shows how perceived service quality is negatively impacted by the gap between expectations for quality service and the perceptions of actual service delivery:

      Gap 1: Consumer expectation – Management perception gap:

      Are there differences between your assumptions about what users want from a service and what those users expect?

      Gap 2: Management perception – Service quality specification gap:

      Do you have challenges translating user expectations for service into standardized processes and guidelines that can meet those expectations?

      Gap 3: Service quality specifications – Service delivery gap:

      Do staff members struggle to carry out the service quality processes when delivering service?

      Gap 4: Service delivery – External communications gap:

      Have users been led to expect more than you can deliver? Alternatively, are users unaware of how the organization ensures quality service, and therefore unable to appreciate the quality of service they receive?

      Gap 5: Expected service – Perceived service gap:

      Is there a discrepancy between users’ expectations and their perception of the service they received (regardless of any user misunderstanding)?

      The image contains a screenshot of the Service Quality Model to demonstrate the consumer and consumers.

      Your survey questions about service and support should provide insight into where these gaps exist in your organization

      Make key decisions ahead of launch

      Decision/step Considerations
      Align the relationship survey with your goals Align what is motivating you to launch the survey at this time and the outcomes it is intended to feed into.
      Identify what you’re measuring Clarify the purpose of the questions. Are you measuring feedback on your service desk, specifically? On all of IT? Are you trying to capture user effort? User satisfaction? These decisions will affect how you word your questions.
      Determine a framework for your survey Reporting on results and tracking year-over-year changes will be easier if you design a basic framework that your survey questions fall into. Consider drawing on an existing service quality framework to match best practices in other industries.
      Cover logistical details Designing a relationship survey requires attention to many details that may initially be overlooked: the survey’s length and timing, who it should be sent to and how, what demographic info you need to collect to slice and dice the results, and if it will be possible to conduct the survey anonymously.
      Design question wording It is important to keep questions clear and concise and to avoid overly lengthy surveys.
      Select answer scales The answer scales you select will depend on how you have worded the questions. There is a wide range of answer scales available to you; decide which ones will produce the most meaningful data.
      Test the survey Testing the survey before widely distributing it is key. When collecting feedback, conduct at least a few in person observations of someone taking the survey to get their unvarnished first impressions.
      Monitor and maximize your response rate Ensure success by staying on top of the survey during the period it is open.

      Align the relationship survey with your goals

      What is motivating you to launch the survey at this time?

      Is there a renewed focus on customer service satisfaction? If so, this survey will track the initiative’s success, so its questions must align with the sponsors’ expectations.

      Are you surveying customer satisfaction in order to comply with legislation, or directives to measure customer service quality?

      What objectives/outcomes will this survey feed into?

      What do you need to report on to your stakeholders? Have they communicated any expectations regarding the data they expect to see?

      Does the CIO want the annual survey to measure end-user satisfaction with all of IT?

      • Or do you only want to measure satisfaction with one set of processes (e.g. Service Desk)?
      • Are you seeking feedback on a project (e.g. implementation of new ERP)?
      • Are you seeking feedback on the application portfolio?

      In 1993 the U.S. president issued an Executive Order requiring executive agencies to “survey customers to determine the kind and quality of services they want and their level of satisfaction with existing services” and “post service standards and measure results against them.” (Clinton, 1993)

      Identify what you’re measuring

      Examples of Measures

      Clarify the purpose of the questions

      Each question should measure something specific you want to track and be phrased accordingly.

      Are you measuring feedback on the service desk?

      Service desk professionalism

      Are you measuring user satisfaction?

      Service desk timeliness

      Your customers’ happiness with aspects of IT’s service offerings and customer service

      Trust in agents’ knowledge

      Users’ preferred ticket intake channel (e.g. portal vs phone)

      Satisfaction with self-serve features

      Are you measuring user effort?

      Are you measuring feedback on IT overall?

      Satisfaction with IT’s ability to enable the business

      How much effort your customer needs to put forth to accomplish what they wanted/how much friction your service causes or alleviates

      Satisfaction with company-issued devices

      Satisfaction with network/Wi-Fi

      Satisfaction with applications

      Info-Tech Insight

      As you compose survey questions, decide whether they are intended to capture user satisfaction or effort: this will influence how the question is worded. Include a mix of both.

      Determine a framework for your survey

      If your relationship survey covers satisfaction with service support, ensure the questions cover the major aspects of service quality. You may wish to align your questions on support with existing frameworks: for example, the SERVQUAL service quality measurement instrument identifies 5 dimensions of service quality: Reliability, Assurance, Tangibles, Empathy, and Responsiveness (see below). As you design the survey, consider if the questions relate to these five dimensions. If you have overlooked any of the dimensions, consider if you need to revise or add questions.

      Service dimension

      Definition

      Sample questions

      Reliability

      “Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately”1

      • How satisfied are you with the effectiveness of Service Desk’s ability to resolve reported issues?

      Assurance

      “Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence”2

      • How satisfied are you with the technical knowledge of the Service Desk staff?
      • When you have an IT issue, how likely are you to contact Service Desk by phone?

      Tangibles

      “Appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication materials”3

      • How satisfied are you that employees in your department have all the necessary technology to ensure optimal job performance?
      • How satisfied are you with IT’s ability to communicate to you regarding the information you need to perform your job effectively?

      Empathy

      “Caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers”4

      • How satisfied are you that IT staff interact with end users in a respectful and professional manner?

      Responsiveness

      “Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service”5

      • How satisfied are you with the timeliness of Service Desk’s resolution to reported issues?
      1-5. Arlen, Chris,2022. Paraphrasing Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry, 1990.

      Cover logistical details of the survey

      Identify who you will send it to

      Will you survey your entire user base or a specific subsection? For example, a higher education institution may choose to survey students separately from staff and faculty. If you are gathering data on customer satisfaction with a specific implementation, only survey the affected stakeholders.

      Determine timing

      Avoid sending out the survey during known periods of time pressure or absence (e.g. financial year-end, summer vacation).

      Decide upon its length

      Consider what survey length your users can tolerate. Configure the survey to show the respondents’ progression or their percentage complete.

      Clearly introduce the survey

      The survey should begin with an introduction that thanks users for completing the survey, indicates its length and anonymity status, and conveys how the data will be used, along with who the participants should contact with any questions about the survey.

      Decide upon incentives

      Will you incentivize participation (e.g. by entering the participants in a draw or rewarding highest-participating department)?

      Collect demographic information

      Ensure your data can be “sliced and diced” to give you more granular insights into the results. Ask respondents for information such as department, location, seniority, and tenure to help with your trend analysis later.

      Clarify if anonymous

      Users may be more comfortable participating if they can do so anonymously (Quantisoft, n.d.). If you promise anonymity, ensure your survey software/ partner can support this claim. Note the difference between anonymity (identity of participant is not collected) and confidentiality (identifying data is collected but removed from the reported results).

      Decide how to deliver the survey

      Will you be distributing the survey yourself through your own licensed software (e.g. through Microsoft Forms if you are an MS shop)? Or, will you be partnering with a third-party provider? Is the survey optimized for mobile? Some find up to 1/3 of participants use mobile devices for their surveys (O’Reardon, 2018).

      Use the Sample Size Calculator to determine your ideal sample size

      Use Info-Tech’s Sample Size Calculator to calculate the number of people you need to complete your survey to have statistically representative results.

      The image contains a screenshot of the Sample Size Calculator.

      In the example above, the service desk supports 1000 total users (and sent the survey to each one). To be 95% confident that the survey results fall within 5% of the true value (if every user responded), they would need 278 respondents to complete their survey. In other words, to have a sample that is representative of the whole population, they would need 278 completed surveys.

      Explanation of terms:

      Confidence Level: A measure of how reliable your survey is. It represents the probability that your sample accurately reflects the true population (e.g. your entire user base). The industry standard is typically 95%. This means that 95 times out of 100, the true data value that you would get if you surveyed the entire population would fall within the margin of error.

      Margin of Error: A measure of how accurate the data is, also known as the confidence interval. It represents the degree of error around the data point, or the range of values above and below the actual results from a survey. A typical margin of error is 5%. This means that if your survey sample had a score of 70%, the true value if you sampled the entire population would be between 65% and 75%. To narrow the margin of error, you would need a bigger sample size.

      Population Size: The total set of people you want to study with your survey. For example, the total number of users you support.

      Sample Size: The number of people who participate in your survey (i.e. complete the survey) out of the total population.

      Info-Tech’s End-User Satisfaction Diagnostics

      If you choose to leverage a third-party partner, an Info-Tech satisfaction survey may already be part of your membership. There are two options, depending on your needs:

      I need to measure and report customer satisfaction with all of IT:

      • IT’s ability to enable the organization to meet its existing goals, innovate, adapt to business needs, and provide the necessary technology.
      • IT’s ability to provide training, respond to feedback, and behave professionally.
      • Satisfaction with IT services and applications.

      Both products measure end-user satisfaction

      One is more general to IT

      One is more specific to service desk

      I need to measure and report more granularly on Service Desk customer satisfaction:

      • Efficacy and timeliness of resolutions
      • Technical and communication skills
      • Ease of contacting the service desk
      • Effectiveness of portal/ website
      • Ability to collect and apply user feedback

      Choose Info-Tech's End User Satisfaction Survey

      Choose Info-Tech’s Service Desk Satisfaction Survey

      Design question wording

      Write accessible questions:

      Instead of this….

      Ask this….

      48% of US adults meet or exceed PIACC literacy level 3 and thus able to deal with texts that are “often dense or lengthy.”

      52% of US adults meet level 2 or lower.

      Keep questions clear and concise. Avoid overly lengthy surveys.

      Source: Highlights of the 2017 U.S. PIAAC Results Web Report
      1. How satisfied are you with the response times of the service desk?
      2. How satisfied are you with the timeliness of the service desk?

      Users will have difficulty perceiving the difference between these two questions.

      1. How satisfied are you with the time we take to acknowledge receipt of your ticket?
      2. How satisfied are you with the time we take to completely resolve your ticket?

      Tips for writing survey questions:

      “How satisfied are you with the customer service skills, knowledge, and responsiveness of the technicians?”

      This question measures too many things and the data will not be useful.

      Choose only one to ask about.

      • Cut out any unnecessary words or phrasing. Highlight/bold key words or phrases.
      • Avoid biasing or leading respondents to select a certain answer.
      • Don’t attempt to measure multiple constructs in a single question.

      “On a scale of 1-10, thinking about the past year, how satisfied would you say that you were overall with the way that your tickets were resolved?”

      This question is too wordy.

      “How satisfied were you with your ticket resolution?”

      Choose answer scales that best fit your questions and reporting needs

      Likert scale

      Respondents select from a range of statements the position with which they most agree:

      E.g. How satisfied are you with how long it generally takes to resolve your issue completely?

      E.g. Very dissatisfied/Somewhat dissatisfied/ Neutral/ Somewhat satisfied/ Very satisfied/ NA

      Frequency scale

      How often does the respondent have to do something, or how often do they encounter something?

      E.g. How frequently do you need to re-open tickets that have been closed without being satisfactorily resolved?

      E.g. Never/ Rarely/ Sometimes/ Often/ Always/ NA

      Numeric scale

      By asking users to rate their satisfaction on a numeric scale (e.g., 1-5, 1-10), you can facilitate reporting on averages:

      E.g. How satisfied are you with IS’s ability to provide services to allow the organization to meet its goals?

      E.g. 1 – Not at all Satisfied to 10 – Fully Satisfied / NA

      Forced ranking

      Learn more about your users’ priorities by asking them to rank answers from most to least important, or selecting their top choices (Sauro, 2018):

      E.g. From the following list, drag and drop the 3 aspects of our service that are most important to you into the box on the right.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Always include an optional open-ended question, which allows customers to provide more feedback or suggestions.

      Test the survey before launching

      Review your questions for repetition and ask for feedback on your survey draft to discover if readers interpret the questions differently than you intended.

      Test the survey with different stakeholder groups:

      • IT staff: To discover overlooked topics.
      • Representatives of your end-user population: To discover whether they understand the intention of the questions.
      • Executives: To validate whether you are capturing the data they are interested in reporting on.

      Testing methodology:

      • Ask your test subjects to take the survey in your presence so you can monitor their experience as they take it.
      • Ask them to narrate their experience as they take the survey.
      • Watch for:
        • The time it takes to complete the survey.
        • Moments when they struggle or are uncertain with the survey’s wording.
        • Questions they find repetitive or pointless.

      Info-Tech Insight

      In the survey testing phase, try to capture at least a few real-time responses to the survey. If you collect survey feedback only once the test is over, you may miss some key insights into the user experience of navigating the survey.

      “Follow the golden rule: think of your audience and what they may or may not know. Think about what kinds of outside pressures they may bring to the work you’re giving them. What time constraints do they have?”

      – Sally Colwell, Project Officer, Government of Canada Pension Centre

      Monitor and maximize your response rate

      Ensure success by staying on top of the survey during the period it is open.

      • When will your users complete the survey? You know your own organization’s culture best, but SurveyMonkey found that weekday survey responses peaked at mid-morning and mid-afternoon (Wronski). Ensure you send the communication at a time it will not be overlooked. For example, some studies found Mondays to have higher response rates; however, the data is not consistent (Amaresan, 2021). Send the survey at a time you believe your users are least likely to be inundated with other notifications.
      • Have a trusted leader send out the first communication informing the end-user base of the survey. Ensure the recipient understands your motivation and how their responses will be used to benefit them (O’Reardon, 2016). Remind them that participating in the survey benefits them: since IT is taking actions based on their feedback, it’s their chance to improve their employee experience of the IT services and tools they use to do their job.
      • In the introductory communication, test different email subject lines and email body content to learn which versions increase respondents’ rates of opening the survey link, and “keep it short and clear” (O’Reardon, 2016).
      • If your users tend to mistrust emailed links due to security training, tell them how to confirm the legitimacy of the survey.

      “[Send] one reminder to those who haven’t completed the survey after a few days. Don’t use the word ‘reminder’ because that’ll go straight in the bin, better to say something like, ‘Another chance to provide your feedback’”

      – David O’Reardon, Founder & CEO of Silversix

      Analyze and act on feedback

      Phase 4

      Measure and analyze the results of both surveys and build a plan to act on both positive and negative feedback and communicate the results with the organization.

      Phase 1:

      Phase 2:

      Phase 3:

      Phase 4:

      Understand how to measure customer satisfaction

      Design and implement transactional surveys

      Design and implement relationship surveys

      Analyze and act on feedback

      Leverage the service recovery paradox to improve customer satisfaction

      The image contains a screenshot of a graph to demonstrate the service recovery paradox.

      A service failure or a poor experience isn’t what determines customer satisfaction – it’s how you respond to the issue and take steps to fix it that really matters.

      This means one poor experience with the service desk doesn’t necessarily lead to an unhappy user; if you quickly and effectively respond to negative feedback to repair the relationship, the customer may be even happier afterwards because you demonstrated that you value them.

      “Every complaint becomes an opportunity to turn a bad IT customer experience into a great one.”

      – David O’Reardon, Founder & CEO of Silversix

      Collecting feedback is only the first step in the customer feedback loop

      Closing the feedback loop is one of the most important yet forgotten steps in the process.

      1. Collect Feedback
      • Send transactional surveys after every ticket is resolved.
      • Send a broader annual relationship survey to all users.
    • Analyze Feedback
      • Calculate satisfaction scores.
      • Read open-ended comments.
      • Analyze for trends, categories, common issues and priorities.
    • Act on Feedback
      • Respond to users who provided feedback.
      • Make improvements based on feedback.
    • Communicate Results
      • Communicate feedback results and improvements made to respondents and to service desk staff.
      • Summarize results and actions to key stakeholders and business leaders.

      Act on feedback to get the true value of your satisfaction program

      • SDI (2018) survey data shows that the majority of service desk professionals are using their customer satisfaction data to feed into service improvements. However, 30% still aren’t doing anything with the feedback they collect.
      • Collecting feedback is only one half of a good customer feedback program. Acting on that feedback is critical to the success of the program.
      • Using feedback to make improvements not only benefits the service desk but shows users the value of responding and will increase future response rates.
      The image contains a screenshot of a bar graph that demonstrates SDI: What do service desk professionals do with customer satisfaction data?

      “Your IT service desk’s CSAT survey should be the means of improving your service (and the employee experience), and something that encourages people to provide even more feedback, not just the means for understanding how well it’s doing”

      – Joe the IT Guy, SysAid

      Assign responsibility for acting on feedback

      If collecting and analyzing customer feedback is something that happens off the side of your desk, it either won’t get done or won’t get done well.

      • Formalize the customer satisfaction program. It’s not a one-time task, but an ongoing initiative that requires significant time and dedication.
      • Be clear on who is accountable for the program and who is responsible for all the tasks involved for both transactional and relationship survey data collection, analysis, and communication.

      Assign accountability for the customer feedback program to one person (i.e. Service Desk Manager, Service Manager, Infrastructure & Operations Lead, IT Director), who may take on or assign responsibilities such as:

      • Designing surveys, including survey questions and response options.
      • Configuring survey(s) in ITSM or survey tool.
      • Sending relationship surveys and subsequent reminders to the organization.
      • Communicating results of both surveys to internal staff, business leaders, and end users.
      • Analyzing results.
      • Feeding results into improvement plans, coaching, and training.
      • Creating reports and dashboards to monitor scores and trends.

      Info-Tech Insight

      While feedback can feed into internal coaching and training, the goal should never be to place blame or use metrics to punish agents with poor results. The focus should always be on improving the experience for end users.

      Determine how and how often to analyze feedback data

      • Analyze and report scores from both transactional and relationship surveys to get a more holistic picture of satisfaction across the organization.
      • Determine how you will calculate and present satisfaction ratings/scores, both overall and for individual questions. See tips on the right for calculating and presenting NPS and CSAT scores.
      • A single satisfaction score doesn’t tell the full story; calculate satisfaction scores at multiple levels to determine where improvements are most needed.
        • For example, satisfaction by service desk tier, team or location, by business department or location, by customer group, etc.
      • Analyze survey data regularly to ensure you communicate and act on feedback promptly and avoid further alienating dissatisfied users. Transactional survey feedback should be reviewed at least weekly, but ideally in real time, as resources allow.

      Calculating NPS Scores

      Categorize respondents into 3 groups:

      • 9-10 = Promoters, 7-8 = Neutral, 1-6 = Detractors

      Calculate overall NPS score:

      • % Promoters - % Detractors

      Calculating CSAT Scores

      • CSAT is usually presented as a percentage representing the average score.
      • To calculate, take the total of all scores, divide by the maximum possible score, then multiply by 100. For example, a satisfaction rating of 80% means on average, users gave a rating of 4/5 or 8/10.
      • Note that some organizations present CSAT as the percentage of “satisfied” users, with satisfied being defined as either “yes” on a two-point scale or a score of 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale. Be clear how you are defining your satisfaction rating.

      Don’t neglect qualitative feedback

      While it may be more difficult and time-consuming to analyze, the reward is also greater in terms of value derived from the data.

      Why analyze qualitative data

      How to analyze qualitative data

      • Quantitative data (i.e. numerical satisfaction scores) tells you how many people are satisfied vs dissatisfied, but it doesn’t tell you why they feel that way.
      • If you limit your data analysis to only reporting numerical scores, you will miss out on key insights that can be derived from open-ended feedback.
      • Qualitative data from open-ended survey questions provides:
        • Explanations for the numbers
        • More detailed insight into why respondents feel a certain way
        • More honest and open feedback
        • Insight into areas you may not have thought to ask about
        • New ideas and recommendations

      Methods range in sophistication; choose a technique depending on your tools available and goals of your program.

      1. Manual 2. Semi-automated 3. AI & Analysis Tools
      • Read all comments.
      • Sort into positive vs negative groups.
      • Add tags to categorize comments (e.g. by theme, keyword, service).
      • Look for trends and priorities, differences across groups.
      • Run a script to search for specific keywords.
      • Use a word cloud generator to visualize the most commonly mentioned words (e.g. laptop, email).
      • Due to limitations, manual analysis will still be necessary.
      • Use a feedback analysis/text analysis tool to mine feedback.
      • Software will present reports and data visualizations of common themes.
      • AI-powered tools can automatically detect sentiment or emotion in comments or run a topic analysis.

      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.

      1. Define what qualifies as a positive vs negative score
      2. E.g. Scores of 1 to 2 out of 5 are negative, scores of 4 to 5 out of 5 are positive.

      3. Define process to respond to negative feedback
      • Negative responses should go directly to the Service Desk Manager or whoever is accountable for feedback.
      • Set an SLO for when the user will be contacted. It should be within 24h but ideally much sooner.
      • Investigate the issue to understand exactly what happened and get to the root cause.
      • Identify remediation steps to ensure the issue does not occur again.
      • Communicate to the customer the action you have taken to improve.
    • Define process to respond to positive feedback
      • Positive responses should also be reviewed by the person accountable for feedback, but the timeline to respond may be longer.
      • Show respondents that you value their time by thanking them for responding. Showing appreciate helps to build a long-term relationship with the user.
      • Share positive results with the team to improve morale, and as a coaching/training mechanism.
      • Consider how to use positive feedback as an incentive or reward.

      Build a plan to communicate results to various stakeholders

      Regular communication about your feedback results and action plan tied to those results is critical to the success of your feedback program. Build your communication plan around these questions:

      1. Who should receive communication?

      Each audience will require different messaging, so start by identifying who those audiences are. At a minimum, you should communicate to your end users who provided feedback, your service desk/IT team, and business leaders or stakeholders.

      2. What information do they need?

      End users: Thank them for providing feedback. Demonstrate what you will do with that feedback.

      IT team: Share results and what you need them to do differently as a result.

      Business leaders: Share results, highlight successes, share action plan for improvement.

      3. Who is responsible for communication?

      Typically, this will be the person who is accountable for the customer feedback program, but you may have different people responsible for communicating to different audiences.

      4. When will you communicate?

      Frequency of communication will depend on the survey type – relationship or transactional – as well as the audience, with internal communication being much more frequent than end-user communication.

      5. How will you communicate?

      Again, cater your approach to the audience and choose a method that will resonate with them. End users may view an email, an update on the portal, a video, or update in a company meeting; your internal IT team can view results on a dashboard and have regular meetings.

      Communication to your users impacts both response rates and satisfaction

      Based on the Customer Communication Cycle by David O’Reardon, 2018
      1. Ask users to provide feedback through transactional and relationship surveys.
      2. Thank them for completing the survey – show that you value their time, regardless of the type of feedback they submitted.
      3. Be transparent and summarize the results of the survey(s). Make it easy to digest with simple satisfaction scores and a summary of the main insights or priorities revealed.
      4. Before asking for feedback, explain how you will use feedback to improve the service. After collecting feedback, share your plan for making improvements based on what the data told you.
      5. After you’ve made changes, communicate again to share the results with respondents. Make it clear that their feedback had a direct result on the service they receive. Communicating this before running another survey will also increase the likelihood of respondents providing feedback again.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Focus your communications to users around them, not you. Demonstrate that you need feedback to improve their experience, not just for you to collect data.

      Translate feedback into actionable improvements

      Taking action on feedback is arguably the most important step of the whole customer feedback program.

      Prioritize improvements

      Prioritize improvements based on low scores and most commonly received feedback, then build into an action plan.

      Take immediate action on negative feedback

      Investigate the issue, diagnose the root cause, and repair both the relationship and issue – just like you would an incident.

      Apply lessons learned from positive feedback

      Don’t neglect actions you can take from positive feedback – identify how you can expand upon or leverage the things you’re doing well.

      Use feedback in coaching and training

      Share positive experiences with the team as lessons learned, and use negative feedback as an input to coaching and training.

      Make the change stick

      After making a change, train and communicate it to your team to ensure the change sticks and any negative experiences don’t happen again.

      “Without converting feedback into actions, surveys can become just a pointless exercise in number watching.”

      – David O’Reardon, Founder & CEO of Silversix

      Info-Tech Insight

      Outline exactly what you plan to do to address customer feedback in an action plan, and regularly review that action plan to select and prioritize initiatives and monitor progress.

      For more guidance on tracking and prioritizing ongoing improvement initiatives, see the blueprints Optimize the Service Desk with a Shift Left Strategy and Build a Continual Improvement Plan for the Service Desk.

      Leverage Info-Tech resources to guide your improvement efforts

      Map your identified improvements to the relevant resource that can help:

      Improve service desk processes:

      Improve end-user self-service options:

      Assess and optimize service desk staffing:

      Improve ease of contacting the service desk:

      Standardize the Service Desk Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy Staff the Service Desk to Meet Demand Improve Service Desk Ticket Intake

      Improve service desk processes:

      Improve end-user self-service options:

      Assess and optimize service desk staffing:

      Improve ease of contacting the service desk::

      Improve Incident and Problem Management Improve Incident and Problem Management Deliver a Customer Service Training Program to Your IT Department Modernize and Transform Your End-User Computing Strategy

      Map process for acting on relationship survey feedback

      Use Info-Tech’s Relationship Satisfaction Survey Review Process workflow as a template to define your own process.

      The image contains a screenshot of the Relationship Satisfaction Survey Review Process.

      Map process for acting on transactional survey feedback

      Use Info-Tech’s Transactional Satisfaction Survey Review Process workflow as a template to define your own process.

      The image contains a screenshot of the Transactional Satisfaction Survey Review Process.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Standardize the Service Desk

      This project will help you build and improve essential service desk processes, including incident management, request fulfillment, and knowledge management to create a sustainable service desk.

      Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy

      This project will help you build a strategy to shift service support left to optimize your service desk operations and increase end-user satisfaction.

      Build a Continual Improvement Plan

      This project will help you build a continual improvement plan for the service desk to review key processes and services and manage the progress of improvement initiatives.

      Deliver a Customer Service Training Program to Your IT Department

      This project will help you deliver a targeted customer service training program to your IT team to enhance their customer service skills when dealing with end users, improve overall service delivery and increase customer satisfaction.

      Sources Cited

      Amaresan, Swetha. “The best time to send a survey, according to 5 studies.” Hubspot. 15 Jun 2021. Accessed October 2022.
      Arlen, Chris. “The 5 Service Dimensions All Customers Care About.” Service Performance Inc. n.d. Accessed October 2022.
      Clinton, William Jefferson. “Setting Customer Service Standards.” (1993). Federal Register, 58(176).
      “Understanding Confidentiality and Anonymity.” The Evergreen State College. 2022. Accessed October 2022.
      "Highlights of the 2017 U.S. PIAAC Results Web Report" (NCES 2020-777). U.S. Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics.
      Joe the IT Guy. “Are IT Support’s Customer Satisfaction Surveys Their Own Worst Enemy?” Joe the IT Guy. 29 August 2018. Accessed October 2022.
      O’Reardon, David. “10 Ways to Get the Most out of your ITSM Ticket Surveys.” LinkedIn. 2 July 2019. Accessed October 2022.
      O'Reardon, David. "13 Ways to increase the response rate of your Service Desk surveys".LinkedIn. 8 June 2016. Accessed October 2022.
      O’Reardon, David. “IT Customer Feedback Management – A Why & How Q&A with an Expert.” LinkedIn. 13 March 2018. Accessed October 2022.
      Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V. A., & Berry, L. L. (1985). "A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and Its Implications for Future Research." Journal of Marketing, 49(4), 41–50.
      Quantisoft. "How to Increase IT Help Desk Customer Satisfaction and IT Help Desk Performance.“ Quantisoft. n.d. Accessed November 2022.
      Rumberg, Jeff. “Metric of the Month: Customer Effort.” HDI. 26 Mar 2020. Accessed September 2022.
      Sauro, Jeff. “15 Common Rating Scales Explained.” MeasuringU. 15 August 2018. Accessed October 2022.
      SDI. “Customer Experience in ITSM.” SDI. 2018. Accessed October 2022.
      SDI. “CX: Delivering Happiness – The Series, Part 1.” SDI. 12 January 2021. Accessed October 2022.
      Wronski, Laura. “Who responds to online surveys at each hour of the day?” SurveyMonkey. n.d. Accessed October 2022.

      Research contributors

      Sally Colwell

      Project Officer

      Government of Canada Pension Centre

      Demystify Oracle Licensing and Optimize Spend

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}136|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 9.9/10 Overall Impact
      • member rating average dollars saved: $85,754 Average $ Saved
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      • Parent Category Name: Licensing
      • Parent Category Link: /licensing
      • License keys are not needed with optional features accessible upon install. Conducting quarterly checks of the Oracle environment is critical because if products or features are installed, even if they are not actively in use, it constitutes use by Oracle and requires a license.
      • Ambiguous license models and definitions abound: terminology and licensing rules can be vague, making it difficult to purchase licensing even with the best of intentions to keep compliant.
      • Oracle has aggressively started to force new Oracle License and Service Agreements (OLSA) on customers that slightly modify language and remove pre-existing allowances to tilt the contract terms in Oracle's favor.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Focus on needs first. Conduct a thorough requirements assessment and document the results. Well-documented license needs will be your core asset in navigating Oracle licensing and negotiating your agreement.
      • Communicate effectively. Be aware that Oracle will reach out to employees at your organization at various levels. Having your executives on the same page will help send a strong message.
      • Manage the relationship. If Oracle is managing you, there is a high probability you are over paying or providing information that may result in an audit.

      Impact and Result

      • Conducting business with Oracle is not typical compared to other vendors. To emerge successfully from a commercial transaction with Oracle, customers must learn the "Oracle way" of conducting business, which includes a best-in-class sales structure, highly unique contracts and license use policies, and a hyper-aggressive compliance function.
      • Map out the process of how to negotiate from a position of strength, examining terms and conditions, discount percentages, and agreement pitfalls.
      • Develop a strategy that leverages and utilizes an experienced Oracle DBA to gather accurate information, and then optimizes it to mitigate and meet the top challenges.

      Demystify Oracle Licensing and Optimize Spend Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you need to understand and document your Oracle licensing 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. Establish licensing requirements

      Begin your proactive Oracle licensing journey by understanding which information to gather and assessing the current state and gaps.

      • Demystify Oracle Licensing and Optimize Spend – Phase 1: Establish Licensing Requirements
      • Oracle Licensing Purchase Reference Guide
      • Oracle Database Inventory Tool
      • Effective Licensing Position Tool
      • RASCI Chart

      2. Evaluate licensing options

      Review current licensing models and determine which licensing models will most appropriately fit your environment.

      • Demystify Oracle Licensing and Optimize Spend – Phase 2: Evaluate Licensing Options

      3. Evaluate agreement options

      Review Oracle’s contract types and assess which best fit the organization’s licensing needs.

      • Demystify Oracle Licensing and Optimize Spend – Phase 3: Evaluate Agreement Options
      • Oracle TCO Calculator

      4. Purchase and manage licenses

      Conduct negotiations, purchase licensing, and finalize a licensing management strategy.

      • Demystify Oracle Licensing and Optimize Spend – Phase 4: Purchase and Manage Licenses
      • Oracle Terms & Conditions Evaluation Tool
      • Controlled Vendor Communications Letter
      • Vendor Communication Management Plan
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Demystify Oracle Licensing and Optimize Spend

      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 Licensing Requirements

      The Purpose

      Assess current state and align goals; review business feedback

      Interview key stakeholders to define business objectives and drivers

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Have a baseline for requirements

      Assess the current state

      Determine licensing position

      Examine cloud options

      Activities

      1.1 Gather software licensing data

      1.2 Conduct a software inventory

      1.3 Perform manual checks

      1.4 Reconcile licenses

      1.5 Create your Oracle licensing team

      1.6 Meet with stakeholders to discuss the licensing position, cloud offerings, and budget allocation

      Outputs

      Copy of your Oracle License Statement

      Software inventory report from software asset management (SAM) tool

      Oracle Database Inventory Tool

      RASCI Chart

      Oracle Licensing Effective License Position (ELP) Template

      Oracle Licensing Purchase Reference Guide

      2 Evaluate Licensing Options

      The Purpose

      Review licensing options

      Review licensing rules

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Understand how licensing works

      Determine if you need software assurance

      Discuss licensing rules, application to current environment.

      Examine cloud licensing

      Understand the importance of documenting changes

      Meet with desktop product owners to determine product strategies

      Activities

      2.1 Review full, limited, restricted, and AST use licenses

      2.2 Calculate license costs

      2.3 Determine which database platform to use

      2.4 Evaluate moving to the cloud

      2.5 Examine disaster recovery strategies

      2.6 Understand purchasing support

      2.7 Meet with stakeholders to discuss the licensing position, cloud offerings, and budget allocation

      Outputs

      Oracle TCO Calculator

      Oracle Licensing Purchase Reference Guide

      3 Evaluate Agreement Options

      The Purpose

      Review contract option types

      Review vendors

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Understand why a type of contract is best for you

      Determine if ULA or term agreement is best

      The benefits of other types and when you should change

      Activities

      3.1 Prepare to sign or renew your ULA

      3.2 Decide on an agreement type that nets the maximum benefit

      Outputs

      Type of contract to be used

      Oracle TCO Calculator

      Oracle Licensing Purchase Reference Guide

      4 Purchase and Manage Licenses

      The Purpose

      Finalize the contract

      Prepare negotiation points

      Discuss license management

      Evaluate and develop a roadmap for future licensing

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Negotiation strategies

      Licensing management

      Introduction of SAM

      Leverage the work done on Oracle licensing to get started on SAM

      Activities

      4.1 Control the flow of communication terms and conditions

      4.2 Use Info-Tech’s readiness assessment in preparation for the audit

      4.3 Assign the right people to manage the environment

      4.4 Meet with stakeholders to discuss the licensing position, cloud offerings, and budget allocation

      Outputs

      Controlled Vendor Communications Letter

      Vendor Communication Management Plan

      Oracle Terms & Conditions Evaluation Tool

      RASCI Chart

      Oracle Licensing Purchase Reference Guide

      Project Management

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      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 9.7/10
      • member rating average dollars saved: $303,499
      • member rating average days saved: 42
      • Parent Category Name: Project Portfolio Management and Projects
      • Parent Category Link: /ppm-and-projects

      The challenge

      • Ill-defined or even lack of upfront project planning will increase the perception that your IT department cannot deliver value because most projects will go over time and budget.
      • The perception is those traditional ways of delivering projects via the PMBOK only increase overhead and do not have value. This is less due to the methodology and more to do with organizations trying to implement best-practices that far exceed their current capabilities.
      • Typical best-practices are too clinical in their approach and place unrealistic burdens on IT departments. They fail to address the daily difficulties faces by staff and are not sized to fit your organization.
      • Take a flexible approach and ensure that your management process is a cultural and capacity fit for your organization. Take what fits from these frameworks and embed them tailored into your company.

      Our advice

      Insight

      • The feather-touch is often the right touch. Ensure that you have a lightweight approach for most of your projects while applying more rigor to the more complex and high-risk developments.
      • Pick the right tools. Your new project management processes need the right tooling to be successful. Pick a tool that is flexible enough o accommodate projects of all sizes without imposing undue governance onto smaller projects.
      • Yes, take what fits within your company from frameworks, but there is no cherry-picking. Ensure your processes stay in context: If you do not inform for effective decision-making, all will be in vain. Develop your methods such that guide the way to big-picture decision taking and support effective portfolio management.

      Impact and results 

      • The right amount of upfront planning is a function of the type of projects you have and your company. The proper levels enable better scope statements, better requirements gathering, and increased business satisfaction.
      • An investment in a formal methodology is critical to projects of all sizes. An effective process results in more successful projects with excellent business value delivery.
      • When you have a repeatable and consistent approach to project planning and execution, you can better communicate between the IT project managers and decision-makers.
      • Better communication improves the visibility of the overall project activity within your company.

      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 tailor project management practices to the type of projects you do and your company and review our methodology. We show you how we can support you.

      Lay the groundwork for project management success

      Assess your current capabilities to set the right level of governance.

      • Tailor Project Management Processes to Fit Your Projects – Phase 1: Lay the Groundwork for PM Success (ppt)
      • Project Management Triage Tool (xls)
      • COBIT BAI01 (Manage Programs and Projects) Alignment Workbook (xls)
      • Project Level Definition Matrix (xls)
      • Project Level Selection Tool (xls)
      • Project Level Assessment Tool (xls)
      • Project Management SOP Template (doc)

      Small project require a lightweight framework

      Increase small project's throughput.

      • Tailor Project Management Processes to Fit Your Projects – Phase 2: Build a Lightweight PM Process for Small Initiatives (ppt)
      • Level 1 Project Charter Template (doc)
      • Level 1 Project Status Report Template (doc)
      • Level 1 Project Closure Checklist Template (doc)

      Build the standard process medium and large-scale projects

      The standard process contains fully featured initiation and planning.

      • Tailor Project Management Processes to Fit Your Projects – Phase 3: Establish Initiation and Planning Protocols for Medium-to-Large Projects (ppt)
      • Project Stakeholder and Impact Assessment Tool (xls)
      • Level 2 Project Charter Template (doc)
      • Level 3 Project Charter Template (doc)
      • Kick-Off Meeting Agenda Template (doc)
      • Scope Statement Template (doc)
      • Project Staffing Plan(xls)
      • Communications Management Plan Template (doc)
      • Customer/Sponsor Project Status Meeting Template (doc)
      • Level 2 Project Status Report Template (doc)
      • Level 3 Project Status Report Template (doc)
      • Quality Management Workbook (xls)
      • Benefits Management Plan Template (xls)
      • Risk Management Workbook (xls)

      Build a standard process for the execution and closure of medium to large scale projects

      • Tailor Project Management Processes to Fit Your Projects – Phase 4: Develop Execution and Closing Procedures for Medium-to-Large Projects (ppt)
      • Project Team Meeting Agenda Template (doc)
      • Light Project Change Request Form Template (doc)
      • Detailed Project Change Request Form Template (doc)
      • Light Recommendation and Decision Tracking Log Template (xls)
      • Detailed Recommendation and Decision Tracking Log Template (xls)
      • Deliverable Acceptance Form Template (doc)
      • Handover to Operations Template (doc)
      • Post-Mortem Review Template (doc)
      • Final Sign-Off and Acceptance Form Template (doc)

      Implement your project management standard operating procedures (SOP)

      Develop roll-out and training plans, implement your new process and track metrics.

      • Tailor Project Management Processes to Fit Your Projects – Phase 5: Implement Your PM SOP (ppt)
      • Level 2 Project Management Plan Template (doc)
      • Project Management Process Costing Tool (xls)
      • Project Management Process Training Plan Template (doc)
      • Project Management Training Monitoring Tool (xls)
      • Project Management Process Implementation Timeline Tool (MS Project)
      • Project Management Process Implementation Timeline Tool (xls)

       

       

      Implement Crisis Management Best Practices

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      • Parent Category Name: DR and Business Continuity
      • Parent Category Link: /business-continuity
      • There’s a belief that you can’t know what crisis will hit you next, so you can’t prepare for it. As a result, resilience planning stops at more-specific planning such as business continuity planning or IT disaster recovery planning.
      • Business contingency and IT disaster recovery plans focus on how to resume normal operations following an incident. The missing piece is the crisis management plan – the overarching plan that guides the organization’s initial response, assessment, and action.
      • Organizations without a crisis management plan are far less able to minimize the impact of other crises such as a security breach, health & safety incident, or attacks on their reputation.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Effective crisis management has a long-term demonstrable impact on your organization, long after the crisis is resolved. While all organizations can expect a short-term negative impact when a crisis hits, if the crisis is managed well, the research shows that your market capitalization can actually increase long term.
      • Crisis communication is more science than art and should follow a structured approach. Crisis communication is about more than being a good writer or having a social media presence. There are specific messages that must be included, and specific audiences to target, to get the results you need.
      • IT has a critical role in non-IT crises (as well as IT crises). Many crises are IT events (e.g. security breach). For non-IT events, IT is critical in supporting crisis communication and the operational response (e.g. COVID-19 and quickly ramping up working-from-home).

      Impact and Result

      • You can anticipate the types of crisis your organization may face in the future and build flexible plans that can be adapted in a crisis to meet the needs of the moment.
      • Identify potential crises that present a high risk to your organization.
      • Document emergency response and crisis response plans that provide a framework for addressing a range of crises.
      • Establish crisis communication guidelines to avoid embarrassing and damaging communications missteps.

      Implement Crisis Management Best Practices Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should implement crisis management best practices, 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 potential crises and your crisis management team

      Identify, analyze, and prioritized potential crises based on risk to the organization. Set crisis management team roles and responsibilities. Adopt a crisis management framework.

      • Example Crisis Management Process Flowcharts (Visio)
      • Example Crisis Management Process Flowcharts (PDF)
      • Business Continuity Teams and Roles Tool

      2. Document your emergency and crisis response plans

      Document workflows for notification, situational assessment, emergency response, and crisis response.

      • Emergency Response Plan Checklist
      • Emergency Response Plan Summary
      • Emergency Response Plan Staff Instructions
      • Pandemic Response Plan Example
      • Pandemic Policy

      3. Document crisis communication guidelines

      Develop and document guidelines that support the creation and distribution of crisis communications.

      • Crisis Communication Guidelines and Templates

      4. Complete and maintain your crisis management plan

      Summarize your crisis management and response plans, create a roadmap to implement potential improvement projects, develop training and awareness initiatives, and schedule maintenance to keep the plan evergreen.

      • Crisis Management Plan Summary Example
      • BCP Project Roadmap Tool
      • Organizational Learning Guide
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Implement Crisis Management Best 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 Identify Potential Crises and Your Crisis Management Team

      The Purpose

      Identify and prioritize relevant potential crises.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Enable crisis management pre-planning and identify gaps in current crisis management plans.

      Activities

      1.1 Identify high-risk crises.

      1.2 Assign roles and responsibilities on the crisis management team.

      1.3 Review Info-Tech’s crisis management framework.

      Outputs

      List of high-risk crises.

      CMT membership and responsibilities.

      Adopt the crisis management framework and identify current strengths and gaps.

      2 Document Emergency Response and Crisis Management Plans

      The Purpose

      Outline emergency response and crisis response plans.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Develop and document procedures that enable rapid, effective, and reliable crisis and emergency response.

      Activities

      2.1 Develop crisis notification and assessment procedures.

      2.2 Document your emergency response plans.

      2.3 Document crisis response plans for potential high-risk crises.

      Outputs

      Documented notification and assessment workflows.

      Emergency response plans and checklists.

      Documented crisis response workflows.

      3 Document Crisis Communication Guidelines

      The Purpose

      Define crisis communication guidelines aligned with an actionable crisis communications framework.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Document workflows and guidelines support crisis communications.

      Activities

      3.1 Establish the elements of baseline crisis communications.

      3.2 Identify audiences for the crisis message.

      3.3 Modify baseline communication guidelines based on audience and organizational responsibility.

      3.4 Create a vetting process.

      3.5 Identify communications channels.

      Outputs

      Baseline communications guidelines.

      Situational modifications to crisis communications guidelines.

      Documented vetting process.

      Documented communications channels

      4 Complete and Maintain Your Crisis Management Plan

      The Purpose

      Summarize the crisis management plan, establish an organizational learning process, and identify potential training and awareness activities.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Plan ahead to keep your crisis management practice evergreen.

      Activities

      4.1 Review the CMP Summary Template.

      4.2 Create a project roadmap to close gaps in the crisis management plan.

      4.3 Outline an organizational learning process.

      4.4 Schedule plan reviews, testing, and updates.

      Outputs

      Long-term roadmap to improve crisis management capabilities.

      Crisis management plan maintenance process and awareness program.

      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.

      Enterprise Architecture Trends

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      • Parent Category Name: Strategy & Operating Model
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      • The digital transformation journey brings business and technology increasingly closer.
      • Because the two become more and more intertwined, the role of the enterprise architecture increases in importance, aligning the two in providing additional efficiencies.
      • The current need for an accelerated digital transformation elevates the importance of enterprise architecture.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Enterprise architecture is impacted and has an increasing role in the following areas:
        • Business agility
        • Security
        • Innovation
        • Collaborative EA
        • Tools and automation

      Impact and Result

      EA’s role in brokering and negotiating overlapping areas can lead to the creation of additional efficiencies at the enterprise level.

      Enterprise Architecture Trends Research & Tools

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

      1. Enterprise Architecture Trends Deck – A trend report to support executives as they digitally transform the enterprise.

      In an accelerated path to digitization, the increasingly important role of enterprise architecture is one of collaboration across siloes, inside and outside the enterprise, in a configurable way that allows for quick adjustment to new threats and conditions, while embracing unprecedented opportunities to scale, stimulating innovation, in order to increase the organization’s competitive advantage.

      • Enterprise Architecture Trends Report

      Infographic

      Further reading

      Enterprise Architecture Trends

      Supporting Executives to Digitally Transform the Enterprise

      Analyst Perspective

      Enterprise architecture, seen as the glue of the organization, aligns business goals with all the other aspects of the organization, providing additional effectiveness and efficiencies while also providing guardrails for safety.

      In an accelerated path to digitization, the increasingly important role of enterprise architecture (EA) is one of collaboration across siloes, inside and outside the enterprise, in a configurable way that allows for quick adjustment to new threats and conditions while embracing unprecedented opportunities to scale, stimulating innovation to increase the organization’s competitive advantage.

      Photo of Milena Litoiu, Principal/Senior Director, Enterprise Architecture, Info-Tech Research Group.

      Milena Litoiu
      Principal/Senior Director, Enterprise Architecture
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Accelerated digital transformation elevates the importance of EA

      The Digital transformation journey brings Business and technology increasingly closer.

      Because the two become more and more intertwined, the role OF Enterprise Architecture increases in importance, aligning the two in providing additional efficiencies.

      THE Current need for an accelerated Digital transformation elevates the importance of Enterprise Architecture.

      More than 70% of organizations revamp their enterprise architecture programs. (Info-Tech Tech Trends 2022 Survey)

      Most organizations still see a significant gap between the business and IT.

      Enterprise Architecture (EA) is impacted and has an increasing role in the following areas

      Accelerated Digital Transformation

      • Business agility Business agility, needed more that ever, increases reliance on enterprise strategies.
        EA creates alignment between business and IT to improve business nimbleness.
      • Security More sophisticated attacks require more EA coordination.
        EA helps adjust to the increasing sophistication of external threats. Partnering with the CISO office to develop strategies to protect the enterprise becomes a prerequisite for survival.
      • Innovation EA's role in an innovation increases synergies at the enterprise level.
        EA plays an increasingly stronger role in innovation, from business endeavors to technology, across business units, etc.
      • Collaborative EA Collaborative EA requires new ways of working.
        Enterprise collaboration gains new meaning, replacing stiff governance.
      • Tools & automation Tools-based automation becomes increasingly common.
        Tools support as well as new artificial intelligence or machine- learning- powered approaches help achieve tools-assisted coordination across viewpoints and teams.

      Info-Tech Insight

      EA's role in brokering and negotiating overlapping areas can lead to the creation of additional efficiencies at the enterprise level.

      EA Enabling Business Agility

      Trend 01 — Business Agility is needed more than ever and THIS increases reliance on enterprise Strategies. to achieve nimbleness, organizations need to adapt timely to changes in the environment.

      Approaches:
      A plethora of approaches are needed (e.g. architecture modularity, data integration, AI/ML) in addition to other Agile/iterative approaches for the entire organization.

      Debunk Machine Learning Endpoint Security Solutions

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      • Parent Category Name: Endpoint Security
      • Parent Category Link: /endpoint-security
      • Threat actors are more innovative than ever before and developing sophisticated methods of endpoints attacks capable of avoiding detection with traditional legacy anti-virus software.
      • Legacy anti-virus solutions rely on signatures and hence fail at detecting memory objects, and new and mutating malware.
      • Combined with the cybersecurity talent gap and the sheer volume of endpoint attacks, organizations need endpoint security solutions capable of efficiently and accurately blocking never-before-seen malware types and variants.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Don’t make machine learning a goal in itself. Think of how machine learning can help you achieve your goals.
      • Determine your endpoint security requirements and goals prior to shopping around for a vendor. Vendors can easily suck you into a vortex of marketing jargon and sell you tools that your organization does not need.
      • Machine learning alone is not a solution to catching malware. It is a computational method that can generalize and analyze large datasets, and output insights quicker than a human security analyst.

      Impact and Result

      • Consider deploying an endpoint protection technology that leverages machine learning into your existing endpoint security strategy to counteract against the unknown and to quickly sift through the large volumes of data.
      • Understand how machine learning methods can help drive your organization’s security goals.
      • Identify vendors that utilize machine learning in their endpoint security products.
      • Understand use cases of where machine learning in endpoint security has been successful.

      Debunk Machine Learning Endpoint Security Solutions Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should consider machine learning in endpoint security solutions, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

      1. Demystify machine learning concepts

      Understand basic machine learning concepts used in endpoint security.

      • Debunk Machine Learning Endpoint Security Solutions – Phase 1: Demystify Machine Learning Concepts

      2. Evaluate vendors that leverage machine learning

      Determine feature requirements to evaluate vendors.

      • Debunk Machine Learning Endpoint Security Solutions – Phase 2: Evaluate Vendors That Leverage Machine Learning
      • Endpoint Protection Request for Proposal
      [infographic]

      Take a Realistic Approach to Disaster Recovery Testing

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      • Parent Category Name: DR and Business Continuity
      • Parent Category Link: /business-continuity

      You have made significant investments in availability and disaster recovery – but your ability to recover hasn’t been tested in years. Testing will:

      • Improve your DR capabilities.
      • Identify required changes to planning documentation and procedures.
      • Validate DR capabilities for interested customers and auditors.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • If you treat testing as a pass/fail exercise, you aren’t meeting the end goal of improving organizational resilience.
      • Focus on identifying gaps and risks, and addressing them, before a real disaster hits.
      • Take a realistic, iterative approach to resilience testing that starts with small, low-risk tests and builds on lessons learned.

      Impact and Result

      • Identify testing scenarios and scope that can deliver value to your organization.
      • Create practical test plans with Info-Tech’s template.
      • Demonstrate value from testing to gain buy-in for additional tests.

      Take a Realistic Approach to Disaster Recovery Testing Research & Tools

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

      1. Take a Realistic Approach to Disaster Recovery Testing Storyboard – A guide to establishing a right-sized approach to DR testing that delivers durable value to your organization.

      Use this research to understand the different types of tests, prioritize and plan tests for your organization, review the results, and establish a cadence for testing.

      • Take a Realistic Approach to Disaster Recovery Testing Storyboard

      2. Disaster Recovery Test Plan Template – A template to document your organization's DR test plan.

      Use this template to document scope and goals, participants, key pre-test milestones, the test-day schedule, and your findings from the testing exercise.

      • Disaster Recovery Test Plan Template

      3. Disaster Recovery Testing Program Summary – A template to outline your organization's DR testing program.

      Identify the tests you will run over the next year and the expertise, governance, process, and funding required to support testing.

      • Disaster Recovery Testing Program Summary

      [infographic]

       

      Further reading

      Take a Realistic Approach to Disaster Recovery Testing

      Reduce costly downtime with a right-sized testing program that improves IT resilience.

      Analyst Perspective

      Reduce costly downtime with a right-sized testing program that improves IT resilience.

      Andrew Sharp

      Most businesses make significant investments in disaster recovery and technology resilience. Redundant sites and systems, monitoring, intrusion prevention, backups, training, documentation: it all costs time and money.

      But does this investment deliver expected value? Specifically, can you deliver service continuity in a way that meets business requirements?

      You can’t know the answer without regularly testing recovery processes and systems. And more than just validation, testing helps you deliver service continuity by finding and addressing gaps in your plans and training your staff on recovery procedures.

      Use the insights, tools, and templates in this research to create a streamlined and effective resilience testing program that helps validate recovery capabilities and enhance service reliability, availability, and continuity.

      Andrew Sharp

      Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge

      You have made significant investments in availability and disaster recovery (DR) – but your ability to recover hasn’t been tested in years. Testing will:

      • Improve your DR capabilities.
      • Identify required changes to planning documentation and procedures.
      • Validate DR capabilities for interested customers and auditors.

      Common Obstacles

      Despite the value testing can offer, actually executing on DR tests is difficult because:

      • Testing is often an IT-driven initiative, and it can be difficult to secure business buy-in to redirect resources away from other urgent projects or accept risks that come with testing.
      • Previous tests have been overly complex and challenging to coordinate and leave a hangover so bad that no one wants to do them again.

      Info-Tech's Approach

      Take a realistic approach to resilience testing by starting with small, low-risk tests, then iterating with the lessons you’ve learned:

      • Identify testing scenarios and scope that can deliver value to your organization.
      • Create practical test plans with Info-Tech’s template.
      • Get buy-in for regular DR testing from key stakeholders with a testing program summary.

      Info-Tech Insight

      If you treat testing as a pass/fail exercise, you aren’t meeting the end goal of improving organizational resilience. Focus on identifying gaps and risks so you can address them before a real disaster hits.

      Process and Outputs

      This research is accompanied by templates to help you achieve your goals faster.

      1 - Establish the business rationale for DR testing.
      2 - Review a range of options for testing.
      3 - Prioritize tests that are most valuable to your business.
      4 - Create a disaster recovery test plan.
      5 - Establish a Test Program to support a regular testing cycle.

      Outputs:

      DR Test Plan
      DR Testing Program Summary

      Example Orange Activity slide.
      Orange activity slides like the one on the left provide directions to help you make key decisions.

      Key Deliverable:

      Disaster Recovery Test Plan Template

      Build a plan for your first disaster recovery test.

      This document provides a complete example you can use to quickly build your own plan, including goals, milestones, participants, the test-day schedule, and findings from the after-action review.

      Why test?

      Testing helps you avoid costly downtime

      • In a disaster scenario, speed matters. Immediately after an outage, the impact on the organization is small, but impact increases rapidly the longer the outage continues.
      • A quick and reliable response and recovery can protect the organization from significant losses.
      • A DRP testing and maintenance program helps ensure you’re ready to recover when you need to, rather than figuring it out as you go.

      “Routine testing is vital to survive a disaster… that’s when muscle memory sets in. If you don’t test your DR plan it falls [in importance], and you never see how routine changes impact it.”

      – Jennifer Goshorn
      Chief Administrative Officer
      Gunderson Dettmer LLP

      Info-Tech members estimated even one day of system downtime could lead to significant revenue losses. Estimated loss of revenue over 24 hours. Core Infrastructure has the highest potential for lost revenue.

      Average estimated potential loss* in thousands of USD due to a 24-hour outage (N=41)

      *Data aggregated from 41 business impact analyses (BIAs) conducted with Info-Tech advisory assistance. BIAs evaluate potential revenue loss due to a full day of system downtime, at the worst possible time.

      Run tests to enhance disaster recovery plans

      Testing improves organizational resilience

      • Identify and address gaps in your plans before a real disaster strikes.
      • Cross-train staff on systems recovery.
      • Go beyond testing technology to test recovery processes.
      • Establish a culture that centers resilience in everyday decision-making.

      Testing keeps DR documentation ready for action

      • Update documentation ahead of tests to prepare for the testing exercise.
      • Update documentation after testing to incorporate any lessons learned.

      Testing validates that investments in resilience deliver value

      • Confirm your organization can meet defined recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs).
      • Provide proof of testing for auditors, prospective customers, and insurance applications

      Overcome testing challenges

      Despite the value of effective recovery testing, most IT organizations struggle to test recovery plans

      Common challenges

      • Key resources don’t have time for testing exercises.
      • You don’t have the technology to support live recovery testing.
      • Tests are done ad hoc and lessons learned are lost.
      • A lack of business support for test exercises as the value isn’t understood.
      • Tests are always artificially simple because RTOs and RPOs must be met to satisfy customer or auditor inquiries

      Overcome challenges with a realistic approach:

      • Start small with tabletop and recovery tests for specific systems.
      • Include recovery tests in operational tasks (e.g. restore systems when you have a maintenance window).
      • Create testing plans for larger testing exercises.
      • Build on successful tests to streamline testing exercises in the future.
      • Don’t make testing a pass-fail exercise. Focus on identifying gaps and risks so you can address them before a real disaster hits.

      Go beyond traditional testing

      Different test techniques help validate recovery against different threats

      • There are many threats to service continuity, including ransomware, severe weather events, geopolitical conflict, legacy systems, staff turnover, and day-to-day outages caused by human error, software updates, hardware failures, or network outages.
      • At its core, disaster recovery planning is about recovery. A plan for service recovery will help you mitigate against many threats at once. The testing approaches on the right will help you validate different aspects of that recovery process.
      • This research will provide an overview of the approaches outlined on the right and help you prioritize tests that are most valuable to your organization.
      Different test techniques for disaster recover training: System Failover tests, tabletop exercises, ransomware recovery tests, etc.

      00 Identify a working group

      30 minutes

      Identify a group of participants who can fill the following roles and inform the discussions around testing in this research. A single person could fill multiple roles and some roles could be filled by multiple people. Many participants will be drawn from the larger DRP team.

      Roles and expectations for Disaster Recovery Planning. DRP sponsor, Testing coordinator, System testers, business liaisons, executive team.

      Input

      • Organizational context

      Output

      • A list of key participants for test planning and execution

      Participants

      • Typically, start by identifying the sponsor and coordinator and have them identify the other members of the working group.

      Start by updating your disaster recovery plan (DRP)

      Use Info-Tech’s Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan research to identify recovery objectives based on business impact and outline recovery processes. Both are tremendously valuable inputs to your test plans.

      Overall Business Continuity Plan

      IT Disaster Recovery Plan

      A plan to restore IT services (e.g. applications and infrastructure) following a disruption. A DRP:

      • Identifies critical applications and dependencies.
      • Defines appropriate recovery objectives based on a business impact analysis (BIA).
      • Creates a step-by-step incident response plan.

      BCP for Each Business Unit

      A set of plans to resume business processes for each business unit. A business continuity plan (BCP) is also sometimes called a continuity of operations plan (COOP).

      BCPs are created and owned by each business unit, and creating a BCP requires deep involvement from the leadership of each business unit.

      Info-Tech’s Develop a Business Continuity Plan blueprint provides a methodology for creating business unit BCPs as part of an overall BCP for the organization.

      Crisis Management Plan

      A plan to manage a wide range of crises, from health and safety incidents to business disruptions to reputational damage.

      Info-Tech’s Implement Crisis Management Best Practices blueprint provides a framework for planning a response to any crisis, from health and safety incidents to reputational damage.

      01 Confirm: why test at all?

      15-30 minutes

      Identify the value recovery testing for your organization. Use language appropriate for a nontechnical audience. Start with the list below and add, modify, or delete bullet points to reflect your own organization.

       

      Drivers for testing – Examples:

       

      • Improve service continuity.
      • Identify and address gaps in recovery plans before a real disaster strikes.
      • Cross-train staff on systems recovery to minimize single points of failure.
      • Identify how we coordinate across teams during a major systems outage.
      • Exercise both recovery processes and technology.
      • Support a culture that centers system resilience in everyday decision-making.
      • Keep recovery documentation up-to-date and ready for action.
      • Confirm that our stated recovery objectives can be met.
      • Provide proof of testing for auditors, prospective customers, and insurance applications.
      • We require proof of testing to pass audits and renew cybersecurity insurance.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Time-strapped technical staff will sometimes push back on planning and testing, objecting that the team will “figure it out” in a disaster. But the question isn’t whether recovery is possible – it’s whether the recovery aligns with business needs. If your plan is to “MacGyver” a solution on the fly, you can’t know if it’s the right solution for your organization.

      Input

      • Business drivers and context for testing

      Output

      • Specific goals that are driving testing

      Participants

      • DR sponsor
      • Test coordinator

      Think about what and how you test

      Different layers of the stack to test: Network, Authentication, compute and storage, visualization platforms, database services, middleware, app servers, web servers.

      Find gaps and risks with tabletop testing

      Tabletop planning had the greatest impact on meeting recovery objectives (RTOs/RPOs).

      In a tabletop planning exercise, the team walks through a disaster scenario to outline the recovery workflow, and risks or gaps that could disrupt that workflow.

      Tabletops are particularly effective because:

      • It enables you to play out a wider range of scenarios than technology-based testing (e.g. full-scale, parallel) due to cost and complexity factors.
      • It is non-intrusive, so it can be executed more easily than other testing methodologies.
      • The exercise translates into recovery documentation: you create a workflow as you go.
      • A major site or service recovery scenario will review all aspects of the recovery process and create the backbone of your recovery plan.

      02 Run a tabletop exercise

      2 hours

      Tabletop testing is part of our core DRP methodology, Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan. This exercise can be run using cue cards, sticky notes, or on a whiteboard; many of our facilitators find building the workflow directly in flowchart software to be very effective.

      Use our Recovery Workflow Template as a starting point.

      Some tips for running your first tabletop exercise:

      Do

      • Review the complete workflow from notification all the way to user acceptance testing.
      • Keep focused; stay on task and on time.
      • Revisit each step and record gaps and risks (and known solutions, but don’t dwell on this).
      • Revise and improve the plan with task owners.

      Don't

      • Get weighed down by tools.
      • Try to find solutions to every gap/risk as you go. Save in-depth research/discussion for later.
      • Document the details right away – stick to the high-level plan for the first exercise.
      1. Ahead of the exercise, decide on a scenario, identify participants, and book a meeting time.
        • For your first walkthrough of a DR scenario, we often recommend a scenario that considers a site failure requiring failover to a DR site.
        • For the first exercise, focus on technical aspects of recovery before bringing in members of the business. The technical team may need space to discuss the appropriate steps in the recovery process before you bring in business liaisons to discuss user acceptance testing (UAT).
        • A complete failover considers all systems, the viability of your second site, and can help identify parts of the process that require additional exercises.
      2. Review the scenario with participants. Then, discuss and document the recovery process, starting with initial notification of an event.
        • Record steps in the process on white cards or boxes.
        • On yellow and red cards, document gaps and risks in people process and technology requirements.
      3. Once you’ve walked through the process, return to the start.
        • Record the time required to complete each step. Consider identifying who is responsible for key steps. Identify any additional gaps and risks.
      4. Clean up and record the results of the workflow. Save a copy with your DRP documentation.

      Input

      • Expert knowledge on systems recovery

      Output

      • Recovery workflow, including gaps and risks

      Participants

      • Test coordinator
      • Technical SMEs

      Move from tabletop testing to functional exercises

      See how your plans fare in the real world

      In live exercises, some portion of your recovery plans are executed in a way that mimics a real recovery scenario. Some advantages of live testing:

      • See how standby systems behave. A tabletop exercise can miss small issues that can make or break the recovery process. For example, connectivity or integration issues on a new subnet might be difficult to predict prior to actually running services in that environment.
      • Hands-on practice: Familiarize the team with the steps, commands, and interfaces of your recovery toolset.
      • Manage the pressure of the DR scenario: Nothing’s quite like the real thing, but a live exercise may be the closest your team can get to a disaster situation without experiencing it firsthand.

      Examples of live exercises

      Boot and smoke test Turn on a standby system and confirm it boots up correctly.
      Restore and validate data Restore data or servers from backup. Confirm data integrity.
      Parallel testing Send familiar transactions to production and standby systems. Confirm both systems produce the same result.
      Failover systems Shut down the production system and use the standby system in production.

      Run local tests ahead of releases

      Think small

      Most unacceptable downtime is caused by localized issues, such as hardware or software failures, rather than widespread destructive events. Regular local testing can help validate the recovery plan for local issues and improve overall service continuity.

      Make local testing a standard step in maintenance work and new deployments to embed resilience considerations in day-to-day activities. Run the same tests in both your primary and your DR environment.

      Some examples of localized tests:

      • Review backup logs and check for errors.
      • Restore files or whole systems from backup.
      • Run application-based tests as part of release management, including unit, regression, and performance tests.
        • Ensure application tests are run for both the primary and DR environment.
        • For a deep-dive on application testing, see Info-Tech’s research Automate Testing to Get More Done.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Local tests will vary between different services, and local test design is usually best left to the system SMEs. At the same time, centralize reporting to understand where tests are being done.

      Investigate whether your IT Service Management or ticketing system can create recurring tasks or work orders to schedule, document, and track test exercises. Tasks can be pre-populated with checklists and documentation to support the test and provide a record of completed tests to support oversight and reporting.

      Have the business validate recovery

      If your business doesn’t think a system’s recovered, it’s not recovered.

      User acceptance testing (UAT) after system recovery is a key step in the recovery process. Like any step in the process, there’s value in testing it before it actually needs to be done. Assign responsibility for building UATs to the person who will be responsible for executing them.

      An acceptance test script might look something like the checklist below.

      • Does the application open?
      • Does the interface look right?
      • Do you see any unusual notifications or warnings?
      • Can you conduct a key transaction with dummy data?
      • Can you run key reports?

      “I cannot stress how important it is to assign ownership of responsibilities in a test; this is the only way to truly mitigate against issues in a test.”

      – Robert Nardella
      IT Service Management
      Certified z/OS Mainframe Professional

      Info-Tech Insight

      Build test scripts and test transactions ahead of time to minimize the amount of new work required during a recovery scenario.

      Beyond the Basics: Full Failover Testing

      • A failover test – a full failover of your production environment to a secondary environment – is what many IT and businesspeople think about when they think of disaster recovery testing.
      • A full test can validate previous local or tabletop tests, identify additional gaps and risks, and provide hands-on training experience with recovery processes and technologies.
      • Setting a date for failover testing can also inject some urgency into otherwise low-priority (but high importance) disaster recovery planning and documentation exercises, which need to be completed prior to the test.
      • Despite these benefits, full failover tests carry significant risk and require a great deal of effort and cost. Typically, only businesses that already have an active-active environment capable of supporting in-scope production systems are able to run a full environment failover.
      • This is especially true the first time you test. While in theory a DR plan should be ready to go at any time, there will be documents to update, gaps to address, and risks to mitigate before you go ahead with the test.

      Full Failover Testing

      What you get:

      • Provide hands-on experience with recovery processes and technology.
      • Confirm that site failover works in practice as you assumed in tabletop or local testing exercises.
      • Identify critical gaps you might have missed without a full failover test.

      What you need:

      • An active-active secondary site, with sufficient standby equipment, data, and licensed standby software to support production.
      • A completed tabletop exercise and documented recovery workflow.
      • A documented test plan, backout plan, and formal sign-off.
      • An off-hours downtime window.
      • Time from technical SMEs and business resources, both for creating the plan and executing the test.

      Beyond the Basics: Site Reliability Engineering

      • Site reliability engineering (SRE) is an application of skills and approaches from software engineering to improve system resilience.
      • SRE is focused on “availability, latency, performance, efficiency, change management, monitoring, emergency response, and capacity planning” across a set portfolio of services (Sloss, 2017).
      • In many organizations, SRE is implemented as a team that supports separate applications teams.
      • Applications must have defined and granular resilience requirements, translated into service objectives. The SRE team and applications teams will work together to meet these objectives.
      • Site reliability engineers (the folks that do SRE, and often also abbreviated as SREs) are expected to build solutions and processes to ensure services remain stable and performant, not just respond when they fail. For example, Google allows their SREs to spend just half their time on incident response, with the rest of their time focused on development and automation tasks.

      Site Reliability Testing

      What you get:

      • Improved reliability and reduced frequency and impact of downtime.
      • Increased use of automation to address problems before they cause an incident.
      • Granular resilience objectives.

      What you need:

      • Systems running on software-defined infrastructure.
      • Specialized skills in programming, infrastructure-as-code.
      • Business & product owners able to define and fund acceptable and appropriate resilience objectives.
      • Technical experts able to translate product requirements into technical design requirements.

      Beyond the Basics: Chaos Engineering

      • Chaos engineering, a term and approach first popularized by the team at Netflix, aims to improve the resilience of particularly large and distributed systems by simulating system failures and evaluating performance against a baseline.
      • Experiments simulate a variety of real-world events that could cause outages (e.g. network slowdowns or server failures). Experiments run continuously, and the recommendation is to run them in production where feasible while minimizing the impact on customers.
      • Tools to help you run chaos testing exist, including open-source toolkits like Chaos Monkey or Mangle and paid software as a service (SaaS) solutions like Gremlin.
      • Deciding whether the long-term benefits of tests that can degrade production are worth the potential risk of system slowdowns or outages is a business or product decision. Technical considerations aside, if the business owner of a particular system doesn’t see the value of continuous testing outweighing the introduced risk, this approach to testing isn’t going to happen.

      Chaos Engineering

      What you get:

      • Confidence that systems can weather volatile and unpredictable conditions in a production environment.
      • An embedded resilience culture.

      What you need:

      • High-maturity IT incident, monitoring and event practices.
      • Standby/resilient systems to minimize downtime impact.
      • Business buy-in for introducing risk into the production environment.
      • Specialized skills to identify, develop, and run tests that degrade production performance in a controlled way.
      • Budget and time to act on issues identified through testing.

      Beyond the Basics: Security Event Simulations

      • Ransomware is driving demands for proof of recovery testing from customers, executives, auditors, and insurance companies. Systems recovery is part of ransomware recovery, but recovering from a breach includes detection, analysis, containment, and eradication of the attack vector before systems recovery can begin.
      • Beyond technical recovery, internal legal and communications teams will have a role, as will your insurance provider, consultants specialized in ransomware recovery, or professional ransom negotiators.
      • A tabletop exercise focused on ransomware incident response is a key first step. You can find Info-Tech’s methodology for a ransomware tabletop in Phase 3 of Build Resilience Against Ransomware Attacks.
      • Live testing approaches can offer hands-on experience and further insight into how your systems are vulnerable to malware. A variety of open source and proprietary tools can simulate ransomware and help you identify problems, though it’s important to understand the limitations of different simulators (Allon, 2022).
      • A “red team” exercise simulates an adversarial attack against your processes and systems. A specialized penetration tester will often take on the role of the red team and provide a report of identified gaps and risks after the engagement.

      Security Event Simulation

      What you get:

      • Hands-on experience managing and recovering from a ransomware attack in a controlled environment.
      • A better understanding of gaps in your response process.

      What you need:

      • A completed ransomware tabletop exercise and mature security incident response processes.
      • For Ransomware Simulators: An air-gapped sandbox environment hosting a copy of your production systems and security tools, and time from your technical SMEs.
      • For Red Team Exercises: A trusted provider, scope for your testing plans, and time from your security incident response team.

      Prioritize tests by asking these three questions

      1. Will the scope of this test deliver sufficient value?

      • Yes, these are critical systems with low tolerance for downtime or data loss.
      • Yes, major changes or new systems require validation of DR capabilities.
      • Yes, there’s high probability of an outage, or recent experience of an outage.
      • •Yes, we have audit requirements or customer demands for testing.

      2. Are we ready for this test?

      • Yes, recovery plans and recovery objectives are documented.
      • Yes, key technical and business resources have time to commit to testing exercises.
      • Yes, technology is currently able to support proposed tests.

      3. Is it easy to do?

      • Yes, effort required to complete the test is low (i.e. minimal work, few participants).
      • Yes, the risks related to testing are low.
      • Yes, it won’t cost much.

      Info-Tech Insight

      More complex, challenging, risky, or costly tests, such as full failover tests, can deliver value. But do the high-value, low-effort stuff first!

      03 Brainstorm and prioritize test ideas

      30-60 minutes

      Even if you have an idea of what you need to test and how you want to run those tests, this brainstorming exercise can generate useful ideas for testing that might otherwise have been missed.

        1. Review the slides above to develop ideas on how and what you want to test. These slides may be enough to kickstart a brainstorming process. Don’t debate or discount ideas at this point. Write down these ideas in a space where all participants can see them (e.g. whiteboard or shared screen).

      The next steps will help you prioritize the list – if needed – to tests that are highest value and lowest effort.

      1. Discuss where you have the greatest need to test. Assign a score of 0 – 3 for each test, with a score of 3 being high-need and a score of zero being low-need. Consider whether:
        • These applications have a low tolerance for downtime.
        • There’s a high chance of an outage, or recent experience with an outage.
        • There’s a need to train or cross-train staff on recovery for the system(s) in question.
        • Major changes require a review or validation of DR capabilities.
        • Audit requirements or customer/executive demands can be met via testing.
      2. Discuss which tests will require the least effort to complete – where readiness is high and tests are easier to do. Assign a score between 0 and 3 for each test, with a score of 3 being least effort and a score of 0 being high effort. Consider whether:
        • Recovery plans and recovery objectives are documented for these systems.
        • Technical experts are available to work on testing exercises.
        • For active testing, standby/sandbox systems are available and capable of supporting proposed tests.
        • The effort required to complete the test is low (e.g. minimal new work, few participants).
        • The risks related to testing are low.
        • You will need to secure additional funding.
      3. Sum together the assigned scores for each test. Higher scores should be the highest priority, but of course use your judgement to validate the results and select one or two tests to execute in the coming year.

      “There are different levels of testing and it is very progressive. I do not recommend my clients to do anything, unless they do it in a progressive fashion. Don’t try to do a live failover test with your users, right out of the box.”

      – Steve Tower
      Principal Consultant
      Prompta Consulting Group

      Input

      • Organizational and technical context

      Output

      • Prioritize list of DR testing ideas

      Participants

      • DR sponsor
      • Test coordinator

      04 Build a test plan

      3-5 days

      Building a test plan helps the test run smoothly and can uncover issues with the underlying DRP as you dig into the details.

      The test coordinator will own the plan document but will rely on the sponsor to confirm scope and goals, technical SMEs to develop system recovery plans, and business liaisons to create UAT scripts.

      Download Info-Tech’s Disaster Recovery Test Plan Template. Use the structure of the template to build your own document, deleting example data as you go. Consider saving a separate copy of this document as an example and working from a second copy.

      Key sections of the document include:

      • Goals, scenario, and scope of the test.
      • Assumptions, constraints, risks, and mitigation strategies.
      • Test participants.
      • Key pre-test milestones, and test-day schedule.
      • After-action review.

      Download the Disaster Recovery Test Plan Template

      Input

      • Scope
      • High-level goals

      Output

      • Test plan, including goals, scope, key milestones, risks and mitigations, and test-day schedule

      Participants

      • Test coordinator develops the plan with support from:
        • Technical SMEs
        • Business liaisons
        • DR sponsor

      05 Run an after-action review

      30-60 minutes

      Take time after test exercises – especially large-scale tests with many participants – to consider what went well, what didn’t, and where you can improve future testing exercises. Track lessons learned and next steps at the bottom of your test plan.

      1. Start with a short (5-10 minute) debrief of the test and allow participants to ask questions. Confirm:
        • Did we meet the goals we set for the exercise, including RTOs and RPOs?
        • What was done well? What issues, gaps, and risks were identified?
      2. Work through variations of the following questions:
        • Was the test plan effective, and was the test well organized?
        • Was the documentation effective? Where did we follow the plan as documented, and where did we deviate from the plan?
        • Was our communication/collaboration during the test effective?
        • Have gaps and issues found during the test been reported to the testing coordinator? Could some of the issues uncovered apply more broadly to other IT services as well?
        • What could we test next, based on what was discovered?
        • Are there other tools or approaches that could be useful?

      Input

      • Insights and experience from a recent testing exercise

      Output

      • Identified gaps and risks, and action items to address them
      • Ideas to improve future test exercises

      Participants

      • Test coordinator develops the plan with support from:
        • Test coordinator
        • Test participants

      Follow a testing cycle

      All tests are expected to drive actions to improve resilience, as appropriate. Experience from previous tests will be applied to future testing exercises.

      The testing cycle: 1. Plan a test, 2. Run test, 3. Take action.

      Use your experience to simplify testing

      The fifth testing exercise should be easier than the first

      Outputs and lessons learned from testing should help you run future tests.

      • With past experience under their belt, participants should have a better understanding of their role, and of their peers’ roles, and the goal of the exercise.
      • Facilitators will be more comfortable facilitating the exercise, and everyone should be more confident in the steps required to recover their systems.
      • Gather feedback from participants through after-action reviews to identify what worked and what didn’t.
      • Documentation from previous tests can provide a template for future tests.
      • Gaps identified in previous tests can provide ideas for future tests.

      Experience, lessons learned, improved process, new test targets, repeat.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Testing should get easier over time. But if you’re easily passing every test, it’s a sign that you’re ready to run more challenging tests.

      06 Create a test program summary

      2-4 hours

      Regular testing allows you to build on prior tests and helps keep plans current despite changes to your environment.

      Keeping a regular testing schedule requires expertise, a process to coordinate your efforts, and a level of governance to provide oversight and ensure testing continues to deliver value. Create a call to action using Info-Tech’s Disaster Recovery Testing Program Summary Template.

      The result is a summary document that:

      • Identifies key takeaways and testing goals
      • Presents key elements of the testing program
      • Outlines the testing cycle
      • Lists expected milestones for the next year
      • Identifies participants
      • Recommends next steps

      “It is extremely important in the early stages of development to concentrate the focus on actual recoverability and data protection, enhancing these capabilities over time into a fully matured program that can truly test the recovery, and not simply focusing on the testing process itself.”

      – Joe Starzyk
      Senior Business Development Executive
      IBM Global Services

      Research Contributors and Experts

      • Bernard A. Jones, Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Expert
      • Robert Nardella, IT Service Management, Certified z/OS Mainframe Professional
      • Larry Liss, Chief Technology Officer, Blank Rome LLP
      • Jennifer Goshorn, Chief Administrative and Chief Compliance Officer, Gunderson Dettmer LLP
      • Paul Kirvan, FBCI, CISA, Independent IT Consultant/Auditor, Paul Kirvan Associates
      • Steve Tower, Principal Consultant, Prompta Consulting Group
      • Joe Starzyk, Senior Business Development Executive, IBM Global Services
      • Thomas Bronack, Enterprise Resiliency and Corporate Certification Consultant, DCAG
      • Paul S. Randal, CEO & Owner, SQLskills.com
      • Tom Baumgartner, Disaster Recovery Analyst, Catholic Health

      Bibliography

      Alton, Yoni. “Ransomware simulators – reality or a bluff?” Palo Alto Blog, 2 May 2022. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
      https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/security-operations/ransomware-simulators-reality-or-a-bluff/

      Brathwaite, Shimon. “How to Test your Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan,” Security Made Simple, 13 Nov 2022. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
      https://www.securitymadesimple.org/cybersecurity-blog/how-to-test-your-business-continuity-and-disaster-recovery-plan

      The Business Continuity Institute. Good Practice Guidelines: 2018 Edition. The Business Continuity Institute, 2017.

      Emigh, Jacqueline. “Disaster Recovery Testing: Ensuring Your DR Plan Works,” Enterprise Storage Forum, 28 May 2019. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
      Disaster Recovery Testing: Ensuring Your DR Plan Works | Enterprise Storage Forum

      Gardner, Dana. "Case Study: Strategic Approach to Disaster Recovery and Data Lifecycle Management Pays off for Australia's SAI Global." ZDNet. BriefingsDirect, 26 Apr 2012. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
      http://www.zdnet.com/article/case-study-strategic-approach-to-disaster-recovery-and-data-lifecycle-management-pays-off-for-australias-sai-global/.

      IBM. “Section 11. Testing the Disaster Recovery Plan.” IBM, 2 Aug 2021. Accessed 31 Jan 2023. Section 11. Testing the disaster recovery plan - IBM Documentation Lutkevich, Ben and Alexander Gillis. “Chaos Engineering”. TechTarget, Jun 2021. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
      https://www.techtarget.com/searchitoperations/definition/chaos-engineering

      Monperrus, Martin. “Principles of Antifragility.” Arxiv Forum, 7 June 2017. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
      https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1404/1404.3056.pdf

      “Principles of Chaos Engineering.” Principles of Chaos Engineering, 2019 March. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
      https://principlesofchaos.org/

      Sloss, Benjamin Treynor. “Introduction.” Site Reliability Engineering. Ed. Betsy Beyer. O’Reilly Media, 2017. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
      https://sre.google/sre-book/introduction/

      Leadership, Culture and Values

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}34|cart{/j2store}
      • Related Products: {j2store}34|crosssells{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 9.4/10
      • member rating average dollars saved: $912
      • member rating average days saved: 7
      • Parent Category Name: People and Resources
      • Parent Category Link: /people-and-resources

      The challenge

      • Your talent pool determines IT performance and stakeholder satisfaction. You need to retain talent and continually motivate them to go the extra mile.
      • The market for IT talent is growing, in the sense that talent has many more options these days. Turnover is a serious threat to IT's ability to deliver top-notch service to your company.
      • Engagement is more than HR's responsibility. IT leadership is accountable for the retention of top talent and the overall productivity of IT employees.

      Our advice

      Insight

      • Engagement goes both ways. Your initiatives must address a real need, and employees must actively seek the outcomes. Engagement is not a management edict.
      • Engagement is not about access to the latest perks and gadgets. You must address the right and challenging issues. Use a systematic approach to find what lives among the employees and address these.
      • Your impact on your employees is many times bigger than HR's. Leverage your power to lead your team to success and peak performance.

      Impact and results 

      • Our engagement diagnostic and other tools will help get to the root of disengagement in your team.
      • Our guidance helps you to avoid common errors and engagement program pitfalls. They allow you to take control of your own team's engagement.

      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 engagement is critical to IT performance in your company. We'll show you our methodology and the ways we can help you in handling this.

      Measure your employee engagement

      You can use our full engagement surveys.

      • Improve Employee Engagement to Drive IT Performance – Phase 1: Measure Employee Engagement (ppt)
      • Engagement Strategy Record (doc)
      • Engagement Communication Template (doc)

      Analyze the results and brainstorm solutions

      Understand your employees' engagement drivers. Involve your team in brainstorming engagement initiatives.

      • Improve Employee Engagement to Drive IT Performance – Phase 2: Analyze Results and Ideate Solutions (ppt)
      • Engagement Survey Results Interpretation Guide (ppt)
      • Full Engagement Survey Focus Group Facilitation Guide (ppt)
      • Pulse Engagement Survey Focus Group Facilitation Guide (ppt)
      • Focus Group Facilitation Guide Driver Definitions (doc)
      • One-on-One Manager Meeting Worksheet (doc)

      Select and implement engagement initiatives

      Choose those initiatives that show the most promise with the most significant impact. Create your action plan and establish transparent and open, and ongoing communication with your team.

      • IT Knowledge Transfer Plan Template (xls)
      • IT Knowledge Identification Interview Guide Template (doc)

      Build your knowledge transfer roadmap

      Knowledge transfer is an ongoing effort. Prioritize and define your initiatives.

      • Improve Employee Engagement to Drive IT Performance – Phase 3: Select and Implement Engagement Initiatives (ppt)
      • Summary of Interdepartmental Engagement Initiatives (doc)
      • Engagement Progress One-Pager (ppt)

       

      Implement a Social Media Program

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

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

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

      Impact and Result

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

      Implement a Social Media Program Research & Tools

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

      1. Assess your organization's social maturity

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

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

      2. Form a social media steering committee

      Bring order to chaos among different business units.

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

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

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

      • Social Media Representative
      • Social Media Manager
      [infographic]

      Position and Agree on ROI to Maximize the Impact of Data and Analytics

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}341|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: Data Management
      • Parent Category Link: /data-management
      • Because ROI is a financial concept, it can be difficult to apply ROI to anything that produces intangible value.
      • It is a lot harder to apply ROI to functions like data and analytics than it is to apply it to functions like sales without misrepresenting its true purpose.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • The standard ROI formula cannot be easily applied to data and analytics and other critical functions across the organization.
      • Data and analytics ROI strategy is based on the business problem being solved.
      • The ROI score itself doesn’t have to be perfect. Key decision makers need to agree on the parameters and measures of success.

      Impact and Result

      • Agreed-upon ROI parameters
      • Defined measures of success
      • Optimized ROI program effectiveness by establishing an appropriate cadence between key stakeholders

      Position and Agree on ROI to Maximize the Impact of Data and Analytics Research & Tools

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

      1. Data and Analytics ROI Strategy Deck – A guide for positioning ROI to maximize the value of data and analytics.

      This research is meant to ensure that data and analytics executives are aligned with the key business decision makers. Focus on the value you are trying to achieve rather than perfecting the ROI score.

      • Position and Agree on ROI to Maximize the Impact of Data and Analytics Storyboard

      2. Data and Analytics Service to Business ROI Map – An aligned ROI approach between key decision makers and data and analytics.

      A tool to be used by business and data and analytics decision makers to facilitate discussions about how to approach ROI for data and analytics.

      • Data and Analytics Service to Business ROI Map
      [infographic]

      Further reading

      Position and Agree on ROI to Maximize the Impact of Data and Analytics

      Data and analytics ROI strategy is based on the business problem being solved and agreed-upon value being generated.

