Set Meaningful Employee Performance Measures

Set holistic measures to inspire employee performance.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Set employees up for success by implementing performance measures that inspire great performance, not irrelevant reporting.

Executive Summary

Info-Tech Insight

Performance measures are not about punishing bad performance, but inspiring higher performance to achieve business goals.

Meaningful performance measures drive employee engagement...

Clearly defined performance measures linked to specific goals bolster engagement by showing employees the importance of their contributions.

Significant components of employee engagement are tied to employee performance measures.

Which, in turn, drives business success.

Improved employee engagement is proven to improve employee performance. Setting meaningful measures can impact your bottom line.

Impact of Engagement on Performance

Source: McLean & Company Employee Engagement Survey Jan 2020-Jan 2023; N=5,185 IT Employees; were either Engaged or Disengaged (Almost Engaged and Indifferent were not included)

Engaged employees don’t just work harder, they deliver higher quality service and products.

Engaged employees are significantly more likely to agree that they regularly accomplish more than what’s expected of them, choose to work extra hours to improve results, and take pride in the work they do.

Without this sense of pride and ownership over the quality-of-service IT provides, IT departments are at serious risk of not being able to deliver quality service, on-time and on-budget.

Create meaningful performance measures to drive employee engagement by helping employees understand how they contribute to the organization.

Unfortunately, many employee measures are meaningless and fail to drive high-quality performance.

Too many ineffective performance measures create more work for the manager rather than inspire employee performance. Determine if your measures are worth tracking – or if they are lacking.

Adopt a holistic approach to create meaningful performance measurement

Info-Tech’s methodology to set the stage for more effective employee measures

1. Source and Set Goals

Phase Steps
1.1 Create business-aligned department and team goals
1.2 Create business-aligned individual goals

Phase Outcomes
Understand how your department contributes to larger organizational goals.
Determine the timelines you need to measure employees against.
Set business-aligned department, team, and individual goals.

2. Design Measures

Phase Steps
1.1 Choose measurement framework
1.2 Define employee measures
1.3 Determine weightings

Phase Outcomes
Choose your employee measurement framework: generic or individual.
Define appropriate employee measures for preestablished goals.
Determine employee measurement weightings to drive essential behaviors.
Ensure employee measures are communicated to the right stakeholders.

3. Communicate to Implement and Review

Phase Steps
1.1 Communicate to stakeholders
1.2 Coaching and feedback
1.3 When to update

Phase Outcomes
Communicate selected performance measure to stakeholders.
Learn how to coach employees though blockers.
Understand how to review and when to update measures.

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

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 four to six calls over the course of two to four months.

What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

Initiate Digital Accessibility For IT

Make accessibility accessible.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Analyst Perspective

Accessibility is a practice, not a project.

Accessibility is an organizational directive; however, IT plays a fundamental role in its success. As business partners require support and expertise to assist with their accessibility requirements IT needs to be ready to respond. Even if your organization hasn't fully committed to an accessibility standard, you can proactively get ready by planting the seeds to change the culture. By building understanding and awareness of the significant impact technology has on accessibility, you can start to change behaviors.

Implementing an accessibility program requires many considerations: legal requirements; international guidelines, such as Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG); training for staff; ongoing improvement; and collaborating with accessibility experts and people with disabilities. It can be overwhelming to know where to start. The tendency is to start with compliance, which is a fantastic first step. For a sustained program use, change management practices are needed to change behaviors and build inclusion for people with disabilities.

15% of the world's population identify as having some form of a disability (not including others that are impacted, e.g. caretakers, family). Why would anyone want to alienate over 1.1 billion people?

Heather Leier-Murray
Senior Research Analyst, People & Leadership
Info-Tech Research Group

Disability is part of being human

Merriam-Webster defines disability as a "physical, mental, cognitive, or developmental condition that impairs, interferes with, or limits a person's ability to engage in certain tasks or actions or participate in typical daily activities and interactions."(1)

The World Health Organization points out that a crucial part of the definition of disability is that it's not just a health problem, but the environment impacts the experience and extent of disability. Inaccessibility creates barriers for full participation in society.(2)

The likelihood of you experiencing a disability at some point in your life is very high, whether a physical or mental disability, seen or unseen, temporary or permanent, severe or mild.(2)

Many people acquire disabilities as they age yet may not identify as "a person with a disability."3 Where life expectancies are over 70 years of age, 11.5% of life is spent living with a disability. (4)

"Extreme personalization is becoming the primary difference in business success, and everyone wants to be a stakeholder in a company that provides processes, products, and services to employees and customers with equitable, person-centered experiences and allows for full participation where no one is left out."
– Paudie Healy, CEO, Universal Access

(1.) Merriam-Webster
(2.) World Health Organization, 2022
(3.) Digital Leaders, as cited in WAI, 2018
(4.) Disabled World, as cited in WAI, 2018

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

You know the push for accessibility is coming in your organization. You might even have a program started or approval to build one. But you're not sure if you and your team are ready to support and enable the organization on its accessibility journey.

Common Obstacles

Understanding where to start, where accessibility lives, and if or when you're done can be overwhelmingly difficult. Accessibility is an organizational initiative that IT enables; being able to support the organization requires a level of understanding of common obstacles.

• Determining IT requirements (legal and business needs) is overwhelming.
• Prioritizing people in the process is often overlooked.
• Mandating changes instead of motivating change isn't sustainable.

Info-Tech's Approach

Prepare your people for accessibility and inclusion, even if your organization doesn't have a formal standard yet. Take your accessibility from mandate to movement, i.e. from Phase 1 - focused on compliance to Phase 2 - driven by experience for sustained change.

• Use this blueprint to build your accessibility plan while prioritizing the necessary culture change.
• Use change management and communication practices to elicit the behavior shift needed to sustain accessibility.

Info-Tech Insight

Accessibility is a practice, not a project. Therefore, accessibility is an organizational initiative; however, IT support is critical. Use change management theory to guide the new behaviors, processes, and thinking to adopt accessibility beyond compliance. Determining where to start is challenging because the tendency is to start with tech or compliance; however, starting with the people is key. It must be a change in organizational culture.

Your challenge

This research is designed to help IT leaders who are looking to:

• Determine accessibility requirements of IT based on the business' needs and priorities, and the existing standards and regulations.
• Prepare the IT leaders to implement and sustain accessibility and prepare for the behavior shift that is necessary.
• Build the plan for IT as it pertains to accessibility, including a list of business needs and priorities, and prioritization of accessibility initiatives that IT is responsible for.
• Ensure that accessibility is sustained in the IT department by following phase 2 of this blueprint on using change management and communication to impact behavior and change the culture.

90% of companies claim to prioritize diversity.
Source: Harvard Business Review, 2020

Over 30% of those that claim to prioritize diversity are focused on compliance.
Source: Harvard Business Review, 2022

Accessibility is an organizational initiative

Is IT ready and capable to enable it?

• With increasing rates of lawsuits related to digital accessibility, more organizations are prioritizing initiatives to support increased accessibility. About 68% of Applause's survey respondents indicated that digital accessibility is a higher priority for their organization than it was last year.
• This increase in priority will trickle into IT's tasks – get ahead and start working toward accessibility proactively so you're ready when business requests start coming in.

A survey of nearly 1,800 respondents conducted by Applause found that:

• 79% of respondents rated digital accessibility either a top priority or important for their organizations.
• 42% of respondents indicated they have limited or no in-house expertise or resources to test accessibility.
  Source: Business Wire, May 2022

How organizations prioritize digital accessibility

• 43% rated accessibility as a top priority.
• 36% rated accessibility as important.
• Fewer than 5% rated accessibility as either low priority or not even on the radar.
• More than 65% agreed or strongly agreed that accessibility is a higher priority than last year.

Source: Angel Business Communications, 2022

Why organizations address accessibility

Top three reasons:

1. 61% To comply with laws
2. 62% To provide the best user experience
3. 78% To include people with disabilities
   Source: Level Access, 2022

Still, most businesses aren't meeting compliance standards. Even though legislation has been in place for over 30 years, a 2022 study by WebAIM of 1,000,000 homepages returned a 96.8% WCAG 2.0 failure rate.

Source: Institute for Disability Research, Policy, and Practice, 2022

Info-Tech's approach to Initiate Digital Accessibility

The Info-Tech difference:

1. Phase 1 of this blueprint gets you started and helps you build a plan to get you to the initial compliance driven maturity level. It's focused more on standards and regulations than on the user and employee experience.
2. Phase 2 takes you further in maturity and helps you become experience driven in your efforts. It focuses on building your accessibility maturity into the developing, defined, and managed levels, as well as balancing mandate and movement of the accessibility maturity continuum.

Determining conformance seems overwhelming

Unfortunately, it's the easier part.

• Focus on local regulations and what corporate leaders are setting as accessibility standards for the organization. This will narrow down the scope of what compliance looks like for your team.
• Look to best practices like WCAG guidelines to ensure digital assets are accessible and usable for all users. WCAG's international guideline outlines principles that can also aid in scoping.
• In phase 1 of this blueprint, use the Accessibility Compliance Tracking Toolto prioritize criteria and legislation for which IT is responsible.
• Engage with business partners and other areas of the organization to figure out what is needed from IT. Accessibility is an organizational initiative; it shouldn't be on IT to figure it all out. Determine what your team is specifically responsible for before tackling it all.

Motivating behavior change

This is the hard part.

Changing behaviors and mindsets is necessary to be experience driven and sustain accessibility.

• Compliance is the minimum when it comes to accessibility, much like employment or labor regulations.
• Making accessibility an organizational imperative is an iterative process. Managing the change is hard. People, culture, and behavior change matures accessibility from compliance driven to experience driven, increasing the benefits of accessibility.
• Focus accessibility initiatives on improving the experience of everyone and improving engagement (customer and employee).
• Being people focused and experience driven enables the organization to provide the best user experience and realize the benefits of accessibility.

"Compliance is the minimum. And when we look at web tech, people are still arguing about their positioning on the standards that need to be enforced in order to comply, forgetting that it isn't enough to comply."
-- Jordyn Zimmerman, M.Ed., Director of Professional Development, The Nora Project, and Appointee, President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities.

To see more on the Info-Tech Accessibility Maturity Framework:

The Accessibility Business Case for IT

Think of accessibility like you think of IT security

Use IT security concepts to build your accessibility program.

• Risk management: identify and prioritize accessibility risks and implement controls to mitigate those risks.
• Compliance: use an IT security-style compliance approach to ensure that the accessibility program is compliant with the many accessibility regulations and standards.
• Defense in depth: implement multiple layers of accessibility controls to address different types of accessibility risks and issues.
• Response and recovery: quickly and effectively respond to accessibility issues, minimizing the potential impact on the organization and its users.
• End-user education: educate end users about accessibility best practices, such as how to use assistive technologies and how to report accessibility issues.
• Monitor and audit: use monitoring and auditing tools to ensure that accessibility remains over time and to identify and address issues that arise.
• Collaboration: ensure the accessibility program is effective and addresses the needs of all users by collaborating with accessibility experts and people with disabilities.

"As an organization matures, the impact of accessibility shifts. A good company will think of security at the very beginning. The same needs to be applied to accessibility thinking. At the peak of accessibility maturity an organization will have people with disabilities involved at the outset."
-- Cam Beaudoin, Owner, Accelerated Accessibility

Info-Tech's methodology for Initiate Digital Accessibility for IT

Insight summary

Overarching insight

Accessibility is a practice, not a project. Therefore, accessibility is an organizational initiative; however, IT support is critical. Use change management theory to guide the new behaviors, processes, and thinking to adopt accessibility beyond compliance. Determining where to start is challenging. The tendency is to start with tech or compliance; however, starting with the people is key. It must be a change in organizational culture.

Insight 1

Compliance is the minimum; people and behavior changes are the hardest part and have the largest impact on accessibility. Preparing for and building awareness of the reasons for accessibility makes the necessary behavior changes easier. Communicate, communicate, and communicate some more.

Insight 2

Think about accessibility like you think about IT security. Use IT security concepts that you and your team are already familiar with to initiate the accessibility program.

Insight 3

People are learning a new way to behave and think; this can be an unsettling period. Patience, education, communication, support, and time are keys for success of the implementation of accessibility. There is a transition period needed; people will gradually change their practices and attitudes. Celebrate small successes as they arise.

Insight 4

Accessibility isn't a project as there is no end. Effective planning and continuous reinforcement of "the new way of doing things" is necessary to enable accessibility as the new status quo.

Blueprint deliverables

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

IT Manager Meeting Template
Use this meeting slide deck to work with IT managers to build out the accessibility remediation plan and commitment statement.

Departmental Meeting Template
Use this meeting slide deck to introduce the concept of accessibility and communicate IT goals and objectives.

Accessibility Quick Cards
Using the Info-Tech IT Management and Governance Framework to identify key activities to help improve and maintain the accessibility of your organization and your core IT processes.

Key deliverable:

Accessibility Compliance Tracking Tool
This tool will assist you in identifying remediation priorities applicable to your organization.

Blueprint benefits

Measure the value of this blueprint

Improve IT effectiveness and employee buy-in to change.

Measuring the effectiveness of your program helps contribute to a culture of continuous improvement. Having consistent measures in place helps to inform decisions and enables your plan to be iterative to take advantage of emerging opportunities.

Monitor employee engagement, overall stakeholder satisfaction with IT, and the overall end-customer satisfaction.

Remember, accessibility is not a project – just because measures are positive does not mean your work is done.

In phase 1 of this blueprint, we will help you establish metrics for your organization.
In phase 2, we will help you develop a sustainment for achieving those metrics.

Info-Tech's IT Metrics Library

Executive brief case study

INDUSTRY: Technology

SOURCE: Microsoft.com
https://blogs.microsoft.com/accessibility/accessib...

Microsoft

Microsoft's accessibility journey starts with the goal of building a culture of accessibility and disability inclusion. They recognize that the starting point for the magnitude of organizational change is People.

"Accessibility in Action Badge"

Every employee at Microsoft is trained on accessibility to build understanding of why and how to be inclusive using accessibility. The program entails 90 minutes of virtual content.

Microsoft treats accessibility and inclusion like a business, managing and measuring it to ensure sustained growth and success. They have worked over the years to bust systemic bias company-wide and to build a program with accessibility criteria that works for their business.

Results

The program Microsoft has built allows them to shift the accessibility lens earlier in their processes and listen to its users' needs. This allows them to continuously mature their accessibility program, which means continuously improving its users' experience.

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 guided implementation (GI) on this topic look like?

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

A typical GI is eight to ten calls over the course of four to six months.

Workshop overview

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

Phase 1

Planning IT's Accessibility Requirements.

Initiate Digital Accessibility For IT

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• Analyzing stakeholders to determine accessibility needs of business for IT.
• Determining accessibility compliance requirements of IT.
• Build a manager communication deck.
• Assess current accessibility compliance and mitigation.
• Prioritize and assign timelines.
• Build a sunrise diagram to visualize your accessibility roadmap.
• Write an IT accessibility commitment statement.

This phase involves the following participants:

• CIO
• IT leadership team
• Business partners in other areas of the organization (e.g., HR, finance, communications)

Step 1.1

Determine the accessibility requirements of IT.

Activities

1.1.1 Determine what the business needs from IT
1.1.2 Complete the Accessibility Maturity Assessment (optional)
1.1.3 Determine IT compliance requirements
1.1.4 Define target state
1.1.5 Create a list of goals and objectives
1.1.6 Finalize key metrics
1.1.7 Prepare a meeting for IT managers

Prepare to support the organization with accessibility

This step involves the following participants:

• CIO
• IT senior leaders
• IT managers
• Business partners in other areas of the organization (e.g., HR, finance, communications)

Outcomes of this step

• Stakeholder analysis with business needs listed
• Defined target future state
• List of goals and objectives
• Key metrics
• Communication deck for IT management rollout meeting

While defining future state, consider your drivers

The Info-Tech Accessibility Maturity Framework identifies three key strategic drivers: compliance, experience, and incorporation.

• Over 30% of organizations are focused on compliance, according to a 2022 survey by Harvard Business Review and Slack's Future Forum. The survey asked more than 10,000 workers in six countries about their organizations' approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).(2)
• Even though 90% of companies claim to prioritize diversity, over 30% are focused on compliance.(1)

1. Harvard Business Review, 2020
2. Harvard Business Review, 2022

Info-Tech accessibility maturity framework

Info-Tech Insight

IT typically works through maturity frameworks from the bottom to the top, progressing at each level until they reach the end. When it comes to IT accessibility initiatives, being especially thorough, thoughtful, and collaborative is critical to success. This will mean spending more time in the Developing, Defined, and Managed levels of maturity rather than trying to reach Optimized as quickly as you can. This may feel contrary to what IT historically considers as a successful implementation.

After initially ensuring your organization is compliant with regulations and standards, you will progress to building disciplined process and consistent standardized processes. Eventually you will build the ability for predictable process, and lastly, you'll optimize by continuously improving.

Depending on the level of maturity you are trying to achieve, it could take months or even years to implement. The important thing to understand, however, is that accessibility work is never done.

At all levels of the maturity framework, you must consider the interconnected aspects of people, process, and technology. However, as the organization progresses, the impact will shift from largely being focused on process and technology improvement to being focused on people.

Align the benefits of program drivers to organizational goals or outcomes

Although there will be various motivating factors, aligning the drivers of your accessibility program provides direction to the program. Connecting the advantages of program drivers to organizational goals builds the confidence of senior leaders and decision makers, increasing the continued commitment to invest in accessibility programming.

Accessibility maturity levels

Cheat sheet: Identify stakeholders

Ask stakeholders, "Who else should I be talking to?" to discover additional stakeholders and ensure you don't miss anyone.

Categorize your stakeholders with a stakeholder prioritization map

A stakeholder prioritization map help teams categorize their stakeholders by their level of influence and ownership.

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 high influence to affect 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.

Strategize to engage stakeholders by type

Each group of stakeholders draws attention and resources away from critical tasks.

By properly identifying your stakeholder groups, you 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.

1.1.1 Determine what the business needs from IT (stakeholder analysis)

1.5 hours

1. Consider all the potential individuals or groups of individuals who will be impacted or influence the accessibility needs of IT.
2. List each of the stakeholders you identify. If in person, use sticky notes to define the target audiences. The individuals or group of individuals that potentially have needs from IT related to accessibility before, during, or after the initiative.
3. As you list each stakeholder, consider how they perceive IT. This perception could impact how you choose to interact with them.
4. For each stakeholder identified as potentially having a business need requirement for IT related to accessibility, conduct an analysis to understand their degree of influence or impact.
5. Based on the stakeholder, the influence or impact of the business need can inform the interaction and prioritization of IT requirements.
6. Update slide 9 of the IT Manager Meeting Template.

Input

• The change
• Why the change is needed
• Key stakeholder map from activity 2.1.1 of The Accessibility Business Case for IT (optional)

Output

• The degree of influence or impact each stakeholder has on accessibility needs from IT

Materials

• Stakeholder Management Analysis Tool (optional)

Participants

• CIO/ head of IT/ initiative lead
• Business partners

Proactively consider how accessibility could be received

Think about the positive and negative reactions you could face about implementing accessibility.

