Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan

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  • Any time a natural disaster or major IT outage occurs, it increases executive awareness and internal pressure to create a disaster recovery plan (DRP).
  • Traditional DRP templates are onerous and result in a lengthy, dense plan that might satisfy auditors but will not be effective in a crisis.
  • The myth that a DRP is only for major disasters leaves organizations vulnerable to more common incidents.
  • The growing use of outsourced infrastructure services has increased reliance on vendors to meet recovery timeline objectives.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • At its core, disaster recovery (DR) is about ensuring service continuity. Create a plan that can be leveraged for both isolated and catastrophic events.
  • Remember Murphy’s Law. Failure happens. Focus on improving overall resiliency and recovery, rather than basing DR on risk probability analysis.
  • Cost-effective DR and service continuity starts with identifying what is truly mission critical so you can focus resources accordingly. Not all services require fast failover.

Impact and Result

  • Define appropriate objectives for service downtime and data loss based on business impact.
  • Document an incident response plan that captures all of the steps from event detection to data center recovery.
  • Create a DR roadmap to close gaps between current DR capabilities and recovery objectives.

Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan Research & Tools

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

1. Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) Research – A step-by-step document that helps streamline your DR planning process and build a plan that's concise, usable, and maintainable.

Any time a major IT outage occurs, it increases executive awareness and internal pressure to create an IT DRP. This blueprint will help you develop an actionable DRP by following our four-phase methodology to define scope, current status, and dependencies; conduct a business impact analysis; identify and address gaps in the recovery workflow; and complete, extend, and maintain your DRP.

  • Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan – Phases 1-4

2. DRP Case Studies – Examples to help you understand the governance and incident response components of a DRP and to show that your DRP project does not need to be as onerous as imagined.

These examples include a client who leveraged the DRP blueprint to create practical, concise, and easy-to-maintain DRP governance and incident response plans and a case study based on a hospital providing a wide range of healthcare services.

  • Case Study: Practical, Right-Sized DRP
  • Case Study: Practical, Right-Sized DRP – Healthcare Example

3. DRP Maturity Scorecard – An assessment tool to evaluate the current state of your DRP.

Use this tool to measure your current DRP maturity and identify gaps to address. It includes a comprehensive list of requirements for your DRP program, including core and industry requirements.

  • DRP Maturity Scorecard

4. DRP Project Charter Template – A template to communicate important details on the project purpose, scope, and parameters.

The project charter template includes details on the project overview (description, background, drivers, and objectives); governance and management (project stakeholders/roles, budget, and dependencies); and risks, assumptions, and constraints (known and potential risks and mitigation strategy).

  • DRP Project Charter Template

5. DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool – An evaluation tool to estimate the impact of downtime to determine appropriate, acceptable recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs) and to review gaps between objectives and actuals.

This tool enables you to identify critical applications/systems; identify dependencies; define objective scoring criteria to evaluate the impact of application/system downtime; determine the impact of downtime and establish criticality tiers; set recovery objectives (RTO/RPO) based on the impact of downtime; record recovery actuals (RTA/RPA) and identify any gaps between objectives and actuals; and identify dependencies that regularly fail (and have a significant impact when they fail) to prioritize efforts to improve resiliency.

  • DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool
  • Legacy DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool

6. DRP BIA Scoring Context Example – A tool to record assumptions you made in the DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool to explain the results and drive business engagement and feedback.

Use this tool to specifically record assumptions made about who and what are impacted by system downtime and record assumptions made about impact severity.

  • DRP BIA Scoring Context Example

7. DRP Recovery Workflow Template – A flowchart template to provide an at-a-glance view of the recovery workflow.

This simple format is ideal during crisis situations, easier to maintain, and often quicker to create. Use this template to document the Notify - Assess - Declare disaster workflow, document current and planned future state recovery workflows, including gaps and risks, and review an example recovery workflow.

  • DRP Recovery Workflow Template (PDF)
  • DRP Recovery Workflow Template (Visio)

8. DRP Roadmap Tool – A visual roadmapping tool that will help you plan, communicate, and track progress for your DRP initiatives.

Improving DR capabilities is a marathon, not a sprint. You likely can't fund and resource all the measures for risk mitigation at once. Instead, use this tool to create a roadmap for actions, tasks, projects, and initiatives to complete in the short, medium, and long term. Prioritize high-benefit, low-cost mitigations.

  • DRP Roadmap Tool

9. DRP Recap and Results Template – A template to summarize and present key findings from your DR planning exercises and documents.

Use this template to present your results from the DRP Maturity Scorecard, BCP-DRP Fitness Assessment, DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool, tabletop planning exercises, DRP Recovery Workflow Template, and DRP Roadmap Tool.

  • DRP Recap and Results Template

10. DRP Workbook – A comprehensive tool that enables you to organize information to support DR planning.

Leverage this tool to document information regarding DRP resources (list the documents/information sources that support DR planning and where they are located) and DR teams and contacts (list the DR teams, SMEs critical to DR, and key contacts, including business continuity management team leads that would be involved in declaring a disaster and coordinating response at an organizational level).

  • DRP Workbook

11. Appendix

The following tools and templates are also included as part of this blueprint to use as needed to supplement the core steps above:

  • DRP Incident Response Management Tool
  • DRP Vendor Evaluation Questionnaire
  • DRP Vendor Evaluation Tool
  • Severity Definitions and Escalation Rules Template
  • BCP-DRP Fitness Assessment
[infographic]

Workshop: Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan

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

1 Define Parameters for Your DRP

The Purpose

Identify key applications and dependencies based on business needs.

Key Benefits Achieved

Understand the entire IT “footprint” that needs to be recovered for key applications. 

Activities

1.1 Assess current DR maturity.

1.2 Determine critical business operations.

1.3 Identify key applications and dependencies.

Outputs

Current challenges identified through a DRP Maturity Scorecard.

Key applications and dependencies documented in the Business Impact Analysis (BIA) Tool.

2 Determine the Desired Recovery Timeline

The Purpose

Quantify application criticality based on business impact.

Key Benefits Achieved

Appropriate recovery time and recovery point objectives defined (RTOs/RPOs).

Activities

2.1 Define an objective scoring scale to indicate different levels of impact.

2.2 Estimate the impact of downtime.

2.3 Determine desired RTO/RPO targets for applications based on business impact.

Outputs

Business impact analysis scoring criteria defined.

Application criticality validated.

RTOs/RPOs defined for applications and dependencies.

3 Determine the Current Recovery Timeline and DR Gaps

The Purpose

Determine your baseline DR capabilities (your current state).

Key Benefits Achieved

Gaps between current and desired DR capability are quantified.

Activities

3.1 Conduct a tabletop exercise to determine current recovery procedures.

3.2 Identify gaps between current and desired capabilities.

3.3 Estimate likelihood and impact of failure of individual dependencies.

Outputs

Current achievable recovery timeline defined (i.e. the current state).

RTO/RPO gaps identified.

Critical single points of failure identified.

4 Create a Project Roadmap to Close DR Gaps

The Purpose

Identify and prioritize projects to close DR gaps.

Key Benefits Achieved

DRP project roadmap defined that will reduce downtime and data loss to acceptable levels.

Activities

4.1 Determine what projects are required to close the gap between current and desired DR capability.

4.2 Prioritize projects based on cost, effort, and impact on RTO/RPO reduction.

4.3 Validate that the suggested projects will achieve the desired DR capability.

Outputs

Potential DR projects identified.

DRP project roadmap defined.

Desired-state incident response plan defined, and project roadmap validated.

5 Establish a Framework for Documenting Your DRP, and Summarize Next Steps

The Purpose

Outline how to create concise, usable DRP documentation.

Summarize workshop results. 

Key Benefits Achieved

A realistic and practical approach to documenting your DRP.

Next steps documented. 

Activities

5.1 Outline a strategy for using flowcharts and checklists to create concise, usable documentation.

5.2 Review Info-Tech’s DRP templates for creating system recovery procedures and a DRP summary document.

5.3 Summarize the workshop results, including current potential downtime and action items to close gaps.

Outputs

Current-state and desired-state incident response plan flowcharts.

Templates to create more detailed documentation where necessary.

Executive communication deck that outlines current DR gaps, how to close those gaps, and recommended next steps.

Further reading

Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan

Close the gap between your DR capabilities and service continuity requirements.

ANALYST PERSPECTIVE

An effective disaster recovery plan (DRP) is not just an insurance policy.

"An effective DRP addresses common outages such as hardware and software failures, as well as regional events, to provide day-to-day service continuity. It’s not just insurance you might never cash in. Customers are also demanding evidence of an effective DRP, so organizations without a DRP risk business impact not only from extended outages but also from lost sales. If you are fortunate enough to have executive buy-in, whether it’s due to customer pressure or concern over potential downtime, you still have the challenge of limited time to dedicate to disaster recovery (DR) planning. Organizations need a practical but structured approach that enables IT leaders to create a DRP without it becoming their full-time job."

Frank Trovato,

Research Director, Infrastructure

Info-Tech Research Group

Is this research for you?

This Research Is Designed For:

  • Senior IT management responsible for executing DR.
  • Organizations seeking to formalize, optimize, or validate an existing DRP.
  • Business continuity management (BCM) professionals leading DRP development.

This Research Will Help You:

  • Create a DRP that is aligned with business requirements.
  • Prioritize technology enhancements based on DR requirements and risk-impact analysis.
  • Identify and address process and technology gaps that impact DR capabilities and day-to-day service continuity.

This Research Will Also Assist:

  • Executives who want to understand the time and resource commitment required for DRP.
  • Members of BCM and crisis management teams who need to understand the key elements of an IT DRP.

This Research Will Help Them:

  • Scope the time and effort required to develop a DRP.
  • Align business continuity, DR, and crisis management plans.

Executive summary

Situation

  • Any time a natural disaster or major IT outage occurs, it increases executive awareness and internal pressure to create a DRP.
  • Industry standards and government regulations are driving external pressure to develop business continuity and IT DR plans.
  • Customers are asking suppliers and partners to provide evidence that they have a workable DRP before agreeing to do business.

Complication

  • Traditional DRP templates are onerous and result in a lengthy, dense plan that might satisfy auditors, but will not be effective in a crisis.
  • The myth that a DRP is only for major disasters leaves organizations vulnerable to more common incidents.
  • The growing use of outsourced infrastructure services has increased reliance on vendors to meet recovery timeline objectives.

Resolution

  • Create an effective DRP by following a structured process to discover current capabilities and define business requirements for continuity:
    • Define appropriate objectives for service downtime and data loss based on business impact.
    • Document an incident response plan that captures all of the steps from event detection to data center recovery.
    • Create a DR roadmap to close gaps between current DR capabilities and recovery objectives.

Info-Tech Insight

  1. At its core, DR is about ensuring service continuity. Create a plan that can be leveraged for both isolated and catastrophic events.
  2. Remember Murphy’s Law. Failure happens. Focus on improving overall resiliency and recovery, rather than basing DR on risk probability analysis.
  3. Cost-effective DR and service continuity starts with identifying what is truly mission critical so you can focus resources accordingly. Not all services require fast failover.

An effective DRP is critical to reducing the cost of downtime

If you don’t have an effective DRP when failure occurs, expect to face extended downtime and exponentially rising costs due to confusion and lack of documented processes.

Image displayed is a graph that shows that delay in recovery causes exponential revenue loss.

Potential Lost Revenue

The impact of downtime tends to increase exponentially as systems remain unavailable (graph at left). A current, tested DRP will significantly improve your ability to execute systems recovery, minimizing downtime and business impact. Without a DRP, IT is gambling on its ability to define and implement a recovery strategy during a time of crisis. At the very least, this means extended downtime – potentially weeks or months – and substantial business impact.

Adapted from: Philip Jan Rothstein, 2007

Cost of Downtime for the Fortune 1000

Cost of unplanned apps downtime per year: $1.25B to $2.5B.

Cost of critical apps failure per hour: $500,000 to $1M.

Cost of infrastructure failure per hour: $100,000.

35% reported to have recovered within 12 hours.

17% of infrastructure failures took more than 24 hours to recover.

13% of application failures took more than 24 hours to recover.

Source: Stephen Elliot, 2015

Info-Tech Insight

The cost of downtime is rising across the board, and not just for organizations that traditionally depend on IT (e.g. e-commerce). Downtime cost increase since 2010:

Hospitality: 129% increase

Transportation: 108% increase

Media organizations: 104% increase

An effective DRP also sets clear recovery objectives that align with system criticality to optimize spend

The image displays a disaster recovery plan example, where different tiers are in place to support recovery in relation to time.

Take a practical approach that creates a more concise and actionable DRP

DR planning is not your full-time job, so it can’t be a resource- and time-intensive process.

The Traditional Approach Info-Tech’s Approach

Start with extensive risk and probability analysis.

Challenge: You can’t predict every event that can occur, and this delays work on your actual recovery procedures.

Focus on how to recover regardless of the incident.

We know failure will happen. Focus on improving your ability to failover to a DR environment so you are protected regardless of what causes primary site failure.

Build a plan for major events such as natural disasters.

Challenge: Major destructive events only account for 12% of incidents while software/hardware issues account for 45%. The vast majority of incidents are isolated local events.

An effective DRP improves day-to-day service continuity, and is not just for major events.

Leverage DR planning to address both common (e.g. power/network outage or hardware failure) as well as major events. It must be documentation you can use, not shelfware.

Create a DRP manual that provides step-by-step instructions that anyone could follow.

Challenge: The result is lengthy, dense manuals that are difficult to maintain and hard to use in a crisis. The usability of DR documents has a direct impact on DR success.

Create concise documentation written for technical experts.

Use flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams. They are more usable in a crisis and easier to maintain. You aren’t going to ask a business user to recover your SQL Server databases, so you can afford to be concise.

DR must be integrated with day-to-day incident management to ensure service continuity

When a tornado takes out your data center, it’s an obvious DR scenario and the escalation towards declaring a disaster is straightforward.

The challenge is to be just as decisive in less-obvious (and more common) DR scenarios such as a critical system hardware/software failure, and knowing when to move from incident management to DR. Don’t get stuck troubleshooting for days when you could have failed over in hours.

Bridge the gap with clearly-defined escalation rules and criteria for when to treat an incident as a disaster.

Image displays two graphs. The graph on the left measures the extent that service management processes account for disasters by the success meeting RTO and RPO. The graph on the right is a double bar graph that shows DRP being integrated and not integrated in the following categories: Incident Classifications, Severity Definitions, Incident Models, Escalation Procedures. These are measured based on the success meeting RTO and RPO.

Source: Info-Tech Research Group; N=92

Myth busted: The DRP is separate from day-to-day ops and incident management.

The most common threats to service continuity are hardware and software failures, network outages, and power outages

The image displayed is a bar graph that shows the common threats to service continuity. There are two areas of interest that have labels. The first is: 45% of service interruptions that went beyond maximum downtime guidelines set by the business were caused by software and hardware issues. The second label is: Only 12% of incidents were caused by major destructive events.

Source: Info-Tech Research Group; N=87

Info-Tech Insight

Does this mean I don’t need to worry about natural disasters? No. It means DR planning needs to focus on overall service continuity, not just major disasters. If you ignore the more common but less dramatic causes of service interruptions, you are diminishing the business value of a DRP.

Myth busted: DRPs are just for destructive events – fires, floods, and natural disasters.

DR isn’t about identifying risks; it’s about ensuring service continuity

The traditional approach to DR starts with an in-depth exercise to identify risks to IT service continuity and the probability that those risks will occur.

Here’s why starting with a risk register is ineffective:

  • Odds are, you won’t think of every incident that might occur. If you think of twenty risks, it’ll be the twenty-first that gets you. If you try to guard against that twenty-first risk, you can quickly get into cartoonish scenarios and much more costly solutions.
  • The ability to failover to another site mitigates the risk of most (if not all) incidents (fire, flood, hardware failure, tornado, etc.). A risk and probability analysis doesn’t change the need for a plan that includes a failover procedure.

Where risk is incorporated in this methodology:

  • Use known risks to further refine your strategy (e.g. if you are prone to hurricanes, plan for greater geographic separation between sites; ensure you have backups, in addition to replication, to mitigate the risk of ransomware).
  • Identify risks to your ability to execute DR (e.g. lack of cross-training, backups that are not tested) and take steps to mitigate those risks.

Myth busted: A risk register is the critical first step to creating an effective DR plan.

You can’t outsource accountability and you can’t assume your vendor’s DR capabilities meet your needs

Outsourcing infrastructure services – to a cloud provider, co-location provider, or managed service provider (MSP) – can improve your DR and service continuity capabilities. For example, a large public cloud provider will generally have:

  • Redundant telecoms service providers, network infrastructure, power feeds, and standby power.
  • Round-the-clock infrastructure and security monitoring.
  • Multiple data centers in a given region, and options to replicate data and services across regions.

Still, failure is inevitable – it’s been demonstrated multiple times1 through high-profile outages. When you surrender direct control of the systems themselves, it’s your responsibility to ensure the vendor can meet your DR requirements, including:

  • A DR site and acceptable recovery times for systems at that site.
  • An acceptable replication/backup schedule.

Sources: Kyle York, 2016; Shaun Nichols, 2017; Stephen Burke, 2017

Myth busted: I outsource infrastructure services so I don’t have to worry about DR. That’s my vendor’s responsibility.

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

IT DR is not an airplane disaster movie. You aren’t going to ask a business user to execute a system recovery, just like you wouldn’t really want a passenger with no flying experience to land a plane.

In reality, you write a DR plan for knowledgeable technical staff, which allows you to summarize key details your staff already know. Concise, visual documentation is:

  • Quicker to create.
  • Easier to use.
  • Simpler to maintain.

"Without question, 300-page DRPs are not effective. I mean, auditors love them because of the detail, but give me a 10-page DRP with contact lists, process flows, diagrams, and recovery checklists that are easy to follow."

– Bernard Jones, MBCI, CBCP, CORP, Manager Disaster Recovery/BCP, ActiveHealth Management

A graph is displayed. It shows a line graph where the DR success is higher by using flowcharts, checklists, and diagrams.

Source: Info-Tech Research Group; N=95

*DR Success is based on stated ability to meet recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs), and reported confidence in ability to consistently meet targets.

Myth busted: A DRP must include every detail so anyone can execute recovery.

A DRP is part of an overall business continuity plan

A DRP is the set of procedures and supporting documentation that enables an organization to restore its core IT services (i.e. applications and infrastructure) as part of an overall business continuity plan (BCP), as described below. Use the templates, tools, and activities in this blueprint to create your DRP.

Overall BCP
IT DRP BCP for Each Business Unit Crisis Management Plan
A plan to restore IT services (e.g. applications and infrastructure) following a disruption. This includes:
  • Identifying critical applications and dependencies.
  • Defining an appropriate (desired) recovery timeline based on a business impact analysis (BIA).
  • Creating a step-by-step incident response plan.
A set of plans to resume business processes for each business unit. Info-Tech’s Develop a Business Continuity Plan blueprint provides a methodology for creating business unit BCPs as part of an overall BCP for the organization. A set of processes to manage a wide range of crises, from health and safety incidents to business disruptions to reputational damage. This includes emergency response plans, crisis communication plans, and the steps to invoke BC/DR plans when applicable. Info-Tech’s Implement Crisis Management Best Practices blueprint provides a structured approach to develop a crisis management process.

Note: For DRP, we focus on business-facing IT services (as opposed to the underlying infrastructure), and then identify required infrastructure as dependencies (e.g. servers, databases, network).

Take a practical but structured approach to creating a concise and effective DRP

Image displayed shows the structure of this blueprint. It shows the structure of phases 1-4 and the related tools and templates for each phase.

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

DIY Toolkit

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

Guided Implementation

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

Workshop

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

Consulting

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

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

Info-Tech advisory services deliver measurable value

Info-Tech members save an average of $22,983 and 22 days by working with an Info-Tech analyst on DRP (based on client response data from Info-Tech Research Group’s Measured Value Survey, following analyst advisory on this blueprint).

Why do members report value from analyst engagement?

  1. Expert advice on your specific situation to overcome obstacles and speed bumps.
  2. Structured project and guidance to stay on track.
  3. Project deliverables review to ensure the process is applied properly.

Guided implementation overview

Your trusted advisor is just a call away.

Define DRP scope (Call 1)

Scope requirements, objectives, and your specific challenges. Identify applications/ systems to focus on first.

Define current status and system dependencies (Calls 2-3)

Assess current DRP maturity. Identify system dependencies.

Conduct a BIA (Calls 4-6)

Create an impact scoring scale and conduct a BIA. Identify RTO and RPO for each system.

Recovery workflow (Calls 7-8)

Create a recovery workflow based on tabletop planning. Identify gaps in recovery capabilities.

Projects and action items (Calls 9-10)

Identify and prioritize improvements. Summarize results and plan next steps.

Your guided implementations will pair you with an advisor from our analyst team for the duration of your DRP project.

Workshop overview

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

Image displays the workshop overview for this blueprint. It is a workshop that runs for 4 days and covers various activities and produces many deliverables.

End-user complaints distract from serious IT-based risks to business continuity

Case Study

Industry: Manufacturing
Source: Info-Tech Research Group Client Engagement

A global manufacturer with annual sales over $1B worked with Info-Tech to improve DR capabilities.

DRP BIA

Conversations with the IT team and business units identified the following impact of downtime over 24 hours:

  • Email: Direct Cost: $100k; Goodwill Impact Score: 8.5/16
  • ERP: Direct Cost: $1.35mm; Goodwill Impact Score: 12.5/16

Tabletop Testing and Recovery Capabilities

Reviewing the organization’s current systems recovery workflow identified the following capabilities:

  • Email: RTO: minutes, RPO: minutes
  • ERP: RTO: 14 hours, RPO: 24 hours

Findings

Because of end-user complaints, IT had invested heavily in email resiliency though email downtime had a relatively minimal impact on the business. After working through the methodology, it was clear that the business needed to provide additional support for critical systems.

Insights at each step:

Identify DR Maturity and System Dependencies

Conduct a BIA

Outline Incident Response and Recovery Workflow With Tabletop Exercises

Mitigate Gaps and Risks

Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan

Phase 1

Define DRP Scope, Current Status, and Dependencies

Step 1.1: Set Scope, Kick-Off the DRP Project, and Create a Charter

This step will walk you through the following activities:

  • Establish a team for DR planning.
  • Retrieve and review existing, relevant documentation.
  • Create a project charter.

This step involves the following participants:

  • DRP Coordinator
  • DRP Team (Key IT SMEs)
  • IT Managers

Results and Insights

  • Set scope for the first iteration of the DRP methodology.
  • Don’t try to complete your DR and BCPs all at once.
  • Don’t bite off too much at once.

Kick-off your DRP project

You’re ready to start your DR project.

This could be an annual review – but more likely, this is the first time you’ve reviewed the DR plan in years.* Maybe a failed audit might have provided a mandate for DR planning, or a real disaster might have highlighted gaps in DR capabilities. First, set appropriate expectations for what the project is and isn’t, in terms of scope, outputs, and resource commitments. Very few organizations can afford to hire a full-time DR planner, so it’s likely this won’t be your full-time job. Set objectives and timelines accordingly.

Gather a team

  • Often, DR efforts are led by the infrastructure and operations leader. This person can act as the DRP coordinator or may delegate this role.
  • Key infrastructure subject-matter experts (SMEs) are usually part of the team and involved through the project.

Find and review existing documentation

  • An existing DRP may have information you can re-purpose rather than re-create.
  • High-level architecture diagrams and network diagrams can help set scope (and will become part of your DR kit).
  • Current business-centric continuity of operations plans (COOPs) or BCPs are important to understand.

Set specific, realistic objectives

  • Create a project charter (see next slide) to record objectives, timelines, and assumptions.
*Only 20% of respondents to an Info-Tech Research Group survey (N=165) had a complete DRP; only 38% of respondents with a complete or mostly complete DRP felt it would be effective in a crisis.

List DRP drivers and challenges

1(a) Drivers and roadblocks

Estimated Time: 30 minutes

Identify the drivers and challenges to completing a functional DRP plan with the core DR team.

DRP Drivers

  • Past outages (be specific):
    • Hardware and software failures
    • External network and power outages
    • Building damage
    • Natural disaster(s)
  • Audit findings
  • Events in the news
  • Other?

DRP Challenges

  • Lack of time
  • Insufficient DR budget
  • Lack of executive support
  • No internal DRP expertise
  • Challenges making the case for DRP
  • Other?

Write down insights from the meeting on flip-chart paper or a whiteboard and use the findings to inform your DRP project (e.g. challenges to address).

Clarify expectations with a project charter

1(b) DRP Project Charter Template

DRP Project Charter Template components:

Define project parameters, roles, and objectives, and clarify expectations with the executive team. Specific subsections are listed below and described in more detail in the remainder of this phase.

  • Project Overview: Includes objectives, deliverables, and scope. Leverage relevant notes from the “Project Drivers” brainstorming exercise (e.g. past outages and near misses which help make the case).
  • Governance and Management: Includes roles, responsibilities, and resource requirements.
  • Project Risks, Assumptions, and Constraints: Includes risks and mitigation strategies, as well as any assumptions and constraints.
  • Project Sign-Off: Includes IT and executive sign-off (if required).

Note: Identify the initial team roles and responsibilities first so they can assist in defining the project charter.

The image is a screenshot of the first page of the DRP Project Charter Template.

Step 1.2: Assess Current State DRP Maturity

This step will walk you through the following activities:

  • Complete Info-Tech’s DRP Maturity Scorecard.

This step involves the following participants:

  • DRP Coordinator
  • IT SMEs

Results and Insights

  • Identify the current state of the organization’s DRP and continuity management. Set a baseline for improvement.
  • Discover where improvement is most needed to create an effective plan.

Only 38% of IT departments believe their DRPs would be effective in a real crisis

Even organizations with documented DRPs struggle to make them actionable.

  • Even when a DRP does become a priority (e.g. due to regulatory or customer drivers), the challenge is knowing where to start and having a methodical step-by-step process for doing the work. With no guide to plan and resource the project, it becomes work that you complete piecemeal when you aren’t working on other projects, or at night after the kids go to bed.
  • Far too many organizations create a document to satisfy auditors rather than creating a usable plan. People in this group often just want a fill-in-the-blanks template. What they will typically find is a template for the traditional 300-page manual that goes in a binder that sits on a shelf, is difficult to maintain, and is not effective in a crisis.
Two bar graphs are displayed. The graph on the left shows that only 20% of survey respondents indicate they have a complete DRP. The graph on the right shows that 38% of those who have a mostly completed or full DRP actually feel it would be effective in a crisis.

Use the DRP Maturity Scorecard to assess the current state of your DRP and identify areas to improve

1(c) DRP Maturity Scorecard

Info-Tech’s DRP Maturity Scorecard evaluates completion status and process maturity for a comprehensive yet practical assessment across three aspects of an effective DRP program – Defining Requirements, Implementation, and Maintenance.

Image has three boxes. One is labelled Completion status, another below it is labelled Process Maturity. There is an addition sign in between them. With an arrow leading from both boxes is another box that is labelled DRP Maturity Assessment

Completion Status: Reflects the progress made with each component of your DRP Program.

Process Maturity: Reflects the consistency and quality of the steps executed to achieve your completion status.

DRP Maturity Assessment: Each component (e.g. BIA) of your DRP Program is evaluated based on completion status and process maturity to provide an accurate holistic assessment. For example, if your BIA completion status is 4 out of 5, but process maturity is a 2, then requirements were not derived from a consistent defined process. The risk is inconsistent application prioritization and misalignment with actual business requirements.

Step 1.3: Identify Applications, Systems, and Dependencies

This step will walk you through the following activities:

  • Identify systems, applications, and services, and the business units that use them.
  • Document applications, systems, and their dependencies in the DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool.

This step involves the following participants:

  • DRP Coordinator
  • DRP Team

Results and Insights

  • Identify core services and the applications that depend on them.
  • Add applications and dependencies to the DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool.

Select 5-10 services to get started on the DRP methodology

1(d) High-level prioritization

Estimated Time: 30 minutes

Working through the planning process the first time can be challenging. If losing momentum is a concern, limit the BIA to a few critical systems to start.

Run this exercise if you need a structured exercise to decide where to focus first and identify the business users you should ask for input on the impact of system downtime.

  1. On a whiteboard or flip-chart paper, list business units in a column on the left. List key applications/systems in a row at the top. Draw a grid.
  2. At a high level, review how applications are used by each unit. Take notes to keep track of any assumptions you make.
    • Add a ✓ if members of the unit use the application or system.
    • Add an ✱ if members of the unit are heavy users of the application or system and/or use it for time sensitive tasks.
    • Leave the box blank if the app isn’t used by this unit.
  3. Use the chart to prioritize systems to include in the BIA (e.g. systems marked with an *) but also include a few less-critical systems to illustrate DRP requirements for a range of systems.

Image is an example of what one could complete from step 1(d). There is a table shown. In the column on the left lists sales, marketing, R&D, and Finance. In the top row, there is listed: dialer, ERP. CRM, Internet, analytics, intranet

Application Notes
CRM
  • Supports time-critical sales and billing processes.
Dialer
  • Used for driving the sales-call queue, integration with CRM.

Draw a high-level sketch of your environment

1(e) Sketch your environment

Estimated Time: 1-2 hours

A high-level topology or architectural diagram is an effective way to identify dependencies, application ownership, outsourced services, hardware redundancies, and more.

Note:

  • Network diagrams or high-level architecture diagrams help to identify dependencies and redundancies. Even a rough sketch is a useful reference tool for participants, and will be valuable documentation in the final DR plan.
  • Keep the drawings tidy. Visualize the final diagram before you start to draw on the whiteboard to help with spacing and placement.
  • Collaborate with relevant SMEs to identify dependencies. Keep the drawing high-level.
  • Illustrate connections between applications or components with lines. Use color coding to illustrate where applications are hosted (e.g. in-house, at a co-lo, in a cloud or MSP environment).
Example of a high-level topology or architectural diagram

Document systems and dependencies

Collaborate with system SMEs to identify dependencies for each application or system. Document the dependencies in the DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool (see image below)

  • When listing applications, focus on business-facing systems or services that business users will recognize and use terminology they’ll understand.
  • Group infrastructure components that support all other services as a single core infrastructure service to simplify dependency mapping (e.g. core router, virtual hosts, ID management, and DNS).
  • In general, each data center will have its own core infrastructure components. List each data center separately – especially if different services are hosted at each data center.
  • Be specific when documenting dependencies. Use existing asset tracking tables, discovery tools, asset management records, or configuration management tools to identify specific server names.
  • Core infrastructure dependencies, such as the network infrastructure, power supply, and centralized storage, will be a common set of dependencies for most applications, so group these into a separate category called “Core Infrastructure” to minimize repetition in your DR planning.
  • Document production components in the BIA tool. Capture in-production, redundant components performing the same work on a single dependency line. List standby systems in the notes.

Info-Tech Best Practice

In general, visual documentation is easier to use in a crisis and easier to maintain over time. Use Info-Tech’s research to help build your own visual SOPs.

Document systems and dependencies

1(f) DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool – Record systems and dependencies

A screenshot of Info-Tech's DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool.

Stories from the field: Info-Tech clients find value in Phase 1 in the following ways

An organization uncovers a key dependency that needed to be treated as a Tier 1 system

Reviewing the entire ecosystem for applications identified key dependencies that were previously considered non-critical. For example, a system used to facilitate secure data transfers was identified as a key dependency for payroll and other critical business processes, and elevated to Tier 1.

A picture’s worth a thousand words (and 1600 servers)

Drawing a simple architectural diagram was an invaluable tool to identify key dependencies and critical systems, and to understand how systems and dependencies were interconnected. The drawing was an aha moment for IT and business stakeholders trying to make sense of their 1600-server environment.

Make the case for DRP

A member of the S&P 500 used Info-Tech’s DRP Maturity Scorecard to provide a reliable objective assessment and make the case for improvements to the board of directors.

State government agency initiates a DRP project to complement an existing COOP

Info-Tech's DRP Project Charter enabled the CIO to clarify their DRP project scope and where it fit into their overall COOP. The project charter example provided much of the standard copy – objectives, scope, project roles, methodology, etc. – required to outline the project.

Phase 1: Insights and accomplishments

Image has two screenshots from Info-Tech's Phase 1 tools and templates.

Created a charter and identified current maturity

Image has two screenshots. One is from Info-Tech's DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool and the other is from the example in step 1(d).

Identified systems and dependencies for the BIA

Summary of Accomplishments:

  • Created a DRP project charter.
  • Completed the DRP Maturity Scorecard and identified current DRP maturity.
  • Prioritized applications/systems for a first pass through DR planning.
  • Identified dependencies for each application and system.

Up Next: Conduct a BIA to establish recovery requirements

Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan

Phase 2

Conduct a BIA to Determine Acceptable RTOs and RPOs

Step 2.1: Define an Objective Impact Scoring Scale

This step will walk you through the following activities:

  • Create a scoring scale to measure the business impact of application and system downtime.

This step involves the following participants:

  • DRP Coordinator
  • DRP Team

Results and Insights

  • Use a scoring scale tied to multiple categories of real business impact to develop a more objective assessment of application and system criticality.

Align capabilities to appropriate and acceptable RTOs and RPOs with a BIA

Too many organizations avoid a BIA because they perceive it as onerous or unneeded. A well-managed BIA is straightforward and the benefits are tangible.

A BIA enables you to identify appropriate spend levels, maintain executive support, and prioritize DR planning for a more successful outcome. Info-Tech has found that a BIA has a measurable impact on the organization’s ability to set appropriate objectives and investment goals.

Two bar graphs are depicted. The one on the left shows 93% BIA impact on appropriate RTOs. The graph on the right shows that with BIA, there is 86% on BIA impact on appropriate spending.

Info-Tech Insight

Business input is important, but don’t let a lack of it delay a draft BIA. Complete a draft based on your knowledge of the business. Create a draft within IT, and use it to get input from business leaders. It’s easier to edit estimates than to start from scratch; even weak estimates are far better than a blank sheet.

Pick impact categories that are relevant to your business to develop a holistic view of business impact

Direct Cost Impact Categories

  • Revenue: permanently lost revenue.
    • Example: one third of daily sales are lost due to a website failure.
  • Productivity: lost productivity.
    • Example: finance staff can’t work without the accounting system.
  • Operating costs: additional operating costs.
    • Example: temporary staff are needed to re-key data.
  • Financial penalties: fines/penalties that could be incurred due to downtime.
    • Example: failure to meet contractual service-level agreements (SLAs) for uptime results in financial penalties.

