Design a Business-Aligned Security Program

Focus on business value first.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Analyst Perspective

Business alignment is no accident.

Security leaders often tout their choice of technical security framework as the first and most important program decision they make. While the right framework can help you take a snapshot of the maturity of your program and produce a quick strategy and roadmap, it won’t help you align, modernize, or transform your program to meet emerging business requirements. Common technical security frameworks focus on operational controls rather than business services and value creation. They are difficult to convey to business stakeholders and provide little program management or implementation guidance. Focus on business value first, and the security services that enable it. Your organization has its own distinct character and profile. Understand what makes your organization unique, then design and refine the design of your security program to ensure it supports the right capabilities. Next, collaborate with stakeholders to ensure the right accountabilities, roles, and responsibilities are in place to support the implementation of the security program.

Michel Hébert Research Director, Security & Privacy Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Info-Tech Insight

You are a business leader who supports business goals and mitigates risk. Focus first on business value and the security services that enable it, not security controls.

Your challenge

The need for a solid and responsive security program has never been greater.

• You need to build a security program that enables business services and secures the technology that makes them possible.
• Building an effective, business-aligned security program requires that you coordinate many components, including technologies, processes, organizational structures, information flows, and behaviors.
• The program must prioritize the right capabilities, and support its implementation with clear accountabilities, roles, and responsibilities.
• You must communicate effectively with stakeholders to describe the risks the organization faces, their likely impact on organizational goals, and how the security program will mitigate those risks and support the creation of business value.

• Ransomware is a persistent threat to organizations worldwide across all industries.

Cybercriminals deploying ransomware are evolving into a growing and sophisticated criminal ecosystem that will continue to adapt to maximize its profits.

• Critical infrastructure is increasingly at risk.

Malicious agents continue to target critical infrastructure to harm industrial processes and the customers they serve State-sponsored actors are expected to continue to target critical infrastructure to collect information through espionage, pre-position in case of future hostilities, and project state power.

• Disruptive technologies bring new threats.

Malicious actors increasingly deceive or exploit cryptocurrencies, machine learning, and artificial intelligence technologies to support their activities.

Sources: CCCS (2023), CISA (2023), ENISA (2023)

Your challenge

Most security programs are not aligned with the overall business strategy.

50% Only half of leaders are framing the impact of security threats as a business risk.

49% Less than half of leaders align security program cost and risk reduction targets with the business.

57% Most leaders still don’t regularly review security program performance of the business.

Source: Tenable, 2021

Common obstacles

Misalignment is hurting your security program and making you less influential.

Organizations with misaligned security programs have 48% more security incidents...

…and the cost of their data breaches are 40% higher than those with aligned programs.

37% of stakeholders still lack confidence in their security program.

54% of senior leaders still doubt security gets the goals of the organization.

Source: Frost & Sullivan, 2019

Source: Ponemon, 2023

Common obstacles

Common security frameworks won’t help you align your program.

• Common security frameworks focus on operational controls rather than business value creation, are difficult to convey to stakeholders, and provide little implementation guidance.
• A security strategy based on the right framework can provide a snapshot of your program, but it won’t help you modernize, transform, or align your program to meet emerging business requirements.
• The lack of guidance leads to a lack of structure in the way security services are designed and managed, which reduces service quality, increases security friction, and reduces business satisfaction.

There is no unique, one-size-fits-all security program.

• Each organization has a distinct character and profile and differs from others in several critical respects. The security program for a cloud-first, DevOps environment must emphasize different capabilities and accountabilities than one for an on-premise environment and a traditional implementation model.

Info-Tech’s approach

You are a business leader who supports business goals and mitigates risk.

• Understand what makes your organization unique, then design and refine a security program with capabilities that create business value.
• Next, collaborate with stakeholders to ensure the right accountabilities, roles, and responsibilities are in place, and build an implementation roadmap to ensure its components work together over time.

Security needs to evolve as a business strategy.

• Laying the right foundations for your security program will inform future security program decisions and give your leadership team the information they need to support your success. You can do it in two steps:
  • Evaluate the design factors that make your organization unique and prioritize the security capabilities to suit. Info-Tech’s approach is based on the design process embedded in the latest COBIT framework.
  • Review the key components of your security program, including security governance, security strategy, security architecture, service design, and service metrics.

If you build it, they will come

“There's so much focus on better risk management that every leadership team in every organization wants to be part of the solution.

If you can give them good data about what things they really need to do, they will work to understand it and help you solve the problem.”

Dan Bowden, CISO, Sentara Healthcare (Tenable)

Design a Business-Aligned Security Program

Choose your own adventure

This blueprint is ideal for new CISOs and for program modernization initiatives.

1. New CISO

“I need to understand the business, prioritize core security capabilities, and identify program accountabilities quickly.”

2. Program Renewal

“The business is changing, and the threat landscape is shifting. I am concerned the program is getting stale.”

Use this blueprint to understand what makes your organization unique:

1. Prioritize security capabilities.
2. Identify program accountabilities.
3. Plan program implementation.

If you need a deep dive into governance, move on to a security governance and management initiative.

3. Program Update

“I am happy with the fundamentals of my security program. I need to assess and improve our security posture.”

Move on to our guidance on how to Build an Information Security Strategy instead.

Info-Tech’s methodology for security program design

Insight Map

You are a business leader first and a security leader second

Technical security frameworks are static and focused on operational controls and standards. They belong in your program’s solar system but not at its center. Design your security program with business value and the security services that enable it in mind, not security controls.

There is no one-size-fits-all security program
Tailor your security program to your organization’s distinct profile to ensure the program generates value.

Lay the right foundations to increase engagement
Map out accountabilities, roles, and responsibilities to ensure the components of your security program work together over time to secure and enable business services.

If you build it, they will come
Your executive team wants to be part of the solution. If you give them reliable data for the things they really need to do, they will work to understand and help you solve the problem.

Blueprint deliverables

Info-Tech supports project and workshop activities with deliverables to help you accomplish your goals and accelerate your success.

Security Program Design Tool

Tailor the security program to what makes your organization unique to ensure alignment.

Security Program Implementation Tool

Assess the current state of different security program components and plan next steps.

SecurityProgram Design and Implementation Plan

Communicate capabilities, accountabilities, and implementation initiatives.

Key deliverable

Security Program Design and Implementation Plan

The design and implementation plan captures the key insights your work will generate, including:

• A prioritized set of security capabilities aligned to business requirements.
• Security program accountabilities.
• Security program implementation initiatives.

Blueprint benefits

Measure the value of using Info-Tech’s approach

Assess the effectiveness of your security program with a risk-based approach.

Measure the impact of your project

Use Info-Tech diagnostics before and after the engagement to measure your progress.

• Info-Tech diagnostics are standardized surveys that produce historical and industry trends against which to benchmark your organization.
• Run the Security Business Satisfaction and Alignment diagnostic now, and again in twelve months to assess business satisfaction with the security program and measure the impact of your program improvements.
• Reach out to your account manager or follow the link to deploy the diagnostic and measure your success. Diagnostics are included in your membership.

Inform this step with Info-Tech diagnostic results

• Info-Tech diagnostics are standardized surveys that accelerate the process of gathering and analyzing pain point data.
• Diagnostics also produce historical and industry trends against which to benchmark your organization.
• Reach out to your account manager or follow the links to deploy some or all these diagnostics to validate your assumptions. Diagnostics are included in your membership.

Governance & Management Maturity Scorecard
Understand the maturity of your security program across eight domains.
Audience: Security Manager

Security Business Satisfaction and Alignment Report
Assess the organization’s satisfaction with the security program.
Audience: Business Leaders

CIO Business Vision
Assess the organization’s satisfaction with IT services and identify relevant challenges.
Audience: Business Leaders

Executive Brief Case Study

INDUSTRY: Higher Education

SOURCE: Interview

Building a business-aligned security program

Portland Community College (PCC) is the largest post-secondary institution in Oregon and serves more than 50,000 students each year. The college has a well-established information technology program, which supports its education mission in four main campuses and several smaller centers.

PCC launched a security program modernization effort to deal with the evolving threat landscape in higher education. The CISO studied the enterprise strategy and goals and reviewed the college’s risk profile and compliance requirements. The exercise helped the organization prioritize security capabilities for the renewal effort and informed the careful assessment of technical controls in the current security program.

Results

Laying the right foundations for the security program helped the security function understand how to provide the organization with a clear report of its security posture. The CISO now reports directly to the board of directors and works with stakeholders to align cost, performance, and risk reduction objectives with the needs of the college.

The security program modernization effort prioritized several critical design factors

• Enterprise Strategy
• Enterprise Goals
• IT Risk Profile
• IT-Related Issues
• IT Threat Landscape
• Compliance Requirements

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

DIY Toolkit

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

Guided Implementation

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

Workshop

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

Consulting

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

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

Guided Implementation

What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

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

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

Workshop Overview

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

Customize your journey

The security design blueprint pairs well with security governance and security strategy.