      Analyst Perspective

      Missing out on a significant opportunity for returns could be the biggest cost to the project and its sponsor.

      This research is directed to the key decision makers tasked with addressing business problems. It also informs stakeholders that have any interest in ROI, especially when applying it to a data and analytics platform and practice.

      While organizations typically use ROI to measure the performance of their investments, the key to determining what investment makes sense is opportunity cost. Missing out on a significant opportunity for return could be the biggest cost to the project and its sponsor. By making sure you appropriately estimate costs and value returned for all data and analytics activities, you can prioritize the ones that bring in the greatest returns.

      Ibrahim Abdel-Kader
      Research Analyst,
      Data & Analytics Practice
      Info-Tech Research Group
      Ben Abrishami-Shirazi
      Technical Counselor
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Executive Summary – ROI on Data and Analytics

      Your Challenge

      Common Obstacles

      Info-Tech’s Approach

      Return on investment (ROI) is a financial term, making it difficult to articulate value when trying to incorporate anything that produces something intangible.

      The more financial aspects there are to a professional function (e.g. sales and commodity-related functions), the easier it is to properly assess the ROI.

      However, for functions that primarily enable or support business functions (such as IT and data and analytics), it is a lot harder to apply ROI without misrepresenting its true purpose.

      • Apples and oranges – There is no simple way to apply the standard ROI formula to data and analytics among other critical functions across the organization.
      • Boiling the ocean – Obsession with finding a way to calculate a perfect ROI on data and analytics.
      • Not getting the big picture – Data and analytics teams suffer a skill set deficit when it comes to commercial acumen.
      • Not seeing eye to eye – ROI does not account for time in its calculation, making it prone to misalignment between stakeholders.

      Approach ROI for data and analytics appropriately:

      • Answer the following questions:
        • What is the business problem?
        • Whose business problem is it?
        • What is the objective?
      • Define measures of success based on the answers to the questions above.
      • Determine an appropriate cadence to continuously optimize the ROI program for data and analytics in collaboration with business problem owners.

      Info-Tech Insight

      ROI doesn’t have to be perfect. Parameters and measures of success need to be agreed upon with the key decision makers.

      Glossary

      Return on Investment (ROI): A financial term used to determine how much value has been or will be gained or lost based on the total cost of investment. It is typically expressed as a percentage and is supported by the following formula:

      Payback: How quickly money is paid back (or returned) on the initial investment.
      Business Problem Owner (BPO): A leader in the organization who is accountable and is the key decision maker tasked with addressing a business problem through a series of investments. BPOs may use ROI as a reference for how their financial investments have performed and to influence future investment decisions.
      Problem Solver: A key stakeholder tasked with collaborating with the BPO in addressing the business problem at hand. One of the problem solver’s responsibilities is to ensure that there is an improved return on the BPO’s investments.
      Return Enhancers: A category for capabilities that directly or indirectly enhance the return of an investment.
      Cost Savers: A category for capabilities that directly or indirectly save costs in relation of an investment.
      Investment Opportunity Enablers: A category for capabilities that create or enable a new investment opportunity that may yield a potential return.
      Game Changing Components: The components of a capability that directly yield value in solving a business problem.

      ROI strategy on data and analytics

      The image contains a screenshot of a diagram that demonstrates the ROI strategy on data and analytics.

      ROI roles

      Typical roles involved in the ROI strategy across the organization

      CDOs and CAOs typically have their budget allocated from both IT and business units.

      This is evidenced by the “State of the CIO Survey 2023” reporting that up to 63% of CDOs and CAOs have some budget allocated from within IT; therefore, up to 37% of budgets are entirely funded by business executives.

      This signifies the need to be aligned with peer executives and to use mechanisms like ROI to maximize the performance of investments.

      Source: Foundry, “State of the CIO Survey 2023.”

      Business Value

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      • Parent Category Name: Financial Management
      • Parent Category Link: /financial-management
      Maximize your ROI on IT through benefits realization

      Requirements Gathering

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      • member rating average days saved: 23
      • Parent Category Name: Project Portfolio Management and Projects
      • Parent Category Link: /ppm-and-projects

      The challenge

      • The number reason projects fail because from the outset, what people wanted was not clear.
      • Without proper due diligence, IT will deliver projects that fail to meet business expectations and fail to provide business value.
      • If you failed to accurately capture the needs and desires, your projects are set up for costly rework. That will hurt your business's financial performance and result in damage to your relationship with your business partners.
      • Even with requirements gathering processes in place, your business analysts may not have the required competencies to execute them.

      Our advice

      Insight

      • You need to gather requirements with your organizations' end-state in mind. That requires IT and business alignment.
      • You would be good to create a set of standard operating procedures around requirements gathering. But many companies fail to do so.
      • Bring standardization and conformity to your requirements gathering processes via a centralized center of excellence. That brings cohesion and uniformity to your practice.
      • It is critical that your business analysts have the necessary competencies to execute your processes and that they ask the right questions.

      Impact and results 

      • Better requirements analysis will result in shorter cycle timed and reduced project rework and overhead.
      • You will enjoy better relationships with your business partners, greater stakeholder satisfaction, and gradually a better standing of IT.
      • Most importantly, the applications and systems you deliver will contain all must-haves and some nice-to-haves. Your minimal viable deliverable will start to create business value immediately.

      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 invest in optimizing requirements gathering in your company. We show you how we can support you.

      Build the target state

      Fully understand the target needs of the requirements gathering process.

      • Build a Strong Approach to Business Requirements Gathering – Phase 1: Build the Target State for the Requirements Gathering Process (ppt)
      • Requirements Gathering SOP and BA Playbook (doc)
      • Requirements Gathering Maturity Assessment (xls)
      • Project Level Selection Tool (xls)
      • Business Requirements Analyst (doc)
      • Requirements Gathering Communication Tracking Template (xls)

      Develop best practices to gather business requirements

      • Build a Strong Approach to Business Requirements Gathering – Phase 2: Define the Elicitation Process (ppt)
      • Business Requirements Document Template (xls)
      • Scrum Documentation Template (doc)

      Analyze and validate requirements

      Standardize your frameworks for analysis and validation of the business requirements

      • Build a Strong Approach to Business Requirements Gathering – Phase 3: Analyze and Validate Requirements (ppt)
      • Requirements Gathering Documentation Tool (xls)
      • Requirements Gathering Testing Checklist (doc)

      Build your requirements gathering governance action plan

      Formalize governance.

      • Build a Strong Approach to Business Requirements Gathering – Phase 4: Create a Requirements Governance Action Plan (ppt)
      • Requirements Traceability Matrix (xls)

       

       

      Proactively Identify and Mitigate Vendor Risk

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      • Parent Category Name: Vendor Management
      • Parent Category Link: /vendor-management
      • IT priorities are focused on daily tasks, pushing risk management to secondary importance and diverging from a proactive environment.
      • IT leaders are relying on an increasing number of third-party technology vendors and outsourcing key functions to meet the rapid pace of change within IT.
      • Risk levels can fluctuate over the course of the partnership, requiring manual process checks and/or automated solutions.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Every IT vendor carries risks that have business implications. These legal, financial, security, and operational risks could inhibit business continuity and IT can’t wait until an issue arises to act.
      • Making intelligent decisions about risks without knowing what their financial impact will be is difficult. Risk impact must be quantified.
      • You don’t know what you don’t know, and what you don’t know, can hurt you. To find hidden risks, you must use a structured risk identification method.

      Impact and Result

      • A thorough risk assessment in the selection phase is your first line of defense. If you follow the principles of vendor risk management, you can mitigate collateral losses following an adverse event.
      • Make a conscious decision whether to accept the risk based on time, priority, and impact. Spend the required time to correctly identify and enact defined vendor management processes that determine spend categories and appropriately evaluate potential and preferred suppliers. Ensure you accurately assess the partnership potential.
      • Take a proactive stance against IT threats and vulnerabilities by identifying and assessing IT’s most significant risks before they happen.

      Proactively Identify and Mitigate Vendor Risk Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out how to create a vendor risk management program that minimizes your organization’s vulnerability and mitigates adverse scenarios.

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

      1. Review vendor risk fundamentals and establish governance

      Review IT vendor risk fundamentals and establish a risk governance framework.

      • Proactively Identify and Mitigate Vendor Risk – Phase 1: Review Vendor Risk Fundamentals and Establish Governance
      • Vendor Risk Management Maturity Assessment Tool
      • Vendor Risk Management Program Manual
      • Risk Event Action Plan

      2. Assess vendor risk and define your response strategy

      Categorize, prioritize, and assess your vendor risks. Follow up with creating effective response strategies.

      • Proactively Identify and Mitigate Vendor Risk – Phase 2: Assess Vendor Risk and Define Your Response Strategy
      • Vendor Classification Model Tool
      • Vendor Risk Profile and Assessment Tool
      • Risk Costing Tool
      • Risk Register Tool

      3. Monitor, communicate, and improve IT vendor risk process

      Assign accountability and responsibilities to formalize ongoing risk monitoring. Communicate your findings to management and share the plan moving forward.

      • Proactively Identify and Mitigate Vendor Risk – Phase 3: Monitor, Communicate, and Improve IT Vendor Risk Process
      • Risk Report
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Proactively Identify and Mitigate Vendor Risk

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

      1 Prepare for the Workshop

      The Purpose

      To prepare the team for the workshop.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Avoids delays and interruptions once the workshop is in progress.

      Activities

      1.1 Send workshop agenda to all participants.

      1.2 Prepare list of vendors and review any contracts provided by them.

      1.3 Review current risk management process.

      Outputs

      All necessary participants assembled

      List of vendors and vendor contracts

      Understanding of current risk management process

      2 Review Vendor Risk Fundamentals and Establish Governance

      The Purpose

      Review IT vendor risk fundamentals.

      Assess current maturity and set risk management program goals.

      Engage stakeholders and establish a risk governance framework.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Understanding of organizational risk culture and the corresponding risk threshold.

      Obstacles to effective IT risk management identified.

      Attainable goals to increase maturity established.

      Understanding of the gap to achieve vendor risk readiness.

      Activities

      2.1 Brainstorm vendor-related risks.

      2.2 Assess current program maturity.

      2.3 Identify obstacles and pain points.

      2.4 Develop risk management goals.

      2.5 Develop key risk indicators (KRIs) and escalation protocols.

      2.6 Gain stakeholders’ perspective.

      Outputs

      Vendor risk management maturity assessment

      Goals for vendor risk management

      Stakeholders’ opinions

      3 Assess Vendor Risk and Define Your Response Strategy

      The Purpose

      Categorize vendors.

      Prioritize assessed risks.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Risk events prioritized according to risk severity – as defined by the business.

      Activities

      3.1 Categorize vendors.

      3.2 Map vendor infrastructure.

      3.3 Prioritize vendors.

      3.4 Identify risk contributing factors.

      3.5 Assess risk exposure.

      3.6 Calculate expected cost.

      3.7 Identify risk events.

      3.8 Input risks into the Risk Register Tool.

      Outputs

      Vendors classified and prioritized

      Vendor risk exposure

      Expected cost calculation

      4 Assess Vendor Risk and Define Your Response Strategy (continued)

      The Purpose

      Determine risk threshold and contract clause relating to risk prevention.

      Identify and assess risk response actions.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Thorough analysis has been conducted on the value and effectiveness of risk responses for high-severity risk events.

      Risk response strategies have been identified for all key risks.

      Authoritative risk response recommendations can be made to senior leadership.

      Activities

      4.1 Determine the threshold for (un)acceptable risk.

      4.2 Match elements of the contract to related vendor risks.

      4.3 Identify and assess risk responses.

      Outputs

      Thresholds for (un)acceptable risk

      Risk responses

      5 Monitor, Communicate, and Improve IT Vendor Risk Process

      The Purpose

      Communicate top risks to management.

      Assign accountabilities and responsibilities for risk management process.

      Establish monitoring schedule.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Risk monitoring responsibilities are established.

      Transparent accountabilities and established ongoing improvement of the vendor risk management program.

      Activities

      5.1 Create a stakeholder map.

      5.2 Complete RACI chart.

      5.3 Establish the reporting schedule.

      5.4 Finalize the vendor risk management program.

      Outputs

      Stakeholder map

      Assigned accountability for risk management

      Established monitoring schedule

      Risk report

      Vendor Risk Management Program Manual

      Threat Preparedness Using MITRE ATT&CK®

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      • Parent Category Name: Security Strategy & Budgeting
      • Parent Category Link: /security-strategy-and-budgeting
      • To effectively protect your business interests, you need to be able to address what the most pressing vulnerabilities in your network are. Which attack vectors should you model first? How do you adequately understand your threat vectors when attacks continually change and adapt?
      • Security can often be asked the world but given a minimal budget with which to accomplish it.
      • Security decisions are always under pressure from varying demands that pull even the most well-balanced security team in every direction.
      • Adequately modeling any and every possible scenario is ineffective and haphazard at best. Hoping that you have chosen the most pressing attack vectors to model will not work in the modern day of threat tactics.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Precision is critical to being able to successfully defend against threats.
        • Traditional threat modeling such as STRIDE or PASTA is based on a spray-and-pray approach to identifying your next potential threat vector. Instead, take a structured risk-based approach to understanding both an attacker’s tactics and how they may be used against your enterprise. Threat preparedness requires precision, not guesswork.
      • Knowing is half the battle.
        • You may be doing better than you think. Undoubtedly, there is a large surface area to cover with threat modeling. By preparing beforehand, you can separate what’s important from what’s not and identify which attack vectors are the most pressing for your business.
      • Be realistic and measured.
        • Do not try to remediate everything. Some attack vectors and approaches are nearly impossible to account for. Take control of the areas that have reasonable mitigation methods and act on those.
      • Identify blind spots.
        • Understand what is out there and how other enterprises are being attacked and breached. See how you stack up to the myriad of attack tactics that have been used in real-life breaches and how prepared you are. Know what you’re ready for and what you’re not ready for.
      • Analyze the most pressing vectors.
        • Prioritize the attack vectors that are relevant to you. If an attack vector is an area of concern for your business, start there. Do not cover the entire tactics list if certain areas are not relevant.
      • Detection and mitigation lead to better remediation.
        • For each relevant tactic and techniques, there are actionable detection and mitigation methods to add to your list of remediation efforts.

      Impact and Result

      Using the MITRE ATT&CK® framework, Info-Tech’s approach helps you understand your preparedness and effective detection and mitigation actions.

      • Learn about potential attack vectors and the techniques that hostile actors will use to breach and maintain a presence on your network.
      • Analyze your current protocols versus the impact of an attack technique on your network.
      • Discover detection and mitigation actions.
      • Create a prioritized series of security considerations, with basic actionable remediation items. Plan your next threat model by knowing what you’re vulnerable to.
      • Ensure business data cannot be leaked or stolen.
      • Maintain privacy of data and other information.
      • Secure the network connection points.
      • Mitigate risks with the appropriate services.

      This blueprint and associated tool are scalable for all types of organizations within various industry sectors, allowing them to know what types of risk they are facing and what security services are recommended to mitigate those risks.

      Threat Preparedness Using MITRE ATT&CK® Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why threat preparedness is a crucial first step in defending your network against any attack type. Review Info-Tech’s methodology and understand the ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

      1. Attack tactics and techniques

      Review a breakdown of each of the various attack vectors and their techniques for additional context and insight into the most prevalent attack tactics.

      • Threat Preparedness Using MITRE ATT&CK® – Phase 1: Attack Tactics and Techniques

      2. Threat Preparedness Workbook mapping

      Map your current security protocols against the impacts of various techniques on your network to determine your risk preparedness.

      • Threat Preparedness Using MITRE ATT&CK® – Phase 2: Threat Preparedness Workbook Mapping
      • Enterprise Threat Preparedness Workbook

      3. Execute remediation and detective measures

      Use your prioritized attack vectors to plan your next threat modeling session with confidence that the most pressing security concerns are being addressed with substantive remediation actions.

      • Threat Preparedness Using MITRE ATT&CK® – Phase 3: Execute Remediation and Detective Measures
      [infographic]

      Vendor Management

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      • Parent Category Name: Financial Management
      • Parent Category Link: /financial-management
      That does not mean strong-arming. It means maximizing the vendor relationship value.

      Maximize Value From Your Value-Added Reseller (VAR)

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      • Parent Category Name: Vendor Management
      • Parent Category Link: /vendor-management

      Organizations need to understand their value-added reseller (VAR) portfolio and the greater VAR landscape to better:

      • Manage the VAR portfolio.
      • Understand additional value each VAR can provide.
      • Maximize existing VAR commitments.
      • Evaluate the VARs’ performance.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      VARs typically charge more for products because they are in some way adding value. If you’re not leveraging any of the provided value, you’re likely wasting money and should use a basic commodity-type reseller for procurement.

      Impact and Result

      This project will provide several benefits to Vendor Management and Procurement:

      • Defined VAR value and performance tracking.
      • Manageable portfolio of VARs that fully benefit the organization.
      • Added training, licensing advice, faster quoting, and invoicing resolution.
      • Reduced deployment and logistics costs.

      Maximize Value From Your Value-Added Reseller (VAR) Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our informative Executive Brief to find out why you should maximize value from your value-added reseller, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the three ways to better manage your VARs improve performance and reduce costs.

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

      1. Organize and prioritize

      Organize all your VARs and create a manageable portfolio detailing their value, specific, product, services, and certifications.

      • Maximize Value From Your Value-Added Reseller – Phase 1: Organize and Prioritize
      • VAR Listing and Prioritization Tool

      2. “EvaluRate” your VARs

      Create an in-depth evaluation of the VARs’ capabilities.

      • Maximize Value From Your Value-Added Reseller – Phase 2: EvaluRate Your VARs
      • VAR Features Checklist Tool
      • VAR Profile and EvaluRation Tool

      3. Consolidate and reduce

      Assess each VAR for low performance and opportunity to increase value or consolidate to another VAR and reduce redundancy.

      • Maximize Value From Your Value-Added Reseller – Phase 3: Consolidate and Reduce

      4. Maximize their value

      Micro-manage your primary VARs to ensure performance to commitments and maximize their value.

      • Maximize Value From Your Value-Added Reseller – Phase 4: Maximize Their Value
      • VAR Information and Scorecard Workbook
      [infographic]

      Don’t Allow Software Licensing to Derail Your M&A

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      • Parent Category Name: Vendor Management
      • Parent Category Link: /vendor-management
      • Assuming that all parties are compliant in their licensing is a risky proposition. Most organizations are deficient in some manner of licensing. Know where those gaps are before finalizing M&A activity and have a plan in place to mitigate them right away.
      • Vendors will target companies that have undergone recent M&A activity with an audit. Vendors know that the many moving parts of M&A activity often result in license shortfall, and they may look to capitalize during the transition with audit revenue.
      • New organizational structure can offer new licensing opportunities. Take advantage of the increased volume discounting, negotiation leverage, and consolidation opportunities afforded by a merger or acquisition.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • To mitigate risks and create accurate cost estimates, create a contingency fund to compensate for unavailability of information.
      • Gathering and analyzing information is an iterative process that is ongoing throughout due diligence. Update your assumptions, risks, and budget as you obtain new information.
      • Communication with the M&A team and business process owners should be constant throughout due diligence. IT integration does not exist in isolation.

      Impact and Result

      • CIOs must be part of the conversation during the exploration/due diligence phase before the deal is closed to examine licensing compliance and software costs that could have a direct result on the valuation of the new organization.
      • Both organizations must conduct thorough due diligence (such as internal SAM audits), analyze the information, and define critical assumptions to create a strategy for the resultant IT enterprise.
      • The IT team is involved in integration, synergy realization, and cost considerations that the business often does not consider or take into account with respect to IT. License transfer, assignability, use, and geographic rights all come into play and can be overlooked.

      Don’t Allow Software Licensing to Derail Your M&A Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you shouldn’t allow software licensing to derail your M&A deal, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

      1. Understand the M&A process with respect to software licensing

      Grasp the key pain points of software licensing and the effects it has on an M&A. Review the benefits of early IT involvement and identify IT’s capabilities.

      • Don’t Allow Software Licensing to Derail Your M&A – Phase 1: M&A Overview
      • M&A Software Asset Maturity Assessment

      2. Perform due diligence

      Understand the various steps and process when conducting due diligence. Request information and assess risks, make assumptions, and budget costs.

      • Don’t Allow Software Licensing to Derail Your M&A – Phase 2: Due Diligence
      • License Inventory
      • IT Due Diligence Report
      • M&A Software Asset RACI Template

      3. Prepare for integration

      Take a deeper dive into the application portfolios and vendor contracts of both organizations. Review integration strategies and design the end-state of the resultant organization.

      • Don’t Allow Software Licensing to Derail Your M&A – Phase 3: Pre-Integration Planning
      • Effective Licensing Position Tool
      • IT Integration Roadmap Tool

      4. Execute on the integration plan

      Review initiatives being undertaken to ensure successful integration execution. Discuss long-term goals and how to communicate with vendors to avoid licensing audits.

      • Don’t Allow Software Licensing to Derail Your M&A – Phase 4: Integration Execution
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Don’t Allow Software Licensing to Derail Your M&A

      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 M&A Overview

      The Purpose

      Identify the goals and objectives the business has for the M&A.

      Understand cultural and organizational structure challenges and red flags.

      Identify SAM/licensing challenges and red flags.

      Conduct maturity assessment.

      Clarify stakeholder responsibilities.

      Build and structure the M&A team.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      The capabilities required to successfully examine software assets and licensing during the M&A transaction.

      M&A business goals and objectives identified.

      IT M&A team selected.

      Severity of SAM challenges and red flags examined.

      Activities

      1.1 Document pain points from previous experience.

      1.2 Identify IT opportunities during M&A.

      Outputs

      M&A Software Asset Maturity Assessment

      2 Due Diligence

      The Purpose

      Take a structured due diligence approach that properly evaluates the current state of the organization.

      Review M&A license inventory and use top five vendors as example sets.

      Identify data capture and reporting methods/tools.

      Scheduling challenges.

      Scope level of effort and priority list.

      Common M&A pressures (internal/external).

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A clear understanding of the steps that are involved in the due diligence process.

      Recognition of the various areas from which information will need to be collected.

      Licensing pitfalls and compliance risks to be examined.

      Knowledge of terms and conditions that will limit ability in pre-integration planning.

      Activities

      2.1 Identify IT capabilities for an M&A.

      2.2 Create your due diligence team and assign accountability.

      2.3 Use Info-Tech’s IT Due Diligence Report Template to track key elements.

      2.4 Document assumptions to back up cost estimates and risk.

      Outputs

      M&A Software Asset RACI Template

      IT Due Diligence Report

      3 Pre-Integration Planning

      The Purpose

      Review and map legal operating entity structure for the resultant organization.

      Examine impact on licensing scenarios for top five vendors.

      Identify alternative paths and solutions.

      Complete license impact for top five vendors.

      Brainstorm action plan to mitigate negative impacts.

      Discuss and explore the scalable process for second level agreements.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Identification of the ideal post-M&A application portfolio and licensing structures.

      Recognition of the key considerations when determining the appropriate combination of IT integration strategies.

      Design of vendor contracts for the resultant enterprise.

      Recognition of how to create an IT integration budget.

      Activities

      3.1 Work with the senior management team to review how the new organization will operate.

      3.2 Document the strategic goals and objectives of IT’s integration program.

      3.3 Interview business leaders to understand how they envision their business units.

      3.4 Perform internal SAM audit.

      3.5 Create a library of all IT processes in the target organization as well as your own.

      3.6 Examine staff using two dimensions: competency and capacity.

      3.7 Design the end-state.

      3.8 Communicate your detailed pre-integration roadmap with senior leadership and obtain sign-off.

      Outputs

      IT Integration Roadmap Tool

      Effective License Position

      4 Manage Post-M&A Activities

      The Purpose

      Finalize path forward for top five vendors based on M&A license impact.

      Disclose findings and financial impact estimate to management.

      Determine methods for second level agreements to be managed.

      Provide listing of specific recommendations for top five list.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Initiatives generated and executed upon to achieve the technology end-state of each IT domain.

      Vendor audits avoided.

      Contracts amended and vendors spoken to.

      Communication with management on achievable synergies and quick wins.

      Activities

      4.1 Identify initiatives necessary to realize the application end-state.

      4.2 Identify initiatives necessary to realize the end-state of IT processes.

      4.3 Identify initiatives necessary to realize the end-state of IT staffing.

      4.4 Prioritize initiatives based on ease of implementation and overall business impact.

      4.5 Manage vendor relations.

      Outputs

      IT Integration Roadmap Tool

      Create a Horizontally Optimized SDLC to Better Meet Business Demands

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      • Parent Category Name: Development
      • Parent Category Link: /development
      • While teams are used to optimizing their own respective areas of responsibility, there is lack of clarity on the overall core SDLC process resulting in applications being released that are of poor quality.
      • Software development teams are struggling to release on time and within budget.
      • Teams do not understand the overall process, are not communicating well, and traceability is hard to achieve.
      • Each team claims to be optimized yet the final deliverable doesn’t reflect the expected quality.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Optimizing can make you worse. One cannot just optimize locally – the SDLC must be optimized in its entirety to ensure traceability across the process.
      • Separate process from framework.
        You don’t need to “Go Agile” or follow other industry jargon to effectively optimize your SDLC.
      • SDLC process improvement is ongoing.
        Start with your team’s current capabilities and optimize. You should set expectations that new improvements will always come in the future.

      Impact and Result

      • Use a systematic framework to bring out local optimizations as potential candidates for SDLC optimization.
      • Prioritize those candidates that will aid in optimizing the overall core SDLC process.
      • Create the necessary governance and control structures to sustain the changes.
      • Use Info-Tech tools and templates to accelerate your process optimization.

      Create a Horizontally Optimized SDLC to Better Meet Business Demands Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read this Executive Brief to understand Info-Tech's approach to SDLC optimization and why the SDLC must be optimized in its entirety to ensure traceability across the process.

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

      1. Document the current state of the SDLC

      This phase of the blueprint will help in understanding the organization's business priorities, documenting the current SDLC process, and identifing current SDLC challenges.

      • Create a Horizontally Optimized SDLC to Better Meet Business Demands – Phase 1: Document the Current State of the SDLC
      • SDLC Optimization Playbook

      2. Define root causes, determine optimization initiatives, and define target state

      This phase of the blueprint, will help with defining root causes, determining potential optimization initiatives, and defining the target state of the SDLC.

      • Create a Horizontally Optimized SDLC to Better Meet Business Demands – Phase 2: Define Root Causes, Determine Optimization Initiatives, and Define Target State

      3. Develop a rollout strategy for SDLC optimization

      This phase of the blueprint will help with prioritizing initiatives in order to develop a rollout strategy, roadmap, and communication plan for the SDLC optimization.

      • Create a Horizontally Optimized SDLC to Better Meet Business Demands – Phase 3: Develop a Rollout Strategy for SDLC Optimization
      • SDLC Communication Template
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Create a Horizontally Optimized SDLC to Better Meet Business Demands

      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 Document Your Current SDLC

      The Purpose

      Understand SDLC current state.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Understanding of your current SDLC state and metrics to measure the success of your SDLC optimization initiative.

      Activities

      1.1 Document the key business objectives that your SDLC delivers upon.

      1.2 Document your current SDLC process using a SIPOC process map.

      1.3 Identify appropriate metrics in order to track the effectiveness of your SDLC optimization.

      1.4 Document the current state process flow of each SDLC phase.

      1.5 Document the control points and tools used within each phase.

      Outputs

      Documented business objectives

      Documented SIPOC process map

      Identified metrics to measure the effectiveness of your SDLC optimization

      Documented current state process flows of each SDLC phase

      Documented control points and tools used within each SDLC phase

      2 Assess Challenges and Define Root Causes

      The Purpose

      Understand current SDLC challenges and root causes.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Understand the core areas of your SDLC that require optimization.

      Activities

      2.1 Identify the current challenges that exist within each SDLC phase.

      2.2 Determine the root cause of the challenges that exist within each SDLC phase.

      Outputs

      Identified current challenges

      Identified root causes of your SDLC challenges

      3 Determine Your SDLC Optimization Initiatives

      The Purpose

      Understand common best practices and the best possible optimization initiatives to help optimize your current SDLC.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Understand the best ways to address your SDLC challenges.

      Activities

      3.1 Define optimization initiatives to address the challenges in each SDLC phase.

      Outputs

      Defined list of potential optimization initiatives to address SDLC challenges

      4 Define SDLC Target State

      The Purpose

      Define your SDLC target state while maintaining traceability across your overall SDLC process.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Understand what will be required to reach your optimized SDLC.

      Activities

      4.1 Determine the target state of your SDLC.

      4.2 Determine the people, tools, and control points necessary to achieve your target state.

      4.3 Assess the traceability between phases to ensure a seamlessly optimized SDLC.

      Outputs

      Determined SDLC target state

      Identified people, processes, and tools necessary to achieve target state

      Completed traceability alignment map and prioritized list of initiatives

      5 Prioritize Initiatives and Develop Rollout Strategy

      The Purpose

      Define how you will reach your target state.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Create a plan of action to achieve your desired target state.

      Activities

      5.1 Gain the full scope of effort required to implement your SDLC optimization initiatives.Gain the full scope of effort required to implement your SDLC optimization initiatives.

      5.2 Identify the enablers and blockers of your SDLC optimization.

      5.3 Define your SDLC optimization roadmap.

      5.4 Create a communication plan to share initiatives with the business.

      Outputs

      Level of effort required to implement your SDLC optimization initiatives

      Identified enablers and blockers of your SDLC optimization

      Defined optimization roadmap

      Completed communication plan to present your optimization strategy to stakeholders

      Infrastructure and Operations Priorities 2023

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}54|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): N/A
      • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
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      • Parent Category Name: Disruptive & Emerging Technologies
      • Parent Category Link: /disruptive-emerging-technologies
      • Get out of your I&O silo. I&O teams must be expected to work alongside and integrate with cyber security operations.
      • Being unprepared for new ESG reporting mandates without a clear and validated ESG reporting process puts your organization at risk.
      • Get ahead of inflationary pressures with early budgetary planning and identify the gap between the catchup projects and required critical net new investments.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Establish I&O within an AI governance program to build trust in AI results, behaviors, and limit legal exposure.
      • Develop data governance program that includes an I&O data steward for oversight.
      • Ready or not, the metaverse is coming to an infrastructure near you. Start expanding I&O technologies and processes to support a metaverse infrastructure.

      Impact and Result

      • Provide a framework that highlight the impacts the threats of an economic slowdown, growing regulatory reporting requirements, cyber security attacks and opportunity that smart governance over AI, data stewardship and the looming explosion of augmented reality and Web 3.0 technologies.
      • Info-Tech can help communicate your I&O priorities into compelling cases for your stakeholders.

      Infrastructure and Operations Priorities 2023 Research & Tools

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

      1. Infrastructure & Operations Priorities 2023 – A framework to dive deeper into the trends most relevant to you and your organization

      Discover Info-Tech's six priorities for Infrastructure & Operations leaders.

      Infographic

      Further reading

      Infrastructure &Operations Priorities 2023

      Navigate the liminal space between threats and opportunities.

      2023: A liminal space between threats and opportunities

      Over the last several years, successful CEOs turned to their Infrastructure and Operations (I&O) departments to survive the effects of the pandemic. It was I&O leaders who were able to reconfigure critical infrastructure on the fly to support remote work, adapt to critical supply chain shortages, and work with lines of business managers to innovate operational workflows.

      2023 promises to bring a new set of challenges. Building on the credibility established during the pandemic, I&O is in a unique position to influence the direction a business will take to be successful in a time of austerity.

      I&O members are going to be asked to mitigate the threats of volatility from recession pressures, new cybersecurity attacks, and operational process and litigation from regulatory mandates. At the same time, I&O members are being asked for fundamental digital transformation items to realize long-term opportunities to their organizations in 2023.

      Seemingly counter-intuitive in a time of economic slowdown, organizations in 2023 will want to start the groundwork to realizing the I&O opportunities that unstructured data and artificial intelligence have promised, while prepping for what has been mislabeled as the Metaverse.

      If you are in a traditionally risk adverse industry, you’re more likely to be impacted by the threat mitigation.

      Opportunistic I&O members will use 2023 to proactively jumpstart digital transformation.

      Introduction

      Welcome to the Info-Tech 2023 I&O Priorities Report

      If I&O members learned anything from the last few years, it’s how to tactically respond to the disruptive waves often arising from sources external to the organization. The good news is that Info-Tech’s I&O priorities report provides forward-looking insights to help members become more proactive to the tsunami of change predicted in our Trends Report to happen over the next three to five years.

      Info-Tech I&O priorities are generated through a phased approach. The first phase senses and identifies mega and macro tends in the digital landscape to formulate hypotheses about the trends for the next three to five years. These hypotheses are validated by sending out a survey to Info-Tech members. The responses from 813 members was used to produce an Info-Tech Trends Report focused on major long-term trends.

      The I&O Priorities were determined by combining the I&O member responses within the Info-tech Trends Survey with insightful signals from secondary research, economic markets, regulatory bodies, industry organizations, and vendors. The six I&O priorities identified in this report are presented in a framework that highlight the impacts of an economic slowdown, growing regulatory reporting requirements, cybersecurity threats, smart governance of AI, embracing stewardship of data, and the looming explosion of augmented reality and Web 3.0 technologies.

      We also have a challenge exercise to help you communicate which priorities to focus your I&O organization on. Additionally, we linked some Info-tech research and tools related to the priorities that help your I&O organization formulate actionable plans for each area.

      Priorities

      Six forward-looking priorities for the next year.

      Focus

      Activity to help select which priorities are relevant for you.

      Actions

      Actionable Info-tech research and tools to help you deliver.

      Infrastructure & Operations priorities

      The I&O priorities were determined by combining I&O member responses from the Tech Trends and Priorities 2023 survey with insightful signals from secondary research, economic markets, regulatory bodies, industry organizations, and vendors.

      The image contains a screenshot of the Infrastructure & Operations priorities.

      I&O Priorities 2023

      The image contains a screenshot of the I&O Priorities.

      I&O priorities framework

      Threats signals

      Enhance I&O Cybersecurity

      Produce ESG Reporting

      Recession Readiness

      Get out of your silo. Forget your job description and start doing what needs to be done.

      Infrastructure rarely has authority in these areas, but somehow it ends up with many of the responsibilities. You can't afford to be reactive. Forget about your traditional silo and get out in front of these topics. Not in your job description? Find out whose job it is and make them aware. Better yet – take charge! If you're going to be responsible you might as well be in control.

      Opportunities signals

      AI Governance: Watching the Watchers

      Prep for A Brave New Metaverse

      Data Governance: Cornerstone of Value

      Proper stewardship of data is an I&O must. If thought you had problems with your unstructured data, wait until you see the data sprawl coming from the metaverse.

      I&O needs to be so much more than just an order taker for the dev teams and lines of business. The sprawl of unstructured data in Word, Excel, PDF and PowerPoint was bad historically; imagine those same problems at metaverse scale! Simple storage and connectivity is no longer enough – I&O must move upstream with more sophisticated service and product offerings generated through proper governance and stewardship.

      Challenge: Expand the I&O border

      The hidden message in this report is that I&O priorities extend beyond the traditional scope of I&O functions. I&O members need to collaborate across functional areas to successfully address the priorities presented in this report.

      Info-Tech can help! Align your priorities with our material on how to Build a Business-Aligned IT Strategy. Use a modified version of the Strategy Initiative Template (next slide) to convey your strong opinion on the priorities you need your stakeholders to know about. And do so in a way that is familiar so they will easily understand.

      The image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech's Maturity Ladder.
      Info-Tech 2023 Trends Survey Results

      Call your Executive Advisor or Counselor to help identify the one or two key messages you want to bring forward for success in 2023!

      Info-Tech IT Strategy Initiative Template, from the IT Strategy Presentation Template & Priorities Report Initiative Template

      .
      The image contains a screenshot of a template for your priorities.

      Protect from threats

      Get out of your silo. Forget your job description and just start doing what needs to be done.

      Enhance I&O Cybersecurity

      Produce ESG Reporting

      Recession Readiness

      Enhance cybersecurity response

      SIGNALS

      Cybersecurity incidents are
      a clear and present danger
      to I&O members.

      Cybersecurity incidents have
      a large financial impact
      on organizations.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Of the surveyed I&O members, 53% identified cybersecurity incidents as the number one threat disrupting their operations in 2023. It’s understandable, as over 18% of surveyed I&O members experienced a cybersecurity incident in 2022. Alarmingly, 10% of surveyed I&O members didn’t know if they had a cybersecurity incident. The impact to the organization was with 14% of those incidents directly impacting their organizations for anywhere from 6 to 60 days.

      The 2022 report “Cost of a Data Breach” was conducted by IBM and the Ponemon Institute using data from 550 companies (across 17 countries) that experienced a security incident during a 12-month period ending in March 2022. It highlighted that the average total organizational cost of a security breach globally was USD 4.35M (locally these numbers expand to USA at USD 9.44M, Canada at USD 5.64, UK at USD 5.05M, Germany at USD 4.85M).

      (Source: IBM, 2022)

      Enhance cybersecurity response

      SIGNALS

      Organizations' exposure comes from internal and external sources.

      The right tools and process can reduce the impact of a cybersecurity incident.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      The IBM/Ponemon Institute report highlighted the following:

      • 59% of organizations didn’t deploy a zero-trust architecture on critical infrastructure to reduce exposure.
      • 19% of the breaches originated from within their business partner eco-system.
      • 45% were cloud-based.

      (Source: IBM, 2022)

      The IBM/Ponemon Institute report also identified technologies and procedures to reduce the fiscal impacts of cybersecurity breaches. Having a dedicated security incident response team with a regularly tested plan reduced the incident cost by an average of USD 2.66M. A fully implemented AI security deduction and response automation system can provide average incident savings of 27.6%.

      Enhance cybersecurity response

      SIGNALS

      Cybersecurity spending is a major and expanding expenditure for our members.

      Cybersecurity is going
      to include brand misinformation.

      For 36% of surveyed I&O members, cybersecurity consumed between 10-20% of their total budget in 2022. Moreover, cybersecurity defense funding is expected to increase for 57% of I&O members.

      A third of surveyed I&O members viewed misinformation as a major risk to their organization for 2023 and 2024. Only 38% of the I&O members reported that they will have software in place to monitor and manage social media posts.

      Increasing environment and regulatory complexity demands more sophisticated cybersecurity operations.

      Infrastructure teams must be expected to work alongside and integrate with cybersecurity operations.

      Enhance cybersecurity response

      CALL TO ACTION

      Get out of your I&O silo and form cross-functional cybersecurity teams.

      I&O priority actions

      Establish a cross-functional security steering committee to coordinate security processes and technologies. The complexity of managing security across modern applications, cloud, IoT, and network infrastructure that members operate is greater than ever before and requires coordinated teamwork.

      Contain the cyber threat with zero trust (ZT) architecture. Extend ZT to network and critical infrastructure to limit exposure.

      Leverage AI to build vigilant security intelligence. Smart I&O operators will make use of AI automation to augment their security technologies to help detect threats and contain security incidents on critical infrastructure.

      Enhance cybersecurity response

      I&O priority actions

      Build specialized cybersecurity incident management protocols with your service desk. Build integrated security focused teams within service desk operations that continually test and improve security incident response protocols internally and with specialized security vendors. In some organizations, security incident response teams extend beyond traditional infrastructure into social media. Work cross-functionally to determine the risk exposure to misinformation and incident response procedures.

      Treat lost or stolen equipment as a security incident. Develop hardware asset management protocols for tracking and reporting on these incidents and keep a record of equipment disposal. Implement tools that allow for remote deletion of data and report on lost or stolen equipment.

      Produce ESG reporting

      SIGNALS

      Government mandates present an operational risk to I&O members.

      ESG reporting is
      often incomplete.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Surveyed members identified government-enacted policy changes to be a top risk to disrupting to their business operations in 2023. One of the trends identified by Info-Tech is that the impact of regulations on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting are being rolled out by governments worldwide.

      Alarmingly, only 7% of surveyed members responded that they could very accurately report on their carbon footprint and 23% said they were not able to report accurately at all.

      Produce ESG reporting

      SIGNALS

      ESG mandates are being rolled out globally.

      ESG reporting has greatly expanded since a 2017 report by Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD, 2017) which recommended that organizations disclose climate-related financial metrics for investors to appropriately price climate-related risks to share price. In 2021, the Swiss Finance Institute research paper (Sautner, 2021) identified 29 countries that require ESG reporting, primarily for larger public companies, financial institutions, and state-owned corporations.

      Global ESG mandates

      The image contains a screenshot of a world map that demonstrates the Global ESG Mandates.

      29 nations with ESG mandates identified by the Swiss Finance Institute

      Produce ESG reporting

      SIGNALS

      ESG mandates are being rolled out globally.

      The EU has mandated ESG reporting for approximately 11,700 large public companies with more than 500 employees under the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD), since 2014. The EU is going to replace the NFRD with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (European Council, 2022), which has set a 3-year timetable for escalating the ESG reporting level to what is estimated to be about 75% of EU total turnover (WorldFavor, 2022).

      • 2024: Companies with 500 or more employees.
      • 2025: Companies with 250 or more employee or 40M EU in revenue/20M in total assets.
      • 2026: SMEs, smaller credit financial, and captive insurance institutions.

      It's been a long time since most enterprises had to report on things like power efficiency factors.

      But don't think that being in the cloud will insulate you from a renewed interest in ESG reporting.

      Produce ESG reporting

      CALL TO ACTION

      Being unprepared for new ESG reporting mandates without a clear and validated ESG reporting process puts your organization at risk.

      I&O priority actions

      Understand ESG risk exposure. Define the gap between what ESG reporting is required in your jurisdiction and current reporting capabilities to meet them. Build the I&O role with responsibility for ESG reporting.

      Include vendors in ESG reporting. Review infrastructure facilities with landlords, utilities, and hosting providers to see if they can provide ESG reporting on sustainable power generation, then map it to I&O power consumption as part of their contractual obligations. Ask equipment vendors to provide ESG reporting on manufacturing materials and energy consumption to boot-strap data collection.

      Implement a HAM process to track asset disposal and other types of e-waste. Update agreements with disposal vendors to get reporting on waste and recycle volumes.

      Produce ESG reporting

      I&O priority actions

      Implement an ESG reporting framework. There are five major ESG reporting frameworks being used globally. Select one of the frameworks below that makes sense for your organization, and implement it.

      ISO 14001 Environmental Management: Part of the ISO Technical Committee family of standards that allows your organization to understand its legal requirements to become certified in ESG.

      Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Standards: GRI has been developing ESG reporting standards since 1997. GRI provides a modular ESG framework applicable to all sizes and sectors of organizations worldwide.

      Principles for Responsible Investment: UN-developed framework for ESG reporting framework for disclosure in responsible investments.

      Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB): ESG report framework to be used by investors.

      UN Global Compact: ESG reporting framework based on 10 principles that organizations can voluntarily contribute data to.

      Implement a HAM process to track asset disposal and other types of e-waste. Update agreements with disposal vendors to get reports on waste and recycle volumes.

      Recession readiness

      SIGNALS

      Managing accelerated technical debt.

      Recessionary pressures.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      I&O members experienced a spike in technical debt following the global pandemic economic shutdown, workforce displacement, and highly disrupted supply chains. 2023 presents a clear opportunity to work on these projects.

      The shortages in workforce and supply chain have accelerated inflation post pandemic. Central banks have started to slow down inflation in 2022 by raising interest rates. However, the World Bank has forecast a potential 2% rise in interest rates as the battle with inflation continues into 2023 and beyond, which could set off a global slowdown in GDP growth to 0.5%, qualifying as a recession. If interest rates continue to climb, I&O members may struggle with the higher cost of capital for their investments.

      (Source: World Bank Organization, 2022)

      Recession readiness

      SIGNALS

      I&O budgets expected to increase.

      Focused budgetary increases.

      Despite economists’ prediction of a looming recession and inflationary pressures, only 11% of I&O members surveyed indicated that they anticipated any reduction in IT budgets for 2023. In fact, 44% of I&O members expected an increase of IT budgets of between 6% and 30%.

      These increases in budget are not uniform across all investments. Surveyed I&O members indicated that the largest anticipated budget increases (compared to 2022) were in the areas of:

      • AI/machine learning ( +7.5%)
      • 5G (+7%)
      • Data Mesh/Fabric and Data Lake infrastructure (+5.7% and +4.4%, respectively)
      • Mixed reality technologies (augmented or virtual reality) (+3.3%)
      • Next generation cybersecurity (+1.7%)

      "2022 has been the first true opportunity to start getting caught up on technical debt stemming from the post pandemic supply chain and resource shortages. That catch-up is going to continue for some time.

      Unfortunately, the world isn't sitting still while doing that. In fact, we see new challenges around inflationary pressures. 2023 planning is going to be a balancing act between old and new projects."

      Paul Sparks,
      CTO at Brookshire Grocery Company

      Recession readiness

      SIGNALS

      Tough choices on budgetary spends.

      The responses indicated that I&O members expect decreased reinvestment for 2023 for the following:

      • API programming (-21.7%)
      • Cloud computing (-19.4%)
      • 44% of I&O members indicated if 2023 requires costs cutting, 5-20% of their cloud computing investment will be at risk of the chopping block!
      • Workforce management (-9.4%)
      • No-code /low-code infrastructure (-5.3%)

      Make sure you can clearly measure the value of all budgeted I&O activities.

      Anything that can't demonstrate clear value to leadership is potentially on the chopping block.

      Recession readiness

      CALL TO ACTION

      Get ahead of inflationary pressures with early budgetary planning, and identify the gap between the catch-up projects and required critical net new investments.

      II&O priority actions

      Hedge against inflation on infrastructure projects. Develop and communicate value-based strategies to lock in pricing and mitigate inflationary risk with vendors.

      Communicate value-add on all I&O budgeted items. Define an infrastructure roadmap to highlight which projects are technical debt and which are new strategic investments, and note their value to the organization.

      Look for cost saving technologies. Focus on I&O projects that automate services to increase productivity and optimize head count.

      Realize opportunities

      Build on a record of COVID-related innovation success and position the enterprise to take advantage of 2023.

      AI governance: Watching the watchers

      Data stewardship: Cornerstone of value

      Prep for a brave new metaverse

      AI governance: Watching the watchers

      SIGNALS

      Continued investment
      in AI technologies

      AI technology is permeating diverse I&O functional areas.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      About 32% of survey respondents who work in I&O said that they already invest in AI, and 40% intend to invest in 2023.

      I&O members have identified the following areas as the top five focal points for AI uses within their organizations.

      • Automated repetitive, low-level tasks
      • Business analytics or intelligence
      • Identification of risks and improvement of security response
      • Monitoring and governance
      • Sensor data analysis

      AI governance: Watching the watchers

      SIGNALS

      Consequences for misbehaving AI.

      I&O leaders can expect to have silos of AI in pockets scattered across the enterprise. Without oversight on the learning model and the data used for training and analytics there is a risk of overprovisioning, which could reduce the efficiency and effectiveness of AI models and results.

      This scale advantage of AI could result in operational inefficiencies without oversight. For example, bad governance means garbage in / garbage out. Which is worse: getting 100 outputs from a system with a 1% error rate, or getting 10,000 outputs from a system with an 1% error rate?

      These are just the operational issues; legally you can be on the hook, as well. The EU Parliament has issued a civil liability regime for AI (European Parliament, n.d.) which imposes liability to operators of AI systems, regardless of whether they acted with operational due diligence. Additionally, the IEEE (IEEE, 2019) is advocating for legal frameworks and accountability for AI that violates human rights and privacy laws and causes legal harm.

      Who is going to instill standards for AI Operations? Who is going to put in the mechanisms to validate and explain the output of AI black boxes?

      If you said it’s going to end up
      being Infrastructure and Operations – you were right!

      AI governance: Watching the watchers

      CALL TO ACTION

      Establish I&O within an AI governance program to build trust in AI results and behaviors and limit legal exposure.

      I&O priority actions

      Define who has overall AI accountability for AI governance within I&O. This role is responsible for establishing strategic governance metrics over AI use and results, and identifying liability risks.

      Maintain an inventory of AI use. Conduct an audit of where AI is used within I&O, and identify gaps in documentation and alignment with I&O processes and organizational values.

      Define an I&O success map. Provide transparency of AI use by generating pseudo code of AI models, and scorecard AI decision making with expected predictions and behavioral actions taken.

      AI governance: Watching the watchers

      Manage bias in AI decision making. Work with AI technology vendors to identify how unethical bias can enter the results, using operational data sets for validation prior to rollout.

      Protect AI data sets from manipulation. Generate new secure storage for AI technology audit trails on AI design making and results. Work with your security team to ensure data sets used by AI for training can’t be corrupted.

      Data governance: Cornerstone of value

      SIGNALS

      Data volumes grow
      with time.

      Data is seen as a source for generating new value.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Of surveyed I&O members, 63% expected to see the data storage grow by at least 10% in 2023, and 15% expected a 30% or more growth in data storage volumes.

      I&O members identified the top three ways data brings value to the organization:

      • Helping reduce operational costs.
      • Presenting value-added to existing products and services.
      • Acquiring new customers.

      Data governance: Cornerstone of value

      SIGNALS

      Approach to data analysis is primarily done in-house.

      85% of surveyed I&O members are doing data analysis with custom-made or external tools. Interestingly, 10% of I&O members do not conduct any data analysis.

      Members are missing a formal data governance process.

      81% of surveyed I&O members do not have a formal or automated process for data governance. Ironically, 24% of members responded that they aim to have publicly accessible data-as-a-service or information repositories.

      Despite investment in data initiatives, organizations carry high levels of data debt.

      Info-Tech research, Establish Data Governance, points out that data debt, the accumulated cost associated with sub-optimal governance of data assets, is a problem for 78% of organizations.

      What the enterprise expects out of enterprise storage is much more complicated in 2023.

      Data protection and governance are non-negotiable aspects of enterprise storage, even when it’s unstructured.

      Data governance: Cornerstone of value

      SIGNALS

      Data quality is the primary driver for data governance.

      The data governance market
      is booming.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      In the 2022 Zaloni survey of data governance professionals, 71% indicated that consistent data quality was the top metric for data governance, followed by reduced time to insight and regulatory compliance.

      (Source: Zaloni DATAVERSITY, 2022)

      The Business Research Company determined that the global data governance market is expected to grow from $3.28 billion in 2022 to $7.42 billion in 2026 at a CAGR of 22.7% in response to 74 zettabytes of data in 2021, with a growth rate of 1.145 trillion MB of new data being created every day.

      (Source: Business Research Company, 2022)

      Data governance: Cornerstone of value

      CALL TO ACTION

      Develop a data governance program that includes an I&O data steward for oversight.

      I&O priority actions

      Establish an I&O data steward. Make data governance by establishing a data steward role with accountability for governance. The steward works collaboratively with DataOPs to control access to I&O data, enforce policies, and reduce the time to make use of the data.

      Define a comprehensive storage architecture. If you thought you had a data sprawl problem before, wait until you see the volume of data generated from IoT and Web 3.0 applications. Get ahead of the problem by creating an infrastructure roadmap for structured and unstructured data storage.

      Build a solid backbone for AI Operations using data quality best practices. Data quality is the foundation for generation of operational value from the data and artificial intelligence efforts. Focus on using a methodology to build a culture of data quality within I&O systems and applications that generate data rather than reactive fixes.

      Look to partner with third-party vendors for your master data management (MDM) efforts. Modern MDM vendors can work with your existing data fabrics/lake and help leverage your data governance policies into the cloud.

      Prep for a brave new metaverse

      SIGNALS

      From science fiction to science fact.

      The term metaverse was coined in 1992 by Neal Stephenson and is a common theme in science fiction. For most I&O surveyed professionals, the term metaverse conjures up more confusion than clarity, as it’s not one place, but multiple metaverse worlds. The primordial metaverse was focused on multiplayer gaming and some educational experiences. It wasn’t until recently that it gained a critical mass in the fashion and entertainment industries with the use of non-fungible tokens (NFT). The pandemic created a unique opportunity for metaverse-related technologies to expand Web 3.0.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Prep for a brave new metaverse

      SIGNALS

      Collaboration and beyond.

      On one hand, metaverse technologies virtual reality(VR)/augmented reality (AR) headsets can be a method of collaborating internally within a single organization. About 10% of our surveyed I&O members engaged this type of collaborative metaverse in 2022, with another 24% looking to run proof of concept projects in 2023. However, there is a much larger terrain for metaverse projects outside of workforce collaboration, which 17% of surveyed I&O members are planning to engage with in 2023.

      These are sophisticated new metaverse worlds, and digital twins of production environments are being created for B2B collaboration, operations, engineering, healthcare, architecture, and education that include the use of block chain, NFTs, smart contracts, and other Web 3.0 technologies

      “They are the audiovisual bodies that people use to communicate with each other in the Metaverse.”

      Neal Stephenson,
      Snow Crash 1992

      Prep for a brave new metaverse

      SIGNALS

      Metaverse requires multidimensional security.

      Security in the context of the metaverse presents new challenges to I&O. The infrastructure that runs the metaverse is still vulnerable to “traditional” security threats. New attack vectors include financial and identity fraud, privacy and data loss, along with new cyber-physical threats which are predicted to occur as the metaverse begins to integrate with IoT and other 3D objects in the physical world.

      The ultimate in "not a product" – the metaverse promises to be a hodgepodge of badly standardized technologies for the near future.

      Be prepared to take care of pets and not cattle for the foreseeable future, but keep putting the fencing around the ranch.

      Prep for a brave new metaverse

      SIGNALS

      Generating new wave of sophisticated engineering coming.

      Economics boom around metaverse set to explode.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Beyond the current online educational resources, there are reputable universities around the world, including Stanford University, that are offering courses on metaverse and Web 3.0 concepts.

      (Source: Arti, 2022)

      So, what’s providing the impetus for all this activity and investment? Economics. In their 2022 report, Metaverse and Money, Citi estimated that the economic value of the metaverse(s) will have 900M to 1B VR/AR users and 5 billion Web 3.0 users with market sizes of $1-2T and $8-$13T, respectively. Yes, that’s a “T” for Trillions.

      (Source: Ghose, 2022)

      Prep for a brave new metaverse

      CALL TO ACTION

      Ready or not, the metaverse is coming to an infrastructure near you. Start expanding I&O technologies and processes to support a metaverse infrastructure.

      I&O priority actions

      Develop a plan for network upgrades.

      A truly immersive VR/AR experience requires very low latency. Identify gaps and develop a plan to enhance your network infrastructure surrounding your metaverse space(s) and end users.

      Extend security posture into the metaverse.

      Securing the infrastructure that runs your metaverse is going to extend the end-user equipment used to navigate it. More importantly, security policies need to encompass the avatars that navigate it and the spatial web that they interact with, which can include physical world items like IoT.

      Prep for a brave new metaverse

      I&O priority actions

      Metaverse theft prevention

      Leverage existing strategies to identify management in the metaverse. Privacy policies need to extend their focus to data loss prevention within the metaverse.

      Collaborate

      The skill set required to build, deploy, manage, and support the metaverse is complex. Develop a metaverse support organization that extends beyond I&O functions into security, DevOps, and end-user experiences.

      Educate

      Web 3.0 technologies and business models are complex. Education of I&O technical- and commerce-focused team members is going to help prevent you from getting blindsided. Seek out specialized training programs for technical staff and strategic education for executives, like the Wharton School of Business certification program.

      Authors

      John Annand

      Theo Antoniadis

      John Annand

      Principal Research Director

      Theo Antoniadis

      Principal Research Director

      Contributors

      Paul Sparks,
      CTO at Brookshire Grocery Company

      2 Anonymous Contributors

      Figuring out the true nature of the “Turbo” button of his 486DX100 launched John on a 20-year career in managed services and solution architecture, exploring the secrets of HPC, virtualization, and DIY WANs built with banks of USR TotalControl modems. Today he focuses his research and advisory on software-defined infrastructure technologies, strategy, organization, and service design in an increasingly Agile and DevOps world.

      Theo has decades of operational and project management experience with start-ups and multinationals across North America and Europe. He has held various consulting, IT management and operations leadership positions within telecommunications, SaaS, and software companies.

      Bibliography

      “3 Cybersecurity Trends that are Changing Financial Data Management." FIMA US. Accessed August 2022.
      Arti. “While much of the world is just discovering the Metaverse, a number of universities have already established centers for studying Web 3." Analytics Insight. 10 July 2022.
      “Artificial intelligence (AI) for cybersecurity." IBM. Accessed September 2022
      “Business in the Metaverse Economy." Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania. Accessed October 2022.
      “Cost of a data breach 2022: A million-dollar race to detect and respond." IBM. Accessed September 2022.
      “Countries affected by mandatory ESG reporting – here’s the list." New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment. Accessed September 2022.
      “Countries affected by mandatory ESG reporting – here’s the list.” WorldFavor. Accessed September 2022.
      Crenshaw, Caroline A. “SEC Proposes to Enhance Disclosures by Certain Investment Advisers and Investment Companies About ESG Investment Practices." U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. May 2022.
      “Cutting through the metaverse hype: Practical guidance and use cases for business." Avanade. Accessed October 2022.
      “Data Governance Global Market Sees Growth Rate Of 25% Through 2022." The Business Research Company. August 2022.
      “DIRECTIVE 2014/95/EU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 22 October 2014 amending Directive 2013/34/EU as regards disclosure of non-financial and diversity information by certain large undertakings and groups." UER-Lex. Accessed September 2022.
      "Ethically Aligned Design: A Vision for Prioritizing Human Well-being with Autonomous and Intelligent Systems." IEEE. March 2019.
      “European Parliament resolution of 20 October 2020 with recommendations to the Commission on a civil liability regime for artificial intelligence." European Parliament. Accessed October 2022.
      Ghose, Ronit et al. "Metaverse and Money." Citi GPS. March 2022.
      Hernandez, Roberto, et al. “Demystifying the metaverse." PWC. Accessed August 2022.
      Info-Tech Trends Report Survey, 2023; N=813.
      “ISO 14000 Family: Environmental Management." ISO. Accessed October 2022.
      Knight, Michelle & Bishop, Annie, ”The 2022 State of Cloud Data Governance.“ Zaloni DATAVERSITY. 2022.

      Bibliography

      Kompella, Kashyap, “What is AI governance and why do you need it?“ TechTarget. March 2022.
      “Management of electronic waste worldwide in 2019, by method." Statista. 2022.
      “Model Artificial Intelligence Governance Framework and Assessment Guide.“ World Economic Forum. Accessed September 2022.
      “Model Artificial Intelligence Governance Framework." PDPC Singapore. Accessed October 2022.
      “New rules on corporate sustainability reporting: provisional political agreement between the Council and the European Parliament.“ European Council. June 2022.
      "OECD Economic Outlook Volume 2022." OECD iLibrary. June 2022.
      "Recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures." TCFD. Accessed August 2022.
      “Risk of Global Recession in 2023 Rises Amid Simultaneous Rate Hikes.” World Bank Organization. September 2022.
      Sautner, Zacharias, et al. “The Effects of Mandatory ESG Disclosure around the World.” SSRN. November 2021.
      Sondergaard, Peter. “AI GOVERNANCE – WHAT ARE THE KPIS? AND WHO IS ACCOUNTABLE?“ The Sondergaard Group. November 2019.
      Srivastavam Sudeep, “How can your business enter the Metaverse?." Appinventiv.
      September 2022.
      “Standards Overview." SASB. Accessed October 2022.
      Stephenson, Neal. Snow Crash. Bantam Books, 1992.
      “Sustainability Reporting Standards." Global Reporting Initiative. Accessed October 2022.
      “The Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact." UN Global Compact. Accessed October 2022.
      Tian Tong Lee, Sheryl. "China Unveils ESG Reporting Guidelines to Catch Peers.” Bloomberg. May 2022.
      “What are the Principles for Responsible Investment?" UNPRI. Accessed October 2022.
      "What is the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)?" WorldFavor.
      June 2022.
      West, Darrell M. “Six Steps to Responsible AI in the Federal Government.“ Brookings Institution. March 2022. Web.

      Manage an IT Budget

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      • Parent Category Name: Cost & Budget Management
      • Parent Category Link: /cost-and-budget-management
      • IT is viewed as a cost center without a clear understanding of the value it provides.
      • After completing the budget, the CIO is faced with changing expectations, disruptions, new risks, and new threats.
      • IT departments often lack a reliable budget management process to keep itself on track towards its budget goals.
      • Over budgeting risks credibility if projects are not all delivered, while under budgeting risks not being able to execute important projects.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Managing your budget is not just about numbers; it’s also about people and processes. Better relationships and a proper process leads to better management of your budget. Understand how your relationships and current processes might be leveraged to manage your budget.
      • No one likes to be over budget, but being under budget isn’t necessarily good either. Coming in under budget may mean that you are not accomplishing the initiatives that you promised you would, reflecting poor job performance.

      Impact and Result

      • Implement a formal budget management process that documents your planned budget and actual expenditures, tracks variances, and responds to those variances to stay on track towards budget goals.
      • Manage the expectations of business stakeholders by communicating the links between IT spend and business value in a way that is easily understood by the business.
      • Control for under- or overspending by using Info Tech’s budget management tool and tactics.

      Manage an IT Budget Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to understand the increasing expectations for IT departments to better manage their budgets, 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. Document

      Create a streamlined documentation process that also considers the elements of people and technology.

      • Manage an IT Budget – Phase 1: Document
      • Manage Your IT Budget Tool

      2. Track

      Track your planned budget against actual expenditures to catch areas of over- and underspending in a timely manner.

      • Manage an IT Budget – Phase 2: Track

      3. Control

      Leverage control mechanisms to manage variances in your budget.

      • Manage an IT Budget – Phase 3: Control
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Manage an IT Budget

      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 Document Budget

      The Purpose

      The first step of managing your IT budget is to make sure there is a properly documented budget that everyone agrees upon.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A properly documented budget facilitates management and communication of the budget.

      Activities

      1.1 Review budget for the year.

      1.2 Document each budget in the tool.

      1.3 Review CAPEX vs. OPEX.

      1.4 Customize accounts to match your organization.

      Outputs

      Budget broken out into monthly increments and by each account.

      Budget documented in tool.

      Tool customized to reflect organization's specific accounts and terminology.

      2 Optimize Documentation Process

      The Purpose

      A proper documentation process forms the backbone for effective budget management.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A streamlined documentation process with accurate inputs that also considers the elements of people and technology.

      Activities

      2.1 Draw out process flow of current documentation.

      2.2 Identify bottlenecks.

      2.3 Discuss and develop roadmap to solving bottlenecks.

      Outputs

      Process flow of current documentation process with identified bottlenecks.

      Plan to mitigate bottlenecks.

      3 Track and Control for Over- and Underspending

      The Purpose

      Track your planned budget against actual expenditures to catch areas of over- and underspending in a timely manner. Then, leverage control mechanisms to manage variances in your budget.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Tracking and controlling for variances will help the IT department stay on track towards its budget goals. It will also help with communicating IT’s value to the business.

      Activities

      3.1 Walk through the “Overview Bar.”

      3.2 Document actual expenses incurred in fiscal to date.

      3.3 Review the risk of over- and underspending.

      3.4 Use the reforecast column to control for over- and underspend.

      Outputs

      Assess the “Overview Bar.”

      Document actual expenditures and committed expenses up to the current date.

      Develop a strategy and roadmap for how you will mitigate any current under- or overspends.

      Reforecast expenditures for each account for each month for the remainder of the fiscal year.

      2020 Security Priorities Report

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      • Parent Category Name: Security Strategy & Budgeting
      • Parent Category Link: /security-strategy-and-budgeting

      Use this deck to learn what projects security practitioners are prioritizing for 2020. Based on a survey of 460 IT security professionals, this report explains what you need to know about the top five priorities, including:

      • Signals and drivers
      • Benefits
      • Critical uncertainties
      • Case study
      • Implications

      While the priorities should in no way be read as prescriptive, this research study provides a high-level guide to understand that priorities drive the initiatives, projects, and responsibilities that make up organizations' security strategies.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      There is always more to do, and if IT leaders are to grow with the business, provide meaningful value, and ascend the ladder to achieve true business partner and innovator status, aggressive prioritization is necessary. Clearly, security has become a priority across organizations, as security budgets have continued to increase over the course of 2019. 2020’s priorities highlight that data security has become the thread that runs through all other security priorities, as data is now the currency of the modern digital economy. As a result, data security has reshaped organizations’ priorities to ensure that data is always protected.

      Impact and Result

      Ultimately, understanding how changes in technology and patterns of work stand to impact the day-to-day lives of IT staff across seniority and industries will allow you to evaluate what your priorities should be for 2020. Ensure that you’re spending your time right. Use data to validate. Prioritize and implement.

      2020 Security Priorities Report Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      This storyboard will help you understand what projects security practitioners are prioritizing for 2020.

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

      1. Data security

      Data security often rubs against other organizational priorities like data quality, but organizations need to understand that the way they store, handle, and dispose of data is now under regulatory oversight.

      • 2020 Security Priorities Report – Priority 1: Data Security

      2. Cloud security

      Cloud security means that organizations can take advantage of automation tools not only for patching and patch management but also to secure code throughout the SDLC. It is clear that cloud will transform how security is performed.

      • 2020 Security Priorities Report – Priority 2: Cloud Security

      3. Email security

      Email security is critical, since email continues to be one of the top points of ingress for cyberattacks from ransomware to business email compromise.

      • 2020 Security Priorities Report – Priority 3: Email Security

      4. Security risk management

      Security risk management requires organizations to make decisions based on their individual risk tolerance on such things as machine learning and IoT devices.

      • 2020 Security Priorities Report – Priority 4: Security Risk Management

      5. Security awareness and training

      Human error continues to be a security issue. In 2020, organizations should tailor their security awareness and training to their people so that they are more secure not only at work but also in life.

      • 2020 Security Priorities Report – Priority 5: Security Awareness and Training
      [infographic]

      Application Development Throughput

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      • Parent Category Name: Applications
      • Parent Category Link: /applications

      The challenge

      • As we work more and more using agile techniques, teams tend to optimize their areas of responsibility.
      • IT will still release lower-quality applications when there is a lack of clarity around the core SDLC processes.
      • Software development teams continue to struggle with budget and time constraints within their releases.
      • Typically each group claims to be optimized, yet the final deliverable falls short of the expected quality.

      Our advice

      Insight

      • Database administrators know this all too well: Optimizing can you perform worse. The software development lifecycle (SDLC) must be optimized holistically, not per area or team.
      • Separate how you work from your framework. You do not need "agile" or "extreme" or "agifall" or "safe" to optimize your SDLC.
      • SDLC optimization is a continuous effort. Start from your team's current capabilities and improve over time.

      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:

      Get started.

      Read our executive brief to understand our approach to SDLC optimization and why we advocate a holistic approach for your company.

      Document your current state

      This phase helps you understand your business goals and priorities. You will document your current SDLC process and find where the challenges are.

      • Create a Horizontally Optimized SDLC to Better Meet Business Demands – Phase 1: Document the Current State of the SDLC (ppt)
      • SDLC Optimization Playbook (xls)

      Find out the root causes, define how to move forward, and set your target state

      • Create a Horizontally Optimized SDLC to Better Meet Business Demands – Phase 2: Define Root Causes, Determine Optimization Initiatives, and Define Target State (ppt)

      Develop the roll-out strategy for SDLC optimization

      Prioritize your initiatives and formalize them in a roll-out strategy and roadmap. Communicate your plan to all your stakeholders.

      • Create a Horizontally Optimized SDLC to Better Meet Business Demands – Phase 3: Develop a Rollout Strategy for SDLC Optimization (ppt)
      • SDLC Communication Template (ppt)

       

      Make Sense of Strategic Portfolio Management

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      • 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.

      Stabilize Infrastructure & Operations During Work-From-Anywhere

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      • Parent Category Name: Strategy and Organizational Design
      • Parent Category Link: /strategy-and-organizational-design

      Work-from-anywhere isn’t going anywhere. IT Infrastructure & Operations needs to:

      • Rebuild trust in the stability of IT infrastructure and operations.
      • Identify gaps created from the COVID-19 rush to remote work.
      • Identify how IT can better support remote workers.

      IT went through an initial crunch to enable remote work. It’s time to be proactive and learn from our mistakes.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • The nature of work has fundamentally changed. IT departments must ensure service continuity, not for how the company worked in 2019, but how the company is working now and will be working tomorrow.
      • Revisit the basics. Don’t focus on becoming an innovator until you have improved network access, app access, file access, and collaboration tools.
      • Aim for near-term innovation. Once you’re a trusted operator, become a business partner by directly empowering end users at home and in the office.

      Impact and Result

      Build a work-from-anywhere strategy that resonates with the business.

      • Strengthen the foundations of collaboration tools, app access, file access, network access, and endpoint standards.
      • Explore opportunities to strengthen IT operations.
      • Proactively help the business through employee experience monitoring and facilities optimization.

      Stabilize Infrastructure & Operations During Work-From-Anywhere Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should build a strategy for improving how well IT infrastructure and operations support work-from-anywhere, 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. Stabilize IT infrastructure

      Ensure your fundamentals are solid.

      2. Update IT operations

      Revisit your practices to ensure you can effectively operate in work-from-anywhere.

      3. Optimize IT infrastructure & operations

      Offer additional value to the business by proactively addressing these items.

      • Roadmap Tool

      Infographic

      Workshop: Stabilize Infrastructure & Operations During Work-From-Anywhere

      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 Stabilize IT Infrastructure

      The Purpose

      Strengthen the foundations of IT infrastructure.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Improved end-user experience

      Stabilized environment

      Activities

      1.1 Review work-from-anywhere framework and identify capability gaps.

      1.2 Review diagnostic results to identify satisfaction gaps.

      1.3 Record improvement opportunities for foundational capabilities: collaboration, network, file access, app access.

      1.4 Identify deliverables and opportunities to provide value for each.

      Outputs

      Projects and initiatives to stabilize IT infrastructure

      Deliverables and opportunities to provide value for foundational capabilities

      2 Update IT Operations and Optimize

      The Purpose

      Update IT operational practices to support work-from-anywhere more effectively.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Improved IT operations

      Activities

      2.1 Identify IT infrastructure and operational capability gaps.

      2.2 Record improvement opportunities for DRP & BCP.

      2.3 Record improvement opportunities for endpoint and systems management practices.

      2.4 Record improvement opportunities for IT operational practices.

      2.5 Explore office space optimization and employee experience monitoring.

      Outputs

      Projects and initiatives to update IT operations to better support work-from-anywhere

      Longer-term strategic initiatives

      Deliverables and opportunities to provide value for each capability

      Develop an Availability and Capacity Management Plan

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      • member rating average dollars saved: $2,840 Average $ Saved
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      • Parent Category Name: Availability & Capacity Management
      • Parent Category Link: /availability-and-capacity-management
      • It is crucial for capacity managers to provide capacity in advance of need to maximize availability.
      • In an effort to ensure maximum uptime, organizations are overprovisioning (an average of 59% for compute, and 48% for storage). With budget pressure mounting (especially on the capital side), the cost of this approach can’t be ignored.
      • Half of organizations have experienced capacity-related downtime, and almost 60% wait more than three months for additional capacity.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • All too often capacity management is left as an afterthought. The best capacity managers bake capacity management into their organization’s business processes, becoming drivers of value.
      • Communication is key. Build bridges between your organization’s silos, and involve business stakeholders in a dialog about capacity requirements.

      Impact and Result

      • Map business metrics to infrastructure component usage, and use your organization’s own data to forecast demand.
      • Project future needs in line with your hardware lifecycle. Never suffer availability issues as a result of a lack of capacity again.
      • Establish infrastructure as a driver of business value, not a “black hole” cost center.

      Develop an Availability and Capacity Management Plan Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should build a capacity management plan, 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:

      • Develop an Availability and Capacity Management Plan – Phases 1-4

      1. Conduct a business impact analysis

      Determine the most critical business services to ensure availability.

      • Develop an Availability and Capacity Management Plan – Phase 1: Conduct a Business Impact Analysis
      • Business Impact Analysis Tool

      2. Establish visibility into core systems

      Craft a monitoring strategy to gather usage data.

      • Develop an Availability and Capacity Management Plan – Phase 2: Establish Visibility into Core Systems
      • Capacity Snapshot Tool

      3. Solicit and incorporate business needs

      Integrate business stakeholders into the capacity management process.

      • Develop an Availability and Capacity Management Plan – Phase 3: Solicit and Incorporate Business Needs
      • Capacity Plan Template

      4. Identify and mitigate risks

      Identify and mitigate risks to your capacity and availability.

      • Develop an Availability and Capacity Management Plan – Phase 4: Identify and Mitigate Risks

      [infographic]

      Workshop: Develop an Availability and Capacity Management Plan

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

      1 Conduct a Business Impact Analysis

      The Purpose

      Determine the most important IT services for the business.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Understand which services to prioritize for ensuring availability.

      Activities

      1.1 Create a scale to measure different levels of impact.

      1.2 Evaluate each service by its potential impact.

      1.3 Assign a criticality rating based on the costs of downtime.

      Outputs

      RTOs/RPOs

      List of gold systems

      Criticality matrix

      2 Establish Visibility Into Core Systems

      The Purpose

      Monitor and measure usage metrics of key systems.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Capture and correlate data on business activity with infrastructure capacity usage.

      Activities

      2.1 Define your monitoring strategy.

      2.2 Implement your monitoring tool/aggregator.

      Outputs

      RACI chart

      Capacity/availability monitoring strategy

      3 Develop a Plan to Project Future Needs

      The Purpose

      Determine how to project future capacity usage needs for your organization.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Data-based, systematic projection of future capacity usage needs.

      Activities

      3.1 Analyze historical usage trends.

      3.2 Interface with the business to determine needs.

      3.3 Develop a plan to combine these two sources of truth.

      Outputs

      Plan for soliciting future needs

      Future needs

      4 Identify and Mitigate Risks

      The Purpose

      Identify potential risks to capacity and availability.

      Develop strategies to ameliorate potential risks.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Proactive approach to capacity that addresses potential risks before they impact availability.

      Activities

      4.1 Identify capacity and availability risks.

      4.2 Determine strategies to address risks.

      4.3 Populate and review completed capacity plan.

      Outputs

      List of risks

      List of strategies to address risks

      Completed capacity plan

      Further reading

      Develop an Availability and Capacity Management Plan

      Manage capacity to increase uptime and reduce costs.

      ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

      The cloud changes the capacity manager’s job, but it doesn’t eliminate it.

      "Nobody doubts the cloud’s transformative power. But will its ascent render “capacity manager” an archaic term to be carved into the walls of datacenters everywhere for future archaeologists to puzzle over? No. While it is true that the cloud has fundamentally changed how capacity managers do their jobs , the process is more important than ever. Managing capacity – and, by extent, availability – means minimizing costs while maximizing uptime. The cloud era is the era of unlimited capacity – and of infinite potential costs. If you put the infinity symbol on a purchase order… well, it’s probably not a good idea. Manage demand. Manage your capacity. Manage your availability. And, most importantly, keep your stakeholders happy. You won’t regret it."

      Jeremy Roberts,

      Consulting Analyst, Infrastructure Practice

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Availability and capacity management transcend IT

      This Research Is Designed For:

      ✓ CIOs who want to increase uptime and reduce costs

      ✓ Infrastructure managers who want to deliver increased value to the business

      ✓ Enterprise architects who want to ensure stability of core IT services

      ✓ Dedicated capacity managers

      This Research Will Help You:

      ✓ Develop a list of core services

      ✓ Establish visibility into your system

      ✓ Solicit business needs

      ✓ Project future demand

      ✓ Set SLAs

      ✓ Increase uptime

      ✓ Optimize spend

      This Research Will Also Assist:

      ✓ Project managers

      ✓ Service desk staff

      This Research Will Help Them:

      ✓ Plan IT projects

      ✓ Better manage availability incidents caused by lack of capacity

      Executive summary

      Situation

      • IT infrastructure leaders are responsible for ensuring that the business has access to the technology needed to keep the organization humming along. This requires managing capacity and availability.
      • Dependencies go undocumented. Services are provided on an ad hoc basis, and capacity/availability are managed reactively.

      Complication

      • Organizations are overprovisioning an average of 59% for compute, and 48% for storage. This is expensive. With budget pressure mounting, the cost of this approach can’t be ignored.
      • Lead time to respond to demand is long. Half of organizations have experienced capacity-related downtime, and almost 60% wait 3+ months for additional capacity. (451 Research, 3)

      Resolution

      • Conduct a business impact analysis to determine which of your services are most critical, and require active capacity management that will reap more in benefits than it produces in costs.
      • Establish visibility into your system. You can’t track what you can’t see, and you can’t see when you don’t have proper monitoring tools in place.
      • Develop an understanding of business needs. Use a combination of historical trend analyses and consultation with line of business and project managers to separate wants from needs. Overprovisioning used to be necessary, but is no longer required.
      • Project future needs in line with your hardware lifecycle. Never suffer availability issues as a result of a lack of capacity again.

      Info-Tech Insight

      1. Components are critical. The business doesn’t care about components. You, however, are not so lucky…
      2. Ask what the business is working on, not what they need. If you ask them what they need, they’ll tell you – and it won’t be cheap. Find out what they’re going to do, and use your expertise to service those needs.
      3. Cloud shmoud. The role of the capacity manager is changing with the cloud, but capacity management is as important as ever.

      Save money and drive efficiency with an effective availability and capacity management plan

      Overprovisioning happens because of the old style of infrastructure provisioning (hardware refresh cycles) and because capacity managers don’t know how much they need (either as a result of inaccurate or nonexistent information).

      According to 451 Research, 59% of enterprises have had to wait 3+ months for new capacity. It is little wonder, then, that so many opt to overprovision. Capacity management is about ensuring that IT services are available, and with lead times like that, overprovisioning can be more attractive than the alternative. Fortunately there is hope. An effective availability and capacity management plan can help you:

      • Identify your gold systems
      • Establish visibility into them
      • Project your future capacity needs

      Balancing overprovisioning and spending is the capacity manager’s struggle.

      Availability and capacity management go together like boots and feet

      Availability and capacity are not the same, but they are related and can be effectively managed together as part of a single process.

      If an IT department is unable to meet demand due to insufficient capacity, users will experience downtime or a degradation in service. To be clear, capacity is not the only factor in availability – reliability, serviceability, etc. are significant as well. But no organization can effectively manage availability without paying sufficient attention to capacity.

      "Availability Management is concerned with the design, implementation, measurement and management of IT services to ensure that the stated business requirements for availability are consistently met."

      – OGC, Best Practice for Service Delivery, 12

      "Capacity management aims to balance supply and demand [of IT storage and computing services] cost-effectively…"

      – OGC, Business Perspective, 90

      Integrate the three levels of capacity management

      Successful capacity management involves a holistic approach that incorporates all three levels.

      Business The highest level of capacity management, business capacity management, involves predicting changes in the business’ needs and developing requirements in order to make it possible for IT to adapt to those needs. Influx of new clients from a failed competitor.
      Service Service capacity management focuses on ensuring that IT services are monitored to determine if they are meeting pre-determined SLAs. The data gathered here can be used for incident and problem management. Increased website traffic.
      Component Component capacity management involves tracking the functionality of specific components (servers, hard drives, etc.), and effectively tracking their utilization and performance, and making predictions about future concerns. Insufficient web server compute.

      The C-suite cares about business capacity as part of the organization’s strategic planning. Service leads care about their assigned services. IT infrastructure is concerned with components, but not for their own sake. Components mean services that are ultimately designed to facilitate business.

      A healthcare organization practiced poor capacity management and suffered availability issues as a result

      CASE STUDY

      Industry: Healthcare

      Source: Interview

      New functionalities require new infrastructure

      There was a project to implement an elastic search feature. This had to correlate all the organization’s member data from an Oracle data source and their own data warehouse, and pool them all into an elastic search index so that it could be used by the provider portal search function. In estimating the amount of space needed, the infrastructure team assumed that all the data would be shared in a single place. They didn’t account for the architecture of elastic search in which indexes are shared across multiple nodes and shards are often split up separately.

      Beware underestimating demand and hardware sourcing lead times

      As a result, they vastly underestimated the amount of space that was needed and ended up short by a terabyte. The infrastructure team frantically sourced more hardware, but the rush hardware order arrived physically damaged and had to be returned to the vendor.

      Sufficient budget won’t ensure success without capacity planning

      The project’s budget had been more than sufficient to pay for the extra necessary capacity, but because a lack of understanding of the infrastructure impact resulted in improper forecasting, the project ended up stuck in a standstill.

      Manage availability and keep your stakeholders happy

      If you run out of capacity, you will inevitably encounter availability issues like downtime and performance degradation . End users do not like downtime, and neither do their managers.

      There are three variables that are monitored, measured, and analyzed as part of availability management more generally (Valentic).

        1. Uptime:

      The availability of a system is the percentage of time the system is “up,” (and not degraded) which can be calculated using the following formula: uptime/(uptime + downtime) x 100%. The more components there are in a system, the lower the availability, as a rule.

        1. Reliability:

      The length of time a component/service can go before there is an outage that brings it down, typically measured in hours.

        1. Maintainability:

      The amount of time it takes for a component/service to be restored in the event of an outage, also typically measured in hours.

      Enter the cloud: changes in the capacity manager role

      There can be no doubt – the rise of the public cloud has fundamentally changed the nature of capacity management.

      Features of the public cloudImplications for capacity management
      Instant, or near-instant, instantiation Lead times drop; capacity management is less about ensuring equipment arrives on time.
      Pay-as-you go services Capacity no longer needs to be purchased in bulk. Pay only for what you use and shut down instances that are no longer necessary.
      Essentially unlimited scalability Potential capacity is infinite, but so are potential costs.
      Offsite hosting Redundancy, but at the price of the increasing importance of your internet connection.

      Vendors will sell you the cloud as a solution to your capacity/availability problems

      The image contains two graphs. The first graph on the left is titled: Reactive Management, and shows the struggling relationship between capacity and demand. The second graph on the right is titled: Cloud future (ideal), which demonstrates a manageable relationship between capacity and demand over time.

      Traditionally, increases in capacity have come in bursts as a reaction to availability issues. This model inevitably results in overprovisioning, driving up costs. Access to the cloud changes the equation. On-demand capacity means that, ideally, nobody should pay for unused capacity.

      Reality check: even in the cloud era, capacity management is necessary

      You will likely find vendors to nurture the growth of a gap between your expectations and reality. That can be damaging.

      The cloud reality does not look like the cloud ideal. Even with the ostensibly elastic cloud, vendors like the consistency that longer-term contracts offer. Enter reserved instances: in exchange for lower hourly rates, vendors offer the option to pay a fee for a reserved instance. Usage beyond the reserved will be billed at a higher hourly rate. In order to determine where that line should be drawn, you should engage in detailed capacity planning. Unfortunately, even when done right, this process will result in some overprovisioning, though it does provide convenience from an accounting perspective. The key is to use spot instances where demand is exceptional and bounded. Example: A university registration server that experiences exceptional demand at the start of term but at no other time.

      The image contains an example of cloud reality not matching with the cloud ideal in the form of a graph. The graph is split horizontally, the top half is red, and there is a dotted line splitting it from the lower half. The line is labelled: Reserved instance ceiling. In the bottom half, it is the colour green and has a curving line.

      Use best practices to optimize your cloud resources

      The image contains two graphs. The graph on the left is labelled: Ineffective reserve capacity. At the top of the graph is a dotted line labelled: Reserved Instance ceiling. The graph is measuring capacity requirements over time. There is a curved line on the graph that suddenly spikes and comes back down. The spike is labelled unused capacity. The graph on the right is labelled: Effective reserve capacity. The reserved instance ceiling is about halfway down this graph, and it is comparing capacity requirements over time. This graph has a curved line on it, also has a spike and is labelled: spot instance.

      Even in the era of elasticity, capacity planning is crucial. Spot instances – the spikes in the graph above – are more expensive, but if your capacity needs vary substantially, reserving instances for all of the space you need can cost even more money. Efficiently planning capacity will help you draw this line.

      Evaluate business impact; not all systems are created equal

      Limited resources are a reality. Detailed visibility into every single system is often not feasible and could be too much information.