It's likely individuals will have an emotional reaction to change and may have different emotions at different times during the change process.
Plan for how to leverage support and deal with resistance to change by assessing people's emotional responses:

• What are possible questions, objections, suggestions, and concerns that might arise.
• How will you respond to the possible questions and concerns.
• Include proactive messaging in your communications that address possible objections.
• Express an understanding for others point of views by re-positioning objections and suggestions as questions.

Determine your level of maturity

Use Info-Tech's Accessibility Maturity Assessment.

On the accessibility questionnaire, tab 2, choose the amount you agree or disagree with each statement. Answer the questions based on your knowledge of your current state organizationally.

Once you've answered all the questions, see the results on the tab 3, Accessibility Results. You can see your overall maturity level and the maturity level for each of six dimensions that are necessary to increase the success of an accessibility program.

Click through to tab 4, Recommendations, to see specific recommendations based on your results and proven research to progress through the maturity levels. Keep in mind that not all organizations will or should aspire to the "Optimize" maturity level.

Download the Accessibility Maturity Assessment

1.1.2 Complete the Accessibility Maturity Assessment (optional)

1. Download the Accessibility Maturity Assessment and save it with the date so that as you work on your accessibility program, you can reassess later and track your progress.
2. Once you have saved the assessment, select the appropriate answer for each statement on tab 2, Accessibility Questions, based on your knowledge of the organization's approach.
3. After reviewing all the accessibility statements, see your maturity level results on tab 3, Accessibility Results. Then see tab 4, Recommendations, for suggestions based on your answers.
4. Document your accessibility maturity results on slides 12 and 13 of the IT Manager Meeting Template and slide 17 of the Departmental Meeting Template.
5. Use the maturity assessment results in activity 1.1.3.

Input

• Assess your current state of accessibility by choosing all the statements that apply to your organization

Output

• Identified accessibility maturity level

Materials

• Accessibility Maturity Assessment
• Accessibility Business Case Template

Participants

• Project leader/sponsor
• IT leadership team

1.1.3 Determine IT compliance responsibilities

1-3 hours

Before you start this activity, you may need to discuss with your organization's legal counsel to determine the legislation that applies to your organization.

1. Determine which controls apply to your organization based on your knowledge of the organization goals, stakeholders, and accessibility maturity target. If you haven't determined your current and future state maturity model, use the Info-Tech resource from the Accessibility Business Case for IT(see previous two slides).
2. Using the drop down in column J – Applies to My Org., select "Yes" or "No" for each control on each of the data entry tabs of the Accessibility Compliance Tracking Tool.
3. For each control you have selected "Yes" for in column J, identify the control owner in column I.
4. Update slide 10 in the IT Manager Meeting Template and slide 13 in the IT Departmental Meeting Template.

Input

• Local, regional, and/or global legislation and guidelines applicable to your organization
• Organizational accessibility standard
• Business needs list
• Completed Accessibility Maturity Assessment (optional)

Output

• List of legislation and standards requirements that are narrowed based on organization need

Materials

• Accessibility Maturity Assessment
• Accessibility Business Case Template

Participants

• CIO/ head of IT/ CAO/ initiative leader
• Legal counsel

Download the Accessibility Compliance Tracking Tool

1.1.4 Conduct future-state analysis*

Identify your target state of maturity.

1. Provide the group with the accessibility maturity levels to review as well as the slides on the framework and drivers (slides 27-29).
2. Ask the group to brainstorm pain points created by inaccessibility (e.g. challenges related to stakeholders, process issues).
3. Next, discuss opportunities to be gained from improving these practices.
4. Then, have everyone look at the accessibility maturity levels and, based on the descriptions, determine as a group the current maturity level of accessibility in your organization .
5. Next, review the benefits listed on the accessibility maturity levels slide to those that you named in step 3 and determine which maturity level best describes your target state. Discuss as a group and agree on one desired maturity level to reach.
6. Document your current and target states on slide 14 of the IT Manager Meeting Template.

*Note: If you've completed the Accessibility Business Case for IT blueprint you may already have this information compiled. Refer to activities 2.1.2 and 2.1.3.

Input

• Accessibility maturity levels chart, framework, and drivers slides
• Maturity level assessment results (optional)

Output

• Target maturity level documented

Materials

• Paper and pens
• Handouts of maturity levels

Participants

• CIO
• IT senior leaders

What does a good goal look like?

SMART is a common framework for setting effective goals. Make sure your goals satisfy these criteria to ensure you can achieve real results.

Use the SMART framework to build effective goals.

1.1.5 Create a list of goals and objectives*

Use the outcomes from activity 1.2.1.

1. Using the information from activity 1.2.1, develop goals.
2. Remember to use the SMART goal framework to build out each goal (see the previous slide for more information on SMART goals).
3. Ensure each goal supports departmental and organizational goals to ensure it is meaningful.
4. Document your goals and objectives on slides 6 and 9 in your IT Manager Meeting Template.

*Note: If you've completed the Accessibility Business Case for IT blueprint you may already have this information compiled. Refer to activity 2.2.1.

Input

• Outcomes of activity 1.2.1
• Organizational and departmental goals

Output

• Accessibility goals and objectives identified

Materials

• n/a

Participants

• CIO/ head of IT/ initiative lead
• IT senior leaders

Establish baseline metrics

Baseline metrics will be improved through:

1. Progressing through the accessibility maturity model.
2. Addressing accessibility earlier in processes with input from people with disabilities.
3. Motivating behavior changes and culture that supports accessibility and disability inclusion.
4. Ensuring compliance with regulations and standards.
5. Focusing on experience and building a disability inclusive culture.

1.1.6 Finalize key metrics*

Finalize key metrics the organization will use to measure accessibility success.

1. Brainstorm how you will measure the success of each goal you identified in the previous activity, based on the benefits, challenges, and risks you previously identified.
2. Write each of the metric ideas down and finalize three to five key metrics which you will track. The metrics you choose should relate to the key challenges or risks you have identified and match your desired maturity level and driver.
3. Document your key metrics on slide 15 of your IT Manager Meeting Templateand slide 23 of the Departmental Meeting Template.

Input

• Accessibility challenges and benefits
• Goals from activity 1.2.2

Output

• Three to five key metrics to track

Materials

• n/a

Participants

• IT leadership team
• Project lead/sponsor

*Note: If you've completed the Accessibility Business Case for IT blueprint you may already have this information compiled. Refer to activity 2.2.2.

Use Info-Tech's template to communicate with IT managers

Cascade messages down to IT managers next. This ensures they will have time to internalize the change before communicating it to others.

Communicate with and build the accessibility plan with IT managers by customizing Info-Tech's IT Manager Meeting Template, which is designed to effectively convey your key messages. Tailor the template to suit your needs.

It includes:

• Project scope and objectives
• Current state analysis
• Compliance planning
• Commitment statement drafting

Download the IT Manager Meeting Template

Info-Tech Insight

Preparing for and building awareness of the reasons for accessibility make the necessary behavior changes easier.

1.1.7 Prepare a meeting for IT managers

Now that you understand your current and desired accessibility maturity, the next step is to communicate with IT managers and begin planning your initiatives.

Know your audience:

1. Consider who will be included in your presentation audience.
2. You want your presentation to be succinct and hard-hitting. Managers are under huge demands and time is tight, they will lose interest if you drag out the delivery.
3. Contain the presentation and planning activities to no more than an afternoon. You want to ensure adequate time for questions and answers, as well as the planning activities necessary to inform the roll out to the larger IT department later.
4. Schedule a meeting with the IT managers.

Download the IT Manager Meeting Template

Input

• Activity results

Output

• A completed presentation to communicate your accessibility initiatives to IT managers

Materials

• IT Manager Meeting Template

Participants

• CIO/ head of IT/ initiative lead
• IT senior leaders
• IT managers

Step 1.2

Build the IT accessibility action plan.

Activities

1.2.1 Assess current accessibility compliance and mitigation

1.2.2 Decide on your priorities

1.2.3 Add priorities to the roadmap

1.2.4 Write an IT accessibility commitment statement

Planning IT's accessibility requirements

This step involves the following participants:

• CIO/ head of IT/ initiative lead
• IT senior leaders
• IT managers

Outcomes of this step

• Priority controls and mitigation list with identified control owners.
• IT accessibility commitment statement.
• Draft visualization of roadmap/sunrise diagram.

Involve managers in assessing current compliance

To know what work needs to happen you need to know what's already happening.

Use the spreadsheet from activity 1.1.3 where you identified which controls apply to your organization.

Have managers work in groups to identify which controls (of the applicable ones) are currently being met and which ones have an existing mitigation plan.

Info-Tech Insight

Based on EN 301 549 V3.2.1 (2021-03) as a basis for digital accessibility conformance. This tool is designed to assist you in building a priorities list of requirements that are applicable to your organization. EN 301 549 is currently the most robust accessibility regulation and encompasses other regulations within it. Although EN 301 549 is the European Standard, other countries are leaning on it as the standard they aspire to as well.

1.2.1 Assess current accessibility compliance and mitigation

1-3 hours

1. Share the Accessibility Compliance Tracking Tool with the IT leaders and managers during the meeting with IT management that you scheduled in activity 1.1.7.
2. Break into smaller groups (or if too small, continue as a single group):
   1. Divide up the controls between the small groups to work on assessing current compliance and mitigation plans.
   2. For each control that is identified as applying to your organization, identify if there currently is compliance by selecting "yes" from the drop-down. For controls where the organization is not compliant, select "no" and identify if there is a mitigation plan in place by selecting "yes" or "no" in column L.
   3. Use the comments column to add any pertinent information regarding the control.

Input

• List of IT compliance requirements applicable to the org. from activities 1.1.2 and 1.1.3

Output

• List of IT compliance requirements that have current compliance or mitigation plans

Materials

• Accessibility Compliance Tracking Tool

Participants

• CIO
• IT senior leaders
• IT managers

Download the Accessibility Compliance Tracking Tool

Involve managers in building accountability into the accessibility plan

Building accountability into your compliance tracking will help ensure accessibility is prioritized.

Use the spreadsheet from activity 1.3.1.

Have managers work in the same groups to prioritize controls by assigning a quarterly timeline for compliance.

1.2.2 Decide on your priorities

1-3 hours

1. In the same groups used in activity 1.2.1, prioritize the list of controls that have no compliance and no mitigation plan.
2. As you work through the spreadsheet again, assign a timeline using the drop-down menu in column M for each control that applies to the organization and has no current compliance. Consider the following in your prioritization:
   1. Does the control impact customers or is it public-facing?
   2. What are the business needs related to accessibility?
   3. Does the team currently have the skills and knowledge needed to address the control?
   4. What future state accessibility maturity are you targeting?
3. Be prepared to review with the larger group.

Input

• List from activity 1.2.1
• Business needs from activity 1.1.1

Output

• List of IT compliance requirements with accountability timelines

Materials

• Accessibility Compliance Tracking Tool

Participants

• CIO
• IT senior leaders
• IT managers

Download the Accessibility Compliance Tracking Tool

Review your timeline

Don't overload your team. Make sure the timelines assigned in the breakout groups make sense and are realistic.

Download the Accessibility Compliance Tracking Tool

Empty roadmap template

1.2.3 Add priorities to the roadmap

1 hour

1. Using the information entered in the compliance tracking spreadsheet during activities 1.2.1 and 1.2.2, build a visual representation to capture your strategic initiatives over time, using themes and timelines. Consider group initiatives in four categories, technology, people, process, and other.
2. Copy and paste the controls onto the roadmap from the Accessibility Compliance Tracking Toolto the desired time quadrant on the roadmap.
3. Set your desired timelines by changing the Q1-Q4 blocks (set the timelines that make sense for your situation).

Input

• Output of activity 1.2.2
• Roadmap template
• Other departmental project plans and timelines

Output

• Visual roadmap of accessibility compliance controls

Materials

• n/a

Participants

• CIO
• IT senior leaders
• IT managers

Communicate commitment

Support people leaders in leading by example with an accessibility commitment statement.

A commitment statement communicates why accessibility and disability inclusion are important and guides behaviors toward the ideal state. The statement will guide and align work, build accountability, and acknowledge the dedication of the leadership team to accessibility and disability inclusion. The statement will:

• Publicly commit the team to fostering disability inclusivity.
• Highlight related values and goals of the team or organization.
• Set expectations.
• Help build trust and increase feelings of belonging.
• Connect the necessary changes (people, process, and technology related) to organization strategy.

Take action! Writing the statement is only the first step. It takes more than words to build accessibility and make your work environment more disability inclusive.

Info-Tech Insight

Preparing for and building awareness of the reasons for accessibility make the necessary behavior changes easier.

Sample accessibility commitment statements

theScore

"theScore strives to provide products and services in a way that respects the dignity and independence of persons with disabilities. We are committed to giving persons with disabilities the same opportunity to access our products and services and allowing them to benefit from the same services, in the same place and in a similar way as other clients. We are also committed to meeting the needs of persons with disabilities in a timely manner, and we will meet applicable legislative requirements for preventing and removing barriers."(1)

Apple Canada

"Apple Canada is committed to ensuring equal access and participation for people with disabilities. Apple Canada is committed to treating people with disabilities in a way that allows them to maintain their dignity and independence. Apple Canada believes in integration and is committed to meeting the needs of people with disabilities in a timely manner. Apple Canada will do so by removing and preventing barriers to accessibility and meeting accessibility requirements under the AODA and provincial and federal laws across Canada." (2)

Google Canada

"We are committed to meeting the accessibility needs of people with disabilities in a timely manner, and will do so by identifying, preventing and removing barriers to accessibility, and by meeting the accessibility requirements under the AODA." (3)

Source 1: theScore
Source 2: Apple Canada
Source 3: Google Canada.

1.2.4 Write an IT accessibility commitment statement

45 minutes

1. As a group, brainstorm the key reasons and necessity for disability inclusion and accessibility for your organization, and the drivers and behaviors required. Record the ideas brainstormed by the group.
2. Break into smaller groups or pairs (or if too small, continue as a single group):
   • Each group uses the brainstormed ideas to draft an accessibility commitment statement.
3. Each smaller group shares their statement with the larger group and receives feedback. Smaller groups redraft their statements based on the feedback.
4. Post each redrafted statement and provide each person two dot stickers to place on the two statements that resonate the most with them.
5. Using the two statements with the highest number of dot votes, write the final accessibility commitment statement.
6. Add the commitment statement to slide 18 of the Departmental Meeting Template.

Input

• Business objectives
• Risks related to accessibility
• Target future accessibility maturity

Output

• IT accessibility commitment statement

Materials

• Whiteboard/flip charts
• Dot stickers or other voting mechanism

Participants

• CIO
• IT senior leaders
• IT managers

Phase 2

Change Enablement for Accessibility.

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• Clarifying key messages
• IT department accessibility presentation
• Establishing a frequency and timeframe for communications
• Obtaining feedback
• Sustainment plan

This phase involves the following participants:

• CIO
• IT senior leaders
• IT managers
• Other key business stakeholders
• Marketing and communications team

Be experience driven

Building awareness and focusing on experience helps move along the accessibility maturity framework. Shifting from mandate to movement.

In this phase, start to move beyond compliance. Build the IT team's understanding of accessibility, disability inclusion, and their role.
Communicate the following messages to your team:

• The motivation behind the change.
• The reasons for the change.
• And encourage feedback.

Info-Tech Accessibility Maturity Framework

Info-Tech Insight

Compliance is the minimum; the people and behavior changes are the harder part and have the largest impact on accessibility. Preparing for and building awareness of the reasons for accessibility make the necessary behavior changes easier. Communicate, communicate, and communicate some more.

What is an organizational change?

Before communicating, understand the degree of change.

Consider the various impacts of the change

Invest time at the start 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. Evaluate the impact from a people, process, and technology perspective.

Leverage a design thinking principle: Empathize with the stakeholder – what will change?

Change depends on how well people understand it

Help people internalize what they can do to make the organization more inclusive.

Anticipate responses to change:

1. Emotional reaction – different people require different styles of management to guide them through the change. Individual's may have different emotions at different times during the change process. The more easily you can identify persona characteristics, the better you can manage them.
2. Level of impact – the higher level of change on an individual's day-to-day, the more difficult it will be to adjust to the change. The more impactful the change, the more time focused on people management.

Quickly assess the size of change by answering these questions:

1. Will the change affect your staff's daily work?
2. Is the change high urgency?
3. Is there a change in reporting relationships?
4. Is there a change in skills required for staff to be successful?
5. Will the change modify entrenched cultural practices?
6. Is there a change in the mission or vision of the role?

If you answered "Yes" to two or more questions, the change is bigger than you think. Your staff will feel the impact.

Ensure effective communication by focusing on four key elements

1. Audience

• Stakeholders (either groups or individuals) who will receive the communication.

• Person who delivers the communication to the audience. The communicator and owner are two different things.

Step 2.1

Build awareness and define key messages for IT.

This step involves the following participants:

• IT leadership team
• Marketing/communications (optional)

Outcomes of this step

• Key accessibility messages

Determine the desired outcome of communicating within IT

This phase is focused on communicating within IT. All communication has an overall goal. This outcome or purpose of communicating is often dependent on the type of influence the stakeholder wields within the organization as well as the type of impact the change will have on them. Consider each of the communication outcomes listed below.

Communicating within IT

• 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

Departmental Meeting Template

Accessibility Quick Cards

Establish and define key messages based on organizational objectives

What are key messages?

1. Key messages guide all internal communications to ensure they are consistent, unified, and straightforward.
2. 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.

The intent of key messages 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?, and specific expectations.

2.1.1 Clarify the key messages

30 minutes

1. Brainstorm the key stakeholders and target audiences you will likely need to communicate with to sustain the accessibility initiative (depending on the size of your group, you might break into pairs or smaller groups and each work on one target audience).
2. Based on the outcome expected from engaging the target audience in communications, define one to five key messages that should be expressed about accessibility.
3. The key messages should highlight benefits anticipated, concerns anticipated, details about the change, 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 Communications Planner Tool.

Download the Communications Planner Tool

Input

• The change
• Target audience
• Communication outcomes

Output

• Key messages to support a consistent approach

Materials

• Communications Planner Tool
• Sticky notes
• Whiteboard

Participants

• IT leadership team
• Marketing/communications partner (optional)

Step 2.2

Support new behaviors.

Activities

2.2.1 Prepare for IT department meeting

2.2.2 Practice delivery of your presentation

2.2.3 Hold department meeting

This step involves the following participants:

• Entire IT department

Outcomes of this step

• IT departmental meeting slides
• Accessibility quick cards
• Task list of how each IT team will support the accessibility roadmap

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, as well as answer other anticipated questions. Pair key questions with core messages.