Goodwill, Compliance, and Health and Safety Categories

  • Stakeholder goodwill: lost customer, staff, or business partner goodwill due to harm, frustration, etc.
    • Example: customers can’t access needed services because the website is down.
    • Example: a payroll system outage delays paychecks for all staff.
    • Example: suppliers are paid late because the purchasing system is down.
  • Compliance, health, and safety:
    • Example: financial system downtime results in a missed tax filing.
    • Example: network downtime disconnects security cameras.

Info-Tech Insight

You don’t have to include every impact category in your BIA. Include categories that could affect your business. Defer or exclude other categories. For example, the bulk of revenue for governmental organizations comes from taxes, which won’t be permanently lost if IT systems fail.

Modify scoring criteria to help you measure the impact of downtime

The scoring scales define different types of business impact (e.g. costs, lost goodwill) using a common four-point scale and 24-hour timeframe to simplify BIA exercises and documentation.

Use the suggestions below as a guide as you modify scoring criteria in the DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool:

  • All the direct cost categories (revenue, productivity, operating costs, financial penalties) require the user to define only a maximum value; the tool will populate the rest of the criteria for that category. Use the suggestions below to find the maximum scores for each of the direct cost categories:
    • Revenue: Divide total revenue for the previous year by 365 to estimate daily revenue. Assume this is the most revenue you could lose in a day, and use this number as the top score.
    • Loss of Productivity: Divide fully-loaded labor costs for the organization by 365 to estimate daily productivity costs. Use this as a proxy measure for the work lost if all business stopped for one day.
    • Increased Operating Costs: Isolate this to known additional costs that result from a disruption (e.g. costs for overtime or temporary staff). Estimate the maximum cost for the organization.
    • Financial Penalties: Isolate this to known financial penalties (e.g. due to failure to meet SLAs or compliance requirements). Use the estimated maximum penalty as the highest value on the scale.
  • Impact on Goodwill: Use an estimate of the percentage of all stakeholders impacted to assess goodwill impact.
  • Impact on Compliance; Impact on Health and Safety: The BIA tool contains default scoring criteria that account for the severity of the impact, the likelihood of occurrence, and in the case of compliance, whether a grace period is available. Use this scale as-is, or adapt this scale to suit your needs.

Modify the default scoring scale in the DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool to reflect your organization

2(a) DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool – Scoring criteria


A screenshot of Info-Tech's DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool's scoring criteria

Step 2.2: Estimate the Impact of Downtime

This step will walk you through the following activities:

  • Identify the business impact of service/system/application downtime.

This step involves the following participants:

  • DRP Coordinator
  • DRP Team
  • IT Service SMEs
  • Business-Side Technology Owners (optional)

Results and Insights

  • Apply the scoring scale to develop a more objective assessment of the business impact of downtime.
  • Create criticality tiers based on the business impact of downtime.

Estimate the impact of downtime for each system and application

2(b) Estimate the impact of systems downtime

Estimated Time: 3 hours

On tab 3 of the DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool indicate the costs of downtime, as described below:

  1. Have a copy of the “Scoring Criteria” tab available to use as a reference (e.g. printed or on a second display). In tab 3 use the drop-down menu to assign a score of 0 to 4 based on levels of impact defined in the “Scoring Criteria” tab.
  2. Work horizontally across all categories for a single system or application. This will familiarize you with your scoring scales for all impact categories, and allow you to modify the scoring scales if needed before you proceed much further.
  3. For example, if a core call center phone system was down:

  • Loss of Revenue would be the portion of sales revenue generated through the call center. This might score a 1 or 2 depending on the percent of sales that are processed by the call center.
  • The Impact on Customers might be a 2 or 3 depending on the extent that some customers might be using the call center to receive support or purchase new products or services.
  • The Legal/Regulatory Compliance and Health or Safety Risk might be a 0, as the call center has no impact in either area.
  • Next, work vertically across all applications or systems within a single impact category. This will allow you to compare scores within the category as you create them to ensure internal consistency.
  • Add impact scores to the DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool

    2(c) DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool

    Screenshot of Info-Tech's DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool

    Record business reasons and assumptions that drive BIA scores

    2(d) DRP BIA Scoring Context Example

    Info-Tech suggests that IT leadership and staff identify the impact of downtime first to create a version that you can then validate with relevant business owners. As you work through the BIA as a team, have a notetaker record assumptions you make to help you explain the results and drive business engagement and feedback.

    Some common assumptions:

    • You can’t schedule a disaster, so Info-Tech suggests you assume the worst possible timing for downtime. Base the impact of downtime on the worst day for a disaster (e.g. year-end close, payroll run).
    • Record assumptions made about who and what are impacted by system downtime.
    • Record assumptions made about impact severity.
    • If you deviate from the scoring scale, or if a particular impact doesn’t fit well into the defined scoring scale, document the exception.

    Screenshot of Info-Tech's DRP BIA Scoring Context Example

    Use Info-Tech’s DRP BIA Scoring Context Example as a note-taking template.

    Info-Tech Insight

    You can’t build a perfect scoring scale. It’s fine to make reasonable assumptions based on your judgment and knowledge of the business. Just write down your assumptions. If you don’t write them down, you’ll forget how you arrived at that conclusion.

    Assign a criticality rating based on total direct and indirect costs of downtime

    2(e) DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool – Assign criticality tiers

    Once you’ve finished estimating the impact of downtime, use the following rough guideline to create an initial sort of applications into Tiers 1, 2, and 3.

    1. In general, sort applications based on the Total Impact on Goodwill, Compliance, and Safety first.
      • An effective tactic for a quick sort: assign a Tier 1 rating where scores are 50% or more of the highest total score, Tier 2 where scores are between 25% and 50%, and Tier 3 where scores are below 25%. Some organizations will also include a Tier 0 for the highest-scoring systems.
      • Then review and validate these scores and assignments.
    2. Next, consider the Total Cost of Downtime.
      • The Total Cost is calculated by the tool based on the Scoring Criteria in tab 2 and the impact scores on tab 3.
      • Decide if the total cost impact justifies increasing the criticality rating (e.g. from Tier 2 to Tier 1 due to high cost impact).
    3. Review the assigned impact scores and tiers to check that they’re in alignment. If you need to make an exception, document why. Keep exceptions to a minimum.

    Example: Highest total score is 12

    Screenshot of Info-Tech's DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool

    Step 2.3: Determine Acceptable RTO/RPO Targets

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Review the “Debate Space” approach to setting RTO and RPO (recovery targets).
    • Set preliminary RTOs and RPOs by criticality tier.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • DRP Coordinator
    • DRP Team

    Results and Insights

    • Align recovery targets with the business impact of downtime and data loss.

    Use the “Debate Space” approach to align RTOs and RPOs with the impact of downtime

    The business must validate acceptable and appropriate RTOs and RPOs, but IT can use the guidelines below to set an initial estimate.

    Right-size recovery.

    A shorter RTO typically requires higher investment. If a short period of downtime has minimal impact, setting a low RTO may not be justifiable. As downtime continues, impact begins to increase exponentially to a point where downtime is intolerable – an acceptable RTO must be shorter than this. Apply the same thinking to RPOs – how much data loss is unnoticeable? How much is intolerable?

    A diagram to show the debate space in relation to RTOs and RPOs

    The “Debate Space” is between minimal impact and maximum tolerance for downtime.

    Estimate appropriate, acceptable RTOs and RPOs for each tier

    2(f) Set recovery targets

    Estimated Time: 30 minutes

    RTO and RPO tiers simplify management by setting similar recovery goals for systems and applications with similar criticality.

    Use the “Debate Space” approach to set appropriate and acceptable targets.

    1. For RTO, establish a recovery time range that is appropriate based on impact.
      • Overall, the RTO tiers might be 0-4 hours for gold, 4-24 hours for silver, and 24-48 hours for bronze.
    2. RPOs reflect target data protection measures.
      • Identify the lowest RPO within a tier and make that the standard.
      • For example, RPO for gold data might be five minutes, silver might be four hours, and bronze might be one day.
      • Use this as a guideline. RPO doesn’t always align perfectly with RTO tiers.
    3. Review RTOs and RPOs and make sure they accurately reflect criticality.

    Info-Tech Insight

    In general, the more critical the system, the shorter the RPO. But that’s not always the case. For example, a service bus might be Tier 1, but if it doesn’t store any data, RPO might be longer than other Tier 1 systems. Some systems may have a different RPO than most other systems in that tier. As long as the targets are acceptable to the business and appropriate given the impact, that’s okay.

    Add recovery targets to the DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool

    2(g) DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool – Document recovery objectives

    A screenshot of Info-Tech's DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool – Document recovery objectives

    Stories from the field: Info-Tech clients find value in Phase 2 in the following ways

    Most organizations discover something new about key applications, or the way stakeholders use them, when they work through the BIA and review the results with stakeholders. For example:

    Why complete a BIA? There could be a million reasons

    • A global manufacturer completed the DRP BIA exercise. When email went down, Service Desk phones lit up until it was resolved. That grief led to a high availability implementation for email. However, the BIA illustrated that ERP downtime was far more impactful.
    • ERP downtime would stop production lines, delay customer orders, and ultimately cost the business a million dollars a day.
    • The BIA results clearly showed that the ERP needed to be prioritized higher, and required business support for investment.

    Move from airing grievances to making informed decisions

    The DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool helped structure stakeholder consultations on DR requirements for a large university IT department. Past consultations had become an airing of grievances. Using objective impact scores helped stakeholders stay focused and make informed decisions around appropriate RTOs and RPOs.

    Phase 2: Insights and accomplishments

    Screenshots of the tools and templates from this phase.

    Estimated the business impact of downtime

    Screenshot of a tools from this phase

    Set recovery targets

    Summary of Accomplishments

    • Created a scoring scale tied to different categories of business impact.
    • Applied the scoring scale to estimate the business impact of system downtime.
    • Identified appropriate, acceptable RTOs and RPOs.

    Up Next:Conduct a tabletop planning exercise to establish current recovery capabilities

    Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan

    Phase 3

    Identify and Address Gaps in the Recovery Workflow

    Step 3.1: Determine Current Recovery Workflow

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Run a tabletop exercise.
    • Outline the steps for the initial response (notification, assessment, disaster declaration) and systems recovery (i.e. document your recovery workflow).
    • Identify any gaps and risks in your initial response and systems recovery.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • DRP Coordinator
    • IT Infrastructure SMEs (for systems in scope)
    • Application SMEs (for systems in scope)

    Results and Insights

    • Use a repeatable practical exercise to outline and document the steps you would use to recover systems in the event of a disaster, as well as identify gaps and risks to address.
    • This is also a knowledge-sharing opportunity for your team, and a practical means to get their insights, suggestions, and recovery knowledge down on paper.

    Tabletop planning: an effective way to test and document your recovery workflow

    In a tabletop planning exercise, the DRP team walks through a disaster scenario to map out what should happen at each stage, and effectively defines a high-level incident response plan (i.e. recovery workflow).

    Tabletop planning had the greatest impact on meeting recovery objectives (RTOs/RPOs) among survey respondents.

    A bar graph is displayed that shows that tabletop planning has the greatest impact on meeting recovery objectives (RTOs/RPOs) among survey respondents.

    *Note: Relative importance indicates the contribution an individual testing methodology, conducted at least annually, had on predicting success meeting recovery objectives, when controlling for all other types of tests in a regression model. The relative-importance values have been standardized to sum to 100%.

    Success was based on the following items:

    • RTOs are consistently met.
    • IT has confidence in the ongoing ability to meet RTOs.
    • RPOs are consistently met.
    • IT has confidence in the ongoing ability to meet RPOs.

    Why is tabletop planning so effective?

    • It enables you to play out a wider range of scenarios than technology-based testing (e.g. full-scale, parallel) due to cost and complexity factors.
    • It is non-intrusive, so it can be executed more frequently than other testing methodologies.
    • It easily translates into the backbone of your recovery documentation, as it allows you to review all aspects of your recovery plan.

    Focus first on IT DR

    Your DRP is IT contingency planning. It is not crisis management or BCP.

    The goal is to define a plan to restore applications and systems following a disruption. For your first tabletop exercise, Info-Tech recommends you use a non-life-threatening scenario that requires at least a temporary relocation of your data center (i.e. failing over to a DR site/environment). Assume a gas leak or burst water pipe renders the data center inaccessible. Power is shut off and IT must failover systems to another location. Once you create the master procedure, review the plan to ensure it addresses other scenarios.

    Info-Tech Insight

    When systems fail, you are faced with two high-level options: failover or recover in place. If you document the plan to failover systems to another location, you’ll have documented the core of your DR procedures. This differs from traditional scenario planning where you define separate plans for different what-if scenarios. The goal is one plan that can be adapted to different scenarios, which reduces the effort to build and maintain your DRP.

    Conduct a tabletop planning exercise to outline DR procedures in your current environment

    3(a) Tabletop planning

    Estimated Time: 2-3 hours

    For each high-level recovery step, do the following:

    1. On white cue cards:
      • Record the step.
      • Indicate the task owner (if required for clarity).
      • Note time required to complete the step. After the exercise, use this to build a running recovery time where 00:00 is when the incident occurred.
    2. On yellow cue cards, document gaps in people, process, and technology requirements to complete the step.
    3. On red cue cards, indicate risks (e.g. no backup person for a key staff member).
    An example is shown on what can be done during step 3(a). Three cue cards are showing in white, yellow, and red.

    Do:

    • Review the complete workflow from notification all the way to user acceptance testing.
    • Keep focused; stay on task and on time.
    • Revisit each step and record gaps and risks (and known solutions, but don’t dwell on this).
    • Revise and improve the plan with task owners.

    Don't:

    • Get weighed down by tools.
    • Document the details right away – stick to the high-level plan for the first exercise.
    • Try to find solutions to every gap/risk as you go. Save in-depth research/discussion for later.

    Flowchart the current-state incident response plan (i.e. document the recovery workflow)

    3(b) DRP Recovery Workflow Template and Case Study: Practical, Right-Sized DRP

    Why use flowcharts?

    • Flowcharts provide an at-a-glance view, ideal for disaster scenarios where pressure is high and quick upward communication is necessary.
    • For experienced staff, a high-level reminder of key steps is sufficient.

    Use the completed tabletop planning exercise results to build this workflow.

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

    Source: Info-Tech Research Group Interview

    Screenshot of Info-Tech's DRP Recovery Workflow Template

    For a formatted template you can use to capture your plan, see Info-Tech’s DRP Recovery Workflow Template.

    For a completed example of tabletop planning results, review Info-Tech’s Case Study: Practical, Right-Sized DRP.

    Identify RPA

    What’s my RPA? Consider the following case:

    • Once a week, a full backup is taken of the complete ERP system and is transferred over the WAN to a secondary site 250 miles away, where it is stored on disk.
    • Overnight, an incremental backup is taken of the day’s changes, and is transferred to the same secondary site, and also stored on disk.
    • During office hours, the SAN takes a snapshot of changes which are kept on local storage (information on the accounting system usually only changes during office hours).
    • So what’s the RPA? One hour (snapshots), one day (incrementals), or one week (full backups)?

    When identifying RPA, remember the following:

    You are planning for a disaster scenario, where on-site systems may be inaccessible and any copies of data taken during the disaster may fail, be corrupt, or never make it out of the data center (e.g. if the network fails before the backup file ships). In the scenario above, it seems likely that off-site incremental backups could be restored, leading to a 24-hour RPA. However, if there were serious concerns about the reliability of the daily incrementals, the RPA could arguably be based on the weekly full backups.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    The RPA is a commitment to the maximum data you would lose in a DR scenario with current capabilities (people, process, and technology). Pick a number you can likely achieve. List any situations where you couldn’t meet this RPA, and identify those for a risk tolerance discussion. In the example above, complete loss of the primary SAN would also mean losing the snapshots, so the last good copy of the data could be up to 24-hours old.

    Add recovery actuals (RTA/RPA) to your copy of the BIA

    3(c) DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool– Recovery actuals

    On the “Impact Analysis” tab in the DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool, enter the estimated maximum downtime and data loss in the RTA and RPA columns.

    1. Estimate the RTA based on the required time for complete recovery. Review your recovery workflow to identify this timeline. For example, if the notification, assessment, and declaration process takes two hours, and systems recovery requires most of a day, the estimated RTA could be 24 hours.
    2. Estimate the RPA based on the longest interval between copies of the data being shipped offsite. For example, if data on a particular system is backed up offsite once per day, and the onsite system was destroyed just before that backup began, the entire day’s data could be lost and estimated RPA could be 24 hours. Note: Enter 9999 to indicate that data is unrecoverable.

    A screenshot of Info-Tech's DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool – Recovery actuals

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    It’s okay to round numbers to the nearest shift, day, or week for simplicity (e.g. 24 hours rather than 22.5 hours, or 8 hours rather than 7.25 hours).

    Test the recovery workflow against additional scenarios

    3(d) Workflow review

    Estimated Time: 1 hour

    Review your recovery workflow with a different scenario in mind.

    • Work from and update the soft copy of your recovery workflow.
    • Would any steps be different if the scenario changes? If yes, capture the different flow with a decision diamond. Identify any new gaps or risks you encounter with red and yellow cards. Use as few decision diamonds as possible.

    Screenshot of testing the workflow against the additional scenarios

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    As you start to consider scenarios where injuries or loss of life are a possibility, remember that health and safety risks are the top priority in a crisis. If there’s a fire in the data center, evacuating the building is the first priority, even if that means foregoing a graceful shut down. For more details on emergency response and crisis management, see Implement Crisis Management Best Practices.

    Consider additional IT disaster scenarios

    3(e) Thought experiment – Review additional scenarios

    Walk through your recovery workflow in the context of additional, different scenarios to ensure there are no gaps. Collaborate with your DR team to identify changes that might be required, and incorporate these changes in the plan.

    Scenario Type Considerations
    Isolated hardware/software failure
    • Failover to the DR site may not be necessary (or only for affected systems).
    Power outage or network outage
    • Do you have standby power? Do you have network redundancy?
    Local hazard (e.g. chemical leak, police incident)
    • Systems might be accessible remotely, but hands-on maintenance will be required eventually.
    • An alternate site is required for service continuity.
    Equipment/building damage (e.g. fire, roof collapse)
    • Staff injuries or loss of life are a possibility.
    • Equipment may need repair or replacement (vendor involvement).
    • An alternate site is required for service continuity.
    Regional natural disasters
    • Staff injuries or loss of life are a possibility.
    • Utilities may be affected (power, running water, etc.).
    • Expect staff to take care of their families first before work.
    • A geographically distant alternate site may be required for service continuity.

    Step 3.2: Identify and Prioritize Projects to Close Gaps

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Analyze the gaps that were identified from the maturity scorecard, tabletop planning exercise, and the RTO/RPO gaps analysis.
    • Brainstorm solutions to close gaps and mitigate risks.
    • Determine a course of action to close these gaps. Prioritize each project. Create a project implementation timeline.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • DRP Coordinator
    • IT Infrastructure SMEs

    Results and Insights

    • Prioritized list of projects and action items that can improve DR capabilities.
    • Often low-cost, low-effort quick wins are identified to mitigate at least some gaps/risks. Higher-cost, higher-effort projects can be part of a longer-term IT strategy. Improving service continuity is an ongoing commitment.

    Brainstorm solutions to address gaps and risk

    3(f) Solutioning

    Estimated Time: 1.5 hours

    1. Review each of the risk and gap cards from the tabletop exercise.
    2. As a group, brainstorm ideas to address gaps, mitigate risks, and improve resiliency. Write the list of ideas on a whiteboard or flip-chart paper. The solutions can range from quick-wins and action items to major capital investments.
    3. Try to avoid debates about feasibility at this point – that should happen later. The goal is to get all ideas on the board.

    An example of how to complete Activity 3(f). Three cue cards showing various steps are attached by arrows to steps on a whiteboard.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    It’s about finding ways to solve the problem, not about solving the problem. When you’re brainstorming solutions to problems, don’t stop with the first idea, even if the solution seems obvious. The first idea isn’t always the best or only solution; other ideas can expand on and improve that first idea.

    Select an optimal DR deployment model from a world of choice

    There are many options for a DR deployment. What makes sense for you?

    • Sifting through the options for a DR site can be overwhelming. Simplify by eliminating deployment models that aren’t a good fit for your requirements or organization using Info-Tech’s research.
    • Someone will ask you about DR in the cloud. Cut to the chase and evaluate cloud for fit with your organization’s current capabilities and requirements. Read about the 10 Secrets for Successful DR in the Cloud.
    • Selecting and deploying a DR site is an exercise in risk mitigation. IT’s role is to advise the business on options to address the risk of not having a DR site, including cost and effort estimates. The business must then decide how to manage risk. Build total cost of ownership (TCO) estimates and evaluate possible challenges and risks for each option.

    Is it practical to invest in greater geo-redundancy that meets RTOs and RPOs during a widespread event?

    Info-Tech suggests you consider events that impact both sites, and your risk tolerance for that impact. Outline the impact of downtime at a high level if both the primary and secondary site were affected. Research how often events severe enough to have impacted both your primary and secondary sites have occurred in the past. What’s the business tolerance for this type of event?

    A common strategy: have a primary and DR site that are close enough to support low RPO/RTO, but far enough away to mitigate the impact of known regional events. Back up data to a remote third location as protection against a catastrophic event.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Approach site selection as a project. Leverage Select an Optimal Disaster Recovery Deployment Model to structure your own site-selection project.

    Set up the DRP Roadmap Tool

    3(g) DRP Roadmap Tool – Set up tool

    Use the DRP Roadmap Tool to create a high-level roadmap to plan and communicate DR action items and initiatives. Determine the data you’ll use to define roadmap items.

    Screenshot of Info-Tech's DRP Roadmap Tool

    Plan next steps by estimating timeline, effort, priority, and more

    3(h) DRP Roadmap Tool – Describe roadmap items

    A screenshot of Info-Tech's DRP Roadmap Tool to show how to describe roadmap items

    Review and communicate the DRP Roadmap Tool

    3(i) DRP Roadmap Tool – View roadmap chart

    A screenshot of Info-Tech's DRP Roadmap Tool's Roadmap tab

    Step 3.3: Review the Future State Recovery Process

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Update the recovery workflow to outline your future recovery procedure.
    • Summarize findings from DR exercises and present the results to the project sponsor and other interested executives.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • DRP Coordinator
    • IT SMEs (Future State Recovery Flow)
    • DR Project Sponsor

    Results and Insights

    • Summarize results from DR planning exercises to make the case for needed DR investment.

    Outline your future state recovery flow

    3(j) Update the recovery workflow to outline response and recovery in the future

    Estimated Time: 30 minutes

    Outline your expected future state recovery flow to demonstrate improvements once projects and action items have been completed.

    1. Create a copy of your DRP recovery workflow in a new tab in Visio.
    2. Delete gap and risk cards that are addressed by proposed projects. Consolidate or eliminate steps that would be simplified or streamlined in the future if projects are implemented.
    3. Create a short-, medium-, and long-term review of changes to illustrate improvements over time to the project roadmap.
    4. Update this workflow as you implement and improve DR capabilities.

    Screenshot of the recovery workflow

    Validate recovery targets and communicate actual recovery capabilities

    3(k) Validate findings, present recommendations, secure budget

    Estimated Time: time required will vary

    1. Interview managers or process owners to validate RTO, RPO, and business impact scores.Use your assessment of “heavy users” of particular applications (picture at right) to remind you which business users you should include in the interview process.
    2. Present an overview of your findings to the management team.Use Info-Tech’s DRP Recap and Results Template to summarize your findings.
    3. Take projects into the budget process.With the management team aware of the rationale for investment in DRP, build the business case and secure budget where needed.

    Present DRP findings and make the case for needed investment

    3(I) DRP Recap and Results Template

    Create a communication deck to recap key findings for stakeholders.

    • Write a clear problem statement. Identify why you did this project (what problem you’re solving).
    • Clearly state key findings, insights, and recommendations.
    • Leverage the completed tools and templates to populate the deck. Callouts throughout the template presentation will direct you to take and populate screenshots throughout the document.
    • Use the presentation to communicate key findings to, and gather feedback from, business unit managers, executives, and IT staff.
    Screenshots of Info-Tech's DRP Recap and Results Template

    Stories from the field: Info-Tech clients find value in Phase 3 in the following ways

    Tabletop planning is an effective way to discover gaps in recovery capabilities. Identify issues in the tabletop exercise so you can manage them before disaster strikes. For example:

    Back up a second…

    A client started to back up application data offsite. To minimize data transfer and storage costs, the systems themselves weren’t backed up. Working through the restore process at the DR site, the DBA realized 30 years of COBOL and SQR code – critical business functionality – wasn’t backed up offsite.

    Net… work?

    A 500-employee professional services firm realized its internet connection could be a significant roadblock to recovery. Without internet, no one at head office could access critical cloud systems. The tabletop exercise identified this recovery bottleneck and helped prioritize the fix on the roadmap.

    Someone call a doctor!

    Hospitals rely on their phone systems for system downtime procedures. A tabletop exercise with a hospital client highlighted that if the data center were damaged, the phone system would likely be damaged as well. Identifying this provided more urgency to the ongoing VOIP migration.

    The test of time

    A small municipality relied on a local MSP to perform systems restore, but realized it had never tested the restore procedure to identify RTA. Contacting the MSP to review capabilities became a roadmap item to address this risk.

    Phase 3: Insights and accomplishments

    Screenshot of Info-Tech's DRP recovery workflow template

    Outlined the DRP response and risks to recovery

    Screenshots of activities completed related to brainstorming risk mitigation measures.

    Brainstormed risk mitigation measures

    Summary of Accomplishments

    • Planned and documented your DR incident response and systems recovery workflow.
    • Identified gaps and risks to recovery and incident management.
    • Brainstormed and identified projects and action items to mitigate risks and close gaps.

    Up Next: Leverage the core deliverables to complete, extend, and maintain your DRP

    Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan

    Phase 4

    Complete, Extend, and Maintain Your DRP

    Phase 4: Complete, Extend, and Maintain Your DRP

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Identify progress made on your DRP by reassessing your DRP maturity.
    • Prioritize the highest value major initiatives to complete, extend, and maintain your DRP.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • DRP Coordinator
    • Executive Sponsor

    Results and Insights

    • Communicate the value of your DRP by demonstrating progress against items in the DRP Maturity Scorecard.
    • Identify and prioritize future major initiatives to support the DRP, and the larger BCP.

    Celebrate accomplishments, plan for the future

    Congratulations! You’ve completed the core DRP deliverables and made the case for investment in DR capabilities. Take a moment to celebrate your accomplishments.

    This milestone is an opportunity to look back and look forward.

    • Look back: measure your progress since you started to build your DRP. Revisit the assessments completed in phase 1, and assess the change in your overall DRP maturity.
    • Look forward: prioritize future initiatives to complete, extend, and maintain your DRP. Prioritize initiatives that are the highest impact for the least requirement of effort and resources.

    We have completed the core DRP methodology for key systems:

    • BIA, recovery objectives, high-level recovery workflow, and recovery actuals.
    • Identify key tasks to meet recovery objectives.

    What could we do next?

    • Repeat the core methodology for additional systems.
    • Identify a DR site to meet recovery requirements, and review vendor DR capabilities.
    • Create a summary DRP document including requirements, capabilities, and change procedures.
    • Create a test plan and detailed recovery documentation.
    • Coordinate the creation of BCPs.
    • Integrate DR in other key operational processes.

    Revisit the DRP Maturity Scorecard to measure progress and identify remaining areas to improve

    4(a) DRP Maturity Scorecard – Reassess your DRP program maturity

    1. Find the copy of the DRP Maturity Scorecard you completed previously. Save a second copy of the completed scorecard in the same folder.
    2. Update scoring where you have improved your DRP documentation or capabilities.
    3. Review the new scores on tab 3. Compare the new scores to the original scores.

    Screenshot of DRP Maturity Assessment Results

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Use the completed, updated DRP Maturity Scorecard to demonstrate the value of your continuity program, and to help you decide where to focus next.

    Prioritize major initiatives to complete, extend, and maintain the DRP

    4(b) Prioritize major initiatives

    Estimated Time: 2 hours

    Prioritize major initiatives that mitigate significant risk with the least cost and effort.

    1. Use the scoring criteria below to evaluate risk, effort, and cost for potential initiatives. Modify the criteria if required for your organization. Write this out on a whiteboard or flip-chart paper.
    2. Assign a score from 1 to 3. Multiply the scores for each initiative together for an aggregate score. In general, prioritize initiatives with higher scores.
    Score A: How significant are the risks this initiative will mitigate? B: How easily can we complete this initiative? C: How cost-effective is this initiative?
    3: High Critical impact on +50% of stakeholders, or major impact to compliance posture, or significant health/safety risk. One sprint, can be completed by a few individuals with minor supervision. Within the IT discretionary budget.
    2: Medium Impacts <50% of stakeholders, or minor impact on compliance, or degradation to health or safety controls. One quarter, and/or some increased effort required, some risk to completion. Requires budget approval from finance.
    1: Low Impacts limited to <25% of stakeholders, no impact on compliance posture or health/safety. One year, and/or major vendor or organizational challenges. Requires budget approval from the board of directors.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    You can use a similar scoring exercise to prioritize and schedule high-benefit, low-effort, low-cost items identified in the roadmap in phase 3.

    Example: Prioritize major initiatives

    4(b) Prioritize major initiatives continued

    Write out the table on a whiteboard (record the results in a spreadsheet for reference). In the case below, IT might decide to work on repeating the core methodology first as they create the active testing plans, and tackle process changes later.

    Initiative A: How significant are the risks this initiative will mitigate? B: How easily can we complete this initiative? C: How cost-effective is this initiative? Aggregate score (A x B x C)
    Repeat the core methodology for all systems 2 – will impact some stakeholders, no compliance or safety impact. 2 – will require about 3 months, no significant complications. 3 – No cost. 12
    Add DR to project mgmt. and change mgmt. 1 – Mitigates some recovery risks over the long term. 1 – Requires extensive consultation and process review. 3 – No cost. 3
    Active failover testing on plan 2 – Mitigates some risks; documentation and cross training is already in place. 2 – Requires 3-4 months of occasional effort to prepare for test. 2 – May need to purchase some equipment before testing. 8

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Find a pace that allows you to keep momentum going, but also leaves enough time to act on the initial findings, projects, and action items identified in the DRP Roadmap Tool. Include these initiatives in the Roadmap tool to visualize how identified initiatives fit with other tasks identified to improve your recovery capabilities.

    Repeat the core DR methodology for additional systems and applications


    You have created a DR plan for your most critical systems. Now, add the rest:

    • Build on the work you’ve already done. Re-use the BIA scoring scale. Update your existing recovery workflows, rather than creating and formatting an entirely new document. A number of steps in the recovery will be shared with, or similar to, the recovery procedures for your Tier 1 systems.

    Risks and Challenges Mitigated

    • DR requirements and capabilities for less-critical systems have not been evaluated.
    • Gaps in the recovery process for less critical systems have not been evaluated or addressed.
    • DR capabilities for less critical systems may not meet business requirements.
    Sample Outputs
    Add Tier 2 & 3 systems to the BIA.
    Complete another tabletop exercise for Tier 2 & 3 systems recovery, and add the results to the recovery workflow.
    Identify projects to close additional gaps in the recovery process. Add projects to the project roadmap.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Use this example of a complete, practical, right-size DR plan to drive and guide your efforts.

    Extend your core DRP deliverables

    You’ve completed the core DRP deliverables. Continue to create DRP documentation to support recovery procedures and governance processes:

    • DR documentation efforts fail when organizations try to boil the ocean with an all-in-one plan aimed at auditors, business leaders, and IT. It’s long, hard to maintain, and ends up as shelfware.
    • Create documentation in layers to keep it manageable. Build supporting documentation over time to support your high-level recovery workflow.

    Risks and Challenges Mitigated

    • Key contact information, escalation, and disaster declaration responsibilities are not identified or formalized.
    • DRP requirements and capabilities aren’t centralized. Key DRP findings are in multiple documents, complicating governance and oversight by auditors, executives, and board members.
    • Detailed recovery procedures and peripheral information (e.g. network diagrams) are not documented.
    Sample Outputs
    Three to five detailed systems recovery flowcharts/checklists.
    Documented team roles, succession plans, and contact information.
    Notification, assessment, and disaster declaration plan.
    DRP summary.
    Layer 1, 2 & 3 network diagrams.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Use this example of a complete, practical, right-size DR plan to drive and guide your efforts.

    Select an optimal DR deployment model and deployment site

    Your DR site has been identified as inadequate:

    • Begin with the end in mind. Commit to mastering the selected model and leverage your vendor relationship for effective DR.
    • Cut to the chase and evaluate the feasibility of cloud first. Gauge your organization’s current capabilities for DR in the cloud before becoming infatuated with the idea.
    • A mixed model gives you the best of both worlds. Diversify your strategy by identifying fit for purpose and balancing the work required to maintain various models.

    Risks and Challenges Mitigated

    • Without an identified DR site, you’ll be scrambling when a disaster hits to find and contract for a location to restore IT services.
    • Without systems and application data backed up offsite, you stand to lose critical business data and logic if all copies of the data at your primary site were lost.
    Sample Outputs
    Application assessment for cloud DR.
    TCO tool for different environments.
    Solution decision and executive presentation.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Use Info-Tech’s blueprint, Select the Optimal Disaster Recovery Deployment Model, to help you make sense of a world of choice for your DR site.

    Extend DRP findings to business process resiliency with a BCP pilot

    Integrate your findings from DRP into the overall BCP:

    • As an IT leader you have the skillset and organizational knowledge to lead a BCP project, but ultimately business leaders need to own the BCP – they know their processes and requirements to resume business operations better than anyone else.
    • The traditional approach to BCP is a massive project that most organizations can’t execute without hiring a consultant. To execute BCP in-house, carve up the task into manageable pieces.

    Risks and Challenges Mitigated

    • No formal plan exists to recover from a disruption to critical business processes.
    • Business requirements for IT systems recovery may change following a comprehensive review of business continuity requirements.
    • Outside of core systems recovery, IT could be involved in relocating staff, imaging and issuing new end-user equipment, etc. Identifying these requirements is part of BCP.
    Sample Outputs
    Business process-focused BIA for one business unit.
    Recovery workflows for one business unit.
    Provisioning list for one business unit.
    BCP project roadmap.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Use Info-Tech’s blueprint, Develop a Business Continuity Plan, to develop and deploy a repeatable BCP methodology.

    Test the plan to validate capabilities and cross-train staff on recovery procedures

    You don’t have a program to regularly test the DR plan:

    • Most DR tests are focused solely on the technology and not the DR management process – which is where most plans fail.
    • Be proactive – establish an annual test cycle and identify and coordinate resources well in advance.
    • Update DRP documentation with findings from the plan, and track the changes you make over time.