      Simple and effective. Sometimes a simple display can convey all of the information necessary to manage critical systems. In cars it is important to know your speed, how much fuel is in the tank, and whether or not you need to change your oil/check your engine.

      Where to begin?! Specialized information is sometimes necessary, but it can be difficult to navigate.

      Take advantage of a business impact analysis to define and understand your critical services

      Ideally, downtime would be minimal. In reality, though, downtime is a part of IT life. It is important to have realistic expectations about its nature and likelihood.

      STEP 1

      STEP 2

      STEP 3

      STEP 4

      STEP 5

      Record applications and dependencies

      Utilize your asset management records and document the applications and systems that IT is responsible for managing and recovering during a disaster.

      Define impact scoring scale

      Ensure an objective analysis of application criticality by establishing a business impact scale that applies to all applications.

      Estimate impact of downtime

      Leverage the scoring criteria from the previous step and establish an estimated impact of downtime for each application.

      Identify desired RTO and RPO

      Define what the RTOs/RPOs should be based on the impact of a business interruption and the tolerance for downtime and data loss.

      Determine current RTO/RPO

      Conduct tabletop planning and create a flowchart of your current capabilities. Compare your current state to the desired state from the previous step.

      Info-Tech Insight

      According to end users, every system is critical and downtime is intolerable. Of course, once they see how much totally eliminating downtime can cost, they might change their tune. It is important to have this discussion to separate the critical from the less critical – but still important – services.

      Establish visibility into critical systems

      You may have seen “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it” or a variation thereof floating around the internet. This adage is consumable and makes sense…doesn’t it?

      "It is wrong to suppose that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it – a costly myth."

      – W. Edwards Deming, statistician and management consultant, author of The New Economics

      While it is true that total monitoring is not absolutely necessary for management, when it comes to availability and capacity – objectively quantifiable service characteristics – a monitoring strategy is unavoidable. Capturing fluctuations in demand, and adjusting for those fluctuations, is among the most important functions of a capacity manager, even if hovering over employees with a stopwatch is poor management.

      Solicit needs from line of business managers

      Unless you head the world’s most involved IT department (kudos if you do) you’re going to have to determine your needs from the business.

      Do

      Do not

      ✓ Develop a positive relationship with business leaders responsible for making decisions.

      ✓ Make yourself aware of ongoing and upcoming projects.

      ✓ Develop expertise in organization-specific technology.

      ✓ Make the business aware of your expenses through chargebacks or showbacks.

      ✓ Use your understanding of business projects to predict business needs; do not rely on business leaders’ technical requests alone.

      X Be reactive.

      X Accept capacity/availability demands uncritically.

      X Ask line of business managers for specific computing requirements unless they have the technical expertise to make informed judgments.

      X Treat IT as an opaque entity where requests go in and services come out (this can lead to irresponsible requests).

      Demand: manage or be managed

      You might think you can get away with uncritically accepting your users’ demands, but this is not best practice. If you provide it, they will use it.

      The company meeting

      “I don’t need this much RAM,” the application developer said, implausibly. Titters wafted above the assembled crowd as her IT colleagues muttered their surprise. Heads shook, eyes widened. In fact, as she sat pondering her utterance, the developer wasn’t so sure she believed it herself. Noticing her consternation, the infrastructure manager cut in and offered the RAM anyway, forestalling the inevitable crisis that occurs when seismic internal shifts rock fragile self-conceptions. Until next time, he thought.

      "Work expands as to fill the resources available for its completion…"

      – C. Northcote Parkinson, quoted in Klimek et al.

      Combine historical data with the needs you’ve solicited to holistically project your future needs

      Predicting the future is difficult, but when it comes to capacity management, foresight is necessary.

      Critical inputs

      In order to project your future needs, the following inputs are necessary.

      1. Usage trends: While it is true that past performance is no indication of future demand, trends are still a good way to validate requests from the business.
      2. Line of business requests: An understanding of the projects the business has in the pipes is important for projecting future demand.
      3. Institutional knowledge: Read between the lines. As experts on information technology, the IT department is well-equipped to translate needs into requirements.
      The image contains a graph that is labelled: Projected demand, and graphs demand over time. There is a curved line that passes through a vertical line labelled present. There is a box on top of the graph that contains the text: Note: confidence in demand estimates will very by service and by stakeholder.

      Follow best practice guidelines to maximize the efficiency of your availability and capacity management process

      The image contains Info-Tech's IT Management & Governance Framework. The framework displays many of Info-Tech's research to help optimize and improve core IT processes. The name of this blueprint is under the Infrastructure & Operations section, and has been circled to point out where it is in the framework.

      Understand how the key frameworks relate and interact

      The image contains a picture of the COBIT 5 logo.

      BA104: Manage availability and capacity

      • Current state assessment
      • Forecasting based on business requirements
      • Risk assessment of planning and implementation of requirements
      The image contains a picture of the ITIL logo

      Availability management

      • Determine business requirements
      • Match requirements to capabilities
      • Address any mismatch between requirements and capabilities in a cost-effective manner

      Capacity management

      • Monitoring services and components
      • Tuning for efficiency
      • Forecasting future requirements
      • Influencing demand
      • Producing a capacity plan
      The image contains a picture of Info-Tech Research Group logo.

      Availability and capacity management

      • Conduct a business impact analysis
      • Establish visibility into critical systems
      • Solicit and incorporate business needs
      • Identify and mitigate risks

      Disaster recovery and business continuity planning are forms of availability management

      The scope of this project is managing day-to-day availability, largely but not exclusively, in the context of capacity. For additional important information on availability, see the following Info-Tech projects.

        • Develop a Business Continuity Plan

      If your focus is on ensuring process continuity in the event of a disaster.

        • Establish a Program to Enable Effective Performance Monitoring

      If your focus is on flow mapping and transaction monitoring as part of a plan to engage APM vendors.

        • Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan

      If your focus is on hardening your IT systems against major events.

      Info-Tech’s approach to availability and capacity management is stakeholder-centered and cloud ready

      Phase 1:

      Conduct a business impact analysis

      Phase 2:

      Establish visibility into core systems

      Phase 3:

      Solicit and incorporate business needs

      Phase 4:

      Identify and mitigate risks

      1.1 Conduct a business impact analysis

      1.2 Assign criticality ratings to services

      2.1 Define your monitoring strategy

      2.2 Implement monitoring tool/aggregator

      3.1 Solicit business needs

      3.2 Analyze data and project future needs

      4.1 Identify and mitigate risks

      Deliverables

      • Business impact analysis
      • Gold systems
      • Monitoring strategy
      • List of stakeholders
      • Business needs
      • Projected capacity needs
      • Risks and mitigations
      • Capacity management summary cards

      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

      Availability & capacity management – project overview

       

      Conduct a business impact analysis

      Establish visibility into core systems

      Solicit and incorporate business needs

      Identify and
      mitigate risks

      Best-Practice Toolkit

      1.1 Create a scale to measure different levels of impact

      1.2 Assign criticality ratings to services

      2.1 Define your monitoring strategy

      2.2 Implement your monitoring tool/aggregator

      3.1 Solicit business needs and gather data

      3.2 Analyze data and project future needs

      4.1 Identify and mitigate risks

      Guided Implementations

      Call 1: Conduct a business impact analysis Call 1: Discuss your monitoring strategy

      Call 1: Develop a plan to gather historical data; set up plan to solicit business needs

      Call 2: Evaluate data sources

      Call 1: Discuss possible risks and strategies for risk mitigation

      Call 2: Review your capacity management plan

      Onsite Workshop

      Module 1:

      Conduct a business impact analysis

      Module 2:

      Establish visibility into core systems

      Module 3:

      Develop a plan to project future needs

      Module 4:

      Identify and mitigate risks

       

      Phase 1 Results:

      • RTOs/RPOs
      • List of gold systems
      • Criticality matrix

      Phase 2 Results:

      • Capacity/availability monitoring strategy

      Phase 3 Results:

      • Plan for soliciting future needs
      • Future needs

      Phase 4 Results:

      • Strategies for reducing risks
      • Capacity management plan

      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

       

      Conduct a business
      impact analysis

      Establish visibility into
      core systems

      Solicit and incorporate business needs

      Identify and mitigate risks

      Activities

      1.1 Conduct a business impact analysis

      1.2 Create a list of critical dependencies

      1.3 Identify critical sub-components

      1.4 Develop best practices to negotiate SLAs

      2.1 Determine indicators for sub-components

      2.2 Establish visibility into components

      2.3 Develop strategies to ameliorate visibility issues

      3.1 Gather relevant business-level data

      3.2 Gather relevant service-level data

      3.3 Analyze historical trends

      3.4 Build a list of business stakeholders

      3.5 Directly solicit requirements from the business

      3.6 Map business needs to technical requirements

      3.7 Identify inefficiencies and compare historical data

      • 4.1 Brainstorm potential causes of availability and capacity risk
      • 4.2 Identify and mitigate capacity risks
      • 4.3 Identify and mitigate availability risks

      Deliverables

      1. Business impact analysis
      2. List of gold systems
      3. SLA best practices
      1. Sub-component metrics
      2. Strategy to establish visibility into critical sub-components
      1. List of stakeholders
      2. Business requirements
      3. Technical requirements
      4. Inefficiencies
      1. Strategies for mitigating risks
      2. Completed capacity management plan template

      PHASE 1

      Conduct a Business Impact Analysis

      Step 1.1: Conduct a business impact analysis

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Record applications and dependencies in the Business Impact Analysis Tool.
      • Define a scale to estimate the impact of various applications’ downtime.
      • Estimate the impact of applications’ downtime.

      This involves the following participants:

      • Capacity manager
      • Infrastructure team

      Outcomes of this step

      • Estimated impact of downtime for various applications

      Execute a business impact analysis (BIA) as part of a broader availability plan

      1.1a Business Impact Analysis Tool

      Business impact analyses are an invaluable part of a broader IT strategy. Conducting a BIA benefits a variety of processes, including disaster recovery, business continuity, and availability and capacity management

      STEP 1

      STEP 2

      STEP 3

      STEP 4

      STEP 5

      Record applications and dependencies

      Utilize your asset management records and document the applications and systems that IT is responsible for managing and recovering during a disaster.

      Define impact scoring scale

      Ensure an objective analysis of application criticality by establishing a business impact scale that applies to all applications.

      Estimate impact of downtime

      Leverage the scoring criteria from the previous step and establish an estimated impact of downtime for each application.

      Identify desired RTO and RPO

      Define what the RTOs/RPOs should be based on the impact of a business interruption and the tolerance for downtime and data loss.

      Determine current RTO/RPO

      Conduct tabletop planning and create a flowchart of your current capabilities. Compare your current state to the desired state from the previous step.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Engaging in detailed capacity planning for an insignificant service draws time and resources away from more critical capacity planning exercises. Time spent tracking and planning use of the ancient fax machine in the basement is time you’ll never get back.

      Control the scope of your availability and capacity management planning project with a business impact analysis

      Don’t avoid conducting a BIA because of a perception that it’s too onerous or not necessary. If properly managed, as described in this blueprint, the BIA does not need to be onerous and the benefits are tangible.

      A BIA enables you to identify appropriate spend levels, continue to drive executive support, and prioritize disaster recovery planning for a more successful outcome. For example, an Info-Tech survey found that a BIA has a significant impact on setting appropriate recovery time objectives (RTOs) and appropriate spending.

      The image contains a graph that is labelled: BIA Impact on Appropriate RTOS. With no BIA, there is 59% RTOs are appropriate. With BIA, there is 93% RTOS being appropriate. The image contains a graph that is labelled: BIA Impact on Appropriate Spending. No BIA has 59% indication that BCP is cost effective. With a BIA there is 86% indication that BCP is cost effective.

      Terms

      No BIA: lack of a BIA, or a BIA bases solely on the perceived importance of IT services.

      BIA: based on a detailed evaluation or estimated dollar impact of downtime.

      Source: Info-Tech Research Group; N=70

      Select the services you wish to evaluate with the Business Impact Analysis Tool

      1.1b 1 hour

      In large organizations especially, collating an exhaustive list of applications and services is going to be onerous. For the purposes of this project, a subset should suffice.

      Instructions

      1. Gather a diverse group of IT staff and end users in a room with a whiteboard.
      2. Solicit feedback from the group. Questions to ask:
      • What services do you regularly use? What do you see others using? (End users)
      • Which service inspires the greatest number of service calls? (IT)
      • What services are you most excited about? (Management)
      • What services are the most critical for business operations? (Everybody)
    • Record these applications in the Business Impact Analysis Tool.
    • Input

      • Applications/services

      Output

      • Candidate applications for the business impact analysis

      Materials

      • Whiteboard
      • Markers

      Participants

      • Infrastructure manager
      • Enterprise architect
      • Application owners
      • End users

      Info-Tech Insight

      Include a variety of services in your analysis. While it might be tempting to jump ahead and preselect important applications, don’t. The process is inherently valuable, and besides, it might surprise you.

      Record the applications and dependencies in the BIA tool

      1.1c Use tab 1 of the Business Impact Analysis Tool

      1. In the Application/System column, list the applications identified for this pilot as well as the Core Infrastructure category. Also indicate the Impact on the Business and Business Owner.
      2. List the dependencies for each application in the appropriate columns:
      • Hosted On-Premises (In-House) – If the physical equipment is in a facility you own, record it here, even if it is managed by a vendor.
      • Hosted by a Co-Lo/MSP – List any dependencies hosted by a co-lo/MSP vendor.
      • Cloud (includes "as a Service”) – List any dependencies hosted by a cloud vendor.

      Note: If there are no dependencies for a particular category, leave it blank.

    • If you wish to highlight specific dependencies, put an asterisk in front of them (e.g. *SAN). This will cause the dependency to be highlighted in the remaining tabs in this tool.
    • Add comments as needed in the Notes columns. For example, for equipment that you host in-house but is remotely managed by an MSP, specify this in the notes. Similarly, note any DR support services.
    • Example

      The image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech's Business Impact Analysis Tool specifically tab 1.

      ID is optional. It is a sequential number by default.

      In-House, Co-Lo/MSP, and Cloud dependencies; leave blank if not applicable.

      Add notes as applicable – e.g. critical support services.

      Define a scoring scale to estimate different levels of impact

      1.1d Use tab 2 of the Business Impact Analysis Tool

      Modify the Business Impact Scales headings and Overall Criticality Rating terminology to suit your organization. For example, if you don’t have business partners, use that column to measure a different goodwill impact or just ignore that column in this tool (i.e. leave it blank). Estimate the different levels of potential impact (where four is the highest impact and zero is no impact) and record these in the Business Impact Scales columns.

      The image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech's Business Impact Analysis Tool, specifically tab 2.

      Estimate the impact of downtime for each application

      1.1e Use tab 3 of the Business Impact Analysis Tool

      In the BIA tab columns for Direct Costs of Downtime, Impact on Goodwill, and Additional Criticality Factors, use the drop-down menu to assign a score of zero to four based on levels of impact defined in the Scoring Criteria tab. For example, if an organization’s ERP is down, and that affects call center sales operations (e.g. ability to access customer records and process orders), the impact might be as described below:

        • Loss of Revenue might score a two or three depending on the proportion of overall sales lost due to the downtime.
        • The Impact on Customers might be a one or two depending on the extent that existing customers might be using the call center to purchase new products or services, and are frustrated by the inability to process orders.
        • The Legal/Regulatory Compliance and Health or Safety Risk might be a zero.

      On the other hand, if payroll processing is down, this may not impact revenue, but it certainly impacts internal goodwill and productivity.

      Rank service criticality: gold, silver, and bronze

      Gold

      Mission critical services. An outage is catastrophic in terms of cost or public image/goodwill. Example: trading software at a financial institution.

      Silver

      Important to daily operations, but not mission critical. Example: email services at any large organization.

      Bronze

      Loss of these services is an inconvenience more than anything, though they do serve a purpose and will be missed if they are never brought back online. Example: ancient fax machines.

      Info-Tech Best Practice

      Info-Tech recommends gold, silver, and bronze because of this typology’s near universal recognition. If you would prefer a particular designation (it might help with internal comprehension), don’t hesitate to use that one instead.

      Use the results of the business impact analysis to sort systems based on their criticality

      1.1f 1 hour

      Every organization has its own rules about how to categorize service importance. For some (consumer-facing businesses, perhaps) reputational damage may trump immediate costs.

      Instructions

      1. Gather a group of key stakeholders and project the completed Business Impact Analysis Tool onto a screen for them.
      2. Share the definitions of gold, silver, and bronze services with them (if they are not familiar), and begin sorting the services by category,
      • How long would it take to notice if a particular service went out?
      • How important are the non-quantifiable damages that could come with an outage?
    • Sort the services into gold, silver, and bronze on a whiteboard, with sticky notes, or with chart paper.
    • Verify your findings and record them in section 2.1 of the Capacity Plan Template.
    • Input

      • Results of the business impact analysis exercise

      Output

      • List of gold, silver, and bronze systems

      Materials

      • Projector
      • Business Impact Analysis Tool
      • Capacity Plan Template

      Participants

      • Infrastructure manager
      • Enterprise architect

      Leverage the rest of the BIA tool as part of your disaster recovery planning

      Disaster recovery planning is a critical activity, and while it is a sort of availability management, it is beyond this project’s scope. You can complete the business impact analysis (including RTOs and RPOs) for the complete disaster recovery package.

      See Info-Tech’s Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan blueprint for instructions on how to complete your business impact analysis.

      Step 1.2: Assign criticality ratings to services

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Create a list of dependencies for your most important applications.
      • Identify important sub-components.
      • Use best practices to develop and negotiate SLAs.

      This involves the following participants:

      • Capacity manager
      • Infrastructure team

      Outcomes of this step

      • List of dependencies of most important applications
      • List of important sub-components
      • SLAs based on best practices

      Determine the base unit of the capacity you’re looking to purchase

      Not every IT organization should approach capacity the same way. Needs scale, and larger organizations will inevitably deal in larger quantities.

      Large cloud provider

      Local traditional business

      • Thousands of servers housed in a number of datacenters around the world.
      • Dedicated capacity manager.
      • Purchases components from OEMs in bulk as part of bespoke contracts that are worth many millions of dollars over time.
      • May deal with components at a massive scale (dozens of servers at once, for example).
      • A small server room that runs non-specialized services (email, for example).
      • Barely even a dedicated IT person, let alone an IT capacity manager.
      • Purchases new components from resellers or even retail stores.
      • Deals with components at a small scale (a single switch here, a server upgrade there).

      "Cloud capacity management is not exactly the same as the ITIL version because ITIL has a focus on the component level. I actually don’t do that, because if I did I’d go crazy. There’s too many components in a cloud environment."

      – Richie Mendoza, IT Consultant, SMITS Inc.

      Consider the relationship between component capacity and service capacity

      End users’ thoughts about IT are based on what they see. They are, in other words, concerned with service availability: does the organization have the ability to provide access to needed services?

      Service

      • Email
      • CRM
      • ERP

      Component

      • Switch
      • SMTP server
      • Archive database
      • Storage

      "You don’t ask the CEO or the guy in charge ‘What kind of response time is your requirement?’ He doesn’t really care. He just wants to make sure that all his customers are happy."

      – Todd Evans, Capacity and Performance Management SME, IBM.

      One telco solved its availability issues by addressing component capacity issues

      CASE STUDY

      Industry: Telecommunications

      Source: Interview

      Coffee and Wi-Fi – a match made in heaven

      In tens of thousands of coffee shops around the world, patrons make ample use of complimentary Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is an important part of customers’ coffee shop experience, whether they’re online to check their email, do a YouTube, or update their Googles. So when one telco that provided Wi-Fi access for thousands of coffee shops started encountering availability issues, the situation was serious.

      Wi-Fi, whack-a-mole, and web woes

      The team responsible for resolving the issue took an ad hoc approach to resolving complaints, fixing issues as they came up instead of taking a systematic approach.

      Resolution

      Looking at the network as a whole, the capacity manager took a proactive approach by using data to identify and rank the worst service areas, and then directing the team responsible to fix those areas in order of the worst first, then the next worst, and so on. Soon the availability of Wi-Fi service was restored across the network.

      Create a list of dependencies for your most important applications

      1.2a 1.5 hours

      Instructions

      1. Work your way down the list of services outlined in step 1, starting with your gold systems. During the first iteration of this exercise select only 3-5 of your most important systems.
      2. Write the name of each application on a sticky note or at the top of a whiteboard (leaving ample space below for dependency mapping).
      3. In the first tier below the application, include the specific services that the general service provides.
      • This will vary based on the service in question, but an example for email is sending, retrieving, retrieving online, etc.
    • For each of the categories identified in step 3, identify the infrastructure components that are relevant to that system. Be broad and sweeping; if the component is involved in the service, include it here. The goal is to be exhaustive.
    • Leave the final version of the map intact. Photographing or making a digital copy for posterity. It will be useful in later activities.
    • Input

      • List of important applications

      Output

      • List of critical dependencies

      Materials

      • Whiteboard
      • Markers
      • Sticky notes

      Participants

      • Infrastructure manager
      • Enterprise architect

      Info-Tech Insight

      Dependency mapping can be difficult. Make sure you don’t waste effort creating detailed dependency maps for relatively unimportant services.

      Dependency mapping can be difficult. Make sure you don’t waste effort creating detailed dependency maps for relatively unimportant services.

      The image contains a sample dependency map on ride sharing. Ride Sharing has been split between two categories: Application and Drivers. Under drivers it branches out to: Availability, Car, and Pay. Under Application, it branches out to: Compute, Network, Edge devices, Q/A maintenance, and Storage. Compute branches out to Cloud Services. Network branches out to Cellular network and Local. Edge Devices branch out to Drivers and Users. Q/A maintenance does not have a following branch. Storage branches out to Storage (Enterprise) and Storage (local).

      Ride sharing cannot work, at least not at maximum effectiveness, without these constituent components. When one or more of these components are absent or degraded, the service will become unavailable. This example illustrates some challenges of capacity management; some of these components are necessary, but beyond the ride-sharing company’s control.

      Leverage a sample dependency tree for a common service

      The image contains a sample dependency tree for the Email service. Email branches out to: Filtering, Archiving, Retrieval, and Send/receive. Filtering branches out to security appliance which then branches out to CPU, Storage, and Network. Archiving branches to Archive server, which branches out to CPU, Storage, and Network. Retrieval branches out to IMAP/PoP which branches out to CPU, Storage, and Network. Send/receive branches out to IMAP/PoP and SMTP. SMTP branches out to CPU, Storage and Network.

      Info-Tech Best Practice

      Email is an example here not because it is necessarily a “gold system,” but because it is common across industries. This is a useful exercise for any service, but it can be quite onerous, so it should be conducted on the most important systems first.

      Separate the wheat from the chaff; identify important sub-components and separate them from unimportant ones

      1.2b 1.5 hours

      Use the bottom layer of the pyramid drawn in step 1.2a for a list of important sub-components.

      Instructions

      1. Record a list of the gold services identified in the previous activity. Leave space next to each service for sub-components.
      2. Go through each relevant sub-component. Highlight those that are critical and could reasonably be expected to cause problems.
      • Has this sub-component caused a problem in the past?
      • Is this sub-component a bottleneck?
      • What could cause this component to fail? Is it such an occurrence feasible?
    • Record the results of the exercise (and the service each sub-component is tied to) in tab 2 (columns B &C) of the Capacity Snapshot Tool.
    • Input

      • List of important applications

      Output

      • List of critical dependencies

      Materials

      • Whiteboard
      • Markers

      Participants

      • Infrastructure manager
      • Enterprise architect

      Understand availability commitments with SLAs

      With the rise of SaaS, cloud computing, and managed services, critical services and their components are increasingly external to IT.

      • IT’s lack of access to the internal working of services does not let them off the hook for performance issues (as much as that might be the dream).
      • Vendor management is availability management. Use the dependency map drawn earlier in this phase to highlight the components of critical services that rely on capacity that cannot be managed internally.
      • For each of these services ensure that an appropriate SLA is in place. When acquiring new services, ensure that the vendor SLA meets business requirements.

      The image contains a large blue circle labelled: Availability. Also in the blue circle is a small red circle labelled: Capacity.

      In terms of service provision, capacity management is a form of availability management. Not all availability issues are capacity issues, but the inverse is true.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Capacity issues will always cause availability issues, but availability issues are not inherently capacity issues. Availability problems can stem from outages unrelated to capacity (e.g. power or vendor outages).

      Use best practices to develop and negotiate SLAs

      1.2c 20 minutes per service

      When signing contracts with vendors, you will be presented with an SLA. Ensure that it meets your requirements.

      1. Use the business impact analysis conducted in this project’s first step to determine your requirements. How much downtime can you tolerate for your critical services?
      2. Once you have been presented with an SLA, be sure to scour it for tricks. Remember, just because a vendor offers “five nines” of availability doesn’t mean that you’ll actually get that much uptime. It could be that the vendor is comfortable eating the cost of downtime or that the contract includes provisions for planned maintenance. Whether or not the vendor anticipated your outage does little to mitigate the damage an outage can cause to your business, so be careful of these provisions.
      3. Ensure that the person ultimately responsible for the SLA (the approver) understands the limitations of the agreement and the implications for availability.

      Input

      • List of external component dependencies

      Output

      • SLA requirements

      Materials

      • Whiteboard
      • Markers

      Participants

      • Infrastructure manager
      • Enterprise architect

      Info-Tech Insight

      Vendors are sometimes willing to eat the cost of violating SLAs if they think it will get them a contract. Be careful with negotiation. Just because the vendor says they can do something doesn’t make it true.

      Negotiate internal SLAs using Info-Tech’s rigorous process

      Talking past each other can drive misalignment between IT and the business, inconveniencing all involved. Quantify your needs through an internal SLA as part of a comprehensive availability management plan.

      See Info-Tech’s Improve IT-Business Alignment Through an Internal SLA blueprint for instructions on why you should develop internal SLAs and the potential benefits they bring.

      If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop.

      The image contains a picture of an Info-Tech analyst.

      Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

      • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
      • Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
      • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

      The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

      1.2

      The image contains a screenshot of activity 1.2 as previously described above.

      Create a list of dependencies for your most important applications

      Using the results of the business impact analysis, the analyst will guide workshop participants through a dependency mapping exercise that will eventually populate the Capacity Plan Template.

      Phase 1 Guided Implementation

      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: Conduct a business impact analysis

      Proposed Time to Completion: 1 week

      Step 1.1: Create a scale to measure different levels of impact

      Review your findings with an analyst

      Discuss how you arrived at the rating of your critical systems and their dependencies. Consider whether your external SLAs are appropriate.

      Then complete these activities…

      • Use the results of the business impact analysis to sort systems based on their criticality

      With these tools & templates:

      Business Impact Analysis Tool

      Step 1.2: Assign criticality ratings to services

      Review your findings with an analyst

      Discuss how you arrived at the rating of your critical systems and their dependencies. Consider whether your external SLAs are appropriate.

      Then complete these activities…

      • Create a list of dependencies for your most important applications
      • Identify important sub-components
      • Use best practices to develop and negotiate SLAs

      With these tools & templates:

      Capacity Snapshot Tool

      Phase 1 Results & Insights:

      • Engaging in detailed capacity planning for an insignificant service is a waste of resources. Focus on ensuring availability for your most critical systems.
      • Carefully evaluate vendors’ service offerings. Make sure the SLA works for you, and approach pie-in-the-sky promises with skepticism.

      PHASE 2

      Establish Visibility Into Core Systems

      Step 2.1: Define your monitoring strategy

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Determine the indicators you should be tracking for each sub-component.

      This involves the following participants:

      • Capacity manager
      • Infrastructure team

      Outcomes of this step

      • List of indicators to track for each sub-component

      Data has its significance—but also its limitations

      The rise of big data can be a boon for capacity managers, but be warned: not all data is created equal. Bad data can lead to bad decisions – and unemployed capacity managers.

      Your findings are only as good as your data. Remember: garbage in, garbage out. There are three characteristics of good data:*

      1. Accuracy: is the data exact and correct? More detail and confidence is better.
      2. Reliability: is the data consistent? In other words, if you run the same test twice will you get the same results?
      3. Validity: is the information gleaned believable and relevant?

      *National College of Teaching & Leadership, “Reliability and Validity”

      "Data is king. Good data is absolutely essential to [the capacity manager] role."

      – Adrian Blant, Independent Capacity Consultant, IT Capability Solutions

      Info-Tech Best Practice

      Every organization’s data needs are different; your data needs are going to be dictated by your services, delivery model, and business requirements. Make sure you don’t confuse volume with quality, even if others in your organization make that mistake.

      Take advantage of technology to establish visibility into your systems

      Managing your availability and capacity involves important decisions about what to monitor and how thresholds should be set.

      • Use the list of critical applications developed through the business impact analysis and the list of components identified in the dependency mapping exercise to produce a plan for effectively monitoring component availability and capacity.
      • The nature of IT service provision – the multitude of vendors providing hardware and services necessary for even simple IT services to work effectively – means that it is unlikely that capacity management will be visible through a single pane of glass. In other words, “email” and “CRM” don’t have a defined capacity. It always depends.
      • Establishing visibility into systems involves identifying what needs to be tracked for each component.

      Too much monitoring can be as bad as the inverse

      In 2013, a security breach at US retailer Target compromised more than 70 million customers’ data. The company received an alert, but it was thought to be a false positive because the monitoring system produced so many false and redundant alerts. As a result of the daily deluge, staff did not respond to the breach in time.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Don’t confuse monitoring with management. While establishing visibility is a crucial step, it is only part of the battle. Move on to this project’s next phase to explore opportunities to improve your capacity/availability management process.

      Determine the indicators you should be tracking for each sub-component

      2.1a Tab 3 of the Capacity Snapshot Tool

      It is nearly impossible to overstate the importance of data to the process of availability and capacity management. But the wrong data will do you no good.

      Instructions

      1. Open the Capacity Snapshot Tool to tab 2. The tool should have been populated in step 1.2 as part of the component mapping exercise.
      2. For each service, determine which metric(s) would most accurately tell the component’s story. Consider the following questions when completing this activity (you may end up with more than one metric):
      • How would the component’s capacity be measured (storage space, RAM, bandwidth, vCPUs)?
      • Is the metric in question actionable?
    • Record each metric in the Metric column (D) of the Capacity Snapshot Tool. Use the adjacent column for any additional information on metrics.
    • Info-Tech Insight

      Bottlenecks are bad. Use the Capacity Snapshot Tool (or another tool like it) to ensure that when the capacity manager leaves (on vacation, to another role, for good) the knowledge that they have accumulated does not leave as well.

      Understand the limitations of this approach

      Although we’ve striven to make it as easy as possible, this process will inevitably be cumbersome for organizations with a complicated set of software, hardware, and cloud services.

      Tracking every single component in significant detail will produce a lot of noise for each bit of signal. The approach outlined here addresses that concern in two ways:

      • A focus on gold services
      • A focus on sub-components that have a reasonable likelihood of being problematic in the future.

      Despite this effort, however, managing capacity at the component level is a daunting task. Ultimately, tools provided by vendors like SolarWinds and AppDynamics will fill in some of the gaps. Nevertheless, an understanding of the conceptual framework underlying availability and capacity management is valuable.

      Step 2.2: Implement your monitoring tool/aggregator

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Clarify visibility.
      • Determine whether or not you have sufficiently granular visibility.
      • Develop strategies to .any visibility issues.

      This involves the following participants:

      • Capacity manager
      • Infrastructure team
      • Applications personnel

      Outcomes of this step

      • Method for measuring and monitoring critical sub-components

      Companies struggle with performance monitoring because 95% of IT shops don’t have full visibility into their environments

      CASE STUDY

      Industry: Financial Services

      Source: AppDynamics

      Challenge

      • Users are quick to provide feedback when there is downtime or application performance degradation.
      • The challenge for IT teams is that while they can feel the pain, they don’t have visibility into the production environment and thus cannot identify where the pain is coming from.
      • The most common solution that organizations rely on is leveraging the log files for issue diagnosis. However, this method is slow and often unable to pinpoint the problem areas, leading to delays in problem resolution.

      Solution

      • Application and infrastructure teams need to work together to develop infrastructure flow maps and transaction profiles.
      • These diagrams will highlight the path that each transaction travels across your infrastructure.
      • Ideally at this point, teams will also capture latency breakdowns across every tier that the business transaction flows through.
        • This will ultimately kick start the baselining process.

      Results

      • Ninety-five percent of IT departments don’t have full visibility into their production environment. As a result, a slow business transaction will often require a war-room approach where SMEs from across the organization gather to troubleshoot.
      • Having visibility into the production environment through infrastructure flow mapping and transaction profiling will help IT teams pinpoint problems.
        • At the very least, teams will be able to identify common problem areas and expedite the root-cause analysis process.

      Source: “Just how complex can a Login Transaction be? Answer: Very!,” AppDynamics

      Monitor your critical sub-components

      Establishing a monitoring plan for your capacity involves answering two questions: can I see what I need to see, and can I see it with sufficient granularity?

      • Having the right tool for the job is an important step towards effective capacity and availability management.
      • Application performance management tools (APMs) are essential to the process, but they tend to be highly specific and vertically oriented, like using a microscope.
      • Some product families can cover a wider range of capacity monitoring functions (SolarWinds, for example). It is still important, however, to codify your monitoring needs.

      "You don’t use a microscope to monitor an entire ant farm, but you might use many microscopes to monitor specific ants."

      – Fred Chagnon, Research Director, Infrastructure Practice, Info-Tech Research Group

      Monitor your sub-components: clarify visibility

      2.2a Tab 2 of the Capacity Snapshot Tool

      The next step in capacity management is establishing whether or not visibility (in the broad sense) is available into critical sub-components.

      Instructions

      1. Open the Capacity Snapshot Tool and record the list of sub-components identified in the previous step.
      2. For each sub-component answer the following question:
      • Do I have easy access to the information I need to monitor to ensure this component remains available?
    • Select “Yes” or “No” from the drop-down menus as appropriate. In the adjacent column record details about visibility into the component.
      • What tool provides the information? Where can it be found?

      The image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech's Capacity Snapshot Tool, Tab 2.

      Monitor your sub-components; determine whether or not you have sufficient granular visibility

      2.2b Tab 2 of the Capacity Snapshot Tool

      Like ideas and watches, not all types of visibility are created equal. Ensure that you have access to the right information to make capacity decisions.

      Instructions

      1. For each of the sub-components clarify the appropriate level of granularity for the visibility gained to be useful. In the case of storage, for example, is raw usage (in gigabytes) sufficient, or do you need a breakdown of what exactly is taking up the space? The network might be more complicated.
      2. Record the details of this ideation in the adjacent column.
      3. Select “Yes” or “No” from the drop-down menu to track the status of each sub-component.

      The image contains a picture of an iPhone storage screen where it breaks down the storage into the following categories: apps, media, photos, and other.

      For most mobile phone users, this breakdown is sufficient. For some, more granularity might be necessary.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Make note of monitoring tools and strategies. If anything changes, be sure to re-evaluate the visibility status. An outdated spreadsheet can lead to availability issues if management is unaware of looming problems.

      Develop strategies to ameliorate any visibility issues

      2.2c 1 hour

      The Capacity Snapshot Tool color-codes your components by status. Green – visibility and granularity are both sufficient; yellow – visibility exists, though not at sufficient granularity; and red – visibility does not exist at all.

      Instructions

      1. Write each of the yellow and red sub-components on a whiteboard or piece of chart paper.
      2. Brainstorm amelioration strategies for each of the problematic sub-components.
      • Does the current monitoring tool have sufficient functionality?
      • Does it need to be further configured/customized?
      • Do we need a whole new tool?
    • Record these strategies in the Amelioration Strategy column on tab 4 of the tool.
    • Input

      • Sub-components
      • Capacity Snapshot Tool

      Output

      • Amelioration strategies

      Materials

      • Whiteboard
      • Markers
      • Capacity Snapshot Tool

      Participants

      • Infrastructure manager

      Info-Tech Best Practice

      It might be that there is no amelioration strategy. Make note of this difficulty and highlight it as part of the risk section of the Capacity Plan Template.

      See Info-Tech’s projects on storage and network modernization for additional details

      Leverage other products for additional details on how to modernize your network and storage services.

      The process of modernizing the network is fraught with vestigial limitations. Develop a program to gather requirements and plan.

      As part of the blueprint, Modernize Enterprise Storage, the Modernize Enterprise Storage Workbook includes a section on storage capacity planning.

      If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop.

      The image contains a picture of an Info-Tech analyst.

      Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

      • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
      • Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
      • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

      The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

      2.2

      The image contains a screenshot of activity 2.2.

      Develop strategies to ameliorate visibility issues

      The analyst will guide workshop participants in brainstorming potential solutions to visibility issues and record them in the Capacity Snapshot Tool.

      Phase 2 Guided Implementation

      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: Establish visibility into core systems

      Proposed Time to Completion: 3 weeks

      Step 2.1: Define your monitoring strategy

      Review your findings with an analyst

      Discuss your monitoring strategy and ensure you have sufficient visibility for the needs of your organization.

      Then complete these activities…

      • Determine the indicators you should be tracking for each sub-component

      With these tools & templates:

      • Capacity Snapshot Tool

      Step 2.2: Implement your monitoring tool/aggregator

      Review your findings with an analyst

      Discuss your monitoring strategy and ensure you have sufficient visibility for the needs of your organization.

      Then complete these activities…

      • Clarify visibility
      • Determine whether or not you have sufficiently granular visibility
      • Develop strategies to ameliorate any visibility issues

      With these tools & templates:

      • Capacity Snapshot Tool

      Phase 2 Results & Insights:

      • Every organization’s data needs are different. Adapt data gathering, reporting, and analysis according to your services, delivery model, and business requirements.
      • Don’t confuse monitoring with management. Build a system to turn reported data into useful information that feeds into the capacity management process.

      PHASE 3

      Solicit and Incorporate Business Needs

      Step 3.1: Solicit business needs and gather data

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Build relationships with business stakeholders.
      • Analyze usage data and identify trends.
      • Correlate usage trends with business needs.

      This involves the following participants:

      • Capacity manager
      • Infrastructure team members
      • Business stakeholders

      Outcomes of this step

      • System for involving business stakeholders in the capacity planning process
      • Correlated data on business level, service level, and infrastructure level capacity usage

      Summarize your capacity planning activities in the Capacity Plan Template

      The availability and capacity management summary card pictured here is a handy way to capture the results of the activities undertaken in the following phases. Note its contents carefully, and be sure to record specific outputs where appropriate. One such card should be completed for each of the gold services identified in the project’s first phase. Make note of the results of the activities in the coming phase, and populate the Capacity Snapshot Tool. These will help you populate the tool.

      The image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech's Capacity Plan Template.

      Info-Tech Best Practice

      The Capacity Plan Template is designed to be a part of a broader mapping strategy. It is not a replacement for a dedicated monitoring tool.

      Analyze historical trends as a crucial source of data

      The first place to look for information about your organization is not industry benchmarks or your gut (though those might both prove useful).

      • Where better to look than internally? Use the data you’ve gathered from your APM tool or other sources to understand your historical capacity needs and to highlight any periods of unavailability.
      • Consider monitoring the status of the capacity of each of your crucial components. The nature of this monitoring will vary based on the component in question. It can range from a rough Excel sheet all the way to a dedicated application performance monitoring tool.

      "In all cases the very first thing to do is to look at trending…The old adage is ‘you don’t steer a boat by its wake,’ however it’s also true that if something is growing at, say, three percent a month and it has been growing at three percent a month for the last twelve months, there’s a fairly good possibility that it’s going to carry on going in that direction."

      – Mike Lynch, Consultant, CapacityIQ

      Gather relevant data at the business level

      3.1a 2 hours per service

      A holistic approach to capacity management involves peering beyond the beaded curtain partitioning IT from the rest of the organization and tracking business metrics.

      Instructions

      1. Your service/application owners know how changes in business activities impact their systems. Business level capacity management involves responding to those changes. Ask service/application owners what changes will impact their capacity. Examples include:
      • Business volume (net new customers, number of transactions)
      • Staff changes (new hires, exits, etc.)
    • For each gold service, brainstorm relevant metrics. How can you capture that change in business volume?
    • Record these metrics in the summary card of the Capacity Plan Template.
    • In the notes section of the summary card record whether or not you have access to the required business metric.
    • Input

      • Brainstorming
      • List of gold services

      Output

      • Business level data

      Materials

      • In-house solution or commercial tool

      Participants

      • Capacity manager
      • Application/service owners

      Gather relevant data at the service level

      3.1b 2 hours per service

      One level of abstraction down is the service level. Service level capacity management, recall that service level capacity management is about ensuring that IT is meeting SLAs in its service provision.

      Instructions

      1. There should be internal SLAs for each service IT offers. (If not, that’s a good place to start. See Info-Tech’s research on the subject.) Prod each of your service owners for information on the metrics that are relevant for their SLAs. Consider the following:
      • Peak hours, requests per second, etc.
      • This will usually include some APM data.
    • Record these metrics in the summary card of the Capacity Plan Template.
    • Include any visibility issues in the notes in a similar section of the Capacity Plan Template.
    • Input

      • Brainstorming
      • List of gold services

      Output

      • Service level data

      Materials

      • In-house solution or commercial tool

      Participants

      • Capacity manager
      • Application/service owners

      Leverage the visibility into your infrastructure components and compare all of your data over time

      You established visibility into your components in the second phase of this project. Use this data, and that gathered at the business and service levels, to begin analyzing your demand over time.

      • Different organizations will approach this issue differently. Those with a complicated service catalog and a dedicated capacity manager might employ a tool like TeamQuest. If your operation is small, or you need to get your availability and capacity management activities underway as quickly as possible, you might consider using a simple spreadsheet software like Excel.
      • If you choose the latter option, select a level of granularity (monthly, weekly, etc.) and produce a line graph in Excel.
      • Example: Employee count (business metric)

      Jan

      Feb

      Mar

      Apr

      May

      June

      July

      74

      80

      79

      83

      84

      100

      102

      The image contains a graph using the example of employee count described above.

      Note: the strength of this approach is that it is easy to visualize. Use the same timescale to facilitate simple comparison.

      Manage, don’t just monitor; mountains of data need to be turned into information

      Information lets you make a decision. Understand the questions you don’t need to ask, and ask the right ones.

      "Often what is really being offered by many analytics solutions is just more data or information – not insights."

      – Brent Dykes, Director of Data Strategy, Domo

      Info-Tech Best Practice

      You can have all the data in the world and absolutely nothing valuable to add. Don’t fall for this trap. Use the activities in this phase to structure your data collection operation and ensure that your organization’s availability and capacity management plan is data driven.

      Analyze historical trends and track your services’ status

      3.1c Tab 3 of the Capacity Snapshot Tool

      At-a-glance – it’s how most executives consume all but the most important information. Create a dashboard that tracks the status of your most important systems.

      Instructions

      1. Consult infrastructure leaders for information about lead times for new capacity for relevant sub-components and include that information in the tool.
      • Look to historical lead times. (How long does it traditionally take to get more storage?)
      • If you’re not sure, contact an in-house expert, or speak to your vendor
    • Use tab 3 of the tool to record whether your existing capacity will be exceeded before you can stand more hardware up (red), you have a plan to ameliorate capacity issues but new capacity is not yet in place (yellow), or if you are not slated to run out of capacity any time soon (green).
    • Repeat the activity regularly. Include notes about spikes that might present capacity challenges, and information about when capacity may run out.
    • This tool collates and presents information gathered from other sources. It is not a substitute for a performance monitoring tool.

      Build a list of key business stakeholders

      3.1d 10 minutes

      Stakeholder analysis is crucial. Lines of authority can be diffuse. Understand who needs to be involved in the capacity management process early on.

      Instructions

      1. With the infrastructure team, brainstorm a group of departments, roles, and people who may impact demand on capacity.
      2. Go through the list with your team and identify stakeholders from two groups:
      • Line of business: who in the business makes use of the service?
      • Application owner: who in IT is responsible for ensuring the service is up?
    • Insert the list into section 3 of the Capacity Plan Template, and update as needed.
    • Input

      • Gold systems
      • Personnel Information

      Output

      • List of key business stakeholders

      Materials

      • Whiteboard
      • Markers

      Participants

      • Capacity manager
      • Infrastructure staff

      Info-Tech Best Practice

      Consider which departments are most closely aligned with the business processes that fuel demand. Prioritize those that have the greatest impact. Consider the stakeholders who will make purchasing decisions for increasing infrastructure capacity.

      Organize stakeholder meetings

      3.1e 10 hours

      Establishing a relationship with your stakeholders is a necessary step in managing your capacity and availability.

      Instructions

      1. Gather as many of the stakeholders identified in the previous activity as you can and present information on availability and capacity management
      • If you can’t get everyone in the same room, a virtual meeting or even an email blast could get the job done.
    • Explain the importance of capacity and availability management
      • Consider highlighting the trade-offs between cost and availability.
    • Field any questions the stakeholders might have about the process. Be honest. The goal of this meeting is to build trust. This will come in handy when you’re gathering business requirements.
    • Propose a schedule and seek approval from all present. Include the results in section 3 of the Capacity Plan Template.
    • Input

      • List of business stakeholders
      • Hard work

      Output

      • Working relationship, trust
      • Regular meetings

      Materials

      • Work ethic
      • Executive brief

      Participants

      • Capacity manager
      • Business stakeholders

      Info-Tech Insight

      The best capacity managers develop new business processes that more closely align their role with business stakeholders. Building these relationships takes hard work, and you must first earn the trust of the business.

      Bake stakeholders into the planning process

      3.1f Ongoing

      Convince, don’t coerce. Stakeholders want the same thing you do. Bake them into the planning process as a step towards this goal.

      1. Develop a system to involve stakeholders regularly in the capacity planning process.
      • Your system will vary depending on the structure and culture of your organization.
      • See the case study on the following slide for ideas.
      • It may be as simple as setting a recurring reminder in your own calendar to touch base with stakeholders.
    • Liaise with stakeholders regularly to keep abreast of new developments.
      • Ensure stakeholders have reasonable expectations about IT’s available resources, the costs of providing capacity, and the lead times required to source additional needed capacity.
    • Draw on these stakeholders for the step “Gather information on business requirements” later in this phase.
    • Input

      • List of business stakeholders
      • Ideas

      Output

      • Capacity planning process that involves stakeholders

      Materials

      • Meeting rooms

      Participants

      • Capacity manager
      • Business stakeholders
      • Infrastructure team

      A capacity manager in financial services wrangled stakeholders and produced results

      CASE STUDY

      Industry: Financial Services

      Source: Interview

      In financial services, availability is king

      In the world of financial services, availability is absolutely crucial. High-value trades occur at all hours, and any institution that suffers outages runs the risk of losing tens of thousands of dollars, not to mention reputational damage.

      People know what they want, but sometimes they have to be herded

      While line of business managers and application owners understand the value of capacity management, it can be difficult to establish the working relationship necessary for a fruitful partnership.

      Proactively building relationships keeps services available

      He built relationships with all the department heads on the business side, and all the application owners.

      • He met with department heads quarterly.
      • He met with application owners and business liaisons monthly.

      He established a steering committee for capacity.

      He invited stakeholders to regular capacity planning meetings.

      • The first half of each meeting was high-level outlook, such as business volume and IT capacity utilization, and included stakeholders from other departments.
      • The second half of the meeting was more technical, serving the purpose for the infrastructure team.

      He scheduled lunch and learn sessions with business analysts and project managers.

      • These are the gatekeepers of information, and should know that IT needs to be involved when things come down the pipeline.

      Step 3.2: Analyze data and project future needs

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Solicit needs from the business.
      • Map business needs to technical requirements, and technical requirements to infrastructure requirements.
      • Identify inefficiencies in order to remedy them.
      • Compare the data across business, component, and service levels, and project your capacity needs.

      This involves the following participants:

      • Capacity manager
      • Infrastructure team members
      • Business stakeholders

      Outcomes of this step

      • Model of how business processes relate to technical requirements and their demand on infrastructure
      • Method for projecting future demand for your organization’s infrastructure
      • Comparison of current capacity usage to projected demand

      “Nobody tells me anything!” – the capacity manager’s lament

      Sometimes “need to know” doesn’t register with sales or marketing. Nearly every infrastructure manager can share a story about a time when someone has made a decision that has critically impacted IT infrastructure without letting anyone in IT in on the “secret.”

      In brief

      The image contains a picture of a man appearing to be overwhelmed.

      Imagine working for a media company as an infrastructure capacity manager. Now imagine that the powers that be have decided to launch a content-focused web service. Seems like something they would do, right? Now imagine you find out about it the same way the company’s subscribers do. This actually happened – and it shouldn’t have. But a similar lack of alignment makes this a real possibility for any organization. If you don’t establish a systematic plan for soliciting and incorporating business requirements, prepare to lose a chunk of your free time. The business should never be able to say, in response to “nobody tells me anything,” “nobody asked.”

      Pictured: an artist’s rendering of the capacity manager in question.

      Directly solicit requirements from the business

      3.2a 30 minutes per stakeholder

      Once you’ve established, firmly, that everyone’s on the same team, meet individually with the stakeholders to assess capacity.

      Instructions

      1. Schedule a one-on-one meeting with each line of business manager (stakeholders identified in 3.1). Ideally this will be recurring.
      • Experienced capacity managers suggest doing this monthly.
    • In the meeting address the following questions:
      • What are some upcoming major initiatives?
      • Is the department going to expand or contract in a noticeable way?
      • Have customers taken to a particular product more than others?
    • Include the schedule in the Capacity Plan Template, and consider including details of the discussion in the notes section in tab 3 of the Capacity Snapshot Tool.
    • Input

      • Stakeholder opinions

      Output

      • Business requirements

      Materials

      • Whiteboard
      • Markers

      Participants

      • Capacity manager
      • Infrastructure staff

      Info-Tech Insight

      Sometimes line of business managers will evade or ignore you when you come knocking. They do this because they don’t know and they don’t want to give you the wrong information. Explain that a best guess is all you can ask for and allay their fears.

      Below, you will find more details about what to look for when soliciting information from the line of business manager you’ve roped into your scheme.

      1. Consider the following:
      • Projected sales pipeline
      • Business growth
      • Seasonal cycles
      • Marketing campaigns
      • New applications and features
      • New products and services
    • Encourage business stakeholders to give you their best guess for elements such as projected sales or business growth.
    • Estimate variance and provide a range. What can you expect at the low end? The high end? Record your historical projections for an idea of how accurate you are.
    • Consider carefully the infrastructure impact of new features (and record this in the notes section of the Capacity Snapshot Tool).
    • Directly solicit requirements from the business (optional)

      3.2a 1 hour

      IT staff and line of business staff come with different skillsets. This can lead to confusion, but it doesn’t have to. Develop effective information solicitation techniques.

      Instructions

      1. Gather your IT staff in a room with a whiteboard. As a group, select a gold service/line of business manager you would like to use as a “practice dummy.”
      2. Have everyone write down a question they would ask of the line of business representative in a hypothetical business/service capacity discussion.
      3. As a group discuss the merits of the questions posed:
      • Are they likely to yield productive information?
      • Are they too vague or specific?
      • Is the person in question likely to know the answer?
      • Is the information requested a guarded trade secret?
    • Discuss the findings and include any notes in section 3 of the Capacity Plan Template.
    • Input

      • Workshop participants’ ideas

      Output

      • Interview skills

      Materials

      • Whiteboard
      • Markers
      • Sticky notes

      Participants

      • Capacity manager
      • Infrastructure staff

      Map business needs to technical requirements, and technical requirements to infrastructure requirements

      3.2b 5 hours

      When it comes to mapping technical requirements, IT alone has the ability to effectively translate business needs.

      Instructions

      1. Use your notes from stakeholder meetings to assess the impact of any changes on gold systems.
      2. For each system brainstorm with infrastructure staff (and any technical experts as necessary) about what the information gleaned from stakeholder discussions. Consider the following discussion points:
      • How has demand for the service been trending? Does it match what the business is telling us?
      • Have we had availability issues in the past?
      • Has the business been right with their estimates in the past?
    • Estimate what a change in business/service metrics means for capacity.
      • E.g. how much RAM does a new email user require?
    • Record the output in the summary card of the Capacity Plan Template.
    • Input

      • Business needs

      Output

      • Technical and infrastructure requirements

      Materials

      • Whiteboard
      • Markers

      Participants

      • Capacity manager
      • Infrastructure staff

      Info-Tech Insight

      Adapt the analysis to the needs of your organization. One capacity manager called the one-to-one mapping of business process to infrastructure demand the Holy Grail of capacity management. If this level of precision isn’t attainable, develop your own working estimates using the higher-level data

      Avoid putting too much faith in the cloud as a solution to your problem

      Has the rise of on-demand, functionally unlimited services eliminated the need for capacity and availability management?

      Capacity management

      The role of the capacity manager is changing, but it still has a purpose. Consider this:

      • Not everything can move to the cloud. For security/functionality reasons, on-premises infrastructure will continue to exist.
      • Cost management is more relevant than ever in the cloud age. Manage your instances.
      • While a cloud migration might render some component capacity management functions irrelevant, it could increase the relevance of others (the network, perhaps).

      Availability management

      Ensuring services are available is still IT’s wheelhouse, even if that means a shift to a brokerage model:

      • Business availability requirements (as part of the business impact analysis, potentially) are important; internal SLAs and contracts with vendors need to be managed.
      • Even in the cloud environment, availability is not guaranteed. Cloud providers have outages (unplanned, maintenance related, etc.) and someone will have to understand the limitations of cloud services and the impact on availability.

      Info-Tech Insight

      The cloud comes at the cost of detailed performance data. Sourcing a service through an SLA with a third party increases the need to perform your own performance testing of gold level applications. See performance monitoring.

      Beware Parkinson’s law

      A consequence of our infinite capacity for creativity, people have the enviable skill of making work. In 1955, C. Northcote Parkinson pointed out this fact in The Economist . What are the implications for capacity management?

      "It is a commonplace observation that work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Thus, an elderly lady of leisure can spend the entire day in writing and despatching a postcard to her niece at Bognor Regis. An hour will be spent in finding the postcard, another in hunting for spectacles, half-an-hour in a search for the address, an hour and a quarter in composition, and twenty minutes in deciding whether or not to take an umbrella when going to the pillar-box in the next street."

      C. Northcote Parkinson, The Economist, 1955

      Info-Tech Insight

      If you give people lots of capacity, they will use it. Most shops are overprovisioned, and in some cases that’s throwing perfectly good money away. Don’t be afraid to prod if someone requests something that doesn’t seem right.

      Optimally align demand and capacity

      When it comes to managing your capacity, look for any additional efficiencies.

      Questions to ask:

      • Are there any infrastructure services that are not being used to their full potential, sitting idle, or allocated to non-critical or zombie functions?
        • Are you managing your virtual servers? If, for example, you experience a seasonal spike in demand, are you leaving virtual machines running after the fact?
      • Do your organization’s policies and your infrastructure setup allow for the use of development resources for production during periods of peak demand?
      • Can you make organizational or process changes in order to satisfy demand more efficiently?

      In brief

      Who isn’t a sports fan? Big games mean big stakes for pool participants and armchair quarterbacks—along with pressure on the network as fans stream games from their work computers. One organization suffered from this problem, and, instead of taking a hardline and banning all streams, opted to stream the game on a large screen in a conference room where those interested could work for its duration. This alleviated strain on the network and kept staff happy.

      Shutting off an idle cloud to cut costs

      CASE STUDY

      Industry:Professional Services

      Source:Interview

      24/7 AWS = round-the-clock costs

      A senior developer realized that his development team had been leaving AWS instances running without any specific reason.

      Why?

      The development team appreciated the convenience of an always-on instance and, because the people spinning them up did not handle costs, the problem wasn’t immediately apparent.

      Resolution

      In his spare time over the course of a month, the senior developer wrote a program to manage the servers, including shutting them down during times when they were not in use and providing remote-access start-up when required. His team alone saved $30,000 in costs over the next six months, and his team lead reported that it would have been more than worth paying the team to implement such a project on company time.

      Identify inefficiencies in order to remediate them

      3.2c 20 minutes per service

      Instructions

      1. Gather the infrastructure team together and discuss existing capacity and demand. Use the inputs from your data analysis and stakeholder meetings to set the stage for your discussion.
      2. Solicit ideas about potential inefficiencies from your participants:
      • Are VMs effectively allocated? If you need 7 VMs to address a spike, are those VMs being reallocated post-spike?
      • Are developers leaving instances running in the cloud?
      • Are particular services massively overprovisioned?
      • What are the biggest infrastructure line items? Are there obvious opportunities for cost reduction there?
    • Record any potential opportunities in the summary of the Capacity Plan Template.
    • Input

      • Gold systems
      • Data inputs

      Output

      • Inefficiencies

      Materials

      • Whiteboard
      • Markers

      Participants

      • Capacity manager
      • Infrastructure staff

      Info-Tech Insight

      The most effective capacity management takes a holistic approach and looks at the big picture in order to find ways to eliminate unnecessary infrastructure usage, or to find alternate or more efficient sources of required capacity.

      Dodging the toll troll by rerouting traffic

      CASE STUDY

      Industry:Telecommunications

      Source: Interview

      High-cost lines

      The capacity manager at a telecommunications provider mapped out his firm’s network traffic and discovered they were using a number of VP circuits (inter building cross connects) that were very expensive on the scale of their network.

      Paying the toll troll

      These VP circuits were supplying needed network services to the telecom provider’s clients, so there was no way to reduce this demand.

      Resolution

      The capacity manager analyzed where the traffic was going and compared this to the cost of the lines they were using. After performing the analysis, he found he could re-route much of the traffic away from the VP circuits and save on costs while delivering the same level of service to their users.

      Compare the data across business, component, and service levels, and project your capacity needs

      3.2d 2 hour session/meeting

      Make informed decisions about capacity. Remember: retain all documentation. It might come in handy for the justification of purchases.

      Instructions

      1. Using either a dedicated tool or generic spreadsheet software like Excel or Sheets, evaluate capacity trends. Ask the following questions:
      • Are there times when application performance degraded, and the service level was disrupted?
      • Are there times when certain components or systems neared, reached, or exceeded available capacity?
      • Are there seasonal variations in demand?
      • Are there clear trends, such as ongoing growth of business activity or the usage of certain applications?
      • What are the ramifications of trends or patterns in relation to infrastructure capacity?
    • Use the insight gathered from stakeholders during the stakeholder meetings, project required capacity for the critical components of each gold service.
    • Record the results of this activity in the summary card of the Capacity Plan Template.
    • Compare current capacity to your projections

      3.2e Section 5 of the Capacity Plan Template

      Capacity management (and, by extension, availability management) is a combination of two balancing acts: cost against capacity and supply and demand.*

      Instructions

      1. Compare your projections with your reality. You already know whether or not you have enough capacity given your lead times. But do you have too much? Compare your sub-component capacity projections to your current state.
      2. Highlight any outliers. Is there a particular service that is massively overprovisioned?
      3. Evaluate the reasons for the overprovisioning.
      • Is the component critically important?
      • Did you get a great deal on hardware?
      • Is it an oversight?
    • Record the results in the notes section of the summary card of the Capacity Plan Template.
    • *Office of Government Commerce 2001, 119.

      In brief

      The fractured nature of the capacity management space means that every organization is going to have a slightly different tooling strategy. No vendor has dominated, and every solution requires some level of customization. One capacity manager (a cloud provider, no less!) relayed a tale about a capacity management Excel sheet programmed with 5,000+ lines of code. As much work as that is, a bespoke solution is probably unavoidable.

      If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop.

      The image contains a picture of an Info-Tech analyst.

      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:

      3.2

      The image contains a screenshot of activity 3.2.

      Map business needs to technical requirements and technical requirements to infrastructure requirements

      The analyst will guide workshop participants in using their organization’s data to map out the relationships between applications, technical requirements, and the underlying infrastructure usage.

      Phase 3 Guided Implementation

      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: Solicit and incorporate business needs

      Proposed Time to Completion: 2 weeks

      Step 3.1: Solicit business needs and gather data

      Review your findings with an analyst

      Discuss the effectiveness of your strategies to involve business stakeholders in the planning process and your methods of data collection and analysis.

      Then complete these activities…

      • Analyze historical trends and track your services’ status
      • Build a list of key business stakeholders
      • Bake stakeholders into the planning process

      With these tools & templates:

      Capacity Plan Template

      Step 3.2: Analyze data and project future needs

      Review your findings with an analyst

      Discuss the effectiveness of your strategies to involve business stakeholders in the planning process and your methods of data collection and analysis.

      Then complete these activities…

      • Map business needs to technical requirements and technical requirements to infrastructure requirements
      • Compare the data across business, component, and service levels, and project your capacity needs
      • Compare current capacity to your projections

      With these tools & templates:

      Capacity Snapshot Tool

      Capacity Plan Template

      Phase 3 Results & Insights:

      • Develop new business processes that more closely align your role with business stakeholders. Building these relationships takes hard work, and won’t happen overnight.
      • Take a holistic approach to eliminate unnecessary infrastructure usage or source capacity more efficiently.

      PHASE 4

      Identify and Mitigate Risks

      Step 4.1: Identify and mitigate risks

      This step will walk you through the following activities:

      • Identify potential risks.
      • Determine strategies to mitigate risks.
      • Complete your capacity management plan.

      This involves the following participants:

      • Capacity manager
      • Infrastructure team members
      • Business stakeholders

      Outcomes of this step

      • Strategies for reducing risks
      • Capacity management plan

      Understand what happens when capacity/availability management fails

      1. Services become unavailable. If availability and capacity management are not constantly practiced, an inevitable consequence is downtime or a reduction in the quality of that service. Critical sub-component failures can knock out important systems on their own.
      2. Money is wasted. In response to fears about availability, it’s entirely possible to massively overprovision or switch entirely to a pay-as-you-go model. This, unfortunately, brings with it a whole host of other problems, including overspending. Remember: infinite capacity means infinite potential cost.
      3. IT remains reactive and is unable to contribute more meaningfully to the organization. If IT is constantly putting out capacity/availability-related fires, there is no room for optimization and activities to increase organizational maturity. Effective availability and capacity management will allow IT to focus on other work.

      Mitigate availability and capacity risks

      Availability: how often a service is usable (that is to say up and not too degraded to be effective). Consequences of reduced availability can include financial losses, impacted customer goodwill, and reduced faith in IT more generally.

      Causes of availability issues:

      • Poor capacity management – a service becomes unavailable when there is insufficient supply to meet demand. This is the result of poor capacity management.
      • Scheduled maintenance – services go down for maintenance with some regularity. This needs to be baked into service-level negotiations with vendors.
      • Vendor outages – sometimes vendors experience unplanned outages. There is typically a contract provision that covers unplanned outages, but that doesn’t change the fact that your service will be interrupted.

      Capacity: a particular component’s/service’s/business’ wiggle room. In other words, its usage ceiling.

      Causes of capacity issues:

      • Poor demand management – allowing users to run amok without any regard for how capacity is sourced and paid for.
      • Massive changes in legitimate demand – more usage means more demand.
      • Poor capacity planning – predictable changes in demand that go unaddressed can lead to capacity issues.

      Add additional potential causes of availability and capacity risks as needed

      4.1a 30 minutes

      Availability and capacity issues can stem from a number of different causes. Include a list in your availability and capacity management plan.

      Instructions

      1. Gather the group together. Go around the room and have participants provide examples of incidents and problems that have been the result of availability and capacity issues.
      2. Pose questions to the group about the source of those availability and capacity issues.
      • What could have been done differently to avoid these issues?
      • Was the availability/capacity issue a result of a faulty internal/external SLA?
    • Record the results of the exercise in sections 4.1 and 4.2 of the Capacity Plan Template.
    • Input

      • Capacity Snapshot Tool results

      Output

      • Additional sources of availability and capacity risks

      Materials

      • Capacity Plan Template

      Participants

      • Capacity manager
      • Infrastructure staff

      Info-Tech Insight

      Availability and capacity problems result in incidents, critical incidents, and problems. These are addressed in a separate project (incident and problem management), but information about common causes can streamline that process.

      Identify capacity risks and mitigate them

      4.1b 30 minutes

      Based on your understanding of your capacity needs (through written SLAs and informal but regular meetings with the business) highlight major risks you foresee.

      Instructions

      1. Make a chart with two columns on a whiteboard. They should be labelled “risk” and “mitigation” respectively.
      2. Record risks to capacity you have identified in earlier activities.
      • Refer to the Capacity Snapshot Tool for components that are highlighted in red and yellow. These are specific components that present special challenges. Identify the risk(s) in as much detail as possible. Include service and business risks as well.
      • Examples: a marketing push will put pressure on the web server; a hiring push will require more Office 365 licenses; a downturn in registration will mean that fewer VMs will be required to run the service.

      Input

      • Capacity Snapshot Tool results

      Output

      • Inefficiencies

      Materials

      • Whiteboard
      • Markers

      Participants

      • Capacity manager
      • Infrastructure staff

      Info-Tech Insight

      It’s an old adage, but it checks out: don’t come to the table armed only with problems. Be a problem solver and prove IT’s value to the organization.

      Identify capacity risks and mitigate them (cont.)

      4.1b 1.5 hours

      Instructions (cont.)

      1. Begin developing mitigation strategies. Options for responding to known capacity risks fall into one of two camps:
      • Acceptance: responding to the risk is costlier than acknowledging its existence without taking any action. For gold systems, acceptance is typically not acceptable.
      • Mitigation: limiting/reducing, eliminating, or transferring risk (Herrera) comprise the sort of mitigation discussed here.
        • Limiting/reducing: taking steps to improve the capacity situation, but accepting some level of risk (spinning up a new VM, pushing back on demands from the business, promoting efficiency).
        • Eliminating: the most comprehensive (and most expensive) mitigation strategy, elimination could involve purchasing a new server or, at the extreme end, building a new datacenter.
        • Transfer: “robbing Peter to pay Paul,” in the words of capacity manager Todd Evans, is one potential way to limit your exposure. Is there a less critical service that can be sacrificed to keep your gold service online?
    • Record the results of this exercise in section 5 of the Capacity Plan Template.
    • Input

      • Capacity Snapshot Tool results

      Output

      • Capacity risk mitigations

      Materials

      • Whiteboard
      • Markers

      Participants

      • Capacity manager
      • Infrastructure staff

      Info-Tech Insight

      It’s an old adage, but it checks out: don’t come to the table armed only with problems. Be a problem solver and prove IT’s value to the organization.

      Identify availability risks and mitigate them

      4.1c 30 minutes

      While capacity management is a form of availability management, it is not the only form. In this activity, outline the specific nature of threats to availability.

      Instructions

      1. Make a chart with two columns on a whiteboard. They should be labelled “risk” and “mitigation” respectively.
      2. Begin brainstorming general availability risks based on the following sources of information/categories:
      • Vendor outages
      • Disaster recovery
      • Historical availability issues

      The image contains a large blue circle labelled: Availability. Also in the blue circle is a small red circle labelled: Capacity.

      Input

      • Capacity Snapshot Tool results

      Output

      • Availability risks and mitigations

      Materials

      • Whiteboard
      • Markers

      Participants

      • Capacity manager
      • Infrastructure staff

      Info-Tech Best Practice

      A dynamic central repository is a good way to ensure that availability issues stemming from a variety of causes are captured and mitigated.

      Identify availability risks and mitigate them (cont.)

      4.1c 1.5 hours

      Although it is easier said than done, identifying potential mitigations is a crucial part of availability management as an activity.

      Instructions (cont.)

      1. Begin developing mitigation strategies. Options for responding to known capacity risks fall into one of two camps:
      • Acceptance – responding to the risk is costlier than taking it on. Some unavailability is inevitable, between maintenance and unscheduled downtime. Record this, though it may not require immediate action.
      • Mitigation strategies:
        • Limiting/reducing – taking steps to increase availability of critical systems. This could include hot spares for unreliable systems or engaging a new vendor.
        • Eliminating – the most comprehensive (and most expensive) mitigation strategy. It could include selling.
        • Transfer – “robbing Peter to pay Paul,” in the words of capacity manager Todd Evans, is one potential way to limit your exposure. Is there a less critical service that can be sacrificed to keep your gold service online?
    • Record the results of this exercise in section 5 of Capacity Plan Template.
    • Input

      • Capacity Snapshot Tool results

      Output

      • Availability risks and mitigations

      Materials

      • Whiteboard
      • Markers

      Participants

      • Capacity manager
      • Infrastructure staff

      Iterate on the process and present your completed availability and capacity management plan

      The stakeholders consulted as part of the process will be interested in its results. Share them, either in person or through a collaboration tool.

      The current status of your availability and capacity management plan should be on the agenda for every stakeholder meeting. Direct the stakeholders’ attention to the parts of the document that are relevant to them, and solicit their thoughts on the document’s accuracy. Over time you should get a pretty good idea of who among your stakeholder group is skilled at projecting demand, and who over- or underestimates, and by how much. This information will improve your projections and, therefore, your management over time.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Use the experience gained and the artifacts generated to build trust with the business. The meetings should be regular, and demonstrating that you’re actually using the information for good is likely to make hesitant participants in the process more likely to open up.

      If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop.

      The image contains a picture of an Info-Tech analyst.

      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

      The image contains a screenshot of activity 4.1.

      Identify capacity risks and mitigate them

      The analyst will guide workshop participants in identifying potential risks to capacity and determining strategies for mitigating them.

      Phase 4 Guided Implementation

      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: Identify and mitigate risks

      Proposed Time to Completion: 1 week

      Step 4.1: Identify and mitigate risks

      Review your findings with an analyst

      • Discuss your potential risks and your strategies for mitigating those risks.

      Then complete these activities…

      • Identify capacity risks and mitigate them
      • Identify availability risks and mitigate them
      • Complete your capacity management plan

      With these tools & templates:

      Capacity Snapshot Tool

      Capacity Plan Template

      Phase 4 Results & Insights:

      • Be a problem solver and prove IT’s value to the organization. Capacity management allows infrastructure to drive business value.
      • Iterate and share results. Reinforce your relationships with stakeholders and continue to refine how capacity management transforms your organization’s business processes.

      Insight breakdown

      Insight 1

      Components are critical to availability and capacity management.

      The CEO doesn’t care about the SMTP server. She cares about meeting customer needs and producing profit. For IT capacity and availability managers, though, the devil is in the details. It only takes one faulty component to knock out a service. Keep track and keep the lights on.

      Insight 2

      Ask what the business is working on, not what they need.

      If you ask them what they need, they’ll tell you – and it won’t be cheap. Find out what they’re going to do, and use your expertise to service those needs. Use your IT experience to estimate the impact of business and service level changes on the components that secure the availability you need.

      Insight 3

      Cloud shmoud.

      The role of the capacity manager might be changing with the advent of the public cloud, but it has not disappeared. Capacity managers in the age of the cloud are responsible for managing vendor relationships, negotiating external SLAs, projecting costs and securing budgets, reining in prodigal divisions, and so on.

      Summary of accomplishment

      Knowledge Gained

      • Impact of downtime on the organization
      • Gold systems
      • Key dependencies and sub-components
      • Strategy for monitoring components
      • Strategy for soliciting business needs
      • Projected capacity needs
      • Availability and capacity risks and mitigations

      Processes Optimized

      • Availability management
      • Capacity management

      Deliverables Completed

      • Business Impact Analysis
      • Capacity Plan Template

      Project step summary

      Client Project: Develop an Availability and Capacity Management Plan

      1. Conduct a business impact analysis
      2. Assign criticality ratings to services
      3. Define your monitoring strategy
      4. Implement your monitoring tool/aggregator
      5. Solicit business needs and gather data
      6. Analyze data and project future needs
      7. Identify and mitigate risks

      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 via Info-Tech Guided Implementation.

      Research contributors and experts

      The image contains a picture of Adrian Blant.

      Adrian Blant, Independent Capacity Consultant, IT Capability Solutions

      Adrian has over 15 years' experience in IT infrastructure. He has built capacity management business processes from the ground up, and focused on ensuring a productive dialogue between IT and the business.

      The image contains a picture of James Zhang.

      James Zhang, Senior Manager Disaster Recovery, AIG Technology

      James has over 20 years' experience in IT and 10 years' experience in capacity management. Throughout his career, he has focused on creating new business processes to deliver value and increase efficiency over the long term.

      The image contains a picture of Mayank Banerjee.

      Mayank Banerjee, CTO, Global Supply Chain Management, HelloFresh

      Mayank has over 15 years' experience across a wide range of technologies and industries. He has implemented highly automated capacity management processes as part of his role of owning and solving end-to-end business problems.

      The image contains a picture of Mike Lynch

      Mike Lynch, Consultant, CapacityIQ

      Mike has over 20 years' experience in IT infrastructure. He takes a holistic approach to capacity management to identify and solve key problems, and has developed automated processes for mapping performance data to information that can inform business decisions.

      The image contains a picture of Paul Waguespack.

      Paul Waguespack, Manager of Application Systems Engineering, Tufts Health Plan

      Paul has over 10 years' experience in IT. He has specialized in implementing new applications and functionalities throughout their entire lifecycle, and integrating with all aspects of IT operations.

      The image contains a picture of Richie Mendoza.

      Richie Mendoza, IT Consultant, SMITS Inc.

      Richie has over 10 years' experience in IT infrastructure. He has specialized in using demand forecasting to guide infrastructure capacity purchasing decisions, to provide availability while avoiding costly overprovisioning.

      The image contains a picture of Rob Thompson.

      Rob Thompson, President, IT Tools & Process

      Rob has over 30 years’ IT experience. Throughout his career he has focused on making IT a generator of business value. He now runs a boutique consulting firm.

      Todd Evans, Capacity and Performance Management SME, IBM

      Todd has over 20 years' experience in capacity and performance management. At Kaiser Permanente, he established a well-defined mapping of the businesses workflow processes to technical requirements for applications and infrastructure.

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      Miller, Ron. “AWS Fires Back at Larry Ellison’s Claims, Saying It’s Just Larry Being Larry.” Tech Crunch. 2 Oct. 2017. Web.

      National College for Teaching & Leadership. “The role of data in measuring school performance.” National College for Teaching & Leadership. N.d. Web,

      Newland, Chris, et al. Enterprise Capacity Management. CETI, Ohio State U. 24 Oct. 2017. Web.

      Office of Government Commerce . Best Practice for Service Delivery. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 2001.

      Office of Government Commerce. Best Practice for Business Perspective: The IS View on Delivering Services to the Business. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 2004.

      Parkinson, C. Northcote. “Parkinson’s Law.” The Economist. 19 Nov. 1955. Web.

      “Parkinson’s Law Is Proven Again.” Financial Times. 25 Oct. 2017. Web.

      Paul, John, and Chris Hayes. Performance Monitoring and Capacity Planning. VM Ware. 2006. Web.

      “Reliability and Validity.” UC Davis. N.d. Web.

      "Role: Capacity Manager." IBM. 2008. Web.

      Ryan, Liz. “‘If You Can’t Measure It, You Can’t Manage It’: Not True.” Forbes. 10 Feb. 2014. Web.

      S, Lalit. “Using Flexible Capacity to Lower and Manage On-Premises TCO.” HPE. 23 Nov. 2016. Web.

      Snedeker, Ben. “The Pros and Cons of Public and Private Clouds for Small Business.” Infusionsoft. September 6, 2017. Web.

      Statement of Work: IBM Enterprise Availability Management Service. IBM. Jan 2016. Web.

      “The Road to Perfect AWS Reserved Instance Planning & Management in a Nutshell.” Botmetric. 25 Oct. 2017. Web.

      Transforming the Information Infrastructure: Build, Manage, Optimize. Asigra. Aug. 2017. Web.

      Valentic, Branimir. "Three Faces of Capacity Management." ITIL/ISO 20000 Knowledge Base. Advisera. 24 Oct. 2017. Web.

      "Unify IT Performance Monitoring and Optimization." IDERA. 24 Oct. 2017. Web.

      "What is IT Capacity Management?" Villanova U. Aug. 2017. Web.

      Wolstenholme, Andrew. Final internal Audit Report: IT Availability and Capacity (IA 13 519/F). Transport For London. 23 Feb. 2015. Web.

      IBM i Migration Considerations

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}109|cart{/j2store}
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      IBM i remains a vital platform and now many CIOs, CTOs, and IT leaders are faced with the same IBM i challenges regardless of industry focus: how do you evaluate the future viability of this platform, assess the future fit and purpose, develop strategies, and determine the future of this platform for your organization?

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      For organizations that are struggling with the iSeries/IBM i platform, resourcing challenges are typically the culprit. An aging population of RPG programmers and system administrators means organizations need to be more pro-active in maintaining in-house expertise. Migrating off the iSeries/IBM i platform is a difficult option for most organizations due to complexity, switching costs in the short term, and a higher long-term TCO.

      Impact and Result

      The most common tactic is for the organization to better understand their IBM i options and adopt some level of outsourcing for the non-commodity platform retaining the application support/development in-house. To make the evident, obvious; the options here for the non-commodity are not as broad as with commodity server platforms. Options include co-location, onsite outsourcing, managed and public cloud services.

      IBM i Migration Considerations Research & Tools

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

      1. IBM i Migration Considerations – A brief deck that outlines key migration options for the IBM i platforms.

      This project will help you evaluate the future viability of this platform; assess the fit, purpose, and price; develop strategies for overcoming potential challenges; and determine the future of this platform for your organization.

      • IBM i Migration Considerations Storyboard

      2. Infrastructure Outsourcing IBM i Scoring Tool – A tool to collect vendor responses and score each vendor.

      Use this scoring sheet to help you define and evaluate IBM i vendor responses.

      • Infrastructure Outsourcing IBM i Scoring Tool
      [infographic]

      Further reading

      IBM i Migration Considerations

      Don’t be overwhelmed by IBM i migration options.

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge

      IBM i remains a vital platform and now many CIO, CTO, and IT leaders are faced with the same IBM i challenges regardless of industry focus; how do you evaluate the future viability of this platform, assess the future fit and purpose, develop strategies, and determine the future of this platform for your organization?

      Common Obstacles

      For organizations that are struggling with the iSeries/IBM i platform, resourcing challenges are typically the culprit. An aging population of RPG programmers and system administrators means organizations need to be more proactive in maintaining in-house expertise. Migrating off the iSeries/IBM i platform is a difficult option for most organizations due to complexity, switching costs in the short term, and a higher long-term TCO.

      Info-Tech Approach

      The most common tactic is for the organization to better understand its IBM i options and adopt some level of outsourcing for the non-commodity platform, retaining the application support/development in-house. To make the evident, obvious: the options here for the non-commodity are not as broad as with commodity server platforms. Options include co-location, onsite outsourcing, managed hosting, and public cloud services.

      Info-Tech Insight

      “For over twenty years, IBM was ‘king,’ dominating the large computer market. By the 1980s, the world had woken up to the fact that the IBM mainframe was expensive and difficult, taking a long time and a lot of work to get anything done. Eager for a new solution, tech professionals turned to the brave new concept of distributed systems for a more efficient alternative. On June 21, 1988, IBM announced the launch of the AS/400, their answer to distributed computing.” (Dale Perkins)

      Review

      We help IT leaders make the most of their IBM i environment.

      Problem Statement:

      The IBM i remains a vital platform for many businesses and continues to deliver exceptional reliability and performance and play a key role in the enterprise. With the limited resources at hand, CIOs and the like must continually review and understand their migration path with the same regard as any other distributed system roadmap.

      This research is designed for:

      • IT strategic direction decision makers
      • IT managers responsible for an existing iSeries or IBM i platform
      • Organizations evaluating platforms for mission-critical applications

      This research will help you:

      1. Evaluate the future viability of this platform.
      2. Assess the fit, purpose, and price.
      3. Develop strategies for overcoming potential challenges.
      4. Determine the future of this platform for your organization.

      The “fit for purpose” plot

      Thought Model

      We will investigate the aspect of different IBM i scenarios as they impact business, what that means, and how that can guide the questions that you are asking as you move to an aligned IBM i IT strategy. Our model considers:

      • Importance to Business Outcomes
        • Important to strategic objectives
        • Provides competitive advantage
        • Non-commodity IT service or process
        • Specialized in-house knowledge required
      • Vendor’s Performance Advantage
        • Talent or access to skills
        • Economies of scale or lower cost at scale
        • Access to technology

      Info-Tech Insights

      With multiple control points to be addressed, care must be taken in simplifying your options while addressing all concerns to ease operational load.

      Map different 'IBM i' scenarios with axes 'Importance to Business Outcomes - Low to High' and 'Vendor’s Performance Advantage - Low to High'. Quadrant labels are '[LI/LA] Potentially Outsource: Service management, Help desk, desk-side support, Asset management', '[LI/HA] Outsource: Application & Infra Support, Web Hosting, SAP Support, Email Services, Infrastructure', '[HI/LA] Insource (For Now): Application development tech support', and '[HI/HA] Potentially Outsource: Onshore or offshore application maintenance'.

      IBM i environments are challenging

      “The IBM i Reality” – Darin Stahl

      Most members relying on business applications/workloads running on non-commodity platforms (zSeries, IBM i, Solaris, AIX, etc.) are first motivated to get out from under the perceived higher costs for the hardware platform.

      An additional challenge for non-commodity platforms is that from an IT Operations Management perspective they become an island with a diminishing number of integrated operations skills and solutions such as backup/restore and monitoring tools.

      The most common tactic is for the organization to adopt some level of outsourcing for the non-commodity platform, retaining the application support and development in-house.

      Key challenges with current IBM i environments:
      1. DR Requirements
        Understand what the business needs are and where users and resources are located.
      2. Market Lack of Expertise
        Skilled team members are hard to find.
      3. Cost Management
        There is a perceived cost disadvantage to managing on-prem solutions.
      4. Aging Support Teams
        Current support teams are aging with little backfill in skill and experience.

      Understand your options

      Co-Location

      A customer transitions their hardware environment to a provider’s data center. The provider can then manage the hardware and “system.”

      Onsite Outsourcing

      A provider will support the hardware/system environment at the client’s site.

      Managed Hosting

      A customer transitions their legacy application environment to an off-prem hosted, multi-tenanted environment.

      Public Cloud

      A customer can “re-platform” the non-commodity workload into public cloud offerings or in a few offerings “re-host.”

      Co-Location

      Provider manages the data center hardware environment.

      Abstract

      Here a provider manages the system data center environment and hardware; however, the client’s in-house IBM i team manages the IBM i hardware environment and the system applications. The client manages all of the licenses associated with the platform as well as the hardware asset management considerations. This is typically part of a larger services or application transformation. This effectively outsources the data center management while maintaining all IBM i technical operations in-house.

      Advantages

      • On-demand bandwidth
      • Cost effective
      • Secure and compliant environment
      • On-demand remote “hands and feet” services
      • Improved IT DR services
      • Data center compliance

      Considerations

      • Application transformation
      • CapEx cost
      • Fluctuating network bandwidth costs
      • Secure connectivity
      • Disaster recovery and availability of vendor
      • Company IT DR and BC planning
      • Remote system maintenance (HW)

      Info-Tech Insights

      This model is extremely attractive for organizations looking to reduce their data center management footprint. Idea for the SMB.

      Onsite Sourcing

      A provider will support the hardware/system environment at the client’s site.

      Abstract

      Here a provider will support and manage the hardware/system environment at the client’s site. The provider may acquire the customer’s hardware and provide software licenses. This could also include hiring or “rebadging” staff supporting the platform. This type of arrangement is typically part of a larger services or application transformation. While low risk, it is not as cost-effective as other deployment models.

      Advantages

      • Managed environment within company premises
      • Cost effective (OpEx expense)
      • Economies of scale
      • On-demand “as-a-service” model
      • Improved IT DR staffing services
      • 24x7 monitoring and support

      Considerations

      • Outsourced IT talent
      • Terms and contract conditions
      • IT staff attrition
      • Increased liability
      • Modified technical support and engagement
      • Secure connectivity and communication
      • Internal problem and change management

      Info-Tech Insights

      Depending on the application lifecycle and viability, in-house skill and technical depth is a key consideration when developing your IBM i strategy.

      Managed Hosting

      Transition legacy application environment to an off-prem hosted multi-tenanted environment.

      Abstract

      This type of arrangement is typically part of an application migration or transformation. In this model, a client can “re-platform” the application into an off-premises-hosted provider platform. This would yield many of the cloud benefits however in a different scaling capacity as experienced with commodity workloads (e.g. Windows, Linux) and the associated application.