Examples of key questions by change stage include:

2.2.1 Prepare for the IT departmental meeting

2 hours

1. Download the IT Department Presentation Template and follow the instructions on each slide to update for your organization.
2. Insert information on the current accessibility maturity level. If you haven't determined your current and future state maturity level, use the Info-Tech resource from The Accessibility Business Case for IT.
3. Review the presentation with the information added.
4. Consider what could be done to make the presentation better:
   1. Concise: Identify opportunities to remove unnecessary information.
   2. Clear: It uses only terms or language the target audience would understand.
   3. Relevant: It matters to the target audience and the problems they face.
   4. Consistent: The message could be repeated across audiences.
5. Schedule a departmental meeting or add the presentation to an existing departmental meeting.

Download the Departmental Presentation Template

Input

• Organizational accessibility risks
• Accessibility maturity current state
• Outputs from manager presentation
• Key messages

Output

• Prepared presentation to introduce accessibility to the entire IT department

Materials

• Departmental Presentation Template

Participants

• CIO/ head of IT/ CAO/ initiative leader

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, 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 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.

2.2.2 Practice delivery of your presentation and schedule department meeting

45 minutes

1. Take ten minutes to think about how to deliver your presentation. Where will you emphasize words, speak louder, softer, lean in, stand tall, make eye contact, etc.?
2. Set a timer on your phone or watch. Record yourself if possible.
3. Take a few seconds to center yourself and prepare to deliver your pitch.
4. Practice delivery of your presentation out loud. Don't forget to use your body language and your voice to deliver.
5. Listen to the recording. Are the ideas communicated correctly? Are you convinced?
6. Review and repeat.

Input

• Presentation deck from activity 2.2.1
• Best practices for delivering

Output

• An ability to deliver the presentation in a clear and concise manner that creates understanding

Materials

• Recorder
• Timer

Participants

• CIO/ head of IT/ initiative leader

2.2.3 Lead the IT department meeting

1–2 hours

1. Gather the IT department in a manner appropriate for your organization and facilitate the meeting prepared in activity 2.2.1.
2. Within the meeting, capture all key action items and outcomes from the Quick Cards Development and Roadmap Planning.
3. Following the meeting, review the quick cards that everyone built and share these with all IT participants.
4. Update your sunrise diagram to include any initiatives that came up in the team meetings to support moving to experiential.

Input

• Presentation deck from activity 2.2.1

Output

• A shared understanding of accessibility at your organization and everyone's role
• Area task list (including behavior change needs)
• Accessibility quick cards

Materials

• Accessibility Quick Cards template

Participants

• CIO/ head of IT/ initiative leader

Download the Accessibility Quick Cards template

Step 2.3

Continuous reinforcement – keep the conversation going – sustain the change.

Activities

2.3.1 Establish a frequency and timeframe for communications

2.3.2 Obtain feedback and improve

2.3.3 Sustainment plan

This step involves the following participants:

• CIO/ head of IT/ initiative lead
• IT leadership team

Outcomes of this step

• Assigned roles for ongoing program monitoring
• Communication plan
• Accessibility maturity monitoring plan
• Program evaluation

Communication is ongoing before, during, and after implementing a change initiative

Just because you've rolled out the plan doesn't mean you can stop talking about it.

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.

2.3.1 Establish a frequency and timeframe

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).
   • Timeframe: When the communication will be delivered to the audience (e.g. a planned period or a specific date).
2. When selecting the timeframe, 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 that 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 organizations. And even then, it will sometimes require more than one conversation. Be mindful of this.

Input

• The change
• Target audience
• Communication outcome
• Communication channel

Output

• Frequency and timeframe of the communication

Materials

• Communications Planner Tool
• Sticky notes
• Whiteboard

Participants

• Changes based on those who would be relevant to your initiative

Download the Communications Planner Tool

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.

Make sure you have 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 (e.g. 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

Gather feedback on plan and iterate

Who

The project team gathers feedback from:

• As many members of impacted groups as possible, as it helps build broad buy-in for the plan.
• All levels (e.g. frontline employees, managers, directors).

What

Gather feedback on:

• How to implement tactics successfully.
• The timing of implementation (helps inform the next slide).
• The resources required (helps inform the next slide).
• Potential unforeseen impacts, questions, and concerns.

How

• Use focus groups to gather feedback.
• Adjust sustainment plan based on feedback.

Use Info-Tech's Standard Focus Group Guide

2.3.2 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 75) 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. 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 be tactical or strategic, will help inform methods to improve future communication activities.

Input

• Communication outcome
• Target audience
• Communication channel

Output

• A mechanism to measure communication feedback and adjust future communications when necessary

Materials

• Communications Planner Tool
• Sticky notes
• Whiteboard

Participants

• Changes based on those who would be relevant to your initiative

Download the Communications Planner Tool

Identify owners and assign other roles

• Eventually there needs to be a hand off to leaders to sustain accessibility. Senior leaders continue to play the role of guide and facilitator, helping the team identify owners and transfer ownership.
• Guide the team to work with owners to assign roles to other stakeholders. Spread responsibility across multiple people to avoid overload.

Identify required resources and secure budget

Sustainment is critical to success of accessibility

• This step (i.e. sustainment) often gets overlooked because leaders are focused on the implementation. It takes resources and budget to sustain a plan and change as well.
• Resorting to the old way is more likely to occur when you don't plan to support sustainment with ongoing resources and budget that's required.

Resources

Identify resources required for sustainment components using metrics and input from implementation owners, subject matter experts, and frontline managers.

For example:

• Inventory
• Collateral for communications
• Technology
• Physical space
• People resources (FTE)

Budget

Estimate the budget required for resources based on past projects that used similar resources, and then estimate the time it will take until the change evolves into "business as usual" (e.g. 6 months, 12 months).

Monitor accessibility maturity

If you haven't already performed the Accessibility Maturity Assessment, complete it in the wake of the accessibility initiative to assess improvements and progress toward target future accessibility maturity.
As your accessibility program starts to scale out over a range of projects, revisit the assessment on a quarterly or bi-annual basis to help focus your improvement efforts across the six accessibility categories.

• Vendor relations
• Products and services
• Policy and process
• Support and accommodation
• Communication
• People and culture

Info-Tech Insight

To drive continual improvement of your organizational accessibility and disability inclusion, continue to share progress, wins, challenges, feedback, and other accessibility related concerns with stakeholders. At the end of the day, IT's efforts to become a change leader and support organizational accessibility will come down to stakeholder perceptions based upon employee morale and benefits realized.

Download the Accessibility Maturity Assessment

Evaluate and iterate the program on an ongoing basis

1. Continually monitor the results of project metrics.
   • Track progress toward goals and metrics set at the beginning of the initiative to gauge the success of the program.
   • Analyze metrics at the work-unit level to highlight successes and challenges in accessibility and disability inclusion and the parameters around it for each impacted unit.
2. Regularly gather feedback on program effectiveness using questions such as:
   • Has the desired culture been effectively communicated and leveraged, or has the culture changed?
   • Collect feedback through regular channels (e.g. manager check-ins) and set up a cadence to survey employees on the program (e.g. three months after rollout and then annually).
3. Determine if changes to the program structure are needed.
   • Revisit the accessibility maturity framework and the compliance requirements of IT. Understand what is being experienced; it may be necessary to select a different target or adjust the parameters to mitigate the common challenges.
   • Evaluate the effectiveness of current internal processes to determine if the program would benefit from a dedicated resource.

2.3.3 Sustain the change

1. Identify who will own what pieces of the program going forward and assign roles to transition the initiative from implementation to the new normal.
2. Continue to communicate with stakeholders about accessibility and disability inclusion initiatives, controls, and requirements.
3. Identify required resources and secure any budget that will be needed to support the accessibility program. Think about employee training, consulting needs, assistive technology requirements, human resources (FTE), etc.
4. Continue to monitor your accessibility maturity. Use the Accessibility Maturity Assessment tool to periodically evaluate progress on goals and targets. Also, use this tool to communicate progress with senior leaders and executives.
5. Strive for continuous improvement by evaluating and iterating the program on an ongoing basis.

Input

• Activity outputs from this blueprint

Output

• Ongoing continuous improvement and progress related to accessibility
• Demonstrable results

Materials

• n/a

Participants

• CIO/ head of IT/ initiative Lead
• IT senior leaders
• IT managers

Related Info-Tech Research

The Accessibility Business Case for IT

• Take away the overwhelm that many feel when they hear "accessibility" and make the steps for your organization approachable.
• Clearly communicate why accessibility is critical and how it supports the organization's key objectives and initiatives.
• Understand your current state related to accessibility and identify areas for key initiatives to become part of the IT strategic roadmap.

Lead Staff through Change

• Anticipate and respond to staff questions about the change in order to keep messages consistent, organized, and clear.
• Manage staff based on their specific concerns and change personas to get the best out of your team during the transition through change.
• Maintain a feedback loop between staff, executives, and other departments in order to maintain the change momentum and reduce angst throughout the process.

IT Diversity and Inclusion Tactics

• Although inclusion is key to the success of a diversity and inclusion (D&I) strategy, the complexity of the concept makes it a daunting pursuit.
• This is further complicated by the fact that creating inclusion is not a one-and-done exercise. Rather, it requires the ongoing commitment of employees and managers to reassess their own behaviors and to drive a cultural shift.

Implement and Mature Your User Experience Design Practice

• 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.

Works cited

"2021 State of Digital Accessibility." Level Access, n.d. Accessed 10 Aug. 2022
"Apple Canada Accessibility Policy & Plan." Apple Canada, 11 March 2019. .
Casey, Caroline. "Do Your D&I Efforts Include People With Disabilities?" Harvard Business Review, 19 March 2020. Accessed 28 July 2022.
Digitalisation World. "Organisations failing to meet digital accessibility standards." Angel Business Communications, 19 May 2022. Accessed Oct. 2022.
"disability." Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, . Accessed 10 Aug. 2022.
"Disability." World Health Organization, 2022. Accessed 10 Aug 2022.
"Google Canada Corporation Accessibility Policy and Multi Year Plan." Google Canada, June 2020. .
Hypercontext. "The State of High Performing Teams in Tech 2022." Hypercontext. 2022..
Lay-Flurrie, Jenny. "Accessibility Evolution Model: Creating Clarity in your Accessibility Journey." Microsoft, 2023. <https://blogs.microsoft.com/accessibility/accessibility-evolution-model/>.
Maguire, Jennifer. "Applause 2022 Global Accessibility Survey Reveals Organizations Prioritize Digital Accessibility but Fall Short of Conformance with WCAG 2.1 Standards." Business Wire, 19 May 2022. . Accessed 2 January 2023.
"The Business Case for Digital Accessibility." W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), 9 Nov. 2018. Accessed 4 Aug. 2022.
"THESCORE's Commitment to Accessibility." theScore, May 2021. .
"The WebAIM Million." Web AIM, 31 March 2022. Accessed 28 Jul. 2022.
Washington, Ella F. "The Five Stages of DEI Maturity." Harvard Business Review, November - December 2022. Accessed 7 Nov. 2022.
Web AIM. "The WebAIM Million." Institute for Disability Research, Policy, and Practice, 31 March 2022. Accessed 28 Jul. 2022.

Select and Prioritize Digital Initiatives

Build your digital investment business case.

Info-Tech Research Group

Key Concepts

Digital initiative

A project – or a group of interdependent projects – whose primary purpose is to enable digital technologies and/or digital business models. These technologies and models may be net new to the organization, or they may be existing ones that are optimized and improved by the initiative itself.

The feasibility of any initiative is gauged by answering:

• What amount of return on investment (ROI) or value does it bring to the organization?
• What level of complexity does it pose to project execution?
• To what extent does it solve a problem or leverage an opportunity?
• To what degree is it aligned with digital business goals?

Digital strategy

The plan to deploy existing/emerging technologies to look at developing new products and services, new business models, and operational efficiency to meet or exceed performance targets.

IT strategy

The plan for deploying and maintaining applications, hardware, infrastructure, and IT services that support the business goals in a secure/regulatory-compliant manner to ensure reliability.

Digital transformation

Digital transformation is an at-scale change program – planned and executed over a finite time period – with the aspiration of creating material and sustainable improvement in the performance of an organization. Techniques include deploying a programmatic approach to innovation along with enabling technologies, capabilities, and practices that drive efficiency and create new products, markets, and business models.

Info-Tech Insight

The business has embarked on its digital transformation journey. As CIO, you are being relied on to help triage what is most important – initiatives that will move the needle to achieve and fulfill the digital goals and ambitions of the organization.

Analyst Perspective

Prioritization follows ideation, and it’s not always easy.

Your stakeholders have spent considerable time and effort identifying and articulating a digital business strategy. Now that ideas have turned into opportunities, the CIO must prioritize those opportunities as actual initiatives. Where to begin?

Your first task is to identify the criteria that will be used to conduct prioritization activities. These criteria should be immutable and rigorously applied.

Your second task will be to develop business cases for each opportunity that passes muster. But don’t worry, you won’t need an MBA to get the job done properly.

Ross Armstrong

Principal Research Director
Info-Tech Research Group

Info-Tech’s digital transformation journey

By now, you have established your current strategic context

You have reviewed trends to reimagine the future of your industry and undertaken a digital maturity assessment to validate your business objectives and innovation goals. Now you need to evolve the current scope of your digital vision and opportunities.

• Phase 1.1: Industry Trends Report

• Phase 1.2: Digital Maturity Assessment

• Phase 2.1: Zero In on Business Objectives

By this point you have leveraged industry roundtables to better understand the art of the possible – exploring global trends, shifts in market forces or industry, customer needs, emerging technologies, and economic forecasts and creating opportunities out of these disruptions.

In Phase 2.1, you identified your business and innovation goals and documented your current capabilities, prioritized for transformation.

Business and innovation goals have been established through stakeholder interviews and business document review.

Current capabilities have been prioritized for transformation and heat mapped.

You have also formalized your digital strategy

Throughout the course of Phase 2.2, you identified new digital opportunities, identified the business capabilities required to capitalize those opportunities, and updated the digital goals of your organization, accordingly.

The end result of this exercise is a new goals cascade that aligns digital goals and capabilities with those of the business. Digital initiatives were also identified but not yet selected or prioritized for execution at the project level.

Now you will select and prioritize digital initiatives

The goal of this phase is to ensure that initiatives that are green-lit for execution have been successfully assessed against your chosen criteria and that the business case for each initiative is firmly established and documented.

There are three key activities outlined here that describe the actions that can be undertaken by industry members to help select and prioritize digital initiatives for the business.

1. Identify your selection criteria

2. Evaluate initiatives against criteria

3. Determine a prioritized list of initiatives

Info-Tech’s approach

Step 1: Identify Your Selection Criteria

Understand which conditions must be met in order to turn an opportunity into a digital initiative.

Step 1

Identify Your Selection Criteria

Use these selection criteria to prioritize initiatives

Ideas matter, but not all ideas are created equal. Now that you have elicited ideas and identified opportunities, discuss the assumptions, risks, and benefits associated with each proposed digital business initiative.

Prioritize opportunities into initiatives

Recall that the opportunities identified in Phase 2.2 also became proposed digital initiatives demonstrated in your goals cascade.

In your discussion, evaluate each opportunity through a matrix to create tension between value and complexity or other dimensions. Capture the information based on measurable business benefits-realization; risks or considerations; assumptions; and competencies, talent, and assets needed to deliver.

Leverage opportunity profiles from your digital strategy

To start, take one of the opportunity profiles you created in Phase 2.2, Build Your Digital Vision and Strategy, and use it throughout the following steps. Once done, repeat with the next opportunity profile until all have been vetted against criteria. If you did not use Info-Tech’s approach, simply use whatever list of digital business opportunities provided to you from stakeholders.

Prioritization Criteria

Run each initiative through the following evaluation criteria. When finished, any opportunities that appear in the top left quadrant (high value/low complexity) are now your highest priority digital initiatives.

Instructions:

Assign each initiative a letter. As you decide on each one, move a copy of the circled letter to its appropriate place on the 2x2 selection matrix.

Info-Tech Insight

Evaluation should be based on the insights from analysis across all criteria. Leverage group discussion to help contextualize and challenge assumptions when validating opportunities.

Digital initiative ≠ IT project

Every idea is a good one, unless you need one that works. What “works” as a digital initiative is not the same thing as a straightforward IT project that would be typically managed by a project manager or PMO. These latter projects will be addressed in Phase 3.1 of the digital journey.

Opportunities and business needs > Business model > Impact > Mandatory > Innovation path forward

Digital Track

Focus: Transform the business and operations

1. Problem may not be well defined.
2. “Initiative” is not clear.
3. Based on market research, customer needs, trend analysis, and economic forecast, risk to the business if fit-for-purpose initiative is not identified.
4. Previous delivery results not as expected, or uncertain how to continue the project.
5. Highly complex with significant impact to transform the business or operations.
6. Execution approach is not clear.
7. Capabilities may not exist within IT.

IT PMO

1. Emerging technology trends create opportunities to modernize IT, not transform business.
2. Problem is well defined and understood.
3. Initiative is clearly identified.
4. New IT project.
5. Can be complex but does not transform the business.
6. Standard PMP approach is a good fit.
7. Capabilities exist to execute within IT.
8. Software vendor or systems integrator is initiative provider.

Step 2: Evaluate Initiatives Against Criteria

Ruthlessly prioritize which opportunities will deliver the greatest business value and pose the best chance of success.

Step 2

Evaluate Initiatives Against Criteria

Exemplar: Prioritization criteria

Your prioritization matrix should look something like this. Initiatives B and C will now have short-form business cases developed for them. Initiatives in the “Should Plan” quadrant can be dealt with later.

Draw information from the opportunity profiles

You created opportunity profiles in Phase 2.2 to clarify, validate and evaluate specific ideas for digital initiatives. In these profiles, you considered the timing, relevance, and impact of those opportunities.

Some prioritized initiatives will have an immediate and significant impact on your business. Some may have a significant impact, but on a longer timeline. Understanding this is important context for your overall digital business strategy.

Above all, you must be able to communicate to stakeholders how the newly prioritized digital initiatives are relevant to driving the strategic growth of the business.

Start by elucidating further on initiative benefits and business value as outlined in the opportunity profile. This will become crucial for completing your next step – building a short-form business case for each prioritized initiative.

Short-Form Business Case Template

Prepare your business case for each initiative

Tasks:

1. On a whiteboard, draw the visual initiative canvas supplied below.
2. For each prioritized initiative, leverage its opportunity profile (if used) to list the resulting customer or stakeholder products/services and its pain relievers and gain creators in the associated sections of the canvas.
3. Ensure that the top pains, gains, and jobs are addressed by products/services, pain relievers, and gain creators.
4. Use this information as a basis for further exercises in this section, such as defining benefits, articulating value proposition and vision, and cost estimates.

Expand on the key benefits of each initiative

Business cases are not just a vehicle with which to acquire resources for investments, they are a mechanism that helps ensure the benefits of an investment are realized. To accomplish this, a business case must have a set of clearly defined benefits, combined with an understanding of how they will be measured and an explicitly stated beneficiary who can corroborate that the benefit has been realized.

What is a benefit?