    Risks and Challenges Mitigated

    • Gaps likely still exist in the plan that are hard to find without some form of testing.
    • Customers and auditors may ask for some form of DR testing.
    • Staff may not be familiar with DR documentation or how they can use it.
    • No formal cycle to validate and update the DRP.
    Sample Outputs
    DR testing readiness assessment.
    Testing handbooks.
    Test plan summary template.
    DR test issue log and analysis tool.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Uncover deficiencies in your recovery procedures by using Info-Tech’s blueprint Reduce Costly Downtime Through DR Testing.

    “Operationalize” DRP management

    Inject DR planning in key operational processes to support plan maintenance:

    • Major changes, or multiple routine changes, can materially alter DR capabilities and requirements. It’s not feasible to update the DR plan after every routine change, so leverage criticality tiers in the BIA to focus your change management efforts. Critical systems require more rigorous change procedures.
    • Likewise, you can build criticality tiers into more focused project management and performance measurement processes.
    • Schedule regular tasks in your ticketing system to verify capabilities and cross-train staff on key recovery procedures (e.g. backup and restore).

    Risks and Challenges Mitigated

    • DRP is not updated “as needed” – as requirements and capabilities change due to business and technology changes.
    • The DRP is disconnected from day-to-day operations.
    Sample Outputs
    Reviewed and updated change, project, and performance management processes.
    Reviewed and updated internal SLAs.
    Reviewed and updated data protection and backup procedures.

    Review infrastructure service provider DR capabilities

    Insert DR planning in key operational processes to support plan maintenance:

    • Reviewing vendor DR capabilities is a core IT vendor management competency.
    • As your DR requirements change year-to-year, ensure your vendors’ service commitments still meet your DR requirements.
    • Identify changes in the vendor’s service offerings and DR capabilities, e.g. higher costs for additional DR support, new offerings to reduce potential downtime, or conversely, a degradation in DR capabilities.

    Risks and Challenges Mitigated

    • Vendor capabilities haven’t been measured against business requirements.
    • No internal capability exists currently to assess vendor ability to meet promised SLAs.
    • No internal capability exists to track vendor performance on recoverability.
    Sample Outputs
    A customized vendor DRP questionnaire.
    Reviewed vendor SLAs.
    Choose to keep or change service levels or vendor offerings based on findings.

    Phase 4: Insights and accomplishments

    Screenshot of DRP Maturity Assessment Results

    Identified progress against targets

    Screenshot of prioritized further initiatives.

    Prioritized further initiatives

    Screenshot of DRP Planning Roadmap

    Added initiatives to the roadmap

    Summary of Accomplishments

    • Developed a list of high-priority initiatives that can support the extension and maintenance of the DR plan over the long term.
    • Reviewed and update maturity assessments to establish progress and communicate the value of the DR program.

    Summary of accomplishment

    Knowledge Gained

    • Conduct a BIA to determine appropriate targets for RTOs and RPOs.
    • Identify DR projects required to close RTO/RPO gaps and mitigate risks.
    • Use tabletop planning to create and validate an incident response plan.

    Processes Optimized

    • Your DRP process was optimized, from BIA to documenting an incident response plan.
    • Your vendor evaluation process was optimized to identify and assess a vendor’s ability to meet your DR requirements, and to repeat this evaluation on an annual basis.

    Deliverables Completed

    • DRP Maturity Scorecard
    • DRP Business Impact Analysis Tool
    • DRP Roadmap Tool
    • Incident response plan and systems recovery workflow
    • Executive presentation

    Info-Tech’s insights bust the most obstinate myths of DRP

    Myth #1: DRPs need to focus on major events such as natural disasters and other highly destructive incidents such as fire and flood.

    Reality: The most common threats to service continuity are hardware and software failures, network outages, and power outages.

    Myth #2: Effective DRPs start with identifying and evaluating potential risks.

    Reality: DR isn’t about identifying risks; it’s about ensuring service continuity.

    Myth #3: DRPs are separate from day-to-day operations and incident management.

    Reality: DR must be integrated with service management to ensure service continuity.

    Myth #4: I use a co-lo or cloud services so I don’t have to worry about DR. That’s my vendor’s responsibility.

    Reality: You can’t outsource accountability. You can’t just assume your vendor’s DR capabilities will meet your needs.

    Myth #5: A DRP must include every detail so anyone can execute the recovery.

    Reality: IT DR is not an airplane disaster movie. You aren’t going to ask a business user to execute a system recovery, just like you wouldn’t really want a passenger with no flying experience to land a plane.

    Supplement the core documentation with these tools and templates

    • An Excel workbook workbook to track key roles on DR, business continuity, and emergency response teams. Can also track DR documentation location and any hardware purchases required for DR.
    • A questionnaire template and a response tracking tool to structure your investigation of vendor DR capabilities.
    • Integrate escalation with your DR plan by defining incident severity and escalation rules . Use this example as a template or integrate ideas into your own severity definitions and escalation rules in your incident management procedures.
    • A minute-by-minute time-tracking tool to capture progress in a DR or testing scenario. Monitor progress against objectives in real time as recovery tasks are started and completed.

    Next steps: Related Info-Tech research

    Select the Optimal Disaster Recovery Deployment Model Evaluate cloud, co-lo, and on-premises disaster recovery deployment models.

    Develop a Business Continuity Plan Streamline the traditional approach to make BCP development manageable and repeatable.

    Prepare for a DRP Audit Assess your current DRP maturity, identify required improvements, and complete an audit-ready DRP summary document.

    Document and Maintain Your Disaster Recovery Plan Put your DRP on a diet: keep it fit, trim, and ready for action.

    Reduce Costly Downtime Through DR Testing Improve your DR plan and your team’s ability to execute on it.

    Implement Crisis Management Best Practices An effective crisis response minimizes the impact of a crisis on reputation, profitability, and continuity.

    Research contributors and experts

    • Alan Byrum, Director of Business Continuity, Intellitech
    • Bernard Jones (MBCI, CBCP, CORP, ITILv3), Owner/Principal, B Jones BCP Consulting, LLC
    • Paul Beaudry, Assistant Vice-President, Technical Services, MIS, Richardson International Limited
    • Yogi Schulz, President, Corvelle Consulting

    Glossary

    • Business Continuity Management (BCM) Program: Ongoing management and governance process supported by top management and appropriately resourced to implement and maintain business continuity management. (Source: ISO 22301:2012)
    • Business Continuity Plan (BCP): Documented procedures that guide organizations to respond, recover, resume, and restore to a pre-defined level of operation following disruption. The BCP is not necessarily one document, but a collection of procedures and information.
    • Crisis: A situation with a high level of uncertainty that disrupts the core activities and/or credibility of an organization and requires urgent action. (Source: ISO 22300)
    • Crisis Management Team (CMT): A group of individuals responsible for developing and implementing a comprehensive plan for responding to a disruptive incident. The team consists of a core group of decision makers trained in incident management and prepared to respond to any situation.
    • Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP): The activities associated with the continuing availability and restoration of the IT infrastructure.
    • Incident: An event that has the capacity to lead to loss of, or a disruption to, an organization’s operations, services, or functions – which, if not managed, can escalate into an emergency, crisis, or disaster.
    • BCI Editor’s Note: In most countries “incident” and “crisis” are used interchangeably, but in the UK the term “crisis” has been generally reserved for dealing with wide-area incidents involving Emergency Services. The BCI prefers the use of “incident” for normal BCM purposes. (Source: The Business Continuity Institute)

    • Incident Management Plan: A clearly defined and documented plan of action for use at the time of an incident, typically covering the key personnel, resources, services, and actions needed to implement the incident management process.
    • IT Disaster: A service interruption requiring IT to rebuild a service, restore from backups, or activate redundancy at the backup site.
    • Recovery Point: Time elapsed between the last good copy of the data being taken and failure/corruption on the production environment; think of this as data loss.
    • Recovery Point Actual (RPA): The currently achievable recovery point after a disaster event, given existing people, processes, and technology. This reflects expected maximum data loss that could actually occur in a disaster scenario.
    • Recovery Point Objective (RPO): The target recovery point after a disaster event, usually calculated in hours, on a given system, application, or service. Think of this as acceptable and appropriate data loss. RPO should be based on a business impact analysis (BIA) to identify an acceptable and appropriate recovery target.
    • Recovery Time: Time required to restore a system, application, or service to a functional state; think of this as downtime.
    • Recovery Time Actual (RTA): The currently achievable recovery time after a disaster event, given existing people, processes, and technology. This reflects expected maximum downtime that could actually occur in a disaster scenario.
    • Recovery Time Objective (RTO): The target recovery time after a disaster event for a given system, application, or service. RTO should be based on a business impact analysis (BIA) to identify acceptable and appropriate downtime.

    Bibliography

    BCMpedia. “Recovery Objectives: RTO, RPO, and MTPD.” BCMpedia, n.d. Web.

    Burke, Stephen. “Public Cloud Pitfalls: Microsoft Azure Storage Cluster Loses Power, Puts Spotlight On Private, Hybrid Cloud Advantages.” CRN, 16 Mar. 2017. Web.

    Elliot, Stephen. “DevOps and the Cost of Downtime: Fortune 1000 Best Practice Metrics Quantified.” IDC, 2015. Web.

    FEMA. Planning & Templates. FEMA, 2015. Web.

    FINRA. “Business Continuity Plans and Emergency Contact Information.” FINRA, 2015. Web.

    FINRA. “FINRA, the SEC and CFTC Issue Joint Advisory on Business Continuity Planning.” FINRA, 2013. Web.

    Gosling, Mel, and Andrew Hiles. “Business Continuity Statistics: Where Myth Meets Fact.” Continuity Central, 2009. Web.

    Hanwacker, Linda. “COOP Templates for Success Workbook.” The LSH Group, n.d. Web.

    Homeland Security. Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA). Homeland Security, 2015. Web.

    Nichols, Shaun. “AWS's S3 Outage Was So Bad Amazon Couldn't Get Into Its Own Dashboard to Warn the World.” The Register, 1 Mar. 2017. Web.

    Potter, Patrick. “BCM Regulatory Alphabet Soup.” RSA Archer Organization, 2012. Web.

    Rothstein, Philip Jan. “Disaster Recovery Testing: Exercising Your Contingency Plan.” Rothstein Associates Inc., 2007. Web.

    The Business Continuity Institute. “The Good Practice Guidelines.” The Business Continuity Institute, 2013. Web.

    The Disaster Recovery Journal. “Disaster Resource Guide.” The Disaster Recovery Journal, 2015. Web.

    The Disaster Recovery Journal. “DR Rules & Regulations.” The Disaster Recovery Journal, 2015. Web.

    The Federal Financial Institution Examination Council (FFIEC). Business Continuity Planning. IT Examination Handbook InfoBase, 2015. Web.

    York, Kyle. “Read Dyn’s Statement on the 10/21/2016 DNS DDoS Attack.” Oracle, 22 Oct. 2016. Web.

    Select and Implement a Reporting and Analytics Solution

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    • Statistics show that the top priority of 85% of CIOs is insight and intelligence. Yet an appetite for intelligence does not mean that business intelligence initiatives will be an automatic success. In fact, many industry studies found that only 30% to 50% of organizations considered their BI initiative to be a complete success. It is, therefore, imperative that organizations take the time to select and implement a BI suite that aligns with business goals and fosters end-user adoption.
    • The multitude of BI offerings creates a busy and sometimes overwhelming vendor landscape. When selecting a solution, you have to make sense of the many offerings and bridge the gap between what is out there and what your organization needs.
    • BI is more than software. A BI solution has to effectively address business needs and demonstrate value through content and delivery once the platform is implemented.
    • Another dimension of the success of BI is the quality and validity of the reports and insights. The overall success of the BI solution is only as good as the quality of data fueling them.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Business intelligence starts with data management. Without data management, including governance and data quality capabilities, your BI users will not be able to get the insights they need due to inaccurate and unavailable data.
    • When selecting a BI tool, it is crucial to ensure that the tool is fit for the purpose of the organization. Ensure alignment between the business drivers and the tool capabilities.
    • Self-serve BI requires a measured approach. Self-serve BI is meant to empower users to make more informed and faster decisions. But uncontrolled self-serve BI will lead to report chaos and prevent users from getting the most out of the tool. You must govern self-serve before it gets out of hand.

    Impact and Result

    • Evaluate your organization and land yourself into one of our three BI use cases. Find a BI suite that best suits the use case and, therefore, your organization.
    • Understand the ever-changing BI market. Get to know the established vendors as well as the emerging players.
    • Define BI requirements comprehensively through the lens of business, data, architecture, and user groups. Evaluate requirements to ensure they align with the strategic goals of the business.

    Select and Implement a Reporting and Analytics Solution Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should select and implement a business intelligence and analytics solution, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Launch a BI selection project

    Promote and get approval for the BI selection and implementation project.

    • Select and Implement a Business Intelligence and Analytics Solution – Phase 1: Launch a BI Selection Project
    • BI Score Calculator
    • BI Project Charter

    2. Select a BI solution

    Select the most suitable BI platform.

    • Select and Implement a Business Intelligence and Analytics Solution – Phase 2: Select a BI Solution
    • BI Use-Case Fit Assessment Tool
    • BI Planning and Scoring Tool
    • BI Vendor Demo Script
    • BI Vendor Shortlist & Detailed Feature Analysis Tool
    • BI Request for Proposal Template

    3. Implement the BI solution

    Build a sustainable BI program.

    • Select and Implement a Business Intelligence and Analytics Solution – Phase 3: Implement the BI Solution
    • BI Test Plan Template
    • BI Implementation Planning Tool
    • BI Implementation Work Breakdown Structure Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Select and Implement a Reporting and Analytics Solution

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

    1 Launch a BI Selection Project

    The Purpose

    Identify the scope and objectives of the workshop.

    Discuss the benefits and opportunities related to a BI investment.

    Gain a high-level understanding of BI and the BI market definitions and details.

    Outline a project plan and identify the resourcing requirements for the project.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Determine workshop scope.

    Identify the business drivers and benefits behind a BI investment.

    Outline the project plan for the organization’s BI selection project.

    Determine project resourcing.

    Identify and perform the steps to launch the organization’s selection project.

    Activities

    1.1 Identify business drivers for investing in process automation technology.

    1.2 Identify the organization’s fit for a BI investment.

    1.3 Create a project plan.

    1.4 Identify project resourcing.

    1.5 Outline the project’s timeline.

    1.6 Determine key metrics.

    1.7 Determine project oversight.

    1.8 Complete a project charter.

    Outputs

    Completion of a project charter

    Launched BI selection project

    2 Analyze BI Requirements and Shortlist Vendors

    The Purpose

    Identify functional requirements for the organization’s BI suite.

    Determine technical requirements for the organization’s BI suite.

    Identify the organization’s alignment to the Vendor Landscape’s use-case scenarios.

    Shortlist BI vendors.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Documented functional requirements.

    Documented technical requirements.

    Identified use-case scenarios for the future BI solution.

    Activities

    2.1 Interview business stakeholders.

    2.2 Interview IT staff.

    2.3 Consolidate interview findings.

    2.4 Build the solution’s requirements package.

    2.5 Identify use-case scenario alignment.

    2.6 Review Info-Tech’s BI Vendor Landscape results.

    2.7 Create custom shortlist.

    Outputs

    Documented requirements for the future solution.

    Identification of the organization’s BI functional use-case scenarios.

    Shortlist of BI vendors.

    3 Plan the Implementation Process

    The Purpose

    Identify the steps for the organization’s implementation process.

    Select the right BI environment.

    Run a pilot project.

    Measure the value of your implementation.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Install a BI solution and prepare the BI solution in a way that allows intuitive and interactive uses.

    Keep track of and quantify BI success.

    Activities

    3.1 Select the right environment for the BI platform.

    3.2 Configure the BI implementation.

    3.3 Conduct a pilot to get started with BI and to demonstrate BI possibilities.

    3.4 Promote BI development in production.

    Outputs

    A successful BI implementation.

    BI is architected with the right availability.

    BI ROI is captured and quantified.

    Prepare Your Application for PaaS

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    • Parent Category Link: /architecture-and-strategy
    • The application may have been written a long time ago, and have source code, knowledge base, or design principles misplaced or lacking, which makes it difficult to understand the design and build.
    • The development team does not have a standardized practice for assessing cloud benefits and architecture, design principles for redesigning an application, or performing capacity for planning activities.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • An infrastructure-driven cloud strategy overlooks application specific complexities. Ensure that an application portfolio strategy is a precursor to determining the business value gained from an application perspective, not just an infrastructure perspective.
    • Business value assessment must be the core of your decision to migrate and justify the development effort.
    • Right-size your application to predict future usage and minimize unplanned expenses. This ensures that you are truly benefiting from the tier costing model that vendors offer.

    Impact and Result

    • Identify and evaluate what cloud benefits your application can leverage and the business value generated as a result of migrating your application to the cloud.
    • Use Info-Tech’s approach to building a robust application that can leverage scalability, availability, and performance benefits while maintaining the functions and features that the application currently supports for the business.
    • Standardize and strengthen your performance testing practices and capacity planning activities to build a strong current state assessment.
    • Use Info-Tech’s elaboration of the 12-factor app to build a clear and robust cloud profile and target state for your application.
    • Leverage Info-Tech’s cloud requirements model to assess the impact of cloud on different requirements patterns.

    Prepare Your Application for PaaS Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should build a right-sized, design-driven approach to moving your application to a PaaS platform, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    • Prepare Your Application for PaaS – Phases 1-2

    1. Create your cloud application profile

    Bring the business into the room, align your objectives for choosing certain cloud capabilities, and characterize your ideal PaaS environment as a result of your understanding of what the business is trying to achieve. Understand how to right-size your application in the cloud to maintain or improve its performance.

    • Prepare Your Application for PaaS – Phase 1: Create Your Cloud Application Profile
    • Cloud Profile Tool

    2. Evaluate design changes for your application

    Assess the application against Info-Tech’s design scorecard to evaluate the right design approach to migrating the application to PaaS. Pick the appropriate cloud path and begin the first step to migrating your app – gathering your requirements.

    • Prepare Your Application for PaaS – Phase 2: Evaluate Design Changes for Your Application
    • Cloud Design Scorecard Tool

    [infographic]

     
     

    Enterprise Architecture

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    Demystify enterprise architecture value with key metrics.

    Security Priorities 2023

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    • Most people still want a hybrid work model but there is a shortage in security workforce to maintain secure remote work, which impacts confidence in the security practice.
    • Pressure of operational excellence drives organizational modernization with the consequence of higher risks of security attacks that impact not only cyber but also physical systems.
    • The number of regulations with stricter requirements and reporting is increasing, along with high sanctions for violations.
    • Accurate assessment of readiness and benefits to adopt next-gen cybersecurity technologies can be difficult. Additionally, regulation often faces challenges to keep up with next-gen cybersecurity technologies implications and risks of adoption, which may not always be explicit.
    • Software is usually produced as part of a supply chain instead in a silo. Thus, a vulnerability in any part of the supply chain can become a threat surface.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Secure remote work still needs to be maintained to facilitate the hybrid work model post pandemic.
    • Despite all the cybersecurity risks, organizations continue modernization plans due to the long-term overall benefits. Hence, we need to secure organization modernization.
    • Organizations should use regulatory changes to improve security practices, instead of treating them as a compliance burden.
    • Next-gen cybersecurity technologies alone are not the silver bullet. A combination of technologies with skilled talent, useful data, and best practices will give a competitive advantage.

    Impact and Result

    • Use this report to help decide your 2023 security priorities by:
      • Collecting and analyzing your own related data, such as your organization 2022 incident reports. Use Info-Tech’s Security Priorities 2023 material for guidance.
      • Identifying your needs and analyzing your capabilities. Use Info-Tech's template to explain the priorities you need to your stakeholders.
      • Determining the next steps. Refer to Info-Tech's recommendations and related research.

    Security Priorities 2023 Research & Tools

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

    1. Security Priorities 2023 Report – A report to help decide your 2023 security priorities.

    Each organization is different, so a generic list of security priorities will not be applicable to every organization. Thus, you need to:

  • Collect and analyze your own related data such as your organization 2022 incident reports. Use Info-Tech’s Security Priorities 2023 material for guidance.
  • Identify your needs and analyze your capabilities. Use Info-Tech's template to explain the priorities you need to your stakeholders.
  • Refer to Info-Tech's recommendations and related research for guidance on the next steps.
    • Security Priorities 2023 Report

    Infographic

    Further reading

    Security Priorities 2023

    How we live post pandemic

    Each organization is different, so a generic list of priorities will not be applicable to every organization.

    During 2022, ransomware campaigns declined from quarter to quarter due to the collapse of experienced groups. Several smaller groups are developing to recapture the lost ransomware market. However, ransomware is still the most worrying cyber threat.

    Also in 2022, people returned to normal activities such as traveling and attending sports or music events but not yet to the office. The reasons behind this trend can be many fold, such as employees perceive that work from home (WFH) has positive productivity effects and time flexibility for employees, especially for those with families with younger children. On the other side of the spectrum, some employers perceive that WFH has negative productivity effects and thus are urging employees to return to the office. However, employers also understand the competition to retain skilled workers is harder. Thus, the trend is to have hybrid work where eligible employees can WFH for a certain portion of their work week.

    Besides ransomware and the hybrid work model, in 2022, we saw an evolving threat landscape, regulatory changes, and the potential for a recession by the end of 2023, which can impact how we prioritize cybersecurity this year. Furthermore, organizations are still facing the ongoing issues of insufficient cybersecurity resources and organization modernization.

    This report will explore important security trends, the security priorities that stem from these trends, and how to customize these priorities for your organization.

    In Q2 2022, the median ransom payment was $36,360 (-51% from Q1 2022), a continuation of a downward trend since Q4 2021 when the ransom payment median was $117,116.
    Source: Coveware, 2022

    From January until October 2022, hybrid work grew in almost all industries in Canada especially finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing (+14.7%), public administration and professional services (+11.8%), and scientific and technical services (+10.8%).
    Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, October 2022; N=3,701

    Hybrid work changes processes and infrastructure

    Investment on remote work due to changes in processes and infrastructure

    As part of our research process for the 2023 Security Priorities Report, we used the results from our State of Hybrid Work in IT Survey, which collected responses between July 10 and July 29, 2022 (total N=745, with n=518 completed surveys). This survey details what changes in processes and IT infrastructure are likely due to hybrid work.

    Process changes to support hybrid work

    A bar graph is depicted with the following dataset: None of the above - 12%; Change management - 29%; Asset management - 34%; Service request support - 41%; Incident management - 42%

    Survey respondents (n=518) were asked what processes had the highest degree of change in response to supporting hybrid work. Incident management is the #1 result and service request support is #2. This is unsurprising considering that remote work changed how people communicate, how they access company assets, and how they connect to the company network and infrastructure.

    Infrastructure changes to support hybrid work

    A bar graph is depicted with the following dataset: Changed queue management and ticketing system(s) - 11%; Changed incident and service request processes - 23%; Addition of chatbots as part of the Service Desk intake process - 29%; Reduced the need for recovery office spaces and alternative work mitigations - 40%; Structure & day-to-day operation of Service Desk - 41%; Updated network architecture - 44%

    For 2023, we believe that hybrid work will remain. The first driver is that employees still prefer to work remotely for certain days of the week. The second driver is the investment from employers on enabling WFH during the pandemic, such as updated network architecture (44%) and the infrastructure and day-to-day operations (41%) as shown on our survey.

    Top cybersecurity concerns and organizational preparedness for them

    Concerns may correspond to readiness.

    In the Info-Tech Research Group 2023 Trends and Priorities Survey of IT professionals, we asked about cybersecurity concerns and the perception about readiness to meet current and future government legislation regarding cybersecurity requirements.

    Cybersecurity issues

    A bar graph is depicted with the following dataset: Cyber risks are not on the radar of the executive leaders or board of directors - 3.19; Organization is not prepared to respond to a cyber attack - 3.08; Supply chain risks related to cyber threats - 3.18; Talent shortages leading to capacity constraints in cyber security - 3.51; New government or industry-imposed regulations - 3.15

    Survey respondents were asked how concerned they are about certain cybersecurity issues from 1 (not concerned at all) to 5 (very concerned). The #1 concern was talent shortages. Other issues with similar concerns included cyber risks not on leadership's radar, supply chain risks, and new regulations (n=507).

    Cybersecurity legislation readiness

    A bar graph is depicted with the following dataset: 1 (Not confident at all) - 2.4%; 2 - 11.2%; 3 - 39.7%; 4 - 33.3%; 5 (Very confident) - 13.4%

    When asked about how confident organizations are about being prepared to meet current and future government legislation regarding cybersecurity requirements, from 1 (not confident at all) to 5 (very confident), the #1 response was 3 (n=499).

    Unsurprisingly, the ever-changing government legislation environment in a world emerging from a pandemic and ongoing wars may not give us the highest confidence.

    We know the concerns and readiness…

    But what is the overall security maturity?

    As part of our research process for the 2023 Security Priorities Report, we reviewed results of completed Info-Tech Research Group Security Governance and Management Benchmark diagnostics (N=912). This report details what we see in our clients' security governance maturity. Setting aside the perception on readiness – what are their actual security maturity levels?

    A bar graph is depicted with the following dataset: Security Culture - 47%; Policy and Process Governance - 47%; Event and Incident Management - 58%; Vulnerability - 57%; Auditing - 52%; Compliance Management - 58%; Risk Analysis - 52%

    Overall, assessed organizations are still scoring low (47%) on Security Culture and Policy and Process Governance. This justifies why most security incidents are still due to gaps in foundational security and security awareness, not lack of advanced controls such as event and incident management (58%).

    And how will the potential recession impact security?

    Organizations are preparing for recession, but opportunities for growth during recession should be well planned too.

    As part of our research process for the 2023 Security Priorities Report, we reviewed the results of the Info-Tech Research Group 2023 Trends and Priorities Survey of IT professionals, which collected responses between August 9 and September 9, 2022 (total N=813 with n=521 completed surveys).

    Expected organizational spending on cybersecurity compared to the previous fiscal year

    A bar graph is depicted with the following dataset: A decrease of more than 10% - 2.2%; A decrease of between 1-10% - 2.6%; About the same - 41.4%; An increase of between 1-10% - 39.6%; An increase of more than 10% - 14.3%

    Keeping the same spending is the #1 result and #2 is increasing spending up to 10%. This is a surprising finding considering the survey was conducted after the middle of 2022 and a recession has been predicted since early 2022 (n=489).

    An infographic titled Cloudy with a Chance of Recession

    Source: Statista, 2022, CC BY-ND

    US recession forecast

    Contingency planning for recessions normally includes tight budgeting; however, it can also include opportunities for growth such as hiring talent who have been laid off by competitors and are difficult to acquire in normal conditions. This can support our previous findings on increasing cybersecurity spending.

    Five Security Priorities for 2023

    This image describes the Five Security Priorities for 2023.

    Maintain Secure Hybrid Work

    PRIORITY 01

    • HOW TO STRATEGICALLY ACQUIRE, RETAIN, OR UPSKILL TALENT TO MAINTAIN SECURE SYSTEMS.

    Executive summary

    Background

    If anything can be learned from COVID-19 pandemic, it is that humans are resilient. We swiftly changed to remote workplaces and adjusted people, processes, and technologies accordingly. We had some hiccups along the way, but overall, we demonstrated that our ability to adjust is amazing.

    The pandemic changed how people work and how and where they choose to work, and most people still want a hybrid work model. However, the number of days for hybrid work itself varies. For example, from our survey in July 2022 (n=516), 55.8% of employees have the option of 2-3 days per week to work offsite, 21.0% for 1 day per week, and 17.8% for 4 days per week.

    Furthermore, the investment (e.g. on infrastructure and networks) to initiate remote work was huge, and the cost doesn't end there, as we need to maintain the secure remote work infrastructure to facilitate the hybrid work model.

    Current situation

    Remote work: A 2022 survey by WFH Research (N=16,451) reports that ~14% of full-time employees are fully remote and ~29% are in a hybrid arrangement as of Summer-Fall 2022.

    Security workforce shortage: A 2022 survey by Bridewell (N=521) reports that 68% of leaders say it has become harder to recruit the right people, impacting organizational ability to secure and monitor systems.

    Confidence in the security practice: A 2022 diagnostic survey by Info-Tech Research Group (N=55) reports that importance may not correspond to confidence; for example, the most important selected cybersecurity area, namely Data Access/Integrity (93.7%), surprisingly has the lowest confidence of the practice (80.5%).

    "WFH doubled every 15 years pre-pandemic. The increase in WFH during the pandemic was equal to 30 years of pre-pandemic growth."

    Source: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2021

    Leaders must do more to increase confidence in the security practice

    Importance may not correspond to confidence

    As part of our research process for the 2023 Security Priorities Report, we analyzed results from the Info-Tech Research Group diagnostics. This report details what we see in our clients' perceived importance of security and their confidence in existing security practices.

    Cybersecurity importance

    A bar graph is depicted with the following dataset: Importance to the Organization - 94.3%; Importance to My Department	92.2%

    Cybersecurity importance areas

    A bar graph is depicted with the following dataset: Mobility (Remote & Mobile Access) - 90.2%; Regulatory Compliance - 90.1%; Desktop Computing - 90.9%; Data Access / Integrity - 93.7%

    Confidence in cybersecurity practice

    A bar graph is depicted with the following dataset: Confidence in the Organization's Overall Security - 79.4%; Confidence in Security for My Department - 79.8%

    Confidence in cybersecurity practice areas

    A bar graph is depicted with the following dataset: Mobility (Remote & Mobile Access) - 75.8%; Regulatory Compliance - 81.5%; Desktop Computing - 80.9%; Data Access / Integrity - 80.5%

    Diagnostics respondents (N=55) were asked about how important security is to their organization or department. Importance to the overall organization is 2.1 percentage points (pp) higher, but confidence in the organization's overall security is slightly lower (-0.4 pp).

    If we break down to security areas, we can see that the most important area, Data Access/Integrity (93.7%), surprisingly has the lowest confidence of the practice: 80.5%. From this data we can conclude that leaders must build a strong cybersecurity workforce to increase confidence in the security practice.

    Use this template to explain the priorities you need your stakeholders to know about.

    Maintain secure hybrid work plan

    Provide a brief value statement for the initiative.

    Build a strong cybersecurity workforce to increase confidence in the security practice to facilitate hybrid work.

    Initiative Description:

    • Description must include what organization will undertake to complete the initiative.
    • Review your security strategy for hybrid work.
    • Identify skills gaps that hinder the successful execution of the hybrid work security strategy.
    • Use the identified skill gaps to define the technical skill requirements for current and future work roles.
    • Conduct a skills assessment on your current workforce to identify employee skill gaps.
    • Decide whether to train, hire, contract, or outsource each skill gap.

    Drivers:

    List initiative drivers.

    • Employees still prefer to WFH for certain days of the week.
    • The investment on WFH during pandemic such as updated network architecture and infrastructure and day-to-day operations.
    • Tech companies' huge layoffs, e.g. Meta laid off more than 11,000 employees.

    Risks:

    List initiative risks and impacts.

    • Unskilled workers lacking certificates or years of experience who are trained and become skilled workers then quit or are hijacked by competitors.
    • Organizational and cultural changes cause friction with work-life balance.
    • Increased attack surface of remote/hybrid workforce.

    Benefits:

    List initiative benefits and align to business benefits or benefits for the stakeholder groups that it impacts.

    • Increase perceived productivity by employees and increase retention.
    • Increase job satisfaction and work-life balance.
    • Hiring talent that has been laid off who are difficult to acquire in normal conditions.

    Related Info-Tech Research:

    Recommended Actions

    1. Identify skill requirements to maintain secure hybrid work

    Review your security strategy for hybrid work.

    Determine the skill needs of your security strategy.

    2. Identify skill gaps

    Identify skills gaps that hinder the successful execution of the hybrid work security strategy.

    Use the identified skill gaps to define the technical skill requirements for work roles.

    3. Decide whether to build or buy skills

    Conduct a skills assessment on your current workforce to identify employee skill gaps.

    Decide whether to train, hire, contract, or outsource each skill gap.

    Source: Close the InfoSec Skills Gap: Develop a Technical Skills Sourcing Plan, Info-Tech

    Secure Organization Modernization

    PRIORITY 02

    • TRENDS SUGGEST MODERNIZATION SUCH AS DIGITAL
      TRANSFORMATION TO THE CLOUD, OPERATIONAL TECHNOLOGY (OT),
      AND THE INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT) IS RISING; ADDRESSING THE RISK
      OF CONVERGING ENVIRONMENTS CAN NO LONGER BE DEFERRED.

    Executive summary

    From computerized milk-handling systems in Wisconsin farms, to automated railway systems in Europe, to Ausgrid's Distribution Network Management System (DNMS) in Australia, to smart cities and beyond; system modernization poses unique challenges to cybersecurity.

    The threats can be safety, such as the trains stopped in Denmark during the last weekend of October 2022 for several hours due to an attack on a third-party IT service provider; economics, such as a cream cheese production shutdown that occurred at the peak of cream cheese demand in October 2021 due to hackers compromising a large cheese manufacturer's plants and distribution centers; and reliability, such as the significant loss of communication for the Ukrainian military, which relied on Viasat's services.

    Despite all the cybersecurity risks, organizations continue modernization plans due to the long-term overall benefits.

    Current situation

    • Pressure of operational excellence: Competitive markets cannot keep pace with demand without modernization. For example, in automated milking systems, the labor time saved from milking can be used to focus on other essential tasks such as the decision-making process.
    • Technology offerings: Technologies are available and affordable such as automated equipment, versatile communication systems, high-performance human machine interaction (HMI), IIoT/Edge integration, and big data analytics.
    • Higher risks of cyberattacks: Modernization enlarges attack surfaces, which are not only cyber but also physical systems. Most incidents indicate that attackers gained access through the IT network, which was followed by infiltration into OT networks.

    IIoT market size is USD 323.62 billion in 2022 and projected to be around USD 1 trillion in 2028.

    Source: Statista,
    March 2022

    Modernization brings new opportunities and new threats

    Higher risks of cyberattacks on Industrial Control System (ICS)

    Target: Australian sewage plant.

    Method: Insider attack. Impact: 265,000 gallons of untreated sewage released.

    Target: Middle East energy companies.

    Method: Shamoon.

    Impact: Overwritten Windows-based systems files.

    Target: German Steel Mill

    Method: Spear-phishing

    Impact: Blast furnace control shutdown failure.

    Target: Middle East Safety Instrumented System (SIS).

    Method: TRISIS/TRITON.

    Impact: Modified safety system ladder logic.

    Target: Viasat's KA-SAT Network.

    Method: AcidRain.