      Advantages

      • Turns CapEx into OpEx
      • Reduces in-house need for diminishing or scarce human resources
      • Allows the enterprise to focus on the value of the IBM i platform through the reduction of system administrative toil
      • Improved IT DR services
      • Data center compliance

      Considerations

      • Application transformation
      • Network bandwidth
      • Contract terms and conditions
      • Modified technical support and engagement
      • Secure connectivity and communication
      • Technical security and compliance
      • Limited providers; reduced options

      Info-Tech Insights

      There is a difference between a “re-host” and “re-platform” migration strategy. Determine which solution aligns to the application requirements.

      Public Cloud

      Leverage “public cloud” alternatives with AWS, Google, or Microsoft AZURE.

      Abstract

      This type of arrangement is typically part of a larger migration or application transformation. While low risk, it is not as cost-effective as other deployment models. In this model, client can “re-platform” the non-commodity workload into public cloud offerings or in a few offerings “re-host.” This would yield many of the cloud benefits however in a different scaling capacity as experienced with commodity workloads (e.g. Windows, Linux).

      Advantages

      • Remote workforce accessibility
      • OpEx expense model
      • Improved IT DR services
      • Reduced infrastructure and system administration
      • Vendor management
      • 24x7 monitoring and support

      Considerations

      • Contract terms and conditions
      • Modified technical support and engagement
      • Secure connectivity and communication
      • Technical security and compliance
      • Limited providers; reduced options
      • Vendor/cloud lock-in
      • Application migration/”re-platform”
      • Application and system performance

      Info-Tech Insights

      This model is extremely attractive for organizations that consume primarily cloud services and have a large remote workforce.

      Understand your vendors

      • To best understand your options, you need to understand what IBM i services are provided by the industry vendors.
      • Within the following slides, you will find a defined activity with a working template that will create “vendor profiles” for each vendor.
      • As a working example, you can review the following partners:
      • Connectria (United States)
      • Rowton IT Solutions Ltd (United Kingdom)
      • Mid-Range (Canada)

      Info-Tech Insights

      Creating vendor profiles will help quickly filter the solution providers that directly meet your IBM i needs.

      Vendor Profile #1

      Rowton IT

      Summary of Vendor

      “Rowton IT thrive on creating robust and simple solutions to today's complex IT problems. We have a highly skilled and motivated workforce that will guarantee the right solution.

      Working with select business partners, we can offer competitive and cost effective packages tailored to suit your budget and/or business requirements.

      Our knowledge and experience cover vast areas of IT including technical design, provision and installation of hardware (Wintel and IBM Midrange), technical engineering services, support services, IT project management, application testing, documentation and training.”

      IBM i Services

      • ✔ IBM Power Hardware Sales
      • ✔ Co-Managed Services
      • ✔ DR/High Available Config
      • ✔ Full Managed Services
      • ✖ Co-Location Services
      • ✔ Public Cloud Services (AWS)

      URL
      rowtonit.com

      Regional Coverage:
      United Kingdom

      Logo for RowtonIT.com.

      Vendor Profile #2

      Connectria

      Summary of Vendor

      “Every journey starts with a single step and for Connectria, that step happened to be with the world’s largest bank, Deutsche Bank. Followed quickly by our second client, IBM. Since then, we have added over 1,000 clients worldwide. For 25 years, each customer, large or small, has relied on Connectria to deliver on promises made to make it easy to do business with us through flexible terms, scalable solutions, and straightforward pricing. Join us on our journey.”

      IBM i Services

      • ✔ IBM Power Hardware Sales
      • ✔ Co-Managed Services
      • ✔ DR/High Available Config
      • ✔ Full Managed Services
      • ✔ Co-Location Services
      • ✔ Public Cloud Services (AWS)

      URL
      connectria.com

      Regional Coverage:
      United States

      Logo for Connectria.

      Vendor Profile #3

      Mid-Range

      Summary of Vendor

      “Founded in 1988 and profitable throughout all of those 31 years, we have a solid track record of success. At Mid-Range, we use our expertise to assess your unique needs, in order to proactively develop the most effective IT solution for your requirements. Our full-service approach to technology and our diverse and in-depth industry expertise keep our clients coming back year after year.

      Serving clients across North America in a variety of industries, from small and emerging organizations to large, established enterprises – we’ve seen it all. Whether you need hardware or software solutions, disaster recovery and high availability, managed services or hosting or full ERP services with our JD Edwards offerings – we have the methods and expertise to help.”

      IBM i Services

      • ✔ IBM Power Hardware Sales
      • ✔ Co-Managed Services
      • ✔ DR/High Available Config
      • ✔ Full Managed Services
      • ✔ Co-Location Services
      • ✔ Public Cloud Services (AWS)

      URL
      midrange.ca

      Regional Coverage:
      Canada

      Logo for Mid-Range.

      Activity

      Understand your vendor options

      Activities:
      1. Create your vendor profiles
      2. Score vendor responses
      3. Develop and manage your vendor agenda

      This activity involves the following participants:

      • IT strategic direction decision makers
      • IT managers responsible for an existing iSeries or IBM i platform

      Outcomes of this step:

      • Vendor Profile Template
      • Completed IT Infrastructure Outsourcing Scoring Tool

      Info-Tech Insights

      This check-point process creates transparency around agreement costs with the business and gives the business an opportunity to re-evaluate its requirements for a potentially leaner agreement.

      1. Create your vendor profiles

      Define what you are looking for:

      • Create a vendor profile for every vendor of interest.
      • Leverage our starting list and template to track and record the advantages of each vendor.

      Mindshift

      First National Technology Solutions

      Key Information Systems

      MainLine

      Direct Systems Support

      T-Systems

      Horizon Computer Solutions Inc.

      Vendor Profile Template

      [Vendor Name]

      Summary of Vendor

      [Vendor Summary]
      *Detail the Vendor Services as a Summary*

      IBM i Services

      • ✔ IBM Power Hardware Sales
      • ✔ Co-Managed Services
      • ✔ DR/High Available Config
      • ✔ Full Managed Services
      • ✔ Co-Location Services
      • ✔ Public Cloud Services (AWS)
      *Itemize the Vendor Services specific to your requirements*

      URL
      https://www.url.com/
      *Insert the Vendor URL*

      Regional Coverage:
      [Country\Region]
      *Insert the Vendor Coverage & Locations*

      *Insert the Vendor Logo*

      2. Score your vendor responses

      Use the IT Infrastructure Outsourcing Scoring Tool to manage vendor responses.
      Use Info-Tech’s IT Infrastructure Outsourcing Scoring Tool to systematically score your vendor responses.

      The overall quality of the IBM i questions can help you understand what it might be like to work with the vendor.

      Consider the following questions:

      • Is the vendor clear about what it’s able to offer? Is its response transparent?
      • How much effort did the vendor put into answering the questions?
      • Does the vendor seem like someone you would want to work with?

      Once you have the vendor responses, you will select two or three vendors to continue assessing in more depth leading to an eventual final selection.

      Screenshot of the IT Infrastructure Outsourcing Scoring Tool's Scoring Sheet. There are three tables: 'Scoring Scale', 'Results', and one with 'RFP Questions'. Note on Results table says 'Top Scoring Vendors', and note on questions table says 'List your IBM i questions (requirements)'.

      Info-Tech Insights

      Watch out for misleading scores that result from poorly designed criteria weightings.

      3. Develop your vendor agenda

      Vendor Conference Call

      Develop an agenda for the conference call. Here is a sample agenda:
      • Review the vendor questions.
      • Go over answers to written vendor questions previously submitted.
      • Address new vendor questions.

      Commonly Debated Question:
      Should vendors be asked to remain anonymous on the call or should each vendor mention their organization when they join the call?

      Many organizations worry that if vendors can identify each other, they will price fix. However, price fixing is extremely rare due to its consequences and most vendors likely have a good idea which other vendors are participating in the bid. Another thought is that revealing vendors could either result in a higher level of competition or cause some vendors to give up:

      • A vendor that hears its rival is also bidding may increase the competitiveness of its bid and response.
      • A vendor that feels it doesn’t have a chance may put less effort into the process.
      • A vendor that feels it doesn’t have real competition may submit a less competitive or detailed response than it otherwise would have.

      Vendor Workshop

      A vendor workshop day is an interactive way to provide context to your vendors and to better understand the vendors’ offerings. The virtual or in-person interaction also offers a great way to understand what it’s like to work with each vendor and decide whether you could build a partnership with them in the long run.

      The main focus of the workshop is the vendors’ service solution presentation. Here is a sample agenda for a two-day workshop:

      Day 1
      • Meet and greet
      • Welcome presentation with objectives, acquisition strategy, and company overview
      • Overview of the current IT environment, technologies, and company expectations
      • Question and answer session
      • Site walk
      Day 2
      • Review Day 1 activities
      • Vendor presentations and solution framing
      Use the IT Infrastructure Outsourcing Scoring Tool to manage vendor responses.

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Effectively Acquire Infrastructure Services
      Acquiring a service is like buying an experience. Don’t confuse the simplicity of buying hardware with buying an experience.

      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.

      Build Your Infrastructure Roadmap
      Move beyond alignment: Put yourself in the driver’s seat for true business value.

      Define Your Cloud Vision
      Make the most of cloud for your organization.

      Document Your Cloud Strategy
      Drive consensus by outlining how your organization will use the cloud.

      Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan
      Close the gap between your DR capabilities and service continuity requirements.

      Create a Better RFP Process
      Improve your RFPs to gain leverage and get better results.

      Research Authors

      Photo of Darin Stahl, Principal Research Advisor, Info-Tech Research Group.Darin Stahl, Principal Research Advisor, Info-Tech Research Group

      Principal Research Advisor within the Infrastructure Practice and leveraging 38+ years of experience, his areas of focus include: IT Operations Management, Service Desk, Infrastructure Outsourcing, Managed Services, Cloud Infrastructure, DRP/BCP, Printer Management, Managed Print Services, Application Performance Monitoring (APM), Managed FTP, and non-commodity servers (zSeries, mainframe, IBM i, AIX, Power PC).

      Photo of Troy Cheeseman, Practice Lead, Info-Tech Research Group.Troy Cheeseman, Practice Lead, Info-Tech Research Group

      Troy has over 24 years of experience and has championed large, enterprise-wide technology transformation programs, remote/home office collaboration and remote work strategies, BCP, IT DRP, IT Operations and expense management programs, international right placement initiatives, and large technology transformation initiatives (M&A). Additionally, he has deep experience working with IT solution providers and technology (cloud) start-ups.

      Research Contributors

      Photo of Dan Duffy, President & Owner, Mid-Range.Dan Duffy, President & Owner, Mid-Range

      Dan Duffy is the President and Founder of Mid-Range Computer Group Inc., an IBM Platinum Business Partner. Dan and his team have been providing the Canadian and American IBM Power market with IBM infrastructure solutions including private cloud, hosting and disaster recovery, high availability and data center services since 1988. He has served on numerous boards and associations including the Toronto Users Group for Mid-Range Systems (TUG), the IBM Business Partners of the Americas Advisory Council, the Cornell Club of Toronto, and the Notre Dame Club of Toronto. Dan holds a Bachelor of Science from Cornell University.

      Photo of George Goodall, Executive Advisor, Info-Tech Research Group.George Goodall, Executive Advisor, Info-Tech Research Group

      George Goodall is an Executive Advisor in the Research Executive Services practice at Info-Tech Research Group. George has over 20 years of experience in IT consulting, enterprise software sales, project management, and workshop delivery. His primary focus is the unique challenges and opportunities in organizations with small and constrained IT operations. In his long tenure at Info-Tech, George has covered diverse topics including voice communications, storage, and strategy and governance.

      Bibliography

      “Companies using IBM i (formerly known as i5/OS).” Enlyft, 21 July 2021. Web.

      Connor, Clare. “IBM i and Meeting the Challenges of Modernization.” Ensono, 22 Mar. 2022. Web.

      Huntington, Tom. “60+ IBM i User Groups and Communities to Join?” HelpSystems, 16 Dec. 2021. Web.

      Perkins, Dale. “The Road to Power Cloud: June 21st 1988 to now. The Journey Continues.” Mid-Range, 1 Nov. 2021. Web.

      Prickett Morgan, Timothy. “How IBM STACKS UP POWER8 AGAINST XEON SERVERS.” The Next Platform, 13 Oct. 2015. Web.

      “Why is AS/400 still used? Four reasons to stick with a classic.” NTT, 21 July 2016. Web.

      Appendix

      Public Cloud Provider Notes

      Appendix –
      Cloud
      Providers


      “IBM Power (IBM i and AIX) workloads are also available in the so-called ‘cloud.’” (Darin Stahl)

      AWS

      Appendix –
      Cloud
      Providers



      “IBM Power (IBM i and AIX) workloads are also available in the so-called ‘cloud.’” (Darin Stahl)

      Google

      • Google Cloud console supports IBM Power Systems.
      • This offering provides cloud instances running on IBM Power Systems servers with PowerVM.
      • The service uses a per-day prorated monthly subscription model for cloud instance plans with different capacities of compute, memory, storage, and network. Standard plans are listed below and custom plans are possible.
      • There is no IBM i offering yet that we are aware of.
      • For AIX on Power, this would appear to be a better option than AWS (Converge Enterprise Cloud with IBM Power for Google Cloud).

      Appendix –
      Cloud
      Providers



      “IBM Power (IBM i and AIX) workloads are also available in the so-called ‘cloud.’” (Darin Stahl)

      Azure

      • Azure has partners using the Azure Dedicated Host offerings to deliver “native support for IBM POWER Systems to Azure data centres” (PowerWire).
      • Microsoft has installed Power servers in an couple Azure data centers and Skytap manages the IBM i, AIX, and Linux environments for clients.
      • As far as I am aware there is no ability to install IBM i or AIX within an Azure Dedicated Host via the retail interfaces – these must be worked through a partner like Skytap.
      • The cloud route for IBM i or AIX might be the easiest working with Skytap and Azure. This would appear to be a better option than AWS in my opinion.

      Appendix –
      Cloud
      Providers



      “IBM Power (IBM i and AIX) workloads are also available in the so-called ‘cloud.’” (Darin Stahl)

      IBM

      Customer Service Management Software Selection Guide

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}530|cart{/j2store}
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      • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
      • member rating average days saved: N/A
      • Parent Category Name: Customer Relationship Management
      • Parent Category Link: /customer-relationship-management
      • The business is unaware of cross-selling opportunities across multiple product lines.
      • Customer service staff attrition rates continue to be high, creating longer response delays for voice channels.
      • Customer service responses are reactive in nature, reinforcing a poor culture for customer experience.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • After-sales customer service is critical for creating, maintaining, and growing customer relationships. Organizations that fail to provide adequate service will be ill positioned for future customer service and sales efforts.
      • Shift left toward delivering predictive service instead of reactive service to enhance customer experiences.
      • Ensure your key performance indicators accurately reflect the incentives you want to give your customer support staff for delivering appropriate customer service.

      Impact and Result

      • Determine your organization’s customer service maturity (and thus if a standalone CSM tool is relevant).
      • Understand key trends and differentiating features in the CSM marketspace.
      • Evaluate major vendors in the CSM marketspace to discover the best-fitting provider.

      Customer Service Management Software Selection Guide Research & Tools

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

      1. Customer Service Management Software Selection Guide – A guide to walk you through the process of selecting CSM software.

      This trends and buyer’s guide will help you:

      • Customer Service Management Software Selection Guide Storyboard

      2. CSM Platform RFP Template – A template to provide vendors with a detailed account of the requirements and the expected capabilities of the desired suite.

      Create your own request for proposal (RFP) for your customer service management suite procurement process by customizing Info-Tech's RFP template.

      • CSM Platform RFP Template

      3. CSM Platform Opportunity Assessment Tool – A tool to assess whether a CSM solution is right for your organization.

      Use this tool to assess your maturity and fit for a CSM solution. It will help identify your current CSM state and assist with the decision to move forward with a new solution or augment certain features.

      • CSM Platform Opportunity Assessment Tool

      4. Software Selection Workbook – A workbook to document your progress as your select software.

      Keep stakeholders engaged with simple and friction-free templates to document your progress for Rapid Application Selection.

      • The Software Selection Workbook

      5. Vendor Evaluation Workbook – A workbook to assess vendor capabilities and compare vendors.

      Leverage a traceable and straightforward Vendor Evaluation Workbook to narrow the field of potential vendors and accelerate the application selection process.

      • The Vendor Evaluation Workbook

      6. CSM Platform RFP Scoring Tool – A tool to support your business in objectively evaluating the CSM vendors being considered for procurement.

      Create an objective and fair scoring process to evaluate the RFPs and demonstrations provided by shortlisted vendors. Within this framework, provide a multidimensional evaluation that analyzes the solution's functional capabilities, architecture, costs, service support, and overall suitability in comparison to the organization's expressed requirements.

      • CSM Platform RFP Scoring Tool

      7. CSM Platform Vendor Demo Script Template – A template to support your business’ evaluation of vendors and their solutions with an effective demonstration.

      Create an organized and streamlined vendor demonstration process by clearly outlining your expectations for the demo. Use the demo as an opportunity to ensure that capabilities expressed by vendors are actually present within the considered solution.

      • CSM Platform Vendor Demo Script Template
      [infographic]

      Further reading

      Customer Service Management Software Selection

      Market trends and buyer’s guide

      Analyst Perspective

      The pandemic and growing younger demographic have shifted the terrain of customer service delivery. Customer service management (CSM) tools ensure organizations enhance customer acquisition, customer retention, and overall revenues into the future.

      It is one thing to research customer service best practices; it is another to experience such service. Whether being put on hold for an hour with a telecommunications company, encountering voice biometric security with a bank, or receiving automated FAQs from a chatbot, we all perform our own primary research in customer service by going about our daily lives. Yet while the pandemic required a shift to this multichannel and digital assistant environment (to account for ongoing agent attrition), this trend was actually just accelerated. A growing younger demographic now prefers online communication channels to voice. Social media (whichever the platform) is a fundamental part of this demographic’s online presence and has instigated the need for customer service delivery to meet customers where they are – for both damage control and enhancing customer relationships.

      Organizations delivering customer service across multiple product lines need to examine what delivery channels they need to satisfy customers, alongside assessing how customer loyalty and cross-selling can increase revenues and company reputation. Customer service management tools can assist and enable the future state.

      Thomas Randall, Ph.D., Research Director

      Thomas Randall, Ph.D.
      Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge Common Obstacles Info-Tech’s Solution
      • The business is unaware of cross-selling opportunities across multiple product lines.
      • Customer service staff attrition rates continue to be high, creating longer response delays for voice channels.
      • Customer service responses are reactive in nature, reinforcing a poor culture for customer experience.
      • It is not clear if a CSM tool would resolve the business’ challenges or if a better-fitting technology solution is preferable (such as a customer relationship management add-on).
      • The business does not know its customer service maturity well enough to assess the feasibility of adopting a CSM tool.
      This trends and buyer’s guide will help you:
      1. Determine your organization’s customer service maturity (and thus if a standalone CSM tool is relevant).
      2. Understand key trends and differentiating features in the CSM marketspace.
      3. Evaluate major vendors in the CSM marketspace to discover the best-fitting provider.

      The objective at the end of the day is to have a single interface that the front-line staff interacts with. I think that is the holy grail when we look at CSM technology. The objective that everyone has in mind is we'd all like to get to one screen and one window. Ultimately, the end game really hasn't changed: How can we make it easy for the agents and how can we minimize their errors? How can we streamline the process so they can work?
      Colin Taylor, CEO, The Taylor Reach Group

      Customer service management tools form an integral part of your CXM technology portfolio

      Customer service management tools are an integral part of CXM

      Info-Tech’s methodology for selecting the right CSM platform

      1. Contextualize the CSM Landscape 2. Select the Right CSM Vendor
      Phase Steps
      1. Define CSM tools.
      2. Explore CSM trends.
      3. Understand if CSM tools are a good fit for your organization.
      1. Build the business case.
      2. Streamline requirements elicitation for CSM.
      3. Construct the request for proposal (RFP)/vendor evaluation workbook.
      Phase Outcomes
      1. Consensus on scope of CSM and key CSM capabilities
      2. Identify your customer service maturity and use for CSM tools
      1. CSM business case
      2. High-value use cases and requirements
      3. CSM RFP/vendor evaluation workbook

      Info-Tech Insight
      Need help constructing your RFP? Use Info-Tech’s CSM Platform RFP Template!

      Guided Implementation

      What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

      Phase 1 Phase 2

      Call #1: Discover if CSM tools are right for your organization. Understand what a CSM platform is and discover the “art of the possible.”

      Call #2: Identify right-sized vendors and build the business case to select a CSM platform.

      Call #3: Define your key CSM requirements.

      Call #4: Build procurement items, such as an RFP and demo script.

      Call #5: Evaluate vendors and perform final due diligence.

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

      The CSM selection process should be broken into segments:

      1. CSM vendor shortlisting with this buyer’s guide
      2. Structured approach to selection
      3. Contract review

      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 his the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place." "Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project."

      Diagnostics and consistent frameworks are used throughout all four options

      Software Selection Engagement

      Five Advisory Calls Over a Five-Week Period to Accelerate Your Selection Process

      Expert analyst guidance over five weeks on average to select and negotiate software

      Save money, align stakeholders, speed up the process, and make better decisions

      Use a repeatable, formal methodology to improve your application selection process

      Better, faster results, guaranteed, included in membership

      Five advisory calls over a five week period to accelerate your selection process

      Book Your Selection Engagement

      Software Selection Workshops

      40 Hours of Advisory Assistance Delivered Online

      Select Better Software, Faster

      40 hours of expert analyst guidance

      Project & stakeholder management assistance

      Save money, align stakeholders, speed up the process, and make better decisions

      Better, faster results, guaranteed, $25,000 standard engagement fee

      Software selection workshops

      Book Your Workshop Engagement

      Customer Service Management (CSM) Software

      Phase 1: Contextualize the CSM Landscape

      Receive and resolve after-sales requests within a unified CSM platform

      MULTIPLE CHANNELS
      Customers may resolve their issues via a variety of channels, including voice, SMS, email, social media, and live webchat.
      KNOWLEDGE BASE
      Provide a knowledge base for FAQs that is both customer facing (via customer portal) and agent facing (for live resolutions).
      ANALYTICS
      Track customer satisfaction, agent performances, ticket resolutions, backlogs, traffic analysis, and other key performance indicators (KPIs).
      COLLABORATION
      Enable agents to escalate and collaborate within a unified platform (e.g. tagging colleagues to flag a relevant customer query).

      Info-Tech Insight
      After-sales customer service is critical for creating, maintaining, and growing customer relationships. Organizations that fail to provide adequate service will be poorly positioned for future customer service and sales efforts.

      Identify your differentiating CSM requirements that align to your use cases

      INTEGRATIONS
      Note what integrations are available for your contact center, CRM, or industry-specific solutions (e.g. inventory management) to get the most out of CSM.

      SENTIMENT ANALYSIS
      Reads, contextualizes, and categorizes tickets by sentiment (e.g. “positive”) before escalating to an appropriate agent.

      AUTO-RESPONSE EDITOR
      Built-in AI provides prewritten responses or auto-pulls the relevant knowledge article, assisting agents with speed to resolution.

      ATTRIBUTES-BASED ROUTING
      Learns over time how best to route tickets to appropriate agents based on skills, availability, or proximity of an agent (e.g. multilingual, local, or specialist agents).

      AUTOMATED WORKFLOWS
      CSM tool providers have varying usability for workflow building and enablement. Ensure your use cases align.

      TICKET PRIORITIZATION
      Adapts and prioritizes customer issues by service-level agreement (SLA), priority, and severity according to inputted KPIs.

      Good technology will not fix a bad process. I don't care how good the technology is. If the use case is wrong and the process is wrong, it's not going to work.
      Colin Taylor, CEO
      The Taylor Reach Group

      Leverage CSM tools to shift left toward predictive customer service

      Real-time Pre-event Post-event
      Channel example: Notifications via SMS or social media. Channel example: Notifications via SMS or social media. Channel example: Working with an agent or live chatbot. Channel example: Working with an agent or live chatbot.
      “Your car may need a check-up for faulty parts.” “Here is a local garage to fix your tire pressure.” “I see you have poor tire pressure. Here is a local garage.” “Thank you for your patience, how can we help?”
      Predictive Service
      The CSM recommends mitigation options to the customer before the issue occurs and before the customer knows they need it.
      Proactive Service
      The issue occurs but the CSM recommends mitigation options to the customer before the customer contacts the organization.
      Real-Time Service
      The organization offers real-time mitigation options while working with the customer to resolve the issue.
      Reactive Service
      The customer approaches the organization after the issue occurs, but the organization has no insight into the event.

      Selecting a CSM tool should form part of your broader CXM strategy

      Organizations should ask whether they need a standalone CSM solution or a CSM as part of a broader suite of CXM tools. The latter is especially relevant if your organization already invests in a CXM platform.

      Matrix of CMS tools as part of CXM strategy

      CSM tools are best-suited for organizations with high product and service complexity

      Customer Service Complexity

      Low complexity refers to primarily transactional inquiries. High complexity refers to service workflows for symptom analysis, problem identification, and solution delivery.

      Product Complexity

      High complexity refers to having a large number of brands and individual SKUs, technologically complex products, and products with many add-ons.

      A matrix showing that a standalone CSM tool is best where customer service complexity and product complexity are both high.

      Info-Tech Insight
      Use Info-Tech’s CSM Platform Opportunity Assessment Tool to discover your organization’s customer service maturity.

      Activity: Discover your customer service maturity

      30 minutes

      1. Complete the CSM Platform Opportunity Assessment Tool.
      2. Evaluate your result and document whether a CSM business case is warranted (or if a separate technology selection process is needed).
      Input Output
      • Understanding of the current state and how complex the organization’s product line and help desk support are
      • Ranking of the importance of each decision point
      • Assessment results that provide a high-level view of whether your organization’s product and customer service complexity warrant a standalone CSM tool
      Materials Participants
      • CSM Platform Opportunity Assessment Tool
      • Shared screen or projection
      • Customer support analyst(s)
      • Infrastructure and Operations lead(s)
      • Representative customer support staff
      • Product management analyst(s)

      Download the CSM Platform Opportunity Assessment Tool

      Finalize whether your organization is well positioned to leverage CSM tools

      Bypass Adopt
      Monochannel approach
      You do not participate in multichannel campaigns or your customer personas are typically limited to one or two channels (e.g. voice or SMS).
      Multichannel approach
      You are pursuing multifaceted, customer-specific campaigns across a multitude of channels.
      Small to mid-sized business with small CX team
      Do not buy what you do not need. Focus on the foundations of customer experience (CX) first before extending into a full-fledged CSM tool.
      Maturing CX department
      Customer service needs are extending into managing budgets, generating and segmenting leads, and measuring channel effectiveness.
      Limited product range
      CSM tools typically gain return on investment (ROI) if the organization has a complex product range and is looking to increase cross-sell opportunities across different customer personas.
      Multiple product lines
      Customer base and product lines are large enough to engage in opportunities for cross- and up-selling.

      Case Study

      AkzoNobel

      INDUSTRY
      Retail

      SOURCE
      Sprinklr (2021)

      Use CSM tools to unify the multichannel experience and reduce response time.

      Challenge Solution Results
      AzkoNobel is a leading global paints and coatings company. AzkoNobel had 60+ fragmented customer service accounts on social media for multiple brands. There was little consistency in customer experience and agent responses. Moreover, the customer journey was not being tracked, resulting in lost opportunities for cross-selling across brands. The result: slow response times (up to one week) and unsatisfied customers, leaving the AzkoNobel brand in a vulnerable state.

      AkzoNobel leveraged Sprinklr, a customer experience software provider, to unify six social channels, 19 accounts, and six brands. Sprinklr aligned governance across social media channels with AzkoNobel’s strategic business goals, emphasizing the need for process, increasing revenue, and streamlining customer service.

      AzkoNobel was able to use keywords from customers’ inbound messaging to put an escalation process in place.

      Since bringing on Sprinklr in 2015-2016, unifying customer service channels under one multichannel platform resulted in:

      • 172% increase in customer engagement.
      • 133% increase in post comments.
      • 80% reduced response times.
      • 47% of inquiries answered within five minutes.
      • $18,500 added revenues via social media responses.

      How it got here: The birth of CSM tools

      CSM developed alongside the telephone and call center, rather than customer relationship management platforms.

      1920s 1950s 1967-1973 1980-1990s 2000-2010s
      The introduction of lines of credit and growth of household appliance innovations meant households were buying products at an unprecedented rate. Department stores would set up customer service sections to assist with live fixes or returns. Following the Great Depression and World War II, process, efficiency, and computational technology became defining features of customer service. These features were played out in call centers as automatic call distribution (ACD) technology began to scale. With the development of private automatic branch exchange (PABX), AT&T introduced the toll-free telephone number. Companies began training staff and departments for customer service and building loyalty. With the development of interactive voice response (IVR) in 1973, call centers became increasingly more efficient at routing. Analog technology shifted to digital and the term “contact center” was coined. These centers began being outsourced internationally. With the advent of the internet, CSM technology (in the early guise of a “help desk”) became equipped with computer telephony integration (CTI). Software as a service (SaaS) and CRM maturation strengthened the retention and organization of customer data. Social media also enhanced consumer power as companies rushed to prevent online embarrassment. This prompted investment in multichannel customer service.

      Where it’s going: The future of CSM tools lies in predictive analytics

      The capabilities below are available today but will mature over the next few years. Use the roadmap as a guide for your year of implementation.

      2023
      Go mobile first
      85% of customers believe a company’s mobile website should be just as good as its desktop website. Enabling user-friendly mobile websites provides an effective channel to keep inbound calls down.

      2024
      Shift from multichannel to omnichannel
      Integrating CSM tools with your broader CXM suite enables customer data to seamlessly travel between channels for an omnichannel experience.

      2025
      Enable predictive service
      CSM tools integrate with Internet of Things (IoT) systems to provide automated notifications that alert staff of issues and mitigate issues with customers before the issue even occurs.

      2026
      Leverage predictive analytics for ML use cases
      Use customers’ historic data and preferences to perform better automated customer service over time (e.g. providing personalized resolutions based on previous customer engagements).

      Context and scenario play a huge role in measuring good customer service. Ensure your KPIs accurately reflect the incentives you want to give your customer support staff for delivering appropriate customer service.
      David Thomas, Customer Service Specialist
      Freedom Mobile
      (Reve Chat, 2022)

      Key trends in CSM technology

      As predictive analytics matures, organizations are making use of CSM tools’ ability to enhance personalization, improve their social media response times, and enable self-service.

      BIOMETRICS
      65% of customers say they would accept voice recognition to authorize their identity when calling a customer support line (GetApp, 2021).

      PERSONALIZATION
      51% of marketers, advocating for personalization across multiple touchpoints saw 300% ROI (KoMarketing, 2020).

      SOCIAL MEDIA
      29% of customers aged 18 to 39 prefer online chat communication before and after purchase (RingCentral, 2020).

      SELF-SERVICE
      92% of customers say they would use a knowledge base for self-service support if it was available (Vanilla, 2020).

      Customer Service Management (CSM) Software

      Phase 2: Select the Right CSM Vendor

      Conduct a business impact assessment to document the case for CSM tool selection

      Business Opportunity
      Determine high-level understanding of the need that must be addressed, along with the project goals and affiliated key metrics. Establish KPIs to measure project success.

      System Diagram
      Determine the impact on the application portfolio and where integration is necessary.

      Risks
      Identify potential blockers and risk factors that will impede selection.

      High-Level Requirements
      Consider the business functions and processes affected.

      People Impact
      Confirm who will be affected by the output of the technology selection.

      Overall Business Case
      Calculate the ROI and the financial implications of the application selection. Highlight the overarching value.

      Activity: Build the business case

      2 hours

      1. Access the Business Impact Assessment within the Software Selection Workbook (linked below). Store the assessment in a shared folder (such as in SharePoint, OneDrive, or Google Drive).
      2. Set aside two hours (does not need to be all at once) to ensure the selection team aligns with the unifying rationale for selection.
      3. Complete the six steps to arrive at a high-level business case. This case can then be shared and communicated with interested parties (e.g. impacted stakeholders).
      InputOutput
      • Drivers for the business opportunity to adopt CSM tools
      • Understanding of key stakeholders
      • Overview of application portfolio
      • Budgetary information
      • Business Impact Assessment, which captures your high-level business case
      MaterialsParticipants
      • Software Selection Workbook
      • Screen sharing or projector
      • Whiteboard and drawing materials
      • Customer support analyst(s)
      • Infrastructure and Operations lead(s)
      • Representative customer support staff
      • Product management analyst(s)

      Download the Software Selection Workbook

      Elicit and prioritize granular requirements for your CSM platform

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

      Signs of poorly scoped requirements Best practices
      • Requirements focus on how the solution should work instead of what it must accomplish.
      • Multiple levels of detail exist within the requirements, which are inconsistent and confusing.
      • Requirements drill all the way down into system-level detail.
      • Language is technical and dense, leaving some stakeholder groups confused on what they are actually looking for in a solution.
      • Requirements are copied from a market analysis of the art of the possible, abstract from organization’s own customer persona analysis.
      • Get a clear understanding of what the system needs to do and what it is expected to produce. Build customer personas to assist with identifying high-value use cases.
      • Test against the principle of MECE – requirements should be “mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive.”
      • Use language that is consistent with that of the market and focus on key differentiators – not table stakes.
      • Include the appropriate level of detail, which should be suitable for procurement and sufficient for differentiating vendors.

      Info-Tech Insight
      Review Info-Tech’s requirements gathering methodology to improve your requirements gathering process.

      Choose your route: RFP or otherwise?

      As you gather requirements, decide which procurement route best suits your context.

      RFI (Request for Information) RFQ (Request for Quotation) RFP (Request for Proposal)
      Purpose and Usage

      Gather information about products/services when you know little about what’s available.

      Often followed by an RFP.

      Solicit pricing and delivery information for products/services with clearly defined requirements.

      Best for standard or commodity products/services.

      Solicit formal proposals from vendors to conduct an evaluation and selection process.

      Formal and fair process; identical for each participating vendor.

      Level of Intent

      Fact-finding there is no commitment to engage the vendor.

      Vendors are often reluctant to provide quotes.

      Committed to procure a specific product/service at the lowest price.

      Intent to buy the products/services in the RFP.

      Business case/approval to spend is already obtained.

      Level of Detail High-level requirements and business goals.

      Detailed specifications of what products/services are needed.

      Detailed contract and delivery terms.

      Detailed business requirements and objectives.

      Standard questions and contract term requests for all vendors.

      Response

      Generalized response with high-level product/services.

      Sometimes standard pricing quote.

      Price quote and confirmation of ability to fulfill desired terms.

      Detailed solution description, delivery approach, customized price quote, and additional requested information.

      Product demo and/or hands-on trial.

      Info-Tech Insight
      If you are in a hurry, consider instead issuing Info-Tech’s Vendor Evaluation Workbook. This workbook speeds up the typical procurement process by adding RFP-like requirements (such as operational and technical requirements) while driving the procurement process via emphasis on high-value use cases.

      Download the Vendor Evaluation Workbook

      Activity: Document requirements

      2 hours

      1. Review each tab of Info-Tech’s CSM Platform RFP Scoring Tool to generate use cases and ideas for your requirements building.
      2. Modify and include additional features you may need, using Info-Tech’s CSM Platform RFP Template to assist with structure (if pursuing an RFP process) or Vendor Evaluation Workbook (if an RFP process is not needed). Pay attention to any nonfunctional requirements (such as security or integrations), alongside future trends of CSM. Vendors must be able to scale with your organization’s growth.
      3. You can use the CSM Platform RFP Scoring Tool again when assessing vendor responses.
      Input Output
      • Key use cases that capture your most important customer service support processes
      • Discussion of CSM future trends and differentiating features
      • Confirmation on organization’s significant nonfunctional requirements (e.g. security or integrations)
      • Either a Requirements Workbook to go straight to shortlisted vendor(s) or an RFP document to solicit a broader market response
      Materials Participants
      • CSM Platform RFP Scoring Tool
      • CSM Platform RFP Template
      • Vendor Evaluation Workbook
      • Customer support analyst(s)
      • Infrastructure and Operations lead(s)
      • Other major stakeholders (for requirements elicitation)

      Download the CSM Platform RFP Scoring Tool

      Download the CSM Platform RFP Template

      Once vendor responses are in, turn product demos into investigative interviews

      Avoid vendor glitz and glamour shows by ensuring vendors are concretely applying their solution to your high-value use cases.

      1 Minimize the number of vendors to four to keep up the pace of the selection process.
      2 Provide a demo script that captures your high-value use cases and differentiating requirements.
      3 Ensure demos are booked close together and the selection committee attends all demos.

      Conduct a day of rapid-fire vendor demos

      Zoom in on high-value use cases and answers to targeted questions

      Rapid-fire vendor investigative interview

      Invite vendors to come onsite (or join you via videoconference) to demonstrate the product and answer questions. Use a highly targeted demo script to help identify how a vendor’s solution will fit your organization’s particular business capability needs.

      Give each vendor 90 to 120 minutes to give a rapid-fire presentation. We suggest the following structure:

      • 30 minutes: Company introduction and vision
      • 60 minutes: Walkthrough of two or three high-value demo scenarios
      • 30 minutes: Targeted Q&A from the business stakeholders and procurement team

      To ensure a consistent evaluation, vendors should be asked analogous questions and answers should be tabulated.

      How to challenge the vendors in the investigative interview

      • Change the visualization/presentation.
      • Change the underlying data.
      • Add additional data sets to the artifacts.
      • Test voice quality (if the vendor offers a native telephony channel).
      • Test collaboration capabilities.

      To kick-start scripting your demo scenarios, leverage our CSM Platform Vendor Demo Script Template.

      A vendor scoring model provides a clear anchor point for your evaluation of CRM vendors based on a variety of inputs

      A vendor scoring model is a systematic method for effectively assessing competing vendors. A weighted-average scoring model is an approach that strikes a strong balance between rigor and evaluation speed.

      How do I build a scoring model? What are some of the best practices?
      • Start by shortlisting the key criteria you will use to evaluate your vendors. Functional capabilities should always be a critical category, but you’ll also want to look at criteria such as affordability, architectural fit, and vendor viability.
      • Depending on the complexity of the project, you may break down some criteria into subcategories to assist with evaluation (for example, breaking down functional capabilities into constituent use cases so you can score each one).
      • Once you’ve developed the key criteria for your project, the next step is weighting each criterion. Your weightings should reflect the priorities for the project at hand. For example, some projects may put more emphasis on affordability, others on vendor partnership.
      • Using the information collected in the subsequent phases of this blueprint, score each criterion from 1 to 100, then multiply by the weighting factor. Add up the weighted scores to arrive at the aggregate evaluation score for each vendor on your shortlist.
      • While the criteria for each project may vary, it’s helpful to have an inventory of repeatable criteria that can be used across application selection projects. The next slide contains an example that you can add to or subtract from.
      • Don’t go overboard on the number of criteria: five to ten weighted criteria should be the norm for most projects. The more criteria (and subcriteria) you must score against, the longer it will take to conduct your evaluation. Always remember, link the level of rigor to the size and complexity of your project! It’s possible to create a convoluted scoring model that takes significant time to fill out but yields little additional value.
      • Creation of the scoring model should be a consensus-driven activity among IT, procurement, and the key business stakeholders – it should not be built in isolation. Everyone should agree on the fundamental criteria and weights that are employed.
      • Consider using not just the outputs of investigative interviews and RFP responses to score vendors, but also third-party review services like SoftwareReviews.

      Info-Tech Insight
      Even the best scoring model will still involve some “art” rather than science. Scoring categories such as vendor viability always entail a degree of subjective interpretation.

      Define how you will score vendor responses and demos

      Your key CSM criteria should be informed by the following goals, use cases, and requirements.

      Criteria Description
      Functional Capabilities How well does the vendor align with the top-priority functional requirements identified in your accelerated needs assessment? What is the vendor’s functional breadth and depth?
      Affordability How affordable is this vendor? Consider a three-to-five-year total cost of ownership (TCO) that encompasses not just licensing costs but also implementation, integration, training, and ongoing support costs.
      Architectural Fit How well does this vendor align with your direction from an enterprise architecture perspective? How interoperable is the solution with existing applications in your technology stack? Does the solution meet your deployment model preferences?
      Extensibility How easy is it to augment the base solution with native or third-party add-ons as your business needs may evolve?
      Scalability How easy is it to expand the solution to support increased user, data, and/or customer volumes? Does the solution have any capacity constraints?
      Vendor Viability How viable is this vendor? Are they an established player with a proven track record or a new and untested entrant to the market? What is the financial health of the vendor? How committed are they to the particular solution category?
      Vendor Vision Does the vendor have a cogent and realistic product roadmap? Are they making sensible investments that align with your organization’s internal direction?
      Emotional Footprint How well does the vendor’s organizational culture and team dynamics align to yours?
      Third-Party Assessments and/or References How well-received is the vendor by unbiased third-party sources like SoftwareReviews? For larger projects, how well does the vendor perform in reference checks (and how closely do those references mirror your own situation)?

      Leverage Info-Tech’s Contract Review Services to level the playing field with 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 Services to gain insights on your agreements.

      Consider the aspects of a contract review:

      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.

      Book Contract Review Service

      Download Master Contract Review and Negotiation for Software Agreements

      Customer Service Management (CSM) Software

      Vendor Analysis

      Evaluate software category leaders through vendor rankings and awards

      SoftwareReviews

      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.

      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.

      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.

      Click here to access SoftwareReviews

      Comprehensive software reviews to make better IT decisions

      We collect and analyze the most detailed reviews on enterprise software from real users to give you an unprecedented view into the product and vendor before you buy.

      Microsoft Dynamics 365

      Est. 2003 | WA, USA | MSFT:NASDAQ

      Bio

      To accelerate your digital transformation, you need a new type of business application. One that breaks down the silos between CRM and ERP, that’s powered by data and intelligence, and helps capture new business opportunities. That’s Microsoft Dynamics 365.

      Offices

      Microsoft is located all over the world. For a full list, see Microsoft Worldwide Sites.

      representative Customers

      Stated Industry Specializations

      • Covers an extremely wide range of industries, such as finance, education, government, healthcare, manufacturing, and retail.

      Software review for Microsoft

      SoftwareReviews’ CSM Enterprise Vendor Ranking
      (out of 7)

      Likeliness to Recommend

      • 7th (81%)

      Plan to Renew

      • 6th (93%)

      Satisfaction That Cost Is Fair Relative to Value

      • 2nd (81%)

      Strengths

      • Product Strategy and Rate of Improvement (1st)
      • Ease of Customization (1st)
      • Breadth of Features (2nd)

      Areas to Improve

      • Availability and Quality of Training (5th)
      • Ease of Implementation (7th)
      • Usability and Intuitiveness (7th

      Microsoft Dynamics 365

      History

      Founded 2003 (as Microsoft Dynamics CRM)
      2005 Second version branded Dynamics 3.0.
      2009 Dynamics CRM 4.0 (Titan) passes 1 million user mark.
      2015 Announces availability of CRM Cloud design for FedRAMP compliance.
      2016 Dynamics 365 released as successor to Dynamics CRM.
      2016 Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn provides line of data to 500 million users.
      2021 First-party voice channel added to Dynamics 365.
      2022 Announces Digital Contact Center Platform powered with Nuance AI, MS Teams, and Dynamics 365.

      Microsoft is rapidly innovating in the customer experience technology marketspace. Alongside Dynamics 365’s omnichannel offering, Microsoft is building out its own native contact center platform. This will provide new opportunities for centralization without multivendor management between Dynamics 365, Microsoft Teams, and an additional third-party telephony or contact-center-as-a-service (CCaaS) vendor. SoftwareReviews reports suggest that Microsoft is a market leader in the area of product innovation for CSM, and this area of voice channel capability is where I see most industry interest.

      Of course, Dynamics 365 is not a platform to get only for CSM functionality. Users will typically be a strong Microsoft shop already (using Dynamics 365 for customer relationship management) and are looking for native CSM features to enhance customer service workflow management and self-service.
      Thomas Randall
      Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

      Info-Tech Insight
      Pricing for Microsoft Dynamics 365 is often contextualized to an organization’s needs. However, this can create complicated licensing structures. Two Info-Tech resources to assist are:

      *This service may be used for other enterprise CSM providers too, including Salesforce, ServiceNow, SAP, and Oracle.
      Contact your account manager to review your access to this service.

      Freshworks

      Est. 2010 | CA, USA | FRSH:NASDAQ

      Bio

      Freshworks' cloud-based customer support software, Freshdesk, makes customer happiness refreshingly easy. With powerful features, an easy-to-use interface, and a freemium pricing model, Freshdesk enables companies of all sizes to provide a seamless multichannel support experience across email, phone, web, chat, forums, social media, and mobile apps. Freshdesk’s capabilities include robust ticketing, SLA management, smart automations, intelligent reporting, and game mechanics to motivate agents.

      Offices

      • Americas: US
      • Asia-Pacific (APAC): Australia, India, Singapore
      • Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA): France, Germany, Netherlands, UK

      Freshworks Representative Customers

      Stated Industry Specializations

      • Automotive
      • Education
      • Energy
      • Finance
      • Healthcare
      • Nonprofit
      • Professional Services
      • Publishing
      • Real Estate
      • Retail
      • Travel

      Software Review of Freshworks

      SoftwareReviews’ CSM Enterprise Vendor Ranking
      (out of 7)

      Likeliness to Recommend

      • 3rd (83%)

      Plan to Renew

      • 4th (94%)

      Satisfaction That Cost Is Fair Relative to Value

      • 3rd (80%)

      Strengths

      • Breadth of Features (1st)
      • Usability and Intuitiveness (1st)
      • Ease of Implementation (2nd)

      Areas to Improve

      • Ease of IT Administration (3rd)
      • Vendor Support (4th)
      • Product Strategy and Rate of Improvement (4th)

      Freshworks

      History

      Founded 2010
      2011 Freshdesk forms a core component of product line.
      2014 Raises significant capital in Series D round: $31M.
      2016 Acquires Airwoot, enabling real-time customer support on social media.
      2019 Raises $150M in Series H funding round.
      2019 Acquires Natero, which predicts, analyzes, and drives customer behavior.
      2021 Surpasses $300M in annual recurring revenues.
      2021 Freshworks posts its IPO listing.

      Freshworks stepped into the SaaS customer support marketspace in 2010 to attract dissatisfied Zendesk eSupport customers, following Zendesk’s large price increases that year (of 300%). After performing well during the pandemic, Freshworks has reinforced its global positioning in the CSM tool marketspace; SoftwareReviews data suggests Freshworks performs very well against its competitors for breadth and intuitiveness of its features.

      Freshworks receives strong recommendations from Info-Tech’s members, boasting a broad product selection that enables opportunities for scaling and receiving a high rate of value return. Of note are Freshworks’ internal customer management solution and its native contact center offering, limiting multivendor management typically required for integrating separate IT service management (ITSM) and CCaaS solutions.
      Thomas Randall
      Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

      Free Growth Pro Enterprise
      • $0 up to 10 agents
      • Knowledge base
      • Ticket routing
      • Out-of-box analytics
      • $15 agent/month
      • Collision detection
      • Integrations
      • Automated follow-ups
      • $49 agent/month
      • Multiple product lines
      • Personalization
      • CSAT surveys
      • Customer journey
      • $79 agent/month
      • Assist bot and email bot
      • Skill-based routing

      *Pricing correct as of November 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
      See pricing on vendor’s website for latest information.

      Help Scout

      Est. 2006 | MA, USA | HUBS:NYSE

      Bio
      Help Scout is designed with your customers in mind. Provide email and live chat with a personal touch and deliver help content right where your customers need it, all in one place, all for one low price. The customer experience is simple and training staff is painless, but Help Scout still has all the powerful features you need to provide great support at scale. With best-in-class reporting, an integrated knowledge base, 50+ integrations, and a robust API, Help Scout lets your team focus on what really matters: your customers.

      Offices

      • Americas: Canada, Colombia, US
      • APAC: Australia, Japan, Singapore
      • EMEA: Belgium, France, Ireland, Germany, UK

      Questions for support transition

      Stated Industry Specializations

      • eCommerce
      • Education
      • Finance
      • Healthcare
      • Logistics
      • Manufacturing
      • Media
      • Professional Services
      • Property Management
      • Software

      Software Review of Help Scout

      SoftwareReviews’ CSM Enterprise Vendor Ranking
      (out of 7)

      Likeliness to Recommend

      • 4th (82%)

      Plan to Renew

      • 7th (87%)

      Satisfaction That Cost Is Fair Relative to Value

      • 7th (71%)

      Strengths

      • Business Value Created (1st)
      • Ease of Data Integration (1st)
      • Breadth of Features (3rd)

      Areas to Improve

      • Ease of IT Administration (5th)
      • Product Strategy and Rate of Improvement (5th)
      • Quality of Features (6th)

      Help Scout

      History

      Founded 2011
      2015 Raised $6M in Series A funding.
      2015 Rebrands from Brightwurks to Help Scout.
      2015 Named by Appstorm as one of six CSM tools to delight Mac users.
      2016 iOS app released.
      2017 Android app released.
      2020 All employees instructed to work remotely.
      2021 Raises $15M in Series B funding.

      Help Scout provides a simplified, standalone CSM tool that operates like a shared email inbox. Best suited for mid-sized organizations, customers can expect live chat, in-app messaging, and knowledge-base functionality. A particular strength is Help Scout’s integration capabilities, with a wide range of CRM, eCommerce, marketing, and communication APIs available. This strength is also reflected in the data: SoftwareReviews lists Help Scout as first in its CSM category for ease of data integrations.

      Customers who are expecting a broader range of channels (including voice, video cobrowsing, and so on) will not find good return on investment with Help Scout. However, for mid-sized organizations looking to begin maturing their customer service management, Help Scout provides a strong foundation – especially for enhancing in-house collaboration between support staff.
      Thomas Randall
      Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

      Standard Plus Pro
      • $20 user/month
      • Live chat
      • Up to 25 users
      • 50+ integrations
      • 2 mailboxes
      • $40 user/month
      • Advanced permissions
      • Group users
      • 5 mailboxes
      • $65 user/month
      • HIPAA compliance
      • Onboarding service
      • Dedicated account manager

      *Pricing correct as of November 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
      See pricing on vendor’s website for latest information.

      HubSpot

      Est. 2006 | MA, USA | HUBS:NYSE

      Bio
      HubSpot’s Service Hub brings all your customer service data and channels together in one place and helps scale your support through automation and self-service. The result? More time for proactive service that delights, retains, and grows your customer base. HubSpot provides software and support to help businesses grow better. The overall platform includes marketing, sales, service, and website management products that start free and scale to meet our customers’ needs at any stage of growth.

      Offices

      • Americas: Canada, Colombia, US
      • APAC: Australia, Japan, Singapore
      • EMEA: Belgium, France, Ireland, Germany, UK

      HubSpot Representative Customers

      Stated Industry Specializations

      • Covers an extremely wide range of industries, such as finance, education, healthcare, manufacturing, and retail.

      Software Review for HubSpot

      SoftwareReviews’ CSM Enterprise Vendor Ranking
      (out of 7)

      Likeliness to Recommend

      • 1st (88%)

      Plan to Renew

      • 1st (98%)

      Satisfaction That Cost Is Fair Relative to Value

      • 5th (78%)

      Strengths:

      • Vendor Support (1st)
      • Availability and Quality of Training (1st)
      • Ease of IT Administration (1st)

      Areas to Improve:

      • Ease of Data Integration (5th)
      • Ease of Customization (5th)
      • Breadth of Features (7th)

      HubSpot

      History

      Founded 2006
      2013 Opens first international office in Ireland.
      2014 First IPO listing on NYSE, raising $140M.
      2015 Milestone for acquiring 15,000 customers
      2017 Acquires Kemvi for AI and ML support for sales teams.
      2019 Acquires PieSync for customer data synchronization.
      2021 Yamini Rangan is announced as new CEO.
      2021 Records $1B in revenues.

      HubSpot is a competitive player in the enterprise sales and marketing technology market. Offering an all-in-one platform, HubSpot allows users to leverage its CRM, marketing solutions, content management tool, and CSM tool. Across knowledge management, contact center integration, and customer self-service, SoftwareReviews data pits HubSpot as performing better than its enterprise competitors.

      While customers can leverage HubSpot’s CSM tool independently, watch out for scope creep. HubSpot’s other offerings are tightly integrated and module extensions could quickly add up in price. HubSpot may not be affordable for most regional, mid-sized organizations, and a poor ROI may be expected. For instance, the Pro plan is required to get a knowledge base, which is typically a standard CSM feature – yet the same plan also comes with multicurrency support, which could remain unleveraged.
      Thomas Randall
      Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

      Free Starter Pro Enterprise
      • $0 month
      • Ticketing
      • Live chat
      • 200 notifications per month
      • $45 month
      • 5,000 email templates
      • White label
      • 500 calling minutes
      • $450 month
      • 30 currencies
      • Knowledge base
      • Up to 300 workflows
      • $1,200 month
      • Conversation intelligence
      • SSO

      *Pricing correct as of November 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
      See pricing on vendor’s website for latest information.

      Salesforce

      Est. 1999 | CA, USA | CRM:NYSE

      Bio

      Service Cloud customer service software gives you faster, smarter customer support. Salesforce provides customer relationship management software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, analytics, and application development.

      Offices

      • Americas: US
      • APAC: Australia, India, Singapore
      • EMEA: France, Germany, Netherlands, UK

      Salesforce Representative Customers

      Stated Industry Specializations

      • Covers an extremely wide range of industries, such as finance, education, government, healthcare, manufacturing, and retail.

      Software Review for Salesforce

      SoftwareReviews’ CSM Enterprise Vendor Ranking
      (out of 7)

      Likeliness to Recommend

      • 6th (81%)

      Plan to Renew

      • 2nd (96%)

      Satisfaction That Cost Is Fair Relative to Value

      • 4th (79%)

      Strengths:

      • Usability and Intuitiveness (5th)
      • Breadth of Features (5th)
      • Ease of Implementation (6th)

      Areas to Improve:

      • Ease of IT Administration (7th)
      • Availability and Quality of Training (7th)
      • Ease of Customization (7th)

      Salesforce

      History

      Founded 1999
      2000 Salesforce launches its cloud-based products.
      2003 The first Dreamforce (a leading CX conference) happens.
      2005 Salesforce unveils AppExchange.
      2013 Salesforce acquires ExactTarget and expands Marketing Cloud offering.
      2016 Salesforce acquires Demandware, launches Commerce Cloud.
      2019 Salesforce acquires Tableau to expand business intelligence capabilities.
      2021 Salesforce buys major collaboration vendor Slack.

      Salesforce was an early disruptor in CRM marketspace, placing a strong emphasis on a SaaS delivery model and end-user experience. This allowed Salesforce to rapidly gain market share at the expense of complacent enterprise application vendors. A series of savvy acquisitions over the years has allowed Salesforce to augment its core Sales and Service Clouds with a wide variety of other solutions, from ecommerce to marketing automation – and recently Slack for internal collaboration.

      Salesforce Service Cloud Voice is now available to take advantage of integrating telephony and voice channels into your CRM. This service is still maturing, though, with Salesforce selecting Amazon Connect as its preferred integrator. However, Connect is not necessarily plug-and-play – it is a communications platform as a service, requiring you to build your own contact center solution. This is either a fantastic opportunity for creativity or a time suck of already tied-up resources.
      Thomas Randall
      Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

      Service Cloud Essentials Service Cloud Professional Service Cloud Enterprise Service Cloud Unlimited
      • $25 user/month
      • Small businesses after basic functionality
      • $75 user/month
      • Mid-market target
      • $150 user/month
      • Enterprise target
      • Web Services API
      • $300 user/month
      • Strong upmarket feature additions

      *Pricing correct as of November 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
      See pricing on vendor’s website for latest information.

      Zendesk

      Est. 2007 | CA, USA | ZEN:NYSE

      Bio

      Zendesk streamlines your support with time-saving tools like ticket views, triggers, and automations. This helps you get straight to what matters most – better customer service and more meaningful conversations. Today, Zendesk is the champion of great service everywhere for everyone and powers billions of conversations, connecting more than 100,000 brands with hundreds of millions of customers over telephony, chat, email, messaging, social channels, communities, review sites, and help centers.

      Offices

      • Americas: Brazil, Canada, US
      • APAC: Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam
      • EMEA: Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, UK

      Zendesk Representative Customers

      Stated Industry Specializations

      • Education
      • Finance
      • Government
      • Healthcare
      • Manufacturing
      • Media
      • Retail
      • Software
      • Telecommunications

      Software Review for Zendesk

      SoftwareReviews’ CSM Enterprise Vendor Ranking
      (out of 7)

      Likeliness to Recommend

      • 5th (81%)

      Plan to Renew

      • 5th (94%)

      Satisfaction That Cost Is Fair Relative to Value

      • 6th (77%)

      Strengths

      • Ease of IT Administration (2nd)
      • Ease of Implementation (5th)
      • Quality of Features (5th)

      Areas to Improve

      • Business Value Created (7th)
      • Vendor Support (7th)
      • Product Strategy and Rate of Improvement (7th)

      Zendesk

      History

      Founded 2007
      2008 Initial seed funding of $500,000.
      2009 Receives $6M through Series B Funding.
      2009 Relocates from Copenhagen to San Francisco.
      2014 Acquires Zopin Technologies.
      2014 Listed on NYSE.
      2015 Acquires We Are Cloud SAS.
      2018 Launches Zendesk Sell.

      Zendesk is a global player in the CSM tool marketspace and works with enterprises across a wide variety of industries. Unlike some other CSM players, Zendesk provides more service channels at its lowest licensing offer, affording organizations a quicker expansion in customer service delivery without making enterprise-grade investments. However, the price of the lowest licensing offer starts much higher than Zendesk’s competitors; organizations will need to consider if the cost to try Zendesk over an annual contract is within budget.

      Unfortunately, SoftwareReviews data suggests that Zendesk may not always provide that immediate value, especially to mid-sized organizations. Zendesk is rated lower for vendor support and business value created. However, Zendesk provides strong functionality that competes with other enterprise players, and mid-sized organizations are continually impressed with Zendesk’s automation workflows.
      Thomas Randall
      Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

      *Pricing correct as of November 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
      See pricing on vendor’s website for latest information.

      Team Growth Pro
      • $49 user/month
      • Ticketing
      • Email, voice, SMS, and live chat channels
      • $79 user/month
      • AI-powered knowledge management
      • Self-service portal
      • $99 user/month
      • HIPAA compliance
      • Customizable dashboards

      LiveChat

      Est. 2002 | Poland | WSE:LVC

      Bio

      Manage all emails from customers in one app and save time on customer support. LiveChat is a real-time live-chat software tool for ecommerce sales and support that is helping ecommerce companies create a new sales channel. It serves more than 30,000 businesses in over 150 countries, including large brands like Adobe, Asus, LG, Acer, Better Business Bureau, and Air Asia and startups like SproutSocial, Animoto, and HasOffers.

      Offices

      • Americas: US
      • EMEA: Poland

      LiveChat Representative Customers

      Stated Industry Specializations

      • eCommerce
      • Education
      • Finance
      • Software and IT

      Software Review for LiveChat

      SoftwareReviews’ CSM Midmarket Vendor Ranking
      (out of 8)

      Likeliness to Recommend

      • 1st (93%)

      Plan to Renew

      • 4th (92%)

      Satisfaction That Cost Is Fair Relative to Value

      • 5th (83%)

      Strengths

      • Product Strategy and Rate of Improvement (1st)
      • Usability and Intuitiveness (1st)
      • Breadth of Features (1st)

      Areas to Improve

      • Ease of Implementation (5th)
      • Ease of IT Administration (5th)
      • Ease of Customization (7th)

      LiveChat

      History

      Founded 2002
      2006 50% of company stock bought by Capital Partners.
      2008 Capital Partners sells entire stake to Naspers.
      2011 LiveChat buys back majority of stakeholder shares.
      2013 Listed by Red Herring in group of most innovative companies across Europe.
      2014 Listed on Warsaw Stock Exchange.
      2019 HelpDesk is launched.
      2020 Offered services for free to organizations helping mitigate the pandemic.

      LiveChat’s HelpDesk solution for CSM is a relatively recent solution (2019) that is proving very popular for small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) – especially across Western Europe. SoftwareReviews’ data shows that HelpDesk is well-rated for breadth of features, usability and intuitiveness, and rate of improvement. Indeed, LiveChat has won and been shortlisted for several awards over the past decade for customer feedback, innovation, and fast growth to IPO.

      When shortlisting LiveChat’s HelpDesk, SMBs should be careful of scope creep. LiveChat offers a range of other solutions that are intended to work together. The LiveChat self-titled product is designed to integrate with HelpDesk to provide ticketing, email management, and chat management. Moreover, LiveChat’s AI-based ChatBot (for automated webchat) comes with additional cost (starting at $52 team/month).
      Thomas Randall
      Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

      Team Plan Enterprise
      • $29 user/month.
      • Customized canned responses
      • Real-time reporting
      • Request quote
      • White labelling
      • Product training
      • Account manager

      *Pricing correct as of November 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
      See pricing on vendor’s website for latest information.

      ManageEngine

      Est. 1996 | India | Privately Owned

      Bio

      SupportCenter Plus is a web-based customer support software that lets organizations effectively manage customer tickets, their account and contact information, and their service contracts, and in the process provide a superior customer experience. ManageEngine is a division of Zoho.

      Offices

      • Americas: Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, US
      • APAC: Australia, China, India, Japan, Singapore
      • EMEA: Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, UAE, UK

      ManageEngine Representative Customers

      Stated Industry Specializations

      • None stated but representative customers cover manufacturing, R&D, real estate, and transportation.

      Software Review for ManageEngine

      SoftwareReviews’ CSM Midmarket Vendor Ranking
      (out of 8)

      Likeliness to Recommend

      • 6th (85%)

      Plan to Renew

      • 5th (91%)

      Satisfaction That Cost Is Fair Relative to Value

      • 6th (83%)

      Strengths

      • Ease of Customization (1st)
      • Ease of Implementation (2nd)
      • Ease of IT Administration (2nd)

      Areas to Improve

      • Quality of Features (4th)
      • Usability and Intuitiveness (6th)
      • Availability and Quality of Training (8th)

      ManageEngine

      History

      Founded 1996
      2002 Branches from Zoho to become division focused on IT management.
      2004 Becomes an authorized MySQL Partner.
      2009 Begins shift of offerings into the cloud.
      2010 Tops 35,000 customers.
      2011 Integration with Zoho Assist.
      2015 Integration with Zoho Reports.

      ManageEngine, as a division of Zoho, has its strengths in IT operations management (ITOM). SupportCenter thus scores well in our SoftwareReviews data for ease of customization, implementation, and administration. As ManageEngine is a frequently discussed low-cost vendor in the ITOM market, customers often get good scalability across IT, sales, and marketing teams. Although SupportCenter is aimed at the midmarket and is low cost, organizations have the benefit of ManageEngine’s global presence and backing by Zoho for viability.

      However, because ManageEngine’s focus is ITOM, the breadth and quality of features for SupportCenter are not rated as well compared to its competitors. These features may be “good enough,” but usability and intuitiveness is not scored high. Organizations thinking about SupportCenter are recommended to identify their high-value use cases and perform user acceptance testing before adopting.
      Thomas Randall
      Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

      Standard* Pro* Enterprise*
      • Account and contact management
      • Knowledge base
      • SLA management
      • Customer portal
      • Active Directory integration
      • Reporting and dashboards
      • Billing contracts
      • Live chat
      • APIs
      • Automation tools

      *Pricing unavailable. Request quote.
      See pricing on vendor’s website for latest information.

      Zoho Desk

      Est. 1996 | India | Privately Owned

      Bio

      Use the power of customer context to improve agent productivity, promote self-service, manage cross-functional service processes, and increase customer happiness. Zoho offers beautifully smart software to help you grow your business. With over 80 million users worldwide, Zoho's 55+ products (including Zoho Desk) aid your sales and marketing, support and collaboration, finance, and recruitment needs – letting you focus only on your business.

      Offices

      • Americas: Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, US
      • APAC: Australia, China, India, Japan, Singapore
      • EMEA: Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, UAE, UK

      Zoho Desk Representative Customers

      Stated Industry Specializations

      • Covers an extremely wide range of industries, such as finance, education, government, healthcare, manufacturing, and retail.

      Software Review for Zoho Desk

      SoftwareReviews’ CSM Midmarket Vendor Ranking
      (out of 8)

      Likeliness to Recommend

      • 2nd (90%)

      Plan to Renew

      • 2nd (98%)

      Satisfaction That Cost Is Fair Relative to Value

      • 3rd (83%)

      Strengths

      • Breadth of Features (2nd)
      • Quality of Features (3rd)
      • Ease of Implementation (3rd)

      Areas to Improve

      • Business Value Created (5th)
      • Ease of Data Integration (5th)
      • Product Strategy and Rate of Improvements (5th)

      Zoho Desk

      History

      Founded 1996
      2001 Expands into Japan and shifts focus to SMBs.
      2006 Zoho CRM is launched, alongside first Office suite.
      2008 Reaches 1M users.
      2009 Rebrands from AdventNet to Zoho Corp.
      2011 Zoho Desk is built and launched.
      2017 Zoho One, a suite of applications, is launched.
      2020 Reaches 50M users.

      Zoho Desk is one of the highest scoring CSM tool providers for likelihood to renew and recommend (98% and 90%, respectively). A major reason is that users receive a broad range of functionality for a lower-cost price model. There is also the capacity to scale with Zoho Desk as midmarket customers expand; companies can grow with Zoho and can receive high return on investment in the process.

      However, while Zoho Desk can be used as a standalone CSM tool, there is danger of scope creep with other Zoho products. Zoho now has 50+ applications, all tied into one another. For Zoho Desk, customers may also lean into Zoho Assist (for troubleshooting customer problems via remote access) and Zoho Lens (for reality-based remote assistance, typically for plant machinery or servers). Consequently, customers should keep an eye on business value created if the scope of CSM grows wider.
      Thomas Randall
      Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

      Standard Pro Enterprise
      • $14 user/month
      • 1 social media channel
      • 5 workflow rules
      • $23 user/month
      • Telephony channel
      • Round-robin ticket assignment
      • Ticket sharing
      • $40 user/month
      • Live chat
      • Contract management SLAs

      *Pricing correct as of November 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
      See pricing on vendor’s website for latest information.

      Summary of AccomplishmentSuccessful selection of a CSM tool

      In this trends and buyer’s guide for CSM tool selection, we engaged in several activities to:

      1. Contextualize the CSM technology marketspace.
      2. Engage in a selection process for CSM tools.

      The result:

      • Understanding of key trends and differentiating features in the CSM marketspace.
      • Determination of your organization’s customer service maturity (and thus if a standalone CSM tool is relevant).
      • Identification of high-value use cases that CSM tools should successfully enable.
      • Evaluation of major vendors in the CSM marketspace to discover the best-fitting provider.
      • Procurement items to finalize selection process.

      If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through an Info-Tech workshop or Guided Implementation

      Contact your account representative for more information.
      workshops@infotech.com
      1-888-670-8889

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      • Design an end-to-end technology strategy to drive sales revenue, enhance marketing effectiveness, and create compelling experiences for your customers.

      Bibliography

      Capers, Zach. “How the Pandemic Changed Customer Attitudes Toward Biometric Technology.” GetApp, 21 Feb. 2022. Accessed Nov. 2022.

      Gomez, Jenny. “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: A History of Customer Service.” Lucidworks, 15 Jul. 2021. Accessed Nov. 2022.

      Hoory. “History of Customer Service: How Did It All Begin?” Hoory, 24 Mar. 2022. Accessed Nov. 2022.

      Patel, Snigdha. “Top 10 Customer Service Technology Trends to Follow in 2022.” Reve Chat, 21 Feb. 2021. Accessed Nov. 2022.

      RingCentral. “The 2020 Customer Communications Review: A Survey of How Consumers Prefer to Communicate with Businesses.” RingCentral, 2020. Accessed Nov. 2022.

      Robinson-Yu, Sarah. “What is a Knowledgebase? How Can It Help my Business?” Vanilla, 25 Feb. 2022. Accessed Nov. 2022.

      Salesforce. “The Complete History of CRM.” Salesforce, n.d. Accessed Nov. 2022.

      Salesforce. “State of the Connected Customer.” 5th ed. Salesforce, 2022. Accessed Nov. 2022.

      Sprinklr. “How AzkoNobel UK Reduced Response Times and Increased Engagement.” Sprinklr, 2021. Accessed Nov. 2022.

      Vermes, Krystle. “Study: 70% of Marketers Using Advanced Personalization Seeing 200% ROI.” KoMarketing, 2 Jun. 2020. Accessed Nov. 2022.

      Research Contributors and Experts

      Colin Taylor, CEO, The Taylor Research Group

      Colin Taylor
      CEO
      The Taylor Reach Group

      Recognized as one of the leading contact/call center pioneers and experts, Colin has received 30 awards on two continents for excellence in contact center management and has been acknowledged as a leader and influencer on the topics of call/contact centers, customer service, and customer experience, in published rankings on Huffington Post, Call Center Helper, and MindShift. Colin was recognized as number 6 in the global 100 for customer service.

      The Taylor Reach Group is a contact center, call center and customer experience (CX) consultancy specializing in CX consulting and call and contact center consulting, management, performance, technologies, site selection, tools, training development and center leadership training, center audits, benchmarking, and assessments.

      David Thomas, Customer Service Specialist, Freedom Mobile

      David Thomas
      Customer Service Specialist
      Freedom Mobile

      David Thomas has both managerial and hands-on experience with delivering quality service to Freedom Mobile customers. With several years being involved in training customer support and being at the forefront of retail during the pandemic, David has witnessed first-hand how to incentivize staff with the right metrics that create positive experiences for both staff and customers.

      Freedom Mobile Inc. is a Canadian wireless telecommunications provider owned by Shaw Communications. It has 6% market share of Canada, mostly in urban areas of Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta. Freedom Mobile is the fourth-largest wireless carrier in Canada.

      A special thanks to three other anonymous contributors, all based in customer support and contact center roles for Canada’s National Park Booking Systems’ software provider.

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      • Globalization and increased competition are driving a need for more innovation in your applications.
      • Firms want more cost certainty and tighter control of their development investment.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Choosing the right sourcing strategy is not just a question of technical skills! Successful sourcing is based on matching your organization’s culture, knowledge, and experiences to the right choice of internal or external partnership.

      Impact and Result

      • We will help you build a sourcing strategy document for your application portfolio.
      • We will examine your portfolio and organization from three different perspectives to enable you to determine the right approach:
        • From a business perspective, reliance on the business, strategic value of the product, and maturity of product ownership are critical.
        • From an organizational perspective, you must examine your culture for communication processes, conflict resolution methods, vendor management skills, and geographic coverage.
        • From a technical perspective, consider integration complexity, environmental complexity, and testing processes.

      Define a Sourcing Strategy for Your Development Team Research & Tools

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

      1. Define a Sourcing Strategy for Your Development Team Storyboard – A guide to help you choose the right resourcing strategy to keep pace with your rapidly changing application and development needs.

      This project will help you define a sourcing strategy for your application development team by assessing key factors about your products and your organization, including critical business, technical, and organizational factors. Use this analysis to select the optimal sourcing strategy for each situation.

      • Define a Sourcing Strategy for Your Development Team Storyboard

      2. Define a Sourcing Strategy Workbook – A tool to capture the results of activities to build your sourcing strategy.

      This workbook is designed to capture the results of the activities in the storyboard. Each worksheet corresponds with an activity from the deck. The workbook is also a living artifact that should be updated periodically as the needs of your team and organization change.

      • Define a Sourcing Strategy Workbook
      [infographic]

      Further reading

      Define a Sourcing Strategy for Your Development Team

      Choose the right resourcing strategy to keep pace with your rapidly changing application and development needs.

      Analyst Perspective

      Choosing the right sourcing strategy for your development team is about assessing your technical situation, your business needs, your organizational culture, and your ability to manage partners!

      Photo of Dr. Suneel Ghei, Principal Research Director, Application Development, Info-Tech Research Group

      Firms today are under continuous pressure to innovate and deliver new features to market faster while at the same time controlling costs. This has increased the need for higher throughput in their development teams along with a broadening of skills and knowledge. In the face of these challenges, there is a new focus on how firms source their development function. Should they continue to hire internally, offshore, or outsource? How do they decide which strategy is the right fit?

      Info-Tech’s research shows that the sourcing strategy considerations have evolved beyond technical skills and costs. Identifying the right strategy has become a function of the characteristics of the organization, its culture, its reliance on the business for knowledge, its strategic value of the application, its vendor management skills, and its ability to internalize external knowledge. By assessing these factors firms can identify the best sourcing mix for their development portfolios.

      Dr. Suneel Ghei
      Principal Research Director, Application Development
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge
      • Hiring quality development team resources is becoming increasingly difficult and costly in most domestic markets.
      • Firms are seeking to do more with less and increase their development team throughput.
      • Globalization and increased competition is driving a need for more innovation in your applications.
      • Firms want more cost certainty and tighter control of their development investment.
      Common Obstacles
      • Development leaders are encouraged to manage contract terms and SLAs rather than build long-term relationships.
      • People believe that outsourcing means you will permanently lose the knowledge around solutions.
      • Moving work outside of the current team creates motivational and retention challenges that can be difficult to overcome.
      Info-Tech’s Approach
      • Looking at this from these three perspectives will enable you to determine the right approach:
        1. From a business perspective, reliance on the business, strategic value of the product, and maturity of product ownership are critical.
        2. From an organizational perspective, you must examine your culture for communication processes, conflict resolution methods, vendor management skills, and geographic coverage
        3. From a technical perspective, consider integration complexity, environment complexity, and testing processes.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Choosing the right sourcing strategy is not just a question of technical skills! Successful sourcing is based on matching your organization’s culture, knowledge, and experiences to the right choice of internal or external partnership.

      Define a sourcing strategy for your development team

      Business
      • Business knowledge/ expertise required
      • Product owner maturity
      Technical
      • Complexity and maturity of technical environment
      • Required level of integration
      Organizational
      • Company culture
      • Desired geographic proximity
      • Required vendor management skills
      1. Assess your current delivery posture for challenges and impediments.
      2. Decide whether to build or buy a solution.
      3. Select your desired sourcing strategy based on your current state and needs.
      Example sourcing strategy with initiatives like 'Client-Facing Apps' and 'ERP Software' assigned to 'Onshore Dev', 'Outsource Team', 'Offshore Dev', 'Outsource App (Buy)', 'Outsource Dev', or 'Outsource Roles'.

      Three Perspectives +

      Three Steps =

      Your Sourcing Strategy

      Diverse sourcing is used by many firms

      Many firms across all industries are making use of different sourcing strategies to drive innovation and solve business issues.

      According to a report by ReportLinker the global IT services outsourcing market reached US$413.8 billion in 2021.

      In a recent study of Canadian software firms, it was found that almost all firms take advantage of outside knowledge in their application development process. In most cases these firms also use outside resources to do development work, and about half the time they use externally built software packages in their products (Ghei, 2020)!

      Info-Tech Insight

      In today’s diverse global markets, firms that wish to stay competitive must have a defined ability to take advantage of external knowledge and to optimize their IT services spend.

      Modeling Absorptive Capacity for Open Innovation in the Canadian Software Industry (Source: Ghei, 2020; n=54.)

      56% of software development firms are sourcing applications instead of resources.

      68% of firms are sourcing external resources to develop software products.

      91% of firms are leveraging knowledge from external sources.

      Internal sourcing models

      Insourcing comes in three distinct flavors

      Geospatial map giving example locations for the three internal sourcing models. In this example, 'Head Office' is located in North America, 'Onshore' is 'Located in the same area or even office as your core business resources. Relative Cost: $$$', 'Near Shore' is 'Typically, within 1-3 time zones for ease of collaboration where more favorable resource costs exist. Relative Cost: $$', and 'Offshore' is 'Located in remote markets where significant labor cost savings can be realized. Relative Cost: $'.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Insourcing allows you to stay close to more strategic applications. But choosing the right model requires a strong look inside your organization and your ability to provide business knowledge support to developers who may have different skills and cultures and are in different geographies.

      Outsourcing models

      External sourcing can be done to different degrees

      Outsource Roles
      • Enables resource augmentation
      • Typically based on skills needs
      • Short-term outsourcing with eventual integration or dissolution
      Outsource Teams (or Projects)
      • Use of a full team or multiple teams of vendor resources
      • Meant to be temporary, with knowledge transfer at the end of the project
      Outsource Products
      • Use of a vendor to build, maintain, and support the full product
      • Requires a high degree of contract management skill

      Info-Tech Insight

      Outsourcing represents one of the most popular ways for organizations to source external knowledge and skills. The choice of model is a function of the organization’s ability to support the external resources and to absorb the knowledge back into the organization.

      Defining your sourcing strategy

      Follow the steps below to identify the best match for your organization

      Review Your Current Situation

      Review the issues and opportunities related to application development and categorize them based on the key factors.

      Arrow pointing right. Assess Build Versus Buy

      Before choosing a sourcing model you must assess whether a particular product or function should be bought as a package or developed.

      Arrow pointing right. Choose the Right Sourcing Strategy

      Based on the research, use the modeling tool to match the situation to the appropriate sourcing solution.

      Step 1.1

      Review Your Current Situation

      Activities
      • 1.1.1 Identify and categorize your challenges

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Product management team
      • Software development leadership team
      • Key stakeholders
      Outcomes of this step

      Review your current delivery posture for challenges and impediments.

      Define a Sourcing Strategy for Your Development Team
      Step 1.1 Step 1.2 Step 1.3

      Review your situation

      There are three key areas to examine in your current situation:

      Business Challenges
      • Do you need to gain new knowledge to drive innovation?
      • Does your business need to enhance its software to improve its ability to compete in the market?
      • Do you need to increase your speed of innovation?

      Technology Challenges

      • Are you being asked to take tighter control of your development budgets?
      • Does your team need to expand their skills and knowledge?
      • Do you need to increase your development speed and capacity?

      Market Challenges

      • Is your competition seen as more innovative?
      • Do you need new features to attract new clients?
      • Are you struggling to find highly skilled and knowledgeable development resources?
      Stock image of multi-colored arrows travelling in a line together before diverging.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Sourcing is a key tool to solve business and technical challenges and enhance market competitiveness when coupled with a robust definition of objectives and a way to measure success.

      1.1.1 Identify and categorize your challenges

      60 minutes

      Output: List of the key challenges in your software lifecycle. Breakdown of the list into categories to identify opportunities for sourcing

      Participants: Product management team, Software development leadership team, Key stakeholders

      1. What challenge is your firm is facing with respect to your software that you think sourcing can address? (20 minutes)
      2. Is the challenge related to a business outcome, development methodology, or technology challenge? (10 minutes)
      3. Is the challenge due to a skills gap, budget or resource challenge, throughput issue, or a broader organizational knowledge or process issue? (10 minutes)
      4. What is the specific objective for the team/leader in addressing this challenge? (15 minutes)
      5. How will you measure progress and achievement of this objective? (5 minutes)

      Document results in the Define a Sourcing Strategy Workbook

      Identify and categorize your challenges

      Sample table for identifying and categorizing challenges, with column groups 'Challenge' and 'Success Measures' containing headers 'Issue, 'Category', 'Breadth', and 'Stakeholder' in the former, and 'Objective' and 'Measurement' in the latter.

      Step 1.2

      Assess Build Versus Buy

      Activities
      • 1.2.1 Understand the benefits and drawbacks of build versus buy in your organizational context

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Product management team
      • Software development leadership team
      • Key stakeholders

      Outcomes of this step

      Understand in your context the benefits and drawbacks of build versus buy, leveraging Info-Tech’s recommended definitions as a starting point.

      Define a Sourcing Strategy for Your Development Team

      Step 1.1 Step 1.2 Step 1.3

      Look vertically across the IT hierarchy to assess the impact of your decision at every level

      IT Hierarchy with 'Enterprise' at the top, branching out to 'Portfolio', then to 'Solution' at the bottom. The top is 'Strategic', the bottom 'Operational'.

      Regardless of the industry, a common and challenging dilemma facing technology teams is to determine when they should build software or systems in-house versus when they should rely wholly on an outside vendor for delivering on their technology needs.

      The answer is not as cut and dried as one would expect. Any build versus buy decision may have an impact on strategic and operational plans. It touches every part of the organization, starting with individual projects and rolling up to the enterprise strategy.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Do not ignore the impact of a build or buy decision on the various management levels in an IT organization.

      Deciding whether to build or buy

      It is as much about what you gain as it is about what problem you choose to have

      BUILD BUY

      Multi-Source Best of Breed

      Integrate various technologies that provide subset(s) of the features needed for supporting the business functions.

      Vendor Add-Ons & Integrations

      Enhance an existing vendor’s offerings by using their system add-ons either as upgrades, new add-ons, or integrations.
      Pros
      • Flexibility in choice of tools
      • In some cases, cost may be lower
      • Easier to enhance with in-house teams
      Cons
      • Introduces tool sprawl
      • Requires resources to understand tools and how they integrate
      • Some of the tools necessary may not be compatible with one another
      Pros
      • Reduces tool sprawl
      • Supports consistent tool stack
      • Vendor support can make enhancement easier
      • Total cost of ownership may be lower
      Cons
      • Vendor lock-in
      • The processes to enhance may require tweaking to fit tool capability

      Multi-Source Custom

      Integrate systems built in-house with technologies developed by external organizations.

      Single Source

      Buy an application/system from one vendor only.
      Pros
      • Flexibility in choice of tools
      • In some cases, cost may be lower
      • Easier to enhance with in-house teams
      Cons
      • May introduce tool sprawl
      • Requires resources to have strong technical skills
      • Some of the tools necessary may not be compatible with one another
      Pros
      • Reduces tool sprawl
      • Supports consistent tool stack
      • Vendor support can make enhancement easier
      • Total cost of ownership may be lower
      Cons
      • Vendor lock-in
      • The processes to enhance may require tweaking to fit tool capability

      1.2.1 Understand the benefits and drawbacks of build versus buy in your organizational context

      30 minutes

      Output: A common understanding of the different approaches to build versus buy applied to your organizational context

      Participants: Product management team, Software development leadership team, Key stakeholders

      1. Look at the previous slide, Deciding whether to build or buy.
      2. Discuss the pros and cons listed for each approach.
        1. Do they apply in your context? Why or why not?
        2. Are there some approaches not applicable in terms of how you wish to work?
      3. Record the curated list of pros and cons for the different build/buy approaches.
      4. For each approach, arrange the pros and cons in order of importance.

      Document results in the Define a Sourcing Strategy Workbook

      Step 1.3

      Choose the Right Sourcing Strategy

      Activities
      • 1.3.1 Determine the right sourcing strategy for your needs

      This step involves the following participants:

      • Product management team
      • Software development leadership team
      • Key stakeholders

      Outcomes of this step

      Choose your desired sourcing strategy based on your current state and needs.

      Define a Sourcing Strategy for Your Development Team

      Step 1.1 Step 1.2 Step 1.3

      Choose the right sourcing strategy

      • Based on our research, finding the right sourcing strategy for a particular situation is a function of three key areas:
        • Business drivers
        • Organizational drivers
        • Technical drivers
      • Each area has key characteristics that must be assessed to confirm which strategy is best suited for the situation.
      • Once you have assessed the factors and ranked them from low to high, we can then match your results with the best-fit strategy.
      Business
      • Business knowledge/ expertise required
      • Product owner maturity

      Technical

      • Complexity and maturity of technical environment
      • Required level of integration

      Organizational

      • Your culture
      • Desired geographic proximity
      • Required vendor management skills

      Business drivers

      To choose the right sourcing strategy, you need to assess your key drivers of delivery

      Product Knowledge
      • The level of business involvement required to support the development team is a critical factor in determining the sourcing model.
      • Both the breadth and depth of involvement are critical factors.
      Strategic Value
      • The strategic value of the application to the company is also a critical component.
      • The more strategic the application is to the company, the closer the sourcing should be maintained.
      • Value can be assessed based on the revenue derived from the application and the depth of use of the application by the organization.
      Product Ownership Maturity
      • To support sourcing models that move further from organizational boundaries a strong product ownership function is required.
      • Product owners should ideally be fully allocated to the role and engaged with the development teams.
      • Product owners should be empowered to make decisions related to the product, its vision, and its roadmap.
      • The higher their allocation and empowerment, the higher the chances of success in external sourcing engagements.
      Stock image of a person running up a line with a positive trend.