Benefits are the advantages, or outcomes, that specific groups or individuals realize as a result of the proposed initiative’s implementation.

Initiative inputs

Initiative inputs are the time, resources, and scope dedicated to the endeavor of implementing an initiative.

Identify how to measure benefit achievement

Benefits are realized when an organization either starts doing something new, stops doing something, or improves the way something is already being done. The impact of these changes must be measured in order to determine whether the change is positive and if the case warrants more resources in order to scale.

Types of benefits

• Observable: These are measured by opinion or judgement.
• Measurable: These can be identified when there is an existing measure in place for the benefit (or when one can be easily created).
• Quantifiable: Similar to measurable benefits; however, these benefits additionally feature size or magnitude (if it can be reliably estimated).
• Financial: These are benefits that can be communicated in monetary terms. A benefit should only be classified as financial when sufficient evidence is available to show that the stated value is likely to be achieved.

Benefit owners and responsibilities

1. Each benefit should have assigned to it an explicit owner who gains an advantage as a result of the initiative’s implementation.
2. For most benefits, the owner will be the primary beneficiary of the initiative.
3. These individuals are the ones who must corroborate that a benefit has been realized.
4. Assigning an owner to each benefit will foster a sense of accountability in terms of benefits realization and will also create a traceable path that helps track the success of the initiative.

Complete the benefits section of the business case

Tasks:

1. Use the Short-Form Business Case Template included in this deck.
2. Arrange a meeting with the key beneficiary or beneficiaries of your initiative. Refer back to the benefits and outcomes section of the initiative’s opportunity profile (if used) as a starting point.
3. Clearly define what the key benefits of your initiative will be and list them in the Short-Form Business Case Template.
4. Assign an owner to each benefit – the individual who will corroborate that the benefit has accrued.
5. Come to a mutual agreement with the beneficiaries as to whether each benefit is:
   • Financial
   • Quantifiable
   • Measurable
   • Observable
6. Discuss and list the methods that will be used to measure each benefit and list them in the Short-Form Business Case Template.

Craft value proposition and vision statements

The way one articulates the value an initiative provides is just as important as the initiative itself. Use the previous exercises as inputs to craft a statement that reflects the value your initiative will provide, but also describes how the initiative will create value. Specifically, a value proposition should answer the following questions:

1. Who is the initiative for?
2. What is the initiative?
3. What does the initiative do?
4. How is the initiative different from others?

Complete value prop and vision statement sections of the business case

Tasks:

1. Having already completed the benefits section of the Short-Form Business Case Template, turn your attention to the value proposition section.
2. Using your problem and initiative canvases, in addition to the benefits section, craft a value proposition statement that answers the following questions in one or two sentences:
   • Who is the initiative for?
   • What is the initiative?
   • What does the initiative do?
   • How is the initiative different?
3. Input the value proposition statement into the value proposition section of the Short-Form Business Case Template.

Identify initiative steps and add to business case

Tasks:

Turn your attention to the roadmap section of the Short-Form Business Case Template and fill it in through the following steps:

1. Select which scope, resource, and/or time reduction tactics to apply given the context of the project.
2. Use the test, run, gauge, and collect framework supplied, unless you elect to generate your own project phases. If that is the case, ensure that phases are mutually exclusive and completely exhaustive (MECE).
3. For each phase, supply a brief description of the activities to be undertaken for that phase.
4. Map the benefits to be accrued within each phase.
5. For each phase, supply a set of two to three potential factors that create risk toward the benefits listed.
6. For each risk, supply a mitigation tactic that could be employed to diffuse the risk or to mitigate it completely.

Fill out the cost section of the business case

Tasks:

1. Having already completed the roadmap part of the Short-Form Business Case Template, turn your attention to the cost section.
2. Use the scope, resource, and time reduction tactics and roadmap to estimate the cost necessary to execute the project. Remember that costs are a factor of the resources required and the cost type.
   • Resources:
     • Hardware
     • Software
     • Human
     • Network and communications
     • Facilities
   • Cost Types:
     • Acquisition
     • Operation
     • Growth and change
3. Complete the cost section of the Short-Form Business Case Template with the cost estimate for the project.

Exemplar: Short-Form Business Case

Step 3: Determine a Prioritized List of Initiatives

Green-light opportunities for digital investment and create your list of high-priority digital initiatives.

Step 3

Determine a Prioritized List of Initiatives

Compile your prioritized initiatives

There are two follow-up actions to do with your newly prioritized list of digital initiative business cases: present them to stakeholders for approval and then add them to your IT strategic roadmap.

Present business cases to stakeholders

For most high-profile digital business initiatives, the short-form business case will not be the first time stakeholders hear about them. By this point, securing approval should only be a formality if the initiative has been effectively socialized beforehand. If this is not the case, one must build an adequate understanding of the stakeholder landscape and then use this understanding to effectively present business cases for digital initiative and receive approval to proceed with them.

Gauge the importance of various stakeholders and tailor your message according to their concerns and the requirements of their role. Consider the following important questions about each stakeholder:

• Authority: How much influence does the stakeholder have? Enough to drive the initiative forward?
• Involvement: How interested is the stakeholder? How involved is the stakeholder in the initiative already?
• Impact: To what degree will the stakeholder be impacted? Will this significantly change how they do their job?
• Support: Is the stakeholder a supporter of the initiative? Neutral? A resistor?

Develop a stakeholder map

A stakeholder map helps visualize the importance of various stakeholders and their concerns so you can prioritize your time according to those stakeholders who are most impacted by a digital initiative, as well as those who have the authority to green-light them.

1. Evaluate each stakeholder in terms of authority, involvement, impact, and support, as discussed in the previous slide.
2. Map each stakeholder to an area on the right template (slide four) based upon the level of their authority and involvement (high or low).
   • Vary the size of the circle to distinguish stakeholders that are highly impacted by the IT strategy from those who are not. Color each circle to show each stakeholder’s estimated or gauged level of support for the project.
3. Ask yourself if the stakeholder map looks accurate. Is there someone who has no involvement in digital initiatives, but should?
   • A) For example, if a CFO who has the authority to disapprove project funding is heavily impacted and not involved, the success of the business cases will be put at risk.
4. Draw a dotted circle to show where that stakeholder needs to be located (increased involvement and support), and an arrow with a dotted line to signify the needed change. Some stakeholders may have influence over others.
   • B) For example, a COO who highly values the opinion of the director of operations would be influenced by that director. Draw an arrow from one stakeholder to another to signify this relationship.

Focus on key players: Relevant stakeholders who have high power are highly impacted and should have high involvement. Engage the stakeholders that are impacted most and have the authority to influence digital initiatives and approve business cases.

Summary of key insights

By now, you should have a firm understanding of the principles and desired actions, behaviors, and outcomes that have been presented in this methodology. Furthermore:

1. Prioritization of digital opportunities can be a relatively straightforward task as long as the correct stakeholders are involved and use a common and agreed upon set of criteria.
2. Developing a business case for a digital initiative in an agile manner need not be a grueling exercise provided that a vetted and repeatable process is used.
3. Above all, remember that this is a journey. Going from an intangible (macro-trend, problem, or opportunity) to a tangible (actual project or initiative) does not happen all at once.

Related Info-Tech Research

Understand Industry Trends

Assess how the external environment presents opportunities or threats to your organization.

Build a Business-Aligned IT Strategy

Align with the business by creating an IT strategy that documents the business context, key initiatives, and a strategic roadmap.

Define Your Digital Business Strategy

Design a strategy that applies innovation to your business model, streamlines and transforms processes, and makes use of technologies to enhance interactions with customers and employees.

Research Contributors and Experts

Ross Armstrong

Principal Research Director, CIO Advisory
Info-Tech Research Group

Ross Armstrong is a Principal Research Director in the CIO Advisory practice at Info-Tech Research Group, covering the areas of IT strategic planning, digital strategy, digital transformation, and IT innovation.

Ross has worked in a variety of public and private sector industries including automotive, IT, mobile/telecom, and higher education. All of his roles over the years have centered around data-driven market research – in pursuit of insightful and successful product development and product management – at their core.

In addition to his long tenure as an Info-Tech Research Group analyst, Ross has worked in research and product innovation positions at Autodata initiatives (J.D. Power), BlackBerry, and Ivey Business School (Western University).

Ross holds a Master of Arts degree in English Language and Literature from Western University (UWO) and has served as an advisory board member for a number of not-for-profit and educational institutions.

Joanne Lee

Principal Research Director, CIO Advisory
Info-Tech Research Group

Joanne is an executive with over 25 years of experience providing leadership in digital technology and management consulting across both public and private entities from initiative delivery to organizational redesign across BC, Ontario, and Globally.

A Director within KPMG’s CIO Advisory Management Consulting services and practice lead for Digital Health in BC, Joanne has led various client engagements from ERP Cloud Strategy, IT Operating Models, Data and Analytics maturity, to process redesign. More recently, Joanne was the Chief Program Officer and Executive Director responsible for leading the implementation of a $450M technology and business transformation initiative across 13 hospitals and community services for one of the largest health authorities in BC.

A former clinician, Joanne has held progressive leadership roles in healthcare with accountabilities across IT operations and service management, data analytics, project management office (PMO), clinical informatics, and privacy and contract management. Joanne is passionate about connecting people, concepts, and capital.

Bibliography

“AI: From Data to ROI.” Cognizant, September 2020. Accessed November 2022.

Bughin, Jacques, et al. “The Case for Digital Reinvention.” McKinsey Quarterly, February 2017. Accessed November 2022.

“The Business Case for Digital Transformation.” CPA Canada, June 2021. Accessed November 2022.

“The Case for Digital Transformation.” The National Center for the Middle Market, Ohio State University, 2020. Accessed October 2022.

“Digital Transformation in Government Case Study.” Ionology, April 2020. Accessed October 2022.

Louis, Peter, et al. “Internet of Things – From Buzzword to Business Case.” Siemens, 11 January 2021. Accessed December 2022.

Miesen, Nick. “Case Studies of Digital Transformations in Process and Aerospace Industries.” Jugaad, 2018. Accessed November 2022.

Proff, Harald, and Claudia Bittrich. “The Digital Business Case - Done Right!” Deloitte, August 2019. Accessed October 2022.

“Propelling an Aerospace Innovator.” Accenture, 2021. Accessed October 2022.

Schmidt-Subramanian, Maxie. “The ROI of CX Transformation.” Forrester, 15 August 2019. Accessed November 2022.

Ward, John, et al. “Building Better Business Cases for IT Investments.” California Management Review, Sept. 2007. Web.

Reduce Manual Repetitive Work With IT Automation

Free up time for value-adding jobs.

ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

Automation cuts both ways.

Automation can be very, very good, or very, very bad.
Do it right, and you can make your life a whole lot easier.
Do it wrong, and you can suffer some serious pain.
All too often, automation is deployed willy-nilly, without regard to the overall systems or business processes in which it lives.
IT professionals should follow a disciplined and consistent approach to automation to ensure that they maximize its value for their organization.

Derek Shank,
Research Analyst, Infrastructure & Operations
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive summary

Situation

• IT staff are overwhelmed with manual repetitive work.
• You have little time for projects.
• You cannot move as fast as the business wants.

Complication

• Automation is simple to say, but hard to implement.
• Vendors claim automation will solve all your problems.
• You have no process for managing automation.

Resolution

• Begin by automating a few tasks with the highest value to score quick wins.
• Define a process for rolling out automation, leveraging SDLC best practices.
• Determine metrics and continually track the success of the automation program.

Info-Tech Insight

1. Optimize before you automate.The current way isn’t necessarily the best way.
2. Foster an engineering mindset.Your team members may not be process engineers, but they should learn to think like one.
3. Build a process to iterate.Effective automation can't be a one-and-done. Define a lightweight process to manage your program.

Infrastructure & operations teams are overloaded with work

• DevOps and digital transformation initiatives demand increased speed.
• I&O is still tasked with security and compliance and audit.
• I&O is often overloaded and unable to keep up with demand.

Manual repetitive work (MRW) sucks up time

• Manual repetitive work is a fact of life in I&O.
• DevOps circles refer to this type of work simply as “toil.”
• Toil is like treading water: it must be done, but it consumes precious energy and effort just to stay in the same place.
• Some amount of toil is inevitable, but it's important to measure and cap toil, so it does not end up overwhelming your team's whole capacity for engineering work.

Info-Tech Insight

Follow our methodology to focus IT automation on reducing toil.

Manual hand-offs create costly delays

• Every time there is a hand-off, we lose efficiency and productivity.
• In addition to the cost of performing manual work itself, we must also consider the impact of lost productivity caused by the delay of waiting for that work to be performed.

Every queue is a tire fire

Queues create waste and are extremely damaging. Like a tire fire, once you get started, they’re almost impossible to stamp out!

Increase queues if you want

• “More overhead”
• “Lower quality”
• “More variability”
• “Less motivation”
• “Longer cycle time”
• “Increased risk”

(Source: Edwards, citing Donald G. Reinersten: The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development )

Increasing complexity makes I&O’s job harder

Every additional layer of complexity multiplies points of failure. Beyond a certain level of complexity, troubleshooting can become a nightmare.

Today, Operations is responsible for the outcomes of a full stack of a very complex, software-defined, API-enabled system running on infrastructure they may or may not own.
– Edwards

Growing technical debt means an ever-rising workload

• Enterprises naturally accumulate technical debt.
• All technology requires care and feeding.
• I&O cannot control how much technology it’s expected to support.
• I&O faces a larger and larger workload as technical debt accumulates.

The systems built under each new technology paradigm never fully replace the systems built under the old paradigms. It’s not uncommon for an enterprise to have an accumulation of systems built over 10-15 years and have no budget, risk appetite, or even a viable path to replace them all. With each shift, who bares [SIC] the brunt of the responsibility for making sure the old and the new hang together? Operations, of course. With each new advance, Operations juggles more complexity and more layers of legacy technologies than ever before.
– Edwards

Most IT shops can’t have a dedicated engineering team

• In most organizations, the team that builds things is best equipped to support them.
• Often the knowledge to design systems and the knowledge to run those systems naturally co-exists in the same personnel resources.
• When your I&O team is trying to do engineering work, they can end up frequently interrupted to perform operational tasks.

Personnel resources in most IT organizations overlap heavily between “build” and “run.”

IT operations must become an engineering practice

• Usually you can’t double your staff or double their hours.
• IT professionals must become engineers.
• We do this by automating manual repetitive work and reducing toil.

Build your Sys Admin an Iron Man suit

Some CIOs see a Sys Admin and want to replace them with a Roomba. I see a Sys Admin and want to build them an Iron Man suit.
– Deepak Giridharagopal, CTO, Puppet

Use automation to reduce risk

Consistency

When we automate, we can make sure we do something the same way every time and produce a consistent result.

Auditing and Compliance

We can design an automated execution that will ship logs that provide the context of the action for a detailed audit trail.

Change

• Enterprise environments are continually changing.
• When context changes, so does the procedure.
• You can update your docs all you want, but you can't make people read them before executing a procedure.
• When you update the procedure itself, you can make sure it’s executed properly.

Follow Info-Tech’s approach: Start small and snowball

• It’s difficult for I&O to get the staffing resources it needs for engineering work.
• Rather than trying to get buy-in for resources using a “top down” approach, Info-Tech recommends that I&O score some quick wins to build momentum.
• Show success while giving your team the opportunity to build their engineering chops.

Because the C-suite relies on upwards communication — often filtered and sanitized by the time it reaches them — executives don’t see the bottlenecks and broken processes that are stalling progress.
– Andi Mann

Info-Tech’s methodology employs a targeted approach

• You aren’t going to automate IT operations end-to-end overnight.
• In fact, such a large undertaking might be more effort than it’s worth.
• Info-Tech’s methodology employs a targeted approach to identify which candidates will score some quick wins.
• We’ll demonstrate success, gain momentum, and then iterate for continual improvement.

Invest in automation to reap long-term rewards

• All too often people think of automation like a vacuum cleaner you can buy once and then forget.
• The reality is you need to perform care and feeding for automation like for any other process or program.
• To reap the greatest rewards you must continually invest in automation – and invest wisely.

To get the full ROI on your automation, you need to treat it like an employee. When you hire an employee, you invest in that person. You spend time and resources training and nurturing new employees so they can reach their full potential. The investment in a new employee is no different than your investment in automation.– Edwards

Measure the success of your automation program

1 15 FTEs x 80k/yr.; 20% of time on MRW, reduced by 20%
2 15 FTEs x 80k/yr.; 30% project capacity, increased by 30%
3 25k/hr. of downtime.; 5 hours per year of downtime caused by errors

Automating failover for disaster recovery

CASE STUDY

Industry Financial Services
Source Interview

Challenge

An IT infrastructure manager had established DR failover procedures, but these required a lot of manual work to execute. His team lacked the expertise to build automation for the failover.

Solution

The manager hired consultants to build scripts that would execute portions of the failover and pause at certain points to report on outcomes and ask the human operator whether to proceed with the next step.

Results

The infrastructure team reduced their achievable RTOs as follows:
Tier 1: 2.5h → 0.5h
Tier 2: 4h → 1.5h
Tier 3: 8h → 2.5h
And now, anyone on the team could execute the entire failover!

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

Reduce Manual Repetitive Work With IT Automation – project overview

Create an Effective SEO Keyword Strategy
Update your on-page SEO strategy with competitively relevant keywords.

Analyst Perspective

Most marketers fail in their SEO efforts because they focus on creating content for computers, not people.

Leading search engine optimization methods focus on creating and posting relevant keyword-rich content, not just increasing page rank. Content and keywords should move a buyer along their journey, close a sale, and develop long-term relationships. Unfortunately, many SEO specialists focus on computers, not the buyer. What's even more concerning is that up to 70% of SaaS businesses have already been impacted by outdated and inefficient SEO techniques. Poor strategies often focus on ballooning SEO metrics in the short-term instead of building the company's long-term PageRank.

Best-in-class digital marketers stop chasing the short-term highs and focus on long-term growth. This starts with developing a competitive keyword strategy and updating website content with the new keywords.

SEO is a large topic, so we have broken the strategy into small, easy-to-implement steps, taking the guesswork out of how to use the data from SEO tools and giving CMOs a solid path to increase their SEO results.

Terra Higginson
Marketing Research Director
SoftwareReviews

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

Digital marketers working with an outdated or bad SEO strategy often see:

• Declining keyword ranking and traffic
• Poor keyword strategy
• On-page errors

Search algorithms change all the time, which means that the strategy is often sitting on the sifting sands of technology, making SEO strategies quickly outdated.

Common Obstacles

Digital marketers are responsible for developing and implementing a competitive SEO strategy but increasingly encounter the following obstacles:

• SEO practitioners that focus on gaming the system
• Ever-changing SEO technology
• Lack of understanding of the best SEO techniques
• SEO techniques focus on the needs of computers, not people
• Lack of continued investment

SoftwareReviews' Approach

Using the SoftwareReviews methodology, digital marketers are able to break up their SEO project and data into bite-sized, actionable steps that focus on long-term improvement. Our methodology includes:

• Competitive keyword research and identification of opportunities
• On-page keyword strategy

Our methodology will take a focused step-by-step strategy in a series of phases that will increase PageRank and competitive positioning.