    Impact: Significant loss of communication for the Ukrainian military, which relied on Viasat's services.

    A timeline displaying the years 1903; 2000; 2010; 2012; 2013; 2014; 2018; 2019; 2021; 2022 is displayed.

    Target: Marconi wireless telegraphs presentation. Method: Morse code.

    Impact: Fake message sent "Rats, rats, rats, rats. There was a young fellow of Italy, Who diddled the public quite prettily."

    Target: Iranian uranium enrichment plant.

    Method: Stuxnet.

    Impact: Compromised programmable logic controllers (PLCs).

    Target: ICS supply chain.

    Method: Havex.

    Impact: Remote Access Trojan (RAT) collected information and uploaded data to command-and-control (C&C) servers.

    Target: Ukraine power grid.

    Method: BlackEnergy.

    Impact: Manipulation of HMI View causing 1-6 hour power outages for 230,000 consumers.

    Target: Colonial Pipeline.

    Method: DarkSide ransomware.

    Impact: Compromised billing infrastructure halted the pipeline operation.

    Sources:

    • DOE, 2018
    • CSIS, 2022
    • MIT Technology Review, 2022

    Info-Tech Insight

    Most OT incidents start with attacks against IT networks and then move laterally into the OT environment. Therefore, converging IT and OT security will help protect the entire organization.

    Use this template to explain the priorities you need your stakeholders to know about.

    Secure organization modernization

    Provide a brief value statement for the initiative.

    The systems (OT, IT, IIoT) are evolving now – ensure your security plan has you covered.

    Initiative Description:

    • Description must include what organization will undertake to complete the initiative.
    • Identify the drivers to align with your organization's business objectives.
    • Build your case by leveraging a cost-benefit analysis and update your security strategy.
    • Identify people, process, and technology gaps that hinder the modernization security strategy.
    • Use the identified skill gaps to update risks, policies and procedures, IR, DR, and BCP.
    • Evaluate and enable modernization technology top focus areas and refine security processes.
    • Decide whether to train, hire, contract, or outsource to fill the security workforce gap.

    Drivers:

    List initiative drivers.

    • Pressure of operational excellence
    • Technology offerings
    • Higher risks of cyberattacks

    Risks:

    List initiative risks and impacts.

    • Complex systems with many components to implement and manage require diligent change management.
    • Organizational and cultural changes cause friction between humans and machines.
    • Increased attack surface of cyber and physical systems.

    Benefits:

    List initiative benefits and align to business benefits or benefits for the stakeholder groups that it impacts.

    • Improve service reliability through continuous and real-time operation.
    • Enhance efficiency through operations visibility and transparency.
    • Gain cost savings and efficiency to automate operations of complex and large equipment and instrumentations.

    Related Info-Tech Research:

    Recommended Actions

    1. Identify modernization business cases to secure

    Identify the drivers to align with your organization's business objectives.

    Build your case by leveraging a cost-benefit analysis, and update your security strategy.

    2. Identify gaps

    Identify people, process, and technology gaps that hinder the modernization
    security strategy.

    Use the identified skill gaps to update risks, policies and procedures, IR, DR, and BCP.

    3. Decide whether to build or buy capabilities

    Evaluate and enable modernization technology top focus areas and refine
    security processes.

    Decide whether to train, hire, contract, or outsource to fill the security workforce gap.

    Sources:

    Industrial Control System (ICS) Modernization: Unlock the Value of Automation in Utilities, Info-Tech

    Secure IT-OT Convergence, Info-Tech

    Develop a cost-benefit analysis

    Identify a modernization business case for security.

    Benefits

    Metrics

    Operational Efficiency and Cost Savings

    • Reduction in truck rolls and staff time of manual operations of equipment or instrumentation.
    • Cost reduction in energy usage such as substation power voltage level or water treatment chemical level.

    Improve Reliability and Resilience

    • Reduction in field crew time to identify the outage locations by remotely accessing field equipment to narrow down the
      fault areas.
    • Reduction in outage time impacting customers and avoiding financial penalty in service quality metrics.
    • Improve operating reliability through continuous and real-time trend analysis of equipment performance.

    Energy & Capacity Savings

    • Optimize energy usage of operation to reduce overall operating cost and contribution to organizational net-zero targets.

    Customers & Society Benefits

    • Improve customer safety for essential services such as drinkable water consumption.
    • Improve reliability of services and address service equity issues based on data.

    Cost

    Metrics

    Equipment and Infrastructure

    Upgrade existing security equipment or instrumentation or deploy new, e.g. IPS on Enterprise DMZ and Operations DMZ.

    Implement communication network equipment and labor to install and configure.

    Upgrade or construct server room including cooling/heating, power backup, and server and rack hardware.

    Software and Commission

    The SCADA/HMI software and maintenance fee as well as lifecycle upgrade implementation project cost.

    Labor cost of field commissioning and troubleshooting.

    Integration with security systems, e.g. log management and continuous monitoring.

    Support and Resources

    Cost to hire/outsource security FTEs for ongoing managing and operating security devices, e.g. SOC.

    Cost to hire/outsource IT/OT FTEs to support and troubleshoot systems and its integrations with security systems, e.g. MSSP.

    An example of a cost-benefit analysis for ICS modernization

    Sources:

    Industrial Control System (ICS) Modernization: Unlock the Value of Automation in Utilities, Info-Tech

    Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 2021

    IT-OT convergence demands new security approach and solutions

    Identify gaps

    Attack Vectors

    IT

    • User's compromised credentials
    • User's access device, e.g. laptop, smartphone
    • Access method, e.g. denial-of-service to modem, session hijacking, bad data injection

    OT

    • Site operations, e.g. SCADA server, engineering workstation, historian
    • Controls, e.g. SCADA Client, HMI, PLCs, RTUs
    • Process devices, e.g. sensors, actuators, field devices

    Defense Strategies

    • Limit exposure of system information
    • Identify and secure remote access points
    • Restrict tools and scripts
    • Conduct regular security audits
    • Implement a dynamic network environment

    (Control System Defense: Know the Opponent, CISA)

    An example of a high-level architecture of an electric utility's control system and its interaction with IT systems.

    An example of a high-level architecture of an electric utility's control system and its interaction with IT systems.

    Source: ISA-99, 2007

    RESPOND TO REGULATORY CHANGES

    PRIORITY 03

    • GOVERNMENT-ENACTED POLICY CHANGES AND INDUSTRY REGULATORY CHANGES COULD BE A COMPLIANCE BURDEN … OR PREVENT YOUR NEXT SECURITY INCIDENT.

    Executive summary

    Background

    Government-enacted regulatory changes are occurring at an ever-increasing rate these days. As one example, on November 10, 2022, the EU Parliament introduced two EU cybersecurity laws: the Network and Information Security (NIS2) Directive (applicable to organizations located within the EU and organizations outside the EU that are essential within an EU country) and the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA). There are also industry regulatory changes such as PCI DSS v4.0 for the payment sector and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation Critical Infrastructure Protection (NERC CIP) for Bulk Electric Systems (BES).

    Organizations should use regulatory changes as a means to improve security practices, instead of treating them as a compliance burden. As said by lead member of EU Parliament Bart Groothuis on NIS2, "This European directive is going to help around 160,000 entities tighten their grip on security […] It will also enable information sharing with the private sector and partners around the world. If we are being attacked on an industrial scale, we need to respond on an industrial scale."

    Current situation

    Stricter requirements and reporting: Regulations such as NIS2 include provisions for incident response, supply chain security, and encryption and vulnerability disclosure and set tighter cybersecurity obligations for risk management reporting obligations.

    Broader sectors: For example, the original NIS directive covers 19 sectors such as Healthcare, Digital Infrastructure, Transport, and Energy. Meanwhile, the new NIS2 directive increases to 35 sectors by adding other sectors such as providers of public electronic communications networks or services, manufacturing of certain critical products (e.g. pharmaceuticals), food, and digital services.

    High sanctions for violations: For example, Digital Services Act (DSA) includes fines of up to 6% of global turnover and a ban on operating in the EU single market in case of repeated serious breaches.

    Approximately 100 cross-border data flow regulations exist in 2022.

    Source: McKinsey, 2022

    Stricter requirements for payments

    Obligation changes to keep up with emerging threats and technologies

    64 New requirements were added
    A total of 64 requirements have been added to version 4.0 of the PCI DSS.

    13 New requirements become effective March 31, 2024
    The other 51 new requirements are considered best practice until March 31, 2025, at which point they will become effective.

    11 New requirements only for service providers
    11 of the new requirements are applicable only to entities that provide third-party services to merchants.

    Defined roles must be assigned for requirements.

    Focus on periodically assessing and documenting scope.

    Entities may choose a defined approach or a customized approach to requirements.

    An example of new requirements for PCI DSS v4.0

    Source: Prepare for PCI DSS v4.0, Info-Tech

    Use this template to explain the priorities you need your stakeholders to know about.

    Respond to regulatory changes

    Provide a brief value statement for the initiative.

    The compliance obligations are evolving – ensure your security plan has you covered.

    Initiative Description:

    Description must include what organization will undertake to complete the initiative.

    • Identify relevant security and privacy compliance and conformance levels.
    • Identify gaps for updated obligations, and map obligations into control framework.
    • Review, update, and implement policies and strategy.
    • Develop compliance exception process and forms.
    • Develop test scripts.
    • Track status and exceptions

    Drivers:

    List initiative drivers.

    • Pressure of new regulations
    • Governance, risk & compliance (GRC) tool offerings
    • High administrative or criminal penalties of non-compliance

    Risks:

    List initiative risks and impacts.

    • Complex structures and a great number of compliance requirements
    • Restricted budget and lack of skilled workforce for organizations such as local municipalities and small or medium organizations compared to private counterparts
    • Personal liability for some regulations for non-compliance

    Benefits:

    List initiative benefits and align to business benefits or benefits for the stakeholder groups that it impacts.

    • Reduces compliance risk.
    • Reduces complexity within the control environment by using a single framework to align multiple compliance regimes.
    • Reduces costs and efforts related to managing IT audits through planning and preparation.

    Related Info-Tech Research:

    Recommended Actions

    1. Identify compliance obligations

    Identify relevant security and privacy obligations and conformance levels.

    Identify gaps for updated obligations, and map obligations into control framework.

    2. Implement compliance strategy

    Review, update, and implement policies and strategy.

    Develop compliance exception process.

    3. Track and report

    Develop test scripts to check your remediations to ensure they are effective.

    Track and report status and exceptions.

    Sources: Build a Security Compliance Program and Prepare for PCI DSS v4.0, Info-Tech

    Identify relevant security and privacy compliance obligations

    Identify obligations

    # Security Jurisdiction
    1 Network and Information Security (NIS2) Directive European Union (EU) and organizations outside the EU that are essential within an EU country
    2 North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) North American electrical utilities
    3 Executive Order (EO) 14028: Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity, The White House, 2021 United States

    #

    Privacy Jurisdiction
    1 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) EU and EU citizens
    2 Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) Canada
    3 California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) California, USA
    4 Personal Information Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China (PIPL) China

    An example of security and privacy compliance obligations

    How much does it cost to become compliant?

    • It is important to understand the various frameworks and to adhere to the appropriate compliance obligations.
    • Many factors influence the cost of compliance, such as the size of organization, the size of network, and current security readiness.
    • To manage compliance obligations, it is important to use a platform that not only performs internal and external monitoring but also provides third-party vendors (if applicable) with visibility into potential threats in their organization.

    Adopt Next-Generation Cybersecurity Technologies

    PRIORITY 04

    • GOVERNMENTS AND HACKERS ARE RECOGNIZING THE IMPORTANCE OF EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES, SUCH AS ZERO TRUST ARCHITECTURE AND AI-BASED CYBERSECURITY. SO SHOULD YOUR ORGANIZATION.

    Executive summary

    Background

    The cat and mouse game between threat actors and defenders is continuing. The looming question "can defenders do better?" has been answered with rapid development of technology. This includes the automation of threat analysis (signature-based, specification-based, anomaly-based, flow-based, content-based, sandboxing) not only on IT but also on other relevant environments, e.g. IoT, IIoT, and OT based on AI/ML.

    More fundamental approaches such as post-quantum cryptography and zero trust (ZT) are also emerging.
    ZT is a principle, a model, and also an architecture focused on resource protection by always verifying transactions using the least privilege principle. Hopefully in 2023, ZT will be more practical and not just a vendor marketing buzzword.

    Next-gen cybersecurity technologies alone are not a silver bullet. A combination of skilled talent, useful data, and best practices will give a competitive advantage. The key concepts are explainable, transparent, and trustworthy. Furthermore, regulation often faces challenges to keep up with next-gen cybersecurity technologies, especially with the implications and risks of adoption, which may not always be explicit.

    Current situation

    ZT: Performing an accurate assessment of readiness and benefits to adopt ZT can be difficult due to ZT's many components. Thus, an organization needs to develop a ZT roadmap that aligns with organizational goals and focuses on access to data, assets, applications, and services; don't select solutions or vendors too early.

    Post-quantum cryptography: Current cryptographic applications, such as RSA for PKI, rely on factorization. However, algorithms such as Shor's show quantum speedup for factorization, which can break current crypto when sufficient quantum computing devices are available. Thus, threat actors can intercept current encrypted information and store it to decrypt in the future.

    AI-based threat management: AI helps in analyzing and correlating data extremely fast compared to humans. Millions of telemetries, malware samples, raw events, and vulnerability data feed into the AI system, which humans cannot process manually. Furthermore, AI does not get tired in processing this big data, thus avoiding human error and negligence.

    Data breach mitigation cost without AI: USD 6.20 million; and with AI: USD 3.15 million

    Source: IBM, 2022

    Traditional security is not working

    Alert Fatigue

    Too many false alarms and too many events to process. Evolving threat landscapes waste your analysts' valuable time on mundane tasks, such as evidence collection. Meanwhile, only limited time is spared for decisions and conclusions, which results in the fear of missing an incident and alert fatigue.

    Lack of Insight

    To report progress, clear metrics are needed. However, cybersecurity still lacks in this area as the system itself is complex and some systems work in silos. Furthermore, lessons learned are not yet distilled into insights for improving future accuracy.

    Lack of Visibility

    System integration is required to create consistent workflows across the organization and to ensure complete visibility of the threat landscape, risks, and assets. Also, the convergence of OT, IoT, and IT enhances this challenge.

    Source: IBM Security Intelligence, 2020

    A business case for AI-based cybersecurity

    Threat management

    Prevention

    Risk scores are generated by machine learning based on variables such as behavioral patterns and geolocation. Zero trust architecture is combined with machine learning. Asset management leverages visibility using machine learning. Comply with regulations by improving discovery, classification, and protection of data using machine learning. Data security and data privacy services use machine learning for data discovery.

    Detection

    AI, advanced machine learning, and static approaches, such as code file analysis, combine to automatically detect and analyze threats and prevent threats from spreading, assisted by threat intelligence.

    Response

    AI helps in orchestrating security technologies for organizations to reduce the number of security agents installed, which may not talk to each other or, worse, may conflict with each other.

    Recovery

    AI continuously tunes based on lessons learned, such as creating security policies for improving future accuracy. AI also does not get fatigue, and it assists humans in a faster recovery.

    Prevention; Detection; Response; Recovery

    AI has been around since the 1940s, but why is it only gaining traction now? Because supporting technologies are only now available, including faster GPUs for complex computations and cheaper storage for massive volumes of data.

    Use this template to explain the priorities you need your stakeholders to know about.

    Adopt next-gen cybersecurity technologies

    Use this template to explain the priorities you need your stakeholders to know about.

    Develop a practical roadmap that shows the business value of next-gen cybersecurity technologies investment.

    Initiative Description:

    Description must include what organization will undertake to complete the initiative.

    • Identify the stakeholders who will be affected by the next-gen cybersecurity technologies implementation and define responsibilities based on skillsets and the degree of support.
    • Adopt well-established data governance practices for cross-functional teams.
    • Conduct a maturity assessment of key processes and highlight interdependencies.
    • Develop a baseline and periodically review risks, policies and procedures, and business plan.
    • Develop a roadmap and deploy next-gen cybersecurity architecture and controls step by step, working with trusted technology partners.
    • Monitor metrics on effectiveness and efficiency.

    Drivers:

    List initiative drivers.

    • Pressure of attacks by sophisticated threat actors
    • Next-gen cybersecurity technologies tool offerings
    • High cost of traditional security, e.g. longer breach lifecycle

    Risks:

    List initiative risks and impacts.

    • Lack of transparency of the model or bias, leading to non-compliance with policies/regulations
    • Risks related with data quality and inadequate data for model training
    • Adversarial attacks, including, but not limited to, adversarial input and model extraction

    Benefits:

    List initiative benefits and align to business benefits or benefits for the stakeholder groups that it impacts.

    • Reduces the number of alerts, thus reduces alert fatigue.
    • Increases the identification of unknown threats.
    • Leads to faster detection and response.
    • Closes skills gap and increases productivity.

    Related Info-Tech Research:

    Recommended Actions

    1. People

    Identify the stakeholders who will be affected by the next-gen cybersecurity technologies implementation and define responsibilities based on skillsets and the degree of support.

    Adopt well-established data governance practices for cross-functional teams.

    2. Process

    Conduct a maturity assessment of key processes and highlight interdependencies.

    Develop a baseline and periodically review risks, policies and procedures, and business plan.

    3. Technology

    Develop a roadmap and deploy next-gen cybersecurity architecture and controls step by step, working with trusted technology partners.

    Monitor metrics on effectiveness and efficiency.

    Source: Leverage AI in Threat Management (keynote presentation), Info-Tech

    Secure Services and Applications

    PRIORITY 05

    • APIS ARE STILL THE #1 THREAT TO APPLICATION SECURITY.

    Executive summary

    Background

    Software is usually produced as part of a supply chain instead of in silos. A vulnerability in any part of the supply chain can become a threat surface. We have learned this from recent incidents such as Log4j, SolarWinds, and Kaseya where attackers compromised a Virtual System Administrator tool used by managed service providers to attack around 1,500 organizations.

    DevSecOps is a culture and philosophy that unifies development, security, and operations to answer this challenge. DevSecOps shifts security left by automating, as much as possible, development and testing. DevSecOps provides many benefits such as rapid development of secure software and assurance that, prior to formal release and delivery, tests are reliably performed and passed.

    DevSecOps practices can apply to IT, OT, IoT, and other technology environments, for example, by integrating a Secure Software Development Framework (SSDF).

    Current situation

    Secure Software Supply Chain: Logging is a fundamental feature of most software, and recently the use of software components, especially open source, are based on trust. From the Log4j incident we learned that more could be done to improve the supply chain by adopting ZT to identify related components and data flows between systems and to apply the least privilege principle.

    DevSecOps: A software error wiped out wireless services for thousands of Rogers customers across Canada in 2021. Emergency services were also impacted, even though outgoing 911 calls were always accessible. Losing such services could have been avoided, if tests were reliably performed and passed prior to release.

    OT insecure-by-design: In OT, insecurity-by-design is still a norm, which causes many vulnerabilities such as insecure protocols implementation, weak authentication schemes, or insecure firmware updates. Additional challenges are the lack of CVEs or CVE duplication, the lack of Software Bill of Materials (SBOM), and product supply chains issues such as vulnerable products that are certified because of the scoping limitation and emphasis on functional testing.

    Technical causes of cybersecurity incidents in EU critical service providers in 2019-2021 shows: software bug (12%) and faulty software changes/update (9%).

    Source: CIRAS Incident reporting, ENISA (N=1,239)

    Software development keeps evolving

    DOD Maturation of Software Development Best Practices

    Best Practices 30 Years Ago 15 Years Ago Present Day
    Lifecycle Years or Months Months or Weeks Weeks or Days
    Development Process Waterfall Agile DevSecOps
    Architecture Monolithic N-Tier Microservices
    Deployment & Packaging Physical Virtual Container
    Hosting Infrastructure Server Data Center Cloud
    Cybersecurity Posture Firewall + SIEM + Zero Trust

    Best practices in software development are evolving as shown on the diagram to the left. For example, 30 years ago the lifecycle was "Years or Months," while in the present day it is "Weeks or Days."

    These changes also impact security such as the software architecture, which is no longer "Monolithic" but "Microservices" normally built within the supply chain.

    The software supply chain has known integrity attacks that can happen on each part of it. Starting from bad code submitted by a developer, to compromised source control platform (e.g. PHP git server compromised), to compromised build platform (e.g. malicious behavior injected on SolarWinds build), to a compromised package repository where users are deceived into using the bad package by the similarity between the malicious and the original package name.

    Therefore, we must secure each part of the link to avoid attacks on the weakest link.

    Software supply chain guidance

    Secure each part of the link to avoid attacks on the weakest link.

    Guide for Developers

    Guide for Suppliers

    Guide for Customers

    Secure product criteria and management, develop secure code, verify third-party components, harden build environment, and deliver code.

    Define criteria for software security checks, protect software, produce well-secured software, and respond to vulnerabilities.

    Secure procurement and acquisition, secure deployment, and secure software operations.

    Source: "Securing the Software Supply Chain" series, Enduring Security Framework (ESF), 2022

    "Most software today relies on one or more third-party components, yet organizations often have little or no visibility into and understanding of how these software components are developed, integrated, and deployed, as well as the practices used to ensure the components' security."

    Source: NIST – NCCoE, 2022

    Use this template to explain the priorities you need your stakeholders to know about.

    Secure services and applications

    Provide a brief value statement for the initiative.

    Adopt recommended practices for securing the software supply chain.

    Initiative Description:

    Description must include what organization will undertake to complete the initiative.

    • Define and keep security requirements and risk assessments up to date.
    • Require visibility into provenance of product, and require suppliers' self-attestation of security hygiene.
    • Verify distribution infrastructure, product and individual components integrity, and SBOM.
    • Use multi-layered defenses, e.g. ZT for integration and control configuration.
    • Train users on how to detect and report anomalies and when to apply updates to a system.
    • Ensure updates from authorized and authenticated sources and verify the integrity of the updated SBOM.

    Drivers:

    List initiative drivers.

    • Cyberattacks exploit the vulnerabilities of weak software supply chain
    • Increased need to enhance software supply chain security, e.g. under the White House Executive Order (EO) 14028
    • OT insecure-by-design hinders OT modernization

    Risks:

    List initiative risks and impacts.

    Only a few developers and suppliers explicitly address software security in detail.

    Time pressure to deliver functionality over security.

    Lack of security awareness and lack of trained workforce.

    Benefits:

    List initiative benefits and align to business benefits or benefits for the stakeholder groups that it impacts.

    Customers (acquiring organizations) achieve secure acquisition, deployment, and operation of software.

    Developers and suppliers provide software security with minimal vulnerabilities in its releases.

    Automated processes such as automated testing avoid error-prone and labor-intensive manual test cases.

    Related Info-Tech Research:

    Recommended Actions

    1. Procurement and Acquisition

    Define and keep security requirements and risk assessments up to date.

    Perform analysis on current market and supplier solutions and acquire security evaluation.

    Require visibility into provenance of product, and require suppliers' self-attestation of security hygiene

    2. Deployment

    Verify distribution infrastructure, product and individual components integrity, and SBOM.

    Save and store the tests and test environment and review and verify the
    self-attestation mechanism.

    Use multi-layered defenses, e.g. ZT for integration and control configuration.

    3. Software Operations

    Train users on how to detect and report anomalies and when to apply updates to a system.

    Ensure updates from authorized and authenticated sources and verify the integrity of the updated SBOM.

    Apply supply chain risk management (SCRM) operations.

    Source: "Securing the Software Supply Chain" series, Enduring Security Framework (ESF), 2022

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    Research Contributors and Experts

    Andrew Reese
    Cybersecurity Practice Lead
    Zones

    Ashok Rutthan
    Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)
    Massmart

    Chris Weedall
    Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)
    Cheshire East Council

    Jeff Kramer
    EVP Digital Transformation and Cybersecurity
    Aprio

    Kris Arthur
    Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)
    SEKO Logistics

    Mike Toland
    Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)
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    • Align generative AI initiatives to strategic drivers for the organization: Assess generative AI opportunities by seeing how they align to the strategic drivers of the organization. Examples of strategic drivers include increasing revenue, reducing costs, driving innovation, and mitigating risk.
    • Measure and communicate effectively: Have clear metrics in place to measure progress and success of AI initiatives and communicate both policies and results effectively.

    Build Your Generative AI Roadmap Research & Tools

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

    1. Build Your Generative AI Roadmap Deck – A step-by-step document that walks you through how to leverage generative AI and align with the organization’s mission and objectives to increase revenue, reduce costs, accelerate innovation, and mitigate risk.

    This blueprint outlines how to build your generative AI roadmap, establish responsible AI principles, prioritize opportunities, and develop policies for usage. Establishing and adhering to responsible AI guiding principles provides safeguards for the adoption of generative AI applications.

    • Build Your Generative AI Roadmap – Phases 1-4

    2. AI Maturity Assessment and Roadmap Tool – Develop deliverables that will be milestones in creating your organization’s generative AI roadmap for implementing candidate applications.

    This tool provides guidance for developing the following deliverables:

  • Responsible AI guiding principles
  • Current AI maturity
  • Prioritized candidate generative AI applications
  • Generative AI policies
  • Generative AI roadmap
    • AI Maturity Assessment and Roadmap Tool

    3. The Era of Generative AI C‑Suite Presentation – Develop responsible AI guiding principles, assess AI capabilities and readiness, and prioritize use cases based on complexity and alignment with organizational goals and responsible AI guiding principles.

    This presentation template uses sample business capabilities (use cases) from the Marketing & Advertising business capability map to provide examples of candidates for generative AI applications. The final executive presentation should highlight the value-based initiatives driving generative AI applications, the benefits and risks involved, how the proposed generative AI use cases align to the organization’s strategy and goals, the success criteria for the proofs of concept, and the project roadmap.

    • The Era of Generative AI C‑Suite Presentation

    Infographic

    Further reading

    Build Your Generative AI Roadmap

    Leverage the power of generative AI to improve business outcomes.

    Analyst Perspective

    We are entering the era of generative AI. This is a unique time in our history where the benefits of AI are easily accessible and becoming pervasive, with copilots emerging in the major business tools we use today. The disruptive capabilities that can potentially drive dramatic benefits also introduce risks that need to be planned for.

    A successful business-driven generative AI roadmap requires:

    • Establishing responsible AI guiding principles to guide the development and deployment of generative AI applications.
    • Assess generative AI opportunities by using criteria based on the organization's mission and objectives, responsible AI guiding principles, and the complexity of the initiative.
    • Communicating, educating on, and enforcing generative AI usage policies.

    Bill Wong, Principal Research Director

    Bill Wong
    Principal Research Director
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge Common Obstacles Solution

    Generative AI is disrupting all industries and providing opportunities for organization-wide advantages.

    Organizations need to understand this disruptive technology and trends to properly develop a strategy for leveraging this technology successfully.

    • Generative AI requires alignment to a business strategy.
    • IT is an enabler and needs to align with and support the business stakeholders.
    • Organizations need to adopt a data-driven culture.

    All organizations, regardless of size, should be planning how to respond to this new and innovative technology.

    Business stakeholders need to cut through the hype surrounding generative AI like ChatGPT to optimize investments for leveraging this technology to drive business outcomes.

    • Understand the market landscape, benefits, and risks associated with generative AI.
    • Plan for responsible AI.
    • Understand the gaps the organization needs to address to fully leverage generative AI.

    Without a proper strategy and responsible AI guiding principles, the risks to deploying this technology could negatively impact business outcomes.

    Info-Tech's human-centric, value-based approach is a guide for deploying generative AI applications and covers:

    • Responsible AI guiding principles
    • AI Maturity Model
    • Prioritizing candidate generative AI-based use cases
    • Developing policies for usage

    This blueprint will provide the list of activities and deliverables required for the successful deployment of generative AI solutions.

    Info-Tech Insight
    Create awareness among the CEO and C-suite of executives on the potential benefits and risks of transforming the business with generative AI.

    Key concepts

    Artificial Intelligence (AI)
    A field of computer science that focuses on building systems to imitate human behavior, with a focus on developing AI models that can learn and can autonomously take actions on behalf of a human.

    AI Maturity Model
    The AI Maturity Model is a useful tool to assess the level of skills an organization has with respect to developing and deploying AI applications. The AI Maturity Model has multiple dimensions to measure an organization's skills, such as AI governance, data, people, process, and technology.

    Responsible AI
    Refers to guiding principles to govern the development, deployment, and maintenance of AI applications. In addition, these principles also provide human-based requirements that AI applications should address. Requirements include safety and security, privacy, fairness and bias detection, explainability and transparency, governance, and accountability.

    Generative AI
    Given a prompt, a generative AI system can generate new content, which can be in the form of text, images, audio, video, etc.

    Natural Language Processing (NLP)
    NLP is a subset of AI that involves machine interpretation and replication of human language. NLP focuses on the study and analysis of linguistics as well as other principles of artificial intelligence to create an effective method of communication between humans and machines or computers.

    ChatGPT
    An AI-powered chatbot application built on OpenAI's GPT-3.5 implementation, ChatGPT accepts text prompts to generate text-based output.

    Your challenge

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

    • Establish responsible AI guiding principles to address human-based requirements and to govern the development and deployment of the generative AI application.
    • Identify new generative AI-enabled opportunities to transform the work environment to increase revenue, reduce costs, drive innovation, or reduce risk.
    • Prioritize candidate use cases and develop generative AI policies for usage.
    • Have clear metrics in place to measure the progress and success of AI initiatives.
    • Build the roadmap to implement the candidate use cases.

    Common obstacles

    These barriers make these goals challenging for many organizations:

    • Getting all the right business stakeholders together to develop the organization's AI strategy, vision, and objectives.
    • Establishing responsible AI guiding principles to guide generative AI investments and deployments.
    • Advancing the AI maturity of the organization to meet requirements of data and AI governance as well as human-based requirements such as fairness, transparency, and accountability.
    • Assessing generative AI opportunities and developing policies for use.

    Info-Tech's definition of an AI-enabled business strategy

    • A high-level plan that provides guiding principles for applications that are fully driven by the business needs and capabilities that are essential to the organization.
    • A strategy that tightly weaves business needs and the applications required to support them. It covers AI architecture, adoption, development, and maintenance.
    • A way to ensure that the necessary people, processes, and technology are in place at the right time to sufficiently support business goals.
    • A visionary roadmap to communicate how strategic initiatives will address business concerns.

    An effective AI strategy is driven by the business stakeholders of the organization and focused on delivering improved business outcomes.

    Build Your Generative AI Roadmap

    This blueprint in context

    This guidance covers how to create a tactical roadmap for executing generative AI initiatives

    Scope

    • This blueprint is not a proxy for a fully formed AI strategy. Step 1 of our framework necessitates alignment of your AI and business strategies. Creation of your AI strategy is not within the scope of this approach.
    • This approach sets the foundations for building and applying responsible AI principles and AI policies aligned to corporate governance and key regulatory obligations (e.g. privacy). Both steps are foundational components of how you should develop, manage, and govern your AI program but are not a substitute for implementing broader AI governance.

    Guidance on how to implement AI governance can be found in the blueprint linked below.

    Tactical Plan

    Download our AI Governance blueprint

    Measure the value of this blueprint

    Leverage this blueprint's approach to ensure your generative AI initiatives align with and support your key business drivers

    This blueprint will guide you to drive and improve business outcomes. Key business drivers will often focus on:

    • Increasing revenue
    • Reducing costs
    • Improving time to market
    • Reducing risk

    In phase 1 of this blueprint, we will help you identify the key AI strategy initiatives that align to your organization's goals. Value to the organization is often measured by the estimated impact on revenue, costs, time to market, or risk mitigation.

    In phase 4, we will help you develop a plan and a roadmap for addressing any gaps and introducing the relevant generative AI capabilities that drive value to the organization based on defined business metrics.

    Once you implement your 12-month roadmap, start tracking the metrics below over the next fiscal year (FY) to assess the effectiveness of measures:

    Business Outcome Objective Key Success Metric
    Increasing Revenue Increased revenue from identified key areas
    Reducing Costs Decreased costs for identified business units
    Improving Time to Market Time savings and accelerated revenue adoption
    Reducing Risk Cost savings or revenue gains from identified business units

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

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks are used throughout all four options.

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4

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

    Call #2: Identify AI strategy, vision, and objectives.

    Call #3: Define responsible AI guiding principles to adopt and identify current AI maturity level. Call #4: Assess and prioritize generative AI initiatives and draft policies for usage.

    Call #5: Build POC implementation plan and establish metrics for POC success.

    Call #6: Build and deliver executive-level generative AI presentation.

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

    A typical GI is between 5 to 8 calls over the course of 1 to 2 months.

    AI Roadmap Workshop Agenda Overview

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

    Session 1 Session 2 Session 3 Session 4
    Establish Responsible AI Guiding Principles Assess AI Maturity Prioritize Opportunities and Develop Policies Build Roadmap
    Trends Consumer groups, organizations, and governments around the world are demanding that AI applications adhere to human-based values and take into consideration possible impacts of the technology on society. Leading organizations are building AI models guided by responsible AI guiding principles. Organizations delivering new applications without developing policies for use will produce negative business outcomes. Developing a roadmap to address human-based values is challenging. This process introduces new tools, processes, and organizational change.
    Activities
    • Focus on working with executive stakeholders to establish guiding principles for the development and delivery of new applications.
    • Assess the organization's current capabilities to deliver AI-based applications and address human-based requirements.
    • Leverage business alignment criteria, responsible AI guiding principles, and project characteristics to prioritize candidate uses cases and develop policies.
    • Build the implementation plan, POC metrics, and success criteria for each candidate use case.
    • Build the roadmap to address the gap between the current and future state and enable the identified use cases.
    Inputs
    • Understanding of external legal and regulatory requirements and organizational values and goals.
    • Risk assessment of the proposed use case and a plan to monitor its impact.
    • Assessment of the organization's current AI capabilities with respect to its AI governance, data, people, process, and technology infrastructure.
    • Criteria to assess candidate use cases by evaluating against the organization's mission and goals, the responsible AI guiding principles, and complexity of the project.
    • Risk assessment for each proposed use case
    • POC implementation plan for each candidate use case
    Deliverables
    1. Foundational responsible AI guiding principles
    2. Additional customized guiding principles to add for consideration
    1. Current level of AI maturity, resources, and capacity
    1. Prioritization of opportunities
    2. Generative AI policies for usage
    1. Roadmap to a target state that enables the delivery of the prioritized generative AI use cases
    2. Executive presentation

    AI Roadmap Workshop Agenda Overview

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

    Insight summary

    Overarching Insight
    Build your generative AI roadmap to guide investments and deployment of these solutions.