      Case Study: The GoodLabs Studio Experience Logo for GoodLabs Studio.

      INDUSTRY: Software Development | SOURCE: Interview with Thomas Lo, Co-Founder, GoodLabs Studio
      Built to Outsource Development Teams
      • GoodLabs is an advanced software innovation studio that provides bespoke team extensions or turnkey digital product development with high-caliber software engineers.
      • Unlike other consulting firms, GoodLabs works very closely with its customers as a unified team to deliver the most significant impact on clients’ projects.
      • With this approach, it optimizes the delivery of strong software engineering skills with integrated product ownership from the client, enabling long-term and continued success for its clients.
      Results
      • GoodLabs is able to attract top engineering talent by focusing on a variety of complex projects that materially benefit from technical solutions, such as cybersecurity, fraud detection, and AI syndrome surveillance.
      • Taking a partnership approach with the clients has led to the successful delivery of many highly innovative and challenging projects for the customers.

      Organizational drivers

      To choose the right sourcing strategy for a particular problem you need to assess the organization’s key capabilities

      Stock photo of someone placing blocks with illustrated professionals one on top of the other. Vendor Management
      • Vendor management is a critical skill for effective external sourcing.
      • This can be assessed based on the organization’s ability to cultivate and grow long-term relationships of mutual value.
      • The longevity and growth of existing vendor relationships can be a good benchmark for future success.
      Absorptive Capacity
      • To effectively make use of external sourcing models, the organization must have a well-developed track record of absorbing outside knowledge.
      • This can be assessed by looking at past cases where external knowledge was sourced and internalized, such as past vendor development engagements or use of open-source code.
      Organizational Culture
      • Another factor in success of vendor engagements and long-term relationships is the matching of organizational cultures.
      • It is key to measure the organization’s current position on items like communication strategy, geographical dispersal, conflict resolution strategy, and hierarchical vs flat management.
      • These factors should be documented and matched with partners to determine the best fit.

      Case Study: WCIRB California Logo for WCIRB California.

      INDUSTRY: Workers Compensation Insurance | SOURCE: Interview with Roger Cottman, Senior VP and CIO, WCIRB California
      Trying to Find the Right Match
      • WCIRB is finding it difficult to hire local resources in California.
      • Its application is a niche product. Since no off-the-shelf alternatives exist, the organization will require a custom application.
      • WCIRB is in the early stages of a digital platform project and is looking to bring in a partner to provide a full development team, with the goal of ideally bringing the application back in-house once it is built.
      • The organization is looking for a local player that will be able to integrate well with the business.
      • It has engaged with two mid-sized players but both have been slow to respond, so it is now considering alternative approaches.
      Info-Tech’s Recommended Approach
      • WCIRB is finding that mid-sized players don’t fit its needs and is now looking for a larger player
      • Based on our research we have advised that WCIRB should ensure the partner is geographically close to its location and can be a strategic partner, not simply work on an individual project.

      Technical drivers

      To choose the right sourcing strategy for a particular problem you need to assess your technical situation and capabilities

      Environment Complexity
      • The complexity of your technical environment is a hurdle that must be overcome for external sourcing models.
      • The number of environments used in the development lifecycle and the location of environments (physical, virtual, on-premises, or cloud) are key indicators.
      Integration Requirements
      • The complexity of integration is another key technical driver.
      • The number of integrations required for the application is a good measuring stick. Will it require fewer than 5, 5-10, or more than 10?
      Testing Capabilities
      • Testing of the application is a key technical driver of success for external models.
      • Having well-defined test cases, processes, and shared execution with the business are all steps that help drive success of external sourcing models.
      • Test automation can also help facilitate success of external models.
      • Measure the percentage of test cases that are standardized, the level of business involvement, and the percentage of test cases that are automated.
      Stock image of pixelated light.

      Case Study: Management Control Systems (MC Systems) Logo for MC Systems.

      INDUSTRY: Technology Services | SOURCE: Interview with Kathryn Chin See, Business Development and Research Analyst, MC Systems
      Seeking to Outsource Innovation
      • MC Systems is seeking to outsource its innovation function to get budget certainty on innovation and reduce costs. It is looking for a player that has knowledge of the application areas it is looking to enhance and that would augment its own business knowledge.
      • In previous outsourcing experiences with skills augmentation and application development the organization had issues related to the business depth and product ownership it could provide. The collaborations did not lead to success as MC Systems lacked product ownership and the ability to reintegrate the outside knowledge.
      • The organization is concerned about testing of a vendor-built application and how the application will be supported.
      Info-Tech’s Recommended Approach
      • To date MC Systems has had success with its outsourcing approach when outsourcing specific work items.
      • It is now looking to expand to outsourcing an entire application.
      • Info-Tech’s recommendation is to seek partners who can take on development of the application.
      • MC Systems will still need resources to bring knowledge back in-house for testing and to provide operational support.

      Choosing the right model


      Legend for the table below using circles with quarters to represent Low (0 quarters) to High (4 quarters).
      Determinant Key Questions to Ask Onshore Nearshore Offshore Outsource Role(s) Outsource Team Outsource Product(s)
      Business Dependence How much do you rely on business resources during the development cycle? Circle with 4 quarters. Circle with 3 quarters. Circle with 1 quarter. Circle with 2 quarters. Circle with 1 quarter. Circle with 0 quarters.
      Absorptive Capacity How successful has the organization been at bringing outside knowledge back into the firm? Circle with 0 quarters. Circle with 1 quarter. Circle with 1 quarter. Circle with 2 quarters. Circle with 1 quarter. Circle with 4 quarters.
      Integration Complexity How many integrations are required for the product to function – fewer than 5, 5-10, or more than 10? Circle with 4 quarters. Circle with 3 quarters. Circle with 3 quarters. Circle with 2 quarters. Circle with 1 quarter. Circle with 0 quarters.
      Product Ownership Do you have full-time product owners in place for the products? Do product owners have control of their roadmaps? Circle with 1 quarter. Circle with 2 quarters. Circle with 3 quarters. Circle with 2 quarters. Circle with 4 quarters. Circle with 4 quarters.
      Organization Culture Fit What are your organization’s communication and conflict resolution strategies? Is your organization geographically dispersed? Circle with 1 quarter. Circle with 1 quarter. Circle with 3 quarters. Circle with 1 quarter. Circle with 3 quarters. Circle with 4 quarters.
      Vendor Mgmt Skills What is your skill level in vendor management? How long are your longest-standing vendor relationships? Circle with 0 quarters. Circle with 1 quarter. Circle with 1 quarter. Circle with 2 quarters. Circle with 3 quarters. Circle with 4 quarters.

      1.3.1 Determine the right sourcing strategy for your needs

      60 minutes

      Output: A scored matrix of the key drivers of the sourcing strategy

      Participants: Development leaders, Product management team, Key stakeholders

      Choose one of your products or product families and assess the factors below on a scale of None, Low, Medium, High, and Full.

      • 3.1 Assess the business factors that drive selection using these key criteria (20 minutes):
        • 3.1.1 Product knowledge
        • 3.1.2 Strategic value
        • 3.1.3 Product ownership
      • 3.2 Assess the organizational factors that drive selection using these key criteria (20 minutes):
        • 3.2.1 Vendor management
        • 3.2.2 Absorptive capacity
        • 3.2.3 Organization culture
      • 3.3 Assess the technical factors that drive selection using these key criteria (20 minutes):
        • 3.3.1 Environments
        • 3.3.2 Integration
        • 3.3.3 Testing

      Document results in the Define a Sourcing Strategy Workbook

      Things to Consider When Implementing

      Once you have built your strategy there are some additional things to consider

      Things to Consider Before Acting on Your Strategy

      By now you understand what goes into an effective sourcing strategy. Before implementing one, there are a few key items you need to consider:

      Example 'Sourcing Strategy for Your Portfolio' with initiatives like 'Client-Facing Apps' and 'ERP Software' assigned to 'Onshore Dev', 'Outsource Team', 'Offshore Dev', 'Outsource App (Buy)', 'Outsource Dev', or 'Outsource Roles'. Start with a pilot
      • Changing sourcing needs to start with one team.
      • Grow as skills develop to limit risk.
      Build an IT workforce plan Enhance your vendor management skills Involve the business early and often
      • The business should feel they are part of the discussion.
      • See our Agile/DevOps Research Center for more information on how the business and IT can better work together.
      Limit sourcing complexity
      • Having too many different partners and models creates confusion and will strain your ability to manage vendors effectively.

      Bibliography

      Apfel, Isabella, et al. “IT Project Member Turnover and Outsourcing Relationship Success: An Inverted-U Effect.” Developments, Opportunities and Challenges of Digitization, 2020. Web.

      Benamati, John, and Rajkumar, T.M. “The Application Development Outsourcing Decision: An Application of the Technology Acceptance Model.” Journal of Computer Information Systems, vol. 42, no. 4, 2008, pp. 35-43. Web.

      Benamati, John, and Rajkumar, T.M. “An Outsourcing Acceptance Model: An Application of TAM to Application Development Outsourcing Decisions.” Information Resources Management Journal, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 80-102, 2008. Web.

      Broekhuizen, T. L. J., et al. “Digital Platform Openness: Drivers, Dimensions and Outcomes.” Journal of Business Research, vol. 122, July 2019, pp. 902-914. Web.

      Brook, Jacques W., and Albert Plugge. “Strategic Sourcing of R&D: The Determinants of Success.” Business Information Processing, vol. 55, Aug. 2010, pp. 26-42. Web.

      Delen, G. P A.J., et al. “Foundations for Measuring IT-Outsourcing Success and Failure.” Journal of Systems and Software, vol. 156, Oct. 2019, pp. 113-125. Web.

      Elnakeep, Eman, et al. “Models and Frameworks for IS Outsourcing Structure and Dimensions: A Holistic Study.” Lecture notes in Networks and Systems, 2019. Web.

      Ghei, Suneel. Modeling Absorptive Capacity for Open Innovation in the Software Industry. 2020. Faculty of Graduate Studies, Athabasca University, 2020. DBA Dissertation.

      “IT Outsourcing Market Research Report by Service Model, Organization Sizes, Deployment, Industry, Region – Global Forecast to 2027 – Cumulative Impact of COVID-19.” ReportLinker, April 2022. Web.

      Jeong, Jongkil Jay, et al. “Enhancing the Application and Measurement of Relationship Quality in Future IT Outsourcing Studies.” 26th European Conference on Information Systems: Beyond Digitization – Facets of Socio-Tehcnical Change: Proceedings of ECIS 2018, Portsmouth, UK, June 23-28, 2018. Edited by Peter Bednar, et al., 2018. Web.

      Könning, Michael. “Conceptualizing the Effect of Cultural Distance on IT Outsourcing Success.” Proceedings of Australasian Conference on Information Systems 2018, Sydney, Australia, Dec. 3-5, 2018. Edited by Matthew Noble, UTS ePress, 2018. Web.

      Lee, Jae-Nam, et al. “Holistic Archetypes of IT Outsourcing Strategy: A Contingency Fit and Configurational Approach.” MIS Quarterly, vol. 43, no. 4, Dec. 2019, pp. 1201-1225. Web.

      Loukis, Euripidis, et al. “Determinants of Software-as-a-Service Benefits and Impact on Firm Performance.” Decision Support Systems, vol. 117, Feb. 2019, pp. 38-47. Web.

      Martensson, Anders. “Patterns in Application Development Sourcing in the Financial Industry.” Proceedings of the 13th European Conference of Information Systems, 2004. Web.

      Martínez-Sánchez, Angel, et al. “The Relationship Between R&D, the Absorptive Capacity of Knowledge, Human Resource Flexibility and Innovation: Mediator Effects on Industrial Firms.” Journal of Business Research, vol. 118, Sept. 2020, pp. 431-440. Web.

      Moreno, Valter, et al. “Outsourcing of IT and Absorptive Capacity: A Multiple Case Study in the Brazilian Insurance Sector.” Brazilian Business Review, vol. 17, no. 1, Jan.-Feb. 2020, pp. 97-113. Web.

      Ozturk, Ebru. “The Impact of R&D Sourcing Strategies on Basic and Developmental R&D in Emerging Economies.” European Journal of Innovation Management, vol. 21, no. 7, May 2018, pp. 522-542. Web.

      Ribas, Imma, et al. “Multi-Step Process for Selecting Strategic Sourcing Options When Designing Supply Chains.” Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management, vol. 14, no. 3, 2021, pp. 477-495. Web.

      Striteska, Michaela Kotkova, and Viktor Prokop. “Dynamic Innovation Strategy Model in Practice of Innovation Leaders and Followers in CEE Countries – A Prerequisite for Building Innovative Ecosystems.” Sustainability, vol. 12, no. 9, May 2020. Web.

      Thakur-Wernz, Pooja, et al. “Antecedents and Relative Performance of Sourcing Choices for New Product Development Projects.” Technovation, 2020. Web.

      Marketing Management Suite Software Selection Guide

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}552|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): N/A
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      • Parent Category Name: Marketing Solutions
      • Parent Category Link: /marketing-solutions
      • Selecting and implementing the right MMS platform – one that aligns with your requirements is a significant undertaking.
      • Despite the importance of selecting and implementing the right MMS platform, many organizations struggle to define an approach to picking the most appropriate vendor and rolling out the solution in an effective and cost-efficient manner.
      • IT often finds itself in the unenviable position of taking the fall for an MMS platform that doesn’t deliver on the promise of the MMS strategy.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • MMS platform selection must be driven by your overall customer experience management strategy. Link your MMS selection to your organization’s CXM framework.
      • Determine what exactly you require from your MMS platform; leverage use cases to help guide selection.
      • Ensure strong points of integration between your MMS and other software such as CRM and POS. Your MMS solution should not live in isolation; it must be part of a wider ecosystem.

      Impact and Result

      • An MMS platform that effectively meets business needs and delivers value.
      • Reduced costs during MMS vendor platform selection and faster time to results after implementation.

      Marketing Management Suite Software Selection Guide Research & Tools

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

      1. Marketing Management Suite Software Selection Guide – A deck that walks you through the process of building your business case and selecting the proper MMS platform.

      This blueprint will help you build a business case for selecting the right MMS platform, define key requirements, and conduct a thorough analysis and scan of the current state of the ever-evolving MMS market space.

      • Marketing Management Suite Software Selection Guide Storyboard
      [infographic]

      Further reading

      Marketing Management Suite Software Selection Guide

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

      Analyst perspective

      A robustly configured and comprehensive MMS platform is a crucial ingredient to help kick-start your organization's cross-channel and multichannel marketing management initiatives.

      Modern marketing management suites (MMS) are imperative given today's complex, multitiered, and often non-standardized marketing processes. Relying on isolated methods such as lead generation or email marketing techniques for executing key cross-channel and multichannel marketing initiatives is not enough to handle the complexity of contemporary marketing management activities.

      Organizations need to invest in highly customizable and functionally extensive MMS platforms to provide value alongside the marketing value chain and a 360-degree view of the consumer's marketing journey. IT needs to be rigorously involved with the sourcing and implementation of the new MMS tool, and the necessary business units also need to own the requirements and be involved from the initial stages of software selection.

      To succeed with MMS implementation, consider drafting a detailed roadmap that outlines milestone activities for configuration, security, points of integration, and data migration capabilities and provides for ongoing application maintenance and support.

      This is a picture of Yaz Palanichamy

      Yaz Palanichamy
      Senior Research Analyst, Customer Experience Strategy
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Executive summary

      Your Challenge

      • Many organizations struggle with taking a systematic and structured approach to selecting a right-sized marketing management suite (MMS) – an indispensable part of managing an organization's specific and nuanced marketing management needs.
      • Organizations must define a clear-cut strategic approach to investing in a new MMS platform. Exercising the appropriate selection and implementation rigor for a right-sized MMS tool is a critical step in delivering concrete business value to sustain various marketing value chains across the organization.

      Common Obstacles

      • An MMS vendor that is not well aligned to marketing requirements wastes resources and causes an endless cascade of end-user frustration.
      • The MMS market is rapidly evolving, making it difficult for vendors to retain a competitive foothold in the space.
      • IT managers and/or marketing professionals often find themselves in the unenviable position of taking the fall for MMS platforms that fail to deliver on the promise of the overarching marketing management strategy.

      Info-Tech's Approach

      • MMS platform selection must be driven by your overall marketing management strategy. Email marketing techniques, social marketing, and/or lead management strategies are often not enough to satisfy the more sophisticated use cases demanded by increasingly complex customer segmentation levels.
      • For organizations with a large audience or varied product offerings, a well-integrated MMS platform enables the management of various complex campaigns across many channels, product lines, customer segments, and marketing groups throughout the enterprise.

      Info-Tech Insight

      IT must collaborate with marketing professionals and other key stakeholder groups to define a unified vision and holistic outlook for a right-sized MMS platform.

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

      1. Understand Core MMS Features

      2. Build the Business Case & Streamline Requirements

      3. Discover the MMS Market Space & Prepare for Implementation

      Phase Steps

      1. Define MMS Platforms
      2. Classify Table Stakes & Differentiating Capabilities
      3. Explore Trends
      1. Build the Business Case
      2. Streamline the Requirements Elicitation Process for a New MMS Platform
      3. Develop an Inclusive RFP Approach
      1. Discover Key Players in the Vendor Landscape
      2. Engage the Shortlist & Select Finalist
      3. Prepare for Implementation

      Phase Outcomes

      1. Consensus on scope of MMS and key MMS platform capabilities
      1. MMS platform selection business case
      2. Top-level use cases and requirements
      3. Procurement vehicle best practices
      1. Market analysis of MMS platforms
      2. Overview of shortlisted vendors
      3. Implementation considerations

      Guided Implementation

      What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

      Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

      Call #1: Understand what a marketing management suite is. Discuss core capabilities and key trends.

      Call #2: Build the business case
      to select a right-sized MMS.

      Call #3: Define your core
      MMS requirements.

      Call #4: Build and sustain procurement vehicle best practices.

      Call #5: Evaluate the MMS vendor landscape and short-list viable options.


      Call #6: Review implementation considerations.

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

      The MMS procurement process should be broken into segments:

      1. Create a vendor shortlist using this buyer's guide.
      2. Define a structured approach to selection.
      3. Review the contract.

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

      DIY Toolkit

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

      Guided Implementation

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

      Workshop

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

      Consulting

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

      Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

      EXECUTIVE BRIEF

      What are marketing management suite platforms?

      Our Definition: Marketing management suite (MMS) platforms are core enterprise applications that provide a unified set of marketing processes for a given organization and, typically, the capability to coordinate key cross-channel marketing initiatives.

      Key product capabilities for sophisticated MMS platforms include but are not limited to:

      • Email marketing
      • Lead nurturing
      • Social media management
      • Content curation and distribution
      • Marketing reporting and analytics
      • Consistent brand messaging

      Using a robust and comprehensive MMS platform equips marketers with the appropriate tools needed to make more informed decisions around campaign execution, resulting in better targeting, acquisition, and customer retention initiatives. Moreover, such tools can help bolster effective revenue generation and ensure more viable growth initiatives for future marketing growth enablement strategies.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Feature sets are rapidly evolving over time as MMS offerings continue to proliferate in this market space. Ensure that you focus on core components such as customer conversion rates and new lead captures through maintaining well- integrated multichannel campaigns.

      Marketing Management Suite Software Selection Buyer's Guide

      Info-Tech Insight

      A right-sized MMS software selection and procurement decision should involve comprehensive requirements and needs analysis by not just Marketing but also other organizational units such as IT, in conjunction with input suppled from the internal vendor procurement team.

      MMS Software Selection & Vendor Procurement Journey. The three main steps are: Envision the Art of the Possible; Elicit Granular Requirements; Contextualize the MMS Vendor Market Space

      Phase 1

      Understand Core MMS Features

      Phase 1

      Phase 2

      Phase 3

      1.1 Define MMS Platforms

      1.2 Classify Table Stakes & Differentiating Capabilities

      1.3 Explore Trends

      2.1 Build the Business Case

      2.2 Streamline Requirements Elicitation

      2.3 Develop an Inclusive RFP Approach

      3.1 Discover Key Players in the Vendor Landscape

      3.2 Engage the Shortlist & Select Finalist

      3.3 Prepare for Implementation

      This phase will walk you through the following activities:

      • Level-set an understanding of MMS technology.
      • Define which MMS features are table stakes (standard) and which are key differentiating functionalities.
      • Identify the art of the possible in a modern MMS platform from sales, marketing, and service lenses.

      This phase involves the following participants:

      • CMO
      • Digital Marketing Project Manager
      • Marketing Data Analytics Analyst
      • Marketing Management Executive

      What are marketing management suite platforms?

      Our Definition: Marketing management suite (MMS) platforms are core enterprise applications that provide a unified set of marketing processes for a given organization and, typically, the capability to coordinate key cross-channel marketing initiatives.

      Key product capabilities for sophisticated MMS platforms include but are not limited to:

      • Email marketing
      • Lead nurturing
      • Social media management
      • Content curation and distribution
      • Marketing reporting and analytics
      • Consistent brand messaging

      Using a robust and comprehensive MMS platform equips marketers with the appropriate tools needed to make more informed decisions around campaign execution, resulting in better targeting, acquisition, and customer retention initiatives. Moreover, such tools can help bolster effective revenue generation and ensure more viable growth initiatives for future marketing growth enablement strategies.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Feature sets are rapidly evolving over time as MMS offerings continue to proliferate in this market space. Ensure that you focus on core components such as customer conversion rates and new lead captures through maintaining well- integrated multichannel campaigns.

      Marketing through the ages

      Tracing the foundational origins of marketing management practices

      Initial traction for marketing management strategies began with the need to holistically understand the effects of advertising efforts and how the media mix could be best optimized.

      1902

      1920s-1930s

      1942

      1952-1964

      1970s-1990s

      Recognizing the increasing need for focused and professional marketing efforts, the University of Pennsylvania offers the first marketing course, dubbed "The Marketing of Products."

      As broadcast media began to peak, marketers needed to manage a greater number of complex and interspersed marketing channels.

      The introduction of television ads in 1942 offered new opportunities for brands to reach consumers across a growing media landscape. To generate the highest ROI, marketers sought to understand the consumer and focus on more tailored messaging and product personalization. Thus, modern marketing practices were born.

      Following the introduction of broadcast media, marketers had to develop strategies beyond traditional spray-and-pray methods. The first modern marketing measurement concept, "marketing mix," was conceptualized in 1952 and popularized in 1964 by Neil Borden.

      This period marked the digital revolution and the new era of marketing. With the advent of new communications technology and the modern internet, marketing management strategies reached new heights of sophistication. During the early 1990s, search engines emerged to help users navigate the web, leading to early forms of search engine optimization and advertising.

      Where it's going: the future state of marketing management

      1. Increasing Complexity Driving Consumer Purchasing Decisions
        • "The main complexity is dealing with the increasing product variety and changing consumer demands, which is forcing marketers to abandon undifferentiated marketing strategies and even niche marketing strategies and to adopt a mass customization process interacting one-to-one with their customers." – Complexity, 2019
      2. Consumers Seeking More Tailored Brand Personalization
        • Financial Services marketers lead all other industries in AI application adoption, with 37% currently using them (Salesforce, 2019).
      3. The Inclusion of More AI-Enabled Marketing Strategies
        • According to a 2022 Nostro report, 70% of consumers say it is important that brands continue to offer personalized consumer experiences.
      4. Green Marketing
        • Recent studies have shown that up to 80% of all consumers are interested in green marketing strategies (Marketing Schools, 2020).

      Marketing management by the numbers

      Key trends

      6%

      As a continuously growing discipline, marketing management roles are predicted to grow faster than average, at a rate of 6% over the next decade.

      Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2021

      17%

      While many marketing management vendors offer A/B testing, only 17% of marketers are actively using A/B testing on landing pages to increase conversion rates.

      Source: Oracle, 2022

      70%

      It is imperative that technology and SaaS companies begin to use marketing automation as a core component of their martech strategy to remain competitive. About 70% of technology and SaaS companies are employing integrated martech tools.

      Source: American Marketing Association, 2021

      Understand MMS table stakes features

      Organizations can expect nearly all MMS vendors to provide the following functionality

      Email Marketing

      Lead Nurturing

      Reporting, Analytics, and Marketing KPIs

      Marketing Campaign Management

      Integrational Catalog

      The use of email alongside marketing efforts to promote a business' products and services. Email marketing can be a powerful tool to maintain connections with your audience and ensure sustained brand promotion.

      The process of developing and nurturing relationships with key customer contacts at every major touchpoint in their customer journey. MMS platforms can use automated lead-nurturing functions that are triggered by customer behavior.

      The use of well-defined metrics to help curate, gather, and analyze marketing data to help track performance and improve the marketing department's future marketing decisions and strategies.

      Tools needed for the planning, execution, tracking, and analysis of direct marketing campaigns. Such tools are needed to help gauge your buyers' sentiments toward your company's product offerings and services.

      MMS platforms should generally have a comprehensive open API/integration catalog. Most MMS platforms should have dedicated integration points to interface with various tools across the marketing landscape (e.g. social media, email, SEO, CRM, CMS tools, etc.).

      Identify differentiating MMS features

      While not always deemed must-have functionality, these features may be the deciding factor when choosing between two MMS-focused vendors.

      Digital Asset Management (DAM)

      A DAM can help manage digital media asset files (e.g. photos, audio files, video).

      Customer Data Management

      Customer data management modules help your organization track essential customer information to maximize your marketing results.

      Text-Based Marketing

      Text-based marketing strategy is ideal for any organization primarily focused on coordinating structured and efficient marketing campaigns.

      Customer
      Journey Orchestration

      Customer journey orchestration enables users to orchestrate customer conversations and journeys across the entire marketing value chain.

      AI-Driven Workflows

      AI-powered workflows can help eliminate complexities and allow marketers to automate and optimize tasks across the marketing spectrum.

      Dynamic Segmentation

      Dynamic segmentation to target audience cohorts based on recent actions and stated preferences.

      Advanced Email Marketing

      These include capabilities such as A/B testing, spam filter testing, and detailed performance reporting.

      Ensure you understand the art of the possible across the MMS landscape

      Understanding the trending feature sets that encompass the broader MMS vendor landscape will best equip your organization with the knowledge needed to effectively match today's MMS platforms with your organization's marketing requirements.

      Holistically examine the potential of any MMS solution through three main lenses:

      Data-Driven
      Digital Advertising

      Adapt innovative techniques such as conversational marketing to help collect, analyze, and synthesize crucial audience information to improve the customer marketing experience and pre-screen prospects in a more conscientious manner.

      Next Best Action Marketing

      Next best action marketing (NBAM) is a customer-centric paradigm/marketing technique designed to capture specific information about customers and their individual preferences. Predicting customers' future actions by understanding their intent during their purchasing decisions stage will help improve conversion rates.

      AI-Driven Customer
      Segmentation

      The use of inclusive and innovative AI-based forecast modeling techniques can help more accurately analyze customer data to create more targeted segments. As such, marketing messages will be more accurately tailored to the customer that is reading them.

      Art of the possible: data-driven digital advertising

      CONVERSATIONAL MARKETING INTELLIGENCE

      Are you curious about the measures needed to boost engagement among your client base and other primary target audience groups? Conversational marketing intelligence metrics can help collect and disseminate key descriptive data points across a broader range of audience information.

      AI-DRIVEN CONVERSATIONAL MARKETING DEVICES

      Certain social media channels (e.g. LinkedIn and Facebook) like to take advantage of click-to-Messenger-style applications to help drive meaningful conversations with customers and learn more about their buying preferences. In addition, AI-driven chatbot applications can help the organization glean important information about the customer's persona by asking probing questions about their marketing purchase behaviors and preferences.

      METAVERSE- DRIVEN BRANDING AND ADVERTISING

      One of the newest phenomena in data-driven marketing technology and digital advertising techniques is the metaverse, where users can represent themselves and their brand via virtual avatars to further gamify their marketing strategies. Moreover, brands can create immersive experiences and engage with influencers and established communities and collect a wealth of information about their audience that can help drive customer retention and loyalty.

      Case study

      This is the logos for Gucci and Roblox.

      Metaverse marketing extends the potential for commercial brand development and representation: a deep dive into Gucci's metaverse practice

      INDUSTRY: Luxury Goods Apparel
      SOURCE: Vogue Business

      Challenge

      Beginning with a small, family-owned leather shop known as House of Gucci in Florence, Italy, businessman and fashion designer Guccio Gucci sold saddles, leather bags, and other accessories to horsemen during the 1920s. Over the years, Gucci's offerings have grown to include various other personal luxury goods.

      As consumer preferences have evolved over time, particularly with the younger generation, Gucci's professional marketing teams looked to invest in virtual technology environments to help build and sustain better brand awareness among younger consumer audiences.

      Solution

      In response to the increasing presence of metaverse-savvy gamers on the internet, Gucci began investing in developing its online metaverse presence to bolster its commercial marketing brand there.

      A recent collaboration with Roblox, an online gaming platform that offers virtual experiences, provided Gucci the means to showcase its fashion items using the Gucci Garden – a virtual art installation project for Generation Z consumers, powered by Roblox's VR technology. The Gucci Garden virtual system featured a French-styled garden environment where players could try on and buy Gucci virtual fashion items to dress up their blank avatars.

      Results

      Gucci's disruptive, innovative metaverse marketing campaign project with Roblox is proof of its commitment to tapping new marketing growth channels to showcase the brand to engage new and prospective consumers (e.g. Roblox's player base) across more unique sandboxed/simulation environments.

      The freedom and flexibility in the metaverse environments allows brands such as Gucci to execute a more flexible digital marketing approach and enables them to take advantage of innovative metaverse-driven technologies in the market to further drive their data-driven digital marketing campaigns.

      Art of the possible: next best action marketing (NBAM)

      NEXT BEST ACTION PREDICTIVE MODELING

      To improve conversion propensity, next best action techniques can use predictive modeling methods to help build a dynamic overview of the customer journey. With information sourced from actionable marketing intelligence data, MMS platforms can use NBAM techniques to identify customer needs based on their buying behavior, social media interactions, and other insights to determine what unique set of actions should be taken for each customer.

      MACHINE LEARNING–BASED RECOMMENDER SYSTEMS

      Rules-based recommender systems can help assign probabilities of purchasing behaviors based on the patterns in touchpoints of a customer's journey and interaction with your brand. For instance, a large grocery chain company such as Walmart or Whole Foods will use ML-based recommender systems to decide what coupons they should offer to their customers based on their purchasing history.

      Art of the possible: AI-driven customer segmentation

      MACHINE/DEEP LEARNING (ML/DL) ALGORITHMS

      The inclusion of AI in data analytics helps make customer targeting more accurate
      and meaningful. Organizations can analyze customer data more thoroughly and generate in-depth contextual and descriptive information about the targeted segments. In addition, they can use this information to automate the personalization of marketing campaigns for a specific target audience group.

      UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER SENTIMENTS

      To greatly benefit from AI-powered customer segmentation, organizations must deploy specialized custom AI solutions to help organize qualitative comments into quantitative data. This approach requires companies to use custom AI models and tools that will analyze customer sentiments and experiences based on data extracted from various touchpoints (e.g. CRM systems, emails, chatbot logs).

      Phase 2

      Build the Business Case and Streamline Requirements

      Phase 1

      Phase 2

      Phase 3

      1.1 Define MMS Platforms

      1.2 Classify Table Stakes & Differentiating Capabilities

      1.3 Explore Trends

      2.1 Build the Business Case

      2.2 Streamline Requirements Elicitation

      2.3 Develop an Inclusive RFP Approach

      3.1 Discover Key Players in the Vendor Landscape

      3.2 Engage the Shortlist & Select Finalist

      3.3 Prepare for Implementation

      This phase will walk you through the following activities:

      • Define and build the business case for the selection of a right-sized MMS platform.
      • Elicit and prioritize granular requirements for your MMS platform.

      This phase involves the following participants:

      • CMO
      • Technical Marketing Analyst
      • Digital Marketing Project Manager
      • Marketing Data Analytics Analyst
      • Marketing Management Executive

      Software Selection Engagement

      5 Advisory Calls over a 5-Week Period to Accelerate Your Selection Process

      Expert analyst guidance over 5 weeks on average to select software and negotiate with the vendor.

      Save money, align stakeholders, speed up the process and make better decisions.

      Use a repeatable, formal methodology to improve your application selection process.

      Better, faster results, guaranteed, included in your membership.

      This is an image of the plan for five advisory calls over a five-week period.

      CLICK HERE to book your Selection Engagement

      Elicit and prioritize granular requirements for your marketing management suite (MMS) platform

      Understanding business needs through requirements gathering is the key to defining everything you need from your software. However, it is an area where people often make critical mistakes.

      Poorly scoped requirements

      Best practices

      • Fail to be comprehensive and miss certain areas of scope.
      • Focus on how the solution should work instead of what it must accomplish.
      • Have multiple levels of detail within the requirements, causing inconsistency and confusion.
      • Drill all the way down to system-level detail.
      • Add unnecessary constraints based on what is done today rather than focusing on what is needed for tomorrow.
      • Omit constraints or preferences that buyers think are obvious.
      • Get a clear understanding of what the system needs to do and what it is expected to produce.
      • Test against the principle of MECE – requirements should be "mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive."
      • Explicitly state the obvious and assume nothing.
      • Investigate what is sold on the market and how it is sold. Use language that is consistent with that of the market and focus on key differentiators – not table stakes.
      • Contain the appropriate level of detail – the level should be suitable for procurement and sufficient for differentiating vendors.

      Info-Tech Insight
      Poor requirements are the number one reason projects fail. Review Info-Tech's Improve Requirements Gathering blueprint to learn how to improve your requirements analysis and get results that truly satisfy stakeholder needs.

      Info-Tech's approach

      Develop an inclusive and thorough approach to the RFP process

      Identity Need; Define Business requirements; Gain Business Authorization; Perform RFI/RFP; Negotiate Agreement; Purchase Goods and Services; Assess and Measure Performance.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Review Info-Tech's process and understand how you can prevent your organization from leaking negotiation leverage while preventing vendors from taking control of your RFP.

      The Info-Tech difference:

      1. The secret to managing an RFP is to make it as manageable and as thorough as possible. The RFP process should be like any other aspect of business – by developing a standard process. With a process in place, you are better able to handle whatever comes your way, because you know the steps you need to follow to produce a top-notch RFP.
      2. The business then identifies the need for more information about a product/service or determines that a purchase is required.
      3. A team of stakeholders from each area impacted gather all business, technical, legal, and risk requirements. What are the expectations of the vendor relationship post-RFP? How will the vendors be evaluated?
      4. Based on the predetermined requirements, either an RFI or an RFP is issued to vendors with a due date.

      Leverage Info-Tech's Contract Review Service to level the playing field with your shortlisted vendors

      You may be faced with multiple products, services, master service agreements, licensing models, service agreements, and more.
      Use Info-Tech's Contract Review Service to gain insights on your agreements:

      1. Are all key terms included?
      2. Are they applicable to your business?
      3. Can you trust that results will be delivered?
      4. What questions should you be asking from an IT perspective?

      Validate that a contract meets IT's and the business' needs by looking beyond the legal terminology. Use a practical set of questions, rules, and guidance to improve your value for dollar spent.

      This is an image of three screenshots from Info-Tech's Contract Review Service.

      CLICK to BOOK The Contract Review Service

      CLICK to DOWNLOAD Master Contract Review and Negotiation for Software Agreements

      Phase 3

      Discover the MMS Market Space and Prepare for Implementation

      Phase 1

      Phase 2

      Phase 3

      1.1 Define MMS Platforms

      1.2 Classify Table Stakes & Differentiating Capabilities

      1.3 Explore Trends

      2.1 Build the Business Case

      2.2 Streamline Requirements Elicitation

      2.3 Develop an Inclusive RFP Approach

      3.1 Discover Key Players in the Vendor Landscape

      3.2 Engage the Shortlist & Select Finalist

      3.3 Prepare for Implementation

      This phase will walk you through the following activities:

      • Dive into the key players of the MMS vendor landscape.
      • Understand best practices for building a vendor shortlist.
      • Understand key implementation considerations for MMS.

      This phase involves the following participants:

      • CMO
      • Marketing Management Executive
      • Applications Manager
      • Digital Marketing Project Manager
      • Sales Executive
      • Vendor Outreach and Partnerships Manager

      Review your use cases to start your shortlist

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

      Next steps will include:

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

      Get to know the key players in the MMS landscape

      The following slides provide a top-level overview of the popular players you will encounter in your MMS shortlisting process.

      This is a series of images of the logos for the companies which will be discussed later in this blueprint.

      Evaluate software category leaders through vendor rankings and awards

      SoftwareReviews

      This is an image of two screenshots from the Data Quadrant Report.

      The Data Quadrant is a thorough evaluation and ranking of all software in an individual category to compare platforms across multiple dimensions.

      Vendors are ranked by their Composite Score, based on individual feature evaluations, user satisfaction rankings, vendor capability comparisons, and likeliness to recommend the platform.

      This is an image of two screenshots from the Emotional Footprint Report.

      The Emotional Footprint is a powerful indicator of overall user sentiment toward the relationship with the vendor, capturing data across five dimensions.

      Vendors are ranked by their Customer Experience (CX) Score, which combines the overall Emotional Footprint rating with a measure of the value delivered by the solution.

      Speak with category experts to dive deeper into the vendor landscape

      SoftwareReviews

      • Fact-based reviews of business software from IT professionals.
      • Product and category reports with state-of-the-art data visualization.
      • Top-tier data quality backed by a rigorous quality assurance process.
      • User-experience insight that reveals the intangibles of working with a vendor.

      CLICK HERE to ACCESS

      Comprehensive software reviews
      to make better IT decisions

      We collect and analyze the most detailed reviews on enterprise software from real users to give you an unprecedented view into the product and vendor before you buy.

      SoftwareReviews is powered by Info-Tech

      Technology coverage is a priority for Info-Tech, and SoftwareReviews provides the most comprehensive unbiased data on today's technology. Combined with the insight of our expert analysts, our members receive unparalleled support in their buying journey.

      SoftwareReviews' Enterprise MMS Rankings

      Strengths:

      • Advanced Campaign Management
      • Email Marketing Automation
      • Multichannel Integration

      Areas to Improve:

      • Mobile Marketing Management
      • Advanced Data Segmentation
      • Pricing Sensitivity and Implementation Support Model

      This is an image of SoftwareReviews analysis for Adobe Experience Cloud.

      history

      This is the Logo for Adobe Experience Cloud

      "Adobe Experience Cloud (AEC), formerly Adobe Marketing Cloud (AMC), provides a host of innovative multichannel analytics, social, advertising, media optimization, and content management products (just to name a few). The Adobe Marketing Cloud package allows users with valid subscriptions to download the entire collection and use it directly on their computer with open access to online updates. Organizations that have a deeply ingrained Adobe footprint and have already reaped the benefits of Adobe's existing portfolio of cloud services products (e.g. Adobe Creative Cloud) will find the AEC suite a functionally robust and scalable fit for their marketing management and marketing automation needs.

      However, it is important to note that AEC's pricing model is expensive when compared to other competitors in the space (e.g. Sugar Market) and, therefore, is not as affordable for smaller or mid-sized organizations. Moreover, there is the expectation of a learning curve with the AEC platform. Newly onboarded users will need to spend some time learning how to navigate and work comfortably with AEC's marketing automaton modules. "
      - Yaz Palanichamy
      Senior Research Analyst, Info-Tech Research Group

      Adobe Experience Cloud Platform pricing is opaque.
      Request a demo.*

      *Info-Tech recommends reaching out to the vendor's internal sales management team for explicit details on individual pricing plans for the Adobe Marketing Cloud suite.

      2021

      Adobe Experience Platform Launch is integrated into the Adobe Experience Platform as a suite of data collection technologies (Experience League, Adobe).

      November 2020

      Adobe announces that it will spend $1.5 billion to acquire Workfront, a provider of marketing collaboration software (TechTarget, 2020).

      September 2018

      Adobe acquires marketing automation software company Marketo (CNBC, 2018).

      June 2018

      Adobe buys e-commerce services provider Magento Commerce from private equity firm Permira for $1.68 billion (TechCrunch, 2018).

      2011

      Adobe acquires DemDex, Inc. with the intention of adding DemDex's audience-optimization software to the Adobe Online Marketing Suite (Adobe News, 2011).

      2009

      Adobe acquires online marketing and web analytics company Omniture for $1.8 billion and integrates its products into the Adobe Marketing Cloud (Zippia, 2022).

      Adobe platform launches in December 1982.

      SoftwareReviews' Enterprise MMS Rankings

      Strengths:

      • Marketing Workflow Management
      • Advanced Data Segmentation
      • Marketing Operations Management

      Areas to Improve:

      • Email Marketing Automation
      • Marketing Asset Management
      • Process of Creating and/or Managing Marketing Lists

      This is an image of SoftwareReviews analysis for Dynamics 365

      history

      This is the logo for Dynamics 365

      2021

      Microsoft Dynamics 365 suite adds customer journey orchestration as a viable key feature (Tech Target, 2021)

      2019

      Microsoft begins adding to its Dynamics 365 suite in April 2019 with new functionalities such as virtual agents, fraud detection, new mixed reality (Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog, 2019).

      2017

      Adobe and Microsoft expand key partnership between Adobe Experience Manager and Dynamics 365 integration (TechCrunch, 2017).

      2016

      Microsoft Dynamics CRM paid seats begin growing steadily at more than 2.5x year-over-year (TechCrunch, 2016).

      2016

      On-premises application, called Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement, contains the Dynamics 365 Marketing Management platform (Learn Microsoft, 2023).

      Microsoft Dynamics 365 product suite is released on November 1, 2016.

      "Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Marketing remains a viable option for organizations that require a range of innovative MMS tools that can provide a wealth of functional capabilities (e.g. AI-powered analytics to create targeted segments, A/B testing, personalizing engagement for each customer). Moreover, Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Marketing offers trial options to sandbox their platform for free for 30 days to help users familiarize themselves with the software before buying into the product suite.

      However, ensure that you have the time to effectively train users on implementing the MS Dynamics 365 platform. The platform does not score high on customizability in SoftwareReviews reports. Developers have only a limited ability to modify the core UI, so organizations need to be fully equipped with the knowledge needed to successfully navigate MS-based applications to take full advantage of the platform. For organizations deep in the Microsoft stack, D365 Marketing is a compelling option."
      Yaz Palanichamy
      Senior Research Analyst, Info-Tech Research Group

      Dynamics 365
      Marketing

      Dynamics 365
      Marketing (Attachment)

      • Starts from $1,500 per tenant/month*
      • Includes 10,000 contacts, 100,000 interactions, and 1,000 SMS messages
      • For organizations without any other Dynamics 365 application
      • Starts from $750 per tenant/month*
      • Includes 10,000 contacts, 100,000 interactions, and 1,000 SMS messages
      • For organizations with a qualifying Dynamics 365 application

      * Pricing correct as of October 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts. See pricing on vendor's website for latest information.

      SoftwareReviews' Enterprise MMS Rankings

      Strengths:

      • Marketing Analytics
      • Marketing Workflow Management
      • Lead Nurturing

      Areas to Improve:

      • Advanced Campaign Management
      • Email Marketing Automation
      • Marketing Segmentation

      This is an image of SoftwareReviews analysis for HubSpot

      history

      This is an image of the Logo for HubSpot

      2022

      HubSpot Marketing Hub releases Campaigns 2.0 module for its Marketing Hub platform (HubSpot, 2022).

      2018


      HubSpot announces the launch of its Marketing Hub Starter platform, a new offering that aims to give growing teams the tools they need to start marketing right (HubSpot Company News, 2018).

      2014

      HubSpot celebrates its first initial public offering on the NYSE market (HubSpot Company News, 2014).

      2013

      HubSpot opens its first international office location in Dublin, Ireland
      (HubSpot News, 2013).

      2010

      Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah write "Inbound Marketing," a seminal book that focuses on inbound marketing principles (HubSpot, n.d.).

      HubSpot opens for business in Cambridge, MA, USA, in 2005.

      "HubSpot's Marketing Hub software ranks consistently high in scores across SoftwareReviews reports and remains a strong choice for organizations that want to run successful inbound marketing campaigns that make customers interested and engaged with their business. HubSpot Marketing Hub employs comprehensive feature sets, including the option to streamline ad tracking and management, perform various audience segmentation techniques, and build personalized and automated marketing campaigns.

      However, SoftwareReviews reports indicate end users are concerned that HubSpot Marketing Hub's platform may be slightly overpriced in recent years and not cost effective for smaller and mid-sized companies that are working with a limited budget. Moreover, when it comes to mobile user accessibility reports, HubSpot's Marketing Hub does not directly offer data usage reports in relation to how mobile users navigate various web pages on the customer's website."
      Yaz Palanichamy
      Senior Research Analyst, Info-Tech Research Group

      HubSpot Marketing Hub (Starter Package)

      HubSpot Marketing Hub (Professional Package)

      HubSpot Marketing Hub (Enterprise Package)

      • Starts from $50/month*
      • Includes 1,000 marketing contacts
      • All non-marketing contacts are free, up to a limit of 15 million overall contacts (marketing contacts + non-marketing contracts)
      • Starts from $890/month*
      • Includes 2,000 marketing contacts
      • Onboarding is required for a one-time fee of $3,000
      • Starts from $3600/month*
      • Includes 10,000 marketing contacts
      • Onboarding is required for a one-time fee of $6,000

      *Pricing correct as of October 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
      See pricing on vendor's website for latest information.

      SoftwareReviews' Enterprise MMS Rankings

      Strengths:

      • Email Marketing Automation
      • Customer Journey Mapping
      • Contacts Management

      Areas to Improve:

      • Pricing Model Flexibility
      • Integrational API Support
      • Antiquated UI/CX Design Elements

      This is an image of SoftwareReviews analysis for Maropost

      history

      This is an image of the Logo for MAROPOST Marketing Cloud

      2022

      Maropost acquires Retail Express, leading retail POS software in Australia for $55M (PRWire, 2022).

      2018


      Maropost develops innovative product feature updates to its marketing cloud platform (e.g. automated social campaign management, event segmentation for mobile apps) (Maropost, 2019).

      2015

      US-based communications organization Success selects Maropost Marketing Cloud for marketing automation use cases (Apps Run The World, 2015).

      2017

      Maropost is on track to become one of Toronto's fastest-growing companies, generating $30M in annual revenue (MarTech Series, 2017).

      2015

      Maropost is ranked as a "High Performer" in the Email Marketing category in a G2 Crowd Grid Report (VentureBeat, 2015).

      Maropost is founded in 2011 as a customer-centric ESP platform.

      Maropost Marketing Cloud – Essential

      Maropost
      Marketing Cloud –Professional

      Maropost
      Marketing Cloud –Enterprise

      • Starts from $279/month*
      • Includes baseline features such as email campaigns, A/B campaigns, transactional emails, etc.
      • Starts from $849/month*
      • Includes additional system functionalities of interest (e.g. mobile keywords, more journeys for marketing automation use cases)
      • Starts from $1,699/month*
      • Includes unlimited number of journeys
      • Upper limit for custom contact fields is increased by 100-150

      *Pricing correct as of October 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
      See pricing on vendor's website for latest information.

      SoftwareReviews' Enterprise MMS Rankings

      Strengths:

      • Advanced Data Segmentation
      • Marketing Analytics
      • Multichannel Integration

      Areas to Improve:

      • Marketing Operations
        Management
      • Marketing Asset Management
      • Community Marketing Management

      This is an image of SoftwareReviews analysis for Oracle Marketing Cloud.

      history

      This is an image of the Logo for Oracle Marketing Cloud

      2021

      New advanced intelligence capabilities within Oracle Eloqua Marketing Automation help deliver more targeted and personalized messages (Oracle, Marketing Automation documentation).

      2015


      Oracle revamps its marketing cloud with new feature sets, including Oracle ID Graph for cross-platform identification of customers, AppCloud Connect, etc. (Forbes, 2015).

      2014

      Oracle announces the launch of the Oracle Marketing Cloud (TechCrunch, 2014).

      2005

      Oracle acquires PeopleSoft, a company that produces human resource management systems, in 2005 for $10.3B (The Economic Times, 2016).

      1982

      Oracle becomes the first company to sell relational database management software (RDBMS). In 1982 it has revenue of $2.5M (Encyclopedia.com).

      Relational Software, Inc (RSI) – later renamed Oracle Corporation – is founded in 1977.

      "Oracle Marketing Cloud offers a comprehensive interwoven and integrated marketing management solution that can help end users launch cross-channel marketing programs and unify all prospect and customer marketing signals within one singular view. Oracle Marketing Cloud ranks consistently high across our SoftwareReviews reports and sustains top scores in overall customer experience rankings at a factor of 9.0. The emotional sentiment of users interacting with Oracle Marketing Cloud is also highly favorable, with Oracle's Emotional Footprint score at +93.

      Users should be aware that some of the reporting mechanisms and report-generation capabilities may not be as mature as those of some of its competitors in the MMS space (e.g. Salesforce, Adobe). Data exportability also presents a challenge in Oracle Marketing Cloud and requires a lot of internal tweaking between end users of the system to function properly. Finally, pricing sensitivity may be a concern for small and mid-sized organizations who may find Oracle's higher-tiered pricing plans to be out of reach. "
      Yaz Palanichamy
      Senior Research Analyst, Info-Tech Research Group

      Oracle Marketing Cloud pricing is opaque.
      Request a demo.*

      *Info-Tech recommends reaching out to the vendor's internal sales management team for explicit details on individual pricing plans for the Adobe Marketing Cloud suite.

      SoftwareReviews' Enterprise MMS Rankings

      Strengths:

      • Marketing Analytics
      • Advanced Campaign Management
      • Email Marketing Automation
      • Social Media Marketing Management

      Areas to Improve:

      • Community Marketing Management
      • Marketing Operations Management
      • Pricing Sensitivity and Vendor Support Model

      This is an image of SoftwareReviews analysis for Salesforce

      history

      This is an image of the Logo for Salesforce Marketing Cloud

      2022

      Salesforce announces sustainability as a core company value (Forbes, 2022).

      2012



      Salesforce unveils Salesforce Marketing Cloud during Dreamforce 2012, with 90,000 registered attendees (Dice, 2012).

      2009

      Salesforce launches Service Cloud, bringing customer service and support automation features to the market (TechCrunch, 2009).

      2003


      The first Dreamforce event is held at the Westin St. Francis hotel in downtown San Francisco
      (Salesforce, 2020).

      2001


      Salesforce delivers $22.4M in revenue for the fiscal year ending January 31, 2002 (Salesforce, 2020).

      Salesforce is founded in 1999.

      "Salesforce Marketing Cloud is a long-term juggernaut of the marketing management software space and is the subject of many Info-Tech member inquiries. It retains strong composite and customer experience (CX) scores in our SoftwareReviews reports. Some standout features of the platform include marketing analytics, advanced campaign management functionalities, email marketing automation, and customer journey management capabilities. In recent years Salesforce has made great strides in improving the overall user experience by investing in new product functionalities such as the Einstein What-If Analyzer, which helps test how your next email campaign will impact overall customer engagement, triggers personalized campaign messages based on an individual user's behavior, and uses powerful real-time segmentation and sophisticated AI to deliver contextually relevant experiences that inspire customers to act.

      On the downside, we commonly see Salesforce's solutions as costlier than competitors' offerings, and its commercial/sales teams tend to be overly aggressive in marketing its solutions without a distinct link to overarching business requirements. "
      Yaz Palanichamy
      Senior Research Analyst, Info-Tech Research Group

      Marketing Cloud Basics

      Marketing Cloud Pro

      Marketing Cloud Corporate

      Marketing Cloud Enterprise

      • Starts at $400*
      • Per org/month
      • Personalized promotional email marketing
      • Starts at $1,250*
      • Per org/month
      • Personalized marketing automation with email solutions
      • Starts at $3,750*
      • Per org/month
      • Personalized cross-channel strategic marketing solutions

      "Request a Quote"

      *Pricing correct as of October 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts. See pricing on vendor's website for latest information.

      SoftwareReviews' Enterprise MMS Rankings

      Strengths:

      • Email Marketing Automation
      • Marketing Workflow Management
      • Marketing Analytics

      Areas to Improve:

      • Mobile Marketing Management
      • Marketing Operations Management
      • Advanced Data Segmentation

      This is an image of SoftwareReviews analysis for SAP

      history

      This is an image of the Logo for SAP

      2022

      SAP announces the second cycle of the 2022 SAP Customer Engagement Initiative. (SAP Community Blog, 2022).

      2020

      SAP acquires Austrian cloud marketing company Emarsys (TechCrunch, 2020).

      2015

      SAP Digital for Customer Engagement launches in May 2015 (SAP News, 2015).

      2009

      SAP begins branching out into three markets of the future (mobile technology, database technology, and cloud). SAP acquires some of its competitors (e.g. Ariba, SuccessFactors, Business Objects) to quickly establish itself as a key player in those areas (SAP, n.d.).

      1999

      SAP responds to the internet and new economy by launching its mysap.com strategy (SAP, n.d.).

      SAP is founded In 1972.

      "Over the years, SAP has positioned itself as one of the usual suspects across the enterprise applications market. While SAP has a broad range of capabilities within the CRM and customer experience space, it consistently underperforms in many of our user-driven SoftwareReviews reports for MMS and adjacent areas, ranking lower in MMS product feature capabilities such as email marketing automation and advanced campaign management than other mainstream MMS vendors, including Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Adobe Experience Cloud. The SAP Customer Engagement Marketing platform seems decidedly a secondary focus for SAP, behind its more compelling presence across the enterprise resource planning space.

      If you are approaching an MMS selection from a greenfield lens and with no legacy vendor baggage for SAP elsewhere, experience suggests that your needs will be better served by a vendor that places greater primacy on the MMS aspect of their portfolio."
      Yaz Palanichamy
      Senior Research Analyst, Info-Tech Research Group

      SAP Customer Engagement Marketing pricing is opaque:
      Request a demo.*

      *Info-Tech recommends reaching out to the vendor's internal sales management team for explicit details on individual pricing plans for the Adobe Marketing Cloud suite.

      SoftwareReviews' Enterprise MMS Rankings

      Strengths:

      • Social Media Automation
      • Email Marketing Automation
      • Marketing Analytics

      Areas to Improve:

      • Ease of Data Integration
      • Breadth of Features
      • Marketing Workflow Management

      b

      SoftwareReviews' Enterprise MMS Rankings

      Strengths:

      • Campaign Management
      • Segmentation
      • Email Delivery

      Areas to Improve:

      • Mobile Optimization
      • A/B Testing
      • Content Authoring

      This is an image of SoftwareReviews analysis for ZOHO Campaigns.

      history

      This is an image of the Logo for ZOHO Campaigns

      2021

      Zoho announces CRM-Campaigns sync (Zoho Campaigns Community Learning, 2021).

      2020

      Zoho reaches more than 50M customers in January ( Zippia, n.d.).

      2017

      Zoho launches Zoho One, a comprehensive suite of 40+ applications (Zoho Blog, 2017).

      2012

      Zoho releases Zoho Campaigns (Business Wire, 2012).

      2007

      Zoho expands into the collaboration space with the release of Zoho Docs and Zoho Meetings (Zoho, n.d.).

      2005

      Zoho CRM is released (Zoho, n.d.).

      Zoho platform is founded in 1996.

      "Zoho maintains a long-running repertoire of end-to-end software solutions for business development purposes. In addition to its flagship CRM product, the company also offers Zoho Campaigns, which is an email marketing software platform that enables contextually driven marketing techniques via dynamic personalization, email interactivity, A/B testing, etc. For organizations that already maintain a deep imprint of Zoho solutions, Zoho Campaigns will be a natural extension to their immediate software environment.

      Zoho Campaigns is a great ecosystem play in environments that have a material Zoho footprint. In the absence of an existing Zoho environment, it's prudent to consider other affordable products as well."
      Yaz Palanichamy
      Senior Research Analyst, Info-Tech Research Group

      Free Version

      Standard

      Professional

      • Starts at $0*
      • Per user/month billed annually
      • Up to 2,000 contacts
      • 6,000 emails/month
      • Starts at $3.75*
      • Per user/month billed annually
      • Up to 100,000 contacts
      • Advanced email templates
      • SMS marketing
      • Starts at $6*
      • Per user/month billed annually
      • Advanced segmentation
      • Dynamic content

      *Pricing correct as of October 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.

      See pricing on vendor's website for latest information.

      Leverage Info-Tech's research to plan and execute your MMS implementation

      Use Info-Tech's three-phase implementation process to guide your planning:

      1. Assess

      2. Prepare

      3. Govern & Course Correct

      Download Info-Tech's Governance and Management of Enterprise Software Implementation
      Establish and execute an end-to-end, agile framework to succeed with the implementation of a major enterprise application.

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

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

      Communication

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

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

      Proximity

      Distributed teams create complexity as communication can break down. This can be mitigated by:

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

      Trust

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

      • Accountability: Having frequent quality reviews and feedback sessions. As work becomes more transparent, people become more accountable.
      • Role Clarity: Having a clear definition of what everyone's role is.

      Selecting a right-sized MMS platform

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

      • Alignment and prioritization of key business and technology drivers for an MMS selection business case.
      • Identification of key use cases and requirements for a right-sized MMS platform.
      • A comprehensive market scan of key players in the MMS market space.

      This formal MMS selection initiative will drive business-IT alignment, identify pivotal sales and marketing automation priorities, and thereby allow for the rollout of a streamlined MMS platform that is highly likely to satisfy all stakeholder needs.

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

      contact your account representative for more information

      workshops@infotech.com

      1-888-670-8889

      Summary of accomplishment

      Knowledge Gained

      • What marketing management is
      • Historical origins of marketing management
      • The future of marketing management
      • Key trends in marketing management suites

      Processes Optimized

      • Requirements gathering
      • RFPs and contract reviews
      • Marketing management suite vendor selection
      • Marketing management platform implementation

      Marketing Management

      • Adobe Experience Cloud
      • Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Marketing
      • HubSpot Marketing Hub
      • Maropost Marketing Cloud
      • Oracle Marketing Cloud

      Vendors Analyzed

      • Salesforce Marketing Cloud
      • SAP
      • Sugar Market
      • Zoho Campaigns

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Select a Marketing Management Suite

      Many organizations struggle with taking a systematic approach to selection that pairs functional requirements with specific marketing workflows, and as a result they choose a marketing management suite (MMS) that is not well aligned to their needs, wasting resources and causing end-user frustration.

      Get the Most Out of Your CRM

      Customer relationship management (CRM) application portfolios are often messy,
      with multiple integration points, distributed data, and limited ongoing end-user training. A properly optimized CRM ecosystem will reduce costs and increase productivity.

      Customer Relationship Management Platform Selection Guide

      Speed up the process to build your business case and select your CRM solution. Despite the importance of CRM selection and implementation, many organizations struggle to define an approach to picking the right vendor and rolling out the solution in an effective and cost-efficient manner.

      Bibliography

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      Anderson, Meghan Keaney. "HubSpot Launches European Headquarters." HubSpot Company News, 3 Mar 2013.
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      Duduskar, Avinash. "Interview with Tony Chen, CEO at Channel Factory." MarTech Series, 16 June 2017. Accessed Nov 2022.
      "Enhanced Release of SAP Digital for Customer Engagement Helps Anyone Go Beyond CRM." SAP News, 8 Dec. 2015. Press release.
      Fang, Mingyu. "A Deep Dive into Gucci's Metaverse Practice." Medium.com, 27 Feb 2022. Accessed Oct 2022.
      Flanagan, Ellie. "HubSpot Launches Marketing Hub Starter to Give Growing Businesses the Tools They Need to Start Marketing Right." HubSpot Company News, 17 July 2018. Web.
      Fleishman, Hannah. "HubStop Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering." HubSpot Company News, 8 Oct. 204. Web.
      Fluckinger, Don. "Adobe to acquire Workfront for $1.5 billion." TechTarget, 10 Nov 2020. Accessed Nov 2022.
      Fluckinger, Don. "Microsoft Dynamics 365 adds customer journey orchestration." TechTarget, 2 March 2021. Accessed Nov 2022.
      Green Marketing: Explore the Strategy of Green Marketing." Marketing Schools, 19 Nov 2020. Accessed Oct 2022.
      Ha, Anthony. "Oracle Announces Its Cross-Platform Marketing Cloud." TechCrunch, 30 April 2014. Web.
      Heyd, Kathrin. "Partners Welcome – SAP Customer Engagement Initiative 2022-2 is open for your registration(s)!" SAP Community Blog, 21 June 2022. Accessed Nov 2022.
      HubSpot. "Our Story." HubSpot, n.d. Web.
      Jackson, Felicia. "Salesforce Tackles Net Zero Credibility As It Adds Sustainability As A Fifth Core Value." Forbes, 16 Feb. 2022. Web.
      Kolakowski, Nick. "Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff Talks Social Future." Dice, 19 Sept. 2012. Web.
      Lardinois, Frederic. "Microsoft's Q4 earnings beat Street with $22.6B in revenue, $0.69 EPS." TechCrunch, 19 July 2016. Web.
      Levine, Barry. "G2 Crowd report finds the two email marketing tools with the highest user satisfaction." Venture Beat, 30 July 2015. Accessed Nov 2022.
      Looking Back, Moving Forward: The Evolution of Maropost for Marketing." Maropost Blog, 21 May 2019. Accessed Oct 2022.
      Maher, Sarah. "What's new with HubSpot? Inbound 2022 Feature Releases." Six & Flow, 9 July 2022. Accessed Oct 2022.
      Marketing Automation Provider, Salesfusion, Continues to Help Marketers Achieve Their Goals With Enhanced User Interface and Powerful Email Designer Updates." Yahoo Finance, 10 Dec 2013. Accessed Oct 2022.
      "Maropost Acquires Retail Express for $55 Million+ as it Continues to Dominate the Global Commerce Space." Marapost Newsroom, PRWire.com, 19 Jan 2022. Accessed Nov 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.
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      Salesforce. "The History of Salesforce." Salesforce, 19 March 2020. Web.
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      "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.
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      "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.

      Need hands-on assistance?

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      40 Hours of Advisory Assistance Delivered On-Line or In-Person

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      40 Hours of Expert Analyst Guidance
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      IT Organizational Design

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}32|cart{/j2store}
      • Related Products: {j2store}32|crosssells{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 9.1/10
      • member rating average dollars saved: $83,392
      • member rating average days saved: 21
      • Parent Category Name: People and Resources
      • Parent Category Link: /people-and-resources

      The challenge

      • IT can ensure full business alignment through an organizational redesign.
      • Finding the best approach for your company is difficult due to many frameworks and competing priorities.
      • External competitive influences and technological trends exacerbate this.

      Our advice

      Insight

      • Your structure is the critical enabler of your strategic direction. Structure dictates how people work together and how they can fill in their roles to create the desired business value. 
      • Constant change is killing for an organization. You need to adapt, but you need a stable baseline and make sure the change is in line with the overall strategy and company context.
      • A redesign is only successful if it really happens. Shifting people into new positions is not enough to implement a redesign. 

      Impact and results 

      • Define your redesign principles. They will act as a manifesto to your change. It also provides for a checklist, ensuring that the structure does not deviate from the business strategy.
      • Visualize the new design with a customized operating model for your company. It must demonstrate how IT creates value and supports the business value creation chains.
      • Define the future-state roles, functions, and responsibilities to enable your IT department to support the business effectively.

      The roadmap

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

      Get started

      Our concise executive brief explains to you the challenges associated with the organizational redesign. We'll show you our methodology and the ways we can help you in completing this.

      Define your organizational design principles and select your operating model

      The design principles will govern your organizational redesign; Align the principles with your business strategy.

      • Redesign Your IT Organizational Structure – Phase 1: Craft Organizational Design Principles and Select an IT Operating Model (ppt)
      • Organizational Design Communications Deck (ppt)

      Customize the selected IT operating model to your company

      Your operating model must account for the company's nuances and culture.

      • Redesign Your IT Organizational Structure – Phase 2: Customize the IT Operating Model (ppt)
      • Operating Models and Capability Definition List (ppt)

      Design the target-state of your IT organizational structure

      Go from an operating model to the structure fit for your company.

      • Redesign Your IT Organizational Structure – Phase 3: Architect the Target-State IT Organizational Structure (ppt)
      • Organizational Design Capability RACI Chart (xls)
      • Work Unit Reference Structures (Visio)
      • Work Unit Reference Structures (pdf)

      Communicate the benefits of the new structure

      Change does not come easy. People will be anxious. Craft your communications to address critical concerns and obtain buy-in from the organization. If the reorganization will be painful, be up-front on that, and limit the time in which people are uncertain.

      • Redesign Your IT Organizational Structure – Phase 4: Communicate the Benefits of the New Organizational Structure (ppt)

       

      CIO Priorities 2023

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}84|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 10.0/10 Overall Impact
      • member rating average dollars saved: $10,000 Average $ Saved
      • member rating average days saved: 9 Average Days Saved
      • Parent Category Name: IT Strategy
      • Parent Category Link: /it-strategy

      CIOs are facing these challenges in 2023:

      • Trying to understand the implications of external trends.
      • Determining what capabilities are most important to support the organization.
      • Understanding how to help the organization pursue new opportunities.
      • Preparing to mitigate new sources of organizational risk.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • While functional leaders may only see their next move, as head of the organization with a complete view of all the pieces, the CIO has full context awareness. It's up to them to assess their gaps, consider the present scenario, and then make their next move.
      • Each priority carries new opportunities for organizations that pursue them.
      • There are also different risks to mitigate as each priority is explored.

      Impact and Result

      • Inform your IT strategy for the year ahead.
      • Identify which capabilities you need to improve.
      • Add initiatives that support your priorities to your roadmap.

      CIO Priorities 2023 Research & Tools

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

      1. CIO Priorities 2023 Report – Read about the priorities on IT leaders' agenda.

      Understand the five priorities that will help navigate the opportunities and risks of the year ahead.

      • CIO Priorities 2023 Report

      Infographic

       

      Further reading

      CIO Priorities 2023

      Engage cross-functional leadership to seize opportunity while protecting the organization from volatility.

      Analyst Perspective

      Take a full view of the board and use all your pieces to win.

      In our Tech Trends 2023 report, we called on CIOs to think of themselves as chess grandmasters. To view strategy as playing both sides of the board, simultaneously attacking the opponent's king while defending your own. In our CIO Priorities 2023 report, we'll continue with that metaphor as we reflect on IT's capability to respond to trends.

      If the trends report is a study of the board state that CIOs are playing with, the priorities report is about what move they should make next. We must consider all the pieces we have at our disposal and determine which ones we can afford to use to seize on opportunity. Other pieces are best used by staying put to defend their position.

      In examining the different capabilities that CIOs will require to succeed in the year ahead, it's apparent that a siloed view of IT isn't going to work. Just like a chess player in a competitive match would never limit themselves to only using their knights or their rooks, a CIO's responsibility is to deploy each of their pieces to win the day. While functional leaders may only see their next move, as head of the organization with a complete view of all the pieces, the CIO has full awareness of the board state.

      It's up to them to assess their gaps, consider the present scenario, and then make their next move.

      This is a picture of Brian Jackson

      Brian Jackson
      Principal Research Director, Research – CIO
      Info-Tech Research Group

      CIO Priorities 2023 is informed by Info-Tech's primary research data of surveys and benchmarks

      Info-Tech's Tech Trends 2023 report and State of Hybrid Work in IT: A Trend Report inform the externalities faced by organizations in the year ahead. They imply opportunities and risks that organizations face. Leadership must determine if they will respond and how to do so. CIOs then determine how to support those responses by creating or improving their IT capabilities. The priorities are the initiatives that will deliver the most value across the capabilities that are most in demand. The CIO Priorities 2023 report draws on data from several different Info-Tech surveys and diagnostic benchmarks.

      2023 Tech Trends and Priorities Survey; N=813 (partial), n=521 (completed)
      Info-Tech's Trends and Priorities 2023 Survey was conducted between August 9 and September 9, 2022. We received 813 total responses with 521 completed surveys. More than 90% of respondents work in IT departments. More than 84% of respondents are at a manager level of seniority or higher.

      2023 The State of Hybrid Work in IT Survey; N=518
      The State of Hybrid Work in IT Survey was conducted between July 11 and July 29 and received 518 responses. Nine in ten respondents were at a manager level of seniority or higher.

      Every organization will have its own custom list of priorities based on its internal context. Organizational goals, IT maturity level, and effectiveness of capabilities are some of the important factors to consider. To provide CIOs with a starting point for their list of priorities for 2023, we used aggregate data collected in our diagnostic benchmark tools between August 1, 2021, and October 31, 2022.

      Info-Tech's CEO-CIO Alignment Program is intended to be completed by CIOs and their supervisors (CEO or other executive position [CxO]) and will provide the average maturity level and budget expectations (N=107). The IT Management and Governance Diagnostic will provide the average capability effectiveness and importance ranking to CIOs (N=271). The CIO Business Vision Diagnostic will provide stakeholder satisfaction feedback (N=259).

      The 2023 CIO priorities are based on that data, internal collaboration sessions at Info-Tech, and external interviews with CIOs and subject matter experts.

      Build IT alignment

      Assess your IT processes

      Determine stakeholder satisfaction

      Most IT departments should aim to drive outcomes that deliver better efficiency and cost savings

      Slightly more than half of CIOs using Info-Tech's CEO-CIO Alignment Program rated themselves at a Support level of maturity in 2022. That aligns with IT professionals' view of their organizations from our Tech Trends and Priorities Survey, where organizations are rated at the Support level on average. At this level, IT departments can provide reliable infrastructure and support a responsive IT service desk that reasonably satisfies stakeholders.

      In the future, CIOs aspire to attain the Transform level of maturity. Nearly half of CIOs select this future state in our diagnostic, indicating a desire to deliver reliable innovation and lead the organization to become a technology-driven firm. However, we see that fewer CxOs aspire for that level of maturity from IT. CxOs are more likely than CIOs to say that IT should aim for the Optimize level of maturity. At this level, IT will help other departments become more efficient and lower costs across the organization.

      Whether a CIO is aiming for the top of the maturity scale in the future or not, IT maturity is achieved one step at a time. Aiming for outcomes at the Optimize level will be a realistic goal for most CIOs in 2023 and will satisfy many stakeholders.

      Current and future state of IT maturity

      This image depicts a table showing the Current and future states of IT maturity.

      Trends indicate a need to focus on leadership and change management

      Trends imply new opportunities and risks that an organization must decide on. Organizational leadership determines if action will be taken to respond to the new external context based on its importance compared to current internal context. To support their organizations, IT must use its capabilities to deliver on initiatives. But if a capability's effectiveness is poor, it could hamper the effort.

      To determine what capabilities IT departments may need to improve or create to support their organizations in 2023, we conducted an analysis of our trends data. Using the opportunities and risks implied by the Tech Trends 2023 report and the State of Hybrid Work in IT: A Trend Report, we've determined the top capabilities IT will need to respond. Capabilities are defined by Info-Tech's IT Management and Governance Framework.

      Tier 1: The Most Important Capabilities In 2023

      Enterprise Application Selection & Implementation

      Manage the selection and implementation of enterprise applications, off-the-shelf software, and software as a service to ensure that IT provides the business with the most appropriate applications at an acceptable cost.

      Effectiveness: 6.5; Importance: 8.8

      Leadership, Culture, and Values

      Ensure that the IT department reflects the values of your organization. Improve the leadership skills of your team to generate top performance.

      Effectiveness: 6.9; Importance: 9

      Data Architecture

      Manage the business' databases, including the technology, the governance processes, and the people that manage them. Establish the principles, policies, and guidelines relevant to the effective use of data within the organization.

      Effectiveness: 6.3; Importance: 8.8

      Organizational Change Management

      Implement or optimize the organization's capabilities for managing the impact of new business processes, new IT systems, and changes in organizational structure or culture.

      Effectiveness: 6.1; Importance: 8.8

      External Compliance

      Ensure that IT processes and IT-supported business processes are compliant with laws, regulations, and contractual requirements.

      Effectiveness: 7.4; Importance: 8.8

      Info-Tech's Management and Diagnostic Benchmark

      Tier 2: Other Important Capabilities In 2023

      Ten more capabilities surfaced as important compared to others but not as important as the capabilities in tier 1.

      Asset Management

      Track IT assets through their lifecycle to make sure that they deliver value at optimal cost, remain operational, and are accounted for and physically protected. Ensure that the assets are reliable and available as needed.

      Effectiveness: 6.4; Importance: 8.5

      Business Intelligence and Reporting

      Develop a set of capabilities, including people, processes, and technology, to enable the transformation of raw data into meaningful and useful information for the purpose of business analysis.

      Effectiveness: 6.3; Importance: 8.8

      Business Value

      Secure optimal value from IT-enabled initiatives, services, and assets by delivering cost-efficient solutions and services and by providing a reliable and accurate picture of costs and benefits.

      Effectiveness: 6.5; Importance: 8.7

      Cost and Budget Management

      Manage the IT-related financial activities and prioritize spending through the use of formal budgeting practices. Provide transparency and accountability for the cost and business value of IT solutions and services.

      Effectiveness: 6.5; Importance: 8.8

      Data Quality

      Put policies, processes, and capabilities in place to ensure that appropriate targets for data quality are set and achieved to match the needs of the business.

      Effectiveness: 6.4; Importance: 8.9

      Enterprise Architecture

      Establish a management practice to create and maintain a coherent set of principles, methods, and models that are used in the design and implementation of the enterprise's business processes, information systems, and infrastructure.

      Effectiveness: 6.8; Importance: 8.8

      IT Organizational Design

      Set up the structure of IT's people, processes, and technology as well as roles and responsibilities to ensure that it's best meeting the needs of the business.

      Effectiveness: 6.8; Importance: 8.8

      Performance Measurement

      Manage IT and process goals and metrics. Monitor and communicate that processes are performing against expectations and provide transparency for performance and conformance.

      Effectiveness: 6; Importance: 8.4

      Stakeholder Relations

      Manage the relationship between the business and IT to ensure that the stakeholders are satisfied with the services they need from IT and have visibility into IT processes.

      Effectiveness: 6.7; Importance: 9.2

      Vendor Management

      Manage IT-related services provided by all suppliers, including selecting suppliers, managing relationships and contracts, and reviewing and monitoring supplier performance.

      Effectiveness: 6.6; Importance: 8.4

      Defining the CIO Priorities for 2023

      Understand the CIO priorities by analyzing both how CIOs respond to trends in general and how a specific CIO responded in the context of their organization.

      This is an image of the four analyses: 1: Implications; 2: Opportunities and risks; 3: Case examples; 4: Priorities to action.

      The Five CIO Priorities for 2023

      Engage cross-functional leadership to seize opportunity while protecting the organization from volatility.

      1. Adjust IT operations to manage for inflation
        • Business Value
        • Vendor Management
        • Cost and Budget Management
      2. Prepare your data pipeline to train AI
        • Business Intelligence and Reporting
        • Data Quality
        • Data Architecture
      3. Go all in on zero-trust security
        • Asset Management
        • Stakeholder Relations
        • External Compliance
      4. Engage employees in the digital age
        • Leadership, Culture, and Values
        • Organizational Change Management
        • Enterprise Architecture
      5. Shape the IT organization to improve customer experience
        • Enterprise Application Selection & Implementation
        • Performance Measurement
        • IT Organizational Design

      Adjust IT operations to manage for inflation

      Priority 01

      • APO06 Cost and Budget Management
      • APo10 Vendor Management
      • EDM02 Business Value

      Recognize the relative impact of higher inflation on IT's spending power and adjust accordingly.

      Inflation takes a bite out of the budget

      Two-thirds of IT professionals are expecting their budgets to increase in 2023, according to our survey. But not every increase is keeping up with the pace of inflation. The International Monetary Fund forecasts that global inflation rose to 8.8% in 2022. It projects it will decline to 6.5% in 2023 and 4.1% by 2024 (IMF, 2022).

      CIOs must account for the impact of inflation on their IT budgets and realize that what looks like an increase on paper is effectively a flat budget or worse. Applied to our survey takers, an IT budget increase of more than 6.5% would be required to keep pace with inflation in 2023. Only 40% of survey takers are expecting that level of increase. For the 27% expecting an increase between 1-5%, they are facing an effective decrease in budget after the impact of inflation. Those expecting no change in budget or a decrease will be even worse off.

      Looking ahead to 2023, how do you anticipate your IT spending will change compared to spending in 2022?

      Global inflation estimates by year

      2022 8.8%
      2023 6.5%
      2024 4.1%

      International Monetary Fund, 2022

      CIOs are more optimistic about budgets than their supervisors

      Data from Info-Tech's CEO-CIO Alignment Diagnostic benchmark also shows that CIOs and their supervisors are planning for increases to the budget. This diagnostic is designed for a CIO to use with their direct supervisor, whether it's the CEO or otherwise (CxO). Results show that on average, CIOs are more optimistic than their supervisors that they will receive budget increases and headcount increases in the years ahead.

      While 14% of CxOs estimated the IT budget would see no change or a decrease in the next three to five years, only 3% of CIOs said the same. A larger discrepancy is seen in headcount, where nearly one-quarter of CXOs estimated no change or decrease in the years ahead, versus only 10% of CIOs estimating the same.

      When we account for the impact of inflation in 2023, this misalignment between CIOs and their supervisors increases. When adjusting for inflation, we need to view the responses projecting an increase of between 1-5% as an effective decrease. With the inflation adjustment, 26% of CXOs are predicting IT budgets to stay flat or see a decrease compared to only 10% of CIOs.

      CIOs should consider how inflation has affected their projected spending power over the past year and take into account projected inflation rates over the next couple of years. Given that the past decade has seen inflation rates between 2-3%, the higher rates projected will have more of an impact on organizational budgets than usual.

      Expect headcount to stay flat or decline over 3-5 years

      CIO: 10%; CXO: 24%

      IT budget expectations to stay flat or decrease before inflation

      CIO: 13.6 %; CXO: 3.2%

      IT budget expectations to stay flat or decrease adjusted for inflation

      CIO: 25.8%; CXO: 9.7%

      Info-Tech's CEO-CIO Alignment Program

      Opportunities

      Appoint a "cloud economist"

      Organizations that migrated from on-premises data centers to infrastructure as a service shifted their capital expenditures on server racks to operational expenditures on paying the monthly service bill. Managing that monthly bill so that it is in line with desired performance levels now becomes crucial. The expected benefit of the cloud is that an organization can turn the dial up to meet higher demand and turn it down when demand slows. In practice this is sometimes more difficult to execute than anticipated. Some IT departments realize their cloud-based data flows aren't always connected to the revenue-generating activity seen in the business. As a result, a "cloud economist" is needed to closely monitor cloud usage and adjust it to financial expectations. Especially during any recessionary period, IT departments will want to avoid a "bill shock" incident.

      Partner with technology providers

      Keep your friends close and your vendors closer. Look for opportunities to create leverage with your strategic vendors to unlock new opportunities. Identify if a vendor you work with is not entrenched in your industry and offer them the credibility of working with you in exchange for a favorable contract. Offering up your logo for a website listing clients or giving your own time to speak in a customer session at a conference can go a long way to building up some goodwill with your vendors. That's goodwill you'll need when you ask for a new multi-year contract on your software license without annual increases built into the structure.

      Demonstrate IT projects improve efficiency

      An IT department that operates at the Optimize level of Info-Tech's maturity scale can deliver outcomes that lower costs for other departments. IT can defend its own budget if it's able to demonstrate that its initiatives will automate or augment business activities in a way that improves margins. The argument becomes even more compelling if IT can demonstrate it is supporting a revenue-generating initiative or customer-facing experience. CIOs will need to find business champions to vouch for the important contributions IT is making to their area.

      Risks

      Imposition of non-financial reporting requirements

      In some jurisdictions, the largest companies will be required to start collecting information on carbon emissions emitted as a result of business activities by the end of next year. Smaller sized organizations will be next on the list to determine how to meet new requirements issued by various regulators. Risks of failure include facing fines or being shunned by investors. CIOs will need to support their financial reporting teams in collecting the new required data accurately. This will incur new costs as well.

      Rising asset costs

      Acquiring IT equipment is becoming more expensive due to overall inflation and specific pressures around semiconductor supply chains. As a result, more CIOs are extending their device refresh policies to last another year or two. Still, demands for new devices to support new hybrid work models could put pressure on budgets as IT teams are asked to modernize conferencing rooms. For organizations adopting mixed reality headsets, cutting-edge capabilities will come at a premium. Operating costs of devices may also increase as inflation increases costs of the electricity and bandwidth they depend on.

      CASE STUDY
      Leverage your influence in vendor negotiations

      Denise Cornish, Associate VP of IT and Deputy COO,
      Western University of Health Sciences

      Since taking on the lead IT role at Western University in 2020, Denise Cornish has approached vendor management like an auditable activity. She evaluates the value she gets from each vendor relationship and creates a list of critical vendors that she relies upon to deliver core business services. "The trick is to send a message to the vendor that they also need us as a customer that's willing to act as a reference," she says. Cornish has managed to renegotiate a contract with her ERP vendor, locking in a multi-year contract with a very small escalator in exchange for presenting as a customer at conferences. She's also working with them on developing a new integration to another piece of software popular in the education space.

      Western University even negotiated a partnership approach with Apple for a program run with its College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific (COMP) called the Digital Doctor Bag. The partnership saw Apple agree to pre-package a customer application developed by Western that delivered the curriculum to students and facilitated communications across students and faculty. Apple recognized Western as an Apple Distinguished School, a program that recognizes innovative schools that use Apple products.

      "I like when negotiations are difficult.
      I don't necessarily expect a zero-sum game. We each need to get something out of this and having the conversation and really digging into what's in it for you and what's in it for me, I enjoy that. So usually when I negotiate a vendor contract, it's rare that it doesn't work out."

      CASE STUDY
      Control cloud costs with a simplified approach

      Jim Love, CIO, IT World Canada

      As an online publisher and a digital marketing platform for technology products and services companies, IT World Canada (ITWC) has observed that there are differences in how small and large companies adopt the cloud as their computing infrastructure. For smaller companies, even though adoption is accelerating, there may still be some reluctance to fully embrace cloud platforms and services. While larger companies often have a multi-cloud approach, this might not be practical for smaller IT shops that may struggle to master the skills necessary to effectively manage one cloud platform. While Love acknowledges that the cloud is the future of corporate computing, he also notes that not all applications or workloads may be well suited to run in the cloud. As well, moving data into the cloud is cheap but moving it back out can be more expensive. That is why it is critical to understand your applications and the data you're working with to control costs and have a successful cloud implementation.

      "Standardization is the friend of IT. So, if you can standardize on one platform, you're going to do better in terms of costs."

      From priorities to action

      Go deeper on pursuing your priorities by improving the associated capabilities.

      Improve Cost and Budget Management

      Take control of your cloud costs by providing central financial oversight on the infrastructure-as-a-service provider your organization uses. Create visibility into your operational costs and define policies to control them. Right-size the use of cloud services to stay within organizational budget expectations.

      Take Control of Cloud Costs on AWS

      Take Control of Cloud Costs on Microsoft Azure

      Improve Business Value

      Reduce the funds allocated to ongoing support and impose tougher discipline around change requests to lighten your maintenance burden and make room for investment in net-new initiatives to support the business.

      Free up funds for new initiatives

      Improve Vendor Management

      Lay the foundation for a vendor management process with long-term benefits. Position yourself as a valuable client with your strategic vendors and leverage your position to improve your contract terms.

      Elevate Your Vendor Management Initiative

      Prepare your data pipeline to train AI

      Priority 02

      • ITRG06 BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND REPORTING
      • ITRG07 DATA ARCHITECTURE
      • ITRG08 DATA QUALITY

      Keep pace as the market adopts AI capabilities, and be ready to create competitive advantage.