• The prioritized set of security capabilities you develop during the program design project will inform efforts to develop other parts of your security program, like the security governance and management program and the security strategy.
• Work with your member services director, executive advisor, or technical counselor to scope the journey you need. They will work with you to align the subject matter experts to support your roadmap and workshops.

Identify and Manage Reputational Risk Impacts on Your Organization

Brand reputation is the most valuable asset an organization can protect.

Analyst Perspective

Organizations must diligently assess and protect their reputations, both in the market and internally.

Social media, unprecedented access to good and bad information, and consumer reliance on others’ online opinions force organizations to dedicate more resources to protecting their brand reputation than ever before. Perceptions matter, and you should monitor and protect the perception of your organization with as much rigor as possible to ensure your brand remains recognizable and trusted.

Frank Sewell Research Director, Vendor Management Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Info-Tech Insight

Organizations must evolve their risk assessments to be more adaptive to respond to rapid changes in online media. Ongoing monitoring of social media and the vendors tied to their company is imperative to achieving success and avoiding reputational disasters.

Info-Tech’s multi-blueprint series on vendor risk assessment

There are many individual components of vendor risk beyond cybersecurity.

This series will focus on the individual components of vendor risk and how vendor management practices can facilitate organizations’ understanding of those risks.

Out of scope:
This series will not tackle risk governance, determining overall risk tolerance and appetite, or quantifying inherent risk.

Reputational risk impacts

Potential losses to the organization due to risks to its reputation and brand

In this blueprint, we’ll explore reputational risks (risks to the brand reputation of the organization) and their impacts.

Identify potentially negative events to assess the overall impact on your organization and implement adaptive measures to respond and correct.

Protect your most valuable asset: your brand

25% of a company’s market value is due to reputation (Transmission Private, 2021)	94% of consumers say that a bad review has convinced them to avoid a business (ReviewTrackers, 2022)	14 hours is the average time it takes for a false claim to be corrected on social media (Risk Analysis, 2018)

What is brand recognition?

And the cost of rebranding “Brand recognition is the ability of consumers to recognize an identifying characteristic of one company versus a competitor.” (Investopedia) “Most trademark valuation is based directly on its projected future earning power, based on income history. For a new brand with no history, evaluators must apply experience and common sense to predict the brand's earning potential. They can also use feedback from industry experts, market surveys, and other studies.” (UpCounsel) The cost of rebranding for small to medium businesses is about 10 to 20% of the recommended overall marketing budget and can take six to eight months (Ignyte).

"All we are at our core is our reputation and our brand, and they are intertwined." (Phil Bode, Principal Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group)

What your vendor associations say about you

Bad Customer Reviews Breach of Data Poor Security Posture Negative News Articles Public Lawsuits Poor Performance

How a major vendor protects its brand

An ideal state There is a dedicated brand protection department. All employees are educated annually on brand protection policies and procedures. Brand protection is tied to cybersecurity. The organization actively monitors its brand and reputation through various media formats. The organization has criteria for assessing x-party vendors and holds them accountable through ongoing monitoring and validation of their activities.

Brand Protection Done Right

Story: Monitor your subcontractors

Trust but verify A successful general contractor with a reputation for fairness in their dealings needed a specialist to perform some expert carpentry work for a few of their clients. The contractor gave the specialist the clients’ contact information and trusted them to arrange the work. Weeks later, the contractor checked in with the clients and received a ton of negative feedback: The specialist called them once and never called back. The specialist refused to do the work as described and wanted to charge extra. The specialist performed work to “fix” the issue but cut corners to lessen their costs. As a result, the contractor took extreme measures to regain the clients’ confidence and trust and lost other opportunities in the process.

You work hard for your reputation. Don’t let others ruin it.

Which way is your reputation heading?

• Do you understand and track items that might affect your reputation?
• Do you understand the impact they may have on your business?

What to look for in vendors

Identify potential reputational risk impacts Check online reviews from both customers and employees. Check news sites: Has the vendor been affected by a breach? Is the vendor frequently in the news – good or bad? Greater exposure can cause an uptick in hostile attacks, so make sure the vendor has adequate protections in line with its exposure. Review its financials. Is it prime for an acquisition/bankruptcy or other significant change? Review your contractual protections to ensure that you are made whole in the event something goes wrong. Has anything changed with the vendor that requires you to increase your protections? Has anything changed in the vendor’s market? Is a competitor taking its business, or are its resources stretched on multiple projects due to increased demand?

Assessing Reputational Risk Impacts

		Review Organizational Strategy Understand the organizational strategy to prepare for the “what if” game exercise.
Identify & Understand Potential Risks Play the “what if” game with the right people at the table.
		Create a Risk Profile Packet for Leadership Pull all the information together in a presentation document.
Validate the Risks Work with leadership to ensure that the proposed risks are in line with their thoughts.
		Plan to Manage the Risks Lower the overall risk potential by putting mitigations in place.
Communicate the Plan It is important not only to have a plan but also to socialize it in the organization for awareness.
		Enact the Plan Once the plan is finalized and socialized put it in place with continued monitoring for success.
(Adapted from Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance)

Identify reputational risk

Manage and monitor reputational risk impacts

The “what if” game

Input: List of identified potential risk scenarios scored by likelihood and financial impact, List of potential management of the scenarios to reduce the risk

Output: Comprehensive reputational risk profile on the specific vendor solution

Materials: Whiteboard/flip charts, Reputational Risk Impact Tool to help drive discussion

Participants: Vendor Management Coordinator, Organizational Leadership, Operations Experts (SMEs), Legal/Compliance/Risk Manager, Marketing

Vendor management professionals are in an excellent position to help senior leadership identify and pull together resources across the organization to determine potential risks. By playing the "what if" game and asking probing questions to draw out – or eliminate – possible negative outcomes, everyone involved adds their insight into parts of the organization to gather a comprehensive picture of potential impacts.

1. Break into smaller groups (or if too small, continue as a single group).
2. Use the Reputational Risk Impact Tool to prompt discussion on potential risks. Keep this discussion flowing organically to explore all potential risk but manage the overall process to keep the discussion on track.
3. Collect the outputs and ask the subject matter experts for management options for each one in order to present a comprehensive risk strategy. You will use this to educate senior leadership so that they can make an informed decision to accept or reject the solution.

Download the Reputational Risk Impact Tool

Summary

Be vigilant and adaptable to change Organizations need to learn how to assess the likelihood of potential risks in the changing global markets and recognize how their partnerships and subcontracts affect their brand. Understanding how to monitor social media activity and online content will give you an edge in the current environment. Bring the right people to the table to outline potential risks to your organization’s brand reputation. Socialize the risk management process throughout the organization to heighten awareness and enable employees to help protect the company’s reputation. Incorporate lessons learned from incidents into your risk management process to build better plans for future issues.

Organizations must evolve their risk assessments to be more adaptive to respond to global factors in the market. Ongoing monitoring of online media and the vendors tied to company visibility is imperative to avoiding disaster.

Bibliography

"The CEO Reputation Premium: Gaining Advantage in the Engagement Era." Weber Shandwick, March 2015. Accessed June 2022.

Glidden, Donna. "Don't Underestimate the Need to Protect Your Brand in Publicity Clauses." Info-Tech Research Group, June 2022.

Greenaway, Jordan. "Managing Reputation Risk: A start-to-finish guide." Transmission Private, July 2020. Accessed June 2022.

Jagiello, Robert D., and Thomas T. Hills. “Bad News Has Wings: Dread Risk Mediates Social Amplification in Risk Communication.” Risk Analysis, vol. 38, no. 10, 2018, pp. 2193-2207.

Kenton, Will. "Brand Recognition.” Investopedia, Aug. 2021. Accessed June 2022.

Lischer, Brian. "How Much Does it Cost to Rebrand Your Company?" Ignyte, October 2017. Accessed June 2022.

"Powerful Examples of How to Respond to Negative Reviews." ReviewTrackers, 16 Feb. 2022. Accessed June 2022.

Tonello, Matteo. “Strategic Risk Management: A Primer for Directors.” Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, 23 Aug. 2012. Web.

"Valuation of Trademarks: Everything You Need to Know." UpCounsel, 2022. Accessed June 2022.

Related Info-Tech Research

	Identify and Manage Financial Risk Impacts on Your Organization Identifying and managing a vendor’s potential financial impact requires multiple people in the organization across several functions – and those people all need educating on the potential risks. Organizational leadership is often unaware of decisions on organizational risk appetite and tolerance, and they assume there are more protections in place against risk impact than there truly are.
	Identify and Manage Strategic Risk Impacts on Your Organization Identifying and managing a vendor’s potential strategic impact requires multiple people in the organization across several functions – and those people all need coaching on the potential changes in the market and how these changes affect strategic plans. Organizational leadership is often caught unaware during crises, and their plans lack the flexibility needed to adjust to significant market upheavals.
	Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative Vendor management is not “plug and play” – each organization’s vendor management initiative (VMI) needs to fit its culture, environment, and goals. The key is to adapt vendor management principles to fit your needs…not the other way around. All vendors are not of equal importance to an organization. Classifying or segmenting your vendors allows you to focus your efforts on the most important vendors first, allowing your VMI to have the greatest impact possible.