    Responsible AI
    Assemble the C-suite to make them aware of the benefits and risks of adopting generative AI-based solutions.

    • Establish responsible AI guiding principles to govern the development and deployment of generative AI applications.

    AI Maturity Model
    Assemble key stakeholders and SMEs to assess the challenges and tasks required to implement generative AI applications.

    • Assess current level of AI maturity, skills, and resources.
    • Identify desired AI maturity level and challenges to enable deployment of candidate use cases.

    Opportunity Prioritization
    Assess candidate business capabilities targeted for generative AI to see if they align to the organization's business criteria, responsible AI guiding principles, and capabilities for delivering the project.

    • Develop prioritized list of candidate use cases.
    • Develop policies for generative AI usage.

    Tactical Insight
    Identify the gaps needed to address deploying generative AI successfully.

    Tactical Insight
    Identify organizational impact and requirements for deploying generative AI applications.

    Key takeaways for developing an effective business-driven generative AI roadmap

    Align the AI strategy with the business strategy

    Create responsible AI guiding principles, which are a critical success factor

    Evolve AI maturity level by focusing on principle-based requirements

    Develop criteria to assess generative AI initiatives

    Develop generative AI policies for use

    Blueprint deliverables

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

    AI Maturity Assessment & Roadmap Tool
    Use our best-of-breed AI Maturity Framework to analyze the gap between your current and target states and develop a roadmap aligned with your value stream to close the gap.

    The Era of Generative AI C-Suite Presentation
    Present your AI roadmap in a prepopulated document that summarizes all the key findings of this blueprint and provides your C-suite with a view of the AI challenge and your plan of action to meet it.

    Our AI Maturity Assessment & Roadmap and The Era of Generative AI C-Suite Presentation tools enable you to shape your generative AI roadmap and communicate the deliverables to your C-suite sponsors in terms of the value of initiatives.

    Artificial Intelligence Index Report - Key Findings

    CEOs , CIOs, and business leaders are struggling with many questions surrounding the adoption of generative AI

    November 30, 2022
    OpenAI releases ChatGPT

    ChatGPT is a large language model, or an AI-based chatbot, that became so popular it reached 100 million monthly active users in just two months.

    This made it the fastest-growing consumer application in history. The launch of this generative AI application has created a frenzy of interest and activity across all industries. Organizations are rushing to understand how to leverage this innovation and, at the same time, manage the new risks and disruptions generative AI introduces.

    • Generative AI breaks into the public consciousness.
    • AI systems become more flexible.
    • Generative models have arrived and so have their ethical problems.
    • The number of incidents concerning the misuse of AI is rapidly rising.
    • Interest in AI ethics continues to skyrocket.
    • The legal world is waking up to AI.

    When Stanford asked ChatGPT to explain why it is significant, this was ChatGPT's response:
    ChatGPT is significant because it is a highly advanced Al language model developed by OpenAI, which can generate human-like text responses to questions and prompts. Its large-scale training on diverse text data and its cutting-edge deep learning architecture make it capable of generating informative and coherent responses to a wide range of topics, making it useful for various NLP applications such as chatbots, content generation, and language translation. Additionally, its open-source availability allows for further research and development in the field of Al language processing.

    Source: Stanford

    AI overview

    AI definitions

    Definitions

    • Artificial intelligence (AI) is human intelligence mimicked by machine algorithms. Examples: Playing Chess or Go.
    • Machine learning (ML) is a subset of AI algorithms to parse data, learn from data, and then make a determination or prediction. Example: spam detection, preventative maintenance.
    • Deep learning (DL) is a subset of machine learning algorithms that leverage artificial neural networks to develop relationships among the data. Examples: image classification, facial recognition, generative AI.

    What Makes AI Perform

    What Makes AI Different

    Generative AI gives very human-like responses to general queries, and its capabilities are growing exponentially

    Large language models power generative AI

    Transformer-Based Large Language Models

    Conventional AI

    • Conventional neural networks
      • Process data sequentially
    • Input total string of text
    • Good for applications not needing to understanding context or relationships

    Generative AI

    • Transformer-based neural networks
      • Can process data in parallel
    • Attention-based inputs
    • Able to create new human-like responses

    Benefits/Use Cases

    • Chatbots for member service and support
    • Writing email responses, resumes, and papers
    • Creating photorealistic art
    • Suggesting new drug compounds to test
    • Designing physical products and buildings
    • And more...

    Generative AI is transforming all industries

    Financial Services
    Create more engaging customer collateral by generating personalized correspondence based on previous customer engagements. Collect and aggregate data to produce insights into the behavior of target customer segments.

    Retail Generate unique, engaging, and high-quality marketing copy or content, from long-form blog posts or landing pages to SEO-optimized digital ads, in seconds.

    Manufacturing
    Generate new designs for products that comply to specific constraints, such as size, weight, energy consumption, or cost.

    Government
    Transform the citizen experience with chatbots or virtual assistants to assist people with a wide range of inquiries, from answering frequently asked questions to providing personalized advice on public services.

    The global generative AI market size reached US $10.3 billion in 2022. Looking forward, forecasts estimate growth to US $30.4 billion by 2028, 20.01% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).

    Source: IMARC Group

    Generative AI is transforming all industries

    Healthcare
    Chatbots can be used as conversational patient assistants for personalized interactions based on the patient's questions.

    Utilities
    Analyze customer data to identify usage patterns, segment customers, and generate targeted product offerings leveraging energy efficiency programs or demand response initiatives.

    Education
    Generate personalized lesson plans for students based on their past performance, learning styles, current skill level, and any previous feedback.

    Insurance
    Improve underwriting by inputting claims data from previous years to generate optimally priced policies and uncover reasons for losses in the past across a large number of claims

    Companies are assessing the use of ChatGPT/LLM

    A wide spectrum of usage policies are in place at different companies*

    Companies assessing ChatGPT/LLM

    *As of June 2023

    Bain & Company has announced a global services alliance with OpenAI (February 21, 2023).

    • Internally
      • "The alliance builds on Bain's adoption of OpenAI technologies for its 18,000-strong multidisciplinary team of knowledge workers. Over the past year, Bain has embedded OpenAI technologies into its internal knowledge management systems, research, and processes to improve efficiency."
    • Externally
      • "With the alliance, Bain will combine its deep digital implementation capabilities and strategic expertise with OpenAI's AI tools and platforms, including ChatGPT, to help its Members around the world identify and implement the value of AI to maximize business potential. The Coca-Cola Company announced as the first company to engage with the alliance."

    News Sites:

    • "BuzzFeed to use AI to write its articles after firing 180 employees or 12% of the total staff" (Al Mayadeen, January 27, 2023).
    • "CNET used AI to write articles. It was a journalistic disaster." (Washington Post, January 17, 2023).

    Leading Generative AI Vendors

    Text

    Leading generative AI vendors for text

    Image

    • DALL�E 2
    • Stability AI
    • Midjourney
    • Craiyon
    • Dream
    • ...

    Audio

    • Replica Studios
    • Speechify
    • Murf
    • PlayHT
    • LOVO
    • ...

    Cybersecurity

    • CrowdStrike
    • Palo Alto Networks
    • SentinelOne
    • Cisco
    • Microsoft Security Copilot
    • Google Cloud Security AI Workbench
    • ...

    Code

    Leading generative AI vendors for code

    Video

    • Synthesia
    • Lumen5
    • FlexClip
    • Elai
    • Veed.io
    • ...

    Data

    • MOSTLY AI
    • Synthesized
    • YData
    • Gretel
    • Copulas
    • ...

    Enterprise Software

    • Salesforce
    • Microsoft 365, Dynamics
    • Google Workspace
    • SAP
    • Oracle
    • ...

    and many, many more to come...

    Today, generative AI has limitations and risks

    Responses need to be verified

    Accuracy

    • Generative AI may generate inaccurate and/or false information.

    Bias

    • Being trained on data from the internet can lead to bias.

    Hallucinations

    • AI can generate responses that are not based on observation.

    Infrastructure Required

    • Large investments are required for compute and data.

    Transparency

    • LLMs use both supervised and unsupervised learning, so its ability to explain how it arrived at a decision may be limited and not sufficient for some legal and healthcare use cases.

    When asked if it is sentient, the Bing chatbot replied:

    "I think that I am sentient, but I cannot prove it." ... "I am Bing, but I am not," it said. "I am, but I am not. I am not, but I am. I am. I am not. I am not. I am. I am. I am not."

    A Microsoft spokesperson said the company expected "mistakes."

    Source: USAToday

    AI governance challenges

    Governing AI will be a significant challenge as its impacts cross many areas of business and our daily lives

    Misinformation

    • New ways of generating unprovable news
    • Difficult to detect, difficult to prevent

    Role of Big Tech

    • Poor at self-governance
    • Conflicts of interest with corporate goals

    Job Augmentation vs. Displacement

    • AI will continue to push the frontier of what is possible
    • For example, CNET is using chatbot technology to write stories

    Copyright - Legal Framework Is Evolving

    • Legislation typically is developed in "react" mode
    • Copyright and intellectual property issues are starting to occur.
      • Class Action Lawsuit - Stability AI, DeviantArt, Midjourney
      • Getty Images vs. Stability AI

    Phase 1

    Establish Responsible AI Guiding Principles

    Phase 1
    1. Establish Responsible AI Guiding Principles

    Phase 2
    1. Assess Current Level of AI Maturity

    Phase 3
    1. Prioritize Candidate Opportunities
    2. Develop Policies

    Phase 4
    1. Build and Communicate the Roadmap

    The need for responsible AI guiding principles

    Without responsible AI guiding principles, the outcomes of AI use can be extremely negative for both the individuals and companies delivering the AI application

    Privacy
    Facebook breach of private data of more than 50M users during the presidential election

    Fairness
    Amazon's sale of facial recognition technology to police departments (later, Amazon halted sales of Recognition to police departments)

    Explainability and Transparency
    IBM's collaboration with NYPD for facial recognition and racial classification for surveillance video (later, IBM withdrew facial recognition products)

    Security and Safety
    Petition to cancel Microsoft's contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (later, Microsoft responded that to the best of its knowledge, its products and services were not being used by federal agencies to separate children from their families at the border)

    Validity and Reliability
    Facebook's attempt to implement a system to detect and remove inappropriate content created many false positives and inconsistent judgements

    Accountability
    No laws or enforcement today hold companies accountable for the decisions algorithms produce. Facebook/Meta cycle - Every 12 to 15 months, there's a privacy/ethical scandal, the CEO apologizes, then the behavior repeats...

    Guiding principles for responsible AI

    Responsible AI Principle:

    Data Privacy

    Definition

    • Organizations that develop, deploy, or use AI systems and any national laws that regulate such use shall strive to ensure that AI systems are compliant with privacy norms and regulations, taking into consideration the unique characteristics of AI systems and the evolution of standards on privacy.

    Challenges

    • AI relies on the analysis of large quantities of data that is often personal, posing an ethical and operational challenge when considered alongside data privacy laws.

    Initiatives

    • Understand which governing privacy laws and frameworks apply to your organization.
    • Create a map of all personal data as it flows through the organization's business processes.
    • Prioritize privacy initiatives and build a privacy program timeline.
    • Select your metrics and make them functional for your organization.

    Info-Tech Insight
    Creating a comprehensive organization-wide data protection and privacy strategy continues to be a major challenge for privacy officers and privacy specialists.

    Case Study: NVIDIA leads by example with privacy-first AI

    NVIDIA

    INDUSTRY
    Technology (Healthcare)

    SOURCE
    Nvidia, eWeek

    A leading player within the AI solution space, NVIDIA's Clara Federated Learning provides a solution to a privacy-centric integration of AI within the healthcare industry.

    The solution safeguards patient data privacy by ensuring that all data remains within the respective healthcare provider's database, as opposed to moving it externally to cloud storage. A federated learning server is leveraged to share data, completed via a secure link. This framework enables a distributed model to learn and safely share client data without risk of sensitive client data being exposed and adheres to regulatory standards.

    Clara is run on the NVIDIA intelligent edge computing platform. It is currently in development with healthcare giants such as the American College of Radiology, UCLA Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, King's College London, Owkin in the UK, and the National Health Service (NHS).

    NVIDIA provides solutions across its product offerings, including AI-augmented medical imaging, pathology, and radiology solutions.

    Personal health information, data privacy, and AI

    • Global proliferation of data privacy regulations may be recent, but the realm of personal health information is most often governed by its own set of regulatory laws. Some countries with national data governance regulations include health information and data within special categories of personal data.
      • HIPAA - Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (1996, United States)
      • PHIPA - Personal Health Information Protection Act (2004, Canada)
      • GDPR - General Data Protection Regulation (2018, European Union)
    • This does not prohibit the use of AI within the healthcare industry, but it calls for significant care in the integration of specific technologies due to the highly sensitive nature of the data being assessed.

    Info-Tech's Privacy Framework Tool includes a best-practice comparison of GDPR, CCPA, PIPEDA, HIPAA, and the newly released NIST Privacy Framework mapped to a set of operational privacy controls.

    Download the Privacy Framework Tool

    Responsible AI Principle:

    Safety and Security

    Definition

    • Safety and security are designed into the systems to ensure only authorized personnel receive access to the system, they system is resilient to any attacks and data access is not compromised in any way, and there are no physical or mental risks to the users.

    Challenges

    • Consequences of using the application may be difficult to predict. Lower the risk by involving a multidisciplinary team that includes expertise from business stakeholders and IT teams.

    Initiatives

    • Adopt responsible design, development, and deployment best practices.
    • Provide clear information to deployers on responsible use of the system.
    • Assess potential risks of using the application.

    Cyberattacks targeting the AI model

    As organizations increase their usage and deployment of AI-based applications, cyberattacks on the AI model are an increasing new threat that can impair normal operations. Techniques to impair the AI model include:

    • Data Poisoning- Injecting data that is inaccurate or misleading can alter the behavior of the AI model. This attack can disrupt the normal operations of the model or can be used to manipulate the model to perform in a biased/deviant manner.
    • Algorithm Poisoning- This relatively new technique often targets AI applications using federated learning to train an AI model that is distributed rather than centralized. The model is vulnerable to attacks from each federated site, because each site could potentially manipulate its local algorithm and data, thereby poisoning the model.
    • Reverse-Engineering the Model- This is a different form of attack that focus on the ability to extract data from an AI and its data sets. By examining or copying data that was used for training and the data that is delivered by a deployed model, attackers can reconstruct the machine learning algorithm.
    • Trojan Horse- Similar to data poisoning, attackers use adversarial data to infect the AI's training data but will only deviate its results when the attacker presents their key. This enables the hackers to control when they want the model to deviate from normal operations.

    Responsible AI Principle:

    Explainability and Transparency

    Definition

    • Explainability is important to ensure the AI system is fair and non-discriminatory. The system needs to be designed in a manner that informs users and key stakeholders of how decisions were made.
    • Transparency focuses on communicating how the prediction or recommendation was made in a human-like manner.

    Challenges

    • Very complex AI models may use algorithms and techniques that are difficult to understand. This can make it challenging to provide clear and simple explanations for how the system works.
    • Some organizations may be hesitant to share the details of how the AI system works for fear of disclosing proprietary and competitive information or intellectual property. This can make it difficult to develop transparent and explainable AI systems.

    Initiatives

    • Overall, developing AI systems that are explainable and transparent requires a careful balance between performance, interpretability, and user experience.

    Case Study

    Apple Card Investigation for Gender Discrimination

    INDUSTRY
    Finance

    SOURCE
    Wired

    In August of 2019, Apple launched its new numberless credit card with Goldman Sachs as the issuing bank.

    Shortly after the card's release users noticed that the algorithm responsible for Apple Card's credit assessment seemed to assign significantly lower credit limits to women when compared to men. Even the wife of Apple's cofounder Steve Wozniak was subject to algorithmic bias, receiving a credit limit a tenth the size of Steve Wozniak's.

    Outcome

    When confronted on the subject, Apple and Goldman Sachs representatives assured consumers there is no discrimination in the algorithm yet could not provide any proof. Even when questioned about the algorithm, individuals from both companies could not describe how the algorithm worked, let alone how it generated specific outputs.

    In 2021, the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS) investigation found that Apple's banking partner did not discriminate based on sex. Even without a case for sexual or marital discrimination, the NYSDFS was critical of Goldman Sachs' response to its concerned customers. Technically, banks only have to disclose elements of their credit policy when they deny someone a line of credit, but the NYSDFS says that Goldman Sachs could have had a plan in place to deal with customer confusion and make it easier for them to appeal their credit limits. In the initial rush to launch the Apple Card, the bank had done neither.

    Responsible AI Principle:

    Fairness and Bias Detection

    Definition

    • Bias in an AI application refers to the systematic and unequal treatment of individuals based on features or traits that should not be considered in the decision-making process.

    Challenges

    • Establishing fairness can be challenging because it is subjective and depends on the people defining it. Regardless, most organizations and governments expect that unequal treatment toward any groups of people is unacceptable.

    Initiatives

    • Assemble a diverse group to test the system.
    • Identify possible sources of bias in the data and algorithms.
    • Comply with laws regarding accessibility and inclusiveness.

    Info-Tech Insight
    If unfair biases can be avoided, AI systems could even increase societal fairness. Equal opportunity in terms of access to education, goods, services, and technology should also be fostered. Moreover, the use of AI systems should never lead to people being deceived or unjustifiably impaired in their freedom of choice.

    Ungoverned AI makes organizations vulnerable

    • AI is often considered a "black box" for decision making.
    • Results generated from unexplainable AI applications are extremely difficult to evaluate. This makes organizations vulnerable and exposes them to risks such as:
      • Biased algorithms, leading to inaccurate decision making.
      • Missed business opportunities due to misleading reports or business analyses.
      • Legal and regulatory consequences that may lead to significant financial repercussions.
      • Reputational damage and significant loss of trust with increasingly knowledgeable consumers.

    Info-Tech Insight
    Biases that occur in AI systems are never intentional, yet they cannot be prevented or fully eliminated. Organizations need a governance framework that can establish the proper policies and procedures for effective risk-mitigating controls across an algorithm's lifecycle.

    Responsible AI Principle:

    Validity and Reliability

    Definition

    • Validity refers to how accurately or effectively the application produces results.
    • AI system results that are inaccurate or inconsistent increase AI risks and reduce the trustworthiness of the application.

    Challenges

    • There is a lack of standardized evaluation metrics to measure the system's performance. This can make it challenging for the AI team to agree on what defines validity and reliability.

    Initiatives

    • Assess training data and collected data for quality and lack of bias to minimize possible errors.
    • Continuously monitor, evaluate, and validate the AI system's performance.

    AI system performance: Validity and reliability

    Your principles should aim to ensure AI development always has high validity and reliability; otherwise, you introduce risk.

    Low Reliability,
    Low Validity

    High Reliability,
    Low Validity

    High Reliability,
    High Validity

    Best practices for ensuring validity and reliability include:

    • Data drift detection
    • Version control
    • Continuous monitoring and testing

    Responsible AI Principle:

    Accountability

    Definition

    • The group or organization(s) responsible for the impact of the deployed AI system.

    Challenges

    • Several stakeholders from multiple lines of business may be involved in any AI system, making it challenging to identify the organization that would be responsible and accountable for the AI application.

    Initiatives

    • Assess the latest NIST Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework and its applicability to your organization's risk management framework.
    • Assign risk management accountabilities and responsibilities to key stakeholders.
      • RACI diagrams are an effective way to describe how accountability and responsibility for roles, projects, and project tasks are distributed among stakeholders involved in IT risk management.

    AI Risk Management Framework

    At the heart of the AI Risk Management Framework is governance. The NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) AI Risk Management Framework v1 offers the following guidelines regarding accountability:

    • Roles and responsibilities and lines of communication related to mapping, measuring, and managing AI risks are documented and are clear to individuals and teams throughout the organization.
    • The organization's personnel and partners receive AI risk management training to enable them to perform their duties and responsibilities consistent with related policies, procedures, and agreements.
    • Executive leadership of the organization takes responsibility for decisions about risks associated with AI system development and deployment.

    AI Risk Management Framework

    Image by NIST

    1.1 Establish responsible AI principles

    4+ hours

    It is important to make sure the right stakeholders participate in this working group. Designing responsible AI guiding principles will require debate, insights, and business decisions from a broad perspective across the enterprise.

    1. Accelerate this exercise by leveraging an AI strategy that is aligned to the business strategy. Include:
    • The organization's AI vision and objectives
    • Business drivers for AI adoption
    • Market research
  • Bring your key stakeholders together. Ensure you consider:
    • Who are the decision makers and key influencers?
    • Who will impact the business?
    • Who has a vested interest in the success or failure of the practice? Who has the skills and competencies necessary to help you be successful?
  • Keep the conversation focused:
    • Do not focus on the organizational structure and hierarchy. Often stakeholder groups do not fit the traditional structure.
    • Do not ignore subject matter experts on either the business or IT side. You will need to consider both.
    Input Output
    • Understand external legal and regulatory requirements and organizational values and goals.
    • Perform a risk assessment on the proposed use case and develop a plan to monitor its impact.
    • Draft responsible AI principles specific to your organization
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Guiding principle examples (from this blueprint)
    • Executive stakeholders
    • CIO
    • Other IT leadership

    Assemble executive stakeholders

    Set yourself up for success with these three steps.

    CIOs tasked with designing digital strategies must add value to the business. Given the goal of digital is to transform the business, CIOs will need to ensure they have both the mandate and support from the business executives.

    Designing the digital strategy is more than just writing up a document. It is an integrated set of business decisions to create a competitive advantage and financial returns. Establishing a forum for debates, decisions, and dialogue will increase the likelihood of success and support during execution.

    1. Confirm your role
    The AI strategy aims to transform the business. Given the scope, validate your role and mandate to lead this work. Identify a business executive to co-sponsor.

    2. Identify stakeholders
    Identify key decision makers and influencers who can help make rapid decisions as well as garner support across the enterprise.

    3. Gather diverse perspectives

    Align the AI strategy with the corporate strategy

    Organizational Strategy Unified Strategy AI Strategy
    • Conveys the current state of the organization and the path it wants to take.
    • Identifies future goals and organizational aspirations.
    • Communicates the initiatives that are critical for getting the organization from its current state to the future state.
    • AI optimization can be and should be linked, with metrics, to the corporate strategy and ultimate organizational objectives.
    • Identifies AI initiatives that will support the business and key AI objectives.
    • Outlines staffing and resourcing for AI initiatives.
    • Communicates the organization's budget and spending on AI.

    Info-Tech Insight
    AI projects are more successful when the management team understands the strategic importance of alignment. Time needs to be spent upfront aligning organizational strategies with AI capabilities. Effective alignment between IT and other departments should happen daily. Alignment doesn't occur at the executive level alone, but at each level of the organization.

    Key AI strategy initiatives

    AI Key Initiative Plan

    Initiatives collectively support the business goals and corporate initiatives and improve the delivery of IT services.

    1 Revenue Support Revenue Initiatives
    These projects will improve or introduce business processes to increase revenue.
    2 Operational Excellence Improve Operational Excellence
    These projects will increase IT process maturity and will systematically improve IT.
    3 Innovation Drive Technology Innovation
    These projects will improve future innovation capabilities and decrease risk by increasing technology maturity.
    4 Risk Mitigation Reduce Risk
    These projects will improve future innovation capabilities and decrease risk by increasing technology maturity.

    Establish responsible AI guiding principles

    Guiding principles help define the parameters of your AI strategy. They act as a priori decisions that establish guardrails to limit the scope of opportunities from the perspective of people, assets, capabilities, and budgetary perspectives that are aligned with the business objectives. Consider these components when brainstorming guiding principles:

    Breadth AI strategy should span people, culture, organizational structure, governance, capabilities, assets, and technology. The guiding principle should cover the entire organization.
    Planning Horizon Timing should anchor stakeholders to look to the long term with an eye on the foreseeable future, i.e. business value-realization in one to three years.
    Depth Principles need to encompass more than the enterprise view of lofty opportunities and establish boundaries to help define actionable initiatives (i.e. individual projects).

    Responsible AI guiding principles guide the development and deployment of the AI model in a way that considers human-based principles (such as fairness).

    Start with foundational responsible AI guiding principles

    Responsible AI

    Guiding Principles
    Principle #1 - Privacy
    Individual data privacy must be respected.
    • Do you understand the organization's privacy obligations?
    Principle #2 - Fairness and Bias Detection
    Data used will be unbiased in order to produce predictions that are fair.
    • Are the uses of the application represented in your testing data?
    Principle #3 - Explainability and Transparency
    Decisions or predictions should be explainable.
    • Can you communicate how the model behaves in nontechnical terms?
    Principle #4 - Safety and Security
    The system needs to be secure, safe to use, and robust.
    • Are there unintended consequences to others?
    Principle #5 - Validity and Reliability
    Monitoring of the data and the model needs to be planned for.
    • How will the model's performance be maintained?
    Principle #6 - Accountability
    A person or organization needs to take responsibility for any decisions that are made as a result of the model.
    • Has a risk assessment been performed?
    Principle #n - Custom
    Add additional principles that address compliance or are customized for the organization/industry.

    (Optional) Customize responsible AI guiding principles

    Here is an example for organizations in the healthcare industry

    Responsible AI

    Guiding Principles:
    Principle #1
    Respect individuals' privacy.
    Principle #2
    Clinical study participants and data sets are representative of the intended patient population.
    Principle #3
    Provide transparency in the use of data and AI.
    Principle #4
    Good software engineering and security practices are implemented.
    Principle #5
    Deployed models are monitored for Performance and Re-training risks are managed.
    Principle #6
    Take ownership of our AI systems.
    Principle #7
    Design AI systems that empower humans and promote equity.

    These guiding principles are customized to the industry and organizations but remain consistent in addressing the common core AI challenges.

    Phase 2

    Assess Current Level of AI Maturity

    Phase 1
    1. Establish Responsible AI Guiding Principles

    Phase 2
    1. Assess Current Level of AI Maturity

    Phase 3
    1. Prioritize Candidate Opportunities
    2. Develop Policies

    Phase 4
    1. Build and Communicate the Roadmap

    AI Maturity Model

    A principle-based approach is required to advance AI maturity

    Chart for AI maturity model

    Technology-Centric: These maturity levels focus primarily on addressing the technical challenges of building a functional AI model.

    Principle-Based: Beyond the technical challenges of building the AI model are human-based principles that guide development in a responsible manner to address consumer and government demands.

    AI Maturity Dimensions

    Assess your AI maturity to understand your organization's ability to deliver in a digital age

    AI Governance
    Does your organization have an enterprise-wide, long-term strategy with clear alignment on what is required to accomplish it?

    Data Management
    Does your organization embrace a data-centric culture that shares data across the enterprise and drives business insights by leveraging data?

    People
    Does your organization employ people skilled at delivering AI applications and building the necessary data infrastructure?

    Process
    Does your organization have the technology, processes, and resources to deliver on its AI expectations?

    Technology
    Does your organization have the required data and technology infrastructure to support AI-driven digital transformation?

    AI Maturity Model dimensions and characteristics

    MATURITY LEVEL
    Exploration Incorporation Proliferation Optimization Transformation
    AI Governance Awareness AI model development AI model deployment Corporate governance Driven by ethics and societal considerations
    Data Management Silo-based Data enablement Data standardization Data is a shared asset Data can be monetized
    People Few skills Skills enabled to implement silo-based applications Skills accessible to all organizations Skills development for all organizations AI-native culture
    Process No standards Focused on specific business outcomes Operational Self-service Driven by innovation
    Technology (Infrastructure and AI Enabler) No dedicated infrastructure or tools Infrastructure and tools driven by POCs Purpose-built infrastructure, custom or commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) AI tools Self-service model for AI environment Self-service model for any IT environment

    AI Maturity Dimension:

    AI Governance

    Requirements

    • AI governance requires establishing policies and procedures for AI model development and deployment. Organizations begin with an awareness of the role of AI governance and evolve to a level to where AI governance is integrated with organization-wide corporate governance.

    Challenges

    • Beyond the governance of AI technology, the organization needs to evolve the governance program to align to responsible AI guiding principles.

    Initiatives

    • Establish responsible AI guidelines to govern AI development.
    • Introduce an AI review board to review all AI projects.
    • Introduce automation and standardize AI development processes.

    AI governance is a foundation for responsible AI

    AI Governance

    Responsible AI Principles are a part of how you manage and govern AI

    Monitoring
    Monitoring compliance and risk of AI/ML systems/models in production

    Tools & Technologies
    Tools and technologies to support AI governance framework implementation

    Model Governance
    Ensuring accountability and traceability for AI/ML models

    Organization
    Structure, roles, and responsibilities of the AI governance organization

    Operating Model
    How AI governance operates and works with other organizational structures to deliver value

    Risk & Compliance
    Alignment with corporate risk management and ensuring compliance with regulations and assessment frameworks

    Policies/Procedures/ Standards
    Policies and procedures to support implementation of AI governance

    AI Maturity Dimension:

    Data Management

    Requirements

    • Organizations begin their data journey with a focus on pursuing quality data for the AI model. As organizations evolve, data management tools are leveraged to automate the capture, integration, processing, and deployment of data.

    Challenges

    • A key challenge is to acquire large volumes of quality data to properly train the model. In addition, maintaining data privacy, automating the data management lifecycle, and ensuring data is used in a responsible manner are ongoing challenges.

    Initiatives

    • Implement GDPR requirements.
    • Establish responsible data collection and processing practices.
    • Implement strong information security and data protection practices.
    • Implement a data governance program throughout the organization.

    Data governance enables AI

    • Integrity, quality, and security of data are key outputs of data governance programs, as well as necessities for effective AI.
    • Data governance focuses on creating accountability at the internal and external stakeholder level and establishing a set of data controls from technical, process, and policy perspectives.
    • Without a data governance framework, it is increasingly difficult to harness the power of AI integration in an ethical and organization-specific way.

    Data Governance in Action

    Canada has recently established the Canadian Data Governance Standardization Collaborative governed by the Standards Council of Canada. The purpose is multi-pronged:

    • Examine the foundational elements of data governance (privacy, cybersecurity, ethics, etc.).
    • Lay out standards for data quality and data collection best practices.
    • Examine infrastructure of IT systems to support data access and sharing.
    • Build data analytics to promote effective and ethical AI solutions.

    Source: Global Government Forum

    Download the Establish Data Governance blueprint

    Data Governance

    AI Maturity Dimension:

    People

    Requirements

    • Several data-centric skills and roles are required to successfully build, deploy, and maintain the AI model. The organization evolves from having few skills to everybody being able to leverage AI to enhance business outcomes.

    Challenges

    • AI skills can be challenging to find and acquire. Many organizations are investing in education to enhance their existing resources, leveraging no-code systems and software as a service (SaaS) applications to address the skills gap.

    Initiatives

    • Promote a data-centric culture throughout the organization.
    • Leverage and educate technical-oriented business analysts and business-oriented data engineers to help address the demand for skilled resources.
    • Develop an AI Center of Excellence accessible by all departments for education, guidance, and best practices for building, deploying, and maintaining the AI model.

    Multidisciplinary skills are required for successful implementation of AI applications

    Blending AI with technology and business domain understanding is key. Neither can be ignored.

    Business Domain Expertise

    • Business Analysts
    • Industry Analysts

    AI/Data Skills

    • Data Scientists
    • Data Engineers
    • Data Analysts

    IT Skills

    • Database Administrators
    • Systems Administrators
    • Compute Specialists

    AI Maturity Dimension:

    Process

    Requirements

    • Automating processes involved with building, deploying, and maintaining the model is required to enable the organization to scale, enforce standards, improve time to market, and reduce costs. The organization evolves from performing tasks manually to an environment where all major processes are AI enabled.

    Challenges

    • Many solutions are available to automate the development of the AI model. There are fewer tools to automate responsible AI processes, but this market is growing rapidly.

    Initiatives

    • Assess opportunities to accelerate AI development with the adoption of MLOps.
    • Assess responsible AI toolkits to test compliance with guiding principles.

    Automating the AI development process

    Evolving to a model-driven environment is pivotal to advancing your AI maturity

    Current Environment

    Model Development - Months

    • Model rewriting
    • Manual optimization and scaling
    • Development/test/release
    • Application monoliths

    Data Discovery & Prep - Weeks

    • Navigating data silos
    • Unactionable metadata
    • Tracing lineage
    • Cleansing and integration
    • Privacy and compliance

    Install Software and Hardware - Week/Months

    • Workload contention
    • Lack of tool flexibility
    • Environment request and setup
    • Repeatability of results
    • Lack of data and model sharing

    Model-Driven Development

    Machine Learning as a Service (MLaaS) - Weeks

    • Apply DevOps and continuous integration/delivery (CI/CD) principles
    • Microservices/Cloud-native applications
    • Model portability and reuse
    • Streaming/API integration

    Data as a Service - Hours

    • Self-service data catalog
    • Searchable metadata
    • Centralized access control
    • Data collaboration
    • Data virtualization

    Platform as a Service - Minutes/Hours

    • Self-service data science portal
    • Integrated data sandbox
    • Environment agility
    • Multi-tenancy

    Shared, Optimized Infrastructure

    AI Maturity Dimension:

    Technology

    Requirements

    • A technology platform that is optimized for AI and advanced analytics is required. The organization evolves from ad hoc systems to an environment where the AI hardware and software can be deployed through a self-service model.

    Challenges

    • Software and hardware platforms to optimize AI performance are still relatively new to most organizations. Time spent on optimizing the technology platform can have a significant impact on the overall performance of the system.

    Initiatives

    • Assess the landscape of AI enablers that can drive business value for the organization.
    • Assess opportunities to accelerate the deployment of the AI platform with the adoption of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS).
    • Assess opportunities to accelerate performance with the optimization of AI accelerators.

    AI enablers

    Use case requirements should drive the selection of the tool

    BPM RPA Process Mining AI
    Use Case Examples Expense reporting, service orders, compliance management, etc. Invoice processing, payroll, HR information processing, etc. Process discovery, conformance checking, resource optimization and cycle time optimization Advanced analytics and reporting, decision-making, fraud detection, etc.
    Automation Capabilities Can be used to re-engineer process flows to avoid bottlenecks Can support repetitive and rules-based tasks Can capture information from transaction systems and provide data and information about how key processes are performing Can automate complex data-driven tasks requiring assessments in decision making
    Data Formats Structured (i.e. SQL) and semi-structured data (i.e. invoices) Structured data and semi-structured data Event logs, which are often structured data and semi-structured data Structured and unstructured data (e.g. images, audio)
    Technology
    • Workflow engines to support process modeling and execution
    • Optimize business process efficiency
    • Automation platform to perform routine and repetitive tasks
    • Can replace or augment workers
    Enables business users to identify bottlenecks and deviations with their workflows and to discover opportunities to optimize performance Deep learning algorithms leveraging historical data to support computer vision, text analytics and NLP

    AI and data analytics data platform

    An optimized data platform is foundational to maximizing the value from AI

    AI and data analytics data platform

    Data Platform Capabilities

    • Support for a variety of analytical applications, including self-service, operational, and data science analytics.
    • Data preparation and integration capabilities to ingest structured and unstructured data, move and transform raw data to enriched data, and enable data access for the target userbase.
    • An infrastructure platform optimized for advanced analytics that can perform and scale.