      Today's innovation is tomorrow's expectation

      During 2022, some compelling examples of generative-AI-based products took the world by storm. Images from AI-generating bots Midjourney and Stable Diffusion went viral, flooding social media and artistic communities with images generated from text prompts. Exchanges with OpenAI's ChatGPT bot also caught attention, as the bot was able to do everything from write poetry, to provide directions on a cooking recipe and then create a shopping list for it, to generate working code in a variety of languages. The foundation models are trained with AI techniques that include generative adversarial networks, transformers, and variational autoencoders. The end result is an algorithm that can produce content that's meaningful to people based on some simple direction. The industry is only beginning to come to grips with how this sort of capability will disrupt the enterprise.

      Slightly more than one-third of IT professionals say their organization has already invested in AI or machine learning. It's the sixth-most popular technology to have already invested in after cloud computing (82%), application programming interfaces (64%), workforce management solutions (44%), data lakes (36%), and next-gen cybersecurity (36%). It's ahead of 12 other technologies that IT is already invested in.

      When we asked what technologies organizations planned to invest in for next year, AI rocketed up the list to second place, as it's selected by 44% of IT professionals. It falls behind only cloud computing. This jump up the list makes AI the fastest growing technology for new investment from organizations.

      Many AI capabilities seem cutting edge now, but organizations are prioritizing it as a technology investment. In a couple of years, access to foundational models that produce images, text, or code will become easy to access with a commercial license and an API integration. AI will become embedded in off-the-shelf software and drive many new features that will quickly become commonplace.

      To stay even with the competition and meet customer expectations, organizations will have to work to at least adopt these AI-enhanced products and services. For those that want to create a competitive advantage, they will have to build a data pipeline that is capable of training their own custom AI models based on their unique data sets.

      Which of the following technology categories has your organization already invested in?

      A bar graph is depicted the percentage of organizations which already had invested in the following Categories: Cloud Computing; Application Programming; Next-Gen Cybersecurity; Workforce Management Solutions; Data Lake/Lakehouse; Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning.

      Which of those same technologies does your organization plan to invest in by the end of 2023?

      A bar graph is depicted the percentage of organizations which plan to invest in the following categories by the end of 2023: No-Code / Low-Code Platforms; Next-Gen Cybersecurity; Application Programming Interfaces (APIs); Data Lake / Lakehouse; Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Learning; Cloud Computing

      Tech Trends 2023 Survey

      Data quality and governance will be critical to customize generative AI

      Data collection and analysis are on the minds of both CIOs and their supervisors. When asked what technologies the business should adopt in the next three to five years, big data (analytics) ranked as most critical to adopt among CIOs and their supervisors. Big data (collection) ranked fourth out of 11 options.

      Organizations that want to drive a competitive advantage from generative AI will need to train these large, versatile models on their own data sets. But at the same time, IT organizations are struggling to provide clean data. The second-most critical gap for IT organizations on average is data quality, behind only organizational change management. Organizations know that data quality is important to support analytics goals, as algorithms can suffer in their integrity if they don't have reliable data to work with. As they say, garbage in, garbage out.

      Another challenge to overcome is the gap seen in IT governance, the sixth largest gap on average. Using data toward training custom generative models will hold new compliance and ethical implications for IT departments to contend with. How user data can be leveraged is already the subject of privacy legislation in many different jurisdictions, and new AI legislation is being developed in various places around the world that could create further demands. In some cases, users are reacting negatively to AI-generated content.

      Biggest capability gaps between rated importance and effectiveness

      This is a Bar graph showing the capability gaps between rated importance and effectiveness.

      IT Management and Governance Diagnostic

      Most critical technologies to adopt rated by CIOs and their supervisors

      This is a Bar graph showing the most critical technologies to adopt as rated by CIO's and their supervisors

      CEO-CIO Alignment Program

      Opportunities

      Enterprise content discovery

      Many organizations still cobble together knowledgebases in SharePoint or some other shared corporate drive, full of resources that no one quite knows how to find. A generative AI chatbot holds potential to be trained on an organization's content and produce content based on an employee's queries. Trained properly, it could point employees to the right resource they need to answer their question or just provide the answer directly.

      Supply chain forecasts

      After Hurricane Ian shut down a Walmart distribution hub, the retailer used AI to simulate the effects on its supply chain. It rerouted deliveries from other hubs based on the predictions and planned for how to respond to demand for goods and services after the storm. Such forecasts would typically take a team of analysts days to compose, but thanks to AI, Walmart had it done in a matter of hours (The Economist, 2022).

      Reduce the costs of AI projects

      New generative AI models of sufficient scale offer advantages over previous AI models in their versatility. Just as ChatGPT can write poetry or dialogue for a play or perhaps a section of a research report (not this one, this human author promises), large models can be deployed for multiple use cases in the enterprise. One AI researcher says this could reduce the costs of an AI project by 20-30% (The Economist, 2022).

      Risks

      Impending AI regulation

      Multiple jurisdictions around the world are pursuing new legislation that imposes requirements on organizations that use AI, including the US, Europe, and Canada. Some uses of AI will be banned outright, such as the real-time use of facial recognition in public spaces, while in other situations people can opt out of using AI and work with a human instead. Regulations will take the risk of the possible outcomes created by AI into consideration, and organizations will often be required to disclose when and how AI is used to reach decisions (Science | Business, 2022). Questions around whether creators can prevent their content from being used for training AI are being raised, with some efforts already underway to collect a list of those who want to opt out. Organizations that adopt a generative AI model today may find it needs to be amended for copyright reasons in the future.

      Bias in the algorithms

      Organizations using a large AI model trained by a third party to complete their tasks or as a foundation to further customize it with their own data will have to contend with the inherent bias of the algorithm. This can lead to unintended negative experiences for users, as it did for MIT Technology Review journalist Melissa Heikkilä when she uploaded her images to AI avatar app Lensa, only to have it render a collection of sexualized portraits. Heikkilä contends that her Asian heritage overly influenced the algorithm to associate her with video-game characters, anime, and adult content (MIT Technology Review, 2022).

      Convincing nonsense

      Many of the generative AI bots released so far often create very good responses to user queries but sometimes create nonsense that at first glance might seem to be accurate. One example is Meta's Galactica bot – intended to streamline scientific research discovery and aid in text generation – which was taken down only three days after being made available. Scientists found that it generated fake research that sounded convincing or failed to do math correctly (Spiceworks, 2022).

      CASE STUDY
      How MLSE enhances the Toronto Raptors' competitiveness with data-driven practices

      Christian Magsisi, Vice President of Venue and Digital Technology, MLSE

      At the Toronto Raptors practice facility, the OVO Athletic Centre, a new 120-foot custom LG video screen towers over the court. The video board is used to playback game clips so coaches can use them to teach players, but it also displays analytics from algorithmic models that are custom-made for each player. Data on shot-making or defensive deflections are just a couple examples of what might inform the players.

      Vice President of Digital Technology Christian Magsisi leads a functional Digital Labs technical group at MLSE. The in-house team builds the specific data models that support the Raptors in their ongoing efforts to improve. The analytics are fed by Noah Analytics, which uses cognitive vision to provide real-time feedback on shot accuracy. SportsVU is a motion capture system that represents how players are positioned on the court, with detail down to which way they are facing and whether their arms are up or down. The third-party vendors provide the solutions to generate the analytics, but it's up to MLSE's internal team to shape them to be actionable for players during a practice.

      "All the way from making sure that a specific player is achieving the results that they're looking for and showing that through data, or finding opportunities for the coaching staff. This is the manifestation of it in real life. Our ultimate goal with the coaches was to be able to take what was on emails or in a report and sometimes even in text message and actually implement it into practice."

      Read the full story on Spiceworks Insights.

      How MLSE enhances the Toronto Raptors' competitiveness with data-driven practices (cont.)

      Humza Teherany, Chief Technology Officer, MLSE

      MLSE's Digital Labs team architects its data insights pipeline on top of cloud services. Amazon Web Services Rekognition provides cognitive vision analysis from video and Amazon Kinesis provides the video processing capabilities. Beyond the court, MLSE uses data to enhance the fan experience, explains CTO Humza Teherany. It begins with having meaningful business goals about where technology can provide the most value. He starts by engaging the leadership of the organization and considering the "art of the possible" when it comes to using technology to unlock their goals.

      Humza Teherany (left) and Christian Magsisi lead MLSE's digital efforts for the pro sports teams owned by the group, including the Toronto Raptors, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Toronto Argonauts. (Photo by Brian Jackson).

      Read the full story on Spiceworks Insights.

      "Our first goal in the entire buildup of the Digital Labs organization has been to support MLSE and all of our teams. We like to do things first. We leverage our own technology to make things better for our fans and for our teams to complete and find incremental advantages where possible."
      Humza Teherany,
      Chief Technology Officer, MLSE

      From priorities to action

      Go deeper on pursuing your priorities by improving the associated capabilities.

      Improve Data Quality

      The performance of AI-assisted tools depends on mature IT operations processes and reliable data sets. Standardize service management processes and build a knowledgebase of structured content to prepare for AI-assisted IT operations.

      Prepare for Cognitive Service Management

      Improve Business Intelligence and Reporting

      Explore the enterprise chatbots that are available to not only assist with customer interactions but also help your employees find the resources they need to do their jobs and retrieve data in real time.

      Explore the best chatbots software

      Improve Data Architecture

      Understand if you are ready to embark on the AI journey and what business use cases are appropriate for AI. Plan around the organization's maturity in people, tools, and operations for delivering the correct data, model development, and model deployment and managing the models in the operational areas.

      Create an Architecture for AI

      Go all in on zero-trust security

      Priority 03

      • BAI09 ASSET MANAGEMENT
      • APO08 STAKEHOLDER RELATIONS
      • MEA03 EXTERNAL COMPLIANCE

      Adopt zero-trust architecture as the new security paradigm across your IT stack and from an organizational risk management perspective.

      Putting faith in zero trust

      The push toward a zero-trust security framework is becoming necessary for organizations for several different reasons over the past couple of years. As the pandemic forced workers away from offices and into their homes, perimeter-based approaches to security were challenged by much wider network footprints and the need to identify users external to the firewall. Supply-chain security became more of a concern with notable attacks affecting many thousands of firms, some with severe consequences. Finally, the regulatory pressure to implement zero trust is rising following President Joe Biden's 2021 Executive Order on Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity. It directs federal agencies to implement zero trust. That will impact any company doing business with the federal government, and it's likely that zero trust will propagate through other government agencies in the years ahead. Zero-trust architecture can also help maintain compliance around privacy-focused regulations concerned about personal data (CSO Online, 2022).

      IT professionals are modestly confident that they can meet new government legislation regarding cybersecurity requirements. When asked to rank their confidence on a scale of one to five, the most common answer was 3 out of 5 (38.5%). The next most common answer was 4 out of 5 (33.3%).

      Zero-trust barriers:
      Talent shortage and lack of leadership involvement

      Out of a list of challenges, IT professionals are most concerned with talent shortages leading to capacity constraints in cybersecurity. Fifty-four per cent say they are concerned or very concerned with this issue. Implementing a new zero-trust framework for security will be difficult if capacity only allows for security teams to respond to incidents.

      The next most pressing concern is that cyber risks are not on the radar of executive leaders or the board of directors, with 46% of IT pros saying they are concerned or very concerned. Since zero-trust requires that organizations take an enterprise risk management approach to cybersecurity and involve top decision makers, this reveals another area where organizations may fall short of achieving a zero-trust environment.

      How confident are you that your organization is prepared to meet current and future government legislation regarding cybersecurity requirements? A circle graph is shown with 68.6% colored dark green, and the words: AVG 3.43 written inside the graph.
      a bar graph showing the confidence % for numbers 1-5
      54%

      of IT professionals are concerned with talent shortages leading to capacity constraints in cybersecurity.

      46%

      of IT professionals are concerned that cyber risks are not on the radar of executive leaders or the board of directors.

      Zero trust mitigates risk while removing friction

      A zero-trust approach to security requires organizations to view cybersecurity risk as part of its overall risk framework. Both CIOs and their supervisors agree that IT-related risks are a pain point. When asked to rate the severity of pain points, 58% of CIOs rated IT-related business risk incidents as a minor pain or major pain. Their supervisors were more concerned, with 61% rating it similarly. Enterprises can mitigate this pain point by involving top levels of leadership in cybersecurity planning.

      Organizations can be wary about implementing new security measures out of concern it will put barriers between employees and what they need to work. Through a zero-trust approach that focuses on identity verification, friction can be avoided. Overall, IT organizations did well to provide security without friction for stakeholders over the past 18 months. Results from Info-Tech's CIO Business Vision Diagnostic shows that stakeholders almost all agree friction due to security practices are acceptable. The one area that stands to be improved is remote/mobile device access, where 78.3% of stakeholders view the friction as acceptable.

      A zero-trust approach treats user identity the same regardless of device and whether it is inside or outside of the corporate network. This can remove friction when workers are looking to connect remotely from a mobile device.

      IT-related business risk incidents viewed as a pain point

      CXO 61%
      CIO 58%

      Business stakeholders rate security friction levels as acceptable

      A bar graph is depicted with the following dataset: Regulatory Compliance: 93.80%; Office/Desktop Computing:	86.50%;Data Access/Integrity: 86.10%; Remote/Mobile Device Access:	78.30%;

      CIO Business Vision Diagnostic, N=259

      Opportunities

      Move to identity-driven access control

      Today's approach to access control on the network is to allow every device to exchange data with every other device. User endpoints and servers talk to each other directly without any central governance. In a zero-trust environment, a centralized zero-trust network access broker provides one-to-one connectivity. This allows servers to rest offline until needed by a user with the right access permissions. Users verify their identity more often as they move throughout the network. The user can access the resources and data they need with minimal friction while protecting servers from unauthorized access. Log files are generated for analysis to raise alerts about when an authorized identity has been compromised.

      Protect data with just-in-time authentication

      Many organizations put process in place to make sure data at rest is encrypted, but often when users copy that data to their own devices, it becomes unencrypted, allowing attackers opportunities to exfiltrate sensitive data from user endpoints. Moving to a zero-trust environment where each data access is brokered by a central broker allows for encryption to be preserved. Parties accessing a document must exchange keys to gain access, locking out unauthorized users that don't have both sets of keys to decrypt the data (MIT Lincoln Laboratory, 2022).

      Harness free and open-source tools to deploy zero trust

      IT teams may not be seeing a budget infusion to invest in a new approach to security. By making use of the many free and open-source tools available, they can bootstrap their strategy into reality. Here's a list to get started:

      PingCastle Wrangle your Active Directory and find all the domains that you've long since forgotten about and manage the situation appropriately. Also builds a spoke-and-hub map of your Active Directory.

      OpenZiti Create an overlay network to enable programmable networking that supports zero trust.

      Snyk Developers can automatically find and fix vulnerabilities before they commit their code. This vendor offers a free tier but users that scale up will need to pay.

      sigstore Open-source users and maintainers can use this solution to verify the code they are running is the code the developer intended. Works by stitching together free services to facilitate software signing, verify against a transparent ledger, and provide auditable logs.

      Microsoft's SBOM generation tool A software bill of materials is a requirement in President Biden's Executive Order, intended to provide organizations with more transparency into their software components by providing a comprehensive list. Microsoft's tool will work with Windows, Linux, and Mac and auto-detect a longlist of software components, and it generates a list organized into four sections that will help organizations comprehend their software footprint.

      Risks

      Organizational culture change to accommodate zero trust

      Zero trust requires that top decision makers get involved in cybersecurity by treating it as an equal consideration of overall enterprise risk. Not all boards will have the cybersecurity expertise required, and some executives may not prioritize cybersecurity despite the warnings. Organizations that don't appoint a chief information security officer (CISO) role to drive the cybersecurity agenda from the top will be at risk of cybersecurity remaining an afterthought.

      Talent shortage

      No matter what industry you're in or what type of organization you run, you need cybersecurity. The demand for talent is very high and organizations are finding it difficult to hire in this area. Without the talent needed to mature cybersecurity approaches to a zero-trust model, the focus will remain on foundational principles of patch management to eliminate vulnerabilities and intrusion prevention. Smaller organizations may want to consider a "virtual CISO" that helps shape the organizational strategy on a part-time basis.

      Social engineering

      Many enterprise security postures remain vulnerable to an attack that commandeers an employee's identity to infiltrate the network. Hosted single sign-on models provide low friction and continuity of identity across applications but also offer a single point of failure that hackers can exploit. Phishing scams that are designed to trick an employee into providing their credentials to a fake website or to just click on a link that delivers a malware payload are the most common inroads that criminals take into the corporate network. Being aware of how user behavior influences security is crucial.

      CASE STUDY
      Engage the entire organization with cybersecurity awareness

      Serge Suponitskiy, CIO, Brosnan Risk Consultants

      Brosnan provides private security services to high-profile clients and is staffed by security experts with professional backgrounds in intelligence services and major law enforcement agencies. Safe to say that security is taken seriously in this culture and CIO Serge Suponitskiy makes sure that extends to all back-office staff that support the firm's activities. He's aware that people are often the weakest link in a cybersecurity posture and are prone to being fooled by a phishing email or even a fraudulent phone call. So cybersecurity training is an ongoing activity that takes many forms. He sends out a weekly cybersecurity bulletin that features a threat report and a story about the "scam of the week." He also uses KnowBe4, a tool that simulates phishing attacks and trains employees in security awareness. Suponitskiy advises reaching out to Marketing or HR for help with engaging employees and finding the right learning opportunities.

      "What is financially the best solution to protect yourself? It's to train your employees. … You can buy all of the tools and it's expensive. Some of the prices are going up for no reason. Some by 20%, some by 50%, it's ridiculous. So, the best way is to keep training, to keep educating, and to reimagine the training. It's not just sending this video that no one clicks on or posting a poster no one looks at. … Given the fact we're moving into this recession world, and everyone is questioning why we need to spend more, it's time to reimagine the training approach."

      CASE STUDY
      Focus on micro-segmentation as the foundation of zero trust

      David Senf, National Cybersecurity Strategist, Bell

      As a cybersecurity analyst and advisor that works with Bell's clients, David Senf sees zero-trust security as an opportunity for organizations to put a strong set of mitigating controls in place to defend against the thorny challenge of reducing vulnerabilities in their software supply chain. With major breaches being linked to widely used software in the past couple of years, security teams might find it effective to focus on a different layer of security to prevent certain breaches. With security policy being enforced at a narrow point/perimeter, attacks are in essence blocked from exploiting application vulnerabilities (e.g. you can't exploit what you can see). Organizations must still ensure there is a solid vulnerability management program in place, but surrounding applications with other controls is critical. One aspect of zero trust, micro-segmentation, which is an approach to network management, can limit the damage caused by a breach. The solutions help to map out and protect the different connections between applications that could otherwise be abused for discovery or lateral movement. Senf advises that knowing your inventory of software and the interdependencies between applications is the first step on a zero-trust journey, before putting protection and detection in place.

      "Next year will be a year of a lot more ZTNA, zero-trust network access, being deployed. So, I think that will give organizations more of an understanding of what zero trust is as well, from a really basic perspective. If I can just limit what applications you can see and no one can even see that application, it's undiscoverable because I've got that ZTNA solution in place. … I would see that as a leading area of deployment and coming to understand what zero trust is in 2023."

      From priorities to action

      Go deeper on pursuing your priorities by improving the associated capabilities.

      Improve Asset Management

      Enable reduced friction in the remote user experience by underpinning it with a hardware asset management program. Creating an inventory of devices and effectively tracking them will aid in maintaining compliance, result in stronger policy enforcement, and reduce the harm of a lost or stolen device.

      Implement Hardware Asset Management

      Improve Stakeholder Relations

      Communicate the transition from a perimeter-based security approach to an "Always Verify" approach with a clear roadmap toward implementation. Map key protect surfaces to business goals to demonstrate the importance of zero-trust security in helping the organization succeed. Help the organization's top leadership build awareness of cybersecurity risk.

      Build a Zero Trust Roadmap

      Improve External Compliance

      Manage the challenge of meeting new government requirements to implement zero-trust security and other data protection and cybersecurity regulations with a compliance program. Create a control environment that aligns multiple compliance regimes, and be prepared for IT audits.

      Build a Security Compliance Program

      Engage employees in the digital age

      Priority 04

      • ITRG02 LEADERSHIP, CULTURE, AND VALUES
      • BAI05 ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT
      • APO03 ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE

      Lead a strong culture through digital means to succeed in engaging the hybrid workforce.

      The new deal for employers in a hybrid work world

      Necessity is the mother of innovation.

      The pandemic's disruption for non-essential workers looks to have a long-lasting, if not permanent, effect on the relationship between employer and employee. The new bargain for almost all organizations is a hybrid work reality, with employees splitting time between the office and working remotely, if not working remotely full-time. IT is in a unique position in the organization as it must not only contend with the shift to this new deal with its own employees but facilitate it for the entire organization.

      With 90% of organizations embracing some form of hybrid work, IT leaders have an opportunity to shift from coping with the new work reality to finding opportunities to improve productivity. Organizations that embrace a hybrid model for their IT departments see a more effective IT department. Organizations that offered no remote work for IT rated their IT effectiveness on average 6.2 out of 10, while organizations with at least 10% of IT roles in a hybrid model saw significantly higher effectiveness. At minimum, organizations with between 50%-70% of IT roles in a hybrid model rated their effectiveness at 6.9 out of 10.

      IT achieved this increase in effectiveness during a disruptive time that often saw IT take on a heavier burden. Remote work required IT to support more users and be involved in facilitating more work processes. Thriving through this challenging time is a win that's worth sharing with the rest of the organization.

      90% of organizations are embracing some form of hybrid work.

      IT's effectiveness compared to % working hybrid or remotely

      A bar graph is shown which compares the effectiveness of IT work with hybrid and full remote work, compared to No Remote Work for IT.

      High effectiveness doesn't mean high engagement

      Despite IT's success with hybrid work, CIOs are more concerned about their staff sufficiency, skill, and engagement than their supervisors. Among clients using our CEO-CIO Alignment Diagnostic, 49% of CIOs considered this issue a major pain point compared to only 32% of CXOs. While IT staff are more effective than ever, even while carrying more of a burden in the digital age, CIOs are still looking to improve staff engagement.

      Info-Tech's State of Hybrid Work Survey illuminates further details about where IT leaders are concerned for their employee engagement. About four in ten IT leaders say they are concerned for employee wellbeing, and almost the same amount say they are concerned they are not able to see signs that employees are demotivated (N=518).

      Boosting IT employees' engagement levels to match their effectiveness will require IT leaders to harness all the tools at their disposal. Communicating culture and effectively managing organizational change in the digital age is a real test of leadership.

      Staff sufficiency, skill, and engagement issues as a major pain point

      CXO 32%
      CIO 49%

      CEO-CIO Alignment Diagnostic

      Opportunities

      Drive effectiveness with a hybrid environment

      IT leaders concerned about the erosion of culture and connectedness due to hybrid work can mitigate those effects with increased and improved communication. Among highly effective IT departments, 55% of IT leaders made themselves highly available through instant messaging chat. Another 54% of highly effective leaders increased team meetings (State of Hybrid Work Survey, n=213). The ability to adapt to the team's needs and use a number of tactics to respond is the most important factor. The greater the number of tactics used to overcome communication barriers, the more effective the IT department (State of Hybrid Work Survey, N=518).

      Modernize the office conference room

      A hybrid work approach emphasizes the importance of not only the technology in the office conference room but the process around how meetings are conducted. Creating an equal footing for all participants regardless of how they join is the goal. In pursuit of that, 63% of organizations say they have made changes or upgrades to their conference room technology (n=496). The conferencing experience can influence employee engagement and work culture and enhance collaboration. IT should determine if the business case exists for upgrades and work to decrease the pain of using legacy solutions where possible (State of Hybrid Work in IT: A Trend Report).

      Understand the organizational value chain

      Map out the value chain from the customer perspective and then determine the organizational capabilities involved in delivering on that experience. It is a useful tool for helping IT staff understand how they're connected to the customer experience and organizational mission. It's crucial to identify opportunities to resolve pain points and create more efficiency throughout the organization.

      Risks

      Talent rejects the working model

      Many employees that experienced hybrid work over the past couple of years are finding it's a positive development for work/life balance and aren't interested in a full-time return to the office. Organizations that insist on returning all employees to the office all the time may find that employees choose to leave the organization. Similarly, it could be hard to hire IT talent in a competitive market if the position is required to be onsite every day. Most organizations are providing flexible options to employees and finding ways to manage work in the new digital age.

      Wasted expense on facilities

      Organizations may choose to keep their physical office only to later realize that no one is going to work there. While providing an office space can help foster positive culture through valuable face time, it has to be used intentionally. Managers should plan for specific days that their teams will meet in the office and make sure that work activities take advantage of everyone being in the same place at the same time. Asking everyone to come in so that they can be on a videoconference meeting in their cubicle isn't the point.

      Isolated employees and teams

      Studies on a remote work environment show it has an impact on how many connections each employee maintains within the company. Employees still interact well within their own teams but have fewer interactions across departments. Overall, workers are likely to collaborate just as often as they did when working in the office but with fewer other individuals at the company. Keep the isolating effect of remote work in mind and foster collaboration and networking opportunities across different departments (BBC News, 2022).

      CASE STUDY
      Equal support of in-office and remote work

      Roberto Eberhardt, CIO, Ontario Legislative Assembly

      Working in the legislature of the Ontario provincial government, CIO Roberto Eberhardt's staff went from a fully onsite model to a fully remote model at the outset of the pandemic. Today he's navigating his path to a hybrid model that's somewhere in the middle. His approach is to allow his business colleagues to determine the work model that's needed but to support a technology environment that allows employees to work from home or in the office equally. Every new process that's introduced must meet that paradigm, ensuring it will work in a hybrid environment. For his IT staff, he sees a culture of accountability and commitment to metrics to drive performance measurement as key to the success of this new reality.

      "While it's good in a way, the challenge for us is it became a little more complex because you have to account for all those things in the office environment and in the remote work approach. Everything you do now, you have to say OK well how is this going to work in this world and how will it work in the other world?"

      Creating purpose for IT through strategy

      Mike Russell, Virginia Community College System

      At the Virginia Community College System (VCCS), CIO Mike Russell's IT team supports an organization that governs and delivers services to all community colleges in the state. Russell sees his IT team's purpose as being driven by the organization's mission to ensure success throughout the entire student journey, from enrolment to becoming employed after graduation. That customer-focused mindset starts from the top-level leadership, the chancellor, and the state governor. The VCCS maintains a six-year business plan that informs IT's strategic plan and aligns IT with the mission, and both plans are living documents that get refreshed every two years. Updating the plans provides opportunities for the chancellor to engage the organization and remind everyone of the purpose of their work.

      "The outcome isn't the degree. The outcome we're trying to measure is the job. Did you get the job that you wanted? Whether it's being re-employed or first-time employment, did you get what you were after?"

      From priorities to action

      Go deeper on pursuing your priorities by improving the associated capabilities.

      Improve Leadership, Culture, and Values

      Help leaders manage their teams effectively in a hybrid environment by providing them with the right tools and tactics to manage the challenges of hybrid work. Focus on promoting teamwork and fostering connection.

      Prepare People Leaders for the Hybrid Work Environment

      Improve Organizational Change Management

      Assign accountability for managing the changes that the organization is experiencing in the digital age. Make a people-centric approach that takes human behavior into account and plans to address different needs in different ways. Be proactive about change.

      Master Organizational Change Management Practices

      Improve Enterprise Architecture

      Develop a foundation for aligning IT's activities with business value by creating a right-sized enterprise architecture approach that isn't heavy on bureaucracy. Drive IT's purpose by illustrating how their work contributes to the overall mission and the customer experience.

      Create a Right-Sized Enterprise Architecture Governance Framework

      Shape the IT organization to improve customer experience

      PRIORITY 05

      • BAI03 ENTERPRISE APPLICATION SELECTION & IMPLEMENTATION
      • MEA01 PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT
      • ITRG01 IT ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN

      Tightly align the IT organization with the organization's value chain from a customer perspective.

      IT's value is defined by faster, better, bigger

      The pandemic motivated organizations to accelerate their digital transformation efforts, digitalizing more of their tasks and organizing the company's value chain around satisfying the customer experience. Now we see organizations taking their foot off the gas pedal of digitalization and shifting their focus to extracting the value from their investments. They want to execute on the digital transformation in their operations and realize the vision they set out to achieve.

      In our Trends Report we compared the emphasis organizations are putting on digitalization to last year. Overall, we see that most organizations shifted fewer of their processes to digital in the past year.

      We also asked organizations what motivated their push toward automation. The most common drivers are to improve efficiency, with almost seven out of ten organizations looking to increase staff on high-level tasks by automating repetitive tasks, 67% also wanting to increase productivity without increasing headcount, and 59% wanting to reduce errors being made by people. In addition, more than half of organizations pursued automation to improve customer satisfaction.

      What best describes your main motivation to pursue automation, above other considerations?

      A bar graph is depicted showing the following dataset: Increase staff focus on high-level tasks by automating repetitive tasks:	69%; Increase productivity of existing staff to avoid increasing headcount:	67%; Reduce errors made by people:	59%; Improve customer satisfaction:	52%; Achieve cost savings through reduction in headcount:	35%; Increase revenue by enabling higher volume of work:	30%

      Tech Trends 2023 Survey

      To what extent did your organization shift its processes from being manually completed to digitally completed during past year?

      A bar graph is depicted showing the extent to which organizations shifted processes from manual to digital during the past year for 2022 and 2023, from Tech Trends 2023 Survey

      With the shift in focus from implementing new applications to support digital transformation to operating in the new environment, IT must shift its own focus to help realize the value from these systems. At the same time, IT must reorganize itself around the new value chain that's defined by a customer perspective.

      IT struggles to deliver business value or support innovation

      Many current IT departments are structured around legacy processes that hinder their ability to deliver business value. CIOs are trying to grapple with the misalignment between the modern business structure and keep up with the demands for innovation and agility.

      Almost nine in ten CIOs say that business frustration with IT's failure to deliver value is a pain point. Their supervisors have a slightly more favorable opinion, with 76% agreeing that it is a pain point.

      Similarly, nine in ten CIOs say that IT limits affecting business innovation and agility is a pain point, while 81% of their supervisors say the same.

      Supervisors say that IT should "ensure benefits delivery" as the most important process (CEO-CIO Alignment Program). This underlines the need to achieve alignment, optimize service delivery, and facilitate innovation. The pain points identified here will need to be resolved to make this possible.

      IT departments will need to contend with a tight labor market and economic volatility in the year ahead. If this drives down resource capacity, it will be even more critical to tightly align with the organization.

      Views business frustration with IT failure to deliver value as a pain point

      CXO 76%
      CIO 88%

      Views IT limits affecting business innovation and agility as a pain point

      CXO 81%
      CIO

      90%

      CEO-CIO Alignment Program

      Opportunities

      Define IT's value by its contributions to enterprise value

      Communicate the performance of IT to stakeholders by attributing positive changes in enterprise value to IT initiatives. For example, if a digital channel helped increase sales in one area, then IT can claim some portion of that revenue. If optimization of another process resulted in cost savings, then IT can claim that as a contribution toward the bottom line. CIOs should develop their handle on how KPIs influence revenues and costs. Keeping tabs on normalized year-over-year revenue comparisons can help demonstrate that IT contributions are making an impact on driving profitability.

      Go with buy versus build if it's a commodity service

      Most back-office functions common to operating a company can be provided by cloud-based applications accessed through a web browser. There's no value in having IT spend time maintaining on-premises applications that require hosting and ongoing maintenance. Organizations that are still accruing technical debt and are unable to modernize will increasingly find it is negatively impacting employee experience, as users expect their working experience to be similar to their experience with consumer applications. In addition, IT will continue to have capacity challenges as resources will be consumed by maintenance. As they seek to outsource some applications, IT will need to consider the geopolitical risk of certain jurisdictions in selecting a provider.

      Redefine how employee performance is tracked

      The concept of "clocking in" for a shift and spending eight hours a day on the job doesn't help guide IT toward its objectives or create any higher sense of purpose. Leaders must work to create a true sense of accountability by reaching consensus on what key performance indicators are important and tasking staff to improve them. Metrics should clearly link back to business outcomes and IT should understand the role they play in delivering a good customer experience.

      Risks

      Lack of talent available to drive transformation

      CIOs are finding it difficult to hire the talent needed to create the capacity they need as digital demands of their organizations increase. This could slow the pace of change as new positions created in IT go unfilled. CIOs may need to consider reskilling and rebalancing workloads of existing staff in the short term and tap outsourcing providers to help make up shortfalls.

      Resistance to change

      New processes may have been given the official rubber stamp, but that doesn't mean staff are adhering to them. Organizations that reorganize themselves must take steps to audit their processes to ensure they're executed the way they intend. Some employees may feel they are being made obsolete or pushed out of their jobs and become disengaged.

      Short-term increased costs

      Restructuring the organization can come with the need for new tools and more training. It may be necessary to operate with redundant staff for the transitional period. Some additional expenses might be incurred for a brief period as the new structure is being put in place.

      Emphasize the value of IT in driving revenue

      Salman Ali, CIO, McDonald's Germany

      As the new CIO to McDonald's Germany, Salman Ali came on board with an early mandate to reorganize the IT department. The challenge is to merge two organizations together: one that delivers core technology services of infrastructure, security, service desk, and compliance and one that delivers customer-facing technology such as in-store touchscreen kiosks and the mobile app for food delivery. He is looking to organize this new-look department around the technology in the hands of both McDonald's staff and its customers. In conversations with his stakeholders, Ali emphasizes the value that IT is driving rather than discussing the costs that go into it. For example, there was a huge cost in integrating third-party meal delivery apps into the point-of-sales system, but the seamless experience it delivers to customers looking to place an order helps to drive a large volume of sales. He plans to reorganize his department around this value-driven approach. The organization model will be executed with clear accountability in place and key performance indicators to measure success.

      "Technology is no longer just an enabler. It's now a strategic business function. When they talk about digital, they are really talking about what's in the customers' hands and what do they use to interact with the business directly? Digital transformation has given technology a new front seat that's really driving the business."

      CASE STUDY
      Overhauling the "heartbeat" of the organization

      Ernest Solomon, Former CIO, LAWPRO

      LAWPRO is a provider of professional liability insurance and title insurance in Canada. The firm is moving its back-office applications from a build approach to a buy approach and focusing its build efforts on customer-facing systems tied to revenue generation. CIO Ernest Solomon says his team has been developing on a legacy platform for two decades, but it's time to modernize. The firm is replacing its legacy platform and moving to a cloud-based system to address technical debt and improve the experience for staff and customers. The claims and policy management platform, the "heartbeat" of the organization, is moving to a software-as-a-service model. At the same time, the firm's customer-facing Title Plus application is being moved to a cloud-native, serverless architecture. Solomon doesn't see the need for IT to spend time building services for the back office, as that doesn't align with the mission of the organization. Instead, he focuses his build efforts on creating a competitive advantage.

      "We're redefining the customer experience, which is how do we move the needle in a positive direction for all the lawyers that interact with us? How do we generate that value-based proposition and improve their interactions with our organization?"

      From priorities to action

      Go deeper on pursuing your priorities by improving the associated capabilities.

      Improve Enterprise Application Selection & Implementation

      Help leaders manage their teams effectively in a hybrid environment by providing them with the right tools and tactics to manage the challenges of hybrid work. Focus on promoting teamwork and fostering connection.

      Embrace Business-Managed Applications

      Improve Performance Measurement

      Drive the most important IT process in the eyes of supervisors by defining business value and linking IT spend to it. Make benefits realization part of your IT governance.

      Maximize Business Value From IT Through Benefits Realization

      Improve IT Organizational Design

      Showcase IT's value to the business by aligning IT spending and staffing to business functions. Provide transparency into business consumption of IT and compare your spending to your peers'.

      IT Spend & Staffing Benchmarking

      The Five Priorities

      Engage cross-functional leadership to seize opportunity while protecting the organization from volatility.

      1. Adjust IT operations to manage for inflation
      2. Prepare your data pipeline to train AI
      3. Go all in on zero-trust security
      4. Engage employees in the digital age
      5. Shape the IT organization to improve customer experience

      Expert Contributors

      In order of appearance

      Denise Cornish, Associate VP of IT and Deputy COO, Western University of Health Sciences

      Jim Love, CIO, IT World Canada

      Christian Magsisi, Vice President of Venue and Digital Technology, MLSE

      Humza Teherany, Chief Technology Officer, MLSE

      Serge Suponitskiy, CIO, Brosnan Risk Consultants

      David Senf, National Cybersecurity Strategist, Bell

      Roberto Eberhardt, CIO, Ontario Legislative Assembly

      Mike Russell, Virginia Community College System

      Salman Ali, CIO, McDonald's Germany

      Ernest Solomon, Former CIO, LAWPRO

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      • Parent Category Name: Governance, Risk & Compliance
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      • Organizations must adapt their information security programs to accommodate insurance requirements.
      • Organizations need to reduce insurance costs.
      • Some organizations must find alternatives to cyber insurance.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Shopping for insurance policies is not step one.
      • First and foremost, we must determine what the organization is at risk for and how much it would cost to recover.
      • The cyber insurance market is still evolving. As insurance requirements change, effectively managing cyber insurance requires that your organization proactively manages risk.

      Impact and Result

      Perform an insurance policy comparison with scores based on policy coverage and exclusions.

      Assess Your Cybersecurity Insurance Policy Research & Tools

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

      1. Assess Your Cybersecurity Insurance Policy Storyboard - A step-by-step document that walks you through how to acquire cyber insurance, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

      Use this blueprint to score your potential cyber insurance policies and develop skills to overcome common insurance pitfalls.

      • Assess Your Cybersecurity Insurance Policy Storyboard

      2. Acquire cyber insurance with confidence – Learn the essentials of the requirements gathering, policy procurement, and review processes.

      Use these tools to gather cyber insurance requirements, prepare for the underwriting process, and compare policies.

      • Threat and Risk Assessment Tool
      • DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool
      • Legacy DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool
      • DRP BIA Scoring Context Example
      • Cyber Insurance Policy Comparison Tool
      • Cyber Insurance Controls Checklist

      Infographic

      Accelerate Digital Transformation With a Digital Factory

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}93|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 10.0/10 Overall Impact
      • member rating average dollars saved: $50,000 Average $ Saved
      • member rating average days saved: 20 Average Days Saved
      • Parent Category Name: Innovation
      • Parent Category Link: /innovation
      • Organizational challenges are hampering digital transformation (DX) initiatives.
      • The organization’s existing digital factory is failing to deliver value.
      • Designing a successful digital factory is a difficult process.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      To remain competitive, enterprises must deliver products and services like a startup or a digital native enterprise. This requires enterprises to:

      • Understand how digital native enterprises are designed.
      • Understand the foundations of good design: purpose, organizational support, and leadership.
      • Understand the design of the operating model: structure and organization, management practices, culture, environment, teams, technology platforms, and meaningful metrics and KPIs.

      Impact and Result

      Organizations that implement this project will draw benefits in the following aspects:

      • Gain awareness and understanding of various aspects that hamper DX.
      • Set the right foundations by having clarity of purpose, alignment on organizational support, and the right leadership in place.
      • Design an optimal operating model by setting up the right organizational structures, management practices, lean and optimal governance, agile teams, and an environment that promotes productivity and wellbeing.
      • Finally, set the right measures and KPIs.

      Accelerate Digital Transformation With a Digital Factory Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to understand the importance of a well-designed digital factory.

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

      1. Build the case

      Collect data and stats that will help build a narrative for digital factory.

      • Digital Factory Playbook

      2. Lay the foundation

      Discuss purpose, mission, organizational support, and leadership.

      3. Design the operating model

      Discuss organizational structure, management, culture, teams, environment, technology, and KPIs.

      [infographic]

      Workshop: Accelerate Digital Transformation With a Digital Factory

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

      1 Build the case

      The Purpose

      Understand and gather data and stats for factors impacting digital transformation.

      Develop a narrative for the digital factory.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Identification of key pain points and data collected

      Narrative to support the digital factory

      Activities

      1.1 Understand the importance and urgency of digital transformation (DX).

      1.2 Collect data and stats on the progress of DX initiatives.

      1.3 Identify the factors that hamper DX and tie them to data/stats.

      1.4 Build the narrative for the digital factory (DF) using the data/stats.

      Outputs

      Identification of factors that hamper DX

      Data and stats on progress of DX

      Narrative for the digital factory

      2 Lay the foundation

      The Purpose

      Discuss the factors that impact the success of establishing a digital factory.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A solid understanding and awareness that successful digital factories have clarity of purpose, organizational support, and sound leadership.

      Activities

      2.1 Discuss

      2.2 Discuss what organizational support the digital factory will require and align and commit to it.

      2.3 Discuss reference models to understand the dynamics and the strategic investment.

      2.4 Discuss leadership for the digital age.

      Outputs

      DF purpose and mission statements

      Alignment and commitment on organizational support

      Understanding of competitive dynamics and investment spread

      Develop the profile of a digital leader

      3 Design the operating model (part 1)

      The Purpose

      Understand the fundamentals of the operating model.

      Understand the gaps and formulate the strategies.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Design of structure and organization

      Design of culture aligned with organizational goals

      Management practices aligned with the goals of the digital factory

      Activities

      3.1 Discuss structure and organization and associated organizational pathologies, with focus on hierarchy and silos, size and complexity, and project-centered mindset.

      3.2 Discuss the importance of culture and its impact on productivity and what shifts will be required.

      3.3 Discuss management for the digital factory, with focus on governance, rewards and compensation, and talent management.

      Outputs

      Organizational design in the context of identified pathologies

      Cultural design for the DF

      Management practices and governance for the digital factory

      Roles/responsibilities for governance

      4 Design the operating model (part 2)

      The Purpose

      Understand the fundamentals of the operating model.

      Understand the gaps and formulate the strategies.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Discuss agile teams and the roles for DF

      Environment design that supports productivity

      Understanding of existing and new platforms

      Activities

      4.1 Discuss teams and various roles for the DF.

      4.2 Discuss the impact of the environment on productivity and satisfaction and discuss design factors.

      4.3 Discuss technology and tools, focusing on existing and future platforms, platform components, and organization.

      4.4 Discuss design of meaningful metrics and KPIs.

      Outputs

      Roles for DF teams

      Environment design factors

      Platforms and technology components

      Meaningful metrics and KPIs

      Renovate the Data Center

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}497|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): N/A
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      • member rating average days saved: N/A
      • Parent Category Name: Data Center & Facilities Optimization
      • Parent Category Link: /data-center-and-facilities-optimization
      • 33% of enterprises will be undertaking facility upgrades or refreshes in 2010 aimed at extending the life of their existing data centers.
      • Every upgrade or refresh targeting specific components in the facility to address short-term pain will have significant impact on the data center environment as a whole. Planning upfront and establishing a clear project scope will minimize expensive changes in later years.
      • This solution set will provide you with step-by-step design, planning, and selection tools to define a Data Center renovation plan to reduce cost and risk while supporting cost-effective long-term growth for power, cooling, standby power, and fire protection renovations.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • 88% of organizations cited they would spend more time and effort on documenting and identifying facility requirements for initial project scoping. Organizations can prevent scope creep by conducting the necessary project planning up front and identify requirements and the effect that the renovation project will have in all areas of the data center facility.
      • Data Center facilities renovations must include the specific requirements related to power provisioning, stand-by power, cooling, and fire protection - not just the immediate short-term pain.
      • 39% of organizations cited they would put more emphasis on monitoring contractor management and performance to improve the outcome of the data center renovation project.

      Impact and Result

      • Early internal efforts to create a budget and facility requirements yields better cost and project outcomes when construction begins. Each data center renovation project is unique and should have its own detailed budget.
      • Upfront planning and detailed project scoping can prevent a cascading impact on data center renovation projects to other areas of the data center that can increase project size, scope and spend.
      • Contractor selection is one of the most important first steps in a complex data center renovation. Organizations must ensure the contractor selected has experience specifically in data center renovation.

      Renovate the Data Center Research & Tools

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

      1. Identify and understand the renovation project.

      • Storyboard: Renovate the Data Center
      • None
      • Data Center Annual Review Checklist

      2. Renovate power in the data center.

      • Data Center Power Requirements Calculator

      3. Renovate cooling in the data center.

      • Data Center Cooling Requirements Calculator

      4. Renovate standby power in the data center.

      • Data Center Standby Power Requirements Calculator

      5. Define current and future fire protection requirements.

      • Fire Protection & Suppression Engineer Selection Criteria Checklist
      • None

      6. Assess the opportunities and establish a clear project scope.

      • Data Center Renovation Project Charter
      • Data Center Renovation Project Planning & Monitoring Tool

      7. Establish a budget for the data center renovation project.

      • Data Center Renovation Budget Tool

      8. Select a general contractor to execute the project.

      • None
      • Data Center Renovation Contractor Scripted Interview
      • Data Center Renovation Contractor Scripted Interview Scorecard
      • Data Center Renovation Contractor Reference Checklist
      [infographic]

      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 Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}416|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 9.0/10 Overall Impact
      • member rating average dollars saved: $38,999 Average $ Saved
      • member rating average days saved: 17 Average Days Saved
      • Parent Category Name: DR and Business Continuity
      • Parent Category Link: /business-continuity
      • Writing SOPs is the last thing most people want to do, so the work gets pushed down the priority list and the documents become dated.
      • Most organizations know it is good practice to have SOPs as it improves consistency, facilitates process improvement, and contributes to efficient operations.
      • Though the benefits are understood, many organizations don't have SOPs and those that do don't maintain them.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Create visual documents, not dense SOP manuals.
      • Start with high-impact SOPs, and identify the most critical undocumented SOPs and address them first.
      • Integrate SOP creation into project requirements and create SOP approval steps to ensure documentation is reviewed and completed in a timely fashion.

      Impact and Result

      • Create visual documents that can be scanned. Flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams are quicker to create, take less time to update, and are ultimately more usable than a dense manual.
      • Use simple but effective document management practices.
      • Make SOPs part of your project deliverables rather than an afterthought. That includes checking documentation status as part of your change management process.

      Create Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind Research & Tools

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

      1. Create Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind – Make SOPs work for you with visual documents that are easier to create and more effective for process management and optimization.

      Learn best practices for creating, maintaining, publishing, and managing effective SOP documentation.

      • Create Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind – Phases 1-3

      2. Standard Operating Procedures Workbook and Document Management Checklist – Prioritize, optimize, and document critical SOPs.

      Identify required documentation and prioritize them according to urgency and impact.

      • Standard Operating Procedures Workbook
      • Document Management Checklist

      3. Process Templates and Examples – Review and assess templates to find samples that are fit for purpose.

      Review the wide variety of samples to see what works best for your needs.

      • Standard Operating Procedures Project Roadmap Tool
      • System Recovery Procedures Template
      • Application Development Process – AppDev Example (Visio)
      • Application Development Process – AppDev Example (PDF)
      • Network Backup for Atlanta Data Center – Backups Example
      • DRP Recovery Workflow Template (PDF)
      • DRP Recovery Workflow Template (Visio)
      • Employee Termination Process Checklist – IT Security Example
      • Sales Process for New Clients – Sales Example (Visio)
      • Sales Process for New Clients – Sales Example (PDF)
      • Incident and Service Management Procedures – Service Desk Example (Visio)
      • Incident and Service Management Procedures – Service Desk Example (PDF)
      [infographic]

      Further reading

      Create Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind

      Change your focus from satisfying auditors to driving process optimization, consistent IT operations, and effective knowledge transfer.

      Project Outline

      Two flowcharts are depicted. The first is labelled 'Executive Brief' and the second is labelled 'Tools and Templates Roadmap'. Both outline the following project.

      ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

      Do your SOPs drive process optimization?

      "Most organizations struggle to document and maintain SOPs as required, leading to process inconsistencies and inefficiencies. These breakdowns directly impact the performance of IT operations. Effective SOPs streamline training and knowledge transfer, improve transparency and compliance, enable automation, and ultimately decrease costs as processes improve and expensive breakdowns are avoided. Documenting SOPs is not just good practice; it directly impacts IT efficiency and your bottom line."

      Frank Trovato, Senior Manager, Infrastructure Research Info-Tech Research Group

      Our understanding of the problem

      This Research Is Designed For:

      • IT Process Owners
      • IT Infrastructure Managers
      • IT Service Managers
      • System Administrators
      • And more…

      This Research Will Help You:

      • Identify, prioritize, and document SOPs for critical business processes.
      • Discover opportunities for overall process optimization by documenting SOPs.
      • Develop documentation best practices that support ongoing maintenance and review.

      This Research Will Also Assist:

      • CTOs
      • Business unit leaders

      This Research Will Help Them:

      • Understand the need for and value of documenting SOPs in a usable format.
      • Help set expectations around documentation best practices.
      • Extend IT best practices to other parts of the business.

      Executive summary

      Situation

      • Most organizations know it is good practice to have SOPs as it improves consistency, facilitates process improvement, and contributes to efficient operations.
      • Though the benefits are understood, many organizations don't have SOPs and those that do don't maintain them.

      Complication

      • Writing SOPs is the last thing most people want to do, so the work gets pushed down the priority list and the documents become dated.
      • Promoting the use of SOPs can also face staff resistance as the documentation is seen as time consuming to develop and maintain, too convoluted to be useful, and generally out of date.

      Resolution

      • Overcome staff resistance while implementing a sustainable SOP documentation approach by doing the following:
        • Create visual documents that can be scanned. Flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams are quicker to create, take less time to update, and are ultimately more usable than a dense manual.
        • Use simple, but effective document management practices.
        • Make SOPs part of your project deliverables rather than an afterthought. That includes checking documentation status as part of your change management process.
      • Extend these principles to other areas of IT and business processes. The survey data and examples in this report include application development and business processes as well as IT operations.

      Info-Tech Insight

      1. Create visual documents, not dense SOP manuals.
      2. Start with high-impact SOPs. Identify the most critical undocumented SOPs and document them first.
      3. Integrate SOP creation into project requirements and create SOP approval steps to ensure documentation is reviewed and completed in a timely fashion.

      Most organizations struggle to create and maintain SOP documents, especially in North America, despite the benefits

      North American companies are traditionally more technology focused than process focused, and that is reflected in the approach to documenting SOPs.

      • An ad hoc approach to SOPs almost certainly means documents will be out of date and ineffective. The same is also true when updating SOPs as part of periodic concerted efforts to prepare for an audit, annual review, or certification process, and this makes the task more imposing.
      • Incorporating SOP updates as part of regular change management processes ensures documents are up to date and usable. This can also make reviews and audits much more manageable.

      'It isn’t unusual for us to see infrastructure or operations documentation that is wildly out of date. We’re talking months, even years. Often it was produced as one big effort and then not reliably maintained.'

      – Gary Patterson, Consultant, Quorum Resources

      Organizations are most likely to update documents on an ad hoc basis or via periodic formal reviews. Less than 25% keep SOPs updated as needed.

      Graph depicting North America versus Asia and Europe practices of document updates

      Source: Info-Tech Research Group; N=104

      Document SOPs to improve knowledge transfer, optimize processes, and ultimately save money

      Benefits of documented SOPs Impact of undocumented/undefined SOPs
      Improved training and knowledge transfer: Routine tasks can be delegated to junior staff (freeing senior staff to work on higher priority tasks). Without documented 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, 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. Without documented SOPs: IT automation built on poorly defined, unoptimized processes leads to inconsistent results.
      Compliance: Compliance audits are more manageable because the documentation is already in place. Without documented SOPs: Documenting SOPs to prepare for an audit becomes a major time-intensive project.
      Transparency: Visually documented processes answer the common business question of “why does that take so long?” Without documented SOPs: Other areas of the organization may not understand how IT operates, which can lead to confusion and unrealistic expectations.
      Cost savings: Work can be assigned to the lowest level of support cost, IT operations achieve greater efficiency, and expensive breakdowns are avoided. Without documented SOPs: Work may be distributed uneconomically, money may be wasted through inefficient processes, and the organization is vulnerable to costly disruptions.

      COBIT, ISO, and ITIL aren’t a complete solution

      "Being ITIL and ISO compliant hasn’t solved our documentation problem. We’re still struggling."

      – Vendor Relationship Manager, Financial Services Industry

      • Adopting a framework such as ITIL, COBIT, or ISO doesn’t always mean that SOP documents are accurate, effective, or up to date.
      • Although these frameworks emphasize the importance of documenting processes, they tend to focus more on process development and requirements than on actual documentation. In other words, they deal more with what needs to be done than with how to do it.
      • This research will focus more on the documentation process itself – so how to go about creating, updating, optimizing, managing, and distributing SOP documents.

      Inadequate SOPs lead to major data loss and over $99,000 in recovery costs

      CASE STUDY 1

      Company A mid-sized US organization with over 1,000 employees

      Source Info-Tech Interview

      Situation

      • IT supports storage nodes replicated across two data centers. SOPs for backup procedures did not include an escalation procedure for failed backups or a step to communicate successful backups. Management was not aware of the issue and therefore could not address it before a failure occurred.

      Incident

      • Primary storage had a catastrophic failure, and that put pressure on the secondary storage, which then also failed. All active storage failed and the data corrupted. Daily backups were failing due to lack of disk space on the backup device. The organization had to resort to monthly tape backups.

      Impact

      • Lost 1 month of data (had to go back to the last tape backup).
      • Recovery also took much longer because recovery procedures were also not documented.
      • Key steps such as notifying impacted customers were overlooked. Customers were left unhappy not only with the outage and data loss but also the lack of communication.
      Hard dollar recovery costs
      Backup specialist (vendor) to assist with restoring data from tape $12,000
      Temps to re-enter 1 month of data $5,000
      Weekend OT for 4 people (approximately 24 hours per person) $5,538
      Productivity cost for affected employees for 1 day of downtime $76,923
      Total $99,462

      Intangible costs

      High “goodwill” impact for internal staff and customers.

      "The data loss pointed out a glaring hole in our processes – the lack of an escalation procedure. If I knew backups weren’t being completed, I would have done something about that immediately."

      – Senior Division Manager, Information Technology Division

      IT services company optimizes its SOPs using “Lean” approach

      CASE STUDY 2

      Company Atrion

      SourceInfo-Tech Interview

      Lean and SOPs

      • Standardized work is important to Lean’s philosophy of continuous improvement. SOPs allow for replication of the current best practices and become the baseline standard for member collaboration toward further improvements.
      • For more on Lean’s approach to SOPs, see “Lean Six Sigma Quality Transformation Toolkit (LSSQTT) Tool #17.”

      Atrion’s approach

      • Atrion is focused on documenting high-level processes that improve the client and employee experience or which can be used for training.
      • Cross-functional teams collaborate to document a process and find ways to optimize that SOP.
      • Atrion leverages visual documentation as much as possible: flowcharts, illustrations, video screen captures, etc.

      Outcomes

      • Large increase in usable, up-to-date documentation.
      • Process and efficiency improvements realized and made repeatable.
      • Success has been so significant that Atrion is planning to offer SOP optimization training and support as a service for its clients in the future.

      Atrion

      • Atrion provides IT services, solutions, and leadership to clients in the 250+ user range.
      • After adopting the Lean framework for its organization, it has deliberately focussed on optimizing its documentation.

      When we initiated a formal process efficiency program a little over a year ago and began striving towards a culture of continuous improvement, documenting our SOPs became key. We capture how we do things today and how to make that process more efficient. We call it current state and future state mapping of any process.

      – Michelle Pope, COO, Atrion Networking Corp.

      Strategies to overcome common documentation challenges

      Use Info-Tech’s methodology to streamline the SOP documentation process.

      Common documentation challenges Info-Tech’s methodology
      Where to start. For organizations with very few (if any) documented SOPs, the challenge is where to start. Apply a client focus to prioritize SOPs. Start with mission-critical operations, service management, and disaster recovery.
      Lack of time. Writing SOPs is viewed as an onerous task, and IT staff typically do not like to write documentation or lack the time. Use flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams over traditional dense manuals. Flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams take less time to create and maintain, and the output is far more usable than traditional manuals.
      Inconsistent document management. Documents are unorganized, e.g. hard to find documents, or you don’t know if you have the correct, latest version. Keep it simple. You don’t need a full-time SOP librarian if you stick to a simple, but consistent approach to documentation management. Simple is easier to follow (therefore, be consistent).
      Documentation is not maintained. More urgent tasks displace documentation efforts. There is little real motivation for staff to keep documents current. Ensure accountability at the individual and project level. Incorporate documentation requirements into performance evaluations, project planning, and change control procedures.

      Use this blueprint as a building block to complete these other Info-Tech projects

      Improve IT-Business Alignment Through an Internal SLA

      Understand business requirements, clarify capabilities, and close gaps.

      Standardize the Service Desk – Module 2 & 3

      Improve reporting and management of incidents and build service request workflows.

      Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan

      Define appropriate objectives for DR, build a roadmap to close gaps, and document your incident response plan.

      Extend the Service Desk to the Enterprise

      Position IT as an innovator.

      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

      Create Visual SOP Documents – project overview

      1. Prioritize, optimize, and document critical SOPs 2. Establish a sustainable documentation process 3. Identify a content management solution
      Best-Practice Toolkit

      1.1 Identify and prioritize undocumented/outdated critical processes

      1.2 Reduce effort and improve usability with visual documentation

      1.3 Optimize and document critical processes

      2.1 Establish guidelines for identifying and organizing SOPs

      2.2 Write an SOP for creating and maintaining SOPs

      2.3 Plan SOP working sessions to put a dent into your documentation backlog

      3.1 Understand the options when it comes to content management solutions

      3.2 Use Info-Tech’s evaluation tool to determine the right approach for you

      Guided Implementations
      • Identify undocumented critical SOPs.
      • Understand the benefits of a visual approach.
      • Work through a tabletop exercise to document two visual SOP documents.
      • Establish documentation information guidelines.
      • Identify opportunities to create a culture that fosters SOP creation.
      • Address outstanding undocumented SOPs by working through process issues together.
      • Review your current approach to content management and discuss possible alternatives.
      • Evaluate options for a content management strategy, in the context of your own environment.
      Onsite Workshop Module 1:

      Identify undocumented critical processes and review the SOP mapping process.

      Module 2:

      Review and improve your documentation process and address your documentation backlog.

      Module 3:

      Evaluate strategies for publishing and managing SOP documentation.

      Phase 1 Outcome:
        Review and implement the process for creating usable SOPs.
      Phase 2 Outcome:
        Optimize your SOP maintenance processes.
      Phase 3 Outcome:
        Choose a content management solution that meets your needs.

      Workshop overview

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

      Workshop Prep Workshop Day 1 Workshop Day 2 Workshop Day 3 Workshop Day 4
      Activities Scope the SOP pilot and secure resources
      • Identify the scope of the pilot project.
      • Develop a list of processes to document.
      • Ensure required resources are available.
      Prioritize SOPs and review methodology

      1.1 Prioritize undocumented SOPs.

      1.2 Review the visual approach to SOP planning.

      1.3 Conduct a tabletop planning exercise.

      Review SOPs and identify process gaps

      2.1 Continue the tabletop planning exercise with other critical processes.

      2.2 Conduct a gap analysis to identify solutions to issues discovered during SOP mapping.

      Identify projects to meet process gaps

      3.1 Develop a prioritized project roadmap to address gaps.

      3.2 Define a process for documenting and maintaining SOPs.

      3.3 Identify and assign actions to improve SOP management and maintenance.

      Set next steps and put a dent in your backlog

      4.1 Run an SOP working session with experts and process owners to put a dent in the documentation backlog.

      4.2 Identify an appropriate content management solution.

      Deliverables
      1. Defined scope for the workshop.
      2. A longlist of key processes.
      1. Undocumented SOPs prioritized according to business criticality and current state.
      2. One or more documented SOPs.
      1. One or more documented SOPs.
      2. Gap analysis.
      1. SOP Project Roadmap.
      2. Publishing and Document Management Solution Evaluation Tool.
      1. Multiple documented SOPs.
      2. Action steps to improve SOP management and maintenance.

      Measured value for Guided Implementations (GIs)

      Engaging in GIs doesn’t just offer valuable project advice, it also results in significant cost savings.

      GI Measured Value
      Phase 1: Prioritize, optimize, and document critical SOPs
      • Time, value, and resources saved using Info-Tech’s methodology to prioritize and document SOPs in the ideal visual format.
      • For example, 4 FTEs*4 days*$80,000/year = $5,120
      Phase 2: Establish a sustainable documentation process
      • Time, value, and resources saved using our tools and methodology to implement a process to ensure SOPs are maintained, accessible, and up to date.
      • For example: 4 FTEs*5 days*$80,000/year = $6,400
      Phase 3: Identify a content management solution
      • Time, value, and resources saved using our best-practice guidance and tools to select an approach and solution to manage your organization’s SOPs.
      • For example: 2 FTEs*5 days*$80,000/year = $3,200
      Total Savings $14,720

      Note: Documenting SOPs provides additional benefits that are more difficult to quantify: reducing the time spent by staff to find or execute processes, improving transparency and accountability, presenting opportunities for automation, etc.

      Phase 1

      Prioritize, Optimize, and Document Critical SOPs

      Create Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind

      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: Prioritize, optimize, and document critical SOPs

      Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 2 weeks

      Step 1.1: Prioritize SOPs

      Start with an analyst kick off call:

      • Apply a client focus to critical IT services.
      • Identify undocumented, critical SOPs.

      Then complete these activities…

      • Rank and prioritize your SOP documentation needs.

      With this template:

      Standard Operating Procedures Workbook

      Step 1.2: Develop visual documentation

      Review findings with analyst:

      • Understand the benefits of a visual approach.
      • Review possibilities for visual documentation.

      Then complete these activities…

      • Identify formats that can improve your SOP documentation.

      With these templates:

      • Example DRP Process Flows
      • Example App Dev Process And more…

      Step 1.3: Optimize and document critical processes

      Finalize phase deliverable:

      • Two visual SOP documents, mapped using a tabletop exercise.

      Then complete these activities…

      • Create the visual SOP.
      • Review and optimize the process.

      With this tool:

      SOP Project Roadmap Tool

      Phase 1 Results & Insights:

      Identify opportunities to deploy visual documentation, and follow Info-Tech’s process to capture steps, gaps, and opportunities to improve IT processes.

      Focus first on client-facing and high-impact SOPs

      IT’s number one obligation to internal and external customers is to keep critical services running – that points to mission-critical operations, service management, and disaster recovery.

      Topic Description
      Mission-critical operations
      • Maintenance processes for mission-critical systems (e.g. upgrade procedures, batch processing, etc.).
      • Client-facing services with either formal or informal SLAs.
      • Change management – especially for mission-critical systems, change management is more about minimizing risk of downtime than expediting change.
      Service management
      • Service desk procedures (e.g. ticket assignment and issue response).
      • Escalation procedures for critical outages.
      • System monitoring.
      Disaster recovery procedures
      • Management-level incident response plans, notification procedures, and high-level failover procedures (e.g. which systems must come up first, second, third).
      • Recovery or failover procedures for individual systems.
      • Backup and restore procedures – to ensure backups are available if needed.

      Understand what makes an application or service mission critical

      When email or a shared drive goes down, it may impact productivity, but may not be a significant impact to the business. Ask these questions when assessing whether an application or service is mission critical.

      Criteria Description
      Is there a hard-dollar impact from downtime?
      • For example, when an online catalog system goes down, it impacts sales and therefore revenue. Without determining the actual financial impact, you can make an immediate assessment that this is a Gold system.
      • By contrast, loss of email may impact productivity but may not affect revenue streams, depending on your business. A classification of Silver is most likely appropriate.
      Impact on goodwill/customer trust?
      • If downtime means delays in service delivery or otherwise impacts goodwill, there is an intangible impact on revenue that may make the associated systems Gold status.
      Is regulatory compliance a factor?
      • If a system requires redundancy and/or high availability due to legal or regulatory compliance requirements, it may need to be classified as a Gold system.
      Is there a health or safety risk?
      • For example, police and medical organizations have systems that are mission critical due to their impact on health and safety rather than revenue or cost, and therefore are classified as Gold systems. Are there similar considerations in your organization?

      "Email and other Windows-based applications are important for our day-to-day operations, but they aren’t critical. We can still manufacture and ship clothing without them. However, our manufacturing systems, those are absolutely critical"

      – Bob James, Technical Architect, Carhartt, Inc.

      Create a high-level risk and benefit scale

      1.1a

      15 minutes

      Define criteria for high, medium, and low risks and benefits, as shown in the example below. These criteria will be used in the upcoming exercises to rank SOPs.

      Note: The goal in this section is to provide high-level indicators of which SOPs should be documented first, so a high-level set of criteria is used. To conduct a detailed business impact analysis, see Info-Tech’s Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan.

      Materials

      • Whiteboard

      Participants

      • Process Owners
      • SMEs
      Risk to the business Score
      Low: Affects ad hoc activities or non-critical data. 1
      Moderate: Impacts productivity and internal goodwill. 2
      High: Impacts revenue, safety, and external goodwill. 3
      Benefit (e.g. productivity improvement) Score
      Low: Minimal impact. 1
      Moderate: Items with short-term or occasional applicability, so limited benefit. 2
      High: Save time for common or ongoing processes, and extensive improvement to training/knowledge transfer. 3

      Identify and prioritize undocumented mission-critical operations

      1.1b

      15 minutes

      1. To navigate to this exercise, open Info-Tech’s Standard Operating Procedures Workbook.
      2. List your top three–five mission critical applications or services.
      3. Identify relevant SOPs that support those applications or services.
      4. Indicate SOP status: Green = up to date and complete, Yellow = out-of-date or incomplete, Red = undocumented.
      5. Assign risk and benefit scores (3=high, 1=low) to Yellow and Red SOPs based on potential impact if those processes failed (risk) and opportunity for process improvement (benefit).

      OUTPUT

      • Analysis of SOPs supporting mission-critical operations

      Materials

      • Whiteboard

      Participants

      • Process Owners
      • SMEs
      Application SOPs Status Risk Benefit
      Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
      • System administration (user administration, adding projects, etc.).
      Red 1 2
      • System upgrades (including OS upgrades and patches).
      Red 2 2
      • Report generation.
      Green n/a n/a
      Network services
      • Network monitoring (including fault detection).
      Yellow 3 2
      • Network upgrades.
      Red 2 1
      • Backup procedures.
      Yellow 3 1

      Identify and prioritize undocumented service management procedures

      1.1c

      15 minutes

      1. To navigate to this exercise, open Info-Tech’s Standard Operating Procedures Workbook.
      2. Identify service management SOPs.
      3. Indicate SOP status: Green = up to date and complete, Yellow = out-of-date or incomplete, Red = undocumented.
      4. Assign risk and benefit scores (3=high, 1=low) to Yellow and Red SOPs based on potential impact if those processes failed (risk) and opportunity for process improvement (benefit).

      OUTPUT

      • Analysis of SOPs supporting service management

      Materials

      • Whiteboard

      Participants

      • Process Owners
      • SMEs
      Service Type SOPs Status Risk Benefit
      Service Request
      • Software install
      Red 3 1
      • Software update
      Yellow 3 1
      • New hardware
      Green n/a n/a
      Incident Management
      • Ticket entry and triage
      Yellow 3 2
      • Ticket escalation
      Red 2 1
      • Notification for critical issues
      Yellow 3 1

      Identify and prioritize undocumented DR procedures

      1.1d

      20 minutes

      1. To navigate to this exercise, open Info-Tech’s Standard Operating Procedures Workbook.
      2. Identify DR SOPs.
      3. Indicate SOP status: Green = up to date and complete, Yellow = out-of-date or incomplete, Red = undocumented.
      4. Assign risk and benefit scores (3=high, 1=low) to Yellow and Red SOPs based on potential impact if those processes failed (risk) and opportunity for process improvement (benefit).

      OUTPUT

      • Analysis of SOPs supporting DR

      Materials

      • Whiteboard

      Participants

      • Process Owners
      • SMEs
      DR Phase SOPs Status Risk Benefit
      Discovery and Declaration
      • Initial detection and escalation
      Red 3 1
      • Notification procedures to Emergency Response Team (ERT)
      Yellow 3 1
      • Notification procedures to staff
      Green n/a n/a
      Recover Gold Systems
      • ERP recovery procedures
      Red 2 2
      • Corporate website recovery procedures
      Yellow 3 2
      Recover Silver Systems
      • MS Exchange recovery procedures
      Red 2 1

      Select the SOPs to focus on for the first round of documentation

      1.1e

      20 minutes

      1. Identify two significantly different priority 1 SOPs to document during this workshop. It’s important to get a sense of how the Info-Tech templates and methodology can be applied to different types of SOPs.
      2. Rank the remaining SOPs that you still need to address post-workshop by priority level within each topic area.

      INPUT

      • SOP analysis from activities 1.1 and 1.2

      OUTPUT

      • A shortlist of critical, undocumented SOPs to review later in this phase

      Materials

      • Whiteboard

      Participants

      • Process Owners
      • SMEs
      Category Area SOPs Status Risk Benefit
      Disaster Recovery Procedures Discovery and Declaration
      • Initial detection and escalation
      Red 3 1
      • Notification procedures to ERT
      Yellow 3 1
      Mission-Critical Operations Network Services
      • Network monitoring (including fault detection)
      Yellow 3 2
      Service Management Procedures Incident Management
      • Ticket entry and triage
      Yellow 3 2

      Change the format of your documentation

      Which document is more effective? Which is more likely to be used?

      "The end result for most SOPs is a 100-page document that makes anyone but the author want to stab themselves rather than read it. Even worse is when you finally decide to waste an hour of your life reading it only to be told afterwards that it might not be quite right because Bob or Stan needed to make some changes last year but never got around to it."

      – Peter Church, Solutions Architect

      Create visual-based documentation to improve usability and effectiveness

      "Without question, 300-page DRPs are not effective. I mean, auditors love them because of the detail, but give me a 10-page DRP with contact lists, process flows, diagrams, and recovery checklists that are easy to follow."

      – Bernard Jones, MBCI, CBCP, CORP, Manager Disaster Recovery/BCP, ActiveHealth Management

      SOPs, including those that support your disaster recovery plan (DRP), are often created to meet certification requirements. However, this often leads to lengthy overly detailed documentation that is geared to auditors and business leaders, not IT staff trying to execute a procedure in a high-pressure, time-sensitive scenario.

      Staff don’t have time to flip through a 300-page manual, let alone read lengthy instructions, so organizations are transforming monster manuals into shorter, visual-based documentation. Benefits include:

      • Quicker to create than lengthy manuals.
      • Easier to be absorb, so they are more usable.
      • More likely to stay up to date because they are easier to maintain.

      Example: DRPs that include visual SOPs are easier to use — that leads to shorter recovery times and fewer mistakes.

      Chart is depicted showing the success rates of traditional manuals versus visual documentation.

      Use flowcharts for process flows or a high-level view of more detailed procedures

      • Flowcharts depict who does what and when; they provide an at-a-glance view that is easy to follow and makes task ownership clear.
      • Use swim lanes, as in this example, to indicate process stages and task ownership.
      • For experienced staff, a high-level reminder of process flows or key steps is sufficient.
      • Where more detail is required, include links to supporting documentation (which could include checklists, vendor documentation, other flowcharts, etc.).

      See Info-Tech’s Incident and Service Management Procedures – Service Desk Example.

      "Flowcharts are more effective when you have to explain status and next steps to upper management."

      – Assistant Director-IT Operations, Healthcare Industry

      Example: SOP in flowchart format

      A flowchart is depicted as an example flowchart. This one is an SOP flowchart labelled 'Triage Process - Incidents'

      Review your options for diagramming software

      Many organizations look for an option that easily integrates with the MS Office suite. The default option is often Microsoft Visio.

      Pros:

      • Easy to learn and use.
      • Has a wide range of features and capabilities.
      • Comes equipped with a large collection of stencils and templates.
      • Offers the convenience of fluid integration with the MS Office Suite.

      Cons:

      • Isn’t included in any version of the MS Office Suite and can be quite expensive to license.
      • Not available for Mac or Linux environments.

      Consider the options below if you’re looking for an alternative to Microsoft Visio:

      Desktop Solutions

      • Dia Diagram Editor
      • Diagram Designer
      • LibreOffice Draw
      • Pencil Project
      • yEd Graph Editor

      • Draw.io
      • Creately
      • Gliffy
      • LucidChart

      Note: No preference or recommendation is implied from the ordering of the options above.

      This list is not intended to be comprehensive.

      Evaluate different solutions to identify one that works for you

      Use the criteria below to identify a flowchart software that fits your needs.

      Criteria Description
      Platform What platform(s) can run the software?
      Description What use cases are identified by the vendor – and do these cover your needs for documenting your SOPs? Is the software open source?
      Features What are the noteworthy features and characteristics?
      Usability How easy is the program to use? What’s the learning curve like? How intuitive is the design?
      Templates and Stencils Availability of templates and stencils.
      Portability Can the solution integrate with other pieces of software? Consider whether other tools can view, open, and/or edit documents; what file formats can be published, etc.
      Cost Cost of the software to purchase or license.

      Use checklists to streamline step-by-step procedures

      • Checklists are ideal when staff just need a reminder of what to do, not how to do it.
      • Remember your audience. You aren’t pulling in a novice to run a complex procedure, so all you really need here are a series of reminders.
      • Where more detail is required, include links to supporting documentation.
      • Note that a flowchart can often be used instead of a checklist, depending on preference.

      For two different examples of a checklist template, see:

      Image depicting an example checklist. This checklist depicts an employee termination checklist

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

      • Organizations commonly have network topology diagrams for reference purposes, so this is just a re-use of existing resources.
      • Physically label real world equipment to correspond to topology diagrams. While these labels will be redundant for most IT employees, they help give clarity and confidence when changes are being made.
      • If your topology diagrams are housed in a tool such as a systems management product, then export the diagrams so they can be included in your SOP documentation suite.

      "Our network engineers came to me and said our standard SOP template didn't work for them. They're now using a lot of diagrams and flowcharts, and that has worked out better for them."

      The image shows a topology organization diagram as an example network layout

      Use screen captures and tutorials to facilitate training for applications and SOPs

      • Screen capture tutorials or videos are effective for training staff on applications. For example, create a screen capture tutorial to train staff on the use of a help desk application and your company’s specific process for using that tool.
      • Similarly, create tutorials to train end users on straightforward “technical” tasks (e.g. setting up their VPN connection) to reduce the demand on IT staff.
      • Tutorials can be created quickly and easily with affordable software such as Snag-It, ScreenHunter Pro, HyperSnap, PicPick, FastStone, Ashampoo Snap 6, and many others.

      "When contractors come onboard, they usually don't have a lot of time to learn about the organization, and we have a lot of unique requirements. Creating SOP documents with screenshots has made the process quicker and more accurate."

      – Susan Bellamore, Business Analyst, Public Guardian and Trustee of British Columbia

      The image is an example of a screen caption tutorial, depicting desktop icons and a password login

      Example: Disaster recovery notification and declaration procedure

      1. Swim lanes indicate task ownership and process stages.
      2. Links to supporting documentation (which could include checklists, vendor documentation, other flowcharts, etc.) are included where necessary.
      3. Additional DR SOPs are captured within the same spreadsheet for convenient, centralized access.

      Review Info-Tech’s Incident Response and Recovery Process Flows – DRP Example.

      Example: DRP flowchart with links to supporting documents

      The image is an example of an DRP flowchart labelled 'Initial Discovery/Notification and Declaration Procedures'

      Establish flowcharting standards

      If you don’t have existing flowchart standards, then keep it simple and stick to basic flowcharting conventions as described below.

      Start, End, and Connector. Traditional flowcharting standards reserve this shape for connectors to other flowcharts or other points in the existing flowchart. Unified Modeling Language (UML) also uses the circle for start and end points.

      Start, End. Traditional flowcharting standards use this for start and end. However, Info-Tech recommends using the circle shape to reduce the number of shapes and avoid confusion with other similar shapes.

      Process Step. Individual process steps or activities (e.g. create ticket or escalate ticket). If it’s a series of steps, then use the sub-process symbol and flowchart the sub-process separately.

      Sub-Process. A series of steps. For example, a critical incident SOP might reference a recovery process as one of the possible actions. Marking it as a sub-process, rather than listing each step within the critical incident SOP, streamlines the flowchart and avoids overlap with other flowcharts (e.g. the recovery process).

      Decision. Represents decision points, typically with Yes/No branches, but you could have other branches depending on the question (e.g. a “Priority?” question could branch into separate streams for Priority 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 issues).

      Document/Report Output. For example, the output from a backup process might include an error log.

      Conduct a tabletop planning exercise to build an SOP

      1.3a

      20 minutes

      Tabletop planning is a paper-based exercise where your team walks through a particular process and maps out what happens at each stage.

      1. For this exercise, choose one particular process to document.
      2. Document each step of the process using cue cards, which can be arranged on the table in sequence.
      3. Be sure to include task ownership in your steps.
      4. Map out the process as it currently happens – we’ll think about how to improve it later.
      5. Keep focused. Stay on task and on time.

      OUTPUT

      • Steps in the current process for one SOP

      Materials

      • Tabletop, pen, and cue cards

      Participants

      • Process Owners
      • SMEs

      Info-Tech Insight

      Don’t get weighed down by tools. Relying on software or other technological tools can detract from the exercise. Use simple tools such as cue cards to record steps so that you can easily rearrange steps or insert steps based on input from the group.

      The image depicts three cue cards labelled steps 3 to 5. The cue cards are examples of the tabletop planning exercise.

      Collaborate to optimize the SOP

      1.3b

      20 minutes

      Review the tabletop exercise. What gaps exist in current processes?

      How can the process be made better? What are the outputs and checkpoints?

      The image depicts five cue cards, two of which are examples on how to improve the process. This is an example of the tabletop exercise.

      OUTPUT

      • Identify steps to optimize the SOP

      Materials

      • Tabletop, pen, and cue cards

      Participants

      • Process Owners
      • SMEs

      A note on colors: Use white cards to record steps. Record gaps on yellow cards (e.g. a process step not documented) and risks on red cards (e.g. only one person knows how to execute a step) to highlight your gaps/to-dos and risks to be mitigated or accepted.

      If it’s necessary to clarify complex process flows during the exercise, also use green cards for decision diamonds, purple for document/report outputs, and blue for sub-processes.

      Capture opportunities to improve processes in the Standard Operating Procedures Project Roadmap Tool

      1.3

      Rank and track projects to close gaps you discover in your processes.

      1. As a group, identify potential solutions to close the gaps in your processes that you’ve uncovered through the tabletop mapping exercise.
      2. Add these project names to the Standard Operating Procedures Project Roadmap Tool on the “Project Scoring” tab.
      3. Review and adjust the criteria for evaluating the benefits and costs of different projects on the “Scoring Criteria” tab.
      4. Return to the “Project Scoring” tab, and assign weights at the top of each scoring column. Use the drop-down menus to adjust the scores for each project category. The tool will automatically rank the projects based on your input, but you can adjust the ranks as needed.
      5. Assign dates and descriptions to the projects on the “Implementation Schedule” tab, below.
      The image depicts a graph showing an example of ranked and tracked projects.

      Identify gaps to improve process performance and make SOP documentation a priority

      CASE STUDY

      Industry Government (700+ FTEs)
      Source Info-Tech Workshop

      Challenge

      • Tabletop planning revealed a 77-hour gap between current and desired RTO for critical systems.
      • Similarly, the current achievable RPO gap was up to one week, but the desired RPO was one hour.
      • A DR site was available but not yet set up with the necessary equipment.
      • Lack of documented standard operating procedures (SOPs) was identified as a risk since that increased the dependence on two or three key SMEs.

      Solution

      • Potential projects to close RTO/RPO gaps were identified, including:
        • Deploy servers that were decommissioned (as a result of a server refresh) to the DR site as warm standby servers.
        • Implement site-to-site data replication.
        • Document SOPs to enable tasks to be delegated and minimize resourcing risks.

      Results

      • A DR project implementation schedule was defined.
      • Many of the projects required no further investment, but rather deployment of existing equipment that could function as standby equipment at the DR site.
      • The DR risk from a lack of SOPs enabled SOPs to be made a priority. An expected side benefit is the ability to review and optimize processes and improve consistency in IT operations.

      Document the SOPs from the tabletop exercise

      1.3c

      20 minutes

      Document the results from the tabletop exercise in the appropriate format.

      1. Identify an appropriate visual format for the high-level SOP as well as for any sub-processes or supporting documentation.
      2. Break into groups of two or three.
      3. Each group will be responsible for creating part of the SOP. Include both the high-level SOP itself and any supporting documentation such as checklists, sign-off forms, sub-processes, etc.
      4. Once your document is complete, exchange it with that of another group. Review each other’s documents to check for clarity and completeness.

      OUTPUT

      • Output from activities 1.4 and 1.5

      Materials

      • Flowcharting software, laptops

      Participants

      • Process Owners
      • SMEs

      This image has four cue cards, and an arrow pointing to a flowchart, depicting the transfer of the information on the cue cards into a flowchart software

      Repeat the tabletop exercise for the second process

      Come back together as a large group. Choose a process that is significantly different from the one you’ve just documented, and repeat the tabletop exercise.

      As a reminder, the steps are:

      1. Use the tabletop exercise to map out a current SOP.
      2. Collaborate to optimize the SOP.
      3. Decide on appropriate formats for the SOP and its supporting documents.
      4. Divide into small groups to create the SOP and its supporting documents.
      5. Repeat the steps above as needed for your initial review of critical processes.

      Info-Tech Insight

      If you plan to document more than two or three SOPs at once, consider making it an SOP “party” to add momentum and levity to an otherwise dry process. Review section 2.3 to find out how.

      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:

      1.1a-e

      Get started by prioritizing SOPs

      Ensure the SOP project remains business focused, and kick off the project by analyzing critical business services. Identify key IT services that support the relevant business services. Conduct a benefit/risk analysis to prioritize which SOPs should become the focus of the workshop.

      1.3a-c

      Document the SOPs from the tabletop exercise

      Leverage a tabletop planning exercise to walk the team through the SOP. During the exercise, focus on identifying timelines, current gaps, and potential risks. Document the steps via que cards first and transpose the hard copies to an electronic version.

      Phase 2

      Establish a Sustainable Documentation Process

      Create Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind

      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: Establish a sustainable SOP documentation process

      Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 4 weeks

      Step 2.1: Establish guidelines for identifying and organizing SOPs

      Start with an analyst call:

      • Establish documentation information guidelines.
      • Review version control best practices.

      Then complete these activities…

      • Implement best practices to identify and organize your SOPs.

      With these tools & templates:

      • SOP Workbook

      Step 2.2: Define a process to document and maintain SOPs

      Review findings with analyst:

      • Identify opportunities to create a culture that fosters SOP creation.

      Then complete these activities…

      • Create a plan to address SOP documentation gaps.

      With these tools & templates:

      • Document Management Checklist

      Step 2.3: Plan time with experts to put a dent in your documentation backlog

      Finalize phase deliverable:

      • Address outstanding undocumented SOPs by working through process issues together.

      Then complete these activities…

      • Organize and run a working session to document and optimize processes.

      With these tools & templates:

      • SOP Workbook
      • SOP Project Roadmap Tool

      Phase 2 Results & Insights:

      Improve the process for documenting and maintaining your SOPs, while putting a dent in your documentation backlog and gaining buy-in with staff.

      Identify current content management practices and opportunities for improvement

      DISCUSS

      What is the current state of your content management practices?

      Are you using a content management system? If not, where are documents kept?

      Are your organizational or departmental SOPs easy to find?

      Is version control a problem? What about file naming standards?

      Get everyone on the same page on the current state of your SOP document management system, using the questions above as the starting point.

      Keep document management simple for better adoption and consistency

      If there is too much complexity and staff can’t easily find what they need, you won’t get buy-in and you won’t get consistency.

      Whether you store SOPs in a sophisticated content management system (CMS) or on a shared network drive, keep it simple and focus on these primary goals:

      • Enable staff to find the right document.
      • Know if a document is the latest, approved version.
      • Minimize document management effort to encourage buy-in and consistency.

      If users can’t easily find what they need, it leads to bad practices. For example:

      • Users maintain their own local copies of commonly used documents to avoid searching for them. The risk is that local copies will not be automatically updated when the SOP changes.
      • Separate teams will implement their own document management system and repository. Now you have duplication of effort and company resources, multiple copies of documents (where each group needs their own version), and no centralized control over potentially sensitive documents.
      • Users will ignore documented SOPs or ask a colleague who might also be following the above bad practices.