SoftwareReviews' SEO Methodology

In this blueprint, we will cover:

Good SEO vs. Poor SEO Techniques

The difference between good and bad SEO techniques.

Companies With Great SEO…

Keyword Strategy

• Have identified a keyword strategy that carves out targets within the white space available between themselves and the competition.

Error-Free Site

• Have error-free sites without duplicate content. Their URLs and redirects are all updated. Their site is responsive, and every page loads in under two seconds.

Pillar & Content Clusters

• Employ a pillar and content cluster strategy to help move the buyer through their journey.

Authentic Off-Page Strategy

• Build an authentic backlink strategy that incorporates the right information on the right sites to move the buyer through their journey.

SEO Terms Defined

A glossary to define common Phase 1 SEO terms.

Search Volume: this measures the number of times a keyword is searched for in a certain time period. Target keywords with a volume of between 100-100,000. A search volume greater than 100,000 will be increasingly difficult to rank (A Beginner's Guide to Keyword Search Volume, 2022, Semrush).

Keyword Difficulty: the metric that quantifies how difficult it will be to rank for a certain keyword. The keyword difficulty percentage includes the number of competitors attempting to rank for the same keyword, the quality of their content, the search intent, backlinks, and domain authority (Keyword Difficulty: What Is It and Why Is It Important? 2022, Semrush).

Intent: this metric focuses on the intent of the user's search. All search intent is categorized into Informational, Commercial, Navigational, and Transactional (What Is Search Intent? A Complete Guide, 2022, Semrush).

On-Page SEO: refers to the practice of search engine optimizing elements of your site such as title tags, internal links, HTML code, URL optimization, on-page content, images, and user experience.

Off-Page SEO: refers to the practice of optimizing brand awareness (What Is Off-Page SEO? A Comprehensive Guide, 2022, Semrush).

H1: HTML code that tells a search engine the title of the page (neilpatel.com).

SEO Tool: A subscription-based all-in-one search engine optimization MarTech tool.

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful… We believe Search should deliver the most relevant and reliable information available.
– An excerpt from Google's mission statement

Your Challenge

Google makes over 4.5k algorithm changes per year1, directly impacting digital marketing search engine optimization efforts.

Digital marketers with SEO problems will often see the following issues:

• Keyword ranking – A decline in keyword ranking is alarming and results in decreased PageRank.
• Bounce rate – Attracting the wrong audience to your site will increase the bounce rate because the H1 doesn't resonate with your audience.
• Outdated keywords – Many companies are operating on a poor keyword strategy, or even worse, no keyword strategy. In addition, many marketers haven't updated their strategy to include pillar and cluster content.
• Errors – Neglected sites often have a large number of errors.
• Bad backlinks – Neglected sites often have a large number of toxic backlinks.

The best place to hide a dead body is on page two of the search results.
– Huffington Post

Common Obstacles

Digital marketers are responsible for developing and executing a competitive SEO strategy but increasingly encounter the following obstacles:

• Inefficient and ineffective SEO practitioners.
• Changing SEO technology and search engine algorithms.
• Lack of understanding of the best-in-class SEO techniques.
• Lack of a sustainable plan to manage the strategy and invest in SEO.

SEO is a helpful activity when it's applied to people-first content. However, content created primarily for search engine traffic is strongly correlated with content that searchers find unsatisfying.
– Google Search Central Blog

Benefits of Proper SEO

A good SEO keyword strategy will create long-term, sustainable SEO growth:

• Write content for people, not algorithms – Good SEO prioritizes the needs of humans over the needs of computers, being ever thoughtful of the meaning of content and keywords.
• Content that aligns with intent – Content and keyword intent will align with the buyer journey to help move prospects through the funnel.
• Competitive keyword strategy – Find keyword white space for your brand. Keywords will be selected to optimize your ranking among competition with reasonable and sustainable targets.
• Actionable and impactful fixes – By following the SoftwareReviews phases of SEO, you will be able to take a very large task and divide it into conquerable actions. Small improvements everyday lead to very large improvements over time.

Digital Marketing SEO Stats

61%
61% of marketers believe that SEO is the key to online success.
Source: Safari Digital

437%
Updating an existing title tag with an SEO optimised one can increase page clicks by more than 437%.
Source: Safari Digital

Good SEO Aligns With Search Intent

What type of content is the user searching for? Align your keyword to the logical search objective.

Informational

This term categorizes search intent for when a user wants to inform or educate themselves on a specific topic.

Commercial

This term categorizes search intent for when a user wants to do research before making a purchase.

Transactional

This term categorizes search intent for when a user wants to purchase something.

Navigational

This term categorizes search intent for when a user wants to find a specific page.

SoftwareReviews' Methodology toCreate an Effective SEO Strategy

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 8 to 12 calls over the course of 1 to 2 months.

SoftwareReviews offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

Insight Summary

People-First Content

Best-in-class SEO practitioners focus on people-first content, not computer-first content. Search engine algorithms continue to focus on how to rank better content first, and a strategy that moves your buyers through the funnel in a logical and cohesive way will beat any SEO trick over the long run.

Find White Space

A good SEO strategy uses competitive research to carve out white space and give them a competitive edge in an increasingly difficult ranking algorithm. An understanding of the ideal client profile and the needs of their buyer persona(s) sit as a pre-step to any good SEO strategy.

Optimize On-Page Keywords

By optimizing the on-page strategy with competitively relevant keywords that target your ideal client profile, marketers are able to take an easy first step at improving the SEO content strategy.

Understand the Strategy

If you don't understand the strategy of your SEO practitioner, you are in trouble. Marketers need to work hand in hand with their SEO specialists to quickly uncover gaps, create a strategy that aligns with the buyer persona(s), and execute the changes.

Quality Trumps Quantity

The quality of the prospect that your SEO efforts bring to your site is more important than the number of people brought to your site.

Stop Here and Ask Yourself:

• Do I have an updated (completed within the last two years) buyer persona and journey?
• Do I know who the ICP (ideal client profile) is for my product or company?

If not, stop here, and we can help you define your buyer persona and journey, as well as your ideal client profile before moving forward with SEO Phase 1.

The Steps to SEO Phase 1

The Keyword Strategy

1. Current Keywords
   • Identify the keywords your SEO strategy is currently targeting.
2. Competitive Analysis
   • Research the keywords of competitor(s). Identify keyword whitespace.
3. New Target Keywords
   • Identify and rank keywords that will result in more quality leads and less competition.
4. Product & Service Pages
   • Identify your current product and service pages. These pages represent the easiest content to update on your site.
5. Individual Page Update
   • Develop an SEO strategy for each of your product and service pages, include primary target keyword, H1, and title tags, as well as keyword-rich description.

Resources Needed for Search Engine Optimization

Consider the working skills required for search engine optimization.

Required Skills/Knowledge

• SEO
• Web development
• Competitive analysis
• Content creation
• Understanding of buyer persona and journey
• Digital marketing

Suggested Titles

• SEO Analyst
• Competitive Intelligence Analyst
• Content Marketing Manager
• Website Developer
• Digital Marketing Manager

Digital Marketing Software

• CMS that allows you to easily access and update your content

SEO Software

• SEO tool

Step 1: Current Keywords

Use this sheet to record your current keyword research.

Use your SEO tool to research keywords and find the following:
Use a quality tool like SEMRush to obtain SEO data.

1. Keyword difficulty
2. Search volume
3. Search intent

Step 2: Competitive Analysis

Use this sheet to guide the research on your competitors' keywords.

Use your SEO tool to find the following:

1. Top organic keywords
2. Ranking of keywords
3. Domain authority and trust
4. Position changes

Step 3: New Target Keywords

Use this sheet to record target keywords that have a good volume but are less competitive. The new target keywords should align with your buyer persona and their journey.

Use your SEO tool to research keywords and find the following:
Use a quality tool like SEMRush to obtain SEO data.

1. Keyword difficulty
2. Search volume
3. Search intent

Step 4: Product & Service Pages

Duplicate this page so that you have a separate page for each URL from Step 4

Use this sheet to identify your current product and service pages.

Use your SEO tool to find the following:

1. Current rank
2. Current keywords

Step 5: Individual Page Strategy

Develop a keyword strategy for each of your product and service pages. Use a fresh page for each URL.

Date last optimized:
mm/dd/yyyy

Bibliography

Council, Y. "Council Post: The Rundown On Black Hat SEO Techniques And Why You Should Avoid Them." Forbes, 2022. Accessed September 2022.

"Our approach – How Google Search works." Google Search. Accessed September 2022.

"The Best Place to Hide a Dead Body is Page Two of Google." HuffPost, 2022. Accessed September 2022.

Patel, Neil. "How to Create the Perfect H1 Tag for SEO." neilpatel.com. Accessed September 2022.

Schwartz, B. "Google algorithm updates 2021 in review: Core updates, product reviews, page experience and beyond." Search Engine Land, 2022. Accessed September 2022.

Schwartz, B. "Google algorithm updates 2021 in review: Core updates, product reviews, page experience and beyond." Search Engine Land, 2022. Accessed September 2022.

The ESG Imperative and Its Impact on Organizations

Design to enable an active response to changing conditions.

Analyst Perspective

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) is a corporate imperative that is tied to long-term value creation. An organization's social license to operate and future corporate performance depends on managing ESG factors well.

Central to an ESG program is having a good understanding of the ESG factors that may have a material impact on enterprise value and key internal and external stakeholders. A comprehensive ESG strategy supported by strong governance and risk management is also essential to success.

Capturing relevant data and applying it within risk models, metrics, and internal and external reports is necessary for sharing your ESG story and measuring your progress toward meeting ESG commitments. Consequently, the data challenges have received a lot of attention, and IT leaders have a role to play as strategic partner and enabler to help address these challenges. However, ESG is more than a data challenge, and IT leaders need to consider the wider implications in managing third parties, selecting tools, developing supporting IT architecture, and ensuring ethical design.

For many organizations, the ESG program journey has just begun, and collaboration between IT and risk, procurement, and compliance will be critical in shaping program success.

Donna Bales
Principal Research Director
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

• Global regulatory climate disclosure requirements are still evolving and are not consistent.
• Sustainability is becoming a corporate imperative, but IT's role is not fully clear.
• The ESG data challenge is large and continually expanding in scope.
• Collecting the necessary data and managing ethical issues across supply chains is a daunting task.
• Communicating long-term value is difficult when customer and employee expectations are shifting.

Common Obstacles

• The data necessary for data-driven insights and accurate disclosure is often hampered by inaccurate and incomplete primary data.
• Other challenges include:
  • Approaching ESG holistically and embedding it into existing governance, risk, and IT capabilities.
  • Building knowledge and adapting culture throughout all levels of the organization.
  • Monitoring stakeholder sentiment and keeping strategy aligned to expectations.

Info-Tech's Approach

• Use this blueprint to educate yourself on ESG factors and the broader concept of sustainability.
• Learn about Info-Tech's ESG program approach and use it as a framework to begin your ESG program journey.
• Identify changes that may be needed in your organizational operating model, strategy, governance, and risk management approach.
• Discover areas of IT that may need to be prioritized and resourced.

Info-Tech Insight

An organization's approach to ESG cannot be static or tactical. ESG is a moving landscape that requires a flexible, holistic approach across the organization. It must become part of the way you work and enable an active response to changing conditions.

Putting ESG in context

ESG has moved beyond the tipping point to corporate table stakes

• In recent years, ESG issues have moved from voluntary initiatives driven by corporate responsibility teams to an enterprise-wide strategic imperative.
• Organizations are no longer being measured by financial performance but by how they contribute to a sustainable and equitable future, such as how they support sustainable innovation through their business models and their focus on collaboration and inclusion.
• A corporation's efforts toward sustainability is measured by three components: environmental, social, and governance.

Sustainability

The ability of a corporation and broader society to endure and survive over the long term by managing adverse impacts well and promoting positive opportunities.

Source: United Nations

Putting "E," "S," and "G" in context

Corporate sustainability depends on managing ESG factors well

• Environmental, social, and governance are the component pieces of a sustainability framework that is used to understand and measure how an organization impacts or is affected by society as a whole.
• Human activities, particularly fossil fuel burning since the mid twentieth century, have increased greenhouse gas concentration, resulting in observable changes to the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and biosphere.
• The E in ESG relates to the positive and negative impacts an organization may have on the environment, such as the energy it takes in and the waste it discharges.
• The S in ESG is the most ambiguous component in the framework, as social impact relates not only to risks but also prosocial behaviour. It's the most difficult to measure but can have significant financial and reputational impact on corporations if material and poorly managed.
• The G in ESG is foundational to the realization of S and E. It encompasses how well an organization integrates these considerations into the business and how well the organization engages with key stakeholders, receives feedback, and is transparent with its intentions.

Understanding the drivers behind ESG

$30 trillion is expected to be transferred from the baby boomers to Generation Z and millennials over the next decade
– Accenture

Drivers

• The rapid rise of ESG investing
• The visibility of climate change is driving governments, society, and corporations to act and to initiate and support net zero goals.
• A younger demographic that has strong convictions and financial influence
• A growing trend toward mandatory climate and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) disclosures required by global regulators
• Recent emphasis by regulators on board accountability and fiduciary duty
• Greater societal awareness of social issues and sustainability
• A new generation of corporate leadership that is focused on sustainable innovation

The evolving regulatory landscape

Global regulators are mobilizing toward mandatory regulatory climate disclosure

Canada

• Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) NI 51-107 Disclosure of Climate-related Matters

Europe

• European Commission, Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR)
• European Commission, EU Supply Chain Act
• Germany – The German Supply Chain Act (GSCA)
• Financial Conduct Authority UK, Proposal (DP 21/4) Sustainability Disclosure Requirements and investment labels
• UK Modern Slavery Act, 2015

United States

• Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 33-11042– The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors
• SEC 33-11038 Cybersecurity Risk Management, Strategy, Governance, and Incident Disclosure
• Nasdaq Board Diversity Rule (5605(f))

New Zealand

• New Zealand, The Financial Sector (Climate-related Disclosures and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2021

Begin by setting your purpose

Consider your role as a corporation in society and your impact on key stakeholders

• The impact of a corporation can no longer be solely measured by financial impact but also its impact on social good. Corporations have become real-world actors that impact and are affected by the environment, people, and society.
• An ESG program should start with defining your organization's purpose in terms of corporate responsibility, the role it will play, and how it will endure over time through managing adverse impacts and promoting positive impacts.
• Corporations should look inward and outward to assess the material impact of ESG factors on their organization and key internal and external stakeholders.
• Once stakeholders are identified, consider how the ESG factors might be perceived by delving into what matters to stakeholders and what drives their behavior.

Understanding your stakeholder landscape is essential to achieving ESG goals

Assess ESG impact

Materiality assessments help to prioritize your ESG strategy and enable effective reporting

• The concept of materiality as it relates to ESG is the process of gaining different perspectives on ESG issues and risks that may have significant impact (both positive and negative) on or relevance to company performance.
• The objective of a materiality assessment is to identify material ESG issues most critical to your organization by looking a broad range of social and environmental factors. Its purpose is to narrow strategic focus and enable an organization to assess the impact of financial and non-financial risks aggregately.
• It helps to make the case for ESG action and strategy, assess financial impact, get ahead of long-term risks, and inform communication strategies.
• Organizations can leverage assessment tools from Sustainalytics or SASB Standards to help assess ESG risks or use guidance or benchmarking information from industry associations.

Info-Tech Insight

Survey key stakeholders to obtain a more holistic viewpoint of expectations and the industry landscape and gain credibility through the process.

Use a materiality matrix to understand ESG exposure

Example: Beverage Company

Follow a holistic approach

To deliver on your purpose, sustainability must be integrated throughout the organization

• An ESG program cannot be implemented in a silo. It must be anchored on its purpose and supported by a strong governance structure that is intertwined with other functional areas.
• Effective governance is essential to instill trust, support sound decision making, and manage ESG.
• Governance extends beyond shareholder rights to include many other factors, such as companies' interactions with competitors, suppliers, and governments. More transparency is sought on:
  • Corporate behavior, executive pay, and oversight of controls.
  • Board diversity, compensation, and skill set.
  • Oversight of risk management, particularly risks related to fraud, product, data, and cybersecurity

"If ESG is the framework of non-financial risks that may have a material impact on the company's stakeholders, corporate governance is the process by which the company's directors and officers manage those risks."
– Zurich Insurance

Governance and organization approach

There is no one-size-fits-all approach

47% of companies reported that the full board most commonly oversees climate related risks and opportunities while 20% delegate to an existing board governance committee (EY Research, 2021).

• The organizational approach to ESG will differ across industry segments and corporations depending on material risks and their upstream and downstream value change. However, the accountability for ESG sits squarely at the CEO and board level.
• Some organizations have taken the approach of hiring a Chief Sustainability Officer to work alongside the CEO on execution of ESG goals and stakeholder communication, while others use other members of the strategic leadership to drive the desired outcomes.

Strategy alignment

"74% of finance leaders say that investors increasingly use nonfinancial information in their decision-making."

– "Aligning nonfinancial reporting..." EY, 2020

• Like any journey, the ESG journey requires knowing where you are starting from and where you are heading to.
• Once your purpose is crystalized, identify and surface gaps between where you want to go as an organization (your purpose and goals) and what you need to deliver as an organization to meet the expectations of your internal and external stakeholders (your output).
• Using the results of the materiality assessment, weigh the risk, opportunities, and financial impact to help prioritize and determine vulnerabilities and where you might excel.
• Finally, evaluate and make changes to areas of your business that need development to be successful (culture, accountability and board structure, ethics committee, etc.)

Gap analysis example for delivering reporting requirements

Organizational Goals

• Regulatory Disclosure
  • Climate
  • DEI
  • Cyber governance
• Performance Tracking/Annual Reporting
  • Corporate transparency on ESG performance via social, annual circular
• Evidence-Based Business Reporting
  • Risk
  • Board
  • Suppliers

Risk-size your ESG goals

When integrating ESG risks, stick with a proven approach

• Managing ESG risks is central to making sound organizational decisions regarding sustainability but also to anticipating future risks.
• Like any new risk type, ESG risk should be interwoven into your current risk management and control framework via a risk-based approach.
• Yet ESG presents some new risk challenges, and some risk areas may need new control processes or enhancements.

Info-Tech Insight

Integrate ESG risks early, embrace uncertainty by staying flexible, and strive for continual improvement.