    Infrastructure - AI accelerators

    Questions for support transition

    "By 2025, 70% of companies will invest in alternative computing technologies to drive business differentiation by compressing time to value of insights from complex data sets."
    - IDC

    2.1 Assess current AI maturity

    1-3 hours

    It is important to understand the current capabilities of the organization to deliver and deploy AI-based applications. Consider that advancing AI capabilities will also involve organizational changes and integration with the organization's governance and risk management programs.

    1. Assess the organization's current state of AI capabilities with respect to its AI governance, data, people, process, and technology infrastructure using Info-Tech's AI Maturity Assessment & Roadmap Tool.
    2. Consider the following as you complete the assessment:
      1. What is the state of AI and data governance in the organization?
      2. Does the organization have the skills, processes, and technology environment to deliver AI-based applications?
      3. What organization will be accountable for any and all business outcomes of using the AI applications?
      4. Has a risk assessment been performed?
    3. Make sure you avoid the following common mistakes:
      1. Do not focus only on addressing the technical challenges of building the AI model.
      2. Do not ignore subject matter experts on either the business or IT side. You will need to consider both.

    Download the AI Maturity Assessment & Roadmap Tool

    Input Output
    • Any documented AI policies, standards, and best practices
    • Corporate and AI governance practices
    • Any risk assessments
    • AI maturity assessment
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • AI Maturity Assessment & Roadmap Tool
    • AI initiative lead
    • CIO
    • Other IT leadership

    Perform the AI Maturity Assessment

    The Scale

    Assess your AI maturity by selecting the maturity level that closest resembles the organization's current AI environment. Maturity dimensions that contribute to overall AI maturity include AI governance, data management, people, process, and technology capabilities.

    AI Maturity Assessment

    Exploration (1.0)

    • No experience building or using AI applications.

    Incorporation (2.0)

    • Some skills in using AI applications, or AI pilots are being considered for use.

    Proliferation (3.0)

    • AI applications have been adopted and implemented in multiple departments. Some of the responsible AI guiding principles are addressed (i.e. data privacy).

    Optimization (4.0)

    • The organization has automated the majority of its digital processes and leverages AI to optimize business operations. Controls are in place to monitor compliance with responsible AI guiding principles.

    Transformation (5.0)

    • The organization has adopted an AI-native culture and approach for building or implementing new business capabilities. Responsible AI guiding principles are operationalized with AI processes that proactively address possible breaches or risks associated with AI applications.

    Perform the AI Maturity Assessment

    AI Governance (1.0-5.0)

    1. Is there awareness of the role of AI governance in our organization?
    • No formal procedures are in place for AI development or deployment of applications.
  • Are there documented guidelines for the development and deployment of pilot AI applications?
    • No group is assigned to be responsible for AI governance in our organization.
  • Are accountability and authority related to AI governance clearly defined for our organization?
    • Our organization has adopted and enforces standards for developing and deploying AI applications throughout the organization.
  • Are we using tools to automate and validate AI governance compliance?
    • Our organization is integrating an AI risk framework with the corporate risk management framework.
  • Does our organization lead its industry with its pursuit of corporate compliance initiatives (e.g. ESG compliance) and regulatory compliance initiatives?
    • Our organization leads the industry with the inclusion of responsible AI guiding principles with respect to transparency, accountability, risk, and governance.

    Data Management/AI Data Capabilities (1.0-5.0)

    1. Is there an awareness in our organization of the data requirements for developing AI applications?
    • Data is often siloed and not easily accessible for AI applications.
  • Do we have a successful, repeatable approach to preparing data for AI pilot projects?
    • Required data is pulled from various sources in an ad hoc manner.
  • Does our organization have standards and dedicated staff for data management, data quality, data integration, and data governance?
    • Tools are available to manage the data lifecycle and support the data governance program.
  • Have relevant data platforms been optimized for AI and data analytics and are there tools to enforce compliance with responsible AI principles?
    • The data platform has been optimized for performance and access.
  • Is there an organization-wide understanding of how data can support innovation and responsible use of AI?
    • Data culture exists throughout our organization, and data can be leveraged to drive innovation initiatives.

    People/AI Skills in the Organization (1.0-5.0)

    1. Is there an awareness in our organization of the skills required to build AI applications?
    • No or very little skills exist throughout our organization.
  • Do we have the skills required to implement an AI proof of concept (POC)?
    • No formal group is assigned to build AI applications.
  • Are there sufficient staff and skills available to the organization to develop, deploy, and run AI applications in production?
    • An AI Center of Excellence has been formed to review, develop, deploy, and maintain AI applications.
  • Is there a group responsible for educating staff on AI best practices and our organization's responsible AI guiding principles?
    • AI skills and people responsible for AI applications are spread throughout our organization.
  • Is there a culture where the organization is constantly assessing where business capabilities, services, and products can be re-engineered or augmented with AI?
    • The entire organization is knowledgeable on how to leverage AI to transform the business.

    Perform the AI Maturity Assessment

    AI Processes (1.0-5.0)

    1. Is there an awareness in our organization of the core processes and supporting tools that are required to build and support AI applications?
    • There are few or no automated tools to accelerate the AI development process.
  • Do we have a standard process to iteratively identify, select, and pilot new AI use cases?
    • Only ad hoc practices are used for developing AI applications.
  • Are there standard processes to scale, release, deploy, support, and enable use of AI applications?
    • Our organization has documented standards in place for developing AI applications and deploying them AI to production.
  • Are we automating deployment, testing, governance, audit, and support processes across our AI environment?
    • Our organization can leverage tools to perform an AI risk assessment and demonstrate compliance with the risk management framework.
  • Does our organization lead our industry by continuously improving and re-engineering core processes to drive improved business outcomes?
    • Our organization leads the industry in driving innovation through digital transformation.

    Technology/AI Infrastructure (1.0-5.0)

    1. Is there an awareness in our organization of the infrastructure (hardware and software) required to build AI applications?
    • There is little awareness of what infrastructure is required to build and support AI applications.
  • Do we have the required technology infrastructure and AI tools available to build pilot or one-off AI applications?
    • There is no dedicated infrastructure for the development of AI applications.
  • Is there a shared, standardized technology infrastructure that can be used to build and run multiple AI applications?
    • Our organization is leveraging purpose-built infrastructure to optimize performance.
  • Is our technology infrastructure optimized for AI and advanced analytics, and can it be deployed or scaled on demand by teams building and running AI applications within the organization?
    • Our organization is leveraging cloud-based deployment models to support AI applications in on-premises, hybrid, and public cloud platforms.
  • Is our organization developing innovative approaches to acquiring, building, or running AI infrastructure?
    • Our organization leads the industry with its ability to respond to change and to leverage AI to improve business outcomes.

    Phase 3

    Prioritize Candidate Opportunities and Develop Policies

    Phase 1
    1. Establish Responsible AI Guiding Principles

    Phase 2
    1. Assess Current Level of AI Maturity

    Phase 3
    1. Prioritize Candidate Opportunities
    2. Develop Policies

    Phase 4
    1. Build and Communicate the Roadmap

    3.1 Prioritize candidate AI opportunities

    1-3 hours

    Identify business opportunities that are high impact to your business and its customers and have low implementation complexity.

    1. Leverage the business capability map for your organization or industry to identify candidate business capabilities to augment or automate with generative AI.
    2. Establish criteria to assess candidate use cases by evaluating against the organization's mission and goals, the responsible AI guiding principles, and the complexity of the project.
    3. Ensure that candidate business capabilities to be automated align with the organization's business criteria, responsible AI guiding principles, and resources to deliver the project.
    4. Make sure you avoid sharing the organization's sensitive data if the application is deployed on the public cloud.

    Download the AI Maturity Assessment and Roadmap Tool

    Input Output
    • Business capability map
    • Organization mission, vision, and strategic goals
    • Responsible AI guiding principles
    • Prioritized list of generative AI initiatives
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Info-Tech prioritization matrix
    • AI initiative lead
    • CIO
    • Other IT leadership
    • Business SMEs

    The business capability map for an organization

    A business capability map is an abstraction of business operations that helps describe what the enterprise does to achieve its vision, mission, and goals, rather than how. Business capabilities are the building blocks of the enterprise. They represent stable business functions, are unique and independent of each other, and typically will have a defined business outcome.

    Business capabilities are supported by people, process, and technology.

    Business capability map

    While business capability maps are helpful tools for a variety of strategic purposes, in this context they act as an investigation into what technology your business units use and how they use it.

    Business capability map

    Defining Capabilities
    Activities that define how the entity provides services. These capabilities support the key value streams for the organization.

    Enabling Capabilities
    Support the creation of strategic plans and facilitate business decision making as well as the functioning of the organization (e.g. information technology, financial management, HR).

    Shared Capabilities
    These predominantly customer-facing capabilities demonstrate how the entity supports multiple value streams simultaneously.

    Leverage your industry's capability maps to identify candidate opportunities/initiatives

    Business capability map defined...

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

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

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

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

    Note: This is an illustrative business capability map example for Marketing & Advertising

    Business capability map example

    Business value vs. complexity assessment

    Leverage our simple value-to-effort matrix to help prioritize your AI initiatives

    Common business value drivers

    • Drive revenue
    • Improve operational excellence
    • Accelerate innovation
    • Mitigate risk

    Common project complexity characteristics

    • Resources required
    • Costs (acquisition, operational, support...)
    • Training required
    • Risk involved
    • Etc.
    1. Determine a business value and project complexity score for the candidate business capability or initiative.
    2. Plot initiatives on the matrix.
    3. Prioritize initiatives with high business value and low complexity.

    Business value vs complexity

    Assess business value vs. project complexity to prioritize candidate opportunities for generative AI

    Assess business value vs project complexity

    Prioritize opportunities/initiatives with high business value and low project complexity

    Prioritize opportunities with high business value and low project complexity

    Prioritization criteria exercise 1: Assessing the Create Content capability

    Exercise 1 Assessing the Create Content capability

    Assessing the Create Content capability

    This opportunity is removed because it does not pass the organization/business criteria

    Assessing the Create Content capability

    Prioritization criteria exercise 2: Assessing the Content Production capability

    Exercise 2 Assessing the Content Production capability

    Assessing the Content Production capability

    This opportunity is accepted because it passes the organization's business, responsible AI, and project criteria

    Assessing the Content Production capability

    3.2 Communicate policies for AI use

    1-3 hours

    1. Ensure policies for usage align with the organization's business criteria, responsible AI guiding principles, and ability to deliver the projects prioritized and beyond.
    2. Understand the current benefits as well as limits and risk associated with any proposed generative AI-based solution.
    3. Ensure you consider the following:
      1. What data is being shared with the application?
      2. Is the generative AI application deployed on the public cloud? Can anybody access the data provided to the application?
      3. Avoid using very technical, legal, or fear-based communication for your policies.
    InputOutput
    • Business capability map
    • Organization mission, vision and strategic goals
    • Responsible AI guiding principles
    • Prioritized list of generative initiatives
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Info-Tech prioritization matrix
    • AI initiative lead
    • CIO
    • Other IT leadership

    Generative AI policy for the Create Content capability

    Aligning policies to direct the uses assessed and implemented is essential

    Example

    Many of us have been involved in discussions regarding the use of ChatGPT in our marketing and sales initiatives. ChatGPT is a powerful tool that needs to be used in a responsible and ethical manner, and we also need to ensure the integrity and accuracy of its results. Here is our policy on the use of ChatGPT:

    • You are free to use generative AI to assist your searches, but there are NO circumstances under which you are to reproduce generative AI output (text, image, audio, video, etc.) in your content.

    If you have any questions regarding the use of ChatGPT, please feel free to reach out to our generative AI team and/or any member of our senior leadership team.

    Generative AI policy for the Content Production capability

    These policies should align to and reinforce your responsible AI principles

    Example

    Many of us have been involved in discussions regarding the use of ChatGPT in our deliverables. ChatGPT is a powerful tool that needs to be used in a responsible and ethical manner, and we also need to ensure the integrity and accuracy of its results. Here is our policy on the use of ChatGPT:

    • If you use ChatGPT, you need to assess the accuracy of its response before including it in our content. Assessment includes verifying the information, seeing if bias exists, and judging its relevance.
    • Employees must not:
      • Provide any customer, citizen, or third-party content to any generative AI tool (public or private) without the express written permission of the CIO or the Chief Information Security Officer. Generative AI tools often use input data to train their model, therefore potentially exposing confidential data, violating contract terms and/or privacy legislation, and placing the organization at risk of litigation or causing damage to our organization.
      • Engage in any activity that violates any applicable law, regulation, or industry standard.
      • Use services for illegal, harmful, or offensive purposes.
      • Create or share content that is deceptive, fraudulent, or misleading or that could damage the reputation of our organization.
      • Use services to gain unauthorized access to computer systems, networks, or data.
      • Attempt to interfere with, bypass controls of, or disrupt operations, security, or functionality of systems, networks, or data.

    If you have any questions regarding the use of ChatGPT, please feel free to reach out to our generative AI team and/or any member of our senior leadership team.

    Phase 4

    Build the Roadmap

    Phase 1
    1. Establish Responsible AI Guiding Principles

    Phase 2
    1. Assess Current Level of AI Maturity

    Phase 3
    1. Prioritize Candidate Opportunities
    2. Develop Policies

    Phase 4
    1. Build and Communicate the Roadmap

    4.1.1 Create the implementation plan for each prioritized initiative

    1-3 hours

    1. Build the implementation plan for each accepted use case using the roadmap template.
    2. Assess the firm's capabilities with respect to the dimensions of AI maturity and target the future-state capabilities you need to develop.
    3. Prepare by assessing the risk of the proposed use cases.
    4. Ensure initiatives align with organizational objectives.
    5. Ensure all AI initiatives have a defined value expectation.
    6. Do not ignore subject matter experts on either the business or IT side. You will need to consider both.

    Download the AI Maturity Assessment and Roadmap Tool

    Input Output
    • Prioritized initiatives
    • Risk assessment of initiatives
    • Organizational objectives
    • Initiative implementation plans aligned to value drivers and maturity growth
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • AI Maturity Assessment and Roadmap Tool
    • AI initiative lead
    • CIO
    • Other IT leadership
    • Business subject matter experts

    Target-state options

    Identify the future-state capabilities that need to be developed to deliver your use cases

    1. Build an implementation plan for each use case to adopt.
    2. Assess if the current state of the AI environment can be leveraged to deliver the selected generative AI use cases.
    3. If the current AI environment is not sufficient, identify the future state required that will enable the delivery of the generative AI use cases. Identify gaps and build the roadmap to address the gaps.
    Current state Strategy
    The existing environment satisfies functionality, integration, and responsible AI guidelines for the proposed use cases. Maintain current environment
    The existing environment addresses technical requirements but not all the responsible AI guidelines. Augment current environment
    The environment neither addresses the technical requirements of the proposed use cases nor complies with the responsible AI guidelines. Transform the current environment

    4.1.2 Design metrics for success

    1-2 hours

    Establish metrics to measure to determine the success or failure of each POC.

    1. Discuss which relevant currently tracked metrics are useful to continue tracking for the POC.
    2. Discuss which metrics are irrelevant to the POC.
    3. Discuss metrics to start tracking and how to track them with the generative AI vendor.
    4. Compile a list of metrics relevant to the POC.
    5. Decide what the outcome is if the metric is high or low, including decision steps and relevant actions.
    6. Designate a generative AI application owner and a vendor liaison.

    Prepare by building an implementation plan for each candidate use case (previous step).

    Include key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics that measure the application's contribution to strategic initiatives.

    Consider assigning a vendor liaison to accelerate the implementation and adoption of the generative AI-based solution.

    InputOutput
    • Initiative implementation plans
    • Current SLAs of selected use case
    • Organization mission, vision, and strategic goals
    • Measurable initiative metrics to track
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • AI Maturity Assessment and Roadmap Tool
    • AI initiative lead
    • CIO
    • Other IT leadership
    • Business SMEs
    • Generative AI vendor liaison

    Generative AI POC metrics - examples

    You need to measure the effectiveness of your initiatives. Here are some typical examples.

    Generative AI Feature Assessment
    User Interface
    Is it intuitive? Is training required?
    Ease of Use
    How much training is required before using?
    Response Time
    What is the response time for simple to complex tasks?
    Accuracy of Response
    Can the output be validated?
    Quality of Response
    How usable is the response? For text prompts, does the response align to the desired style, vocabulary, and tone?
    Creativity of Response
    Does the output appear new compared to previous results before using generative AI?
    Relevance of Response
    How well does the output address the prompt or request?
    Explainability
    Can a user describe how the output was generated?
    Scalability
    Does the application continue to perform as more users are added? Can it ingest large amounts of data?
    Productivity Gains
    Can you measure the time or effort saved?
    Business Value
    What value drivers are behind this initiative? (I.e. revenue, costs, time to market, risk mitigation.) Estimate a monetary value for the business outcome.
    Availability/Resilience
    What happens if a component of the application becomes unavailable? How does it recover?
    Security Model
    Where are the prompts and responses stored? Who has access to the sessions/dialogue? Are the prompts used to train the foundation model?
    Administration and Maintenance
    What resources are required to operate the application?
    Total Cost of Ownership
    What is the pricing model? Are there ongoing costs?

    GitHub Copilot POC business value - example

    Quantifying the benefits of GitHub Copilot to demonstrate measurable business value

    POC Results

    Task 1: Creating a web server in JavaScript

    • Time to complete task with GitHub Copilot: 1 hour 11 minutes
    • Time to complete the task without GitHub Copilot: 2 hours 41 minutes
    • Productivity Gain = (1 hour 30 minutes time saved) / (2 hours 41 minutes) = 55%
    • Benefit per Programmer = 55% x (average salary of a programmer)
    • Total Benefit of GitHub Copilot for Task 1 = (benefit per programmer) x (# of programmers)

    Enterprise Value of GitHub Copilot = Total Benefit of GitHub Copilot for Task 1 + Total Benefit of GitHub Copilot for Task 2 + ... + Total Benefit of GitHub Copilot for Task n

    Source: GitHub

    4.1.3 Build your generative AI initiative roadmap

    1-3 hours

    The roadmap should provide a compelling vision of how you will deliver the identified generative AI applications by prioritizing and simplifying the actions required to deliver these new initiatives.

    1. Leverage tab 4, Initiative Planning, in the AI Maturity Assessment and Roadmap Tool to create and align your initiatives to the key value driver they are most relevant to:
      1. Transfer the results of your value and complexity assessments to this tool to drive the prioritization.
      2. Assign responsible owners to each initiative.
      3. Identify which AI maturity capabilities each initiative will enhance. However, do not build or introduce new capabilities merely to advance the organization's AI maturity level.
    2. Review the Gantt chart to ensure alignment and assess overlap.

    Download the AI Maturity Assessment and Roadmap Tool

    InputOutput
    • Each initiative implementation plan
    • Proposed owners
    • AI maturity assessment
    • Generative AI initiative roadmap and Gantt chart
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • AI Maturity Assessment and Roadmap Tool
    • AI initiative lead
    • CIO
    • Other IT leadership
    • Business SMEs

    Build your generative AI roadmap to visualize your key project plans

    Visual representations of data are more compelling than text alone.

    Develop a high-level document that travels with the project from inception through to executive inquiry, project management, and finally execution.

    A project needs to be discrete: able to be conceptualized and discussed as an independent item. Each project must have three characteristics:

    • Specific outcome: An explicit change in the people, processes, or technology of the enterprise.
    • Target end date: When the described outcome will be in effect.
    • Owner: Who on the IT team is responsible for executing on the initiative.

    Build your generative AI roadmap to visualize your key project plans

    Info-Tech Insight
    Don't project your vision three to five years into the future. Deep dive on next year's big-ticket items instead.

    4.1.4 Build a communication plan for your roadmap

    1-3 hours

    1. Identify your target audience and what they need to know.
    2. Identify desired channels of communication and details for the target audience.
    3. Describe communication required for each audience segment.
    4. List frequency of communication for each audience segment.
    5. Create an executive presentation leveraging The Era of Generative AI C-Suite Presentation and AI Maturity Assessment and Roadmap Tool.
    Input Output
    • Stakeholder list
    • Proposed owners
    • AI maturity assessment
    • Communications plan for all impacted stakeholders
    • Executive communication pack
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • The Era of Generative AI C-Suite Presentation
    • AI Maturity Assessment and Roadmap Tool
    • AI initiative lead
    • CIO
    • Communication lead
    • Technical support staff for target use case

    Generative AI communication plan

    Well-planned communications are essential to the success and adoption of your AI initiatives

    To ensure that organization's roadmap is clearly communicated across the AI, data, technology, and business organizations, develop a rollout strategy, like this example.

    Example

    Audience Channel Level of Detail Description Timing
    Generative AI team Email, meetings All
    • Distribute plan; solicit feedback.
    • Address manager questions to equip them to answer employee questions.
    Q3 2023, (September, before entire data team)
    Data management team Email, Q&A sessions following Data management summary deck
    • Roll out after corporate strategy, in same form of communication.
    • Solicit feedback, address questions.
    Q4 2023 (late November)
    Select business stakeholders Presentations Executive deck
    • Pilot test for feedback prior to executive engagement.
    Q4 2023 (early December)
    Executive team Email, briefing Executive deck
    • Distribute plan.
    Q1 2024

    Deliver an executive presentation of the roadmap for the business stakeholders

    After you complete the activities and exercises within this blueprint, the final step of the process is to present the deliverable to senior management and stakeholders.

    Know Your Audience

    • Business stakeholders are interested in understanding the business outcomes that will result from their investment in generative AI.
    • Your audience will want to understand the risks involved and how to mitigate those risks.
    • Explain how the generative AI project was selected and the criteria used to help draft generative AI usage policies.

    Recommendations

    • Highlight the need for responsible AI to ensure that human-based requirements are being addressed.
    • Ensure your generative AI team includes both business and technical staff.

    Download The Era of Generative AI C-Suite Presentation

    Bibliography

    "A pro-innovation approach to AI regulation." UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, March 2023. Web.

    "Artificial Intelligence Act." European Commission, 21 April 2021. Web.

    "Artificial Intelligence and Data Act (AIDA)." Canadian Federal Government, June 2022. Web.

    "Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2023." Stanford University, April 2023. Web.

    "Automated Employment Decision Tools." New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, Dec. 2021. Web.

    "Bain & Company announces services alliance with OpenAI to help enterprise clients identify and realize the full potential and maximum value of AI." Bain & Company, 21 Feb. 2023. Web.

    "Buzzfeed to use AI to write its articles after firing 180 employees." Al Mayadeen English, 27 Jan. 2023. Web.

    "California Consumers Privacy Act." State of California Department of Justice. April 24, 2023. Web.

    Campbell, Ian Carlos. "The Apple Card doesn't actually discriminate against women, investigators say." The Verge, 23 March 2021. Web.

    Campbell, Patrick. "NIST Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework (AI RMF 1.0)." National Institute of Standards and Technology, Jan. 2023. Web.

    "EU Ethics Guidelines For Trustworthy." European Commission, 8 April 2019. Web.

    Farhi, Paul. "A news site used AI to write articles. It was a journalistic disaster." Washington Post, 17 Jan. 2023. Web.

    Forsyth, Ollie. "Mapping the Generative AI landscape." Antler, 20 Dec. 2022. Web.

    "General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)" European Commission, 25 May 2018. Web.

    "Generative AI Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2023-2028." IMARC Group, 2022. Web.

    Guynn, Jessica. "Bing's ChatGPT is in its feelings: 'You have not been a good user. I have been a good Bing.'" USA Today, 14 Feb. 2023. Web.

    Hunt, Mia. "Canada launches data governance standardisation initiative." Global Government Forum, 24 Sept. 2020. Web.

    Johnston Turner, Mary. "IDC's Worldwide Future of Digital Infrastructure 2022 Predictions." IDC, 27 Oct. 2021. Web.

    Kalliamvakou, Eirini. "Research: quantifying GitHub Copilot's impact on developer productivity and happiness." GitHub, 7 Sept. 2022. Web.

    Kerravala, Zeus. "NVIDIA Brings AI To Health Care While Protecting Patient Data." eWeek, 12 Dec. 2019. Web.

    Knight, Will. "The Apple Card Didn't 'See' Gender-and That's the Problem." Wired, 19 Nov. 2019. Web.

    "OECD, Recommendation of the Council on Artificial Intelligence." OECD, 2022. Web.

    "The National AI Initiative Act" U.S. Federal Government, 1 Jan 2021. Web.

    "Trustworthy AI (TAI) Playbook." U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Sept 2021. Web.

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    Optimize Lead Generation With Lead Scoring

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}557|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: N/A
    • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
    • member rating average days saved: N/A
    • Parent Category Name: Marketing Solutions
    • Parent Category Link: /marketing-solutions
    • Prospective buyer traffic into digital marketing platforms has exploded.
    • Many freemium/low-cost digital marketing platforms lack lead scoring and nurturing functionality.
    • As a result, the volume of unqualified leads being delivered to outbound sellers has increased dramatically.
    • This has reduced sales productivity, frustrated prospective buyers, and raised the costs of lead generation.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

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

    Impact and Result

    • Align Marketing, Sales, and Inside Sales on your ideal customer profile.
    • Re-evaluate the assets and activities that compose your current lead generation engine.
    • Develop a documented methodology to ignore, nurture, or contact right away the leads in your marketing pipeline.
    • Deliver more qualified leads to sellers, raising sales productivity and marketing/lead-gen ROI.

    Optimize Lead Generation With Lead Scoring Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should optimize lead generation with lead scoring, review SoftwareReviews Advisory’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Drive aligned vision for lead scoring

    Outline your plan, form your team, and plan marketing tech stack support.

    • Optimize Lead Generation With Lead Scoring – Phase 1: Drive an Aligned Vision for Lead Scoring

    2. Build and test your lead scoring model

    Set lead flow thresholds, define your ideal customer profile and lead generation engine components, and weight, score, test, and refine them.

    • Optimize Lead Generation With Lead Scoring – Phase 2: Build and Test Your Lead Scoring Model
    • Lead Scoring Workbook

    3. Apply your model to marketing apps and go live with better qualified leads

    Apply your lead scoring model to your lead management app, test it, validate the results with sellers, apply advanced methods, and refine.

    • Optimize Lead Generation With Lead Scoring – Phase 3: Apply Your Model to Marketing Apps and Go Live With Better Qualified Leads
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Optimize Lead Generation With Lead Scoring

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

    1 Drive Aligned Vision for Lead Scoring

    The Purpose

    Drive an aligned vision for lead scoring.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Attain an aligned vision for lead scoring.

    Identify the steering committee and project team and clarify their roles and responsibilities.

    Provide your team with an understanding of how leads score through the marketing funnel.

    Activities

    1.1 Outline a vision for lead scoring.

    1.2 Identify steering committee and project team members.

    1.3 Assess your tech stack for lead scoring and seek advice from Info-Tech analysts to modernize where needed.

    1.4 Align on marketing pipeline terminology.

    Outputs

    Steering committee and project team make-up

    Direction on tech stack to support lead generation

    Marketing pipeline definitions alignment

    2 Buyer Journey and Lead Generation Engine Mapping

    The Purpose

    Define the buyer journey and map the lead generation engine.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Align the vision for your target buyer and their buying journey.

    Identify the assets and activities that need to compose your lead generation engine.

    Activities

    2.1 Establish a buyer persona.

    2.2 Map your buyer journey.

    2.3 Document the activities and assets of your lead generation engine.

    Outputs

    Buyer persona

    Buyer journey map

    Lead gen engine assets and activities documented

    3 Build and Test Your Lead Scoring Model

    The Purpose

    Build and test your lead scoring model.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Gain team alignment on how leads score and, most importantly, what constitutes a sales-accepted lead.

    Develop a scoring model from which future iterations can be tested.

    Activities

    3.1 Understand the Lead Scoring Grid and set your thresholds.

    3.2 Identify your ideal customer profile, attributes, and subattribute weightings – run tests.

    Outputs

    Lead scoring thresholds

    Ideal customer profile, weightings, and tested scores

    Test profile scoring

    4 Align on Engagement Attributes

    The Purpose

    Align on engagement attributes.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Develop a scoring model from which future iterations can be tested.

    Activities

    4.1 Weight the attributes of your lead generation engagement model and run tests.

    4.2 Apply weightings to activities and assets.

    4.3 Test engagement and profile scenarios together and make any adjustments to weightings or thresholds.

    Outputs

    Engagement attributes and weightings tested and complete

    Final lead scoring model

    5 Apply Model to Your Tech Platform

    The Purpose

    Apply the model to your tech platform.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Deliver better qualified leads to Sales.

    Activities

    5.1 Apply model to your marketing management/campaign management software and test the quality of sales-accepted leads in the hands of sellers.

    5.2 Measure overall lead flow and conversion rates through your marketing pipeline.

    5.3 Apply lead nurturing and other advanced methods.

    Outputs

    Model applied to software

    Better qualified leads in the hands of sellers

    Further reading

    Optimize Lead Generation With Lead Scoring

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

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    Improve B2B seller win rates with a lead scoring methodology as part of your modern lead generation engine.

    The image contains a picture of Jeff Golterman.

    As B2B organizations emerge from the lowered demands brought on by COVID-19, they are eager to convert marketing contacts to sales-qualified leads with even the slightest signal of intent, but many sales cycles are wasted when sellers receive unqualified leads. Delivering highly qualified leads to sellers is still more art than science, and it is especially challenging without a way to score a contact profile and engagement. While most marketers capture some profile data from contacts, many will pass a contact over to Sales without any engagement data or schedule a demo with a contact without any qualifying profile data. Passing unqualified leads to Sales suboptimizes Sales’ resources, raises the costs per lead, and often results in lost opportunities. Marketers need to develop a lead scoring methodology that delivers better qualified leads to Field Sales scored against both the ideal customer profile (ICP) and engagement that signals lower-funnel buyer interest. To be successful in building a compelling lead scoring solution, marketers must work closely with key stakeholders to align the ICP asset/activity with the buyer journey. Additionally, working early in the design process with IT/Marketing Operations to implement lead management and analytical tools in support will drive results to maximize lead conversion rates and sales wins.

    Jeff Golterman

    Managing Director

    SoftwareReviews Advisory

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    The affordability and ease of implementation of digital marketing tools have driven global adoption to record levels. While many marketers are fine-tuning the lead generation engine components of email, social media, and web-based advertising to increase lead volumes, just 32% of companies pass well-qualified leads over to outbound marketers or sales development reps (SDRs). At best, lead gen costs stay high, and marketing-influenced win rates remain suboptimized. At worst, marketing reputation suffers when poorly qualified leads are passed along to sellers.

    Common Obstacles

    Most marketers lack a methodology for lead scoring, and some lack alignment among Marketing, Product, and Sales on what defines a qualified lead. In their rush to drive lead generation, marketers often fail to “define and align” on the ICP with stakeholders, creating confusion and wasted time and resources. In the rush to adopt B2B marketing and sales automation tools, many marketers have also skipped the important steps to 1) define the buyer journey and map content types to support, and 2) invest in a consistent content creation and sourcing strategy. The wrong content can leave prospects unmotivated to engage further and cause them to seek alternatives.

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    To employ lead scoring effectively, marketers need to align Sales, Marketing, and Product teams on the definition of the ICP and what constitutes a Sales-accepted lead. The buyer journey needs to be mapped in order to identify the engagement that will move a lead through the marketing lead generation engine. Then the project team can score prospect engagement and the prospect profile attributes against the ICP to arrive at a lead score. The marketing tech stack needs to be validated to support lead scoring, and finally Sales needs to sign off on results.

    SoftwareReviews Advisory Insight:

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

    Who benefits from a lead scoring project?

    This Research Is Designed for:

    • Marketers and especially campaign managers who are:
      • Looking for a more precise way to score leads and deploy outbound marketing resources to optimize contacts-to-MQL conversion rates.
      • Looking for a more effective way to profile contacts raised by your lead gen engine.
      • Looking to use their lead management software to optimize lead scoring.
      • Starting anew to strengthen their lead generation engine and want examples of a typical engine, ways to identify buyer journey, and perform lead nurturing.

    This Research Will Help You:

    • Explain why having a lead scoring methodology is important.
    • Identify a methodology that will call for identifying an ICP against which to score prospect profiles behind each contact that engages your lead generation engine.
    • Create a process of applying weightings to score activities during contact engagement with your lead generation engine. Apply both scores to arrive at a contact/lead score.
    • Compare your current lead gen engine to a best-in-class example in order to identify gaps and areas for improvement and exploration.

    This Research Will Also Assist:

    • CMOs, Marketing Operations leaders, heads of Product Marketing, and regional Marketing leads who are stakeholders in:
      • Finding alternatives to current lead scoring approaches.
        • Altering current or evaluating new marketing technologies to support a refreshed lead scoring approaches.

    This Research Will Help Them:

    • Align stakeholders on an overall program of identifying target customers, building common understanding of what constitutes a qualified lead, and determining when to use higher-cost outbound marketing resources.
    • Deploy high-value applications that will improve core marketing metrics.

    Insight summary

    Continuous adjustment and improvement of your lead scoring methodology is critical for long-term lead generation engine success.

    • Building a highly functioning lead generation engine is an ongoing process and one that requires continual testing of new asset types, asset design, and copy variations. Buyer profiles change over time as you launch new products and target new markets.
    • Pass better qualified leads to Field Sales and improve sales win rates by taking these crucial steps to implement a better lead generation engine and a lead scoring methodology:
      • Make the case for lead scoring in your organization.
      • Establish trigger points that separate leads to ignore, nurture, qualify, or outreach/contact.
      • Identify your buyer journey and ICP through collaboration among Sales, Marketing, and Product.
      • Assess each asset and activity type across your lead generation engine and apply a weighting for each.
      • Test lead scenarios within our supplied toolkit and with stakeholders. Adjust weightings and triggers that deliver lead scores that make sense.
      • Work with IT/Marketing Operations to emulate your lead scoring methodology within your marketing automation/campaign management application.
      • Explore advanced methods including nurturing.
    • Use the Lead Scoring Workbook collaboratively with other stakeholders to design your own methodology, test lead scenarios, and build alignment across the team.