      Insert a document information block on the first page of every document to identify key attributes

      Include a document information block on the first page of every document to identify key attributes. This strategy is as much about minimizing resistance as it is ensuring key attributes are captured.

      • A consistent document information block saves time (e.g. vs. customized approaches per document). If some fields don’t apply, enter “n/a.”
      • It provides key information about the document without having to check soft copy metadata, especially if you work with hard copies.
      • It’s a built-in reminder of what to capture and easier than updating document properties or header/footer information or entering metadata into a CMS.

      Note: The Info-Tech templates in this blueprint include a copy of the document information block shown in this example. Add more fields if necessary for your organization’s needs.

      For an example of a completed document information block, see Network Backup for Atlanta Data Center – Backups Example

      Info-Tech Insight

      For organizations with more advanced document management requirements, consider more sophisticated strategies (e.g. using metadata) as described in Info-Tech’s Use SharePoint for Enterprise Content Management and Reintroduce the Information Lifecycle to the Content Management Strategy. However, the basic concepts above still apply: establish standard attributes you need to capture and do so in a consistent manner.

      Modify the Info-Tech document information block to meet your requirements

      2.1a

      15 minutes

      1. Review “Guidelines and Template for the Document Information Block” in the Standard Operating Procedures Workbook. Determine if any changes are required, such as additional fields.
      2. Identify which fields you want to standardize and then establish standard terms. Balance the needs for simplicity and consistency – don’t force consistency where it isn’t a good fit.
      3. Pre-fill the document information block with standard terms and examples and add it to an SOP template that’s stored in your content management system.

      Educate staff by pre-filling the document

      • Providing examples built into the templates provides in-context, just-in-time training which is far more effective and easier than formal education efforts.
      • Focus your training on communicating when the template or standard terms change so that staff know to obtain the new version. Otherwise, the tendency for many staff will be to use one of their existing documents as their template.

      OUTPUT

      • Completed document information block

      Materials

      • Laptop
      • Projector

      Participants

      • Process Owners
      • SMEs

      Leverage the document information block to create consistent filenames that facilitate searching

      Use the following filename format to create consistent, searchable, and descriptive filenames:

      Topic – Document Title – Document Type – Version Date

      Filename Component Purpose
      Topic
      • Functions as a filename prefix to group related documents but is also a probable search term. For project work, use a project name/number.
      Document Title
      • The title should be fairly descriptive of the content (if it isn’t, it’s not a good title) so it will help make the file easily identifiable and will include more probable search terms.
      Document Type Further distinguishes similar files (e.g. Maintenance SOP vs. a Maintenance Checklist).
      Version Date (for local files or if not using a CMS)
      • If it’s necessary to work on a file locally, include the version date at the end of the filename. The date is a more recognizable indicator of whether it’s the latest version or an old copy.
      • Establish a standard date format. Although MM-DD-YY is common in the US, the format YYYY-MM-DD reduces confusion between the month and day.

      For example:

      • ERP – System Administration Monthly Maintenance Tasks – Checklist – 2016-01-15.docx
      • ERP – System Administration Monthly Maintenance Tasks – SOP – 2017-01-10.docx
      • Backups – Network Backup Procedure for Atlanta Data Center – SOP – 2017-03-06.docx
      • PROJ437 – CRM Business Requirements – BRD – 2017-02-01.xlsx
      • DRP – Notification Procedures – SOP – 2016-09-14.docx
      • DRP – Emergency Response Team Roles and Responsibilities – Reference – 2018-03-10.xlsx

      Apply filename and document information block guidelines to existing SOPs

      2.1b

      15 minutes

      1. Review the SOPs created during the earlier exercises.
      2. Update the filenames and document information block based on guidelines in this section.
      3. Apply these guidelines to other select existing SOPs to see if additional modifications are required (e.g. additional standard terms).

      INPUT

      • Document Information Block

      OUTPUT

      • Updated filenames and document information blocks

      Materials

      • Laptop and projector

      Participants

      • Process Owners
      • SMEs

      Implement version control policies for local files as well as those in your content management system (CMS)

      1. Version Control in Your CMS

      2. Always keep one master version of a document:

      • When uploading a new copy of an existing SOP (or any other document), ensure the filenames are identical so that you are just adding a new version rather than a separate new file.
      • Do not include version information in the filename (which would create a new separate file in your CMS). Allow your CMS to handle version numbering.
    • Version Control for Local Files

    • Ideally, staff would never keep local copies of files. However, there are times when it is practical or preferable to work from a local copy: for example, when creating or updating an SOP, or when working remotely if the CMS is not easily accessible.

      Implement the following policies to govern these circumstances:

      • Add the version date to the end of the filename while the document is local, as shown in the slide on filenames.
      • Remove the date when uploading it to a CMS that tracks date and version. If you leave the date in the filename, you will end up with multiple copies in your CMS.
      • When distributing copies for review, upload a copy to the CMS and send the link. Do not attach a physical file.
    • Minimize the Need for Version Updates

    • Reduce the need for version updates by isolating volatile information in a separate, linked document. For example:

      • Use Policy documents to establish high-level expectations and goals, and use SOPs to capture workflow, but put volatile details in a separate reference document. For example, for Backup procedures, put offsite storage vendor details such as contact information, pick up times, and approved couriers in a separate document.
      • Similarly, for DRP Notification procedures, reference a separate contacts list.

      Modify the Info-Tech Document Management Checklist to meet your requirements

      2.1c

      15 minutes

      1. Review the Info-Tech Document Management Checklist.
      2. Add or remove checklist items.
      3. Update the document information block.

      OUTPUT

      • Completed document management checklist

      Materials

      • Laptop, projector

      Participants

      • Process Owners
      • SMEs

      See Info-Tech’s Document Management Checklist.

      If you aren’t going to keep your SOPs current, then you’re potentially doing more harm than good

      An outdated SOP can be just as dangerous as having no SOP at all. When a process is documented, it’s trusted to be accurate.

      • Disaster recovery depends as much on supporting SOPs – such as backup and restore procedures – as it does on a master incident response plan.
      • For disaster scenarios, the ability to meet recovery point objectives (i.e. minimize data loss) and recovery time objectives (i.e. minimize downtime) depends on smoothly executed recovery procedures and on having well-defined and up-to-date DR documentation and supporting SOPs. For example:
        • Recovery point (data loss) objectives are directly impacted by your backup procedures.
        • Recovery time is minimized by a well-defined restore procedure that reduces the risk of human error during recovery which could lead to data loss or a delay in the recovery.
        • Similarly, a clearly documented configuration procedure will reduce the time to bring a standby system online.
      A graph depicting the much faster recovery time of up-to-date SOPs versus out-of-date SOPs.

      Follow Info-Tech best practices to keep SOPs current and drive consistent, efficient IT operations

      The following best practices were measured in this chart, and will be discussed further in this section:

      1. Identify documentation requirements as part of project planning.
      2. Require a manager or supervisor to review and approve SOPs.
      3. Check documentation status as part of change management.
      4. Hold staff accountable.
      Higher adoption of Info-Tech best practices leads to more effective SOPs and greater benefits in areas such as training and process improvement.

      Graph depicting the efficiency of adopting Info-Tech practices regarding SOPs. Four categories of 'Training', 'process improvement', 'IT automation', and 'consistent IT operations' are shown increasing in efficiency with a high adoption of Info-Tech strategies.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Audits for compliance requirements have little impact on getting SOPs done in a timely manner or the actual usefulness of those SOPs, because the focus is on passing the audit instead of creating SOPs that improve operations. The frantic annual push to complete SOPs in time for an audit is also typically a much greater effort than maintaining documents as part of ongoing change management.

      Identify documentation requirements as part of project planning

      DISCUSS

      When are documentation requirements captured, including required changes to SOPs?

      Make documentation requirements a clearly defined deliverable. As with any other task, this should include:

      • Owner: The person ultimately responsible for the documentation.
      • Assigned resource: The person who will actually put pen to paper. This could be the same person as the owner, or the owner could be a reviewer.
      • Deadlines: Include documentation deliverables in project milestones.
      • Verification process: Validate completion and accuracy. This could be a peer review or management review.
      Example: Implement a new service desk application.
      • Service desk SOP documentation requirements: SOP for monitoring and managing tickets will require changes to leverage new automation features.
      • Owner: Service Desk Lead.
      • Assigned resource: John Smith (service desk technician).
      • Deadline: Align with “ready for QA testing.”
      • Verification process: Service Desk Lead document review and signoff.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Realistically, documentation will typically be a far less urgent task than the actual application or system changes. However, if you want the necessary documentation to be ultimately completed, even if it’s done after more urgent tasks, it must be tracked.

      Implement document approval steps at the individual and project level

      DISCUSS

      How do you currently review and validate SOP documents?

      Require a manager or supervisor to review and approve SOPs.

      • Avoid a bureaucratic review process involving multiple parties. The goal is to ensure accuracy and not just provide administrative protection.
      • A review by the immediate supervisor or manager is often sufficient. Their feedback and the implied accountability improve the quality and usefulness of the SOPs.

      Check documentation status as part of change management.

      • Including a documentation status check holds the project leaders and management accountable.
      • If SOPs are not critical to the project deliverable, then realistically the deliverable is not held back. However, keep the project open until relevant documents are updated so those tasks can’t be swept under the rug until the next audit.

      SOP reviews, change management, and identifying requirements led to benefits such as training and process improvement.

      A chart depicting the impact and benefits of SOP reviews, change management and identifying requirements. The chart is accompanied by a key for the grey to blue colours depicted

      "Our directors and our CIO have tied SOP work to performance evaluations and SOP status is reviewed during management meetings. People have now found time to get this work done."

      – Assistant Director-IT Operations, Healthcare Industry

      Review SOPs regularly and assign a process owner to avoid reinforcing silos

      CASE STUDY

      Industry

      Public service organization

      Source

      Info-Tech client engagement

      Situation

      • The organization’s IT department consists of five heavily siloed units.
      • Without communication or workflow accountability across units, each had developed incompatible workflows, making estimates of “time to resolution” for service requests difficult.
      • The IT service manager purchases a new service desk tool, attempting to standardize requests across IT to improve efficiency, accountability, and transparency.

      Complication

      • The IT service manager implements the tool and creates standardized workflows without consulting stakeholders in the different service units.
      • The separate units immediately rebel against the service manager and try to undermine the implementation of the new tool.

      Results

      • Info-Tech analysts helped to facilitate a solution between experts in the different units.
      • In order to develop a common workflow and ticket categorization scheme, Info-Tech recommended that each service process should have a single approver.

      The bottom line: ensure that there’s one approver per process to drive process efficiency and accountability and avoid problems down the road.

      Hold staff accountable to encourage SOP work to be completed in a timely manner

      DISCUSS

      Are SOP updates treated as optional or “when I have time” work?

      Hold staff directly accountable for SOP work.

      Holding staff accountable is really about emphasizing the importance of ensuring SOPs stay current. If management doesn’t treat SOPs as a priority, then neither will your staff. Strategies include:

      • Include SOP work in performance appraisals.
      • Keep relevant tickets open until documentation is completed.
      • Ensure documents are reviewed, as discussed earlier.
      • Identify and assign documentation tasks as part of project planning efforts, as discussed earlier.

      Holding staff accountable minimizes procrastination and therefore maintenance effort.

      Chart depicting the impact on reducing SOP maintenance effort followed by a key defining the colours on the chart

      Info-Tech Insight

      Holding staff accountable does not by itself make a significant impact on SOP quality (and therefore the typical benefits of SOPs), but it minimizes procrastination, so the work is ultimately done in a more timely manner. This ensures SOPs are current and usable, so they can drive benefits such as consistent operations, improved training, and so on.

      Assign action items to address SOP documentation process challenges

      2.2

      1. Discuss the challenges mentioned at the start of this section, and other challenges highlighted by the strategies discussed in this section. For example:
      • Are documentation requirements included in project planning?
      • Are SOPs and other documentation deliverables reviewed?
      • Are staff held accountable for documentation?
    • Document the challenges in your copy of the Standard Operating Procedures Workbook and assign action items to address those challenges.
    • Challenge Action Items Action Item Owner
      Documentation requirements are identified at the end of a project.
      • Modify project planning templates and checklists to include “identify documentation requirements.”
      Bob Ryan
      SOPs are not reviewed.
      • When assigning documentation tasks, also assign an owner who will be responsible for reviewing and approving the deliverable.
      • Create a mechanism for officially signing off on the document (e.g. email approval or create a signoff form).
      Susan Jones

      An “SOP party” fosters a collaborative approach and can add some levity to an otherwise dry exercise

      What is an SOP party?

      • An SOP party is a working session, bringing together process owners and key staff to define current SOPs and collaborate to identify optimization opportunities.
      • The party aspect is really just about how you market the event. Order in food or build in a cooking contest (e.g. a chilli cook-off or dessert bake-off) to add some fun to what can be a dry activity.

      Why does this work?

      • Process owners become so familiar with their tasks that many of the steps essentially live in their heads. Questions from colleagues draw out those unwritten steps and get them down on paper so another sufficiently qualified employee could carry out the same steps.
      • Once the processes are defined (e.g. via a tabletop exercise), input from colleagues can help identify risks and optimization opportunities, and process questions can be quickly answered because the key people are all present.
      • The group approach also promotes consistency and enables you to set expectations (e.g. visual-based approach, standards, level of detail, etc.).

      When is collaboration necessary (e.g. via tabletop planning)?

      • Tabletop planning is ideal for complex processes as well as processes that span multiple tasks, people, and/or systems.
      • For processes with a narrow focus (e.g. recovery steps for a specific server), assign these to the SME to document. Then ensure the SOP is reviewed to draw out the unwritten steps as described above.
      • For example, if you use tabletop planning to document a high-level DR plan, sub-processes might include recovery procedures for individual systems; those SOPs can then be assigned to individual SMEs.

      Schedule SOP working sessions until critical processes are documented

      Ultimately, it’s more efficient to create and update SOPs as needed but dedicated working sessions will help address immediate critical needs.

      Organize the working session:
      1. Book a full-day meeting in an out of the way meeting room, invite key staff (system and process owners who ultimately need to be SOP owners), and order in lunch so no one has to leave.
      2. Prioritize SOPs (see Phase 1) and set goals (e.g. complete the top 6 SOPs during this session).
      3. Alternate between collaborative efforts and documenting the SOPs. For example:
        1. Tabletop or flowchart the current SOP. Take a picture of the current state for reference purposes.
        2. Look for process improvements. If you have the authority in the room to enable process changes, then modify the tabletop/flowchart accordingly and capture this desired future state (e.g. take a picture). Otherwise, identify action items to follow up on proposed changes.
        3. Identify all related documentation deliverables (e.g. sub-processes, checklists, approval forms, etc.).
        4. Create the identified documentation deliverables (divide the work among the team). Then repeat the above.
      4. Repeat these working sessions on a monthly or quarterly basis, depending on your requirements, until critical SOPs are completed.
      5. When the SOP backlog is cleared, conduct quarterly or semi-annual refreshers for ongoing review and optimization of key processes.

      Assign action items to capture next steps after SOP working sessions

      2.3

      1. Review the SOPs documented during this workshop. Identify action items to complete and validate those SOPs and related documents. For example, do the SOPs require further approval or testing?
      2. Similarly, review the document management checklist and identify action items to complete, expand, and/or validate proposed standards.
      3. For SOP working sessions, decide on a date, time, and who should be there based on the guidelines in this section. If the SOP party approach does not meet your requirements, then at the very least assign owners for the identified critical SOPs and set deadlines for completing those SOPs. Document these extra action items in your copy of the Standard Operating Procedures Workbook.
      SOP or Task Action Items Action Item Owner
      Ticket escalation SOP
      • Debrief the rest of the Service Desk team on the new process.
      • Modify the SOP further based on feedback, if warranted.
      • Implement the new SOP. This includes communicating visible changes to business users and other IT staff.
      Jeff Sutter
      SOP party
      • Contact prospective attendees to communicate the purpose of the SOP party.
      • Schedule the SOP party.
      Bob Smith

      If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

      Book a workshop with out Info-Tech analysts:

      • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
      • Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
      • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

      The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

      2.1

      Identify current content management practices

      As a group, identify current pain points and opportunities for improvement in your current content management practices.

      2.2

      Assign action items to address documentation process challenges

      Develop a list of action items to address gaps in the SOP documentation and maintenance process.

      Phase 3

      Identify a Content Management Solution

      Create Visual SOP Documents that Drive Process Optimization, Not Just Peace of Mind

      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: Decide on a content management solution for your SOPs

      Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 1 week

      Step 3.1: Understand the options for CM solutions

      Start with an analyst kick off call:

      • Review your current approach to content management and discuss possible alternatives.

      Then complete these activities…

      • Evaluate the pros and cons of different approaches to content management.
      • Discuss approaches for fit with your team.

      Step 3.2: Identify the right solution for you

      Review findings with analyst:

      • Identify 2–3 possible options for a content management strategy.

      Then complete these activities…

      • Identify the best solution based on portability, maintainability, cost, and implementation effort.

      With these tools & templates:

      • Publishing and Document Management Solution Evaluation Tool
      • SOP Project Roadmap
      • SOP Workbook

      Phase 3 Results & Insights:

      Choose an approach to content management that will best support your organization’s SOP documentation and maintenance process.

      Decide on an appropriate publishing and document management strategy for your organization

      Publishing and document management considerations:

      • Portability/External Access: At the best of times, portability is nice because it enables flexibility, but at the worst of times (such as in a disaster recovery situation) it is absolutely essential. If your primary site is down, can you still access your documentation? As shown in this chart, traditional storage strategies still dominate DRP documentation, but these aren’t necessarily the best options.
      • Maintainability/Usability: How easy is it to create, update, and use the documentation? Is it easy to link to other documents? Is there version control? The easier the system is to use, the easier it is to get employees to use it.
      • Cost/Effort: Is the cost and effort appropriate? For example, a large enterprise may need a formal solution like SharePoint or a Content Management System. For smaller organizations, the cost of these tools might be harder to justify.

      Consider these approaches:

      This section reviews the following approaches, their pros and cons, and how they meet publishing and document management requirements:

      • SOP tools.
      • Cloud-based content management software.
      • In-house solutions combining SharePoint and MS Office (or equivalent).
      • Wiki site.
      • “Manual” approaches such as storing documents on a USB drive.
      Chart depicting the portable strategy popularity, followed by a key defining the colours on the graph

      Source: Info-Tech Research Group; N=118

      Note: Percentages total more than 100% due to respondents using more than one portability strategy.

      Develop a content management strategy and process to reduce organizational risk

      CASE STUDY

      Segment

      Mid-market company

      Source

      Info-Tech Interview

      Situation

      • A mid-sized company hired a technical consultancy to manage its network.
      • As part of this move, the company’s network administrator was fired.
      • Over time, this administrator had become a “go-to” person for several other IT functions.

      Complication

      • The consulting team realizes that the network administrator kept critical documentation on his local hard drive.
      • This includes configs, IP addresses, passwords, logins to vendor accounts, and more.
      • It becomes clear the administrator was able to delete some of this information before leaving, which the consultants are required to retrieve and re-document.

      Result

      • Failing to implement effective SOPs for document management and terminating key IT staff exposed the organization to unnecessary risk and additional costs.
      • Allowing a local content management system to develop created a serious security risk.
      • The bottom line: create a secure, centralized, and backed-up location and establish SOPs around using it to help keep the company’s data safe.

      Info-Tech offers a web-based policy management solution with process management capabilities

      Role How myPolicies helps you
      Policy Sponsors
      • CEO
      • Board of Directors

      Reduced Corporate Risk

      Avoid being issued a regulatory fine or sanction that could jeopardize operations or hurt brand image.

      Policy Reviewers
      • Internal Audit
      • Compliance
      • Risk
      • Legal

      A Culture of Compliance

      Adherence with regulatory requirements as well as documented audit trail of all critical policy activities.

      Policy Owners
      • HR
      • IT
      • Finance
      • Operations

      Less Administrative Burden

      Automation and simplification of policy creation, distribution, and tracking.

      Policy Users
      • Employees
      • Vendors
      • Contractors

      Policy Clarity

      Well-written policies are stored in one reliable, easy to navigate location.

      About this Approach:

      myPolicies is a web-based solution to create, distribute, and manage corporate policies, procedures, and forms, built around best practices identified by our research.

      Contact your Account Manager today to find out if myPolicies is right for you.

      SOP software and DR planning tools can help, but they aren’t a silver bullet

      Portability/External Access:
      • Pros: Typically have a SaaS option, providing built-in external access with appropriate security and user administration to vary access rights.
      • Cons: Dependent on the vendor to ensure external access, but this is typically not an issue.
      Maintainability/Usability:
      • Pros: Built-in templates encourage consistency as well as guide initial content development by indicating what details need to be captured.
      • Pros: Built-in document management (e.g. version control, metadata support, etc.), centralized access/navigation to required documents, and some automation (e.g. update contacts throughout the system).
      • Cons: Not a silver bullet. You still have to do the work to define and capture your processes.
      • Cons: Requires end-user and administrator training.
      • Cons: Often modules of larger software suites. If you use the entire suite, it may make sense to use the SOP tool, but otherwise probably not.
      Cost/Effort:
      • Pros: For large enterprises, the convenience of built-in document management and templates can outweigh the cost.
      • Cons: SOP tools can be costly. Expect to pay at least $3,000-7,000 for software licensing, plus additional per user and hosting fees.
      About this Approach:

      SOP tools such as Princeton Center’s SOP ExpressTM and SOP Tracks or MasterControl’s SOP Management and eSOP allow organizations to create, manage, and access SOPs. These programs typically offer a range of SOP templates and formats, electronic signatures, version control, and review options and training features such as quizzes and monitoring.

      Similarly, DR planning solutions (e.g. eBRP, Recovery Planner, LDRPS, etc.) provide templates, tools, and document management to create DR documentation including SOPs.

      Consider leveraging SharePoint to provide document management capabilities

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

      For more information on SharePoint as a content management solution, see Info-Tech’s Use SharePoint for Enterprise Content Management.

      About this Approach:

      Most SOP documents start as MS Office documents, even if there is an SOP tool available (some SOP tools actually run within MS Office on the desktop). For organizations that decide to bypass a formal SOP tool, the biggest gap they have to overcome is document management.

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

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

      As an alternative to SharePoint, SaaS tools such as Power DMS, NetDocuments, Xythos on Demand, Knowledge Tree, Spring CM, and Zoho Docs offer cloud-based document management, authoring, and distribution services that can work well for SOPs. Some of these, such as Power DMS and Spring CM, are geared specifically toward workflows.

      A wiki may be all you need

      Portability/External Access:
      • Pros: Wiki sites can support external access as with any web solution.
      • Cons: May lack more sophisticated content management features.
      Maintainability/Usability:
      • Pros: Built-in document management (e.g. version control, metadata support, etc.) as well as centralized access to required information.
      • Pros: Authorized users can make updates dynamically, depending on how much restriction you have on the site.
      • Cons: No built-in automation (e.g. automated updates to contacts throughout the system).
      • Cons: Consistency depends on creating templates and implementing processes for document updates, review, and approval.
      Cost/Effort:
      • Pros: An inexpensive option compared to traditional content management solutions such as SharePoint.
      • Cons: Learning curve if wikis are new to your organization.
      About this Approach:

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

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

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

      An approach that I’ve seen work well is to consult the wiki for any task, activity, job, etc. Is it documented? If not, then document it there and then. Sure, this led to 6-8 weeks of huge effort, but the documentation grew in terms of volume and quality at an alarming but pleasantly surprising rate. Providing an environment to create the documentation is important and a wiki is ideal. Fast, lightweight, in-browser editing leads to little resistance in creating documents.

      - Lee Blackwell, Global IT Operation Services Manager, Avid Technology

      Managing SOPs on a shared network drive involves major challenges and limitations

      Portability/External Access:
      • Cons: Must be hosted at redundant sites in order to be effective in a worst-case scenario that takes down your data center.
      Maintainability/Usability:
      • Pros: Easy to implement and no learning curve.
      • Pros: Access can be easily managed.
      • Cons: Version control, standardization, and document management can be significant challenges.
      Cost/Effort:
      • Pros: Little to no cost and no tool management required.
      • Cons: Managing documents on a shared network drive requires strict attention to process for version control, updates, approvals, and distribution.
      About this Approach:

      With this strategy, SOP documents are stored and managed locally on a shared network drive. Only process owners and administrators have read-write permissions on documents on the shared drive.

      The administrator grants access and manages security permissions.

      Info-Tech Insight

      For small organizations, the shared network drive approach can work, but this is ultimately a short-term solution. Move to an online library by creating a wiki site. Start slow by beginning with a particular department or project, then evaluate how well your staff adapt to this technology as well as its potential effectiveness in your organization. Refer to the Info-Tech collaboration strategy research cited on the previous slide for additional guidance.

      Avoid extensive use of paper copies of SOP documentation

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

      Portability/External Access:
      • Pros: Does not rely on technology or power.
      • Cons: Not adequate for disaster recovery situations; would require all staff to have a copy and to have it with them at all times.
      Maintainability/Usability:
      • Pros: In terms of usability, again there is no dependence on technology.
      • Cons: Updates need to be printed and distributed to all relevant staff every time there is a change to ensure staff have access to the latest most accurate documentation.
      • Cons: Navigation to other information is manual – flipping through pages etc. No searching or hyperlinks.
      Cost/Effort:
      • Pros: No technology system to maintain, aside from what you use for printing.
      • Cons: Printing expenses are actually among the highest incurred by organizations and this adds to it.
      • Cons: Labor-intensive due to need to print and physically distribute documentation updates.
      About this Approach

      Traditionally, SOPs were printed and kept somewhere in a large binder (or several large binders). This isn’t adequate to the needs of most organizations and typically results in documents that aren’t up to date or effective.

      Use Info-Tech’s solution evaluation tool to decide on a publishing and document management strategy

      All organizations have existing document management methodologies, even if it’s simply storing documents on a network drive.

      Use Info-Tech’s solution evaluation tool to decide whether your existing solution meets the portability/external access, maintainability/usability, and cost/effort criteria, or whether you need to explore a different option.

      Note: This tool was originally built to evaluate DRP publishing options, so the tool name and terminology refers to DR. However, the same tool can be used to evaluate general SOP publishing and document management solutions.

      The image is a screenshot of Info-Tech's evaluation tool
      Consider using Info-Tech’s DRP Publishing and Document Management Solution Evaluation Tool.

      Info-Tech Insight

      There is no absolute ranking for possible solutions. The right choice will depend on factors such as current in-house tools, maturity around document management, the size of your IT department, and so on. For example, a small shop may do very well with the USB drive strategy, whereas a multi-national company will need a more formal strategy to ensure consistent application of corporate guidelines.

      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

      Decide on a publishing and document management strategy

      Review the pros and cons of different strategies for publishing and document management. Identify needs, priorities, and limitations of your environment. Create a shortlist of options that can meet your organization’s needs and priorities.

      3.2

      Complete the solution evaluation tool

      Evaluate solutions on the shortlist to identify the strongest option for your organization, based on the criteria of maintainability, affordability, effort to implement, and accessibility/portability.

      Insight breakdown

      Create visual documents, not dense SOP manuals.

      • Visual documents that can be scanned are more usable and easier to update.
      • Flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams all have their place in visual documentation.

      Start with high-impact SOPs.

      • It can be difficult to decide where to start when faced with a major documentation backlog.
      • Focus first on client facing and high-impact SOPs, i.e. mission-critical operations, service management, and disaster recovery procedures.

      Integrate SOP creation into project requirements and hold staff accountable.

      • Holding staff accountable does not provide all the benefits of a well documented and maintained SOP, but it minimizes procrastination, so the work is ultimately done in a more timely manner.

      Summary of accomplishment

      Knowledge Gained

      SOPs may not be exciting, but they’re very important to organizational consistency, efficiency, and improvement.

      This blueprint outlined how to:

      • Prioritize and execute SOP documentation work.
      • Establish a sustainable process for creating and maintaining SOP documentation.
      • Choose a content management solution for best fit.

      Processes Optimized

      • Multiple processes supporting mission-critical operations, service management, and disaster recovery were documented. Gaps in those processes were uncovered and addressed.
      • In addition, your process for maintaining process documents was improved, including adding documentation requirements and steps requiring documentation approval.

      Deliverables Completed

      As part of completing this project, the following deliverables were completed:

      • Standard Operating Procedures Workbook
      • Standard Operating Procedures Project Roadmap Tool
      • Document Management Checklist
      • Publishing and Document Management Solution Evaluation Tool

      Project step summary

      Client Project: Create and maintain visual SOP documentation.

      1. Prioritize undocumented SOPs.
      2. Develop visual SOP documentation.
      3. Optimize and document critical processes.
      4. Establish guidelines for identifying and organizing SOPs.
      5. Define a process for documenting and maintaining SOPs.
      6. Plan time with experts to put a dent in your documentation backlog.
      7. Understand the options for content management solutions.
      8. Identify the right content management solution for your organization.

      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).

      Bibliography

      Anderson, Chris. “What is a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)?” Bizmanualz, Inc. No date. Web. 25 Jan. 2016. https://www.bizmanualz.com/save-time-writing-procedures/what-are-policies-and-procedures-sop.html

      Grusenmeyer, David. “Developing Effective Standard Operating Procedures.” Dairy Business Management. 1 Feb. 2003. Web. 25 Jan. 2016. https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/36910

      Mosaic. “The Value of Standard Operating Procedures.” 22 Oct. 2012. Web. 25 Jan. 2016. ttp://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/WhitePapers/WP1086_Standard_Operating_Procedures.pdf

      Sinn, John W. “Lean, Six Sigma, Quality Transformation Toolkit (LSSQTT) Tool #17 Courseware Content – Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) For Lean and Six Sigma: Infrastructure for Understanding Process.” Summer 2006. Web. 25 Jan. 2016. https://www.bgsu.edu/content/dam/BGSU/college-of-technology/documents/LSSQTT/LSSQTT%20Toolkit/toolkit3/LSSQTT-Tool-17.pdf

      United States Environmental Protection Agency. “Guidance for Preparing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).” April 2007. Web. 25 Jan. 2016. http://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-06/documents/g6-final.pdf

      Develop a Targeted Flexible Work Program for IT

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}542|cart{/j2store}
      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 9.0/10 Overall Impact
      • member rating average dollars saved: $18,909 Average $ Saved
      • member rating average days saved: 13 Average Days Saved
      • Parent Category Name: Attract & Select
      • Parent Category Link: /attract-and-select
      • Workplace flexibility continues to be top priority for IT employees. Organizations who fail to offer flexibility will have a difficult time attracting, recruiting, and retaining talent.
      • When the benefits of remote work are not available to everyone, this raises fairness and equity concerns.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      IT excels at hybrid location work and is more effective as a business function when location flexibility is an option for its employees. But hybrid work is just a start. A comprehensive flex work program extends beyond flexible location, so organizations must understand the needs of unique employee groups to uncover the options that will attract and retain talent.

      Impact and Result

      • Uncover the needs of unique employee segments to shortlist flexible work options that employees want and will use.
      • Assess the feasibility of various flexible work options and select ones that meet employee needs and are feasible for the organization.
      • Equip leaders with the information and tools needed to implement and sustain a flexible work program.

      Develop a Targeted Flexible Work Program for IT Research & Tools

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

      1. Assess employee and organizational flexibility needs

      Identify prioritized employee segments, flexibility challenges, and the desired state to inform program goals.

      • Develop a Targeted Flexible Work Program for IT – Phases 1-3
      • Talent Metrics Library
      • Targeted Flexible Work Program Workbook
      • Fast-Track Hybrid Work Program Workbook

      2. Identify potential flex options and assess feasibility

      Review, shortlist, and assess the feasibility of common types of flexible work. Identify implementation issues and cultural barriers.

      • Flexible Work Focus Group Guide
      • Flexible Work Options Catalog

      3. Implement selected option(s)

      Equip managers and employees to adopt flexible work options while addressing implementation issues and cultural barriers and aligning HR programs.

      • Guide to Flexible Work for Managers and Employees
      • Flexible Work Time Policy
      • Flexible Work Time Off Policy
      • Flexible Work Location Policy

      Infographic

      Workshop: Develop a Targeted Flexible Work Program for 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 Prepare to Assess Flex Work Feasibility

      The Purpose

      Gather information on organizational and employee flexibility needs.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Understand the flexibility needs of the organization and its employees to inform a targeted flex work program.

      Activities

      1.1 Identify employee and organizational needs.

      1.2 Identify employee segments.

      1.3 Establish program goals and metrics.

      1.4 Shortlist flexible work options.

      Outputs

      Organizational context summary

      List of shortlisted flex work options

      2 Assess Flex Work Feasibility

      The Purpose

      Perform a data-driven feasibility analysis on shortlisted work options.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A data-driven feasibility analysis ensures your flex work program meets its goals.

      Activities

      2.1 Conduct employee/manager focus groups to assess feasibility of flex work options.

      Outputs

      Summary of flex work options feasibility per employee segment

      3 Finalize Flex Work Options

      The Purpose

      Select the most impactful flex work options and create a plan for addressing implementation challenge

      Key Benefits Achieved

      A data-driven selection process ensures decisions and exceptions can be communicated with full transparency.

      Activities

      3.1 Finalize list of approved flex work options.

      3.2 Brainstorm solutions to implementation issues.

      3.3 Identify how to overcome cultural barriers.

      Outputs

      Final list of flex work options

      Implementation barriers and solutions summary

      4 Prepare for Implementation

      The Purpose

      Create supporting materials to ensure program implementation proceeds smoothly.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Employee- and manager-facing guides and policies ensure the program is clearly documented and communicated.

      Activities

      4.1 Design employee and manager guide prototype.

      4.2 Align HR programs and policies to support flexible work.

      4.3 Create a communication plan.

      Outputs

      Employee and manager guide to flexible work

      Flex work roadmap and communication plan

      5 Next Steps and Wrap-Up

      The Purpose

      Put everything together and prepare to implement.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Our analysts will support you in synthesizing the workshop’s efforts into a cohesive implementation strategy.

      Activities

      5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days.

      5.2 Set up review time for workshop deliverables and to discuss next steps.

      Outputs

      Completed flexible work feasibility workbook

      Flexible work communication plan

      Further reading

      Develop a Targeted Flexible Work Program for IT

      Select flexible work options that balance organizational and employee needs to drive engagement and improve attraction and retention.

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge

      • IT leaders continue to struggle with workplace flexibility, and it is a top priority for IT employees; as a result, organizations who fail to offer flexibility will have a difficult time attracting, recruiting, and retaining talent.
      • The benefits of remote work are not available to everyone, raising fairness and equity concerns for employees.

      Common Obstacles

      • A one-size-fits-all approach to selecting and implementing flexible work options fails to consider unique employee needs and will not reap the benefits of offering a flexible work program (e.g. higher engagement or enhanced employer brand).
      • Improper structure and implementation of flexible work programs exacerbates existing challenges (e.g. high turnover) or creates new ones.

      Info-Tech's Approach

      • Uncover the needs of unique employee segments to shortlist flexible work options that employees want and will use.
      • Assess the feasibility of various flexible work options and select ones that meet employee needs and are feasible for the organization.
      • Equip leaders with the information and tools needed to implement and sustain a flexible work program.

      Info-Tech Insight

      IT excels at hybrid location work and is more effective as a business function when location flexibility is an option for its employees. But hybrid work is just a start. A comprehensive flex work program extends beyond flexible location, so organizations must understand the needs of unique employee groups to uncover the options that will attract and retain talent.

      Flexible work arrangements are a requirement in today's world of work

      Flexible work continues to gain momentum…

      A 2022 LinkedIn report found that the following occurred between 2019 and 2021:

      +362%

      Increase in LinkedIn members sharing content with the term "flexible work."

      +83%

      Increase in job postings that mention "flexibility."
      (LinkedIn, 2022)

      In 2022, Into-Tech found that hybrid was the most commonly used location work model for IT across all industries.

      ("State of Hybrid Work in IT," Info-Tech Research Group, 2022)

      …and employees are demanding more flexibility

      90%

      of employees said they want schedule and location flexibility ("Global Employee Survey," EY, 2021).

      17%

      of resigning IT employees cited lack of flexible work options as a reason ("IT Talent Trends 2022," Info-Tech Research Group, 2022).

      71%

      of executives said they felt "pressure to change working models and adapt workplace policies to allow for greater flexibility" (LinkedIn, 2021).

      Therefore, organizations who fail to offer flexibility will be left behind

      Difficulty attracting and retaining talent

      98% of IT employees say flexible work options are important in choosing an employer ("IT Talent Trends 2022," Info-Tech Research Group, 2022).

      Worsening employee wellbeing and burnout

      Knowledge workers with minimal to no schedule flexibility are 2.2x more likely to experience work-related stress and are 1.4x more likely to suffer from burnout (Slack, 2022; N=10,818).

      Offering workplace flexibility benefits organizations and employees

      Higher performance

      IT departments that offer some degree of location flexibility are more effective at supporting the organization than those who do not.

      35% of service desk functions report improved service since implementing location flexibility.
      ("State of Hybrid Work in IT," Info-Tech Research Group, 2023).

      Enhanced employer brand

      Employees are 2.1x more likely to recommend their employer to others when they are satisfied with their organization's flexible work arrangements (LinkedIn, 2021).

      Improved attraction

      41% of IT departments cite an expanded hiring pool as a key benefit of hybrid work.

      Organizations that mention "flexibility" in their job postings have 35% more engagement with their posts (LinkedIn, 2022).

      Increased job satisfaction

      IT employees who have more control over their working arrangement experience a greater sense of contribution and trust in leadership ("State of Hybrid Work in IT," Info-Tech Research Group, 2023).

      Better work-life balance

      81% of employees say flexible work will positively impact their work-life balance (FlexJobs, 2021).

      Boosted inclusivity

      • Caregivers regardless of gender, supporting them in balancing responsibilities
      • Individuals with disabilities, enabling them to work from the comfort of their homes
      • Women who may have increased responsibilities
      • Women of color to mitigate the emotional tax experienced at work

      Info-Tech Insight

      Flexible work options are not a concession to lower productivity. Properly implemented, flex work enables employees to be more productive at reaching business goals.

      Despite the popularity of flexible work options, not all employees can participate

      IT organizations differ on how much flexibility different roles can have.

      IT employees were asked what percentage of IT roles were currently in a hybrid or remote work arrangement ("State of Hybrid Work in IT," Info-Tech Research Group, 2023).

      However, the benefits of remote work are not available to all, which raises fairness and equity concerns between remote and onsite employees.

      45%

      of employers said, "one of the biggest risks will be their ability to establish fairness and equity among employees when some jobs require a fixed schedule or location, creating a 'have and have not' dynamic based on roles" ("Businesses Suffering," EY, 2021).

      Offering schedule flexibility to employees who need to be fully onsite can be used to close the fairness and equity gap.

      When offered the choice, 54% of employees said they would choose schedule flexibility over location flexibility ("Global Employee Survey," EY, 2021).

      When employees were asked "What choice would you want your employer to provide related to when you have to work?" The top three choices were:

      68%

      Flexibility on when to start and finish work

      38%

      Compressed or four-day work weeks

      33%

      Fixed hours (e.g. 9am to 5pm)

      Disclaimer: "Percentages do not sum to 100%, as each respondent could choose up to three of the [five options provided]" ("Global Employee Survey," EY, 2021).

      Beware of the "all or nothing" approach

      There is no one-size-fits-all approach to workplace flexibility.

      Understanding the needs of various employee segments in the organization is critical to the success of a flexible work program.

      Working parents want more flexibility

      82%

      of working mothers desire flexibility in where they work.

      48%

      of working fathers "want to work remotely 3 to 5 days a week."

      Historically underrepresented groups value more flexibility

      38%

      "Thirty-eight percent of Black male employees and 33% of Black female employees would prefer a fully flexible schedule, compared to 25% of white female employees and 26% of white male employees."
      (Slack, 2022; N=10,818)

      33%

      Workplace flexibility must be customized to the organization to avoid longer working hours and heavy workloads that impact employee wellbeing

      84%

      of remote workers and 61% of onsite workers reported working longer hours post pandemic. Longer working hours were attributed to reasons such as pressure from management and checking emails after working hours (Indeed, 2021).

      2.6x

      Respondents who either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "Generally, I find my workload reasonable" were 2.6x more likely to be engaged compared to those who stated they disagreed or strongly disagreed (McLean & Company Engagement Survey Database;2022; N=5,615 responses).

      Longer hours and unsustainable workloads can contribute to stress and burnout, which is a threat to employee engagement and retention. With careful management (e.g. setting clear expectations and establishing manageable workloads), flexible work arrangement benefits can be preserved.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Employees' lived experiences and needs determine if people use flexible work programs – a flex program that has limited use or excludes people will not benefit the organization.

      Develop a flexible work program that meets employee and organizational needs

      This is an image of a sample flexible work program which meets employee and organizational needs.

      Insight summary

      Overarching insight: IT excels at hybrid location work and is more effective as a business function when location, time, and time-off flexibility are an option for its employees.

      Introduction

      Step 1 insight

      Step 2 insight

      Step 3 insight

      • Flexible work options are not a concession to lower productivity. Properly implemented, flex work enables employees to be more productive at reaching business goals.
      • Employees' lived experiences and needs determine if people use flexible work programs – a flex program that has limited use or excludes people will not benefit the organization.
      • Flexible work benefits everyone. IT employees experience greater engagement, motivation, and company loyalty. IT organizations realize benefits such as better service coverage, reduced facilities costs, and increased productivity.
      • Hybrid work is a start. A comprehensive flex work program extends beyond flexible location to flexible time and time off. Organizations must understand the needs of unique employee groups to uncover the options that will attract and retain talent. Provide greater inclusivity to employees by broadening the scope to include flex location, flex time, and flex time off.
      • No two employee segments are the same. To be effective, flexible work options must align with the expectations and working processes of each segment.
      • Every role is eligible for hybrid location work. If onsite work duties prevent an employee group from participating, see if processes can be digitized or automated. Flexible work is an opportunity to go beyond current needs to future proofing your organization.
      • Flexible work options must balance organizational and employee needs. If an option is beneficial to employees but there is little or no benefit to the organization, or if the cost of the option is too high, it will not support the long-term success of the organization.
      • Prioritize flexible work options that employees want. Providing too many options often leads to information overload and results in employees not understanding what is available, lowering adoption of the flexible work program.
      • Leaders' collective support of the flexible program determines the program's successful adoption. Don't sweep cultural barriers under the rug; acknowledge and address them to overcome them.
      • Negative performance of a flexible work option does not necessarily mean failure. Take the time to evaluate whether the option simply needs to be tweaked or whether it truly isn't working for the organization.
      • A set of formal guidelines for IT ensures flexible work is:
        1. Administered fairly across all IT employees.
        2. Defensible and clear.
        3. Scalable to the rest of the organization.

      Case Study

      Expanding hybrid work at Info-Tech

      Challenge

      In 2020, Info-Tech implemented emergency work-from-home for its IT department, along with the rest of the organization. Now in 2023, hybrid work is firmly embedded in Info-Tech's culture, with plans to continue location flexibility for the foreseeable future.

      Adjusting to the change came with lessons learned and future-looking questions.

      Lessons Learned

      Moving into remote work was made easier by certain enablers that had already been put in place. These included issuing laptops instead of desktops to the user base and using an existing cloud-based infrastructure. Much support was already being done remotely, making the transition for the support teams virtually seamless.

      Continuing hybrid work has brought benefits such as reduced commuting costs for employees, higher engagement, and satisfaction among staff that their preferences were heard.

      Looking Forward

      Every flexible work implementation is a work in progress and must be continually revisited to ensure it continues to meet organizational and employee needs. Current questions being explored at Info-Tech are:

      • The concept of the "office as a tool" – how does use of the office change when it is used for specific collaboration-related tasks, rather than everything? How should the physical space change to support this?
      • What does a viable replacement for quick hallway meetings look like in a remote world where communication is much more deliberate? How can managers adjust their practices to ensure the benefits of informal encounters aren't lost?

      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?

      Preparation

      Step 1

      Step 2

      Step 3

      Follow-up

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

      Call #2: Assess employee and organizational needs.

      Call #3: Shortlist flex work options and assess feasibility.

      Call #4: Finalize flex work options and create rollout plan.

      Call #5: (Optional) Review rollout progress or evaluate pilot success.

      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 3 to 5 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

      Activities

      Prepare to assess flex work feasibility

      Assess flex work feasibility

      Finalize flex work options

      Prepare for implementation

      Next Steps and Wrap-Up (offsite)

      1.1 Identify employee and organizational needs.

      1.2 Identify employee segments.

      1.3 Establish program goals and metrics.

      1.4 Shortlist flex work options.

      2.1 Conduct employee/manager focus groups to assess feasibility of flex work options.

      3.1 Finalize list of approved flex work options.

      3.2 Brainstorm solutions to implementation issues.

      3.2 Identify how to overcome cultural barriers.

      4.1 Design employee and manager guide prototype.

      4.2 Align HR programs and policies to support flexible work.

      4.3 Create a 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. Organizational context summary
      2. List of shortlisted flex work options
      1. Summary of flex work options' feasibility per employee segment
      1. 1.Final list of flex work options
      2. 2.Implementation barriers and solutions summary
      1. Employee and manager guide to flexible work
      2. Flex work roadmap and communication plan
      1. Completed flexible work feasibility workbook
      2. Flexible work communication plan

      Step 1

      Assess employee and organizational needs

      1. Assess employee and organizational flexibility needs
      2. Identify potential flex options and assess feasibility
      3. Implement selected option(s)

      After completing this step you will have:

      • Identified key stakeholders and their responsibilities
      • Uncovered the current and desired state of the organization
      • Analyzed feedback to identify flexibility challenges
      • Identified and prioritized employee segments
      • Determined the program goals
      • Identified the degree of flexibility for work location, timing, and deliverables

      Identify key stakeholders

      Organizational flexibility requires collaborative and cross-functional involvement to determine which flexible options will meet the needs of a diverse workforce. HR leads the project to explore flexible work options, while other stakeholders provide feedback during the identification and implementation processes.

      HR

      • Assist with the design, implementation, and maintenance of the program.
      • Provide managers and employees with guidance to establish successful flexible work arrangements.
      • Help develop communications to launch and maintain the program.

      Senior Leaders

      • Champion the project by modeling and promoting flexible work options
      • Help develop and deliver communications; set the tone for flexible work at the organization.
      • Provide input into determining program goals.

      Managers

      • Model flexible work options and encourage direct reports to request and discuss options.
      • Use flexible work program guidelines to work with direct reports to select suitable flexible work options.
      • Develop performance metrics and encourage communication between flexible and non-flexible workers.

      Flexible Workers

      • Indicate preferences of flexible work options to the manager.
      • Identify ways to maintain operational continuity and communication while working flexibly.
      • Flag issues and suggest improvements to the manager.
      • Develop creative ways to work with colleagues who don't work flexibly.

      Non-Flexible Workers

      • Share feedback on issues with flexible arrangements and their impact on operational continuity.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Flexible work is a holistic team effort. Leaders, flexible workers, teammates, and HR must clearly understand their roles to ensure that teams are set up for success.

      Uncover the current and desired state of flexibility in the organization

      Current State

      Target State

      Review:

      • Existing policies related to flexibility (e.g. vacation, work from anywhere)
      • Existing flexibility programs (e.g. seasonal hours) and their uptake
      • Productivity of employees
      • Current culture at the organization. Look for:
        • Employee autonomy
        • Reporting structure and performance management processes
        • Trust and psychological safety of employees
        • Leadership behavior (e.g. do leaders model work-life balance, or does the organization have a work 24/7 mentality?)

      Identify what is driving the need for flexible work options. Ask:

      • Why does the organization need flexible options?
        • For example, the introduction of flexibility for some employees has created a "have and have not" dynamic between roles that must be addressed.
      • What does the organization hope to gain from implementing flexible options? For example:
        • Improved retention
        • Increased attraction, remaining competitive for talent
        • Increased work-life balance for employees
        • Reduced burnout
      • What does the organization aspire to be?
        • For example, an organization that creates an environment that values output, not face time.

      These drivers identify goals for the organization to achieve through targeted flexible work options.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Hybrid work is a start. A comprehensive flex work program extends beyond flexible location, so organizations must understand the needs of unique employee groups to uncover the options that will attract and retain talent. Provide greater inclusivity to employees by broadening the scope to include flex location, flex time, and flex time off.

      Identify employee segments

      Using the data, feedback, and challenges analyzed and uncovered so far, assess the organization and identify employee segments.

      Identify employee segments with common characteristics to assess if they require unique flexible work options. Assess the feasibility options for the segments separately in Step 2.

      • Segments' unique characteristics include:
        • Role responsibilities (e.g. interacting with users, creating reports, development and testing)
        • Work location/schedule (e.g. geographic, remote vs. onsite, 9 to 5)
        • Work processes (e.g. server maintenance, phone support)
        • Group characteristics (e.g. specific teams, new hires)

      Identify employee segments and sort them into groups based on the characteristics above.

      Examples of segments:

      • Functional area (e.g. Service Desk, Security)
      • Job roles (e.g. desktop support, server maintenance)
      • Onsite, remote, or hybrid
      • Full-time or part-time
      • Job level (e.g. managers vs. independent contributors)
      • Employees with dependents

      Prioritize employee segments

      Determine whether the organization needs flexible work options for the entire organization or specific employee segments.
      For specific employee segments:

      • Answer the questions on the right to identify whether an employee segment is high, medium, or low priority. Complete slides 23 to 25 for each high-priority segment, repeating the process for medium-priority segments when resources allow.

      For the entire organization:

      • When identifying an option for the entire organization, consider all segments. The approach must create consistency and inclusion; keep this top of mind when identifying flexibility on slides 23 to 25. For example, the work location flexibility would be low in an organization where some segments can work remotely and others must be onsite due to machinery requirements.

      High priority: The employee segment has the lowest engagement scores or highest turnover within the organization. Segment sentiment is that current flexibility is nonexistent or not sufficiently meeting needs.
      Medium priority: The employee segment has low engagement or high turnover. Segment sentiment is that currently available flexibility is minimal or not sufficiently meeting needs.
      Low priority: The segment does not have the lowest engagement or the highest turnover rate. Segment sentiment is that currently available flexibility is sufficiently meeting needs.

      1. What is the impact on the organization if this segment's challenges aren't addressed (e.g. if low engagement and high turnover are not addressed)?
      2. How critical is flexibility to the segment's needs/engagement?
      3. How time sensitive is it to introduce flexibility to this segment (e.g. is the organization losing employees in this segment at a high rate)?
      4. Will providing flexibility to this segment increase organizational productivity or output

      Identify challenges to address with flexibility

      Uncover the lived experiences and expectations of employees to inform selection of segments and flexible options.

      1. Collect data from existing sources, such as:
        • Engagement surveys
        • New hire/exit surveys
        • Employee experience monitor surveys
        • Employee retention pulse surveys
        • Burnout surveys
        • DEI pulse surveys
      2. Analyze employee feedback on experiences with:
        • Work duties
        • Workload
        • Work-life balance
        • Operating processes and procedures
        • Achieving operational outcomes
        • Collaboration and communication
        • Individual experience and engagement
      3. Evaluate the data and identify challenges

      Example challenges:

      • Engagement: Low average score on work-life balance question; flexible work suggested in open-ended responses.
      • Retention: Exit survey indicating that lack of work-life balance is consistently a reason employees leave. Include the cost of turnover (e.g. recruitment, training, severance).
      • Burnout: Feedback from employees through surveys or HR business partner anecdotes indicating high burnout; high usage of wellness services or employee assistance programs.
      • Absenteeism: High average number of days employees were absent in the past year. Include the cost of lost productivity.
      • Operational continuity: Provide examples of when flexible work would have enabled operational continuity in the case of disaster or extended customer service coverage.
      • Program uptake: If the organization already has a flexible work program, provide data on the low proportion of eligible employees using available options.

      1.1 Prepare to evaluate flexible work options

      1-3 hours

      Follow the guidance on preceding slides to complete the following activities.
      Note: If you are only considering remote or hybrid work, use the Fast-Track Hybrid Work Program Workbook. Otherwise, proceed with the Targeted Flexible Work Program Workbook.

      1. Identify key stakeholders. Be sure to record the level of involvement and responsibility expected from each stakeholder. Use the "Stakeholders" tab of the workbook.
      2. Uncover current and desired state. Review and record your current state with respect to culture, productivity, and current flexible work options, if any. Next, record your desired future state, including reasons for implementing flexible work, and goals for the program. Record this in the "Current and Desired State" tab of the workbook.
      3. Identify and prioritize employee segments. Identify and record employee segments. Depending on the size of your department, you may identify a few or many. Be as granular as necessary to fully separate employee groups with different needs. If your resources or needs prevent you from rolling out flexible work to the entire department, record the priority level of each segment so you can focus on the highest priority first.
      4. Identify challenges with flexibility. With each employee segment in mind, analyze your available data to identify and record each segment's main challenges regarding flexible work. These will inform your program goals and metrics.

      Download the Targeted Flexible Work Program Workbook

      Download the Fast-Track Hybrid Work Program Workbook

      Input

      • List of departmental roles
      • Data on employee engagement, productivity, sentiment regarding flexible work, etc.

      Output

      • List of stakeholders and responsibilities
      • Flexible work challenges and aims
      • Prioritized list of employee segments

      Materials

      • Targeted Flexible Work Program Workbook
        Or
      • Fast-Track Hybrid Work Program Workbook

      Participants

      • IT department head
      • HR business partner
      • Flexible work program committee

      Determine goals and metrics for the flexible work program

      Sample program goals

      Sample metrics

      Increase productivity

      • Employee, team, and department key performance indicators (KPIs) before and after flexible work implementation
      • Absenteeism rate (% of lost working days due to all types of absence)

      Improve business satisfaction and perception of IT value

      Increase retention

      • % of exiting employees who cite lack of flexible work options or poor work-life balance as a reason they left
      • Turnover and retention rates

      Improve the employee value proposition (EVP) and talent attraction

      • # of responses on the new hire survey where flexible work options or work-life balance are cited as a reason for accepting an employment offer
      • # of views of career webpage that mentions flexible work program
      • Time-to-fill rates

      Improve engagement and work-life balance

      • Overall engagement score – deploy Info-Tech's Employee Engagement Diagnostics
      • Score for questions about work-life balance on employee engagement or pulse survey, including:
        • "I am able to maintain a balance between my work and personal life."
        • "I find my stress levels at work manageable."

      Info-Tech Insight

      Implementing flex work without solid performance metrics means you won't have a way of determining whether the program is enabling or hampering your business practices.

      1.2 Determine goals and metrics

      30 minutes

      Use the examples on the preceding slide to identify program goals and metrics:

      1. Brainstorm program goals. Be sure to consider both the business benefits (e.g. productivity, retention) and the employee benefits (work-life balance, engagement). A successful flexible work program benefits both the organization and its employees.
      2. Brainstorm metrics for each goal. Identify metrics that are easy to track accurately. Use Info-Tech's IT and HR metrics libraries for reference. Ideally, the metrics you choose should already exist in your organization so no extra effort will be necessary to implement them. It is also important to have a baseline measure of each one before flexible work is rolled out.
      3. Record your outputs on the "Goals and Metrics" tab of the workbook.

      Download the Targeted Flexible Work Program Workbook

      Download the IT Metrics Library

      Download the HR Metrics Library

      Input

      • Organizational and departmental strategy

      Output

      • List of program goals and metrics

      Materials

      • Targeted Flexible Work Program Workbook
        Or
      • Fast-Track Hybrid Work Program Workbook

      Participants

      • Flexible work program committee

      Determine work location flexibility for priority segments

      Work location looks at where a segment can complete all or some of their tasks (e.g. onsite vs. remote). For each prioritized employee segment, evaluate the amount of location flexibility available.

      Work Duties

      Processes

      Operational Outcomes

      High degree of flexibility

      • Low dependence on onsite equipment
      • Work easily shifts to online platforms
      • Low dependence on onsite external interactions (e.g. clients, customers, vendors)
      • Low interdependence of work duties internally (most work is independent)
      • Work processes and expectations are or can be formally documented
      • Remote work processes are sustainable long term

      Most or all operational outcomes can be achieved offsite (e.g. products/service delivery not impacted by WFH)

      • Some dependence on onsite equipment
      • Some work can shift to online platforms
      • Some dependence on onsite external interactions
      • Some interdependence of work duties internally (collaboration is critical)
      • Most work processes and expectations have been or can be formally documented
      • Remote work processes are sustainable (e.g. workarounds can be supported and didn't add work)

      Some operational outcomes can be achieved offsite (e.g. some impact of WFH on product/service delivery)

      Low degree of flexibility

      • High dependence on onsite equipment
      • Work cannot shift to online platforms
      • High dependence on onsite external interactions
      • High interdependence of work duties internally (e.g. line work)
      • Few work processes and expectations can be formally documented
      • Work processes cannot be done remotely, and workarounds for remote work are not sustainable long term

      Operational outcomes cannot be achieved offsite (e.g. significant impairment to product/service delivery)

      Note

      If roles within the segment have differing levels of location flexibility, use the lowest results (e.g. if role A in the segment has a high degree of flexibility for work duties and role B has a low degree of flexibility, use the results for role B).

      Identify work timing for priority segments

      Work timing looks at when work can or needs to be completed (e.g. Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm).

      Work Duties

      Processes

      Operational Outcomes

      High degree of flexibility

      • No need to be available to internal and/or external customers during standard work hours
      • Equipment is available at any time
      • Does not rely on synchronous (occurring at the same time) work duties internally
      • Work processes and expectations are or can be formally documented
      • Low reliance on collaboration
      • Work is largely asynchronous (does not occur at the same time)

      Most or all operational outcomes are not time sensitive

      • Must be available to internal and/or external customers during some standard work hours
      • Some reliance on synchronous work duties internally (collaboration is critical)
      • Most work processes and expectations have been or can be formally documented
      • Moderate reliance on collaboration
      • Some work is synchronous

      Some operational outcomes are time sensitive and must be conducted within set date or time windows

      Low degree of flexibility

      • Must be available to internal and/or external customers during all standard work hours (e.g. Monday to Friday 9 to 5)
      • High reliance on synchronous work duties internally (e.g. line work)
      • Few work processes and expectations can be formally documented
      • High reliance on collaboration
      • Most work is synchronous

      Most or all operational outcomes are time sensitive and must be conducted within set date or time windows

      Note

      With additional coordination, flex time or flex time off options are still possible for employee segments with a low degree of flexibility. For example, with a four-day work week, the segment can be split into two teams – one that works Monday to Thursday and one that works Tuesday to Friday – so that employees are still available for clients five days a week.

      Examine work deliverables for priority segments

      Work deliverables look at the employee's ability to deliver on their role expectations (e.g. quota or targets) and whether reducing the time spent working would, in all situations, impact the work deliverables (e.g. constrained vs. unconstrained).

      Work Duties

      Operational Outcomes

      High degree of flexibility

      • Few or no work duties rely on equipment or processes that put constraints on output (unconstrained output)
      • Employees have autonomy over which work duties they focus on each day
      • Most or all operational outcomes are unconstrained (e.g. a marketing analyst who builds reports and strategies for clients can produce more reports, produce better reports, or identify new strategies)
      • Work quota or targets are achievable even if working fewer hours
      • Some work duties rely on equipment or processes that put constraints on output
      • Employees have some ability to decide which work duties they focus on each day
      • Some operational outcomes are constrained or moderately unconstrained (e.g. an analyst build reports based on client data; while it's possible to find efficiencies and build reports faster, it's not possible to attain the client data any faster)
      • Work quota or targets may be achievable if working fewer hours

      Low degree of flexibility

      • Most or all work duties rely on equipment or processes that put constraints on output (constrained output)
      • Daily work duties are prescribed (e.g. a telemarketer is expected to call a set number of people per day using a set list of contacts and a defined script)
      • Most or all operational outcomes are constrained (e.g. a machine operator works on a machine that produces 100 parts an hour; neither the machine nor the worker can produce more parts)
      • Work quota or targets cannot be achieved if fewer hours are worked

      Note

      For segments with a low degree of work deliverable flexibility (e.g. very constrained output), flexibility is still an option, but maintaining output would require additional headcount.

      1.3 Determine flexibility needs and constraints

      1-2 hours

      Use the guidelines on the preceding slides to document the parameters of each work segment.

      1. Determine work location flexibility. Work location looks at where a segment can complete all or some of their tasks (e.g. onsite vs. remote). For each prioritized employee segment, evaluate the amount of location flexibility available.
      2. Identify work timing. Work timing looks at when work can or needs to be completed (e.g. Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm).
      3. Examine work deliverables. Work deliverables look at the employee's ability to deliver on their role expectations (e.g. quota or targets) and whether reducing the time spent working would, in all situations, impact the work deliverables (e.g. constrained vs. unconstrained).
      4. Record your outputs on the "Current and Desired State" tab of the workbook.

      Download the Targeted Flexible Work Program Workbook

      Input

      • List of employee segments

      Output

      • Summary of flexibility needs and constraints for each employee segment

      Materials

      • Targeted Flexible Work Program Workbook
        Or
      • Fast-Track Hybrid Work Program Workbook

      Participants

      • Flexible work program committee
      • Employee segment managers

      Step 2

      Identify potential flex options and assess feasibility

      1. Assess employee and organizational flexibility needs
      2. Identify potential flex options and assess feasibility
      3. Implement selected option(s)

      After completing this step you will have:

      • Created a shortlist of potential options for each prioritized employee segment
      • Evaluated the feasibility of each potential option
      • Determined the cost and benefit of each potential option
      • Gathered employee sentiment on potential options
      • Finalized options with senior leadership

      Prepare to identify and assess the feasibility of potential flexible work options

      First, review the Flexible Work Solutions Catalog

      Before proceeding to the next slide, review the Flexible Work Options Catalog to identify and shortlist five to seven flexible work options that are best suited to address the challenges faced for each of the priority employee segments identified in Step 1.

      Then, assess the feasibility of implementing selected options using slides 29 to 32

      Assess the feasibility of implementing the shortlisted solutions for the prioritized employee segments against the feasibility factors in this step. Repeat for each employee segment. Use the following slides to consult with and include leaders when appropriate.

      • Document your analysis in tabs 6 to 8 of the Targeted Flexible Work Program Workbook.
      • Note implementation issues throughout the assessment and record them in the tool. They will be addressed in Step 3: Implement Selected Program(s). Don't rule out an option simply because it presents some challenges; careful implementation can overcome many challenges.
      • At the end of this step, determine the final list of flexible work options and gain approval from senior leaders for implementation.

      Evaluate feasibility by reviewing the option's impact on continued operations and job performance

      Operational coverage

      Synchronous communication

      Time zones

      Face-to-face

      communication

      To what extent are employees needed to deliver products or services?

      • If constant customer service is required, stagger employees' schedules (e.g. one team works Monday-Thursday while another works Tuesday-Friday).

      To what extent do employees need to communicate with each other synchronously?

      • Break the workflow down and identify times when employees do and do not have to work at the same time to communicate with each other.

      To what extent do employees need to coordinate work across time zones?

      • If the organization already operates in different time zones, ensure that the option does not impact operations requiring continuous coverage.
      • When employees are located in different time zones, coordinate schedules based on the other operational factors.

      When do employees need to interact with each other or clients in person?

      • Examine the workflow closely to identify times when face-to-face communication is not required. Schedule "office days" for employees to work together when in-person interaction is needed.
      • When the interaction is only required with clients, determine whether employees are able to meet clients offsite.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Every role is eligible for hybrid location work. If onsite work duties prevent an employee group from participating, see if processes can be digitized or automated. Flexible work is an opportunity to go beyond current needs to future-proof your organization.

      Assess the option's alignment with organizational culture

      Symbols

      Values

      Behaviors

      How supportive of flexible work are the visible aspects of the organization's culture?

      • For example, the mission statement, newsletters, or office layout.
      • Note: Visible elements will need to be adapted to ensure they reinforce the value of the flexible work option.

      How supportive are both the stated and lived values of the organization?

      • When the flexible work option includes less direct supervision, assess how empowered employees feel to make decisions.
      • Assess whether all types of employees (e.g. virtual) are included, valued, and supported.

      How supportive are the attitudes and behaviors, especially of leaders?

      • Leaders set the expectations for acceptable behaviors in the organization. Determine how supportive leaders are toward flexible workers by examining their attitudes and perceptions.
      • Identify if employees are open to different ways of doing work.

      Determine the resources required for the option

      People

      Process

      Technology

      Do employees have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to adopt this option?

      • Identify any areas (e.g. process, technology) employees will need to be trained on and assess the associated costs.
      • Determine whether the option will require additional headcount to ensure operational continuity (e.g. two part-time employees in a job-sharing arrangement) and calculate associated costs (e.g. recruitment, training, benefits).

      How much will work processes need to change?

      • Interview organizational leaders with knowledge of the employee segment's core work processes. Determine whether a significant change will be required.
      • If a significant change is required, evaluate whether the benefits of the option outweigh the costs of the process and behavioral change (see the "net benefit" factor on slide 33).

      What new technologies will be required?

      • Identify the technology (e.g. that supports communication, work processes) required to enable the flexible work option.
      • Note whether existing technology can be used or additional technology will be required, and further investigate the viability and costs of these options.

      Examine the option's risks

      Data

      Health & Safety

      Legal

      How will data be kept secure?

      • Determine whether the organization's data policy and technology covers employees working remotely or other flexible work options.
      • If the employee segment handles sensitive data (e.g. personal employee information), consult relevant stakeholders to determine how data can be kept secure and assess any associated costs.

      How will employees' health and safety be impacted?

      • Consult your organization's legal counsel to determine whether the organization will be liable for the employees' health and safety while working from home or other locations.
      • Determine whether the organization's policies and processes will need to be modified.

      What legal risks might be involved?

      • Identify any policies in place or jurisdictional requirements to avoid any legal risks. Consult your organization's legal counsel about the situations below.
        • If the option causes significant changes to the nature of jobs, creating the risk of constructive dismissal.
        • If there are any risks to providing less supervision (e.g. higher chance of harassment).
        • When only some employee segments are eligible for the option, determine whether there is a risk of inequitable access.
        • If the option impacts any unionized employees or collective agreements.

      Determine whether the benefits of the option outweigh the costs

      Include senior leadership in the net benefit process to ensure any unfeasible options are removed from consideration before presenting to employees.

      1. Document the employee and employer benefits of the option from the previous feasibility factors on slides 29 to 32.
      • Include the benefits of reaching program goals identified in Step 1.
      • Quantify the benefits in dollar value where possible.
    • Document the costs and risks of the option, referring to the costs noted from previous feasibility factors.
      • Quantify the costs in dollar value where possible.
    • Compare the benefits and costs.
      • Add an option to your final list if the benefits are greater than the costs.
    • This is an image of a table with the main heading being Net Benefit, with the following subheadings: Benefits to organization; Benefits to employees; Costs.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Flexible work options must balance organizational and employee needs. If an option is beneficial to employees but there is little or no benefit to the organization as a whole, or if the cost of the option is too high, it will not support the long-term success of the organization.

      2.1a Identify and evaluate flexible work options

      30 minutes per employee segment per work option

      If you are only considering hybrid or remote work, skip to activity 2.1b. Use the guidelines on the preceding slides to conduct feasibility assessments.

      1. Shortlist flexible work options. Review the Flexible Work Options Catalog to identify and shortlist five to seven flexible work options that are best suited to address the challenges faced for each of the priority employee segments. Record these on the "Options Shortlist" tab of the workbook. Even if the decision is simple, ensure you record the rationale to help communicate your decision to employees. Transparent communication is the best way to avoid feelings of unfairness if desired work options are not implemented.
      2. Evaluate option feasibility. For each of the shortlisted options, complete one "Feasibility - Option" tab in the workbook. Make as many copies of this tab as needed.
        • When evaluating each option, consider each employee segment individually as you work through the prompts in the workbook. You may find that segments differ greatly in the feasibility of various types of flexible work. You will use this information to inform your overall policy and any exceptions to it.
        • You may need to involve each segment's management team to get an accurate picture of day-to-day responsibilities and flexible work feasibility.
      3. Weigh benefits and costs. At the end of each flexible work option evaluation, record the anticipated costs and benefits. Discuss whether this balance renders the option viable or rules it out.

      Download the Targeted Flexible Work Program Workbook

      Download the Flexible Work Options Catalog

      Input

      • List of employee segments

      Output

      • Shortlist of flexible work options
      • Feasibility analysis for each work option

      Materials

      • Targeted Flexible Work Program Workbook
      • Flexible Work Options Catalog

      Participants

      • Flexible work program committee
      • Employee segment managers

      2.1b Assess hybrid work feasibility

      30 minutes per employee segment

      Use the guidelines on the preceding slides to conduct a feasibility assessment. This exercise relies on having trialed hybrid or remote work before. If you have never implemented any degree of remote work, consider completing the full feasibility assessment in activity 2.1a.

      1. Evaluate hybrid work feasibility. Review the feasibility prompts on the "Work Unit Remote Work Assessment" tab and record your insight for each employee segment.
        • When evaluating each option, consider each employee segment individually as you work through the prompts in the workbook. You may find that segments differ greatly in their ability to accommodate hybrid work. You will use this information to inform your overall policy and any exceptions to it.
        • You may need to involve each segment's management team to get an accurate picture of day-to-day responsibilities and hybrid work feasibility.

      Download the Fast-Track Hybrid Work Program Workbook

      Input

      • List of employee segments

      Output

      • Feasibility analysis for each work option

      Materials

      • Fast-Track Hybrid Work Program Workbook

      Participants

      • Flexible work program committee
      • Employee segment managers

      Ask employees which options they prefer and gather feedback for implementation

      Deliver a survey and/or conduct focus groups with a selection of employees from all prioritized employee segments.

      Share

      • Present your draft list of options to select employees.
      • Communicate that the organization is in the process of assessing the feasibility of flexible work options and would like employee input to ensure flex work meets needs.
      • Be clear that the list is not final or guaranteed.

      Ask

      • Ask which options are preferred more than others.
      • Ask for feedback on each option – how could it be modified to meet employee needs better? Use this information to inform implementation in Step 3.

      Decide

      • Prioritize an option if many employees indicated an interest in it.
      • If employees indicate no interest in an option, consider eliminating it from the list, unless it will be required. There is no value in providing an option if employees won't use it.

      Survey

      • List the options and ask respondents to rate each on a Likert scale from 1 to 5.
      • Ask some open-ended questions with comment boxes for employee suggestions.

      Focus Group

      • Conduct focus groups to gather deeper feedback.
      • See Appendix I for sample focus group questions.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Prioritize flexible work options that employees want. Providing too many options often leads to information overload and results in employees not understanding what is available, lowering adoption of the flexible work program.

      Finalize options list with senior leadership

      1. Select one to three final options and outline the details of each. Include:
        • Scope: To what extent will the option be applied? E.g. work-from-home one or two days a week.
        • Eligibility: Which employee segments are eligible?
        • Cost: What investment will be required?
        • Critical implementation issues: Will any of the implementation issues identified for each feasibility factor impact whether the option will be approved?
        • Resources: What additional resources will be required (e.g. technology)?
      2. Present the options to stakeholders for approval. Include:
        • An outline of the finalized options, including what the option is and the scope, eligibility, and critical implementation issues.
        • The feasibility assessment results, including benefits, costs, and employee preferences. Have more detail from the other factors ready if leaders ask about them.
        • The investment (cost) required to implement the option.
      3. Proceed to Step 3 to implement approved options.

      Running an IT pilot of flex work

      • As a technology department, IT typically doesn't own flexible work implementation for the entire organization. However, it is common to trial flexible work options for IT first, before rolling out to the entire organization.
      • During a flex work pilot, ensure you are working closely with HR partners, especially regarding regulatory and compliance issues.
      • Keep the rest of the organizational stakeholders in the loop, especially regarding their agreement on the metrics by which the pilot's success will be evaluated.

      2.2a Finalize flexible work options

      2-3 hours + time to gather employee feedback

      If you are only considering hybrid or remote work, skip to activity 2.2b. Use the guidelines on the preceding slides to gather final feedback and finalize work option selections.

      1. Gather employee feedback. If employee preferences are already known, skip this step. If they are not, gather feedback to ascertain whether any of the shortlisted options are preferred. Remember that a successful flexible work program balances the needs of employees and the business, so employee preference is a key determinant in flexible work program success. Document this on the "Employee Preferences" tab of the workbook.
      2. Finalize flexible work options. Use your notes on the cost-benefit balance for each option, along with employee preferences, to decide whether the move forward with it. Record this decision on the "Options Final List" tab. Include information about eligible employee segments and any implementation challenges that came up during the feasibility assessments. This is the final decision summary that will inform your flexible program parameters and policies.

      Download the Targeted Flexible Work Program Workbook

      Input

      • Flexible work options shortlist

      Output

      • Final flexible work options list

      Materials

      • Targeted Flexible Work Program Workbook

      Participants

      • Flexible work program committee

      2.2b Finalize hybrid work parameters

      2-3 hours + time to gather employee feedback

      Use the guidelines on the preceding slides to gather final feedback and finalize work option selections.

      1. Summarize feasibility analysis. On the "Program Parameters" tab, record the main insights from your feasibility analysis. Finalize important elements, including eligibility for hybrid/remote work by employee segment. Additionally, record the standard parameters for the program (i.e. those that apply to all employee segments) and variable parameters (i.e. ones that differ by employee segment).

      Download the Fast-Track Hybrid Work Program Workbook

      Input

      • Hybrid work feasibility analysis

      Output

      • Final hybrid work program parameters

      Materials

      • Fast-Track Hybrid Work Program Workbook

      Participants

      • Flexible work program committee

      Step 3

      Implement selected option(s)

      1. Assess employee and organizational flexibility needs
      2. Identify potential flex options and assess feasibility
      3. Implement selected option(s)

      After completing this step, you will have:

      • Addressed implementation issues and cultural barriers
      • Equipped the organization to adopt flexible work options successfully
      • Piloted the program and assessed its success
      • Developed a plan for program rollout and communication
      • Established a program evaluation plan
      • Aligned HR programs to support the program

      Solve the implementation issues identified in your feasibility assessment

      1. Identify a solution for each implementation issue documented in the Targeted Flexible Work Program Workbook. Consider the following when identifying solutions:
        • Scope: Determine whether the solution will be applied to one or all employee segments.
        • Stakeholders: Identify stakeholders to consult and develop a solution. If the scope is one employee segment, work with organizational leaders of that segment. When the scope is the entire organization, consult with senior leaders.
        • Implementation: Collaborate with stakeholders to solve implementation issues. Balance the organizational and employee needs, referring to data gathered in Steps 1 and 2.

      Example:

      Issue

      Solution

      Option 1: Hybrid work

      Brainstorming at the beginning of product development benefits from face-to-face collaboration.

      Block off a "brainstorming day" when all team members are required in the office.

      Employee segment: Product innovation team

      One team member needs to meet weekly with the implementation team to conduct product testing.

      Establish a schedule with rotating responsibility for a team member to be at the office for product testing; allow team members to swap days if needed.

      Address cultural barriers by involving leaders

      To shift a culture that is not supportive of flexible work, involve leaders in setting an example for employees to follow.

      Misconceptions

      Tactics to overcome them

      • Flexible workers are less productive.
      • Flexible work disrupts operations.
      • Flexible workers are less committed to the organization.
      • Flexible work only benefits employees, not the organization.
      • Employees are not working if they aren't physically in the office.

      Make the case by highlighting challenges and expected benefits for both the organization and employees (e.g. same or increased productivity). Use data in the introductory section of this blueprint.

      Demonstrate operational feasibility by providing an overview of the feasibility assessment conducted to ensure operational continuity.

      Involve most senior leadership in communication.

      Encourage discovery and exploration by having managers try flexible work options themselves, which will help model it for employees.

      Highlight success stories within the organization or from competitors or similar industries.

      Invite input from managers on how to improve implementation and ownership, which helps to discover hidden options.

      Shift symbols, values, and behaviors

      • Work with senior leaders to identify symbols, values, and behaviors to modify to align with the selected flexible work options.
      • Validate that the final list aligns with your organization's mission, vision, and values.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Leaders' collective support of the flexible program determines the program's successful adoption. Don't sweep cultural barriers under the rug; acknowledge and address them to overcome them.

      Equip the organization for successful implementation

      Info-Tech recommends providing managers and employees with a guide to flexible work, introducing policies, and providing training for managers.

      Provide managers and employees with a guide to flexible work

      Introduce appropriate organization policies

      Equip managers with the necessary tools and training

      Use the guide to:

      • Familiarize employees and managers with the flexible work program.
      • Gain employee and manager buy-in and support for the program.
      • Explain the process and give guidance on selecting flexible work options and working with their colleagues to make it a success.

      Use Info-Tech's customizable policy templates to set guidelines, outline arrangements, and scope the organization's flexible work policies. This is typically done by, or in collaboration with, the HR department.

      Download the Guide to Flexible Work for Managers and Employees

      Download the Flex Location Policy

      Download the Flex Time-Off Policy

      Download the Flex Time Policy

      3.1 Prepare for implementation

      2-3 hours

      Use the guidelines on the preceding slides to brainstorm solutions to implementation issues and prepare to communicate program rollout to stakeholders.

      1. Solve implementation issues.
        • If you are working with the Targeted Flexible Work Program Workbook: For each implementation challenge identified on the "Final Options List" tab, brainstorm solutions. If you are working with the Fast-Track Hybrid Work Program Workbook: Work through the program enablement prompts on the "Program Enablement" tab.
        • You may need to involve relevant stakeholders to help you come up with appropriate solutions for each employee segment.
        • Ensure that any anticipated cultural barriers have been documented and are addressed during this step. Don't underestimate the importance of a supportive organizational culture to the successful rollout of flexible work.
      2. Prepare the employee guide. Modify the Guide to Flexible Work for Managers and Employees template to reflect your final work options list and the processes and expectations employees will need to follow.
      3. Create a communication plan. Use Info-Tech's Communicate Any IT Initiative blueprint and Appendix II to craft your messaging.

      Download the Guide to Flexible Work for Managers and Employees

      Download the Targeted Flexible Work Program Workbook

      Input

      • Flexible work options final list

      Output

      • Employee guide to flexible work
      • Flexible work rollout communication plan

      Materials

      • Guide to Flexible Work for Managers and Employees
      • Targeted Flexible Work Program Workbook
        Or
      • Fast-Track Hybrid Work Program Workbook

      Participants

      • Flexible work program committee
      • Employee segment managers

      Run an IT pilot for flexible work

      Prepare for pilot

      Launch Pilot

      Identify the flexible work options that will be piloted.

      • Refer to the final list of selected options for each priority segment to determine which options should be piloted.

      Select pilot participants.

      • If not rolling out to the entire IT department, look for the departments and/or team(s) where there is the greatest need and the biggest interest (e.g. team with lowest engagement scores).
      • Include all employees within the department, or team if the department is too large, in the pilot.
      • Start with a group whose managers are best equipped for the new flexibility options.

      Create an approach to collect feedback and measure the success of the pilot.

      • Feedback can be collected using surveys, focus groups, and/or targeted in-person interviews.

      The length of the pilot will greatly vary based on which flexible work options were selected (e.g. seasonal hours will require a shorter pilot period compared to implementing a compressed work week). Use discretion when deciding on pilot length and be open to extending or shortening the pilot length as needed.

      Launch pilot.

      • Launch the program through a town hall meeting or departmental announcement to build excitement and buy-in.
      • Develop separate communications for employee segments where appropriate. See Appendix II for key messaging to include.

      Gather feedback.

      • The feedback will be used to assess the pilot's success and to determine what modifications will be needed later for a full-scale rollout.
      • When gathering feedback, tailor questions based on the employee segment but keep themes similar. For example:
        • Employees: "How did this help your day-to-day work?"
        • Managers: "How did this improve productivity on your team?"

      Track metrics.

      • The success of the pilot is best communicated using your department's unique KPIs.
      • Metrics are critical for:
        • Accurately determining pilot success.
        • Getting buy-in to expand the pilot beyond IT.
        • Justifying to employees any changes made to the flexible work options.

      Assess the pilot's success and determine next steps

      Review the feedback collected on the previous slide and use this decision tree to decide whether to relaunch a pilot or proceed to a full-scale rollout of the program.

      This is an image of the flow chart used to assess the pilot's success and determine the next steps.  It will help you to determine whether you will Proceed to full-scale rollout on next slide, Major modifications to the option/launch (e.g. change operating time) – adjust and relaunch pilot or select a new employee segment and relaunch pilot, Minor modifications to the option/launch (e.g. introduce additional communications) – adjust and proceed to full scale rollout, or Return to shortlist (Step 2) and select a different option or launch pilot with a different employee segment.

      Prepare for full-scale rollout

      If you have run a team pilot prior to rolling out to all of IT, or run an IT pilot before an organizational rollout, use the following steps to transition from pilot to full rollout.

      1. Determine modifications
        • Review the feedback gathered during the pilot and determine what needs to change for a full-scale implementation.
        • Update HR policies and programs to support flexible work. Work closely with your HR business partner and other organizational leaders to ensure every department's needs are understood and compliance issues are addressed.
      2. Roll out and evaluate
        • Roll out the remainder of the program (e.g. to other employee segments or additional flexible work options) once there is significant uptake of the pilot by the target employee group and issues have been addressed.
        • Determine how feedback will be gathered after implementation, such as during engagement surveys, new hire and exit surveys, stay interviews, etc., and assess whether the program continues to meet employee and organizational needs.

      Rolling out beyond IT

      For a rollout beyond IT, HR will likely take over.

      However, this is your chance to remain at the forefront of your organization's flexible work efforts by continuing to track success and gather feedback within IT.

      Align HR programs and organizational policies to support flexible work

      Talent Management

      Learning & Development

      Talent Acquisition

      Reinforce managers' accountability for the success of flexible work in their teams:

      • Include "managing virtual teams" in the people management leadership competency.
      • Recognize managers who are modeling flexible work.

      Support flexible workers' career progression:

      • Monitor the promotion rates of flexible workers vs. non-flexible workers.
      • Make sure flexible workers are discussed during talent calibration meetings and have access to career development opportunities.

      Equip managers and employees with the knowledge and skills to make flexible work successful.

      • Provide guidance on selecting the right options and maintaining workflow.
      • If moving to a virtual environment, train managers on how to make it a success.

      Incorporate the flexible work program into the organization's employee value proposition to attract top talent who value flexible work options.

      • Highlight the program on the organization's career site and in job postings.

      Organizational policies

      Determine which organizational policies will be impacted as a result of the new flexible work options. For example, the introduction of flex time off can result in existing vacation policies needing to be updated.

      Plan to re-evaluate the program and make improvements

      Collect data

      Collect data

      Act on data

      Uptake

      Gather data on the proportion of employees eligible for each option who are using the option.

      If an option is tracking positively:

      • Maintain or expand the program to more of the organization.
      • Conduct a feasibility assessment (Step 2) for new employee segments.

      Satisfaction

      Survey managers and employees about their satisfaction with the options they are eligible for and provide an open box for suggestions on improvements.

      If an option is tracking negatively:

      • Investigate why. Gather additional data, interview organizational leaders, and/or conduct focus groups to gain deeper insight.
      • Re-assess the feasibility of the option (Step 2). If the costs outweigh the benefits based on new data, determine whether to cancel the option.
      • Take appropriate action based on the outcome of the evaluation, such as modifying or cancelling the option or providing employees with more support.
        • Note: Cancelling an option can impact the engagement of employees using the option. Ensure that the data, reasons for cancelling the option, and potential substitute options are communicated to employees in advance.

      Program goal progress

      Monitor progress against the program goals and metrics identified in Step 1 to evaluate the impact on issues that matter to the organization (e.g. retention, productivity, diversity).

      Career progression

      Evaluate flexible workers' promotion rates and development opportunities to determine if they are developing.

      Info-Tech Insight

      Negative performance of a flexible work option does not necessarily mean failure. Take the time to evaluate whether the option simply needs to be tweaked or whether it truly isn't working for the organization.

      Insight summary

      Overarching insight: IT excels at hybrid location work and is more effective as a business function when location, time, and time-off flexibility are an option for its employees.