Managing supplier risks

Suppliers are a critical input into an organization's ESG footprint

"The typical consumer company's supply chain ... [accounts] for more than 80% of greenhouse-gas emissions and more than 90% of the impact on air, land, water, biodiversity, and geological resources."
– McKinsey & Company, 2016

• Although companies are accustomed to managing third parties via procurement processes, voluntary due-diligence, and contractual provisions, COVID-19 surfaced fragility across global supply chains.
• The mismanagement of upstream and downstream risks of supply chains can harm the reputation, operations, and financial performance of businesses.
• To build resiliency to and visibility of supply chain risk, organizations need to adapt current risk management programs, procurement practices, and risk assessment tools and techniques.
• Procurement departments have an enhanced function, effectively acting as gatekeepers by performing due diligence, evaluating performance, and strengthening the supplier relationship through continual feedback and dialogue.
• Technologies such as blockchain and IoT are starting to play a more dominant role in supply chain transparency.

"Forty-five percent of survey respondents say that they either have no visibility into their upstream supply chain or that they can see only as far as their first-tier suppliers."
– "Taking the pulse of shifting supply chains," McKinsey & Company, 2022

Metrics and targets

Metrics are key to stakeholder transparency, measuring performance against goals, and surfacing organizational blind spots

• ESG metrics are qualitative or quantitative insights that measure organizations' performance against ESG goals. Along with traditional business metrics, they assist investors with assessing the long-term performance of companies based on non-financial ESG risks and opportunities.
• Metrics, key performance indicators (KPIs), and key risk indicators (KRIs) are used to measure how ESG factors affect an organization and how an organization may impact any of the underlying issues related to each ESG factor.
• There are several reporting standards that offer specific ESG performance metrics, such as the Global Reporting Institute (GRI), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), and World Economic Forum (WEF).
• For climate-related disclosures, global regulators are converging on the Task Force for Climate-related Disclosures (TCFD) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).

Example metrics for ESG factors

The impact of ESG on IT

IT plays a critical role in achieving ESG goals

• IT groups have a critical role to play in helping organizations develop strategic plans to meet ESG goals, measure performance, monitor risks, and deliver on disclosure requirements.
• IT's involvement extends from the CIO providing input at a strategic level to leading the charge within IT to instill new goals and adapt the culture toward one focused on sustainability.
• To set the tone, CIOs should begin by updating their IT governance structure and setting ESG goals for IT.
• IT leaders will need to think about resource use and efficiency and incorporate this into their IT strategy.

Info-Tech Insight

IT leaders need to work collaboratively with risk management to optimize decision making and continually improve ESG performance and disclosure.

"A great strategy meeting is a meeting of the minds."
– Max McKeown

The data challenge

The ESG data requirement is large and continually expanding in scope

• To meet ESG objectives, corporations are challenged with collecting non-financial data from across functional business and geographical locations and from their supplier base and supply chains.
• One of the biggest impediments to ESG implementation is the lack of high-quality data and of mature processes and tools to support data collection.
• The data challenge is compounded by the availability and usability of data, immature and fragmented standards that hinder comparability, and workflow integration.

Info-Tech Insight

Keep your data model flexible and digital where possible to enable data interoperability.

"You can have data without information, but you cannot have information without data."
– Daniel Keys Moran

It's more than a data challenge

Organizations will rely on IT for execution, and IT leaders will need to be ready

Top impacts on IT departments

1. ESG requires corporations to keep track of ESG-related risks of third parties. This will mean more robust assessments and monitoring.
2. Many areas of ESG are new and will require new processes and tools.
3. The SEC has upped the ante recently, requiring more rigorous accountability and reporting on cyber incidents.
4. New IT systems and architecture may be needed to support ESG programs.
5. Current reporting frameworks may need updating as regulators move to digital.
6. Ethical design will need to be considered when AI is used to support risk/data management and when it is used as part of product solutions.

Key takeaways

• It's critical for organizations to look inward and outward to assess the material impact of ESG factors on their organization and key internal and external stakeholders.
• ESG requires a flexible, holistic approach across the organization. It must become part of the way you work and enable an active response to changing conditions.
• ESG introduces new risks that should not be viewed in isolation but interwoven into your current risk management and control framework via a risk-based approach.
• Identify and integrate risks early, embrace uncertainty by staying flexible, and strive for continual improvement.
• Metrics are key to telling your ESG story. Place the appropriate importance on the information that will be reported.
• Recognize that the data challenge is complex and evolving and design your data model to be flexible, interoperable, and digital.
• IT's role is far reaching, and IT will have a critical part in managing third parties, selecting tools, developing supporting IT architecture, and using ethical design.

Definitions

Reporting & standard frameworks

Bibliography

Anne-Titia Bove and Steven Swartz, McKinsey, "Starting at the source: Sustainability in supply chains", 11 November 2016

Accenture, "The Greater Wealth Transfer – Capitalizing on the intergenerational shift in wealth", 2012

Beth Kaplan, Deloitte, "Preparing for the ESG Landscape, Readiness and reporting ESG strategies through controllership playbook", 15 February 2022

Bjorn Nilsson et al, McKinsey & Company, "Financial institutions and nonfinancial risk: How corporates build resilience," 28 February 2022

Bolden, Kyle, Ernst and Young, "Aligning nonfinancial reporting with your ESG strategy to communicate long-term value", 18 Dec. 2020

Canadian Securities Administrators, "Canadian securities regulators seek comment on climate-related disclosure requirements", 18 October 2021

Carol A. Adams et al., Global Risk Institute, "The double-materiality concept, Application and issues", May 2021

Dunstan Allison-Hope et al, BSR, "Impact-Based Materiality, Why Companies Should-Focus Their Assessments on Impacts Rather than Perception", 3 February 2022

EcoVadis, "The World's Most Trusted Business Sustainability Ratings",

Ernst and Young, "Four opportunities for enhancing ESG oversight", 29 June 2021

Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, The Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains (Gesetz über die unternehmerischen Sorgfaltspflichten in Lieferketten)", Published into Federal Law Gazette, 22, July 2021

"What Every Company Needs to Know", Sustainalytics

Global Risk Institute, The GRI Perspective, "The materiality madness: why definitions matter", 22 February 2022

John P Angkaw "Applying ERM to ESG Risk Management", 1 August 2022

Hillary Flynn et al., Wellington Management, "A guide to ESG materiality assessments", June 2022

Katie Kummer and Kyle Lawless, Ernst and Young, "Five priorities to build trust in ESG", 14 July 2022

Knut Alicke et al., McKinsey & Company, "Taking the pulse of shifting supply chains", 26 August 2022

Kosmas Papadopoulos and Rodolfo Arauj. The Harvard School Forum on Corporate Governance, "The Seven Sins of ESG Management", 23 September 2020

KPMG, Sustainable Insight, "The essentials of materiality assessment", 2014

Lorraine Waters, The Stack, "ESG is not an environmental issue, it's a data one", 20 May 2021

Marcel Meyer, Deloitte, "What is TCFD and why does it matter? Understanding the various layers and implications of the recommendations",

Michael W Peregnne et al., "The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, The Important Legacy of the Sarbanes Oxley Act," 30 August 2022

Michael Posner, Forbes, "Business and Human Rights: Looking Ahead To The Challenges Of 2022", 15 December 2021

Myles Corson and Tony Kilmas, Ernst and Young, "How the CFO can balance competing demands and drive future growth", 3 November 2020

Novisto, "Navigating Climate Data Disclosure", 2022

Novisto, "XBRL is coming to corporate sustainability reporting", 17 April 2022

"Official Journal of the European Union, Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 on sustainability-related disclosures in the financial services sector", 9 December 2019

Osler, "ESG and the future of sustainability", Podcast, 01 June 2022

Osler, "The Rapidly Evolving World of ESG Disclosure: ISSB draft standards for sustainability and climate related disclosures", 19 May 2022

Sarwar Choudhury and Zach Johnston, Ernst and Young "Preparing for Sox-Like ESG Regulation", 7 June 2022

Securities and Exchange Commission, "The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-related Disclosures for Investors", 12 May 2022

"Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC Proposes Rules on Cybersecurity, Risk Management, Strategy, Governance, and Incident Disclosure by Public Companies, 9 May 2022

Sean Brown and Robin Nuttall, McKinsey & Company, "The role of ESG and purpose", 4 January 2022

Statement by Chair Gary Gensler, "Statement on ESG Disclosure Proposal", 25 May 2022

Svetlana Zenkin and Peter Hennig, Forbes, "Managing Supply Chain Risk, Reap ESG Rewards", 22 June 2022

Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures, "Final Report, Recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures", June 2017

World Economic Forum, "Why sustainable governance and corporate integrity are crucial for ESG", 29 July 2022

World Economic Forum (in collaboration with PwC) "How to Set Up Effective Climate Governance on Corporate Boards, Guiding Principles and questions", January 2019

World Economic Forum, "Defining the "G" in ESG Governance Factors at the Heart of Sustainable Business", June 2022

World Economic Forum, "The Risk and Role of the Chief Integrity Officer: Leadership Imperatives in and ESG-Driven World", December 2021

World Economic Forum, "How to Set Up Effective Climate Governance on Corporate Boards Guiding principles and questions", January 2019

Zurich Insurance, "ESG and the new mandate for corporate governance", 2022

Diagnose and Optimize Your Lead Gen Engine

Quickly and easily pinpoint any weakness in your lead gen engine so that you stop wasting money and effort on ineffective advertising and marketing.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Analyst Perspective

Quickly and easily pinpoint any weakness in your lead gen engine so that you stop wasting money and effort on ineffective advertising and marketing.

Senior digital marketing leaders are accountable for building relationships, creating awareness, and developing trust and loyalty with website visitors, thereby delivering high-quality, high-value leads that Sales can easily convert to wins. Unfortunately, many marketing leaders report that their website visitors are low-quality and either disengage quickly or, when they engage further with lead gen engine components, they just don’t convert. These marketing leaders urgently need to diagnose what’s not working in three key areas in their lead gen engine to quickly remedy the issue and get back on track, building new customer relationships and driving loyalty. This blueprint will provide you with a tool to quickly and easily diagnose weakness within your lead gen engine. You can use the results to create a strategy that builds relationships, creates awareness, and establishes trust and loyalty with prospects.

Terra Higginson

Marketing Research Director

SoftwareReviews

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

Globally, business-to-business (B2B) software-as-a-service (SaaS) marketers without a well-running lead gen engine will experience:

• A low volume of quality leads from their website.
• A low conversion rate from their website visitors.
• A long lead conversion time compared to competitors.
• A low volume of organic website visitors.

88% of marketing professionals are unsatisfied with their ability to convert leads (Convince & Convert), but poor lead conversion is just a symptom of a much larger problem with the lead gen engine. Without an accurate lead gen engine diagnostic tool and a strategy to fix the leaks, marketers will continue to waste valuable time and resources.

Common Obstacles

Even though lead generation is a critical element of marketing success, marketers struggle to fix the problems with their lead gen engine due to:

• A lack of resources.
• A lack of budget.
• A lack of experience in implementing effective lead generation strategies.

Most marketers spend too much on acquiring leads and not enough on converting and keeping them. For every $92 spent acquiring customers, only $1 is spent converting them (Econsultancy, cited in Outgrow). Marketers are increasingly under pressure to deliver high-quality leads to sales but work under tight budgets with inadequate or inexperienced staff who don’t understand the importance of optimizing the lead generation process.

SoftwareReviews’ Approach

With a targeted set of diagnostic tools and an optimization strategy, you will:

• Uncover the critical weakness in your lead generation engine.
• Develop a best-in-class lead gen engine optimization strategy that builds relationships, creates awareness, and establishes trust and loyalty with prospects.
• Build profitable long-term customer relationships.

Organizations who activate the findings from their lead generation diagnostic and optimization strategy will decrease the time and budget spent on lead generation by 25% to 50%. They will quickly uncover inefficiencies in their lead gen engine and develop a proven lead generation optimization strategy based on the diagnostic findings.

SoftwareReviews Insight

The lead gen engine is foundational in building profitable long-term customer relationships. It is the process through which marketers build awareness, trust, and loyalty. Without the ability to continually diagnose lead gen engine flaws, marketers will fail to optimize new customer relationship creation and long-term satisfaction and loyalty.

Your Challenge

88% of marketing professionals are unsatisfied with their ability to convert leads, but poor lead conversion is just a symptom of much deeper problems.

Globally, B2B SaaS marketers without a well-running lead gen engine will experience:

• A low volume of organic website visitors.
• A low volume of quality leads from their website.
• A low conversion rate from their website visitors.
• A longer lead conversion time than competitors in the same space.

If treated without a root-cause analysis, these symptoms often result in higher-than-average marketing spend and wasted resources. Without an accurate lead gen engine diagnostic tool and a strategy to fix the misfires, marketers will continue to waste valuable time and resources.

88% of marketers are unsatisfied with lead conversion (Convince & Convert).

Benchmarks

Compare your lead gen engine metrics to industry benchmarks.

Midmarket B2B SaaS Industry

Source: “B2B SaaS Marketing KPIs,” First Page Sage, 2021

Common obstacles

Why do most organizations improperly diagnose a misfiring lead gen engine?

Lack of Clear Starting Point

The lead gen engine is complex, with many moving parts, and marketers and marketing ops are often overwhelmed about where to begin diagnosis.

Lack of Benchmarks

Marketers often call out metrics such as increasing website visitors, contact-to-lead conversions, numbers of qualified leads delivered to Sales, etc., without a proven benchmark to compare their results against.

Lack of Alignment Between Marketing and Sales

Definitions of a contact, a marketing qualified lead, a sales qualified lead, and a marketing influenced win often vary.

Lack of Measurement Tools

Integration gaps between the website, marketing automation, sales enablement, and analytics exist within some 70% of enterprises. The elements of the marketing (and sales) tech stack change constantly. It’s hard to keep up.

Lack of Understanding of Marketing ROI

This drives many marketers to push the “more” button – more assets, more emails, more ad spend – without first focusing on optimization and effectiveness.

Lack of Resources

Marketers have an endless list of to-dos that drive them to produce daily results. Especially among software startups and mid-sized companies, there are just not enough staff with the right skills to diagnose and fix today’s sophisticated lead gen engines.

Implications of poor diagnostics

Without proper lead gen engine diagnostics, marketing performs poorly

• The lead gen engine builds relationships and trust. When a broken lead gen engine goes unoptimized, customer relationships are at risk.
• When the lead gen engine isn’t working well, customer acquisition costs rise as more expensive sales resources are charged with prospect qualification.
• Without a well-functioning lead gen engine, marketers lack the foundation they need to create awareness among prospects – growth suffers.
• Marketers will throw money at content or ads to generate more leads without any real understanding of engine leakage and misfires – your cost per lead climbs and reduces marketing profitability.

Most marketers are spending too much on acquiring leads and not enough on converting and keeping them. For every $92 spent acquiring customers, only $1 is spent converting them.

Source: Econsultancy, cited in Outgrow

Lead gen engine optimization increases the efficiency of your marketing efforts and has a 223% ROI.

Source: WordStream

Benefits of lead gen engine diagnostics

Diagnosing your lead gen engine delivers key benefits:

• Pinpoint weakness quickly. A quick and accurate lead gen engine diagnostic tool saves Marketing 50% of the effort spent uncovering the reason for low conversion and low-quality leads.
• Optimize more easily. Marketing executives will save 70% of the time spent creating a lead gen optimization marketing strategy based upon the diagnostic findings.
• Maximize marketing ROI. Build toward and maintain the golden 3:1 LTV:CAC (lifetime value to customer acquisition cost) ratio for B2B SaaS marketing.
• Stop wasting money on ineffective advertising and marketing. Up to 75% of your marketing budget is being inefficiently spent if you are running on a broken lead gen engine.

“It’s much easier to double your business by doubling your conversion rate than by doubling your traffic. Correct targeting and testing methods can increase conversion rates up to 300 percent.” – Jeff Eisenberg, IterateStudio

Source: Lift Division

True benefits of fixing the lead gen engine

These numbers add up to a significant increase in marketing influenced wins.

175%
Buyer Personas Increase Revenue
Source: Illumin8

202%
Personalized CTAs Increase Conversions
Source: HubSpot

50%
Lead Magnets Increase Conversions
Source: ClickyDrip

79%
Lead Scoring Increases Conversions
Source: Bloominari

50%
Lead Nurturing Increases Conversions
Source: KevinTPayne.com

80%
Personalized Landing Pages Increase Conversions
Source: HubSpot

Who benefits from an optimized lead gen engine?

This Research Is Designed for:

• Senior digital marketing leaders who are:
  • Looking to increase conversions.
  • Looking to increase the quality of leads.
  • Looking to increase the value of leads.

This Research Will Help You:

• Diagnose issues with your lead gen engine.
• Create a lead gen optimization strategy and a roadmap.

This Research Will Also Assist:

• Digital marketing leaders and product marketing leaders who are:
  • Looking to decrease the effort needed by Sales to close leads.
  • Looking to increase leadership’s faith in Marketing’s ability to generate high-quality leads and conversions.

This Research Will Help Them:

• Align the Sales and Marketing teams.
• Receive the necessary buy-in from management to increase marketing spend and headcount.
• Avoid product failure.

SoftwareReviews’ approach

1. Diagnose Misfires in the Lead Gen Engine

Identifying any areas of weakness within your lead gen engine is a fundamental first step in improving conversions, ROI, and lead quality.

2. Create a Lead Gen Optimization Strategy

Optimize your lead gen strategy with an easily customizable template that will provide your roadmap for future growth.

The SoftwareReviews Methodology to Diagnose and Optimize Your Lead Gen Engine

Insight Summary

The lead gen engine is the foundation of marketing

The lead gen engine is critical to building relationships. It is the foundation upon which marketers build awareness, trust, and loyalty.

Misalignment between Sales and Marketing is costly

Digital marketing leaders need to ensure agreement with Sales on the definition of a marketing qualified lead (MQL), as it is the most essential element of stakeholder alignment.

Prioritization is necessary for today’s marketer

By prioritizing the fixes within the lead gen engine that have the highest impact, a marketing leader will be able to focus their optimization efforts in the right place.

Stop, your engine is broken

Any advertising or effort expended while running marketing on a broken lead gen engine is time and money wasted. It is only once the lead gen engine is fixed that marketers will see the true results of their efforts.

Tactical insight

Without a well-functioning lead gen engine, marketers risk wasting valuable time and money because they aren’t creating relationships with prospects that will increase the quality of leads, conversion rate, and lifetime value.

Tactical insight

The foundational lead relationship must be built at the marketing level, or else Sales will be entirely responsible for creating these relationships with low-quality leads, risking product failure.

Blueprint Deliverable:

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

Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic

An efficient and easy-to-use diagnostic tool that uncovers weakness in your lead gen engine.

Key Deliverable:

Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

A comprehensive strategy for optimizing conversions and increasing the quality of leads.

SoftwareReviews Offers Various Levels of Support to Meet Your Needs

Included within Advisory Membership:

DIY Toolkit

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

Guided Implementation

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

Optional add-ons:

Workshop

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

Consulting

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

Guided Implementation

What does a typical GI on lead gen engine diagnostics look like?

Diagnose Your Lead Gen Engine

Call #1: Scope requirements, objectives, and specific challenges with your lead gen engine.

Call #2: Gather baseline metrics and discuss the steering committee and working team.

Call #3: Review results from baseline metrics and answer questions.