Research Contributors and Experts

Agile Readiness Assessment

Understand how ready your organization is for an Agile transformation.

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

Analyst Perspective

Use the wisdom of crowds to understand how ready you are for Agile transformation.

Agile transformations can be difficult and complex to implement. That’s because they require fundamental changes in the way an organization thinks and behaves (and many organizations are not ready for these changes).

Use Info-Tech’s Agile Readiness Assessment to broadly survey the organization’s readiness for Agile along six dimensions:

• Culture
• Learning
• Automation
• Integrated teams
• Metrics
• Governance

The survey results will help you to examine and address those areas that are most likely to hinder your move to Agile.

Alex Ciraco
Principal Research Director, Application Delivery and Management
Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

• Your organization wants to shorten delivery time and improve quality by adopting Agile practices.
• Your organization has not yet used Agile successfully.
• You know that Agile transformations are complex and difficult to implement.
• You want to maximize your Agile transformation’s chances of success.

Common Obstacles

• Risks to your Agile transformation can come from a variety of sources, including:
  • Organizational culture
  • Learning practices
  • Use of automation
  • Ability to create integrated teams
  • Use of metrics
  • Governance practices

Info-Tech’s Approach

• Use Info-Tech’s Agile Readiness Assessment to broadly survey your organization’s readiness for Agile.
• Examine the consolidated results of this survey to identify challenges that are most likely to hinder Agile success.
• Discuss and address these challenges to increase your chances of success.

Info-Tech Insight

By first understanding the numerous challenges to Agile transformations and then broadly surveying your organization to identify and address the challenges that are at play, you are more likely to have a successful Agile transformation.

Info-Tech’s methodology

Blueprint deliverables

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

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

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

Guided Implementation

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

A typical GI is between 6 to 8 calls over the course of 1 to 2 months.

What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

Phase 1: Distribute Survey

• Call #1: Scope requirements, objectives, and your specific challenges (identify potential participants).
• Call #2: First call with participants (introduce Phase 1 and assign survey for completion).
• Call #3: Gather survey responses (prep for Phase 2 calls).

Phase 2: Consolidate Survey Results

• Call #4: Consolidate all survey responses using the template.
• Call #5: Conduct initial review of consolidated results (prep for Phase 3 calls).

Phase 3: Examine Results and Problem Solve

• Call #6: Present consolidated results to participants and agree on most pressing challenges.
• Call #7: Brainstorm, identify, and refine potential solutions to most pressing challenges.
• Call #8: Conduct closing and communication call.

Phase 1 —

Customize and distribute the survey

Decide which teams/roles will participate in the survey.

Decide which format and language(s) you will use for your Agile Readiness Assessment Survey.

Configure the survey templates to reflect your selected teams/roles.

Distribute the survey for participants to complete.

• 1.1 The Agile Readiness Assessment Survey will help you to identify both team-specific and organization-wide challenges to your Agile transformation. It is best to distribute the survey broadly across the organization and include several teams and roles. Identify and make note of the teams/roles that will be participating in the survey.
• 1.2 Select which format of survey you will be using (Excel or online), along with the language(s) you will use (links to the survey templates can be found in the table below). Then configure the survey templates to reflect your list of teams/roles from Step 1.1.

Format	Language	Download Survey Template
Excel	English	Agile Readiness Assessment Excel Survey Template – EN and FR
Excel	French
Online	English	Agile Readiness Assessment Online Survey Template – EN
Online	French	Agile Readiness Assessment Online Survey Template – FR



• 1.3 Distribute your Agile Readiness Assessment Survey broadly in the organization. Give all participants a deadline date for completion of the survey.

Phase 2 —

Consolidate Survey Results

Collect and consolidate all survey responses using the template provided.

Review the OVERALL and DETAILED Heatmaps generated by the template.

• 2.1 Collect the survey responses from all participants. All responses completed using the online form will be anonymous (for responses returned using the Excel form, assign each a unique identifier so that anonymity of responses is maintained).
• 2.2 Consolidate the survey responses using the template below. Follow the instructions in the template to incorporate all survey responses.

Download the Agile Readiness Assessment Consolidated Results Tool

Phase 3 —

Examine Survey Results and Problem Solve

Review the consolidated survey results as a team.

Identify the challenges that need the most attention.

Brainstorm potential solutions. Decide which are most promising and create a plan to implement them.

• 3.1 Examine the consolidated results (both OVERALL and DETAILED Heatmaps) and look at both team-specific and organization-wide challenge areas.
• 3.2 Identify which challenge areas need the most attention (typically those that are most red in the heatmap) and discuss these challenges with survey participants.
• 3.3 As a team, brainstorm potential solutions to these challenges. Select from and refine the solutions that are most promising, then create a plan to implement them.

3.1 Exercise: Collaborative Problem Solving —

Input: Consolidated survey results

Output: List of actions to address your most pressing challenges along with a timeline to implement them

Materials: Agile Readiness Assessment Consolidated Results Tool, Whiteboard and markers

Participants: Survey participants, Other interested parties

This exercise will create a plan for addressing your most pressing Agile-related challenges.

• As a team, agree on which survey challenges are most important to address (typically the most red in the heatmap).
• Brainstorm potential solutions/actions to address these challenges.
• Assign solutions/actions to individuals and set a timeline for completion.

Related Info-Tech Research

	Modernize Your SDLC Strategically adopt today’s SDLC good practices to streamline value delivery.
	Implement Agile Practices That Work Guide your organization through its Agile transformation journey.
	Implement DevOps Practices That Work Streamline business value delivery through the strategic adoption of DevOps practices.
	Mentoring for Agile Teams Leverage an experience Agile Mentor to give your in-flight Agile project a helping hand.

Research Contributors and Experts

• Columbus Brown, Senior Principal – Practice Lead – Business Alignment, Daugherty Business Solutions
• Saeed Khan, Founder, Transformation Labs
• Brenda Peshak, Product Owner/Scrum Master/Program Manager, John Deere/Source Allies/Widget Industries LLC
• Vincent Mirabelli, Principal, Global Project Synergy Group
• Len O'Neill, Sr. Vice President and Chief Information Officer, The Suddath Companies
• Shameka A. Jones, MPM, CSM, Lead Business Management Consultant, Mainspring Business Group, LLC
• Ryland Leyton, Lead Business Analyst, Aptos Retail
• Ashish Nangia, Lead Business System Analyst, Ashley Furniture Industries
• Barbara Carkenord, CBAP, IIBA-AAC, PMI-PBA, PMP, SAFe POPM, President, Carkenord Consulting
• Danelkis Serra, CBAP, Chapter Operations Manager, Regions & Chapters, IIBA (International Institute of Business Analysis)
• Lorrie Staples-Ellis, CyberSecurity Integration Strategist, Wealth Management, Truist Bank
• Ginger Sundberg, Independent Consultant
• Kham Raven, Project Manager, Fraud Strategy & Execution, Truist Bank
• Sarah Vollett, PMP, Business Analyst, Operations, College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia
• Nicole J Coyle, ICP-ACC, CEAC, SPC4, SASM, POPM, CSM, ECM, CCMP, CAPM, Team Agile Coach and Team Facilitator, HCQIS Foundational Components
• Joe Glower, IT Director, Jet Support Services, Inc. (JSSI)
• Harsh Daharwal, Senior Director, Application Delivery, J.R. Simplot
• Hans Eckman, Principal Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group
• Valence Howden, Principal Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

Get the Most Out of Workday

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

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Analyst Perspective

Focus optimization on organizational value delivery.

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

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

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

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

Lisa Highfield

Research Director, Enterprise Applications

Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

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

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

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

Common Obstacles

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

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

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

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

Info-Tech's Approach

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

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

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

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

Info-Tech Insight

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

Insight summary

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

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

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

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

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

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

Workday enterprise resource planning (ERP)

Workday

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

What is Workday?

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

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

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

An ERP system:

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

Workday Fast Facts

Product Description

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

Evolution of Workday

Workday HCM 2006

Workday Financial Management 2007

Workday 10 (Finance & HCM) 2010

Workday Student (Higher Education) 2011

Workday Cloud (PAAS) 2017

Acquisition of Adaptive Insights 2018

Acquisition of VNDLY 2021

Vendor Description

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

Employees: 12,500

Headquarters: Pleasanton, CA

Website: workday.com

Founded: 2005

Presence: Global, Publicly Traded

Workday by the numbers

77%

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

50% of Fortune 500

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

40%

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

Workday Finance

A great opportunity for Workday

Workday continues to invest in Workday Finance

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

Recent Finance-Related Acquisitions

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

Workday challenges and dissatisfaction

Workday challenges and dissatisfaction

Organizational

• Competing Priorities
• Lack of Strategy
• Budget Challenges

People and teams

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

Technology

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

Data

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

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

Info-Tech Insight

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

Where are applications leaders focusing?