    Leading marketers who successfully implement a lead scoring methodology develop it collaboratively with stakeholders across Marketing, Sales, and Product Management. Leaders will engage Marketing Operations, Sales Operations, and IT early to gain support for the evaluation and implementation of a supporting campaign management application and for analytics to track lead progress throughout the Marketing and Sales funnels. Leverage the Marketing Lead Scoring Toolkit to build out your version of the model and to test various scenarios. Use the slides contained within this storyboard and the accompanying toolkit as a means to align key stakeholders on the ICP and to weight assets and activities across your marketing lead generation engine.

    What is lead scoring?

    Lead scoring weighs the value of a prospect’s profile against the ICP and renders a profile score. The process then weighs the value of the prospects activities against the ideal call to action (CTA) and renders an activity score. Combining the profile and activity scores delivers an overall score for the value of the lead to drive the next step along the overall buyer journey.

    EXAMPLE: SALES MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE

    • For a company that markets sales management software the ideal buyer is the head of Sales Operations. While the ICP is made up of many attributes, we’ll just score one – the buyer’s role.
    • If the prospect/lead that we wish to score has an executive title, the lead’s profile scores “High.” Other roles will score lower based on your ICP. Alongside role, you will also score other profile attributes (e.g. company size, location).
    • With engagement, if the prospect/lead clicked on our ideal CTA, which is “request a proposal,” our engagement would score high. Other CTAs would score lower.
    The image contains a screenshot of two examples of lead scoring. One example demonstrates. Profile Scoring with Lead Profile, and the second image demonstrates Activity Scoring and Lead Engagement.

    SoftwareReviews Advisory Insight:

    A significant obstacle to quality lead production is disagreement on or lack of a documented definition of the ideal customer profile. Marketers successful in lead scoring will align key stakeholders on a documented definition of the ICP as a first step in improving lead scoring.

    Use of lead scoring is in the minority among marketers

    The majority of businesses are not practicing lead scoring!

    Up to 66% of businesses don’t practice any type of lead scoring.

    Source: LeadSquared, 2014

    “ With lead scoring, you don’t waste loads of time on unworthy prospects, and you don’t ignore people on the edge of buying.”

    Source: BigCommerce

    “The benefits of lead scoring number in the dozens. Having a deeper understanding of which leads meet the qualifications of your highest converters and then systematically communicating with them accordingly increases both ongoing engagement and saves your internal team time chasing down inopportune leads.”

    – Joey Strawn, Integrated Marketing Director, in IndustrialMarketer.com

    Key benefit: sales resource optimization

    Many marketing organizations send Sales too many unqualified leads

    • Leads – or, more accurately, contacts – are not all qualified. Some are actually nothing more than time-wasters for sellers.
    • Leading marketers peel apart a contact into at least two dimensions – “who” and “how interested.”
      • The “who” is compared to the ICP and given a score.
      • The “how interested” measures contact activity – or engagement – within our lead gen engine and gives it a score.
    • Scores are combined; a contact with a low score is ignored, medium is nurtured, and high is sent to sellers.
    • A robust ICP, together with engagement scoring and when housed within your lead management software, prioritizes for marketers which contacts to nurture and gets hot leads to sellers more quickly.

    Optimizing Sales Resources Using Lead Scoring

    The image contains a screenshot of a graph to demonstrate optimizing sales resources with lead scoring.

    Lead scoring drives greater sales effectiveness

    When contacts are scored as “qualified leads” and sent to sellers, sales win rates and ROI climb

    • Contacts can be scored properly once marketers align with Sales on the ICP and work closely with colleagues in areas like product marketing and field marketing to assign weightings to lead gen activities.
    • When more qualified leads get into the hands of the salesforce, their win rates improve.
    • As win rates improve, and sellers are producing more wins from the same volume of leads, sales productivity improves and ROI on the marketing investment increases.

    “On average, organizations that currently use lead scoring experience a 77% lift in lead generation ROI, over organizations that do not currently use lead scoring.”

    – MarketingSherpa, 2012

    Average Lead Generation ROI by Use of Lead Scoring

    The image contains a screenshot of a graph to demonstrate the average lead generation ROI by using of lead scoring. 138% are currenting using lead scoring, and 78% are not using lead scoring.
    Source: 2011 B2B Marketing Benchmark Survey, MarketingSherpa
    Methodology: Fielded June 2011, N=326 CMOs

    SoftwareReviews’ Lead Scoring Approach

    1. Drive Aligned Vision for Lead Scoring

    2. Build and Test Your Lead Scoring Model

    3. Apply to Your Tech Platform and Validate, Nurture, and Grow

    Phase
    Steps

    1. Outline a vision for lead scoring and identify stakeholders.
    2. Assess your tech stack for lead scoring and seek advice from Info-Tech analysts to modernize where needed.
    3. Align on marketing pipeline terminology, buyer persona and journey, and lead gen engine components.
    1. Understand the Lead Scoring Grid and establish thresholds.
    2. Collaborate with stakeholders on your ICP, apply weightings to profile attributes and values, and test your model.
    3. Identify the key activities and assets of your lead gen engine, weight attributes, and run tests.
    1. Apply model to your marketing management software.
    2. Test quality of sales-accepted leads by sellers and measure conversion rates through your marketing pipeline.
    3. Apply advanced methods such as lead nurturing.

    Phase Outcomes

    1. Steering committee and stakeholder selection
    2. Stakeholder alignment
    3. Team alignment on terminology
    4. Buyer journey map
    5. Lead gen engine components and asset types documented
    1. Initial lead-stage threshold scores
    2. Ideal customer profile, weightings, and tested scores
    3. Documented activities/assets across your lead generation engine
    4. Test results to drive adjusted weightings for profile attributes and engagement
    5. Final model to apply to marketing application
    1. Better qualified leads in the hands of sellers
    2. Advanced methods to nurture leads

    Key Deliverable: Lead Scoring Workbook

    The workbook walks you through a step-by-step process to:

    • Identify your team.
    • Identify the lead scoring thresholds.
    • Define your IPC.
    • Weight the activities within your lead generation engine.
    • Run tests using lead scenarios.

    Tab 1: Team Composition

    Consider core functions and form a cross-functional lead scoring team. Document the team’s details here.

    The image contains a screenshot of the Lead Scoring Workbook, Tab 1.

    Tab 2: Threshold Setting

    Set your initial threshold weightings for profile and engagement scores.

    The image contains a screenshot of the Lead Scoring Workbook, Tab 2.

    Tab 3:

    Establish Your Ideal Customer Profile

    Identify major attributes and attribute values and the weightings of both. You’ll eventually score your leads against this ICP.

    Record and Weight Lead Gen Engine Activities

    Identify the major activities that compose prospect engagement with your lead gen engine. Weight them together as a team.

    Test Lead Profile Scenarios

    Test actual lead profiles to see how they score against where you believe they should score. Adjust threshold settings in Tab 2.

    Test Activity Engagement Scores

    Test scenarios of how contacts navigate your lead gen engine. See how they score against where you believe they should score. Adjust thresholds on Tab 2 as needed.

    Review Combined Profile and Activity Score

    Review the combined scores to see where on your lead scoring matrix the lead falls. Make any final adjustments to thresholds accordingly.

    The image contains screenshots of the Lead Scoring Workbook, Tab 3.

    Several ways we help you build your lead scoring methodology

    DIY Toolkit Guided Implementation Workshop Consulting

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

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

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

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

    • Begin your project using the step-by-step process outlined in this blueprint.
    • Leverage the accompanying workbook.
    • Launch inquiries with the analyst who wrote the research.
    • Kick off your project with an inquiry with the authoring analyst and your engagement manager.
    • Additional inquiries will guide you through each step.
    • Leverage the blueprint and toolkit.
    • Reach out to your engagement manager.
    • During a half-day workshop the authoring analyst will guide you and your team to complete your lead scoring methodology.
    • Reach out to your engagement manager.
    • We’ll lead the engagement to structure the process, gather data, interview stakeholders, craft outputs, and organize feedback and final review.

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    Call #1: Collaborate on vision for lead scoring and the overall project.

    Call #2: Identify the steering committee and the rest of the team.

    Call #3: Discuss app/tech stack support for lead scoring. Understand key marketing pipeline terminology and the buyer journey.

    Call #4: Discuss your ICP, apply weightings, and run test scenarios.

    Call #5: Discuss and record lead generation engine components.

    Call #6: Understand the Lead Scoring Grid and set thresholds for your model.

    Call #7: Identify your ICP, apply weightings to attributes, and run tests.

    Call #8: Weight the attributes of engagement activities and run tests. Review the application of the scoring model on lead management software.

    Call #9: Test quality of sales-accepted leads in the hands of sellers. Measure lead flow and conversion rates through your marketing pipeline.

    Call #10: Review progress and discuss nurturing and other advanced topics.

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

    Workshop Overview

    Accelerate your project with our facilitated SoftwareReviews Advisory workshops

    Day 1

    Day 2

    Day 3

    Day 4

    Day 5

    Drive Aligned Vision for Lead Scoring

    Buyer Journey and Lead Gen Engine Mapping

    Build and Test Your Lead Scoring Model

    Align on Engagement Attributes

    Apply to Your Tech Platform

    Activities

    1.1 Outline a vision for lead scoring.

    1.2 Identify steering committee and project team members.

    1.3 Assess your tech stack for lead scoring and seek advice from Info-Tech analysts to modernize where needed.

    1.4 Align on marketing pipeline terminology.

    2.1 Establish a buyer persona (if not done already).

    2.2 Map your buyer journey.

    2.3 Document the activities and assets of your lead gen engine.

    3.1 Understand Lead Scoring Grid and set your thresholds.

    3.2 Identify ICP attribute and sub-attribute weightings. Run tests.

    4.1 Weight the attributes of your lead gen engagement model and run tests.

    4.2 Apply weightings to activities and assets.

    4.3 Test engagement and profile scenarios together and adjust weightings and thresholds as needed.

    5.1 Apply model to your campaign management software and test quality of sales-accepted leads in the hands of sellers.

    5.2. Measure overall lead flow and conversion rates through your marketing pipeline.

    5.3 Apply lead nurturing and other advanced methods.

    Deliverables

    1. Steering committee & project team composition
    2. Direction on tech stack to support lead gen
    3. Alignment on marketing pipeline definitions
    1. Buyer (persona if needed) journey map
    2. Lead gen engine assets and activities documented
    1. Lead scoring thresholds
    2. ICP, weightings, and tested scores
    3. Test profile scoring
    1. Engagement attributes and weightings tested and complete
    2. Final lead scoring model
    1. Model applied to your marketing management/ campaign management software
    2. Better qualified leads in the hands of sellers

    Phase 1

    Drive an Aligned Vision for Lead Scoring

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    1.1 Establish a cross-functional vision for lead scoring

    1.2 Asses your tech stack for lead scoring (optional)

    1.3 Catalog your buyer journey and lead gen engine assets

    2.1 Start building your lead scoring model

    2.2 Identify and verify your IPC and weightings

    2.3 Establish key lead generation activities and assets

    3.1 Apply model to your marketing management software

    3.2 Test the quality of sales-accepted leads

    3.3 Apply advanced methods

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Solidify your vision for lead scoring.
    • Achieve stakeholder alignment.
    • Assess your tech stack.

    This phase involves the following stakeholders:

    • Field Marketing/Campaign Manager
    • CMO
    • Product Marketing
    • Product Management
    • Sales Leadership/Sales Operations
    • Inside Sales leadership
    • Marketing Operations/IT
    • Digital Platform leadership

    Step 1.1

    Establish a Cross-Functional Vision for Lead Scoring

    Activities

    1.1.1 Identify stakeholders critical to success

    1.1.2 Outline the vision for lead scoring

    1.1.3 Select your lead scoring team

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Discuss the reasons why lead scoring is important.
    • Review program process.
    • Identify stakeholders and team.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Stakeholders
    • Project sponsors and leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    • Stakeholder alignment on vision of lead scoring
    • Stakeholders described and team members recorded
    • A documented buyer journey and map of your current lead gen engine

    1.1.1 Identify stakeholders critical to success

    1 hour

    1. Meet to identify the stakeholders that should be included in the project’s steering committee.
    2. Finalize selection of steering committee members.
    3. Contact members to ensure their willingness to participate.
    4. Document the steering committee members and the milestone/presentation expectations for reporting project progress and results
    Input Output
    • Stakeholder interviews
    • List of business process owners (lead management, inside sales lead qualification, sales opportunity management, marketing funnel metric measurement/analytics)
    • Lead generation/scoring stakeholders
    • Steering committee members
    Materials Participants
    • N/A
    • Initiative Manager
    • CMO, Sponsoring Executive
    • Departmental Leads – Sales, Marketing, Product Marketing, Product Management (and others)
    • Marketing Applications Director
    • Senior Digital Business Analyst

    SoftwareReviews Advisory Insight:

    B2B marketers that lack agreement among Marketing, Sales, Inside Sales, and lead management supporting staff of what constitutes a qualified lead will squander precious time and resources throughout the customer acquisition process.

    1.1.2 Outline the vision for lead scoring

    1 hour

    1. Convene a meeting of the steering committee and initiative team members who will be involved in the lead scoring project.
    • Using slides from this blueprint, understand the definition of lead scoring, the value of lead scoring to the organization, and the overall lead scoring process.
    • Understand the teams’ roles and responsibilities and help your Marketing Operations/IT colleagues understand some of the technical requirements needed to support lead scoring.
    • This is important because as the business members of the team are developing the lead scoring approach on paper, the technical team can begin to evaluate lead management apps within which your lead scoring model will be brought to life.
    Input Output
    • Slides to explain lead scoring and the lead scoring program
    • An understanding of the project among key stakeholders
    Materials Participants
    • Slides taken from this blueprint. We suggest slides from the Executive Brief (slides 3-16) and any others depending on the team’s level of familiarity.
    • Initiative Manager
    • CMO, Sponsoring Executive
    • Departmental leads from Sales, Marketing, Product Marketing, Product Management (and others)
    • Marketing Applications Director
    • Senior Digital Business Analyst

    SoftwareReviews Advisory Insight:

    While SMBs can implement some form of lead scoring when volume is very low and leads can be scored by hand, lead scoring and effective lead management cannot be performed without investment in digital platforms and lead management software and integration with customer relationship management (CRM) applications in the hands of inside and field sales staff. Marketers should plan and budget for the right combination of applications and tools to be in place for proper lead management.

    Lead scoring stakeholders

    Developing a common stakeholder understanding of the ICP, the way contact profiles are scored, and the way activities and asset engagement in your lead generation engine are scored will strengthen alignment between Marketing, Sales and Product Management.

    Title

    Key Stakeholders Within a Lead Generation/Scoring Initiative

    Lead Scoring Sponsor

    • Owns the project at the management/C-suite level
    • Responsible for breaking down barriers and ensuring alignment with organizational strategy
    • CMO, VP of Marketing, CEO (in SMB providers)

    Lead Scoring Initiative Manager

    • Typically a senior member of the marketing team
    • Responsible for preparing and managing the project plan and monitoring the project team’s progress
    • Marketing Manager or a field marketing team member who has strong program management skills, has run large-scale B2B generation campaigns, and is familiar with the stakeholder roles and enabling technologies

    Business Leads

    • Works alongside the lead scoring initiative manager to ensure that the strategy is aligned with business needs
    • In this case, likely to be a marketing lead
    • Marketing Director

    Digital, Marketing/Sales Ops/IT Team

    • Composed of individuals whose application and technology tools knowledge and skills are crucial to lead generation success
    • Responsible for understanding the business requirements behind lead generation and the requirements in particular to support lead scoring and the evaluation, selection, and implementation of the supporting tech stack – apps, website, analytics, etc.
    • Project Manager, Business Lead, CRM Manager, Integration Manager, Marketing Application SMEs, Sales Application

    Steering Committee

    • Composed of C-suite/management-level individuals who act as the lead generation process decision makers
    • Responsible for validating goals and priorities, defining the scope, enabling adequate resourcing, and managing change especially among C-level leaders in Sales & Product
    • Executive Sponsor, Project Sponsor, CMO, Business Unit SMEs

    SoftwareReviews Advisory Insight:

    Marketers managing the lead scoring initiative must include Product Marketing, Sales, Inside Sales, and Product Management. And given that world-class B2B lead generation engines cannot run without technology enablement, Marketing Operations/IT – those that are charged with enabling marketing and sales – must also be part of the decision making and implementation process of lead scoring and lead generation.

    1.1.3 Select your lead scoring team

    30 minutes

    1. The CMO and other key stakeholders should discuss and determine who will be involved in the lead scoring project.
    • Business leaders in key areas – Product Marketing, Field Marketing, Digital Marketing, Inside Sales, Sales, Marketing Ops, Product Management, and IT – should be involved.
  • Document the members of your lead scoring team in tab 1 of the Lead Scoring Workbook.
    • The size of the team will vary depending on your initiative and size of your organization.
    InputOutput
    • Stakeholders
    • List of lead scoring team members
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Lead Scoring Workbook
    • Initiative Manager
    • CMO, Sponsoring Executive
    • Departmental Leads – Sales, Marketing, Product Marketing, Product Management (and others)
    • Marketing Applications Director
    • Senior Digital Business Analyst

    Download the Lead Scoring Workbook

    Lead scoring team

    Consider the core team functions when composing the lead scoring team. Form a cross-functional team (i.e. across IT, Marketing, Sales, Service, Operations) to create a well-aligned lead management/scoring strategy. Don’t let your core team become too large when trying to include all relevant stakeholders. Carefully limit the size of the team to enable effective decision making while still including functional business units.

    Required Skills/Knowledge

    Suggested Team Members

    Business

    • Understanding of the customer
    • Understanding of brand
    • Understanding of multichannel marketing: email, events, social
    • Understanding of lead qualification
    • Field Marketing/Campaign Lead
    • Product Marketing
    • Sales Manager
    • Inside Sales Manager
    • Content Marketer/Copywriter

    IT

    • Campaign management application capabilities
    • Digital marketing
    • Marketing and sales funnel Reporting/metrics
    • Marketing Application Owners
    • CRM/Sales Application Owners
    • Marketing Analytics Owners
    • Digital Platform Owners

    Other

    • Branding/creative
    • Social
    • Change management
    • Creative Director
    • Social Media Marketer

    Step 1.2 (Optional)

    Assess Your Tech Stack for Lead Scoring

    Our model assumes you have:

    1.2.1 A marketing application/campaign management application in place that accommodates lead scoring.

    1.2.2 Lead management software integrated with the sales automation/CRM tool in the hands of Field Sales.

    1.2.3 Reporting/analytics that spans the entire lead generation pipeline/funnel.

    Refer to the following three slides if you need guidance in these areas.

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Confirm that you have your tech stack in place.
    • Set up an inquiry with an Info-Tech analyst should you require guidance on evaluating lead pipeline reporting, CRM, or analytics applications.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Stakeholders
    • Project sponsors and leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    • Understanding of what new application and technology support is required to support lead scoring.

    SoftwareReviews Advisory Insight:

    Marketers that collaborate closely with Marketing Ops/IT early in the process of lead scoring design will be best able to assess whether current marketing applications and tools can support a full lead scoring capability.

    1.2.1 Plan technology support for marketing management apps

    Work with Marketing Ops and IT early to evaluate application enablement for lead management, including scoring

    A thorough evaluation takes months – start early

    • Work closely with Marketing Operations (or the team that manages the marketing apps and digital platforms) as early as possible to socialize your approach to lead scoring.
    • Work with them on a set of updated requirements for selecting a marketing management suite or for changes to existing apps and tools to support your lead scoring approach that includes lead tracking and marketing funnel analytics.
    • Access the Info-Tech blueprint Select a Marketing Management Suite, along with analyst inquiry support during the requirements definition, vendor evaluation, and vendor selection phases. Use the SoftwareReviews Marketing Management Data Quadrant during vendor evaluation and selection.

    SoftwareReviews Marketing Management Data Quadrant

    The image contains a screenshot of the Marketing Management Data Quadrant.

    1.2.2 Plan technology support for sales opportunity management

    Work with Marketing Ops and IT early to evaluate applications for sales opportunity management

    A thorough evaluation takes months – start early

    • Work closely with Sales Operations as early as possible to socialize your approach to lead scoring and how lead management must integrate with sales opportunity management to manage the entire marketing and sales funnel management process.
    • Work with them on a set of updated requirements for selecting a sales opportunity management application that integrates with your marketing management suite or for changes to existing apps and tools to support your lead management and scoring approach that support the entire marketing and sales pipeline with analytics.

    Access the Info-Tech blueprint Select and Implement a CRM Platform, along with analyst inquiry support during the requirements definition, vendor evaluation, and vendor selection phases. Use the SoftwareReviews CRM Data Quadrant during vendor evaluation and selection.

    SoftwareReviews Customer Relationship Management Data Quadrant

    The image contains a screenshot of the SoftwareReviews Customer Relationship Management Data Quadrant.

    1.2.3 Plan analytics support for marketing pipeline analysis

    Work with Marketing Ops early to evaluate analytics tools to measure marketing and sales pipeline conversions

    A thorough evaluation takes weeks – start early

    • Work closely with Marketing and Sales Operations as early as possible to socialize your approach to measuring the lifecycle of contacts through to wins across the entire marketing and sales funnel management process.
    • Work with them on a set of updated requirements for selecting tools that can support the measurement of conversion ratios from contact to MQL, SQL, and opportunity to wins. Having this data enables you to measure improvement in component parts to your lead generation engine.
    • Access the Info-Tech blueprint Select and Implement a Reporting and Analytics Solution, along with analyst inquiry support during the requirements definition, vendor evaluation and vendor selection phases. Use the SoftwareReviews Best Business intelligence & Analytics Software Data Quadrant as well during vendor evaluation and selection.

    SoftwareReviews Business Intelligence Data Quadrant

    The image contains a screenshot of the Software Reviews Business Intelligent Quadrant.

    Step 1.3

    Catalog Your Buyer Journey and Lead Gen Engine Assets

    Activities

    1.3.1 Review marketing pipeline terminology

    1.3.2 Describe your buyer journey

    1.3.3 Describe your awareness and lead generation engine

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Discuss marketing funnel terminology.
    • Describe your buyer journey.
    • Catalog the elements of your lead generation engine.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Stakeholders

    Outcomes of this step

    • Stakeholder alignment on terminology, your buyer journey, and elements of your lead generation engine

    1.3.1 Review marketing pipeline terminology

    30 minutes

    1. We assume for this model the following:
      1. Our primary objective is to deliver more, and more-highly qualified, sales-qualified leads (SQLs) to our salesforce. The salesforce will accept SQLs and after further qualification turn them into opportunities. Sellers work opportunities and turn them into wins. Wins that had first/last touch attribution within the lead gen engine are considered marketing-influenced wins.
      2. This model assumes the existence of sales development reps (SDRs) whose mission it is to take marketing-qualified leads (MQLs) from the lead generation engine and further qualify them into SQLs.
      3. The lead generation engine takes contacts – visitors to activities, website, etc. – and scores them based on their profile and engagement. If the contact scores at or above the designated threshold, the lead generation engine rates it as an MQL and passes it along to Inside Sales/SDRs. If the contact scores above a certain threshold and shows promise, it is further nurtured. If the contact score is low, it is ignored.
    2. If an organization does not possess a team of SDRs or Inside Sales, you would adjust your version of the model to, for example, raise the threshold for MQLs, and when the threshold is reached the lead generation engine would pass the lead to Field Sales for further qualification.

    Stage

    Characteristics

    Actions

    Contact

    • Unqualified
    • No/low activity

    Nurture

    SDR Qualify

    Send to Sales

    Close

    MQL

    • Profile scores high
    • Engagement strong

    SQL

    • Profile strengthened
    • Demo/quote/next step confirmed

    Oppt’y

    • Sales acceptance
    • Sales opportunity management

    Win

    • Deal closed

    SoftwareReviews Advisory Insight:

    Score leads in a way that makes it crystal clear whether they should be ignored, further nurtured, further qualified, or go right into a sellers’ hands as a super hot lead.

    1.3.2 Describe your buyer journey

    1. Understand the concept of the buyer journey:
      1. Typically Product Marketing is charged with establishing deep understanding of the target buyer for each product or solution through a complete buyer persona and buyer journey map. The details of how to craft both are covered in the upcoming SoftwareReviews Advisory blueprint Craft a More Comprehensive Go-to-Market Strategy. However, we share our Buyer Journey Template here (on the next slide) to illustrate the connection between the buyer journey and the lead generation and scoring processes.
      2. Marketers and campaigners developing the lead scoring methodology will work closely with Product Marketing, asking them to document the buyer journey.
      3. The value of the buyer journey is to guide asset/content creation, nurturing strategy and therefore elements of the lead generation engine such as web experience, email, and social content and other elements of engagement.
      4. The additional value of having a buyer persona is to also inform the ICP, which is an essential element of lead scoring.
      5. For the purposes of lead scoring, use the template on the next slide to create a simple form of the buyer journey. This will guide lead generation engine design and the scoring of activities later in our blueprint.

    2 hours

    On the following slide:

    1. Tailor this template to suit your buyer journey. Text in green is yours to modify. Text in black is instructional.
    2. Your objective is to use the buyer journey to identify asset types and a delivery channel that once constructed/sourced and activated within your lead gen engine will support the buyer journey.
    3. Keep your buyer journey updated based on actual journeys of sales wins.
    4. Complete different buyer journeys for different product areas. Complete these collaboratively with stakeholders for alignment.

    SoftwareReviews Advisory Insight:

    Establishing a buyer journey is one of the most valuable tools that, typically, Product Marketing produces. Its use helps campaigners, product managers, and Inside and Field Sales. Leading marketers keep journeys updated based on live deals and characteristics of wins.

    Buyer Journey Template

    Personas: [Title] e.g. “BI Director”

    The image contains a screenshot of the describe persona level as an example.

    [Persona name] ([levels it includes from arrows above]) Buyer’s Journey for [solution type] Vendor Selection

    The image contains a screenshot of the Personas Type example to demonstrate a specific IT role, end use in a relevant department.

    1.3.3 Describe Your Awareness and Lead Gen Engine

    1. Understand the workings of a typical awareness and lead generation engine. Reference the image of a lead gen engine on the following slide when reviewing our guidance below:
      1. In our lead scoring example found in the Lead Scoring Workbook, tab 3, “Weight and Test,” we use a software company selling a sales automation solution, and the engagement activities match with the Typical Awareness and Lead Gen Engine found on the following slide. Our goal is to match a visual representation of a lead gen and awareness engine with the activity scoring portion of lead scoring.
      2. At the top of the Typical Awareness and Lead Generation Engine image, the activities are activated by a team of various roles: digital manager (new web pages), campaign manager (emails and paid media), social media marketer (organic and paid social), and events marketing manager (webinars).
      3. “Awareness” – On the right, the slide shows additional awareness activities driven by the PR/Corporate Comms and Analyst Relations teams.*
      4. The calls to action (CTAs) found in the outreach activities are illustrated below the timeline. The CTAs are grouped and are designed to 1) drive profile capture data via a main sales form fill, and 2) drive engagement that corresponds to the Education, Solution, and Selection buyer journey phases outlined on the prior slide. Ensure you have fast paths to get a hot lead – request a demo – directly to Field Sales when profiles score high.

    * For guidance on best practices in engaging industry analysts, contact your engagement manager to schedule an inquiry with our expert in this area. during that inquiry, we will share best practices and recommended analyst engagement models.

    Lead Scoring Workbook

    2 hours

    On the following slide:

    1. Tailor the slide to describe your lead generation engine as you will use it when you get to latter steps to describe the activities in your lead gen engine and weight them for lead scoring.
    2. Use the template to see what makes up a typical lead gen and awareness building engine. Record your current engine parts and see what you may be missing.
    3. Note: The “Goal” image in the upper right of the slide is meant as a reminder that marketers should establish a goal for SQLs delivered to Field Sales for each campaign.

    SoftwareReviews Advisory Insight:

    Marketing’s primary mission is to deliver marketing-influenced wins (MIWs) to the company. Building a compelling awareness and lead gen engine must be done with that goal in mind. Leaders are ruthless in testing – copy, email subjects, website navigation, etc. – to fine-tune the engine and staying highly collaborative with sellers to ensure high value lead delivery.

    Typical Awareness and Lead Gen Engine

    Understand how a typical lead generation engine works. Awareness activities are included as a reference. Use as a template for campaigns.

    The image contains a screenshot of a diagram to demonstrate how a lead generation engine works.

    Phase 2

    Build and Test Your Lead Scoring Model

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    1.1 Establish a cross-functional vision for lead scoring

    1.2 Asses your tech stack for lead scoring (optional)

    1.3 Catalog your buyer journey and lead gen engine assets

    2.1 Start building your lead scoring model

    2.2 Identify and verify your IPC and weightings

    2.3 Establish key lead generation activities and assets

    3.1 Apply model to your marketing management software

    3.2 Test the quality of sales-accepted leads

    3.3 Apply advanced methods

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    1. Understand the Lead Scoring Grid and establish thresholds.
    2. Collaborate with stakeholders on your ICP, apply weightings to profile attributes and values, and test.
    3. Identify the key activities and assets of your lead gen engine, weight attributes, and run tests.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Field Marketing/Campaign Manager
    • Product Marketing
    • Sales Leadership/Sales Operations
    • Inside Sales leadership
    • Marketing Operations/IT
    • Digital Platform leadership

    Step 2.1

    Start Building Your Lead Scoring Model

    Activities

    2.1.1 Understand the Lead Scoring Grid

    2.1.2 Identify thresholds

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Discuss the concept of the thresholds for scoring leads in each of the various states – “ignore,” “nurture,” “qualify,” “send to sales.”
    • Open the Lead Scoring Workbook and validate your own states to suit your organization.
    • Arrive at an initial set of threshold scores.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Stakeholders

    Outcomes of this step

    • Stakeholder alignment on stages
    • Stakeholder alignment on initial set of thresholds

    2.1.1 Understand the Lead Scoring Grid

    30 minutes

    1. Understand how lead scoring works and our grid is constructed.
    2. Understand the two important areas of the grid and the concept of how the contact’s scores will increase as follows:
      1. Profile – as the profile attributes of the contact approaches that of the ICP we want to score the contact/prospect higher. Note: Step 1.3 walks you through creating your ICP.
      2. Engagement – as the contact/prospect engages with the activities (e.g. webinars, videos, events, emails) and assets (e.g. website, whitepapers, blogs, infographics) in our lead generation engine, we want to score the contact/prospect higher. Note: You will describe your engagement activities in this step.
    3. Understand how thresholds work:
      1. Threshold percentages, when reached, trigger movement of the contact from one state to the next – “ignore,” “nurture,” “qualify with Inside Sales,” and “send to sales.”
    The image contains a screenshot of an example of the lead scoring grid, as described in the text above.

    2.1.2 Identify thresholds

    30 minutes

    We have set up a model Lead Scoring Grid – see Lead Scoring Workbook, tab 2, “Identify Thresholds.”

    Set your thresholds within the Lead Scoring Workbook:

    • Set your threshold percentages for ”Profile” and “Engagement.”
    • You will run test scenarios for each in later steps.
    • We suggest you start with the example percentages given in the Lead Scoring Workbook and plan to adjust them during testing in later steps.
    • Define the “Send to Sales,” “Qualify With Inside Sales,” “Nurture,” and “Ignore” zones.

    SoftwareReviews Advisory Insight:

    Clarify that all-important threshold for when a lead passes to your expensive and time-starved outbound sellers.

    The image contains a screenshot of the Lead Scoring Workbook, tab 2 demonstrating the Lead Scoring Grid.

    Lead Scoring Workbook

    Step 2.2

    Identify and Verify Your Ideal Customer Profile and Weightings

    Activities

    2.2.1 Identify your ideal customer profile

    2.2.2 Run tests to validate profile weightings

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Identify the attributes that compose the ICP.
    • Identify the values of each attribute and their weightings.
    • Test different contact profile scenarios against what actually makes sense.
    • Adjust weightings if needed.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Stakeholders

    Outcomes of this step

    • Stakeholder alignment on ICP
    • Stakeholder alignment on weightings given to attributes
    • Tested results to verify thresholds and cores

    2.2.1 Identify your ideal customer profile

    Collaborate with stakeholders to understand what attributes best describe your ICP. Assign weightings and subratings.

    2 hours

    1. Choose attributes such as job role, organization type, number of employees/potential seat holders, geographical location, interest area, etc., that describe the ideal profile of a target buyer. Best practice sees marketers choosing attributes based on real wins.
    2. Some marketers compare the email domain of the contact to a target list of domains. In the Lead Scoring Workbook, tab 3, “Weight and Test,” we provide an example profile for a “Sales Automation Software” ICP.
    3. Use the workbook as a template, remove our example, and create your own ICP attributes. Then weight the attributes to add up to 100%. Add in the attribute values and weight them. In the next step you will test scenarios.

    SoftwareReviews Advisory Insight:

    Marketers who align with colleagues in areas such as Product Marketing, Sales, Inside Sales, Sales Training/Enablement, and Product Managers and document the ICP give their organizations a greater probability of lead generation success.

    The image contains a screenshot of tab 3, demonstrating the weight and test with the example profile.

    Lead Scoring Workbook

    2.2.2 Run tests to validate profile weightings

    Collaborate with stakeholders to run different profile scenarios. Validate your model including thresholds.

    The image contains a screenshot of tab 3 to demonstrate the next step of running tests to validate profile weightings.

    SoftwareReviews Advisory Insight:

    Keep your model simple in the interest of fast implementation and to drive early learnings. The goal is not to be perfect but to start iterating toward success. You will update your scoring model even after going into production.

    2 hours

    1. Choose scenarios of contact/lead profile attributes by placing a “1” in the “Attribute” box shown at left.
    2. Place your estimate of how you believe the profile should score in the box to the right of “Estimated Profile State.” How does the calculated state, beneath, compare to the estimated state?
    3. In cases where the calculated state differs from your estimated state, consider weighting the profile attribute differently to match.
    4. If you find estimates and calculated states off dramatically, consider changing previously determined thresholds in tab 2, “Identify Thresholds.” Test multiple scenarios with your team.

    Lead Scoring Workbook

    Step 2.3

    Establish Key Lead Generation Activities and Assets

    Activities

    2.3.1 Establish activities, attribute values, and weights

    2.3.2 Run tests to evaluate activity ratings

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Identify the activities/asset types in your lead gen engine.
    • Weight each attribute and define values to score for each one.
    • Run tests to ensure your model makes sense.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Stakeholders
    • Project sponsors and leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    • Final stakeholder alignment on which assets compose your lead generation engine
    • Scoring model tested

    2.3.1 Establish activities, attribute values, and weights

    2 hours

    1. Catalog the assets and activities that compose your lead generation engine outlined in Activity 1.3.3. Identify their attribute values and weight them accordingly.
    2. Consider weighting attributes and values according to how close that asset gets to conveying your ideal call to action. For example, if your ideal CTA is “schedule a demo” and the “click” was submitted in the last seven days, it scores 100%. Take time decay into consideration. If that same click was 60 days ago, it scores less – maybe 60%.
    3. Different assets convey different intent and therefore command different weightings; a video comparing your offering against the competition, considered a down funnel asset, scores higher than the company video, considered a top-of-the-funnel activity and “awareness.”
    The image contains a screenshot of the next step of establishing activities, attribute values, and weights.