Call #4: Discuss the lead gen engine diagnostic tool and your steering committee.

Call #5: Review results from the diagnostic tool and answer questions.

Develop Your Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy

Call #6: Identify components to include in the lead gen engine optimization strategy.

Call #7: Discuss the roadmap for continued optimization.

Call #8: Review final lead gen engine optimization strategy.

Call #9: (optional) Follow-up quarterly to check in on progress and answer questions.

A Guided Implementation (GI) is series of calls with a SoftwareReviews Advisory analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization. For guidance on marketing applications, we can arrange a discussion with an Info-Tech analyst. Your engagement managers will work with you to schedule analyst calls.

Workshop Overview

Contact your account representative for more information.

workshops@infotech.com1-888-670-8889

Phase 1

Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

The diagnostic tool will allow you to quickly and easily identify the areas of weakness in the lead gen engine by answering some simple questions. The steps include:

• Select the lead gen engine optimization committee and team.
• Gather baseline metrics.
• Run the lead gen engine diagnostic.
• Identify and prioritize low-scoring areas.

This phase involves the following participants:

• Marketing lead
• Lead gen engine steering committee

Step 1.1

Identify Lead Gen Engine Optimization Steering Committee & Working Team

Activities

1.1.1 Identify the lead gen engine optimization steering committee and document in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

1.1.2 Identify the lead gen engine optimization working team document in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

This step will walk you through the following activities:

Identify the lead gen engine optimization steering committee.

This step involves the following participants:

• Marketing director
• Leadership

Outcomes of this step

An understanding of who will be responsible and who will be accountable for accomplishing the lead gen engine diagnostic and optimization strategy.

1.1.1 Identify the lead gen engine optimization steering committee

1-2 hours

1. The marketing lead should meet with leadership to determine who will make up the steering committee for the lead gen engine optimization.
2. Document the steering committee members in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template slide entitled “The Steering Committee.”

Download the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

Lead gen engine optimization steering committee

Consider the skills and knowledge required for the diagnostic and the implementation of the strategy. Constructing a cross-functional steering committee will be essential for the optimization of the lead gen engine. At least one stakeholder from each relevant department should be included in the steering committee.

For small and mid-sized businesses (SMB), because employees wear many different hats, assign people that have the requisite skills and knowledge, not the role title.

1.1.2 Identify the lead gen engine optimization working team

1-2 hours

1. The marketing director should meet with leadership to determine who will make up the working team for the lead gen engine optimization.
2. Finalize selection of team members and fill out the slide entitled “The Working Team” in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template.

Download the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

Lead gen engine working team

Consider the working skills required for the diagnostic and implementation of the strategy and assign the working team.

Step 1.2

Gather Baseline Metrics

Activities

1.2.1 Gather baseline metrics and document in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

This step will walk you through the following activities:

Gather baseline metrics.

This step involves the following participants:

• Marketing director
• Analytics lead

Outcomes of this step

Understand and document baseline marketing metrics.

1.2.1 Gather baseline metrics and document in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

1-2 hours

1. Use the example on the next slide to learn about the B2B SaaS industry-standard baseline metrics.
2. Meet with the analytics lead to analyze and record the data within the “Baseline Metrics” slide of the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template. The baseline metrics will include:
   • Unique monthly website visitors
   • Visitor to lead conversion rate
   • Lead to MQL conversion rate
   • Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
   • Lifetime customer value to customer acquisition cost (LTV to CAC) ratio
   • Campaign ROI

Recording the baseline data allows you to measure the impact your lead gen engine optimization strategy has over the baseline.

B2B SaaS baseline metrics

Industry standard metrics for B2B SaaS in 2022

Unique Monthly Visitors

Industry standard is 5% to 10% growth month over month.

Visitor to Lead Conversion

Industry standard is between 0.9% to 2.1%.

Lead to MQL Conversion

Industry standard is between 36% to 48%.

CAC

Industry standard is a cost of $400 to $850 per customer acquired.

LTV to CAC Ratio

Industry standard is an LTV:CAC ratio between 3 to 6.

Campaign ROI

Email: 201%

Pay-Per-Click (PPC): 36%

LinkedIn Ads: 94%

Source: “B2B SaaS Marketing KPIs,” First Page Sage, 2021

Update the Lead Gen Optimization Strategy Template with your company’s baseline metrics.

Download the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

Step 1.3

Run the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic

Activities

1.3.1 Gather steering committee and working team to complete the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Tool

This step will walk you through the following activities:

Gather the steering committee and answer the questions within the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Tool.

This step involves the following participants:

• Lead gen engine optimization working team
• Lead gen engine optimization steering committee

Outcomes of this step

Lead gen engine diagnostic and scorecard

1.3.1 Gather the committee and team to complete the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Tool

2-3 hours

1. Schedule a two-hour meeting with the steering committee and working team to complete the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Tool. To ensure the alignment of all departments and the quality of results, all steering committee members must participate.
2. Answer the questions within the tool and then review your company’s results in the Results tab.

Download the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Tool

Step 1.4

Identify & Prioritize Low-Scoring Areas

Activities

1.4.1 Identify and prioritize low-scoring areas from the diagnostic scorecard

This step will walk you through the following activities:

Identify and prioritize the low-scoring areas from the diagnostic scorecard.

This step involves the following participants:

• Marketing director

Outcomes of this step

A prioritized list of the lead gen engine problems to include in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

1.4.1 Identify and prioritize low-scoring areas from the diagnostic scorecard

1 hour

1. Transfer the results from the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Scorecard Results tab to the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template slide entitled “Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Scorecard.”
   • Results between 0 and 2 should be listed as high-priority fixes on the “Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Scorecard” slide. You will use these areas for your strategy.
   • Results between 2 and 3 should be listed as medium-priority fixes on “Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Scorecard” slide. You will use these areas for your strategy.
   • Results between 3 and 4 are within the industry standard and will require no fixes or only small adjustments.

Download the Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Tool

Phase 2

Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

Create a best-in-class lead gen optimization strategy and roadmap based on the weaknesses found in the diagnostic tool. The steps include:

• Define the roadmap.
• Create a lead gen engine optimization strategy.
• Present the strategy to the steering committee.

This phase involves the following participants:

• Marketing director

Step 2.1

Define the Roadmap

Activities

2.1.1 Create the roadmap for the lead gen optimization strategy

This step will walk you through the following activities:

Create the optimization roadmap for your lead gen engine strategy.

This step involves the following participants:

• Marketing director

Outcomes of this step

Strategy roadmap

2.1.1 Create the roadmap for the lead gen optimization strategy

1 hour

1. Copy the results from "The Lead Gen Engine Diagnostic Scorecard" slide to the "Value, Resources & Roadmap Matrix" slide in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template. Adjust the Roadmap Quarter column after evaluating the internal resources of your company and expected value generated.
2. Using these results, create your strategy roadmap by updating the slide entitled “The Strategy Roadmap” in the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template.

Download the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

Step 2.2

Create the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy

Activities

2.2.1 Customize your lead gen engine optimization strategy using the template

This step will walk you through the following activities:

Create a lead gen engine optimization strategy based on the results of your diagnostic scorecard.

This step involves the following participants:

Marketing director

Outcomes of this step

A leadership-facing lead gen optimization strategy

2.2.1 Customize your lead gen engine optimization strategy using the template

2-3 hours

Review the strategy template:

1. Use "The Strategy Roadmap" slide to organize the remaining slides from the Q1, Q2, and Q3 sections.
   1. Fixes listed in "The Strategy Roadmap" under Q1 should be placed within the Q1 section.
   2. Fixes listed in "The Strategy Roadmap" under Q2 should be placed within the Q2 section.
   3. Fixes listed in "The Strategy Roadmap" under Q3 should be placed within the Q3 section.

Download the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

Step 2.3

Present the strategy to the steering committee

Activities

2.3.1 Present the findings of the diagnostic and the lead gen optimization strategy to the steering committee.

This step will walk you through the following activities:

Get executive buy-in on the lead gen engine optimization strategy.

This step involves the following participants:

• Marketing director
• Steering committee

Outcomes of this step

• Buy-in from leadership on the strategy

2.3.1 Present findings of diagnostic and lead gen optimization strategy to steering committee

1-2 hours

1. Schedule a presentation to present the findings of the diagnostic, the lead gen engine optimization strategy, and the roadmap to the steering committee.

Download the Lead Gen Engine Optimization Strategy Template

Related SoftwareReviews Research

Create a Buyer Persona and Journey

Make it easier to market, sell, and achieve product-market fit with deeper buyer understanding.

• Reduce time and treasure wasted chasing the wrong prospects.
• Improve product-market fit.
• Increase open and click-through rates in your lead gen engine.
• Perform more effective sales discovery and increase eventual win rates.

Optimize Lead Generation With Lead Scoring

In today’s competitive environment, optimizing Sales’ resources by giving them qualified leads is key to B2B marketing success.

• Lead scoring is a must-have capability for high-tech marketers.
• Without lead scoring, marketers will see increased costs of lead generation and decreased SQL-to-opportunity conversion rates.
• Lead scoring increases sales productivity and shortens sales cycles.

Build a More Effective Go-to-Market Strategy

Creating a compelling go-to-market strategy and keeping it current is a critical software company function – as important as financial strategy, sales operations, and even corporate business development – given its huge impact on the many drivers of sustainable growth.

• Align stakeholders on a common vision and execution plan.
• Build a foundation of buyer and competitive understanding.
• Deliver a team-aligned launch plan that enables commercial success.

Bibliography

“11 Lead Magnet Statistics That Might Surprise You.” ClickyDrip, 28 Dec. 2020. Accessed April 2022.

“45 Conversion Rate Optimization Statistics Every Marketer Should Know.” Outgrow, n.d. Accessed April 2022.

Bailyn, Evan. “B2B SaaS Funnel Conversion Benchmarks.” First Page Sage, 24 Feb. 2021. Accessed April 2022.

Bailyn, Evan. “B2B SaaS Marketing KPIs: Behind the Numbers.” First Page Sage, 1 Sept. 2021. Accessed April 2022.

Conversion Optimization.” Lift Division, n.d. Accessed April 2022.

Corson, Sean. “LTV:CAC Ratio [2022 Guide] | Benchmarks, Formula, Tactics.” Daasity, 3 Nov. 2021. Accessed April 2022.

Dudley, Carrie. “What are personas?” Illumin8, 26 Jan. 2018. Accessed April 2022.

Godin, Seth. “Permission Marketing.” Accenture, Oct. 2009. Accessed April 2022.

Lebo, T. “Lead Conversion Statistics All B2B Marketers Need to Know.” Convince & Convert, n.d. Accessed April 2022.

Lister, Mary. “33 CRO & Landing Page Optimization Stats to Fuel Your Strategy.” WordStream, 24 Nov. 2021. [Accessed April 2022].

Nacach, Jamie. “How to Determine How Much Money to Spend on Lead Generation Software Per Month.” Bloominari, 18 Sept. 2018. Accessed April 2022.

Needle, Flori. “11 Stats That Make a Case for Landing Pages.” HubSpot, 10 June 2021. Accessed April 2022.

Payne, Kevin. “10 Effective Lead Nurturing Tactics to Boost Your Sales.” Kevintpayne.com, n.d. Accessed April 2022.

Tam, Edwin. “ROI in Marketing: Lifetime Value (LTV) & Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC).” Construct Digital, 19 Jan. 2016. Accessed April 2022.

Decide if You Are Ready for SAFe

Approach the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) with open eyes and an open wallet.

Analyst Perspective

Ensure that SAFe is the right move before committing.

Waterfall is dead. Or obsolete at the very least.

Organizations cannot wait months or years for product, service, application, and process changes. They need to embrace business agility to respond to opportunities more quickly and deliver value sooner. Agile established values and principles that have promoted smaller cycle times, greater connections between teams, improved return on investment (ROI) prioritization, and improved team empowerment.

Where organizations continue to struggle is matching localized Scrum teams with enterprise initiatives. This struggle is compounded by legacy executive planning cycles, which undermine Agile team authority. SAFe has provided a series of frameworks to help organizations deal with these issues. It combines enterprise planning and alignment with cross-team collaboration.

Don't rely on popularity or marketing to make your scaled Agile decision. SAFe is a highly disruptive transformation, and it requires extensive training, coaching, process changes, and time to implement. Without the culture shift to an Agile mindset at all levels, SAFe becomes a mirror of Waterfall processes dressed in SAFe names. Furthermore, SAFe itself will not fix problems with communication, requirements, development, testing, release, support, or governance. You will still need to fix these problems within the SAFe framework to be successful.

Hans Eckman
Principal Research Director, Applications Delivery and Management
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Info-Tech Insight
SAFe is a highly disruptive enterprise transformation, and it won't solve your organizational delivery challenges by itself. Start with an open mind, and understand what is needed to support a multi-year cultural transition. Decide how far and how fast you are willing to transform, and make sure that you have the right transformation and coaching partner in place. There is no right software development lifecycle (SDLC) or methodology. Find or create the methodology that best aligns to your needs and goals.

Agile's Four Core Values

"...while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more."
- The Agile Manifesto

STOP! If you're not Agile, don't start with SAFe.

Successful SAFe requires an Agile mindset at all levels.

Be aware of common myths around Agile and SAFe

SAFe does not...

1...solve development and communication issues.

2...ensure that you will finish requirements faster.

3...mean that you do not need planning and documentation.

"Without proper planning, organizations can start throwing more resources at the work, which spirals into the classic Waterfall issues of managing by schedule."
– Kristen Morton, Associate Implementation Architect,
OneShield Inc. (Info-Tech Interview)

Info-Tech Insight
Poor culture, processes, governance, and leadership will disrupt any methodology. Many drivers for SAFe could be solved by improving and standardizing development and release management within current methodologies.

Review the drivers that are motivating your organization to adopt and scale Agile practices

Functional groups have their own drivers to adopt Agile development processes, practices, and techniques (e.g. to improve collaboration, decrease churn, or increase automation). Their buy-in to scaling Agile is just as important as the buy-in of stakeholders.

If a group's specific needs and drivers are not addressed, its members may develop negative sentiments toward Agile development. These negative sentiments can affect their ability to see the benefits of Agile, and they may return to their old habits once the opportunity arises.

It is important to find opportunities in which both business objectives and functional group drivers can be achieved by scaling Agile development. This can motivate teams to continuously improve and adhere to the new environment, and it will maintain business buy-in. It can also be used to justify activities that specifically address functional group drivers.

Examples of Motivating Drivers for Scaling Agile

• Improve artifact handoffs between development and operations.
• Increase collaboration among development teams.
• Reveal architectural and system risks early.
• Expedite the feedback loop from support.
• Improve capacity management.
• Support development process innovation.
• Create a safe environment to discuss concerns.
• Optimize value streams.
• Increase team engagement and comradery.

Don't start with scaled Agile!

Scaling Agile is a way to optimize product management and product delivery in application lifecycle management practices. Do not try to start with SAFe when the components are not yet in place.

Scale Agile delivery to improve cross-functional dependencies and releases

Top Business Concerns When Scaling Agile

1 Organizational Culture: The current culture may not support team empowerment, learning from failure, and other Agile principles. SAFe also allows top-down decisions to persist.

2 Executive Support: Executives may not dedicate resources, time, and effort into removing obstacles to scaling Agile because of lack of business buy-in.

3 Team Coordination: Current collaboration structures may not enable teams and stakeholders to share information freely and integrate workflows easily.

4 Business Misalignment: Business vision and objectives may be miscommunicated early in development, risking poorly planned and designed initiatives and low-quality products.

Extending collaboration is the key to success.

Uniting stakeholders and development into a single body is the key to success. Assess the internal and external communication flow and define processes for planning and tracking work so that everyone is aware of how to integrate, communicate, and collaborate.

The goal is to enable faster reaction to customer needs, shorter release cycles, and improved visibility of the project's progress with cross-functional and diverse conversations.

Advantages of successful SAFe implementations

Once SAFe is complete and operational, organizations have seen measurable benefits:

• Multiple frameworks to support different levels of SAFe usage
• Deliberate and consistent planning and coordination
• Coordinating dependencies within value streams
• Reduced time to delivery
• Focus on customers and end users
• Alignment to business goals and value streams
• Increased employee engagement

Sources: TechBeacon, 2019; Medium, 2020; "Benefits," Scaled Agile, 2023;
"Pros and Cons," PremierAgile, n.d.; "Scaling Agile Challenges," PremierAgile, n.d.

Source: "Benefits," Scaled Agile, 2023

Recognize the difference between Scrum teams and the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)

SAFe provides a framework that aligns Scrum teams into coordinated release trains driven by top-down prioritization.

Develop Your Agile Approach for a Successful Transformation

Source: Scaled Agile, Inc.

Info-Tech's IT Management & Governance Framework

Info-Tech Insight
SAFe is an enterprise, culture, and process transformation that impacts all IT services. Some areas of Info-Tech's IT Management & Governance Framework have higher impacts and require special attention. Plan to include transformation support for each of these topics during your SAFe implementation. SAFe will not fix broken processes on its own.

Without adopting an Agile mindset, SAFe becomes Waterfall with SAFe terminology

Source: Scaled Agile, Inc.

Info-Tech Insight
When first implementing SAFe, organizations reproduce their organizational design and Waterfall delivery structures with SAFe terms:

• Delivery Manager = Release Train Engineer
• Stakeholder/Sponsor = Product Manager
• Release = Release Train
• Project/Program = Project or Portfolio

SAFe isn't without risks or challenges

Risks and Causes of Failed SAFe Transformations

• SAFe conflicts with legacy cultures and delivery processes.
• SAFe promotes continued top-down decisions, undermining team empowerment.
• Scaled product families are required to define proper value streams.
• Team empowerment and autonomy are reduced.
• SAFe activities are poorly executed.
• There are high training and coaching costs.
• Implementation takes a long time.
• End-to-end delivery management tools aligned to SAFe are required.
• Legacy delivery challenges are not specifically solved with SAFe.
• SAFe is designed to work for large-scale development teams.

Challenges

• Adjusting to a new set of terms for common roles, processes, and activities
• Executing planning cycles
• Defining features and epics at the right level
• Completing adequate requirements
• Defining value streams
• Coordinating releases and release trains
• Providing consistent quality

Sources: TechBeacon, 2019; Medium, 2020; "Benefits," Scaled Agile, 2023;
"Pros and Cons," PremierAgile, n.d.; "Scaling Agile Challenges," PremierAgile, n.d.

Focus on your core competencies instead

Before undertaking an enterprise transformation, consider improving the underlying processes that will need to be fixed anyway. Fixing these areas while implementing SAFe compounds the effort and disruption.

Product Delivery

• Agile/DevOps Research Center
• Develop Your Agile Approach for a Successful Transformation
  • Understand Agile fundamentals, principles, and practices so you can apply them effectively in your organization.
• Implement DevOps Practices That Work
  • Streamline business value delivery through the strategic adoption of DevOps practices.