Big growth numbers

Year-over-year call topic requests

Enterprise Application Optimization - 124%

Product - 65%

Enterprise Application Selection - 76%

Agile - 79%

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

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

Other changes

Year-over-year call topic requests

Application Portfolio Management - 13%

Business Process Management - 4%

Software Development Lifecycle -25%

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

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

Application optimization is risky without a plan

Avoid these common pitfalls:

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

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

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

Blueprint deliverables

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

Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Identify and prioritize your Workday optimization goals.

Application Portfolio Assessment

Assess IT-enabled user satisfaction across your Workday portfolio.

Key deliverable:

Workday Optimization Roadmap

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

Case Study

MANAGED AP AUTOMATION with OneSource Virtual

TripAdvisor + OneSource

INDUSTRY: Travel

SOURCE: OneSource Virtual, 2017

Challenge

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

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

Requirements included:

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

Solution

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

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

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

Results

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

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

DIY Toolkit

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

Guided Implementation

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

Workshop

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

Consulting

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

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

Guided Implementation

What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

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

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

Phase 1

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

Phase 2

Call #2:

• Build the Workday team.
• Align organizational goals.

Call #3:

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

Phase 3

Call #4: Understand product satisfaction and vendor management.

Call #5: Review APA results.

Call #6: Understand Workday optimization opportunities.

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

Phase 4

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

Workshop Overview

Contact your account representative for more information.

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

Phase 1

Map Current-State Capabilities

Phase 1

1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

1.2 Build an ERP Strategy Model

1.3 Inventory Current System State

1.4 Define Optimization Timeframe

1.5 Understand Workday Costs

Phase 2

2.1 Assess Workday Capabilities

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

Phase 3

3.1 Prioritize Optimization Opportunities

3.2 Discover Optimization Initiatives

Phase 4

4.1 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

This phase will guide you through the following activities:

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

This phase involves the following participants:

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

Step 1.1

Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

Activities

1.1.1 Identify Stakeholders Critical to Success

1.1.2 Map Your Workday Optimization Stakeholders

1.1.3 Determine Your Workday Optimization Team

Map Current State Capabilities

Step 1.1

Step 1.2

Step 1.3

Step 1.4

Step 1.5

This step will guide you through the following activities:

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

This step involves the following participants:

• Stakeholders
• Project sponsors and leaders

Outcomes of this step

• Stakeholder map
• Workday optimization team

ERP optimization stakeholders

• Understand the roles necessary to Get the Most Out of Your Workday.
• Understand the role of each player within your project structure. Look for listed participants on the activities slides to determine when each player should be involved.

Info-Tech Insight

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

1.1.1 Identify Workday optimization stakeholders

1 hour

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

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Understand how to navigate the complex web of stakeholders in ERP

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

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

Activity 1.1.2 Map your Workday optimization stakeholders

1 hour

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

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Map the organization’s stakeholders

The Workday optimization team

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

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

1.1.3 Determine your Workday optimization team

1 hour

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

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

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Step 1.2

Build an ERP Strategy Model

Activities

1.2.1 Explore Organizational Goals and Business Needs

1.2.2 Discover Environmental Factors and Technology Drivers

1.2.3 Consider Potential Barriers to Achieving Workday Optimization

1.2.4 Set the Foundation for Success

1.2.5 Discuss Workday Strategy and Develop Your ERP Optimization Goals

Map Current State Capabilities

Step 1.1

Step 1.2

Step 1.3

Step 1.4

Step 1.5

This step will guide you through the following activities:

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

This step involves the following participants:

• Workday Optimization Team

Outcomes of this step

• ERP business model
• Strategy alignment

Align your Workday strategy with the corporate strategy

Corporate Strategy

Your corporate strategy:

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

Unified ERP Strategy

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

IT Strategy

Your IT strategy:

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

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

ERP Business Model Template

Conduct interviews to elicit the business context

Stakeholder Interviews

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

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

INTERVIEWS MUST UNCOVER:

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

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

Info-Tech Insight

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

1.2.1 Explore organizational goals and business needs

60 minutes

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

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

Organizational Goals

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

Business Needs

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

ERP Business Model

Organizational Goals

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

Business Needs

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

Understand the technology drivers and environmental factors

Info-Tech Insight

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

1.2.2 Discover environmental factors and technology drivers

30 minutes

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

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

External Considerations

• Funding constraints
• Regulations

Technology Considerations

• Data accuracy
• Data quality
• Better reporting

Functional Requirements

• Information availability
• Integration between systems
• Secure data

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

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

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

Common Internal Barriers

1.2.3 Consider potential barriers to achieving Workday optimization

1-3 hours

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

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

Functional Gaps

• No online purchase order requisitions

Technical Gaps

• Inconsistent reporting – data quality concerns

Process Gaps

• Duplication of data
• Lack of system integration

Barriers to Success

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

ERP Business Model

Organizational Goals

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

Barriers

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

What does success look like?

Top 15 Critical Success Factors for ERP System Implementation

(Epizitone and Olugbara, 2019; CC BY 4.0)

Info-Tech Insight

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

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

1.2.3 Set the foundation for success

1-3 hours

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

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

Business Benefits

• Business-IT alignment

IT Benefits

• Compliance
• Scalability
• Operational efficiency

Organizational Benefits

• Data accuracy
• Data quality
• Better reporting

Enablers of Success

• Change management
• Training
• Alignment with strategic objectives

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

ERP Business Model

Organizational Goals

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

Enablers

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

The Business Value Matrix

Rationalizing and quantifying the value of Workday

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

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

Organizational Goals

Increased Revenue

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

Reduced Costs

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

Enhanced Services

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

Reach Customers

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

Business Value Matrix

1.2.4 Define your Workday strategy and optimization goals

30 minutes

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

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Workday strategy and optimization goals

Key Themes Emerging / Workday Strategy

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

Optimization Goals

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

Step 1.3

Inventory Current System State

Activities

1.3.1 Inventory Workday Applications and Interactions

1.3.2 Draw Your Workday System Diagram

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

1.3.4 Define Your Key Workday Optimization Modules and Business Capabilities

Map Current-State Capabilities

Step 1.1

Step 1.2

Step 1.3

Step 1.4

Step 1.5

This step will guide you through the following activities:

• Inventory of applications
• Mapping interactions between systems

This step involves the following participants:

• Workday Optimization Team
• Enterprise Architect
• Data Architect

Outcomes of this step

• Systems inventory
• Systems diagram

1.3.1 Inventory Workday applications and interfaces

1-3+ hours

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

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

ERP Data Flow

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

1.3.2 Draw your Workday system diagram (optional)

1-3+ hours

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Sample Workday and integrations map

Business capability map (Level 0)

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

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

Business capabilities:

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

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

The value stream

Value stream defined:

Value Streams:

Design Product

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

Produce Product

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

Sell Product

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

Customer Service

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

Value streams connect business goals to the organization’s value realization activities in the marketplace. Those activities are dependent on the specific industry segment in which an organization operates. There are two types of value streams: core value streams and support value streams.

• Core value streams are mostly externally facing. They deliver value to either an external or internal customer and they tie to the customer perspective of the strategy map.
• Support value streams are internally facing and provide the foundational support for an organization to operate.

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

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

Process frameworks

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

(APQC)

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

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

APQC’s Process Classification Framework

Process mapping hierarchy

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

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

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

APQC’s Process Classification Framework

(APQC)

Focus on level-1 processes

Info-Tech Insight

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

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

Process mapping and supporting ERP modules

The operating model

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

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

Workday modules and process enablement

Workday Finance

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

Spend Management

• Strategic Sourcing
• Procure to Pay
• Inventory
• Expenses

Professional Services Automation

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

Enterprise Planning

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

Analytics and Reporting

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

Student

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

Human Capital Management (HCM)

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

Payroll and Workforce Management

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

Employee Experience

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

Talent and Performance

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

1.3.3 Inventory your Workday modules and business capabilities

1-3+ hours

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

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

1.3.4 Define your key Workday optimization modules and business capabilities

1-3+ hours

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

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Step 1.4

Define Optimization Timeframe

Activities

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

Map Current-State Capabilities

Step 1.1

Step 1.2

Step 1.3

Step 1.4

Step 1.5

This step will guide you through the following activities:

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

This step involves the following participants:

• Workday Optimization Team
• Vendor Management

Outcomes of this step

• Optimization Key Dates
• Optimization Roadmap Timeframe and Structure

1.4.1 Optimization roadmap timeframe and structure

1-3+ hours

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

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Step 1.5

Understand Workday Costs

Activities

1.5.1 Document Costs Associated With Workday

Map Current-State Capabilities

Step 1.1

Step 1.2

Step 1.3

Step 1.4

Step 1.5

This step will walk you through the following activities:

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

This step involves the following participants:

• Finance representatives
• Workday Optimization Team

Outcomes of this step

• Current Workday and related costs

1.5.1 Document costs associated with Workday

1-3 hours

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

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

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Phase 2

Assess Your Current State

Phase 1

1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

1.2 Build an ERP Strategy Model

1.3 Inventory Current System State

1.4 Define Optimization Timeframe

1.5 Understand Workday Costs

Phase 2

2.1 Assess Workday Capabilities

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

Phase 3

3.1 Prioritize Optimization Opportunities

3.2 Discover Optimization Initiatives

Phase 4

4.1 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

This phase will guide you through the following activities:

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

This phase involves the following participants:

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

Step 2.1

Assess Workday Capabilities

Activities

2.1.1 Rate Capability Relevance to Organizational Goals

2.1.2 Complete a Workday Application Portfolio Assessment

2.1.3 (Optional) Assess Workday Process Maturity

Assess Workday Capabilities

Step 2.1

Step 2.2

This step will guide you through the following activities:

• Capability Relevance
• Process Gap Analysis
• Application Portfolio Assessment

This step involves the following participants:

• Workday Users

Outcomes of this step

• Workday Capability Assessment

Benefits of the Application Portfolio Assessment

Assess the health of the application portfolio

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

Provide targeted department feedback

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

Gain insight into the state of data quality

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

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

3 hours

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

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

Option 2: Create a survey manually.