      Introduction

      • Flexible work options are not a concession to lower productivity. Properly implemented, flex work enables employees to be more productive at reaching business goals.
      • Employees' lived experiences and needs determine if people use flexible work programs – a flex program that has limited use or excludes people will not benefit the organization.
      • Flexible work benefits everyone. IT employees experience greater engagement, motivation, and company loyalty. IT organizations realize benefits such as better service coverage, reduced facilities costs, and increased productivity.

      Step 1 insight

      • Hybrid work is a start. A comprehensive flex work program extends beyond flexible location to flexible time and time off. Organizations must understand the needs of unique employee groups to uncover the options that will attract and retain talent. Provide greater inclusivity to employees by broadening the scope to include flex location, flex time, and flex time off.
      • No two employee segments are the same. To be effective, flexible work options must align with the expectations and working processes of each segment.

      Step 2 insight

      • Every role is eligible for hybrid location work. If onsite work duties prevent an employee group from participating, see if processes can be digitized or automated. Flexible work is an opportunity to go beyond current needs to future proofing your organization.
      • Flexible work options must balance organizational and employee needs. If an option is beneficial to employees but there is little or no benefit to the organization, or if the cost of the option is too high, it will not support the long-term success of the organization.
      • Prioritize flexible work options that employees want. Providing too many options often leads to information overload and results in employees not understanding what is available, lowering adoption of the flexible work program.

      Step 3 insight

      • Leaders' collective support of the flexible program determines the program's successful adoption. Don't sweep cultural barriers under the rug; acknowledge and address them to overcome them.
      • Negative performance of a flexible work option does not necessarily mean failure. Take the time to evaluate whether the option simply needs to be tweaked or whether it truly isn't working for the organization.
      • A set of formal guidelines for IT ensures flexible work is:
        1. Administered fairly across all IT employees.
        2. Defensible and clear.
        3. Scalable to the rest of the organization.

      Research Contributors and Experts

      Quinn Ross
      CEO
      The Ross Firm Professional Corporation

      Margaret Yap
      HR Professor
      Ryerson University

      Heather Payne
      CEO
      Juno College

      Lee Nguyen
      HR Specialist
      City of Austin

      Stacey Spruell
      Division HR Director
      Travis County

      Don MacLeod
      Chief Administrative Officer
      Zorra Township

      Stephen Childs
      CHRO
      Panasonic North America

      Shawn Gibson
      Sr. Director
      Info Tech Research Group

      Mari Ryan
      CEO/Founder
      Advancing Wellness

      Sophie Wade
      Founder
      Flexcel Networks

      Kim Velluso
      VP Human Resources
      Siemens Canada

      Lilian De Menezes
      Professor of Decision Sciences
      Cass Business School, University of London

      Judi Casey
      WorkLife Consultant and former Director, Work and Family Researchers Network
      Boston College

      Chris Frame
      Partner – Operations
      LiveCA

      Rose M. Stanley, CCP, CBP, WLCP, CEBS
      People Services Manager
      Sunstate Equipment Co., LLC

      Shari Lava
      Director, Vendor Research
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Carol Cochran
      Director of People & Culture
      FlexJobs

      Kidde Kelly
      OD Practitioner

      Dr. David Chalmers
      Adjunct Professor
      Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University

      Kashmira Nagarwala
      Change Manager
      Siemens Canada

      Dr. Isik U. Zeytinoglu
      Professor of Management and Industrial Relations McMaster University, DeGroote School of Business

      Claire McCartney
      Diversity & Inclusion Advisor
      CIPD

      Teresa Hopke
      SVP of Client Relations
      Life Meets Work – www.lifemeetswork.com

      Mark Tippey
      IT Leader and Experienced Teleworker

      Dr. Kenneth Matos
      Senior Director of Research
      Families and Work Institute

      1 anonymous contributor

      Appendix I: Sample focus group questions

      See Info-Tech's Focus Group Guidefor guidance on setting up and delivering focus groups. Customize the guide with questions specific to flexible work (see sample questions below) to gain deeper insight into employee preferences for the feasibility assessment in Step 2 of this blueprint.

      Document themes in the Targeted Flexible Work Program Workbook.

      • What do you need to balance/integrate your work with your personal life?
      • What challenges do you face in achieving work-life balance/integration?
      • What about your job is preventing you from achieving work-life balance/integration?
      • How would [flexible work option] help you achieve work-life balance/integration?
      • How well would this option work with the workflow of your team or department? What would need to change?
      • What challenges do you see in adopting [flexible work option]?
      • What else would be helpful for you to achieve work-life balance/integration?
      • How could we customize [flexible work option] to ensure it meets your needs?
      • If this program were to fail, what do you think would be the top reasons and why?

      Appendix II: Communication key messaging

      1. Program purpose

      Start with the name and high-level purpose of the program.

      2. Business reasons for the program

      Share data you gathered in Step 1, illustrating challenges causing the need for the program and the benefits.

      3. Options selection process

      Outline the process followed to select options. Remember to share the involvement of stakeholders and the planning around employees' feedback, needs, and lived experiences.

      4. Options and eligibility

      Provide a brief overview of the options and eligibility. Specify that the organization is piloting these options and will modify them based on feedback.

      5. Approval not guaranteed

      Qualify that employees need to be "flexible about flexible work" – the options are not guaranteed and may sometimes be unavailable for business reasons.

      6. Shared responsibility

      Highlight the importance of everyone (managers, flexible workers, the team) working together to make flexible work achievable.

      7. Next steps

      Share any next steps, such as where employees can find the organization's Guide to Flexible Work for Managers and Employees, how to make flexible work a success, or if managers will be providing further detail in a team meeting.

      8. Ongoing communications

      Normalize the program and embed it in organizational culture by continuing communications through various media, such as the organization's newsletter or announcements in town halls.

      Works Cited

      Baziuk, Jennifer, and Duncan Meadows. "Global Employee Survey - Key findings and implications for ICMIF." EY, June 2021. Accessed May 2022.
      "Businesses suffering 'commitment issues' on flexible working," EY, 21 Sep. 2021. Accessed May 2022.
      "IT Talent Trends 2022". Info-Tech Research Group, 2022.
      "Jabra Hybrid Ways of Working: 2021 Global Report." Jabra, Aug. 2021. Accessed May 2022.
      LinkedIn Talent Solutions. "2022 Global Talent Trends." LinkedIn, 2022. Accessed May 2022.
      Lobosco, Mark. "The Future of Work is Flexible: 71% of Leaders Feel Pressure to Change Working Models." LinkedIn, 9 Sep. 2021. Accessed May 2022.
      Ohm, Joy, et al. "Covid-19: Women, Equity, and Inclusion in the Future of Work." Catalyst, 28 May 2020. Accessed May 2022.
      Pelta, Rachel. "Many Workers Have Quit or Plan to After Employers Revoke Remote Work." FlexJobs, 2021. Accessed May 2022.
      Slack Future Forum. "Inflexible return-to-office policies are hammering employee experience scores." Slack, 19 April 2022. Accessed May 2022.
      "State of Hybrid Work in IT: A Trend Report". Info-Tech Research Group, 2023.
      Threlkeld, Kristy. "Employee Burnout Report: COVID-19's Impact and 3 Strategies to Curb It." Indeed, 11 March 2021. Accessed March 2022.

      Build an IT Risk Taxonomy

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      • Parent Category Name: IT Governance, Risk & Compliance
      • Parent Category Link: /it-governance-risk-and-compliance
      • Business leaders, driven by the need to make more risk-informed decisions, are putting pressure on IT to provide more timely and consistent risk reporting.
      • IT risk managers need to balance the emerging threat landscape with not losing sight of the risks of today.
      • IT needs to strengthen IT controls and anticipate risks in an age of disruption.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      A common understanding of risks, threats, and opportunities gives organizations the flexibility and agility to adapt to changing business conditions and drive corporate value.

      Impact and Result

      • Use this blueprint as a baseline to build a customized IT risk taxonomy suitable for your organization.
      • Learn about the role and drivers of integrated risk management and the benefits it brings to enterprise decision-makers.
      • Discover how to set up your organization up for success by understanding how risk management links to organizational strategy and corporate performance.

      Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Research & Tools

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

      1. Build an IT Risk Taxonomy – Develop a common approach to managing risks to enable faster, more effective decision making.

      Learn how to develop an IT risk taxonomy that will remain relevant over time while providing the granularity and clarity needed to make more effective risk-based decisions.

      • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy – Phases 1-3

      2. Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Guideline and Template – A set of tools to customize and design an IT risk taxonomy suitable for your organization.

      Leverage these tools as a starting point to develop risk levels and definitions appropriate to your organization. Take a collaborative approach when developing your IT risk taxonomy to gain greater acceptance and understanding of accountability.

      • IT Risk Taxonomy Committee Charter Template
      • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Guideline
      • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Definitions
      • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template

      3. IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook – A place to complete activities and document decisions that may need to be communicated.

      Use this workbook to document outcomes of activities and brainstorming sessions.

      • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook

      4. IT Risk Register – An internal control tool used to manage IT risks. Risk levels archived in this tool are instrumental to achieving an integrated and holistic view of risks across an organization.

      Leverage this tool to document risk levels, risk events, and controls. Smaller organizations can leverage this tool for risk management while larger organizations may find this tool useful to structure and define risks prior to using a risk management software tool.

      • Risk Register Tool

      Infographic

      Workshop: Build an IT Risk Taxonomy

      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 IT Risk Fundamentals and Governance

      The Purpose

      Review IT risk fundamentals and governance.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Learn how enterprise risk management and IT risk management intersect and the role the IT taxonomy plays in integrated risk management.

      Activities

      1.1 Discuss risk fundamentals and the benefits of integrated risk.

      1.2 Create a cross-functional IT taxonomy working group.

      Outputs

      IT Risk Taxonomy Committee Charter Template

      Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook

      2 Identify Level 1 Risk Types

      The Purpose

      Identify suitable IT level 1 risk types.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Level 1 IT risk types are determined and have been tested against ERM level one risk types.

      Activities

      2.1 Discuss corporate strategy, business risks, macro trends, and organizational opportunities and constraints.

      2.2 Establish level 1 risk types.

      2.3 Test soundness of IT level 1 types by mapping to ERM level 1 types.

      Outputs

      Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook

      3 Identify Level 2 and Level 3 Risk Types

      The Purpose

      Define level 2 and level 3 risk types.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Level 2 and level 3 risk types have been determined.

      Activities

      3.1 Establish level 2 risk types.

      3.2 Establish level 3 risk types (and level 4 if appropriate for your organization).

      3.3 Begin to test by working backward from controls to ensure risk events will aggregate consistently.

      Outputs

      Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template

      Risk Register Tool

      4 Monitor, Report, and Respond to IT Risk

      The Purpose

      Test the robustness of your IT risk taxonomy by populating the risk register with risk events and controls.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Your IT risk taxonomy has been tested and your risk register has been updated.

      Activities

      4.1 Continue to test robustness of taxonomy and iterate if necessary.

      4.2 Optional activity: Draft your IT risk appetite statements.

      4.3 Discuss communication and continual improvement plan.

      Outputs

      Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template

      Risk Register Tool

      Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook

      Further reading

      Build an IT Risk Taxonomy

      If integrated risk is your destination, your IT risk taxonomy is the road to get you there.

      Analyst Perspective

      Donna Bales.

      The pace and uncertainty of the current business environment introduce new and emerging vulnerabilities that can disrupt an organization’s strategy on short notice.

      Having a long-term view of risk while navigating the short term requires discipline and a robust and strategic approach to risk management.

      Managing emerging risks such as climate risk, the impact of digital disruption on internal technology, and the greater use of third parties will require IT leaders to be more disciplined in how they manage and communicate material risks to the enterprise.

      Establishing a hierarchical common language of IT risks through a taxonomy will facilitate true aggregation and integration of risks, enabling more effective decision making. This holistic, disciplined approach to risk management helps to promote a more sustainable risk culture across the organization while adding greater rigor at the IT control level.

      Donna Bales
      Principal Research Director
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Executive Summary

      Your Challenge

      Common Obstacles

      Info-Tech’s Approach

      IT has several challenges when managing and responding to risk events:

      • Business leaders, driven by the need to make more risk-informed decisions, are putting pressure on IT to provide more timely and consistent risk reporting.
      • Navigating today’s ever-evolving threat landscape is complex. IT risk managers need to balance the emerging threat landscape while not losing sight of the risks of today.
      • IT needs to strengthen IT controls and anticipate risks in an age of disruption.

      Many IT organizations encounter obstacles in these areas:

      • Ensuring an integrated, well-coordinated approach to risk management across the organization.
      • Developing an IT risk taxonomy that will remain relevant over time while providing sufficient granularity and definitional clarity.
      • Gaining acceptance and ensuring understanding of accountability. Involving business leaders and a wide variety of risk owners when developing your IT risk taxonomy will lead to greater organizational acceptance.

      .

      • Take a collaborative approach when developing your IT risk taxonomy to gain greater acceptance and understanding of accountability.
      • Spend the time to fully analyze your current and future threat landscape when defining your level 1 IT risks and consider the causal impact and complex linkages and intersections.
      • Recognize that the threat landscape will continue to evolve and that your IT risk taxonomy is a living document that must be continually reviewed and strengthened.

      Info-Tech Insight

      A common understanding of risks, threats, and opportunities gives organizations the flexibility and agility to adapt to changing business conditions and drive corporate value.

      Increasing threat landscape

      The risk landscape is continually evolving, putting greater pressure on the risk function to work collaboratively throughout the organization to strengthen operational resilience and minimize strategic, financial, and reputational impact.

      Financial Impact

      Strategic Risk

      Reputation Risk

      In IBM’s 2021 Cost of a Data Breach Report, the Ponemon Institute found that data security breaches now cost companies $4.24 million per incident on average – the highest cost in the 17-year history of the report.

      58% percent of CROs who view inability to manage cyber risks as a top strategic risk.

      EY’s 2022 Global Bank Risk Management survey revealed that Chief Risk Officers (CROs) view the inability to manage cyber risk and the inability to manage cloud and data risk as the top strategic risks.

      Protiviti’s 2023 Executive Perspectives on Top Risks survey featured operational resilience within its top ten risks. An organization’s failure to be sufficiently resilient or agile in a crisis can significantly impact operations and reputation.

      Persistent and emerging threats

      Organizations should not underestimate the long-term impact on corporate performance if emerging risks are not fully understood, controlled, and embedded into decision-making.

      Talent Risk

      Sustainability

      Digital Disruption

      Protiviti’s 2023 Executive Perspectives on Top Risks survey revealed talent risk as the top risk organizations face, specifically organizations’ ability to attract and retain top talent. Of the 38 risks in the survey, it was the only risk issue rated at a “significant impact” level.

      Sustainability is at the top of the risk agenda for many organizations. In EY’s 2022 Global Bank Risk Management survey, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks were identified as a risk focus area, with 84% anticipating it to increase in priority over the next three years. Yet Info-Tech’s Tech Trends 2023 report revealed that only 24% of organizations could accurately report on their carbon footprint.

      Source: Info-Tech 2023 Tech Trends Report

      The risks related to digital disruption are vast and evolving. In the short term, risks surface in compliance and skills shortage, but Protiviti’s 2023 Executive Perspectives survey shows that in the longer term, executives are concerned that the speed of change and market forces may outpace an organization’s ability to compete.

      Build an IT risk taxonomy: As technology and digitization continue to advance, risk management practices must also mature. To strengthen operational and financial resiliency, it is essential that organizations move away from a siloed approach to IT risk management wart an integrated approach. Without a common IT risk taxonomy, effective risk assessment and aggregation at the enterprise level is not possible.

      Blueprint benefits

      IT Benefits

      Business Benefits

      • Simple, customizable approach to build an IT risk taxonomy
      • Improved satisfaction with IT for senior leadership and business units
      • Greater ability to respond to evolving threats
      • Improved understanding of IT’s role in enterprise risk management (ERM)
      • Stronger, more reliable internal control framework
      • Reduced operational surprises and failures
      • More dynamic decision making
      • More proactive risk responses
      • Improve transparency and comparability of risks across silos
      • Better financial resilience and confidence in meeting regulatory requirements
      • More relevant risk assurance for key stakeholders

      Blueprint deliverables

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

      IT Risk Taxonomy Committee Charter Template

      Create a cross-functional IT risk taxonomy committee.

      The image contains a screenshot of the IT risk taxonomy committee charter template.

      Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Guideline

      Use IT risk taxonomy as a baseline to build your organization’s approach.

      The image contains a screenshot of the build an it risk taxonomy guideline.

      Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template

      Use this template to design and test your taxonomy.

      The image contains a screenshot of the build an IT risk taxonomy design template.

      Risk Register Tool

      Update your risk register with your IT risk taxonomy.

      The image contains a screenshot of the risk register tool.

      Key deliverable:

      Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook

      Use the tools and activities in each phase of the blueprint to customize your IT risk taxonomy to suit your organization’s needs.

      The image contains a screenshot of the build an IT risk taxonomy workbook.

      Benefit from industry-leading best practices

      As a part of our research process, we used the COSO, ISO 31000, and COBIT 2019 frameworks. Contextualizing IT risk management within these frameworks ensures that our project-focused approach is grounded in industry-leading best practices for managing IT risk.

      COSO’s Enterprise Risk Management —Integrating with Strategy and Performance addresses the evolution of enterprise risk management and the need for organizations to improve their approach to managing risk to meet the demands of an evolving business environment.

      ISO 31000 – Risk Management can help organizations increase the likelihood of achieving objectives, improve the identification of opportunities and threats, and effectively allocate and use resources for risk treatment.

      COBIT 2019’s IT functions were used to develop and refine the ten IT risk categories used in our top-down risk identification methodology.

      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

      Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

      Call #1: Review risk management fundamentals.

      Call #2: Review the role of an IT risk taxonomy in risk management.

      Call #3: Establish a cross-functional team.

      Calls #4-5: Identify level 1 IT risk types. Test against enterprise risk management.

      Call #6: Identify level 2 and level 3 risk types.

      Call #7: Align risk events and controls to level 3 risk types and test.

      Call #8: Update your risk register and communicate taxonomy internally.

      A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series

      of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

      A typical GI is 6 to 8 calls over the course of 3 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

      Review IT Risk Fundamentals and Governance

      Identify Level 1 IT Risk Types

      Identify Level 2 and Level 3 Risk Types

      Monitor, Report, and Respond to IT Risk

      Next Steps and
      Wrap-Up (offsite)

      Activities

      1.1 Discuss risk fundamentals and the benefits of integrated risk.

      1.2 Create a cross-functional IT taxonomy working group.

      2.1 Discuss corporate strategy, business risks, macro trends, and organizational opportunities and constraints.

      2.2 Establish level 1 risk types.

      2.3 Test soundness of IT level 1 types by mapping to ERM level 1 types.

      3.1 Establish level 2 risk types.

      3.2 Establish level 3 risk types (and level 4 if appropriate for your organization).

      3.3 Begin to test by working backward from controls to ensure risk events will aggregate consistently.

      4.1 Continue to test robustness of taxonomy and iterate if necessary.

      4.2 Optional activity: Draft your IT risk appetite statements.

      4.3 Discuss communication and continual improvement 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. T Risk Taxonomy Committee Charter Template
      2. Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
      1. Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
      1. IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template
      2. Risk Register
      1. IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template
      2. Risk Register
      3. Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
      1. Workshop Report

      Phase 1

      Understand Risk Management Fundamentals

      Phase 1

      Phase 2

      Phase 3

      • Governance, Risk, and Compliance
      • Enterprise Risk Management
      • Enterprise Risk Appetite
      • Risk Statements and Scenarios
      • What Is a Risk Taxonomy?
      • Functional Role of an IT Risk Taxonomy
      • Connection to Enterprise Risk Management
      • Establish Committee
      • Steps to Define IT Risk Taxonomy
      • Define Level 1
      • Test Level 1
      • Define Level 2 and 3
      • Test via Your Control Framework

      Governance, risk, and compliance (GRC)

      Risk management is one component of an organization’s GRC function.

      GRC principles are important tools to support enterprise management.

      Governance sets the guardrails to ensure that the enterprise is in alignment with standards, regulations, and board decisions. A governance framework will communicate rules and expectations throughout the organization and monitor adherence.

      Risk management is how the organization protects and creates enterprise value. It is an integral part of an organization’s processes and enables a structured decision-making approach.

      Compliance is the process of adhering to a set of guidelines; these could be external regulations and guidelines or internal corporate policies.

      GRC principles are tightly bound and continuous

      The image contains a screenshot of a continuous circle that is divided into three parts: risk, compliance, and governance.

      Enterprise risk management

      Regardless of size or structure, every organization makes strategic and operational decisions that expose it to uncertainties.

      Enterprise risk management (ERM) is a strategic business discipline that supports the achievement of an organization’s objectives by addressing the full spectrum of its risks and managing the combined impact of those risks as an interrelated risk portfolio (RIMS).

      An ERM is program is crucial because it will:

      • Help shape business objectives, drive revenue growth, and execute risk-based decisions.
      • Enable a deeper understanding of risks and assessment of current risk profile.
      • Support forward-looking risk management and more constructive dialogue with the board and regulatory agencies.
      • Provide insight on the robustness and efficacy of risk management processes, tools, and controls.
      • Drive a positive risk culture.

      ERM is supported by strategy, effective processes, technology, and people

      The image contains a screenshot that demonstrates how ERM is supported by strategy, effective processes, technology, and people.

      Risk frameworks

      Risk frameworks are leveraged by the industry to “provide a structure and set of definitions to allow enterprises of all types and sizes to understand and better manage their risk environments.” COSO Enterprise Risk Management, 2nd edition

      • Many organizations lean on the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations’ Enterprise Risk Management framework (COSO ERM) and ISO 31000 to view organizational risks from an enterprise perspective.
      • Prior to the introduction of standardized risk frameworks, it was difficult to quantify the impact of a risk event on the entire enterprise, as the risk was viewed in a silo or as an individual risk component.
      • Recently, the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) published guidance on developing an enterprise risk management approach. The guidance helps to bridge the gap between best practices in enterprise risk management and processes and control techniques that cybersecurity professionals use to meet regulatory cybersecurity risk requirements.

      The image contains a screenshot of NIST ERM approach to strategic risk.

      Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology

      New NIST guidance (NISTIR 8286) emphasizes the complexity of risk management and the need for the risk management process to be carried out seamlessly across three tiers with the overall objective of continuous improvement.

      Enterprise risk appetite

      “The amount of risk an organization is willing to take in pursuit of its objectives”

      – Robert R. Moeller, COSO ERM Framework Model
      • A primary role of the board and senior management is to balance value creation with effectively management of enterprise risks.
      • As part of this role, the board will approve the enterprise’s risk appetite. Placing this responsibility with the board ensures that the risk appetite is aligned with the company’s strategic objectives.
      • The risk appetite is used throughout the organization to assess and respond to individual risks, acting as a constant to make sure that risks are managed within the organization’s acceptable limits.
      • Each year, or in reaction to a risk trigger, the enterprise risk appetite will be updated and approved by the board.
      • Risk appetite will vary across organizations for several reasons, such as industry, company culture, competitors, the nature of the objectives pursued, and financial strength.

      Change or new risks » adjust enterprise risk profile » adjust risk appetite

      Risk profile vs. risk appetite

      Risk profile is the broad parameters an organization considers in executing its business strategy. Risk appetite is the amount of risk an entity is willing to accept in pursuit of its strategic objectives. The risk appetite can be used to inform the risk profile or vice versa. Your organization’s risk culture informs and is used to communicate both.

      Risk Tolerant

      Moderate

      Risk Averse

      • You have no compliance requirements.
      • You have no sensitive data.
      • Customers do not expect you to have strong security controls.
      • Revenue generation and innovative products take priority and risk is acceptable.
      • The organization does not have remote locations.
      • It is likely that your organization does not operate within the following industries:
        • Finance
        • Healthcare
        • Telecom
        • Government
        • Research
        • Education
      • You have some compliance requirements, such as:
        • HIPAA
        • PIPEDA
      • You have sensitive data and are required to retain records.
      • Customers expect strong security controls.
      • Information security is visible to senior leadership.
      • The organization has some remote locations.
      • Your organization most likely operates within the following industries:
        • Government
        • Research
        • Education
      • You have multiple strict compliance and/or regulatory requirements.
      • You house sensitive data, such as medical records.
      • Customers expect your organization to maintain strong and current security controls.
      • Information security is highly visible to senior management and public investors.
      • The organization has multiple remote locations.
      • Your organization operates within the following industries:
        • Finance
        • Healthcare
        • Telecom

      Where the IT risk appetite fits into the risk program

      • Your organization’s strategy and associated risk appetite cascade down to each business department. Overall strategy and risk appetite also set a strategy and risk appetite for each department.
      • Both risk appetite and risk tolerances set boundaries for how much risk an organization is willing or prepared to take. However, while appetite is often broad, tolerance is tactical and focused.
      • Tolerances apply to specific objectives and provide guidance to those executing on a day-to-day basis. They measure the variation around performance expectations that the organization will tolerate.
      • Ideally, they are incorporated into existing governance, risk, and compliance systems and are also considered when evaluated business cases.
      • IT risk appetite statements are based on IT level 1 risk types.

      The risk appetite has a risk lens but is also closely linked to corporate performance.

      The image contains a screenshot of a diagram that demonstrates how risk appetite has a risk lens, and how it is linked to corporate performance.

      Statements of risk

      The image contains a screenshot of a diagram of the risk landscape.

      Risk Appetite

      Risk Tolerance

      • The general amount of risk an organization is willing to accept while pursuing its objectives.
      • Proactive, future view of risks that reflects the desired range of enterprise performance.
      • Reflects the longer-term strategy of what needs to be achieved and the resources available to achieve it, expressed in quantitative criteria.
      • Risk appetites will vary for several reasons, such as the company culture, financial strength, and capabilities.
      • Risk tolerance is the acceptable deviation from the level set by the risk appetite.
      • Risk tolerance is a tactical tool often expressed in quantitative terms.
      • Key risk indicators are often used to align to risk tolerance limits to ensure the organization stays within the set risk boundary.

      Risk scenarios

      Risk scenarios serve two main purposes: to help decision makers understand how adverse events can affect organizational strategy and objectives and to prepare a framework for risk analysis by clearly defining and decomposing the factors contributing to the frequency and the magnitude of adverse events.

      ISACA
      • Organizations’ pervasive use of and dependency on technology has increased the importance of scenario analysis to identify relevant and important risks and the potential impacts of risk events on the organization if the risk event were to occur.
      • Risk scenarios provide “what if” analysis through a structured approach, which can help to define controls and document assumptions.
      • They form a constructive narrative and help to communicate a story by bringing in business context.
      • For the best outcome, have input from business and IT stakeholders. However, in reality, risk scenarios are usually driven by IT through the asset management practice.
      • Once the scenarios are developed, they are used during the risk analysis phase, in which frequency and business impacts are estimated. They are also a useful tool to help the risk team (and IT) communicate and explain risks to various business stakeholders.

      Top-down approach – driven by the business by determining the business impact, i.e. what is the impact on my customers, reputation, and bottom line if the system that supports payment processing fails?

      Bottom-up approach – driven by IT by identifying critical assets and what harm could happen if they were to fail.

      Example risk scenario

      Use level 1 IT risks to derive potential scenarios.

      Risk Scenario Description

      Example: IT Risks

      Risk Scenario Title

      A brief description of the risk scenario

      The enterprise is unable to recruit and retain IT staff

      Risk Type

      The process or system that is impacted by the risk

      • Service quality
      • Product and service cost

      Risk Scenario Category

      Deeper insight into how the risk might impact business functions

      • Inadequate capacity to support business needs
      • Talent and skills gap due to inability to retain talent

      Risk Statement

      Used to communicate the potential adverse outcomes of a particular risk event and can be used to communicate to stakeholders to enable informed decisions

      The organization chronically fails to recruit sufficiently skilled IT workers, leading to a loss of efficiency in overall technology operation and an increased security exposure.

      Risk Owner

      The designated party responsible and accountable for ensuring that the risk is maintained in accordance with enterprise requirements

      • Head of Human Resources
      • Business Process Owner

      Risk Oversight

      The person (role) who is responsible for risk assessments, monitoring, documenting risk response, and establishing key risk indicators

      CRO/COO

      Phase 2

      Set Your Organization Up for Success

      Phase 1

      Phase 2

      Phase 3

      • Governance, Risk, and Compliance
      • Enterprise Risk Management
      • Enterprise Risk Appetite
      • Risk Statements and Scenarios
      • What Is a Risk Taxonomy?
      • Functional Role of an IT Risk Taxonomy
      • Connection to Enterprise Risk Management
      • Establish Committee
      • Steps to Define IT Risk Taxonomy
      • Define Level 1
      • Test Level 1
      • Define Level 2 and 3
      • Test via Your Control Framework

      This phase will walk you through the following activities:

      • How to set up a cross-functional IT risk taxonomy committee

      This phase involves the following participants:

      • CIO
      • CISO
      • CRO
      • IT Risk Owners
      • Business Leaders
      • Human Resources

      What is a risk taxonomy?

      A risk taxonomy provides a common risk view and enables integrated risk

      • A risk taxonomy is the (typically hierarchical) categorization of risk types. It is constructed out of a collection of risk types organized by a classification scheme.
      • Its purpose is to assist with the management of an organization’s risk by arranging risks in a classification scheme.
      • It provides foundational support across the risk management lifecycle in relation to each of the key risks.
      • More material risk categories form the root nodes of the taxonomy, and risk types cascade into more granular manifestations (child nodes).
      • From a risk management perspective, a taxonomy will:
        • Enable more effective risk aggregation and interoperability.
        • Provide the organization with a complete view of risks and how risks might be interconnected or concentrated.
        • Help organizations form a robust control framework.
        • Give risk managers a structure to manage risks proactively.

      Typical Tree Structure

      The image contains a screenshot of the Typical Tree Structure.

      What is integrated risk management?

      • Integrated risk management is the process of ensuring all forms of risk information, including risk related to information and technology, are considered and included in the organization’s risk management strategy.
      • It removes the siloed approach of classifying risks related to specific departments or areas of the organization, recognizing that each risk is a potential threat to the overarching enterprise.
      • By aggregating the different threats or uncertainty that might exist within an organization, integrated risk management enables more informed decisions to be made that align to strategic goals and continue to drive value back to the business.
      • By holistically considering the different risks, the organization can make informed decisions on the best course of action that will reduce any negative impacts associated with the uncertainty and increase the overall value.

      The image contains a screenshot of the ERM.

      Integrated risk management: A strategic and collaborative way to manage risks across the organization. It is a forward-looking, business-specific outlook with the objective of improving risk visibility and culture.

      Drivers and benefits of integrated risk

      Drivers for Integrated Risk Management

      • Business shift to digital experiences
      • The breadth and number of risks requiring oversight
      • The need for faster risk analysis and decision making

      Benefits of Integrated Risk Management

      • Enables better scenario planning
      • Enables more proactive risk responses
      • Provides more relevant risk assurance to key stakeholders
      • Improves transparency and comparability of risks across organizational silos
      • Supports better financial resilience

      Business velocity and complexity are making real-time risk management a business necessity.

      If integrated risk is the destination, your taxonomy is your road to get you there

      Info-Tech’s Model for Integrated Risk

      The image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech's Model for Integrated Risk.

      How the risk practices intersect

      The risk taxonomy provides a common classification of risks that allows risks to roll up systematically to enterprise risk, enabling more effective risk responses and more informed decision making.

      The image contains a screenshot of a diagram that demonstrates how the risk practices intersect.

      ERM taxonomy

      Relative to the base event types, overall there is an increase in the number of level 1 risk types in risk taxonomies

      Oliver Wyman
      • The changing risk profile of organizations and regulatory focus in some industries is pushing organizations to rethink their risk taxonomies.
      • Generally, the expansion of level 1 risk types is due to the increase in risk themes under the operational risk umbrella.
      • Non-financial risks are risks that are not considered to be traditional financial risks, such as operational risk, technology risk, culture, and conduct. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risk is often referred to as a non-financial risk, although it can have both financial and non-financial implications.
      • Certain level 1 ERM risks, such as strategic risk, reputational risk, and ESG risk, cover both financial and non-financial risks.

      The image contains a screenshot of a diagram of the Traditional ERM Structure.

      Operational resilience

      • The concept of operational resiliency was first introduced by European Central Bank (ECB) in 2018 as an attempt to corral supervisory cooperation on operational resiliency in financial services.
      • The necessity for stronger operational resiliency became clear during the early stages of COVID-19 when many organizations were not prepared for disruption, leading to serious concern for the safety and soundness of the financial system.
      • It has gained traction and is now defined in global supervisory guidance. Canada’s prudential regulator, Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), defines it as “the ability of a financial institution to deliver its operations, including its critical operations, through disruption.”
      • Practically, its purpose is to knit together several operational risk management categories such as business continuity, security, and third-party risk.
      • The concept has been adopted by information and communication technology (ICT) companies, as technology and cyber risks sit neatly under this risk type.
      • It is now not uncommon to see operational resiliency as a level 1 risk type in a financial institution’s ERM framework.

      Operational resilience will often feature in ERM frameworks in organizations that deliver critical services, products, or functions, such as financial services

      Operational Resilience.

      ERM level 1 risk categories

      Although many organizations have expanded their enterprise risk management taxonomies to address new threats, most organizations will have the following level 1 risk types:

      ERM Level 1

      Definition

      Definition Source

      Financial

      The ability to obtain sufficient and timely funding capacity.

      Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP)

      Non-Financial

      Non-financial risks are risks that are not considered to be traditional financial risks such as operational risk, technology risk, culture and conduct.

      Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI)

      Reputational

      Potential negative publicity regarding business practices regardless of validity.

      US Federal Reserve

      Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP)

      Strategic

      Risk of unsuccessful business performance due to internal or external uncertainties, whether the event is event or trend driven. Actions or events that adversely impact an organizations strategies and/or implementation of its strategies.

      The Risk Management Society (RIMS)

      Sustainability (ESG)

      This risk of any negative financial or reputational impact on an organizations stemming from current or prospective impacts of ESG factors on its counterparties or invested assets.

      Open Risk Manual

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Talent and Risk Culture

      The widespread behaviors and mindsets that can threaten sound decision-making, prudent risk-taking, and effective risk management and can weaken an institution’s financial and operational resilience.

      Info-Tech Research Group

      Different models of ERM

      Some large organizations will elevate certain operational risks to level 1 organizational risks due to risk materiality.

      Every organization will approach its risk management taxonomy differently; the number of level 1 risk types will vary and depend highly on perceived impact.

      Some of the reasons why an organization would elevate a risk to a level 1 ERM risk are:

      • The risk has significant impact on the organization's strategy, reputation, or financial performance.
      • The regulator has explicitly called out board oversight within legislation.
      • It is best practice in the organization’s industry or business sector.
      • The organization has structured its operations around a particular risk theme due to its potential negative impact. For example, the organization may have a dedicated department for data privacy.

      Level 1

      Potential Rationale

      Industries

      Risk Definition

      Advanced Analytics

      Use of advanced analytics is considered material

      Large Enterprise, Marketing

      Risks involved with model risk and emerging risks posed by artificial intelligence/machine learning.

      Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Fraud

      Risk is viewed as material

      Financial Services, Gaming, Real Estate

      The risk of exposure to financial crime and fraud.

      Conduct Risk

      Sector-specific risk type

      Financial Services

      The current or prospective risk of losses to an institution arising from inappropriate supply of financial services including cases of willful or negligent misconduct.

      Operational Resiliency

      Sector-specific risk type

      Financial Services, ICT

      Organizational risk resulting from an organization’s failure to deliver its operations, including its critical operations, through disruption.

      Privacy

      Board driven – perceived as material risk to organization

      Healthcare, Financial Services

      The potential loss of control over personal information.

      Information Security

      Board driven – regulatory focus

      All may consider

      The people, processes, and technology involved in protecting data (information) in any form – whether digital or on paper – through its creation, storage, transmission, exchange, and destruction.

      Risk and impact

      Mapping risks to business outcomes happens within the ERM function and by enterprise fiduciaries.

      • When mapping risk events to enterprise risk types, the relationship is rarely linear. Rather, risk events typically will have multiple impacts on the enterprise, including strategic, reputational, ESG, and financial impacts.
      • As risk information is transmitted from lower levels, it informs the next level, providing the appropriate information to prioritize risk.
      • In the final stage, the enterprise portfolio view will reflect the enterprise impacts according to risk dimensions, such as strategic, operational, reporting, and compliance.

      Rolling Up Risks to a Portfolio View

      The image contains a screenshot to demonstrate rolling up risks to a portfolio view.

      1. A risk event within IT will roll up to the enterprise via the IT risk register.
      2. The impact of the risk on cash flow and operations will be aggregated and allocated in the enterprise risk register by enterprise fiduciaries (e.g. CFO).
      3. The impacts are translated into full value exposures or modified impact and likelihood assessments.

      Common challenges

      How to synthesize different objectives between IT risk and enterprise risk

      Commingling risk data is a major challenge when developing a risk taxonomy, but one of the underlying reasons is that the enterprise and IT look at risk from different dimensions.

      • The role of the enterprise in risk management is to provide and preserve value, and therefore the enterprise evaluates risk on an adjusted risk-return basis.
      • To do this effectively, the enterprise must break down silos and view risk holistically.
      • ERM is a top-down process of evaluating risks that may impact the entity. As part of the process, ERM must manage risks within the enterprise risk framework and provide reasonable assurances that enterprise objectives will be met.
      • IT risk management focuses on internal controls and sits as a function within the larger enterprise.
      • IT takes a bottom-up approach by applying an ongoing process of risk management and constantly identifying, assessing, prioritizing, and mitigating risks.
      • IT has a central role in risk mitigation and, if functioning well, will continually reduce IT risks, simplifying the role for ERM.

      Establish a team

      Cross-functional collaboration is key to defining level 1 risk types.

      Establish a cross-functional working group.

      • Level 1 IT risk types are the most important to get right because they are the root nodes that all subtypes of risk cascade from.
      • To ensure the root nodes (level 1 risk types) address the risks of your organization, it is vital to have a strong understanding or your organization’s value chain, so your organizational strategy is a key input for defining your IT level 1 risk types.
      • Since the taxonomy provides the method for communicating risks to the people who need to make decisions, a wide understanding and acceptance of the taxonomy is essential. This means that multiple people across your organization should be involved in defining the taxonomy.
      • Form a cross-functional tactical team to collaborate and agree on definitions. The team should include subject matter experts and leaders in key risk and business areas. In terms of governance structure, this committee might sit underneath the enterprise risk council, and members of your IT risk council may also be good candidates for this tactical working group.
      • The committee would be responsible for defining the taxonomy as well as performing regular reviews.
      • The importance of collaboration will become crystal clear as you begin this work, as risks should be connected to only one risk type.

      Governance Layer

      Role/ Responsibilities

      Enterprise

      Defines organizational goals. Directs or regulates the performance and behavior of the enterprise, ensuring it has the structure and capabilities to achieve its goals.

      Enterprise Risk Council

      • Approve of risk taxonomy

      Strategic

      Ensures business and IT initiatives, products, and services are aligned to the organization’s goals and strategy and provide expected value. Ensures adherence to key principles.

      IT Risk Council

      • Provide input
      • May review taxonomy ahead of going to the enterprise risk council for approval

      Tactical

      Ensures key activities and planning are in place to execute strategic initiatives.

      Subcommittee

      • Define risk types and definitions
      • Establish and maintain taxonomy
      • Recommend changes
      • Advocate and communicate internally

      2.1 Establish a cross-functional working group

      2-3 hours

      1. Consider your organization’s operating model and current governance framework, specifically any current risk committees.
      2. Consider the members of current committees and your objectives and begin defining:
        1. Committee mandate, goals, and success factors.
        2. Responsibility and membership.
        3. Committee procedures and policies.
      3. Make sure you define how this tactical working group will interact with existing committees.

      Download Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook

      Input Output
      • Organization chart and operating model
      • Corporate governance framework and existing committee charters
      • Cross-functional working group charter
      Materials Participants
      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
      • IT Taxonomy Committee Charter
      • CISO
      • Human resources
      • Corporate communications
      • CRO or risk owners
      • Business leaders

      Phase 3

      Structure Your IT Risk Taxonomy

      Phase 1

      Phase 2

      Phase 3

      • Governance, Risk, and Compliance
      • Enterprise Risk Management
      • Enterprise Risk Appetite
      • Risk Statements and Scenarios
      • What Is a Risk Taxonomy?
      • Functional Role of an IT Risk Taxonomy
      • Connection to Enterprise Risk Management
      • Establish Committee
      • Steps to Define IT Risk Taxonomy
      • Define Level 1
      • Test Level 1
      • Define Level 2 and 3
      • Test via Your Control Framework

      This phase will walk you through the following activities:

      • Establish level 1 risk types
      • Test level 1 risk types
      • Define level 2 and level 3 risk types
      • Test the taxonomy via your control framework

      This phase involves the following participants:

      • CIO
      • CISO
      • CRO
      • IT Risk Owners
      • Business Leaders
      • Human Resources

      Structuring your IT risk taxonomy

      Do’s

      • Ensure your organization’s values are embedded into the risk types.
      • Design your taxonomy to be forward looking and risk based.
      • Make level 1 risk types generic so they can be used across the organization.
      • Ensure each risk has its own attributes and belongs to only one risk type.
      • Collaborate on and communicate your taxonomy throughout organization.

      Don’ts

      • Don’t develop risk types based on function.
      • Don’t develop your taxonomy in a silo.

      A successful risk taxonomy is forward looking and codifies the most frequently used risk language across your organization.

      Level 1

      Parent risk types aligned to organizational values

      Level 2

      Subrisks to level 1 risks

      Level 3

      Further definition

      Steps to define your IT risk taxonomy

      Step 1

      Leverage Info-Tech’s Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Guideline and identify IT level 1 risk types. Consider corporate inputs and macro trends.

      Step 2

      Test level 1 IT risk types by mapping to your enterprise's ERM level 1 risk types.

      Step 3

      Draft your level 2 and level 3 risk types. Be mutually exclusive to the extent possible.

      Step 4

      Work backward – align risk events and controls to the lowest level risk category. In our examples, we align to level 3.

      Step 5

      Add risk levels to your risk registry.

      Step 6

      Optional – Add IT risk appetite statements to risk register.

      Inputs to use when defining level 1

      To help you define your IT risk taxonomy, leverage your organization’s strategy and risk management artifacts, such as outputs from risk assessments, audits, and test results. Also consider macro trends and potential risks unique to your organization.

      Step 1 – Define Level 1 Risk Types

      Use corporate inputs to help structure your taxonomy

      • Corporate Strategy
      • Risk Assessment
      • Audit
      • Test Results

      Consider macro trends that may have an impact on how you manage IT risks

      • Geopolitical Risk
      • Economic Downturn
      • Regulation
      • Competition
      • Climate Risk
      • Industry Disruption

      Evaluate from an organizational lens

      Ask risk-based questions to help define level 1 IT risks for your organization.

      IT Risk Type

      Example Questions

      Technology

      How reliant is our organization on critical assets for business operations?

      How resilient is the organization to an unexpected crisis?

      How many planned integrations do we have (over the next 24 months)?

      Talent Risk

      What is our need for specialized skills, like digital, AI, etc.?

      Does our culture support change and innovation?

      How susceptible is our organization to labor market changes?

      Strategy

      What is the extent of digital adoption or use of emerging technologies in our organization?

      How aligned is IT with strategy/corporate goals?

      How much is our business dependent on changing customer preferences?

      Data

      How much sensitive data does our organization use?

      How much data is used and stored aggregately?

      How often is data moved? And to what locations?

      Third-party

      How many third-party suppliers do we have?

      How reliant are we on the global supply chain?

      What is the maturity level of our third-party suppliers?

      Do we have any concentration risk?

      Security

      How equipped is our organization to manage cyber threats?

      How many security incidents occur per year/quarter/day?

      Do we have regulatory obligations? Is there risk of enforcement action?

      Level 1 IT taxonomy structure

      Step 2 – Consider your organization’s strategy and areas where risks may manifest and use this guidance to advance your thinking. Many factors may influence your taxonomy structure, including internal organizational structure, the size of your organization, industry trends and organizational context, etc.

      Most IT organizations will include these level 1 risks in their IT risk taxonomy

      IT Level 1

      Definition

      Definition Source

      Technology

      Risk arising from the inadequacy, disruption, destruction, failure, damage from unauthorized access modifications, or malicious use of information technology assets, people or processes that enable and support business needs, and can result in financial loss and/or reputational damage.

      Open Risk Manual

      Note how this definition by OSFI includes cyber risk as part of technology risk. Smaller organizations and organizations that do not use large amounts of sensitive information will typically fold cyber risks under technology risks. Not all organizations will take this approach. Some organizations may elevate security risk to level 1.

      “Technology risk”, which includes “cyber risk”, refers to the risk arising from the inadequacy, disruption, destruction, failure, damage from unauthorized access, modifications, or malicious use of information technology assets, people or processes that enable and support business needs, and can result in financial loss and/or reputational damage.

      Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI)

      Talent

      The risk of not having the right knowledge and skills to execute strategy.

      Info-Tech Research Group/McLean & Company

      Human capital challenges including succession challenges and the ability to attract and retain top talent are considered the most dominant risk to organizations’ ability to meet their value proposition (Protiviti, 2023).

      Strategic

      Risks that threaten IT’s ability to deliver expected business outcomes.

      Info-Tech Research Group

      IT’s role as strategic enabler to the business has never been so vital. With the speed of disruptive innovation, IT must be able to monitor alignment, support opportunities, and manage unexpected crises.

      Level 1 IT taxonomy structure cont'd

      Step 2 – Large and more complex organizations may have more level 1 risk types. Variances in approaches are closely linked to the type of industry and business in which the organization operates as well as how they view and position risks within their organization.

      IT Level 1

      Definition

      Definition Source

      Data

      Data risk is the exposure to loss of value or reputation caused by issues or limitations to an organization’s ability to acquire, store, transform, move, and use its data assets.

      Deloitte

      Data risk encompasses the risk of loss value or reputation resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people and systems or from external events impacting on data.

      Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) CPG 235 -2013)

      Data is increasingly being used for strategic growth initiatives as well as for meeting regulatory requirements. Organizations that use a lot of data or specifically sensitive information will likely have data as a level 1 IT risk type.

      Third-Party

      The risk adversely impacting the institutions performance by engaging a third party, or their associated downstream and upstream partners or another group entity (intragroup outsourcing) to provide IT systems or related services.

      European Banking Association (EBA)

      Open Risk Manual uses EBA definition

      Third-party risk (supply chain risk) received heightened attention during COVID-19. If your IT organization is heavily reliant on third parties, you may want to consider elevating third-party risk to level 1.

      Security

      The risk of unauthorized access to IT systems and data from within or outside the institution (e.g., cyber-attacks). An incident is viewed as a series of events that adversely affects the information assets of an organization. The overall narrative of this type of risk event is captured as who, did what, to what (or whom), with what result.

      Open Risk Manual

      Some organizations and industries are subject to regulatory obligations, which typically means the board has strict oversight and will elevate security risk to a level 1.

      Common challenges

      Considerations when defining level 1 IT risk types

      • Ultimately, the identification of a level 1 IT risk type will be driven by the potential for and materiality of vulnerabilities that may impede an organization from delivering successful business outcomes.
      • Senior leaders within organizations play a central role in protecting organizations against vulnerabilities and threats.
      • The size and structure of your organization will influence how you manage risk.
      • The following slide shows typical roles and responsibilities for data privacy.
      • Large enterprises and organizations that use a lot of personal identifiable information (PII) data, such as those in healthcare, financial services, and online retail, will typically have data as a level 1 IT risk and data privacy as a level 2 risk type.
      • However, smaller organizations or organizations that do not use a lot of data will typically fold data privacy under either technology risk or security risk.

      Deciding placement in taxonomy

      Deciding Placement in Taxonomy.

      • In larger enterprises, data risks are managed within a dedicated functional department with its own governance structure. In small organizations, the CIO is typically responsible and accountable for managing data privacy risk.

      Global Enterprise

      Midmarket

      Privacy Requirement

      What Is Involved

      Accountable

      Responsible

      Accountable & Responsible

      Privacy Legal and Compliance Obligations

      • Ensuring the relevant Accountable roles understand privacy obligations for the jurisdictions operated in.

      Privacy Officer (Legal)

      Privacy Officer (Legal)

      Privacy Policy, Standards, and Governance

      • Defining polices and ensuring they are in place to ensure all privacy obligations are met.
      • Monitoring adherence to those policies and standards.

      Chief Risk Officer (Risk)

      Head of Risk Function

      Data Classification and Security Standards and Best-Practice Capabilities

      • Defining the organization’s data classification and security standards and ensuring they align to the privacy policy.
      • Designing and building the data security standards, processes, roles, and technologies required to ensure all security obligations under the privacy policy can be met.
      • Providing oversight of the effectiveness of data security practices and leading resolution of data security issues/incidents.

      Chief Information Security Officer (IT)

      Chief Information Security Officer (IT)

      Technical Application of Data Classification, Management and Security Standards

      • Ensuring all technology design, implementation, and operational decisions adhere to data classification, data management, and data security standards.

      Chief Information Officer (IT)

      Chief Data Architect (IT)

      Chief Information Officer (IT)

      Data Management Standards and Best-Practice Capabilities

      • Defining the organization’s data management standards and ensuring they align to the privacy policy.
      • Designing and building the data management standards, processes, roles, and technologies required to ensure data classification, access, and sharing obligations under the privacy policy can be met.
      • Providing oversight of the effectiveness of data classification, access, and sharing practices and leading resolution of data management issues/incidents.

      Chief Data Officer

      Where no Head of Data Exists and IT, not the business, is seen as de facto owner of data and data quality

      Execution of Data Management

      • Ensuring business processes that involve data classification, sharing, and access related to their data domain align to data management standards (and therefore privacy obligations).

      L1 Business Process Owner

      L2 Business Process Owner

      Common challenges

      Defining security risk and where it resides in the taxonomy

      • For risk management to be effective, risk professionals need to speak the same language, but the terms “information security,” “cybersecurity,” and “IT security” are often used interchangeably.
      • Traditionally, cyber risk was folded under technology risk and therefore resided at a lower level of a risk taxonomy. However, due to heightened attention from regulators and boards stemming from the pervasiveness of cyber threats, some organizations are elevating security risks to a level 1 IT risk.
      • Furthermore, regulatory cybersecurity requirements have emphasized control frameworks. As such, many organizations have adopted NIST because it is comprehensive, regularly updated, and easily tailored.
      • While NIST is prescriptive and action oriented, it start with controls and does not easily integrate with traditional ERM frameworks. To address this, NIST has published new guidance focused on an enterprise risk management approach. The guidance helps to bridge the gap between best practices in enterprise risk management and processes and control techniques that cybersecurity professionals use to meet regulatory cybersecurity risk requirements.

      Definitional Nuances

      “Cybersecurity” describes the technologies, processes, and practices designed to protect networks, computers, programs, and data from attack, damage, or unauthorized access.

      “IT security” describes a function as well as a method of implementing policies, procedures, and systems to defend the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of any digital information used, transmitted, or stored throughout the organization’s environment.

      “Information security” defines the people, processes, and technology involved in protecting data (information) in any form – whether digital or on paper – through its creation, storage, transmission, exchange, and destruction.

      3.1 Establish level 1 risk types

      2-3 hours

      1. Consider your current and future corporate goals and business initiatives, risk management artifacts, and macro industry trends.
      2. Ask questions to understand risks unique to your organization.
      3. Review Info-Tech’s IT level 1 risk types and identify the risk types that apply to your organization.
      4. Add any risk types that are missing and unique to your organization.
      5. Refine the definitions to suit your organization.
      6. Be mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive to the extent possible.

      Download Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook

      InputOutput
      • Organization's strategy
      • Other organizational artifacts if available (operating model, outputs from audits and risk assessments, risk profile, and risk appetite)
      • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Guideline
      • IT Risk Taxonomy Definitions
      • Level 1 IT risk types customized to your organization
      MaterialsParticipants
      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
      • CISO
      • Human resources
      • Corporate communications
      • CRO or risk owners
      • Business leaders

      3.2 Map IT risk types against ERM level 1 risk types

      1-2 hours

      1. Using the output from Activity 3.1, map your IT risk types to your ERM level 1 risk types.
      2. Record in the Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook.

      Download Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook

      InputOutput
      • IT level 1 risk types customized to your organization
      • ERM level 1 risk types
      • Final level 1 IT risk types
      MaterialsParticipants
      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
      • CISO
      • Human resources
      • Corporate communications
      • CRO or risk owners
      • Business leaders

      Map IT level 1 risk types to ERM

      Test your level 1 IT risk types by mapping to your organization’s level 1 risk types.

      Step 2 – Map IT level 1 risk types to ERM

      The image contains two tables. 1 table is ERM Level 1 Risks, the other table is IT Level 1 Risks.

      3.3 Establishing level 2 and 3 risk types

      3-4 hours

      1. Using the level 1 IT risk types that you have defined and using Info-Tech’s Risk Taxonomy Guideline, first begin to identify level 2 risk types for each level 1 type.
      2. Be mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive to the extent possible.
      3. Once satisfied with your level 2 risk types, break them down further to level 3 risk types.

      Note: Smaller organizations may only define two risk levels, while larger organizations may define further to level 4.

      Download Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template

      InputOutput
      • Output from Activity 3.1, Establish level 1 risk types
      • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
      • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Guideline
      • Level 2 and level 3 risk types recorded in Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template
      MaterialsParticipants
      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
      • CISO
      • Human resources
      • Corporate communications
      • CRO or risk owners
      • Business leaders

      Level 2 IT taxonomy structure

      Step 3 – Break down your level 1 risk types into subcategories. This is complicated and may take many iterations to reach a consistent and accepted approach. Try to make your definitions intuitive and easy to understand so that they will endure the test of time.

      The image contains a screenshot of Level 2 IT taxonomy Structure.

      Security vulnerabilities often surface through third parties, but where and how you manage this risk is highly dependent on how you structure your taxonomy. Organizations with a lot of exposure may have a dedicated team and may manage and report security risks under a level 1 third-party risk type.

      Level 3 IT taxonomy structure

      Step 3 – Break down your level 2 risk types into lower-level subcategories. The number of levels of risk you have will depend on the size of and magnitude of risks within your organization. In our examples, we demonstrate three levels.

      The image contains a screenshot of Level 3 IT taxonomy Structure.

      Risk taxonomies for smaller organizations may only include two risk levels. However, large enterprises or more complex organizations may extend their taxonomy to level 3 or even 4. This illustration shows just a few examples of level 3 risks.

      Test using risk events and controls

      Ultimately risk events and controls need to roll up to level 1 risks in a consistent manner. Test the robustness of your taxonomy by working backward.

      Step 4 – Work backward to test and align risk events and controls to the lowest level risk category.

      • A key function of IT risk management is to monitor and maintain internal controls.
      • Internal controls help to reduce the level of inherent risk to acceptable levels, known as residual risk.
      • As risks evolve, new controls may be needed to upgrade protection for tech infrastructure and strengthen connections between critical assets and third-party suppliers.

      Example – Third Party Risk

      Third Party Risk example.

      3.4 Test your IT taxonomy

      2-3 hours

      1. Leveraging the output from Activities 3.1 to 3.3 and your IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template, begin to test the robustness of the taxonomy by working backward from controls to level 1 IT risks.
      2. The lineage should show clearly that the control will mitigate the impact of a realized risk event. Refine the control or move the control to another level 1 risk type if the control will not sufficiently reduce the impact of a realized risk event.
      3. Once satisfied, update your risk register or your risk management software tool.

      Download Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template

      InputOutput
      • Output from Activities 3.1 to 3.3
      • IT risk taxonomy documented in the IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template
      MaterialsParticipants
      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • IT risk register
      • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
      • CISO
      • Human resources
      • Corporate communications
      • CRO or risk owners
      • Business leaders

      Update risk register

      Step 5 – Once you are satisfied with your risk categories, update your risk registry with your IT risk taxonomy.

      Use Info-Tech’s Risk Register Tool or populate your internal risk software tool.

      Risk Register.

      Download Info-Tech’s Risk Register Tool

      Augment the risk event list using COBIT 2019 processes (Optional)

      Other industry-leading frameworks provide alternative ways of conceptualizing the functions and responsibilities of IT and may help you uncover additional risk events.

      1. Managed IT Management Framework
      2. Managed Strategy
      3. Managed Enterprise Architecture
      4. Managed Innovation
      5. Managed Portfolio
      6. Managed Budget and Costs
      7. Managed Human Resources
      8. Managed Relationships
      9. Managed Service Agreements
      10. Managed Vendors
      11. Managed Quality
      12. Managed Risk
      13. Managed Security
      14. Managed Data
      15. Managed Programs
      16. Managed Requirements Definition
      17. Managed Solutions Identification and Build
      18. Managed Availability and Capacity
      19. Managed Organizational Change Enablement
      20. Managed IT Changes
      21. Managed IT Change Acceptance and Transitioning
      22. Managed Knowledge
      23. Managed Assets
      24. Managed Configuration
      25. Managed Projects
      26. Managed Operations
      27. Managed Service Requests and Incidents
      28. Managed Problems
      29. Managed Continuity
      30. Managed Security Services
      31. Managed Business Process Controls
      32. Managed Performance and Conformance Monitoring
      33. Managed System of Internal Control
      34. Managed Compliance with External Requirements
      35. Managed Assurance
      36. Ensured Governance Framework Setting and Maintenance
      37. Ensured Benefits Delivery
      38. Ensured Risk Optimization
      39. Ensured Resource Optimization
      40. Ensured Stakeholder Engagement

      Example IT risk appetite

      When developing your risk appetite statements, ensure they are aligned to your organization’s risk appetite and success can be measured.

      Example IT Risk Appetite Statement

      Risk Type

      Technology Risk

      IT should establish a risk appetite statement for each level 1 IT risk type.

      Appetite Statement

      Our organization’s number-one priority is to provide high-quality trusted service to our customers. To meet this objective, critical systems must be highly performant and well protected from potential threats. To meet this objective, the following expectations have been established:

      • No appetite for unauthorized access to systems and confidential data.
      • Low appetite for service downtime.
        • Service availability objective of 99.9%.
        • Near real-time recovery of critical services – ideally within 30 minutes, no longer than 3 hours.

      The ideal risk appetite statement is qualitative and supported by quantitative measures.

      Risk Owner

      Chief Information Officer

      Ultimately, there is an accountable owner(s), but involve business and technology stakeholders when drafting to gain consensus.

      Risk Oversight

      Enterprise Risk Committee

      Supporting Framework(s)

      Business Continuity Management, Information Security, Internal Audit

      The number of supporting programs and frameworks will vary with the size of the organization.

      3.5 Draft your IT risk appetite statements

      Optional Activity

      2-3 hours

      1. Using your completed taxonomy and your organization’s risk appetite statement, draft an IT risk appetite statement for each level 1 risk in your workbook.
      2. Socialize the statements and gain approval.
      3. Add the approved risk appetite statements to your IT risk register.

      Download Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook

      Input Output
      • Organization’s risk appetite statement
      • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
      • IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template
      • IT risk appetite statements
      Materials Participants
      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
      • CISO, CIO
      • Human resources
      • Corporate communications
      • CRO or risk owners
      • Business leaders

      Key takeaways and next steps

      • The risk taxonomy is the backbone of a robust enterprise risk management program. A good taxonomy is frequently used and well understood.
      • Not only is the risk taxonomy used to assess organizational impact, but it is also used for risk reporting, scenarios analysis and horizon scanning, and risk appetite expression.
      • It is essential to capture IT risks within the ERM framework to fully understand the impact and allow for consistent risk discussions and meaningful aggregation.
      • Defining an IT risk taxonomy is a team sport, and organizations should strive to set up a cross-functional working group that is tasked with defining the taxonomy, monitoring its effectiveness, and ensuring continual improvement.
      • The work does not end when the taxonomy is complete. The taxonomy should be well socialized throughout the organization after inception through training and new policies and procedures. Ultimately, it should be an activity embedded into risk management practices.
      • The taxonomy is a living document and should be continually improved upon.

      3.6 Prepare to communicate the taxonomy internally

      1-2 hours

      To gain acceptance of your risk taxonomy within your organization, ensure it is well understood and used throughout the organization.

      1. Consider your audience and agree on the key elements you want to convey.
      2. Prepare your presentation.
      3. Test your presentation with a smaller group before communicating to senior leadership or the board.

      Coming soon: Look for our upcoming research Communicate Any IT Initiative.

      InputOutput
      • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
      • Upcoming research: Communicate Any IT Initiative
      • Presentation
      MaterialsParticipants
      • Whiteboard/flip charts
      • Upcoming research: Communicate Any IT Initiative
      • Internal communication templates
      • CISO, CIO
      • Human resources
      • Corporate communications
      • CRO or risk owners
      • Business leaders

      Related Info-Tech Research

      Build an IT Risk Management Program

      • Use this blueprint to transform your ad hoc risk management processes into a formalized ongoing program and increase risk management success.
      • Learn how to take a proactive stance against IT threats and vulnerabilities by identifying and assessing IT’s greatest's risks before they occur.

      Integrate IT Risk Into Enterprise Risk

      • Use this blueprint to understand gaps in your organization’s approach to risk management.
      • Learn how to integrate IT risks into the foundational risk practice

      Coming Soon: Communicate Any IT initiative

      • Use this blueprint to compose an easy-to-understand presentation to convey the rationale of your initiative and plan of action.
      • Learn how to identify your target audience and tailor and deliver the message in an authentic and clear manner.

      Risk definitions

      Term Description
      Emergent Risk Risks that are poorly understood but expected to grow in significance.
      Residual Risk The amount of risk you have left after you have removed a source of risk or implemented a mitigation approach (controls, monitoring, assurance).
      Risk Acceptance If the risk is within the enterprise's risk tolerance or if the cost of otherwise mitigating the risk is higher than the potential loss, the enterprise can assume the risk and absorb any losses.
      Risk Appetite An organization’s general approach and attitude toward risk; the total exposed amount that an organization wishes to undertake on the basis of risk-return trade-offs for one or more desired and expected outcomes.
      Risk Assessment The process of estimating and evaluating risk.
      Risk Avoidance The risk response where an organization chooses not to perform a particular action or maintain an existing engagement due to the risk involved.
      Risk Event A risk occurrence (actual or potential) or a change of circumstances. Can consist of more than one occurrence or of something not happening. Can be referred to as an incident or accident.
      Risk Identification The process of finding, recognizing, describing, and documenting risks that could impact the achievement of objectives.
      Risk Management The capability and related activities used by an organization to identify and actively manage risks that affect its ability to achieve goals and strategic objectives. Includes principles, processes, and framework.
      Risk Likelihood The chance of a risk occurring. Usually measured mathematically using probability.
      Risk Management Policy Expresses an organization’s commitment to risk management and clarifies its use and direction.
      Risk Mitigation The risk response where an action is taken to reduce the impact or likelihood of a risk occurring.
      Risk Profile A written description of a set of risks.

      Risk definitions

      Term Description
      Risk Opportunity A cause/trigger of a risk with a positive outcome.
      Risk Owner The designated party responsible and accountable for ensuring that the risk is maintained in accordance with enterprise requirements.
      Risk Register A tool used to identify and document potential and active risks in an organization and to track the actions in place to manage each risk.
      Risk Response How you choose to respond to risk (accept, mitigate, transfer, or avoid).
      Risk Source The element that, alone or in combination, has potential to give rise to a risk. Usually this is the root cause of the risk.
      Risk Statement A description of the current conditions that may lead to the loss, and a description of the loss.
      Risk Tolerance The amount of risk you are prepared or able to accept (in terms of volume or impact); the amount of uncertainty an organization is willing to accept in the aggregate (or more narrowly within a certain business unit or for a specific risk category). Expressed in quantitative terms that can be monitored (such as volatility or deviation measures), risk tolerance often is communicated in terms of acceptable/unacceptable outcomes or as limited levels of risk. Risk tolerance statements identify the specific minimum and maximum levels beyond which the organization is unwilling to accept variations from the expected outcome.
      Risk Transfer The risk response where you transfer the risk to a third party.

      Research Contributors and Experts

      LynnAnn Brewer
      Director
      McLean & Company

      Sandi Conrad
      Principal Research Director
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Valence Howden
      Principal Research Director
      Info-Tech Research Group

      John Kemp
      Executive Counsellor – Executive Services
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Brittany Lutes
      Research Director
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Carlene McCubbin
      Practice Lead – CIO Practice
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Frank Sargent
      Senior Workshop Director
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Frank Sewell
      Advisory Director
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Ida Siahaan
      Research Director
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Steve Willis
      Practice Lead – Data Practice
      Info-Tech Research Group

      Bibliography

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      BSI Standards Publication, "Risk Management Guidelines", ISO 31000, 2018
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      Financial Stability Board, "Principles for Effective Risk Appetite Framework", November 2013, Accessed January 2023
      Forbes Technology Council, "14 Top Data Security Risks Every Business Should Address", January 2020, Accessed January 2023
      Frank Martens, Dr. Larry Rittenberg, "COSO, Risk Appetite Critical for Success, Using Risk Appetite to Thrive in a Changing World", May 2020, Accessed January 2023
      Gary Stoneurmer, Alice Goguen and Alexis Feringa, "NIST, Risk Management Guide for Information Technology Systems", Special Publication, 800-30, September 2012, Accessed February 2023
      Guy Pearce, "Real-World Data Resilience Demands and Integrated Approach to AI, Data Governance and the Cloud", ISACA Journal, May 2022
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      John Thackeray, "Global Association of Risk Professionals, 7 Key Elements of Effective ERM", January 2020, Accessed January 2023
      KPMG, "Regulatory rigor: Managing technology and cyber risk, How FRFI’s can achieve outcomes laid out in OSFI B-13", October 2022, Accessed January 2023
      Marc Chiapolino et al, “Risk and resilience priorities, as told by chief risk officers”, McKinsey and Company, December 2022, Accessed January 2023
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      NIST, NISTIR, "Integrating CyberSecurity and Enterprise Risk", October 2020, Accessed February 2023
      Oliver Wyman, "The ORX Reference Taxonomy for operational and non-financial risk summary report", 2019, Accessed February 2023.
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      Open Risk Manual, Risk Taxonomy Definitions
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      Ronald Van Loon, "What is Data Culture and How to Implement it?", November 2023, Accessed February 2023
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      Spector Information Security, "Building your Asset and Risk Register to Manage Technology Risk", November 2021, Accessed January 2023
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      The Wall Street Journal, "Making Data Risk a Top Priority", April 2018, Accessed February 2023

      Design Data-as-a-Service

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      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 9.5/10 Overall Impact
      • member rating average dollars saved: $1,007 Average $ Saved
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      • Parent Category Name: Data Management
      • Parent Category Link: /data-management
      • Lack of a consistent approach in accessing internal and external data within the organization and sharing data with third parties.
      • Data consumed by most organizations lacks proper data quality, data certification, standards tractability, and lineage.
      • Organizations are looking for guidance in terms of readily accessible data from others and data that can be shared with others or monetized.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Despite data being everywhere, most organizations struggle to find accurate, trustworthy, and meaningful data when required.
      • Connecting to data should be as easy as connecting to the internet. This is achievable if all organizations start participating in the data marketplace ecosystem by leveraging a Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) framework.

      Impact and Result

      • Data marketplaces facilitate data sharing between the data producer and the data consumer. The data product must be carefully designed to truly benefit in today’s connected data ecosystem.
      • Follow Info-Tech’s step-by-step approach to establish your DaaS framework:
        1. Understand Data Ecosystem
        2. Design Data Products
        3. Establish DaaS framework

      Design Data-as-a-Service Research & Tools

      Start here – Read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should design Data-as-a-Service (DaaS), review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

      1. Understand data ecosystem

      Provide clear benefits of adopting the DaaS framework and solid rationale for moving towards a more connected data ecosystem and avoiding data silos.

      • Design Data-as-a-Service – Phase 1: Understand Data Ecosystem

      2. Design data product

      Leverage design thinking methodology and templates to document your most important data products.

      • Design Data-as-a-Service – Phase 2: Design Data Product

      3. Establish a DaaS framework

      Capture internal and external data sources critical to data products success for the organization and document an end-to-end DaaS framework.

      • Design Data-as-a-Service – Phase 3: Establish a DaaS Framework
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Design Data-as-a-Service

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

      1 Data Marketplace and DaaS Explained

      The Purpose

      The purpose of this module is to provide a clear understanding of the key concepts such as data marketplace, data sharing, and data products.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      This module will provide clear benefits of adopting the DaaS framework and solid rationale for moving towards a more connected data ecosystem and avoiding data silos.

      Activities

      1.1 Review the business context

      1.2 Understand the data ecosystem

      1.3 Draft products ideas and use cases

      1.4 Capture data product metrics

      Outputs

      Data product ideas

      Data sharing use cases

      Data product metrics

      2 Design Data Product

      The Purpose

      The purpose of this module is to leverage design thinking methodology and templates to document the most important data products.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Data products design that incorporates end-to-end customer journey and stakeholder map.

      Activities

      2.1 Create a stakeholder map

      2.2 Establish a persona

      2.3 Data consumer journey map

      2.4 Document data product design

      Outputs

      Data product design

      3 Assess Data Sources

      The Purpose

      The purpose of this module is to capture internal and external data sources critical to data product success.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Break down silos by integrating internal and external data sources

      Activities

      3.1 Review the conceptual data model

      3.2 Map internal and external data sources

      3.3 Document data sources

      Outputs

      Internal and external data sources relationship map

      4 Establish a DaaS Framework

      The Purpose

      The purpose of this module is to document end-to-end DaaS framework.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      End-to-end framework that breaks down silos and enables data product that can be exchanged for long-term success.

      Activities

      4.1 Design target state DaaS framework

      4.2 Document DaaS framework

      4.3 Assess the gaps between current and target environments

      4.4 Brainstorm initiatives to develop DaaS capabilities

      Outputs

      Target DaaS framework

      DaaS initiative

      Select and Implement a Reporting and Analytics Solution

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      • member rating overall impact (scale of 10): 9.0/10 Overall Impact
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      • Parent Category Name: Business Intelligence Strategy
      • Parent Category Link: /business-intelligence-strategy
      • Statistics show that the top priority of 85% of CIOs is insight and intelligence. Yet an appetite for intelligence does not mean that business intelligence initiatives will be an automatic success. In fact, many industry studies found that only 30% to 50% of organizations considered their BI initiative to be a complete success. It is, therefore, imperative that organizations take the time to select and implement a BI suite that aligns with business goals and fosters end-user adoption.
      • The multitude of BI offerings creates a busy and sometimes overwhelming vendor landscape. When selecting a solution, you have to make sense of the many offerings and bridge the gap between what is out there and what your organization needs.
      • BI is more than software. A BI solution has to effectively address business needs and demonstrate value through content and delivery once the platform is implemented.
      • Another dimension of the success of BI is the quality and validity of the reports and insights. The overall success of the BI solution is only as good as the quality of data fueling them.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Business intelligence starts with data management. Without data management, including governance and data quality capabilities, your BI users will not be able to get the insights they need due to inaccurate and unavailable data.
      • When selecting a BI tool, it is crucial to ensure that the tool is fit for the purpose of the organization. Ensure alignment between the business drivers and the tool capabilities.
      • Self-serve BI requires a measured approach. Self-serve BI is meant to empower users to make more informed and faster decisions. But uncontrolled self-serve BI will lead to report chaos and prevent users from getting the most out of the tool. You must govern self-serve before it gets out of hand.

      Impact and Result

      • Evaluate your organization and land yourself into one of our three BI use cases. Find a BI suite that best suits the use case and, therefore, your organization.
      • Understand the ever-changing BI market. Get to know the established vendors as well as the emerging players.
      • Define BI requirements comprehensively through the lens of business, data, architecture, and user groups. Evaluate requirements to ensure they align with the strategic goals of the business.

      Select and Implement a Reporting and Analytics Solution Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should select and implement a business intelligence and analytics solution, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

      1. Launch a BI selection project

      Promote and get approval for the BI selection and implementation project.

      • Select and Implement a Business Intelligence and Analytics Solution – Phase 1: Launch a BI Selection Project
      • BI Score Calculator
      • BI Project Charter

      2. Select a BI solution

      Select the most suitable BI platform.

      • Select and Implement a Business Intelligence and Analytics Solution – Phase 2: Select a BI Solution
      • BI Use-Case Fit Assessment Tool
      • BI Planning and Scoring Tool
      • BI Vendor Demo Script
      • BI Vendor Shortlist & Detailed Feature Analysis Tool
      • BI Request for Proposal Template

      3. Implement the BI solution

      Build a sustainable BI program.

      • Select and Implement a Business Intelligence and Analytics Solution – Phase 3: Implement the BI Solution
      • BI Test Plan Template
      • BI Implementation Planning Tool
      • BI Implementation Work Breakdown Structure Template
      [infographic]

      Workshop: Select and Implement a Reporting and Analytics 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 Launch a BI Selection Project

      The Purpose

      Identify the scope and objectives of the workshop.

      Discuss the benefits and opportunities related to a BI investment.

      Gain a high-level understanding of BI and the BI market definitions and details.

      Outline a project plan and identify the resourcing requirements for the project.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Determine workshop scope.

      Identify the business drivers and benefits behind a BI investment.

      Outline the project plan for the organization’s BI selection project.

      Determine project resourcing.

      Identify and perform the steps to launch the organization’s selection project.

      Activities

      1.1 Identify business drivers for investing in process automation technology.

      1.2 Identify the organization’s fit for a BI investment.

      1.3 Create a project plan.

      1.4 Identify project resourcing.

      1.5 Outline the project’s timeline.

      1.6 Determine key metrics.

      1.7 Determine project oversight.

      1.8 Complete a project charter.

      Outputs

      Completion of a project charter

      Launched BI selection project

      2 Analyze BI Requirements and Shortlist Vendors

      The Purpose

      Identify functional requirements for the organization’s BI suite.

      Determine technical requirements for the organization’s BI suite.

      Identify the organization’s alignment to the Vendor Landscape’s use-case scenarios.

      Shortlist BI vendors.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Documented functional requirements.

      Documented technical requirements.

      Identified use-case scenarios for the future BI solution.

      Activities

      2.1 Interview business stakeholders.

      2.2 Interview IT staff.

      2.3 Consolidate interview findings.

      2.4 Build the solution’s requirements package.

      2.5 Identify use-case scenario alignment.

      2.6 Review Info-Tech’s BI Vendor Landscape results.

      2.7 Create custom shortlist.

      Outputs

      Documented requirements for the future solution.

      Identification of the organization’s BI functional use-case scenarios.

      Shortlist of BI vendors.

      3 Plan the Implementation Process

      The Purpose

      Identify the steps for the organization’s implementation process.

      Select the right BI environment.

      Run a pilot project.

      Measure the value of your implementation.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Install a BI solution and prepare the BI solution in a way that allows intuitive and interactive uses.

      Keep track of and quantify BI success.

      Activities

      3.1 Select the right environment for the BI platform.

      3.2 Configure the BI implementation.

      3.3 Conduct a pilot to get started with BI and to demonstrate BI possibilities.

      3.4 Promote BI development in production.

      Outputs

      A successful BI implementation.

      BI is architected with the right availability.

      BI ROI is captured and quantified.

      IT Project Management Lite

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}187|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: Project Management Office
      • Parent Category Link: /project-management-office
      • Organizations want reliable project reporting and clear, consistent project management standards, but many are unwilling or unable to allocate time for it.
      • Many IT project managers are given project management responsibilities in addition to other full-time roles – without any formal allocation of time, authority, or training.
      • Most IT project managers and stakeholders actually want clear and consistent standards but resist tools and procedures they believe are too time consuming and inflexible.
      • Standard project management procedures must be “light” enough for project managers to adapt to a wide range of projects without increasing the total time required to manage projects successfully.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      • Most IT project management advice is focused on the largest 10-20% of projects – projects with large enough budgets to allocate time to project management. This leaves most IT projects (and most people who manage IT projects) in limbo between high-risk ad hoc management and high-cost project management best practices.
      • Project management success doesn’t equate to project success. While formal methodologies are a key ingredient in the success of large, complex projects, most IT projects do not require the same degree of rigorous record-keeping and planning.
      • Consistent, timely, and accurate reporting is the “linchpin” in any sustainable project and portfolio management practice.

      Impact and Result

      • Maintain timely and accurate project portfolio reporting with right-sized tools and processes.
      • Establish clear and consistent project management standards that make better use of time already spent managing projects.
      • Enable project managers to manage their projects more successfully with a set of flexible and lightweight tools and templates.

      IT Project Management Lite Research & Tools

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

      1. Assess the value of a minimum-viable PMO strategy

      Perform a measured value assessment for building and managing a minimum-viable PMO.

      • IT Project Management Lite Storyboard

      2. Perform a project and portfolio needs assessment

      Focus on the minimum required to maintain accuracy of portfolio reporting and effectiveness in managing projects.

      • Minimum-Viable PMO Needs Assessment

      3. Establish standards for realistic, accurate, and consistent portfolio reporting

      Emphasize reporting high-level project status as a way to identify and address issues to achieve the best results with the least effort.

      • Minimum-Viable Project and Portfolio Management SOP

      4. Create a standard, right-sized project management toolkit

      Free PMs to focus on actually managing the project while still delivering accurate portfolio metrics.

      • Zero-Allocation Project Management Workbook

      5. Train PMs for zero allocation

      Ensure project manager compliance with the portfolio reporting process by incorporating activities that create value.

      • Zero-Allocation Project Manager Development Plan
      • Zero-Allocation Project Management Survival Guide

      6. Perform a post-implementation assessment

      Evaluate success and identify opportunities for further improvement.

      Infographic

      Workshop: IT Project Management Lite

      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

      The Purpose

      Define goals and success criteria.

      Finalize agenda.

      Gather information: update project and resource lists (Info-Tech recommends using the Project Portfolio Workbook).

      Key Benefits Achieved

      More efficiently organized and executed workshop.

      Able to better customize and tailor content to your specific needs.

      Activities

      1.1 Discuss specific pain points with regards to project manager allocations

      1.2 Review project lists, tools and templates, and other documents

      1.3 Map existing strategies to Info-Tech’s framework

      Outputs

      Understanding of where efforts must be focused in workshop

      Assessment of what existing tools and templates may need to be included in zero-allocation workbook

      Revisions that need to be made based on existing strategies

      2 Make the Case and Assess Needs

      The Purpose

      Assess current state (including review of project and resource lists).

      Discuss and analyze SWOT around project and portfolio management.

      Define target state.

      Define standards / SOP / processes for project and portfolio management.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Gain perspective on how well your processes match up with the amount of time your project managers have for their PM duties.

      Determine the value of the time and effort that your project teams are investing in project management activities.

      Begin to define resource optimized processes for zero-allocation project managers.

      Ensure consistent implementation of processes across your portfolio.

      Establish project discipline and best practices that are grounded in actual project capacity.

      Activities

      2.1 Perform and/or analyze Minimum-Viable PMO Needs Assessment

      2.2 SWOT analysis

      2.3 Identify target allocations for project management activities

      2.4 Begin to define resource optimized processes for zero-allocation project managers

      Outputs

      Current state analysis based on Minimum-Viable PMO Needs Assessment

      Overview of current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats

      Target state analysis based on Minimum-Viable PMO Needs Assessment

      A refined Minimum-Viable Project and Portfolio Management SOP

      3 Establish Strategy

      The Purpose

      Select and customize project and portfolio management toolkit.

      Implement (test/pilot) toolkit and processes.

      Customize project manager training plan.

      Evaluate and refine toolkit and processes as needed.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Ensure consistent implementation of processes across your portfolio.

      Establish project discipline and best practices that are grounded in actual project capacity.

      A customized training session that will suit the needs of your project managers.

      Activities

      3.1 Customize the Zero-Allocation Toolkit to accommodate the needs of your projects

      3.2 Test toolkit on projects currently underway

      3.3 Tweak project manager training to suit the needs of your team

      Outputs

      Customized Zero-Allocation Project Management Workbook

      A tested and standardized copy of the workbook

      A customized training session for your project managers (to take place on Day 4 of Info-Tech’s workshop)

      4 Train Your Zero-Allocation Project Managers

      The Purpose

      Communicate project and portfolio management SOP to Project Managers.

      Deliver project manager training: standards for portfolio reporting and toolkit.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Equip project managers to improve their level of discipline and documentation without spending more time in record keeping and task management.

      Execute a successful training session that clearly and succinctly communicates your minimal and resource-optimized processes.

      Activities

      4.1 Project Manager Training, including communication of the processes and standard templates and reports that will be adopted by all project managers

      Outputs

      Educated and disciplined project managers, aware of the required processes for portfolio reporting

      5 Assess Strategy and Next Steps

      The Purpose

      Debrief from the training session.

      Plan for ongoing evaluation and improvement.

      Evaluate and refine toolkit and processes if needed.

      Answer any remaining questions.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Assess portfolio and project manager performance in light of the strategy implemented.

      Understanding of how to keep living documents like the workbook and SOP up to date.

      Clearly defined next steps.

      Activities

      5.1 Review the customized tools and templates

      5.2 Send relevant documentation to relevant stakeholders

      5.3 Schedule review call

      5.4 Schedule follow-up call with analysts to discuss progress in six months

      Outputs

      Finalized workbook and processes

      Satisfied and informed stakeholders

      Scheduled review call

      Scheduled follow-up call

      Implement and Mature Your User Experience Design Practice

      • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}430|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: Requirements & Design
      • Parent Category Link: /requirements-and-design

      Many organizations want to get to market quickly and on budget but don’t know the steps to get the right product/service to satisfy the users and business. This may be made apparent through uninformed decisions leading to lack of adoption of your product or service, rework due to post-implementation user feedback, or the competition discovering new approaches that outshine yours.

      Our Advice

      Critical Insight

      Ensure your practice has a clear understanding of the design problem space – not just the solution. An understanding of the user is critical to this.

      Impact and Result

      • Create a practice that is focused on human outcomes; it starts and ends with the people you are designing for. This includes:
        • Establishing a practice with a common vision.
        • Enhancing the practice through four design factors.
        • Communicating a roadmap to improve your business through design.
      • Create a practice that develops solutions specific to the needs of users, customers, and stakeholders.

      Implement and Mature Your User Experience Design Practice Research & Tools

      Start here – read the Executive Brief

      Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should implement an experience design practice, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four dimensions we recommend using to mature your practice.

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

      1. Build the foundation

      Motivate your team with a common vision, mission, and goals.

      • Design Roadmap Workbook
      • User Experience Practice Roadmap

      2. Review the design dimensions

      Examine your practice – from the perspectives of organizational alignment, business outcomes, design perspective, and design integration – to determine what it takes to improve your maturity.

      3. Build your roadmap and communications

      Bring it all together – determine your team structure, the roadmap for the practice maturity, and communication plan.

      [infographic]

      Workshop: Implement and Mature Your User Experience Design Practice

      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 “So What?”

      The Purpose

      Make the case for UX. Bring the team together with a common mission, vision, and goals.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Mission, vision, and goals for design

      Activities

      1.1 Define design practice goals.

      1.2 Generate the vision statement.

      1.3 Develop the mission statement.

      Outputs

      Design vision statement

      Design mission statement

      Design goals

      2 Examine Design Dimensions

      The Purpose

      Review the dimensions that help organizations to mature, and assess what next steps make sense for your organization.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Develop initiatives that are right-sized for your organization.

      Activities

      2.1 Examine organizational alignment.

      2.2 Establish priorities for initiatives.

      2.3 Identify business value sources.

      2.4 Identify design perspective.

      2.5 Brainstorm design integration.

      2.6 Complete UCD-Canvas.

      Outputs

      Documented initiatives for design maturity

      Design canvas framework

      3 Create Structure and Initiatives

      The Purpose

      Make your design practice structure right for you.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Examine patterns and roles for your organization.

      Activities

      3.1 Structure your design practice.

      Outputs

      Design practice structure with patterns

      4 Roadmap and Communications

      The Purpose

      Define the communications objectives and audience for your roadmap.

      Develop your communication plan.

      Sponsor check-in.

      Key Benefits Achieved

      Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days.

      Set up review time for workshop deliverables and to discuss next steps.

      Activities

      4.1 Define the communications objectives and audience for your roadmap.

      4.2 Develop your communication plan.

      Outputs

      Communication Plan and Roadmap