Product Management

• Product Lifecycle Management Research Center
• Make the Case for Product Delivery
  • Align your organization on the practices to deliver what matters most.
• Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision
  • Build a product vision your organization can take from strategy through execution.
• Deliver Digital Products at Scale
  • Deliver value at the scale of your organization through defining enterprise product families.
• Introduce Program Management to Your Organization
  • Use programs to align projects to your strategic goals.
• Optimize IT Project Intake, Approval, and Prioritization
  • Decide which IT projects to approve and when to start them.
• Manage Requirements in an Agile Environment
  • Agile and requirements management are complementary, not competitors.
• Build a Software Quality Assurance Program
  • Build quality into every step of your SDLC.
• Automate Testing to Get More Done
  • Drive software delivery throughput and quality confidence by extending your automation test coverage.
• Application Portfolio Management Foundations
  • Ensure your application portfolio delivers the best possible return on investment.

"But big-bang transitions are hard. They require total leadership commitment, a receptive culture, enough talented and experienced agile practitioners to staff hundreds of teams without depleting other capabilities, and highly prescriptive instruction manuals to align everyone's approach."
– "Agile at Scale," Harvard Business Review

Insight Summary

Overarching insight
SAFe is a highly disruptive enterprise transformation, and it will not solve your organizational delivery challenges by itself. Start with an open mind, and understand what is needed to support a multi-year cultural transition. Decide how far and fast you are willing to transform and make sure that you have the right transformation and coaching partner in place.

SAFe conflicts with core Agile principles.
The popularity of SAFe is largely due to its structural resemblance to enterprise portfolio and project planning with top-down prioritization and decision-making. This directly conflicts with Agile's purpose and principles of empowerment and agility.

SAFe and Agile will not solve enterprise delivery challenges.
Poor culture, processes, governance, and leadership will disrupt any methodology. Many issues with drivers for SAFe could be solved by improving development and release management within current methodologies.

Most organizations should not be using a pure SAFe framework
Few organizations are capable of, or should be, applying a pure SAFe framework. Successful organizations have adopted and modified SAFe frameworks to best fit their needs, teams, value streams, and maturity.

Without an Agile mindset, SAFe will be executed as Waterfall stages using SAFe terminology.
Groups that "Do Agile" are not likely to embrace the behavioral changes needed to make any scaled framework effective. SAFe becomes a series of Waterfall PIs using SAFe terminology.

Your transformation does not start with SAFe.
Start your transition to scaled Agile with a maturity assessment for current delivery practices. Fixing broken process, tools, and teams must be at the heart of your initiative.

Blueprint Deliverables

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

Key Deliverable

SAFe Transformation Playbook

Build a transformation and organizational change management plan to guide your transition. Define clear ownership for every critical step.

Scaled Agile Readiness Assessment

Conduct the Agile readiness survey. Without an Agile mindset, SAFe will follow Waterfall or WaterScrumFall practices.

Case Study

Spotify's approach to Agile at scale

INDUSTRY: Digital Media
SOURCE: Unified Communications and Collaborations

Spotify's Scaling Agile Initiative

With rapid user adoption growth (over 15 million active users in under six years), Spotify had to find a way to maintain an Agile mindset across 30+ teams in three different cities, while maintaining the benefits of cross-functional collaboration and flexibility for future growth.

Spotify's Approach

Spotify found a fit-for-purpose way for the organization to increase team autonomy without losing the benefits of cross-team communication from economics of scale. Spotify focused on identifying dependencies that block or slow down work through a mix of reprioritization, reorganization, architectural changes, and technical solutions. The organization embraced dependencies that led to cross-team communication and built in the necessary flexibility to allow Agile to grow with the organization.

Spotify's scaling Agile initiative used interview processes to identify what each team depended on and how those dependencies blocked or slowed the team.

Squad refers to an autonomous Agile release team in this case study.

Case Study

Suncorp instilled dedicated communication streams to ensure cross-role collaboration and culture.

INDUSTRY: Insurance
SOURCE: Agile India, International Conference on Agile and Lean Software Development, 2014

Case Study

Nationwide embraces DevOps and improves software quality.

INDUSTRY: Insurance
SOURCE: Agile India, International Conference on Agile and Lean Software Development, 2014

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

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks are used throughout all four options.

Guided Implementation

What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

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

A typical GI is one to four calls over the course of one to six weeks.

Workshop Overview

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

Supporting Your Agile Journey

Enable Product Agile Delivery Executive Workshop	Develop Your Agile Approach	Spread Best Practices with an Agile Center of Excellence	Implement DevOps Practices That Work	Enable Organization-Wide Collaboration by Scaling Agile
Align and prepare your IT leadership teams. Audience: Senior and IT delivery leadership Size: 8-16 people Time: 7 hours	Tune Agile team practices to fit your organization culture. Audience: Agile pilot teams and subject matter experts (SMEs) Size: 10-20 people Time: 4 days	Leverage Agile thought leadership to expand your best practices. Audience: Agile SMEs and thought leaders Size: 10-20 people Time: 4 days	Build a continuous integration and continuous delivery pipeline. Audience: Product owners (POs) and delivery team leads Size: 10-20 people Time: 4 days	Execute a disciplined approach to rolling out Agile methods. Audience: Agile steering team and SMEs Size: 3-8 people Time: 3 hours

Sample agendas are included in the following sections for each of these topics.

Your Product Transformation Journey

Phase 1

Determine if SAFe Is Right for Your Organization

Phase 1
1.1 Understand where SAFe fits into your delivery methodologies and SDLCs
1.2 Determine if you are ready for SAFe (fit for purpose)

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• 1.1.1 Define your primary drivers for SAFe.
• 1.1.2 Create your own list of pros and cons of SAFe.
• 1.2.1 Assess your Agile readiness.
• 1.2.2 Define enablers and blockers for scaling Agile delivery.
• 1.2.3 Estimate your SAFe implementation risk.
• 1.2.4 Start your SAFe implementation plan.

This phase involves the following participants:

• Senior leadership
• IT leadership
• Project Management Office
• Delivery managers
• Product managers/owners
• Agile thought leaders and coaches
• Compliance teams leads

Step 1.1

Understand where SAFe fits into your delivery methodologies and SDLCs

Activities
1.1.1 Define your primary drivers for SAFe
1.1.2 Create your own list of pros and cons of SAFe

This step involves the following participants:

• IT leadership
• Delivery managers
• Project management office
• Product owners and managers
• Development team leads
• Portfolio managers
• Architects

Outcomes of this step:

• List of primary drivers for SAFe
• List of pros and cons of SAFe

Agile's Four Core Values

"...while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more."
– The Agile Manifesto

STOP! If you're not Agile, don't start with SAFe.

Successful SAFe requires an Agile mindset at all levels.

Be aware of common myths around Agile and SAFe

SAFe does not...

1...solve development and communication issues.

2...ensure that you will finish requirements faster.

3...mean that you do not need planning and documentation.

"Without proper planning, organizations can start throwing more resources at the work, which spirals into the classic Waterfall issues of managing by schedule."
– Kristen Morton, Associate Implementation Architect,
OneShield Inc. (Info-Tech Interview)

Info-Tech Insight
SAFe only provides a framework and steps where these issues can be resolved.

The importance of values and principles

Modern development practices (such as Agile, Lean, and DevOps) are based on values and principles. This supports the move away from command-and-control management to self-organizing teams.

Values

• Values represent your team's core beliefs and capture what you want to instill in your team.

Principles

• Principles represent methods for solving a problem or deciding.
• Given that principles are rooted in specifics, they can change more frequently because they are both fallible and conducive to learning.

Consider the guiding principles of your application team

Teams may have their own perspectives on how they deliver value and their own practices for how they do this. These perspectives can help you develop guiding principles for your own team to explain your core values and cement your team's culture. Guiding principles can help you:

• Enable the appropriate environment to foster collaboration within current organizational, departmental, and cultural constraints
• Foster the social needs that will engage and motivate your team in a culture that suits its members
• Ensure that all teams are driven toward the same business and team goals, even if other teams are operating differently
• Build organizational camaraderie aligned with corporate strategies

Info-Tech Insight
Following methodologies by the book can be detrimental if they do not fit your organization's needs, constraints, and culture. The ultimate goal of all teams is to deliver value. Any practices or activities that drive teams away from this goal should be removed or modified.

Review the drivers that are motivating your organization to adopt and scale Agile practices

Functional groups have their own drivers to adopt Agile development processes, practices, and techniques (e.g. to improve collaboration, decrease churn, or increase automation). Their buy-in to scaling Agile is just as important as the buy-in of stakeholders.

By not addressing a group's specific needs and drivers, the resulting negative sentiments of its members toward Agile development can affect their ability to see the benefits of Agile and they may return to old habits once the opportunity arises.

Find opportunities in which both business objectives and functional group drivers can be achieved with scaling Agile development. This alignment can motivate teams to continuously improve and adhere to the new environment, and it will maintain business buy-in. This assessment can also be used to justify activities that specifically address functional group drivers.

Examples of Motivating Drivers for Scaling Agile

• Improve artifact hand-offs between development and operations.
• Increase collaboration among development teams.
• Reveal architectural and system risks early.
• Expedite the feedback loop from support.
• Improve capacity management.
• Support development process innovation.
• Create a safe environment to discuss concerns.
• Optimize value streams.
• Increase team engagement and comradery.

Exercise 1.1.1 Define your primary drivers for SAFe

30 minutes

• Brainstorm a list of drivers for scaling Agile.
• Build a value canvas to help capture and align team expectations.
• Identify jobs or functions that will be impacted by SAFe.
• List your current pains and gains.
• List the pain relievers and gain creators.
• Identify the deliverable needed for a successful transformation.
• Complete your SAFe value canvas in your SAFe Transformation Playbook.

Enter the results in your SAFe Transformation Playbook.

SAFe Value Canvas Template

Case Study

A public utilities organization steadily lost stakeholder engagement, diminishing product quality.

INDUSTRY: Public Utilities
SOURCE: Info-Tech Expert Interview

Challenge

• The goal of a public utilities organization was to adopt Agile so it could quickly respond to changes and trim costs.
• The organization decided to scale Agile using a structured approach. It began implementation with IT teams that were familiar with Agile principles and leveraged IT seniors as Agile champions. To ensure that Agile principles were widespread, the organization decided to develop a training program with vendor assistance.
• As Agile successes began to be seen, the organization decided to increase the involvement of business teams gradually so it could organically grow the concept within the business.

Results

• Teams saw significant success with many projects because they could easily demonstrate deliverables and clearly show the business value. Over time, the teams used Agile for large projects with complex processing needs.
• Teams continued to deliver small projects successfully, but business engagement waned over time. Some of the large, complex applications they delivered using Agile lacked the necessary functionality and appropriate controls and, in some cases, did not have the ability to scale due to a poor architectural framework. These applications required additional investment, which far exceeded the original cost forecasts.

While Agile and product development are intertwined, they are not the same!

Delivering products does not necessarily require an Agile mindset. However, Agile methods help to facilitate the journey because product thinking is baked into them.

Recognize the difference between Scrum teams and the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)

SAFe provides a framework that aligns Scrum teams into coordinated release trains driven by top-down prioritization.

Develop Your Agile Approach for a Successful Transformation

Without adopting an Agile mindset, SAFe becomes Waterfall with SAFe terminology

Info-Tech Insight
When first implementing SAFe, organizations reproduce their organizational design and Waterfall delivery structures with SAFe terms:

• Delivery Manager = Release Train Engineer
• Stakeholder/Sponsor = Product Manager
• Release = Release Train
• Project/Program = Project or Portfolio

Advantages of successful SAFe implementations

Once SAFe is complete and operational, organizations have seen measurable benefits:

• Multiple frameworks to support different levels of SAFe usage
• Deliberate and consistent planning and coordination
• Coordinating dependencies within value streams
• Reduced time to delivery
• Focus on customers and end users
• Alignment to business goals and value streams
• Increased employee engagement

Sources: TechBeacon, 2019; Medium, 2020; "Benefits," Scaled Agile, 2023;
"Pros and Cons," PremierAgile, n.d.; "Scaling Agile Challenges," PremierAgile, n.d.

Source: "Benefits," Scaled Agile, 2023

SAFe isn't without risks or challenges

Risks and Causes of Failed SAFe Transformations

• SAFe conflicts with legacy cultures and delivery processes.
• SAFe promotes continued top-down decisions, undermining team empowerment.
• Scaled product families are required to define proper value streams.
• Team empowerment and autonomy are reduced.
• SAFe activities are poorly executed.
• There are high training and coaching costs.
• Implementation takes a long time.
• End-to-end delivery management tools aligned to SAFe are required.
• Legacy delivery challenges are not specifically solved with SAFe.
• SAFe is designed to work for large-scale development teams.

Challenges

• Adjusting to a new set of terms for common roles, processes, and activities
• Executing planning cycles
• Defining features and epics at the right level
• Completing adequate requirements
• Defining value streams
• Coordinating releases and release trains
• Providing consistent quality

Sources: TechBeacon, 2019; Medium, 2020; "Benefits," Scaled Agile, 2023; "Pros and Cons," PremierAgile, n.d.; "Scaling Agile Challenges," PremierAgile, n.d.

Exercise 1.1.2 Create your own list of the pros and cons of SAFe

1 hour

Enter the results in your SAFe Transformation Playbook

Focus on your core competencies instead

Before undertaking an enterprise transformation, consider improving the underlying processes that will need to be fixed anyway. Fixing these areas while implementing SAFe compounds the effort and disruption.

Product Delivery

• Agile/DevOps Research Center
• Develop Your Agile Approach for a Successful Transformation
  • Understand Agile fundamentals, principles, and practices so you can apply them effectively in your organization.
• Implement DevOps Practices That Work
  • Streamline business value delivery through the strategic adoption of DevOps practices.

Product Management

• Product Lifecycle Management Research Center
• Make the Case for Product Delivery
  • Align your organization on the practices to deliver what matters most.
• Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision
  • Build a product vision your organization can take from strategy through execution.
• Deliver Digital Products at Scale
  • Deliver value at the scale of your organization through defining enterprise product families.
• Introduce Program Management to Your Organization
  • Use programs to align projects to your strategic goals.
• Optimize IT Project Intake, Approval, and Prioritization
  • Decide which IT projects to approve and when to start them.
• Managing Requirements in an Agile Environment
  • Agile and requirements management are complementary, not competitors.
• Build a Software Quality Assurance Program
  • Build quality into every step of your SDLC.
• Automate Testing to Get More Done
  • Drive software delivery throughput and quality confidence by extending your automation test coverage.
• Application Portfolio Management Foundations
  • Ensure your application portfolio delivers the best possible return on investment.

"But big-bang transitions are hard. They require total leadership commitment, a receptive culture, enough talented and experienced agile practitioners to staff hundreds of teams without depleting other capabilities, and highly prescriptive instruction manuals to align everyone's approach."
- "Agile at Scale," Harvard Business Review

Step 1.2

Determine if you are ready for SAFe (fit for purpose)

Activities
1.2.1 Assess your Agile readiness
1.2.2 Define enablers and blockers for scaling Agile delivery
1.2.3 Estimate your SAFe implementation risk
1.2.4 Start your SAFe implementation plan

This step involves the following participants:

• IT leadership
• Delivery managers
• Project management office
• Product owners and managers
• Development team leads
• Portfolio managers
• Architects

Outcomes of this step:

• Agile Readiness Assessment results
• Enablers and blockers for scaling Agile
• SAFe implementation risk
• SAFe implementation plan

Use CLAIM to guide your Agile journey

Conduct the Agile Readiness Assessment Survey

Without an Agile mindset, SAFe will follow Waterfall or WaterScrumFall practices.

• Start your journey with a clear understanding of the level of Agile and product maturity throughout your organization.
• Each area that lacks strength should be evaluated further and added to your journey map.

Exercise 1.2.1 Assess your Agile readiness

1 hour

• Open and complete the Agile Readiness Assessment in your playbook or the Excel tool provided.
• Discuss each area's high and low scores to reach a consensus.
• Record your results in your SAFe Transformation Playbook.

Enter the results in Scaled Agile Readiness Assessment.

Exercise 1.2.2 Define enablers and blockers for scaling Agile delivery

1 hour

• Identify and mitigate blockers for scaling Agile in your organization.
  • Identify enablers who will support successful SAFe transformation.
  • Identify blockers who will make the transition to SAFe more difficult.
  • For each blocker, define at least one mitigating step.

Enter the results in your SAFe Transformation Playbook

Estimate your SAFe implementation risk

Exercise 1.2.3 Estimate your SAFe implementation risk

30 minutes

• Determine which description best matches your overall organizational state.
• Enter the results in your SAFe Transformation Playbook.
• Change the text to bold in the cell you selected to describe your current state and/or add a border around the cell.

Enter the results in SAFe Transformation Playbook.

Interpret your SAFe implementation risks

Analyze your highlighted selections and patterns in the rows and columns. Use these factors to inform your SAFe implementation steps and timing.

Build your implementation plan

Build a transformation and organizational change management plan to guide your transition. Define clear ownership for every critical step.

Plan your transformation.

• Align stakeholders and thought leaders.
• Select an implementation partner.
• Insert critical steps.

Build your SAFe framework.

• Define your target SAFe framework.
• Customize your SAFe framework.
• Establish SAFe governance and reporting.
• Insert critical steps.

Implement SAFe practices.

• Define product families and value streams.
• Conduct SAFe training for:
  • Executive leadership
  • Agile SAFe coaches
  • Practitioners
• Insert critical steps.

For additional help with OCM, please download Master Organizational Change Management Practices.

Exercise 1.2.4 Start your SAFe implementation plan

30 minutes

• Using the high-level SAFE implementation framework, begin building out the critical steps.
• Record the results in your SAFe Transformation Playbook.
• Your playbook is an evergreen document to help guide your implementation. It should be reviewed often.

Enter the results in your SAFe Transformation Playbook

Select an implementation partner

Finding the right SAFe implementation partner is critical to your transformation success.

• Using your previous assessment, align internal and external resources to support your transformation.
• Select a partner who has experience in similar organizations and is aligned with your delivery goals.
• Plan to transition support to internal teams when SAFe practices have stabilized and moved into continuous improvement.
• Augment your transformation partner with internal coaches.
• Plan for a multiyear engagement before SAFe benefits are realized.

Summary of Accomplishments

Your journey begins.

Implementing SAFe is a long, expensive, and difficult process. For some organizations, SAFe provides the balance of leadership-driven prioritization and control with shorter release cycles and time to value. The key is making sure that SAFe is right for you and you are ready for SAFe. Few organizations fit perfectly into one of the SAFe frameworks. Instead, consider fine-tuning and customizing SAFe to meet your needs and gradual transformation.

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

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

Additional Support

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

To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.

Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech's historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.

Below are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

Scaled Agile Delivery Readiness Assessment
This assessment will help identify enablers and blockers in your organizational culture using our CLAIM+G organization transformation model.

SAFE Value Canvas
Use a value campus to define jobs, pains, gains, pain relievers, gain creators, and needed deliverables to help inform and guide your SAFe transformation.

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

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