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

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

2.1.2 Complete the Application Portfolio Assessment

3 hours

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

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

Option 2: Create a survey manually.

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

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

2.1.3 (Optional) Assess Workday process maturity

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

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Process Maturity Assessment

Process Assessment

Strong

Moderate

Weak

1.1 Financial Planning and Analysis

1.2 Accounting and Financial Close

1.3 Treasury Management

1.4 Financial Operations

1.5 Governance, Risk & Compliance

2.1 Core HR

Stakeholders Interviewed:

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

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

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

Capability Processes:

General Ledger

Accounts Receivable

Incentives Management

Accounts Payable

General Ledger Consolidation

Treasury Management

Cash Management

Subscription / recurring payments

Treasury Transactions

Step 2.2

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

Activities

2.2.1 Rate Your Vendor and Product Satisfaction

2.2.2 Review Workday Product Scores (if applicable)

2.2.3 Evaluate Your Product Satisfaction

2.2.4 Check Your Business Process Change Tolerance

Product Satisfaction

Step 2.1

Step 2.2

This step will guide you through the following activities:

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

This step involves the following participants:

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

Outcomes of this step

• Quantified satisfaction with vendor and product

2.2.1 Rate your vendor and product satisfaction

30 minutes

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

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

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

SoftwareReviews’ Enterprise Resource Planning Category

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

2.2.2 Review Workday product scores (if applicable)

30 minutes

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

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

SoftwareReviews’ Enterprise Resource Planning Category

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

2.2.3 How does your satisfaction compare with your peers?

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

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

2.2.4 Check your business process change tolerance

1 hours

Input

• Business process capability map

Output

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

Materials

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

Participants

• Implementation team
• SMEs
• Departmental Leaders

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

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

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

Legend:

Willing to follow best practice

May be challenging or unique business model

Low tolerance for change

Out of Scope

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

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

Phase 3

Identify Key Optimization Opportunities

Phase 1

1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

1.2 Build an ERP Strategy Model

1.3 Inventory Current System State

1.4 Define Optimization Timeframe

1.5 Understand Workday Costs

Phase 2

2.1 Assess Workday Capabilities

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

Phase 3

3.1 Prioritize Optimization Opportunities

3.2 Discover Optimization Initiatives

Phase 4

4.1 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

• Identify key optimization areas
• Create an optimization roadmap

This phase involves the following participants:

• Workday Optimization Team

Step 3.1

Prioritize optimization opportunities

Activities

3.1.1 Prioritize Optimization Capability Areas

Build Your Optimization Roadmap

Step 3.1

Step 3.2

This step will guide you through the following activities:

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

This step involves the following participants:

• Workday Optimization Team

Outcomes of this step

• Application optimization plan

Info-Tech Insight

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

Address process gaps:

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

Support user satisfaction:

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

Improve data quality:

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

Proactively manage vendors:

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

Assessing application business value

The Business

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

Business Value of Applications

IT

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

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

In this context…

business value is

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

Business value IS NOT

the user’s experience or satisfaction with the application.

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

Create or Improve:

• ERP Capabilities
• Optimization Initiatives

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

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

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

• Process
• Technology
• Organization

Discover the value drivers of your applications

Financial vs. Human Benefits

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

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

Inward vs. Outward Orientation

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

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

Increased Revenue

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

Reduced Costs

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

Enhanced Services

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

Reach Customers

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

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

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

Value vs. Effort

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

(Roadmunk)

RICE method

Measure the “total impact per time worked”

(Intercom)

3.1.1 Prioritize and rate optimization capability areas

1-3 hours

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

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Step 3.2

Discover Optimization Initiatives

Activities

3.2.1 Discover Product and Vendor Satisfaction Opportunities

3.2.2 Discover Capability and Feature Optimization Opportunities

3.2.3 Discover Process Optimization Opportunities

3.2.4 Discover Integration Optimization Opportunities

3.2.5 Discover Data Optimization Opportunities

3.2.6 Discover Workday Cost-Saving Opportunities

Build Your Optimization Roadmap

Step 3.1

Step 3.2

This step will guide you through the following activities:

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

This step involves the following participants:

• Workday Optimization Team

Outcomes of this step

• Application optimization plan

Workday’s partner landscape

Workday uses an extensive partner network to help deliver results.

ADVISORY PARTNERS

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

SERVICES PARTNERS

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

SOFTWARE PARTNERS

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

Global payroll PARTNERS

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

Adaptive planning PARTNERS

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

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

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

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

Improving vendor management

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

Info-Tech Insight

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

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

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

Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative

3.2.1 Discover product and vendor satisfaction

1-2 hours

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

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

3.2.2 Discover capability and feature optimization opportunities

1-2 hours

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

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Process optimization: the hidden goldmine

Know your strategic goals and KPIs that will deliver results.

3.2.3 Discover process optimization opportunities

1-2 hours

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

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Integration provides long-term usability

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

The benefits of integration

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

The challenges of integration

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

Common integration and consolidation scenarios

For more information: Implement a Multi-site ERP

3.2.4 Discover integration optimization opportunities

1-2 hours

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

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

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

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

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

Key considerations:

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

Info-Tech Insight

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

Optimizing Workday data, additional considerations

3.2.5 Discover data optimization opportunities

1-2 hours

1. Use your 2.1 APA survey and/or tab 2.2 Vendor & Prod Sat to better understand issues related to data.

• Note: Data issues happen for a number of reasons:
  • Poor underlying data in the system
  • More than one source of truth
  • Inability to consolidate data
  • Inability to measure KPIs (key performance indicators) effectively
  • Reporting that is cumbersome or non-existent

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Info-Tech Insight

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

Approach contracts and pricing strategically

Don’t go into contract negotiation blind.

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

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

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

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

3.2.6 Discover Workday cost-saving opportunities

1-2 hours

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

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Other optimization opportunities

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

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

Phase 4

Build Your Optimization Roadmap

Phase 1

1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Build Your Optimization Team

1.2 Build an ERP Strategy Model

1.3 Inventory Current System State

1.4 Define Optimization Timeframe

1.5 Understand Workday Costs

Phase 2

2.1 Assess Workday Capabilities

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

Phase 3

3.1 Prioritize Optimization Opportunities

3.2 Discover Optimization Initiatives

Phase 4

4.1 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

This phase will walk you through the following activities:

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

This phase involves the following participants:

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

Get the Most Out of Your Workday

Step 4.1

4.1 Build Your Optimization Roadmap

Activities

4.1.1 Evaluate Optimization Initiatives

4.1.2 Prioritize Your Workday Initiatives

4.1.3 Build a Roadmap

4.1.4 Build a Visual Roadmap

Next steps

Step 4.1

This step will walk you through the following activities:

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

This step involves the following participants:

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

Outcomes of this step

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

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

Activity 4.1.1 Evaluate optimization Initiatives

1 hour

1. Evaluate your optimization initiatives from tab 3.2, Optimization Initiatives.
2. Complete Value Drivers:

• Relevance to Organizational Goals and Objectives
• Applications Portfolio Assessment Survey:
  • Impact: Number of Users, Importance to Role
  • Current State: Satisfaction With Features, Usability, and Data Quality.
• Value Drivers: Increase Revenue, Decrease Costs, Enhanced Services, or Reach Customers.
• Additional Factors:
  • Current to Future Risk Profile
  • Number of Departments to Benefit
  • Importance to Stakeholder Relations

• Resources: Do we have resources available and the skillset?
• Cost
• Overall Effort Rating

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Activity 4.1.2 Determine your optimization roadmap building blocks

1 hour

Optimization initiatives: Determine which if any to proceed with.

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

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

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

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

1 hour

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

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

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

Download the Get the Most Out of Your Workday Workbook

Summary of Accomplishment

Get the Most Out of Your Workday

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

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

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

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

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

Contact your account representative for more information.

workshops@infotech.com

1-888-670-8889

Research Contributors

Ben Dickie

Research Practice Lead

Info-Tech Research Group

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

Scott Bickley

Practice Lead and Principal Research

Director Info-Tech Research Group

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

Andy Neil

Practice Lead, Applications

Info-Tech Research Group

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

Bibliography

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Define the Role of Project Management in Agile and Product-Centric Delivery

Projects and products are not mutually exclusive.

Table of Contents

3 Analyst Perspective

4 Executive Summary

7 Step 1.1: Clarify How You Want to Talk About Projects and Products

13 Step 1.2: Align Project Management and Agility

16 Step 1.3: Specify the Different Activities for Project Management

20 Step 1.4: Identify Key Differences in Funding of Products Instead of Projects

25 Where Do I Go Next?

26 Bibliography

Analyst Perspective

Project management still has an important role to play!

When moving to more product-centric delivery practices, many assume that projects are no longer necessary. That isn’t necessarily the case!

Product delivery can mean different things to different organizations, and in many cases it can involve the need to maintain both projects and project delivery.

Projects are a necessary vehicle in many organizations to drive value delivery, and the activities performed by project managers still need to be done by someone. It is the form and who is involved that will change the most.

Ari Glaizel Practice Lead, Applications Delivery and Management Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Info-Tech Insight

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to product delivery. For many organizations product delivery requires detailed project management practices, while for others it requires much less. Taking an outcome-first approach when planning your product transformation is critical to make the right decision on the balance between project and product management.

Your evolution of delivery practice is not a binary switch

1. PROJECTS WITH WATERFALL The project manager is accountable for delivery of the project, and the project manager owns resources and scope.
2. PROJECTS WITH AGILE DELIVERY A transitional state where the product owner is accountable for feature delivery and the project manager accountable for the overall project.
3. PRODUCTS WITH AGILE PROJECT AND OPERATIONAL DELIVERY The product owner is accountable for the delivery of the project and products, and the project manager plays a role of facilitator and enabler.
4. PRODUCTS WITH AGILE DELIVERY Delivery of products can happen without necessarily having projects. However, projects could be instantiated to cover major initiatives.

Info-Tech Insight

• Organizations do not need to go to full product and Agile delivery to improve delivery practices! Every organization needs to make its own determination on how far it needs to go. You can do it in one step or take each step and evaluate how well you are delivering against your goals and objectives.
• Many organizations will go to Products With Agile Project and Operational Delivery, and some will go to Products With Agile Delivery.

Activities to undertake as you transition to product-centric delivery

1. PROJECTS WITH WATERFALL
   • Clarify how you want to talk about projects and products. The center of the conversation will start to change.
2. PROJECTS WITH AGILE DELIVERY
   • Align project management and agility. They are not mutually exclusive (but not necessarily always aligned).
3. PRODUCTS WITH AGILE PROJECT AND OPERATIONAL DELIVERY
   • Specify the different activities for project management. As you mature your product practices, project management becomes a facilitator and collaborator.
4. PRODUCTS WITH AGILE DELIVERY
   • Identify key differences in funding. Delivering products instead of projects requires a change in the focus of your funding.

Step 1.1

Clarify How You Want to Talk About Projects and Products

Activities

• 1.1.1 Define “product” and “project” in your context
• 1.1.2 Brainstorm potential changes in the role of projects as you become Agile and product-centric

This step involves the following participants:

• Product owners
• Product managers
• Development team leads
• Portfolio managers
• Business analysts

Outcomes of this step

• An understanding of how the role can change through the evolution from project to more product-centric practices

Definition of terms

Project “A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. The temporary nature of projects indicates a beginning and an end to the project work or a phase of the project work. Projects can stand alone or be part of a program or portfolio.” (PMBOK, PMI)

Product “A tangible solution, tool, or service (physical or digital) that enables the long-term and evolving delivery of value to customers and stakeholders based on business and user requirements.” (Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision, Info-Tech Research Group)

Info-Tech InsightLet these definitions be a guide, not necessarily to be taken verbatim. You need to define these terms in your context based on your particular needs and objectives. The only caveat is to be consistent with your usage of these terms in your organization.

1.1.1 Define “product” and “project” in your context

Output: Your enterprise/organizational definition of products and projects

Participants: Executives, Product/project managers, Applications teams

1. Discuss what “product” and “project” mean in your organization.
2. Create common, enterprise-wide definitions for “product” and “project.”

Agile and product management does not mean projects go away

Projects Within Products

Regardless of whether you recognize yourself as a “product-based” or “project-based” shop, the same basic principles should apply.

You go through a period or periods of project-like development to build or implement a version of an application or product.

You also have parallel services along with your project development that encompass the more product-based view. These may range from basic support and maintenance to full-fledged strategy teams or services like sales and marketing.

Info-Tech Note

As your product transformation continues, projects can become optional and needed only as part of your organization’s overall delivery processes

Identify the differences between a project-centric and a product-centric organization

Info-Tech Insight

Product delivery requires significant shifts in the way you complete development and implementation work and deliver value to your users. Make the changes that support improving end-user value and enterprise alignment.

1.1.2 Brainstorm potential changes in the role of projects as you become Agile and product-centric

5-10 minutes

Output: Increased appreciation of the relationship between project and product delivery

Participants: Executives, Product/project managers, Applications teams

• Discuss as a group:
  • What stands out in the evolution from project to product?
  • What concerns do you have with the change?
  • What will remain the same?
  • Which changes feel the most impactful?
  

Step 1.2

Align Project Management and Agility

Activities

• 1.2.1 Explore gaps in Agile/product-centric delivery of projects

This step involves the following participants:

• Executives
• Product/Project managers
• Applications teams

Outcomes of this step

• A clearer view of how agility can be introduced into projects.

Challenges with the project management role in Agile and product-centric organizations

Many project managers feel left out in the cold. That should not be the case!

In product-centric, Agile teams, many roles that a project manager previously performed are now taken care of to different degrees by the product owner, delivery team, and process manager.

The overall change alters the role of project management from one that orchestrates all activities to one that supports, monitors, and escalates.

Product Owner

• Defines the “what” and heavily involved in the “when” and the “why”
• Accountable for delivery of value

Delivery team members

• Define the “how”
• Accountable for building and delivering high-quality deliverables
• Can include roles like user experience, interaction design, business analysis, architecture

Process Manager

• Facilitates the other teams to ensure valuable delivery
• Can potentially, in a Scrum environment, play the scrum master role, which involves leading scrums, retrospectives, and sprint reviews and working to resolve team issues and impediments
• Evolves into more of a facilitator and communicator role

1.2.1 Explore gaps in Agile/ product-centric delivery of projects

5-10 minutes

Output: An assessment of what is in the way to effectively deliver on Agile and product-focused projects

Participants: Executives, Product/project managers, Applications teams

• Discuss as a group:
  • What project management activities do you see in Agile/product roles?
  • What gaps do you see?
  • How can project management help Agile/product teams be successful?

Step 1.3

Specify the Different Activities for Project Management

Activities

• 1.3.1 Articulate the changes in a project manager’s role

This step involves the following participants:

• Executives
• Product/Project managers
• Applications teams

Outcomes of this step

• An understanding of the role of project management in an Agile and product context

Kicking off the project

Product-centric delivery still requires key activities to successfully deliver value. Where project managers get their information from does change.

Project Charter Project managers should still define a charter and capture the vision and scope. The vision and high-level scope is primarily defined by the product owner. Key Stakeholders and Communication Clearly defining stakeholders and communication needs is still important. However, they are defined based on significant input and cues by the product owner. Standardizing on Tools and Processes To ensure consistency across projects, project managers will want to align tools to how the team manages their backlog and workflow. This will smooth communication about status with stakeholders.

Info-Tech Insight

1. Product management plays a similar role to the one that was traditionally filled by the project sponsor except for a personal accountability to the product beyond the life of the project.
2. When fully transitioned to product-centric delivery, these activities could be replaced by a product canvas. See Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision for more information.

During the project: Three key activities

The role of project management evolves from a position of ownership to a position of communication, collaboration, and coordination.

Support Communicate Agile/product team needs to leadership Liaise and co-ordinate for non-Agile/product-focused parts of the organization Coach members of the team Monitoring Regular status updates to PMO still required Metrics aligned with Agile/product practices Leverage similar tooling and approaches to what is done locally on Agile/product teams (if possible) Escalation Still a key escalation point for roadblocks that go outside the product teams Collaborate closely with Agile/product team leadership and scrum masters (if applicable)

1.3.1: Articulate the changes in a project manager’s role

5-10 minutes

Output: Current understanding of the role of project management in Agile/product delivery

Participants: Executives, Product/project managers, Applications teams

Why is this important?

Project managers still have a role to play in Agile projects and products. Agreeing to what they should be doing is critical to successfully moving to a product-centric approach to delivery.

• Review how Info-Tech views the role of project management at project initiation and during the project.
• Review the state of your Agile and product transformation, paying special attention to who performs which roles.
• Discuss as a group:
  • What are the current activities of project managers in your organization?
  • Based on how you see delivery practices evolving, what do you see as the new role of project managers when it comes to Agile-centric and product-centric delivery.

Step 1.4

Identify Key Differences in Funding of Products Instead of Projects

Activities

• 1.4.1 Discuss traditional versus product-centric funding methods

This step involves the following participants:

• Executives
• Product owners
• Product managers
• Project managers
• Delivery managers

Outcomes of this step

• Identified differences in funding of products instead of projects

Planning and budgeting for products and families

Reward for delivering outcomes, not features

Autonomy Fund what delivers value Fund long-lived delivery of value through products (not projects). Give autonomy to the team to decide exactly what to build.

Flexibility Allocate iteratively Allocate to a pool based on higher-level business case. Provide funds in smaller amounts to different product teams and initiatives based on need.

Accountability Measure and adjust Product teams define metrics that contribute to given outcomes. Track progress and allocate more (or less) funds as appropriate.

Info-Tech Insight Changes to funding require changes to product and Agile practices to ensure product ownership and accountability.

(Adapted from Bain & Company)

Budgeting approaches must evolve as you mature your product operating environment

Info-Tech Insight

As you evolve your approach to product delivery, you will be decoupling the expected benefits, forecast, and budget. Managing them independently will improve your ability adapt to change and drive the right outcomes!

1.4.1 Discuss traditional versus product-centric funding methods

Output: Understanding of funding principles and challenges

Participants: Executives, Product owners, Product managers, Project managers, Delivery managers

1. Discuss how projects are currently funded.
2. Review how the Agile/product funding models differ from how you currently operate.
3. What changes do you need to consider to support a product delivery model?
4. For each change, identify the key stakeholders and list at least one action to take.

Case Study

Global Digital Financial Services Company This financial services company looked to drive better results by adopting more product-centric practices. Its projects exhibited: High complexity/strong dependencies between components High implementation effort High clarification/reconciliation (more than two departments involved) Multiple methodologies (Agile/Waterfall/Hybrid) The team recognized they could not get rid of projects entirely, but getting to a level where there was a coordinated delivery between projects and products being implemented is important. Results Moving several initiatives to more product-centric practices allowed for: Delivery within current assigned capacity Limited need for coordination across departments Lower complexity A unified Agile approach to delivery Through balancing the needs of projects and products, there were three key insights about the project management’s role: The role of project management changes depending on the context of the work. There is no one-size-fits-all definition. Project management played a much bigger role when work spanned multiple products and business units. Project management was used as a key coordinator when delivery became complicated and multilayered.

Where Do I Go Next?

Bibliography

Cobb, Chuck. “Are there Project Managers in Agile?” High Impact Project Management, n.d. Web.

Cohn, Mike. “What Is a Product?” Mountain Goat Software, 6 Sept. 2016. Web.

Cobb, Chuck. “Agile Project Manager Job Description.” High Impact Project Management, n.d. Web.

“How do you define a product?” Scrum.org, 4 April 2017. Web.

Johnson, Darren, et al. “How to Plan and Budget for Agile at Scale.” Bain & Company, 8 Oct. 2019. Web.

“Product Definition.” SlideShare, uploaded by Mark Curphey, 25 Feb. 2007. Web.

Project Management Institute. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide). 7th ed., Project Management Institute, 2021.

Schuurman, Robbin. “Scrum Master vs Project Manager – An Overview of the Differences.” Scrum.org, 11 Feb 2020. Web.

Schuurman, Robbin. “Product Owner vs Project Manager.” Scrum.org, 12 March 2020. Web.

Vlaanderen, Kevin. “Towards Agile Product and Portfolio Management.” Academia.edu, 2010. Web.

“What is a Developer in Scrum?” Scrum.org, n.d. Web.

“What is a Scrum Master?” Scrum.org, n.d. Web.

“What is a Product Owner?” Scrum.org, n.d. Web.

Build a Value Measurement Framework

Focus product delivery on business value–driven outcomes.

ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

"A meaningful measurable definition of value is the key to effectively managing the intake, prioritization, and delivery of technology-enabled products and services."

Cole Cioran,

Senior Director, Research – Application Development and Portfolio Management

Info-Tech Research Group

Our understanding of the problem

This Research Is Designed For:

• CIOs who need to understand the value IT creates
• Application leaders who need to make good decisions on what work to prioritize and deliver
• Application and project portfolio managers who need to ensure the portfolio creates business value
• Product owners who are accountable for delivering value

This Research Will Help You:

• Define quality in your organization’s context from both business and IT perspectives.
• Define a repeatable process to understand the value of a product, application, project, initiative, or enhancement.
• Define value sources and metrics.
• Create a tool to make it easier to balance different sources of value.

This Research Will Also Assist:

• Product and application delivery teams who want to make better decisions about what they deliver
• Business analysts who need to make better decisions about how to prioritize their requirements

This Research Will Help Them:

• Create a meaningful relationship with business partners around what creates value for the organization.
• Enable better understanding of your customers and their needs.

Executive summary

Situation

• Measuring the business value provided by IT is critical for improving the relationship between business and IT.
• Rapid changes in today’s market require rapid, value-based decisions.
• Every organization has unique drivers that make it difficult to see the benefits based on time and impact approaches to prioritization.

Complication

• An organization’s lack of a shared definition of value leads to politics and decision making that does not have a firm, quantitative basis.
• Different parts of an organization have different value drivers that must be given balanced consideration.
• Focusing solely on revenue does not necessarily result in the right outcomes.

Resolution

• Standardize your definition of business value. Work with your business partners to define the different sources of business value that are created through technology-enabled products and services.
• Weigh your value drivers. Ensure business and IT understand the relative weight and priority of the different sources of business value you have identified.
• Use a balanced scorecard to understand value. Use the different value drivers to understand and prioritize different products, applications, projects, initiatives, and enhancements.

Info-Tech Insight

1. Business is the authority on business value. While IT can identify some sources of value, business stakeholders must participate in the creation of a definition that is meaningful to the whole organization.
2. It’s about more than profit. Organizations must have a definition that encompasses all of the sources of value, or they risk making short-term decisions with long-term negative impacts.
3. Technology creates business value. Treating IT as a cost center makes for short-sighted decisions in a world where every business process is enabled by technology.

Software is not currently creating the right outcomes

Software products are taking more and more out of IT budgets.

38% of spend on IT employees goes to software roles.

Source: Info-Tech’s Staffing Survey

18% of opex is spent on software licenses.

Source: SoftwareReviews.com

33% of capex is spent on new software.

However, the reception and value of software products do not justify the money invested.

Only 34% of software is rated as both important and effective by users.

Source: Info-Tech’s CIO Business Vision

IT benchmarks do not help or matter to the business. Focus on the metrics that represent business outcomes.

IT departments have a tendency to measure only their own role-based activities and deliverables, which only prove useful for selling practice improvement services. Technology doesn’t exist for technology's sake. It’s in place to generate specific outcomes. IT and the business need to be aligned toward a common goal of enabling business outcomes, and that’s the important measurement.

"In today’s connected world, IT and business must not speak different languages. "

– Cognizant, 2017

CxOs stress the importance of value as the most critical area for IT to improve reporting

N=469 CxOs from Info-Tech’s CEO/CIO Alignment Diagnostic

Key stakeholders want to know how you and your products or services help them realize their goals.

While the basics of value are clear, few take the time to reach a common definition and means to measure and apply value

Often, IT misses the opportunity to become a strategic partner because it doesn’t understand how to communicate and measure its value to the business.

"Price is what you pay. Value is what you get."

– Warren Buffett

Being able to understand the value context will allow IT to articulate where IT spend supports business value and how it enables business goal achievement.

Value is...

Derived from business context

Enabled through governance and strategy

The underlying context for decision making

A measure of achievement

Determine your business context by assessing the goals and defining the unique value drivers in your organization

Competent organizations know that value cannot always be represented by revenue or reduced expenses. However, it is not always apparent how to envision the full spectrum of sources of value. Dissecting value by the benefit type and the value source’s orientation allows you to see the many ways in which a product or service brings value to the organization.

Financial Benefits vs. Improved Capabilities

Inward vs. Outward Orientation

Inward refers to value sources that have an internal impact and improve your organization’s effectiveness and efficiency in performing its operations.Outward refers to value sources that come from your interaction with external factors, such as the market or your customers.

See your strategy through by involving both IT and the business

Buy-in for your IT strategy comes from the ability to showcase value. IT needs to ensure it has an aligned understanding of what is valuable to the organization.

Business value needs to first be established by the business. After that, IT can build a partnership with the business to determine what that value means in the context of IT products and services.

Measure your product or services with Info-Tech’s Value Measurement Framework (VMF) and value scores

The VMF provides a consistent and less subjective approach to generating a value score for an application, product, service, or individual feature, by using business-defined value drivers and product-specific value metrics.

A consistent set of established value drivers, sources, and metrics gives more accurate comparisons of relative value

A balanced and weighted scorecard allows you to measure the various ways products generate value to the business

The Info-Tech approach to measuring value applies the balanced value scorecard approach.

Value Score1 + VS2 + … + VSN = Overall Balance Value Score

Value scores help support decisions. This blueprint looks specifically at four use cases for value scores.

A value score is an input to the following activities:

1. Prioritize Your Product Backlog

Estimate the relative value of different product backlog items (i.e. epics, features, etc.) to ensure the highest value items are completed first.

This blueprint can be used as an input into Info-Tech’s Build a Better Backlog.

2. Prioritize Your Project Backlog

Estimate the relative value of proposed new applications or major changes or enhancements to existing applications to ensure the right projects are selected and completed first.

This blueprint can be used as an input into Info-Tech’s Optimize Project Intake, Approval, and Prioritization.

3. Rationalize Your Applications

Gauge the relative value from the current use of your applications to support strategic decision making such as retirement, consolidation, and further investments.

This blueprint can be used as an input into Info-Tech’s Visualize Your Application Portfolio Strategy With a Business Value-Driven Roadmap.

4. Categorize Application Tiers

Gauge the relative value of your existing applications to distinguish your most to least important systems and build tailored support structures that limit the downtime of key value sources.

This blueprint can be used as an input into Info-Tech’s Streamline Application Maintenance.

The priorities, metrics, and a common understanding of value in your VMF carry over to many other Info-Tech blueprints

Transition to Product Delivery

Build a Product Roadmap

Modernize Your SDLC

Build a Strong Foundation for Quality

Implement Agile Practices That Work

Use Info-Tech’s Value Calculator

The Value Calculator facilitates the activities surrounding defining and measuring the business value of your products and services.

Use this tool to:

• Weigh the importance of each Value Driver based on established organizational priorities.
• Create a repository for Value Sources to provide consistency throughout each measurement.
• Produce an Overall Balanced Value Score for a specific item.

Info-Tech Deliverable

Populate the Value Calculator as you complete the activities and steps on the following slides.

Limitations of the Value Measurement Framework

"All models are wrong, but some are useful."

– George E.P. Box, 1979

Value is tricky: Value can be intangible, ambiguous, and cause all sorts of confusion, with the multiple, and often conflicting, priorities any organization is sure to have. You won’t likely come to a unified understanding of value or an agreement on whether one thing is more valuable than something else. However, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. The VMF provides a means to organize various priorities in a meaningful way and to assess the relative value of a product or service to guide managers and decision makers on the right track and keep alignment with the rest of the organization.

Relative value vs. ROI: This assessment produces a score to determine the value of a product or service relative to other products or services. Its primary function is to prioritize similar items (projects, epics, requirements, etc.) as opposed to producing a monetary value that can directly justify cost and make the case for a positive ROI.

Apply caution with metrics: We live in a metric-crazed era, where everything is believed to be measurable. While there is little debate over recent advances in data, analytics, and our ability to trace business activity, some goals are still quite intangible, and managers stumble trying to link these goals to a quantifiable data source.

In applying the VMF Info-Tech urges you to remember that metrics are not a magical solution. They should be treated as a tool in your toolbox and are sometimes no more than a rough gauge of performance. Carefully assign metrics to your products and services and do not disregard the informed subjective perspective when SMART metrics are unavailable.

"One of the deadly diseases of management is running a company on visible figures alone."

– William Edwards Deming, 1982

Info-Tech’s Build a Value Measurement Framework glossary of terms

This blueprint discusses value in a variety of ways. Use our glossary of terms to understand our specific focus.

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

DIY Toolkit

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

Guided Implementation

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

Workshop

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

Consulting

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

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

Build a Value Measurement Framework – project overview

Phase 1

Define Your Value Drivers

First determine your value drivers and add them to your VMF

One of the main aspects of the VMF is to apply consistent and business-aligned weights to the products or services you will evaluate.

This is why we establish your value drivers first:

• Get the right executive-level “value authorities” to establish the overarching weights.
• Build these into the backbone of the VMF to consistently apply to all your future measurements.

Step 1.1: Identify Value Authorities

Phase 1

1.1: Identify Value Authorities

1.2: Define Value Drivers

Phase 2

2.1: Identify Product or Service SMEs

2.2: Measure Value

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Identify your authorities on business value.

This step involves the following participants:

• Owners of your value measurement framework

Outcomes of this step

• Your list of targeted individuals to include in Step 2.1

Business value is best defined and measured by the combined effort and perspective of both IT and the business

Buy-in for your IT strategy comes from the ability to showcase value. IT needs to ensure it has an aligned understanding of what is valuable to the organization. First, priorities need to be established by the business. Second, IT can build a partnership with the business to determine what that value means in the context of IT products and services.

Engage key stakeholders to reach a consensus on organizational priorities and value drivers

Engage these key players to create your value drivers:

CEO: Who better holds the vision or mandate of the organization than its leader? Ideally, they are front and center for this discussion.

CIO: IT must ensure that technical/practical considerations are taken into account when determining value.

CFO: The CFO or designated representative will ensure that estimated costs and benefits can be used to manage the budgets.

VPs: Application delivery and mgmt. is designed to generate value for the business. Senior management from business units must help define what that value is.

Evaluators (PMO, PO, APM, etc.): Those primarily responsible for applying the VMF should be present and active in identifying and carefully defining your organization’s value drivers.

Steering Committee: This established body, responsible for the strategic direction of the organization, is really the primary audience.

Identify your authorities of business value to identify, define, and weigh value drivers

1.1 Estimated Time: 15 minutes

The objective of this exercise is to identify key business stakeholders involved in strategic decision making at an organizational level.

1. Review your organization’s governance structure and any related materials.
2. Identify your key business stakeholders. These individuals are the critical business strategic partners.
1. Target those who represent the business at an organizational level and often comprise the organization’s governing bodies.
2. Prioritize a product backlog – include product owners and product managers who are in tune with the specific value drivers of the product in question.

INFO-TECH TIP

If your organization does not have a formal governance structure, your stakeholders would be the key players in devising business strategy. For example:

• CEO
• CFO
• BRMs
• VPs

Leverage your organizational chart, governing charter, and senior management knowledge to better identify key stakeholders.

INPUT

• Key decision maker roles

OUTPUT

• Targeted individuals to define and weigh value drivers

Materials

• N/A

Participants

• Owner of the value measurement framework

Step 1.2: Define Value Drivers

Phase 1

1.1: Identify Value Authorities

1.2: Define Value Drivers

Phase 2

2.1: Identify Product or Service SMEs

2.2: Measure Value

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Define your value drivers.
• Weigh your value drivers.

This step involves the following participants:

• Owners of your value measurement framework
• Authorities of business value

Outcomes of this step

• A list of your defined and weighted value drivers

Value is based on business needs and vision

Value is subjective. It is defined through the organization’s past achievement and its future objectives.

There must be a consensus view of what is valuable within the organization, and these values need to be shared across the enterprise. Instead of maintaining siloed views and fighting for priorities, all departments must have the same value and purpose in mind. These factors – purpose and mission, past achievement and current state, vision and future state, and culture and leadership – impact what is valuable to the organization.

Value derives from the mission and vision of an organization; therefore, value is unique to each organization

Business value represents what the business needs to do to achieve its target state. Establishing the mission and vision helps identify that target state.

Understand the many types of value your products or services produce

Competent organizations know that value cannot always be represented by revenue or reduced expenses. However, it is not always apparent how to envision the full spectrum of value sources. Dissecting value by the benefit type and the value source’s orientation allows you to see the many ways in which a product or service brings value to the organization.

Financial Benefits vs. Improved Capabilities

Financial Benefits refers to the degree to which the value source can be measured through monetary metrics and is often quite tangible. Human Benefits refers to how a product or service can deliver value through a user’s experience.

Inward vs. Outward Orientation

Inward refers to value sources that have an internal impact and improve your organization’s effectiveness and efficiency in performing its operations. Outward refers to value sources that come from your interaction with external factors, such as the market or your customers.

Expand past Info-Tech’s high-level value quadrants and identify the value drivers specific to your organization

Different industries have a wide range of value drivers. Consider the difference between public and private entities with respect to generating revenue or reaching their customers or other external stakeholders. Even organizations in the same industry may have different values. For example, a mature, well-established manufacturer may view reputation and innovation as its highest-priority values, whereas a struggling manufacturer will see revenue or market share growth as its main drivers.

You do not need to dissect each quadrant into an exhaustive list of value drivers. Info-Tech recommends defining distinct value drivers only for the areas you’ve identified as critical to your organization’s core goals and objectives.

Understand value drivers that enable revenue growth

Understand value drivers that reduce costs

Understand the value drivers that enhance your services

Understand business value drivers that connect the business to your customers