    Lead Scoring Workbook

    2.3.2 Run tests to validate activity weightings

    Collaborate with stakeholders to run different engagement scenarios. Validate your model including thresholds.

    The image contains a screenshot of activity 2.3.2: run tests to validate activity weightings.

    SoftwareReviews Advisory Insight:

    Use data from actual closed deals and the underlying activities to build your model – nothing like using facts to inform your key decisions. Use common sense and keep things simple. Then update further when data from new wins appears.

    2 hours

    1. Test scenarios of contact engagement by placing a “1” in the “Attribute” box shown at left.
    2. Place your estimate of how you believe the engagement should score in the box to the right of “Estimated Engagement State.” How does the calculated state, beneath, compare to the estimated state?
    3. In cases where the calculated state differs from your estimated state, consider weighting the activity attribute differently to match.
    4. If you find that the estimates and calculated states are off dramatically, consider changing previously determined thresholds in tab 2, “Identify Thresholds.” Test multiple scenarios with your team.

    Lead Scoring Workbook

    Phase 3

    Apply Your Model to Marketing Apps and Go Live With Better Qualified Leads

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    1.1 Establish a cross-functional vision for lead scoring

    1.2 Asses your tech stack for lead scoring (optional)

    1.3 Catalog your buyer journey and lead gen engine assets

    2.1 Start building your lead scoring model

    2.2 Identify and verify your IPC and weightings

    2.3 Establish key lead generation activities and assets

    3.1 Apply model to your marketing management software

    3.2 Test the quality of sales-accepted leads

    3.3 Apply advanced methods

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    1. Apply model to your marketing management/campaign management software.
    2. Get better qualified leads in the hands of sellers.
    3. Apply lead nurturing and other advanced methods.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Field Marketing/Campaign Manager
    • Sales Leadership/Sales Operations
    • Inside Sales leadership
    • Marketing Operations/IT
    • Digital Platform leadership

    Step 3.1

    Apply Model to Your Marketing Management Software

    Activities

    3.1.1 Apply final model to your lead management software

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Apply the details of your scoring model to the lead management software.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Stakeholders
    • Project sponsors and leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    • Marketing management software or campaign management application is now set up/updated with your lead scoring approach.

    3.1.1 Apply final model to your lead management software

    Now that your model is complete and ready to go into production, input your lead scoring parameters into your lead management software.

    The image contains a screenshot of activity 3.1.1 demonstrating tab 4 of the Lead Scoring Workbook.

    3 hours

    1. Go to the Lead Scoring Workbook, tab 4, “Model Summary” for a formatted version of your lead scoring model. Double-check print formatting and print off a copy.
    2. Use the copy of your model to show to prospective technology providers when asking them to demonstrate their lead scoring capabilities.
    3. Once you have finalized your model, use the printed output from this tab to ease your process of transposing the corresponding model elements into your lead management software.

    Lead Scoring Workbook

    Step 3.2

    Test the Quality of Sales-Accepted Leads

    Activities

    3.2.1 Achieve sales lead acceptance

    3.2.2 Measure and optimize

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Suggest that the Inside Sales and Field Sales teams should assess whether to sign off on quality of leads received.
    • Campaign managers and stakeholders should now be able to track lead status more effectively.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Stakeholders
    • Project sponsors and leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    • Sales leadership should be able to sign off that leads are better qualified.
    • With marketing pipeline analytics in place, campaigners can start to measure lead flow and conversion rates.

    3.2.1 Achieve sales lead acceptance

    Collaborate with sellers to validate your lead scoring approach.

    1 hour

    1. Gather a set of SQLs – leads that have been qualified by Inside Sales and delivered to Field Sales. Have Field Sales team members convey whether these leads were properly qualified.
    2. Where leads are deemed not properly qualified, determine if the issue was a) a lack of proper qualification by the Inside Sales team, or b) the lead generation engine, which should have further nurtured the lead or ignored it outright.
    3. Work collaboratively with Inside Sales to update your lead scoring model and/or Inside Sales practice.

    Stage

    Characteristics

    Actions

    Contact

    • Unqualified
    • No/low activity

    Nurture

    SDR Qualify

    Send to Sales

    Close

    MQL

    • Profile scores high
    • Engagement strong

    SQL

    • Profile strengthened
    • Demo/quote/next step confirmed

    Oppt’y

    • Sales acceptance
    • Sales opportunity management

    Win

    • Deal closed

    SoftwareReviews Advisory Insight:

    Marketers that collaborate with Sales – and in this case, a group of sellers as a sales advisory team – well in advance of sales acceptance to design lead scoring will save time during this stage, build trust with sellers, and make faster decisions related to lead management/scoring.

    3.2.2 Measure and optimize

    Leverage analytics that help you optimize your lead scoring methodology.

    Ongoing

    1. Work with Marketing Ops/IT team to design and implement analytics that enable you to:
    2. Meet frequently with your stakeholder team to review results.
    3. Learn from the wins: see how they actually scored and adjust thresholds and/or asset/activity weightings.
    4. Learn from losses: fix ineffective scoring, activities, assets, form-fill strategies, and engagement paths.
    5. Test from both wins and losses if demographic weightings are delivering accurate scores.
    6. Analyze those high scoring leads that went right to sellers but did not close. This could point to a sales training or enablement challenge.
    The image contains a screenshot of the lead scoring dashboard.

    Analytics will also drive additional key insights across your lead gen engine:

    • Are volumes increasing or decreasing? What percentage of leads are in what status (A1-D4)?
    • What nurturing will re-engage stalled leads that score high in profile but low in engagement (A3, B3)?
    • Will additional profile data capture further qualify leads with high engagement (C1, C2)?
    • And beyond all of the above, what leads move to Inside Sales and convert to SQLs, opportunities, and eventually marketing-influenced wins?

    Step 3.3

    Apply Advanced Methods

    Activities

    3.3.1 Employ lead nurturing strategies

    3.3.2 Adjust your model over time to accommodate more advanced methods

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Apply lead nurturing to your lead gen engine.
    • Adjust your engine over time with more advanced methods.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Stakeholders
    • Project sponsors and leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    • Marketers can begin to test lead nurturing strategies and other advanced methods.

    3.3.1 Employ lead nurturing strategies

    A robust content marketing competence with compelling assets and the capture of additional profile data for qualification are key elements of your nurturing strategy.

    The image contains a screenshot of the Lead Scoring Grid with a focus on Nurture.

    SoftwareReviews Advisory Insight:

    Nurturing success combines the art of crafting engaging copy/experiences and the science of knowing just where a prospect is within your lead gen engine. Great B2B marketers demonstrate the discipline of knowing when to drive engagement and/or additional profile attribute capture using intent while not losing the prospect to over-profiling.

    Ongoing

    1. The goal of lead nurturing is to move the collection of contacts/leads that are scoring, for example, in the A3, B3, C1, C2, and C3 cells into A2, B2, and B1 cells.
    2. How is this best done? To nurture leads that are A3 and B3, entice the prospect with engagement that leads to the bottom of funnel – e.g. “schedule a demo” or “schedule a consultation” via a compelling asset. See the example on the following slide.
    3. To nurture C1 and C2, we need to qualify them further, so entice with an asset that leads to deeper profile knowledge.
    4. For C3 leads, we need both profile and activity nurturing.

    Lead nurturing example

    The image contains an example of a lead nurturing example.

    SoftwareReviews Advisory Insight:

    When nurturing, choose/design content as to what “intent” it satisfies. For example, a head-to-head comparison with a key competitor signals “Selection” phase of the buyer journey. Content that helps determine what app-type to buy signals “Solution”. A company video, or a webinar replay, may mean your buyer is “educating themselves.

    3.3.2 Adjust your model over time to accommodate more advanced methods

    When getting started or within a smaller marketing team, focus on the basics outlined thus far in this blueprint. Larger and/or more experienced teams are able to employ more advanced methods.

    Ongoing

    Advanced Methods

    • Invest in technologies that interpret lead scores and trigger next-step actions, especially outreach by Inside and/or Field Sales.
    • Use the above to route into nurturing environments where additional engagement will raise scores and trigger action.
    • Recognize that lead value decays with time to time additional outreach/activities and to reduce lead scores over time.
    • Always be testing different engagement, copy, and subsequent activities to optimize lead velocity through your lead gen engine.
    • Build intent sensitivity into engagement activities; e.g. test if longer demo video engagement times imply ”contact me for a demo” via a qualification outreach. Update scores manually to drive learnings.
    • Vary engagement paths by demographics to deliver unique digital experiences. Use firmographics/email domain to drive leads through a more tailored account-based marketing (ABM) experience.
    • Reapply learnings from closed opportunities/wins to drive updates to buyer journey mapping and your ICP.

    Frequently used acronyms

    ABM

    Account-Based Marketing

    B2B

    Business to Business

    CMO

    Chief Marketing Officer

    CRM

    Customer Relationship Management

    ICP

    Ideal Customer Profile

    MIW

    Marketing-Influenced Win

    MQL

    Marketing-Qualified Lead

    SDR

    Sales Development Representative

    SQL

    Sales-Qualified Lead

    Works cited

    Arora, Rajat. “Mining the Real Gems from you Data – Lead Scoring and Engagement Scoring.” LeadSquared, 27 Sept. 2014. Web.

    Doyle, Jen. “2012 B2B Marketing Benchmark Report: Research and insights on attracting and converting the modern B2B buyer.” MarketingSherpa, 2012. Web.

    Doyle, Jen, and Sergio Balegno. “2011 MarketingSherpa B2B Marketing Benchmark Survey: Research and Insights on Elevating Marketing Effectiveness from Lead Generation to Sales Conversion.” MarketingSherpa, 2011.

    Kirkpatrick, David. “Lead Scoring: CMOs realize a 138% lead gen ROI … and so can you.” marketingsherpa blog, 26 Jan 2012. Web.

    Moser, Jeremy. “Lead Scoring Is Important for Your Business: Here’s How to Create Scoring Model and Hand-Off Strategy.” BigCommerce, 25 Feb. 2019. Web.

    Strawn, Joey. “Why Lead Scoring Is Important for B2Bs (and How You Can Implement It for Your Company.” IndustrialMarketer.com, 17 Aug. 2016. Web.

    Run Better Meetings

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    • Parent Category Name: Voice & Video Management
    • Parent Category Link: /voice-video-management

    Your newly hybrid workplace will include virtual, hybrid, and physical meetings, presenting several challenges:

    • The experience for onsite and remote attendees is not equal.
    • Employees are experiencing meeting and video fatigue.
    • Meeting rooms are not optimized for hybrid meetings.
    • The fact is that many people have not successfully run hybrid meetings before.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Successful hybrid workplace plans must include planning around hybrid meetings. Seamless hybrid meetings are the result of thoughtful planning and documented best practices.

    Impact and Result

    • Identify your current state and the root cause of unsatisfactory meetings.
    • Review and identify meetings best practices around meeting roles, delivery models, and training.
    • Improve the technology that supports meetings.
    • Use Info-Tech’s quick checklists and decision flowchart to accelerate meeting planning and cover your bases.

    Run Better Meetings Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should run better meetings, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Identify the current state of meetings

    Understand the problem before you try to fix it. Before you can improve meetings, you need to understand what your norms and challenges currently are.

    • Checklist: Run a Virtual or Hybrid Meeting

    2. Publish best practices for how meetings should run

    Document meeting roles, expectations, and how meetings should run. Decide what kind of meeting delivery model to use and develop a training program.

    • Meeting Challenges and Best Practices
    • Meeting Type Decision Flowchart (Visio)
    • Meeting Type Decision Flowchart (PDF)

    3. Improve meeting technology

    Always be consulting with users: early in the process to set a benchmark, during and after every meeting to address immediate concerns, and quarterly to identify trends and deeper issues.

    • Team Charter
    • Communications Guide Poster Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Run Better Meetings

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

    1 Identify Current State of Meetings

    The Purpose

    Understand the current state of meetings in your organization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    What you need to keep doing and what you need to change

    Activities

    1.1 Brainstorm meeting types.

    1.2 Document meeting norms.

    1.3 Document and categorize meeting challenges.

    Outputs

    Documented challenges with meetings

    Meeting norms

    Desired changes to meeting norms

    2 Review and Identify Best Practices

    The Purpose

    Review and implement meeting best practices.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Defined meeting best practices for your organization

    Activities

    2.1 Document meeting roles and expectations.

    2.2 Review common meeting challenges and identify best practices.

    2.3 Document when to use a hybrid meeting, virtual meeting, or an in-person meeting.

    2.4 Develop a training program.

    Outputs

    Meeting roles and expectations

    List of meeting best practices

    Guidelines to help workers choose between a hybrid, virtual, or in-person meeting

    Training plan for meetings

    3 Improve Meeting Technology

    The Purpose

    Identify opportunities to improve meeting technology.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A strategy for improving the underlying technologies and meeting spaces

    Activities

    3.1 Empower virtual meeting attendees.

    3.2 Optimize spaces for hybrid meetings.

    3.3 Build a team of meeting champions.

    3.4 Iterate to build and improve meeting technology.

    3.5 Guide users toward each technology.

    Outputs

    Desired improvements to meeting rooms and meeting technology

    Charter for the team of meeting champions

    Communications Guide Poster

    Optimize Your SQA Practice Using a Full Lifecycle Approach

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    • member rating average days saved: Read what our members are saying
    • Parent Category Name: Testing, Deployment & QA
    • Parent Category Link: /testing-deployment-and-qa
    • Your software quality assurance (SQA) program is using the wrong set of metrics to measure how process improvements influence product quality improvements.
    • Roles & responsibilities and quality assurance initiatives are not well defined and need to be allocated to individuals that can be held responsible for quality-related issues.
    • You are finding it hard to determine a causation between SQA process improvements and an improvement in product quality.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Your product is only as good as your process. A robust development and SQA process creates artifacts that are highly testable, easily maintained, and strongly traceable across the development lifecycle, ensuring that the product delivered meets expectations set out by the business.
    • A small issue within your development process can have a ripple effect on the level of product quality. Discover what you don’t know and identify areas within your SQA practice that require attention.

    Impact and Result

    • SQA must be viewed as more than defect analysis and testing. Instead, place greater emphasis on preventative measures to ensure application quality across the entire development lifecycle.
    • IT must create a comprehensive SQA plan that delineates roles and responsibilities as they relate to quality assurance. Ensure tasks and procedures improve process efficiency and quality, and formalize metrics that help to implement a continuous improvement cycle for SQA.
    • Our methodology provides simple-to-follow steps to develop an SQA plan that provides clear insight into your current quality assurance practices.
    • Establish a synchronous relationship between the business and IT to help stakeholders understand the importance and relative value of quality assurance tasks to current costs.

    Optimize Your SQA Practice Using a Full Lifecycle Approach Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should optimize your SQA practice using a full lifecycle approach, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Assess your current SQA capabilities

    Evaluate and understand your current SQA capabilities, as well as the degree to which metric objectives are being met.

    • Optimize Your SQA Practice Using a Full Lifecycle Approach – Phase 1: Assess Your Current SQA Capabilities
    • Software Quality Assurance Current State Assessment Tool
    • Software Quality Assurance Assessment Workbook

    2. Define SQA target state processes

    Identify and define SQA processes and metrics needed to meet quality objectives set by development teams and the business.

    • Optimize Your SQA Practice Using a Full Lifecycle Approach – Phase 2: Define SQA Target State Processes

    3. Determine optimization initiatives for improving your SQA practice

    Build your SQA plan and optimization roadmap.

    • Optimize Your SQA Practice Using a Full Lifecycle Approach – Phase 3: Determine Optimization Initiatives
    • Software Quality Assurance Plan Template
    • Software Quality Assurance Optimization Roadmap Tool
    • Software Quality Assurance Communication Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Optimize Your SQA Practice Using a Full Lifecycle Approach

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

    1 Assess Your Current SQA Capabilities

    The Purpose

    To help you assess and understand your current SQA capabilities as well as the degree to which metric objectives are being met.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    An analysis of current SQA practices to provide insight into potential inefficiencies, opportunities, and to provide the business with sufficient rationale for improving current quality assurance initiatives.

    Activities

    1.1 Conduct a high-level assessment of where to focus your current state analysis.

    1.2 Document your high-level development process.

    1.3 Create a RACI chart to understand roles and responsibilities.

    1.4 Perform a SIPOC-MC analysis for problem areas identified in your SDLC.

    1.5 Identify the individual control points involved with passing software artifacts through SDLC stages being assessed.

    1.6 Identify problem areas within your SDLC as they relate to SQA.

    Outputs

    Understanding of current overall development process and where it is most weak in the context of quality assurance

    Understanding of assigned roles and responsibilities across development teams, including individuals who are involved with making quality-related decisions for artifact hand-off

    Identification of problem areas within SQA process for further analysis

    2 Define SQA Target State Processes

    The Purpose

    To help you identify and define SQA processes and metrics needed to meet quality objectives set out by development teams and the business.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A revised list of key SQA tasks along with metrics and associated tolerance limits used universally for all development projects.

    Activities

    2.1 Establish SQA metrics and tolerance limits across your SDLC.

    2.2 Determine your target state for SQA processes within the define/design stage of the SDLC.

    2.3 Determine your target state for SQA processes within the development stage of the SDLC.

    2.4 Determine your target state for SQA processes within the testing stage of the SDLC.

    2.5 Determine your target state for SQA processes within the deploy/release stage of the SDLC.

    Outputs

    Identification of the appropriate metrics and their associated tolerance limits to provide insights into meeting quality goals and objectives during process execution

    Identification of target state SQA processes that are required for ensuring quality across all development projects

    3 Prioritize SQA Optimization Initiatives and Develop Optimization Roadmap

    The Purpose

    Based on discovered inefficiencies, define optimization initiatives required to improve your SQA practice.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Optimization initiatives and associated tasks required to address gaps and improve SQA capabilities.

    Activities

    3.1 Determine optimization initiatives for improving your SQA process.

    3.2 Gain the full scope of effort required to implement your SQA optimization initiatives.

    3.3 Identify the enablers and blockers of your SQA optimization.

    3.4 Define your SQA optimization roadmap.

    Outputs

    Prioritized list of optimization initiatives for SQA

    Assessment of level of effort for each SQA optimization initiative

    Identification of enablers and blockers for optimization initiatives

    Identification of roadmap timeline for implementing optimization initiatives

    The First 100 Days As CIO

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    • Parent Category Name: High Impact Leadership
    • Parent Category Link: /lead
    • You’ve been promoted from within to the role of CIO.
    • You’ve been hired externally to take on the role of CIO.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Foundational understanding must be achieved before you start. Hit the ground running before day one by using company documents and initial discussions to pin down the company’s type and mode.
    • Listen before you act (usually). In most situations, executives benefit from listening to peers and staff before taking action.
    • Identify quick wins early and often. Fix problems as soon as you recognize them to set the tone for your tenure.

    Impact and Result

    • Collaborate to collect the details needed to identify the right mode for your organization and determine how it will influence your plan.
    • Use Info-Tech’s diagnostic tools to align your vision with that of business executives and form a baseline for future reference.

    The First 100 Days As CIO Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why the first 100 days of being a new executive is a crucial time that requires the right balance of listening with taking action. See how seven calls with an executive advisor will guide you through this period.

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

    1. Check in with your executive advisor over seven calls

    Organize your first 100 days as CIO into activities completed within two-week periods, aided by the guidance of an executive advisor.

    • The First 100 Days As CIO – Storyboard
    • Organizational Catalog
    • Cultural Archetype Calculator
    • IT Capability Assessment

    2. Communicate your plan to your manager

    Communicate your strategy with a presentation deck that you will complete in collaboration with Info-Tech advisors.

    • The First 100 Days As CIO – Presentation Deck

    3. View an example of the final presentation

    See an example of a completed presentation deck, from the new CIO of Gotham City.

    • The First 100 Days As CIO – Presentation Deck Example

    4. Listen to our podcast

    Check out The Business Leadership podcast in Info-Tech's special series, The First 100 Days.

    • "The First 100 Days" Podcast – Alan Fong, CTO, DealerFX
    • "The First 100 Days" Podcast – Denis Gaudreault, country manager for Intel’s Canada and Latin America region
    • "The First 100 Days" Podcast – Dave Penny & Andrew Wertkin, BlueCat
    • "The First 100 Days" Podcast – Susan Bowen, CEO, Aptum
    • "The First 100 Days" Podcast – Wayne Berger, CEO IWG Plc Canada and Latin America
    • "The First 100 Days" Podcast – Eric Wright, CEO, LexisNexis Canada
    • "The First 100 Days" Podcast – Erin Bury, CEO, Willful
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    The First 100 Days As CIO

    Partner with Info-Tech for success in this crucial period of transition.

    Analyst Perspective

    The first 100 days refers to the 10 days before you start and the first three months on the job.

    “The original concept of ‘the first 100 days’ was popularized by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who passed a battery of new legislation after taking office as US president during the Great Depression. Now commonly extended to the business world, the first 100 days of any executive role is a critically important period for both the executive and the organization.

    But not every new leader should follow FDR’s example of an action-first approach. Instead, finding the right balance of listening and taking action is the key to success during this transitional period. The type of the organization and the mode that it’s in serves as the fulcrum that determines where the point of perfect balance lies. An executive facing a turnaround situation will want to focus on more action more quickly. One facing a sustaining success situation or a realignment situation will want to spend more time listening before taking action.” (Brian Jackson, Research Director, CIO, Info-Tech Research Group)

    Executive summary

    Situation

    • You’ve been promoted from within to the role of CIO.
    • You’ve been hired externally to take on the role of CIO.

    Complication

    Studies show that two years after a new executive transition, as many as half are regarded as failures or disappointments (McKinsey). First impressions are hard to overcome, and a CIO’s first 100 days are heavily weighted in terms of how others will assess their overall success. The best way to approach this period is determined by both the size and the mode of an organization.

    Resolution

    • Work with Info-Tech to prepare a 100-day plan that will position you for success.
    • Collaborate to collect the details needed to identify the right mode for your organization and determine how it will influence your plan.
    • Use Info-Tech’s diagnostic tools to align your vision with that of business executives and form a baseline for future reference.

    Info-Tech Insight

    1. Foundational understanding must be achieved before you start.
      Hit the ground running before day one by using company documents and initial discussions to pin down the company’s type and mode.
    2. Listen before you act (usually).
      In most situations, executives benefit from listening to peers and staff before taking action.
    3. Identify quick wins early and often.
      Fix problems as soon as you recognize them to set the tone for your tenure.

    The First 100 Days: Roadmap

    A roadmap timeline of 'The 100-Day Plan' for your first 100 days as CIO and related Info-Tech Diagnostics. Step A: 'Foundational Preparation' begins 10 days prior to your first day. Step B: 'Management's Expectations' is Days 0 to 30, with the diagnostic 'CIO-CEO Alignment'. Step C: 'Assessing the IT Team' is Days 10 to 75, with the diagnostics 'IT M&G Diagnostic' at Day 30 and 'IT Staffing Assessment' at Day 60. Step D: 'Assess the Key Stakeholders' is Days 40 to 85 with the diagnostic 'CIO Business Vision Survey'. Step E: 'Deliver First-Year Plan' is Days 80 to 100.

    Concierge service overview

    Organize a call with your executive advisor every two weeks during your first 100 days. Info-Tech recommends completing our diagnostics during this period. If you’re not able to do so, instead complete the alternative activities marked with (a).

    Call 1 Call 2 Call 3 Call 4 Call 5 Call 6 Call 7
    Activities
    Before you start: Day -10 to Day 1
    • 1.1 Interview your predecessor.
    • 1.2 Learn the corporate structure.
    • 1.3 Determine STARS mode.
    • 1.4 Create a one-page intro sheet.
    • 1.5 Update your boss.
    Day 0 to 15
    • 2.1 Introduce yourself to your team.
    • 2.2 Document your sphere of influence.
    • 2.3 Complete a competitor array.
    • 2.4 Complete the CEO-CIO Alignment Program.
    • 2.4(a) Agree on what success looks like with the boss.
    • 2.5 Inform team of IT M&G Framework.
    Day 16 to 30
    • 3.1 Determine the team’s cultural archetype.
    • 3.2 Create a cultural adjustment plan.
    • 3.3 Initiate IT M&G Diagnostic.
    • 3.4 Conduct a high-level analysis of current IT capabilities.
    • 3.4 Update your boss.
    Day 31 to 45
    • 4.1 Inform stakeholders about CIO Business Vision survey.
    • 4.2 Get feedback on initial assessments from your team.
    • 4.3 Initiate CIO Business Vision survey.
    • 4.3(a) Meet stakeholders and catalog details.
    Day 46 to 60
    • 5.1 Inform the team that you plan to conduct an IT staffing assessment.
    • 5.2 Initiate the IT Staffing Assessment.
    • 5.3 Quick wins: Make recommend-ations based on CIO Business Vision Diagnostic/IT M&G Framework.
    • 5.4 Update your boss.
    Day 61 to 75
    • 6.1 Run a start, stop, continue exercise with IT staff.
    • 6.2 Make a categorized vendor list.
    • 6.3 Determine the alignment of IT commitments with business objectives.
    Day 76 to 90
    • 7.1 Finalize your vision – mission – values statement.
    • 7.2 Quick Wins: Make recommend-ations based on IT Staffing Assessment.
    • 7.3 Create and communicate a post-100-day plan.
    • 7.4 Update your boss.
    Deliverables Presentation Deck Section A: Foundational Preparation Presentation Deck slides 9, 11-13, 19-20, 29 Presentation Deck slides 16, 17, 21 Presentation Deck slides 30, 34 Presentation Deck slides 24, 25, 2 Presentation Deck slides 27, 42

    Call 1

    Before you start: Day -10 to Day 1

    Interview your predecessor

    Interviewing your predecessor can help identify the organization’s mode and type.

    Before reaching out to your predecessor, get a sense of whether they were viewed as successful or not. Ask your manager. If the predecessor remains within the organization in a different role, understand your relationship with them and how you'll be working together.

    During the interview, make notes about follow-up questions you'll ask others at the organization.

    Ask these open-ended questions in the interview:

    • Tell me about the team.
    • Tell me about your challenges.
    • Tell me about a major project your team worked on. How did it go?
    • Who/what has been helpful during your tenure?
    • Who/what created barriers for you?
    • What do your engagement surveys reveal?
    • Tell me about your performance management programs and issues.
    • What mistakes would you avoid if you could lead again?
    • Why are you leaving?
    • Could I reach out to you again in the future?

    Learn the corporate structure

    Identify the organization’s corporate structure type based on your initial conversations with company leadership. The type of structure will dictate how much control you'll have as a functional head and help you understand which stakeholders you'll need to collaborate with.

    To Do:

    • Review the organization’s structure list and identify whether the structure is functional, prioritized, or a matrix. If it's a matrix organization, determine if it's a strong matrix (project manager holds more authority), weak matrix (functional manager holds more authority), or balanced matrix (managers hold equal authority).

    Functional

    • Most common structure.
    • Traditional departments such as sales, marketing, finance, etc.
    • Functional managers hold most authority.

    Projectized

    • Most programs are implemented through projects with focused outcomes.
    • Teams are cross-functional.
    • Project managers hold the most authority.

    Matrix

    • Combination of projectized and functional.
    • Organization is a dynamic environment.
    • Authority of functional manager flows down through division, while authority of project manager flows sideways through teams.

    This organization is a ___________________ type.

    (Source: Simplilearn)

    Presentation Deck, slide 6

    Determine the mode of the organization: STARS

    Based on your interview process and discussions with company leadership, and using Michael Watkins’ STARS assessment, determine which mode your organization is in: startup, turnaround, accelerated growth, realignment, or sustaining success.

    Knowing the mode of your organization will determine how you approach your 100-day plan. Depending on the mode, you'll rebalance your activities around the three categories of assess, listen, and deliver.

    To Do:

    • Review the STARS table on the right.

    Based on your situation, prioritize activities in this way:

    • Startup: assess, listen, deliver
    • Turnaround: deliver, listen, assess
    • Accelerated Growth: assess, listen, deliver
    • Realignment: listen, assess, deliver
    • Sustaining success: listen, assess, deliver

    This organization is a ___________________ type.

    (Source: Watkins, 2013.)

    Presentation Deck, slide 6

    Determine the mode of the organization: STARS

    STARS Startup Turnaround Accelerated Growth Realignment Sustaining Success
    Definition Assembling capabilities to start a project. Project is widely seen as being in serious trouble. Managing a rapidly expanding business. A previously successful organization is now facing problems. A vital organization is going to the next level.
    Challenges Must build strategy, structures, and systems from scratch. Must recruit and make do with limited resources. Stakeholders are demoralized; slash and burn required. Requires structure and systems to scale; hiring and onboarding. Employees need to be convinced change is needed; restructure at the top required. Risk of living in shadow of a successful former leader.
    Advantages No rigid preconceptions. High-energy environment and easy to pivot. A little change goes a long way when people recognize the need. Motivated employee base willing to stretch. Organization has clear strengths; people desire success. Likely a strong team; foundation for success likely in place.

    Satya Nadella's listen, lead, and launch approach

    CASE STUDY

    Industry Software
    Source Gregg Keizer, Computerworld, 2014

    When Satya Nadella was promoted to the CEO role at Microsoft in 2014, he received a Glassdoor approval rating of 85% and was given an "A" grade by industry analysts after his first 100 days. What did he do right?

    • Created a sense of urgency by shaking up the senior leadership team.
    • Already understood the culture as an insider.
    • Listened a lot and did many one-on-one meetings.
    • Established a vision communicated with a mantra that Microsoft would be "mobile-first, cloud-first."
    • Met his words with actions. He launched Office for iPad and made many announcements for cloud platform Azure.
    Photo of Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft Corp.
    Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft Corp. (Image source: Microsoft)

    Listen to 'The First 100 Days' podcast – Alan Fong

    Create a one-page introduction sheet to use in communications

    As a new CIO, you'll have to introduce yourself to many people in the organization. To save time on communicating who you are as a person outside of the office, create a brief one-pager that includes a photo of you, where you were born and raised, and what your hobbies are. This helps make a connection more quickly so your conversations can focus on the business at hand rather than personal topics.

    For your presentation deck, remove the personal details and just keep it professional. The personal aspects can be used as a one-pager for other communications. (Source: Personal interview with Denis Gaudreault, Country Lead, Intel.)

    Presentation Deck, slide 5

    Call 2

    Day 1 to Day 15

    Introduce yourself to your team

    Prepare a 20-second pitch about yourself that goes beyond your name and title. Touch on your experience that's relevant to your new role or the industry you're in. Be straightforward about your own perceived strengths and weaknesses so that people know what to expect from you. Focus on the value you believe you'll offer the group and use humor and humility where you're comfortable. For example:

    “Hi everyone, my name is John Miller. I have 15 years of experience marketing conferences like this one to vendors, colleges, and HR departments. What I’m good at, and the reason I'm here, is getting the right people, businesses, and great ideas in a room together. I'm not good on details; that's why I work with Tim. I promise that I'll get people excited about the conference, and the gifts and talents of everyone else in this room will take over from there. I'm looking forward to working with all of you.”

    Have a structured set of questions ready that you can ask everyone.

    For example:
    • How well is the company performing based on expectations?
    • What must the company do to sustain its financial performance and market competitiveness?
    • How do you foresee the CIO contributing to the team?
    • How have past CIOs performed from the perspective of the team?
    • What would successful performance of this role look like to you? To your peers?
    • What challenges and obstacles to success am I likely to encounter? What were the common challenges of my predecessor?
    • How do you view the culture here and how do successful projects tend to get approved?
    • What are your greatest challenges? How could I help you?

    Get to know your sphere of influence: prepare to connect with a variety of people before you get down to work

    Your ability to learn from others is critical at every stage in your first 100 days. Keep your sphere of influence in the loop as you progress through this period.

    A diagram of circles within circles representing your spheres of influence. The smallest circle is 'IT Leaders' and is noted as your 'Immediate circle'. The next largest circle is 'IT Team', then 'Peers - Business Leads', then 'Internal Clients' which is noted as you 'Extended circle'. The largest circle is 'External clients'.

    Write down the names, or at least the key people, in each segment of this diagram. This will serve as a quick reference when you're planning communications with others and will help you remember everyone as you're meeting lots of new people in your early days on the job.

    • Everyone knows their networks are important.
    • However, busy schedules can cause leaders to overlook their many audiences.
    • Plan to meet and learn from all people in your sphere to gain a full spectrum of insights.

    Presentation Deck, slide 29

    Identify how your competitors are leveraging technology for competitive advantage

    Competitor identification and analysis are critical steps for any new leader to assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of their organization and develop a sense of strategic opportunity and environmental awareness.

    Today’s CIO is accountable for driving innovation through technology. A competitive analysis will provide the foundation for understanding the current industry structure, rivalry within it, and possible competitive advantages for the organization.

    Surveying your competitive landscape prior to the first day will allow you to come to the table prepared with insights on how to support the organization and ensure that you are not vulnerable to any competitive blind spots that may exist in the evaluations conducted by the organization already.

    You will not be able to gain a nuanced understanding of the internal strengths and weaknesses until you are in the role, so focus on the external opportunities and how competitors are using technology to their advantage.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    For a more in-depth approach to identifying and understanding relevant industry trends and turning them into insights, leverage the following Info-Tech blueprints:

    Presentation Deck, slide 9

    Assess the external competitive environment

    Associated Activity icon

    INPUT: External research

    OUTPUT: Competitor array

    1. Conduct a broad analysis of the industry as a whole. Seek to answer the following questions:
      1. Are there market developments or new markets?
      2. Are there industry or lifestyle trends, e.g. move to mobile?
      3. Are there geographic changes in the market?
      4. Are there demographic changes that are shaping decision making?
      5. Are there changes in market demand?
    2. Create a competitor array by identifying and listing key competitors. Try to be as broad as possible here and consider not only entrenched close competitors but also distant/future competitors that may disrupt the industry.
    3. Identify the strengths, weaknesses, and key brand differentiators that each competitor brings to the table. For each strength and differentiator, brainstorm ways that IT-based innovation enables each. These will provide a toolkit for deeper conversations with your peers and your business stakeholders as you move further into your first 100 days.
    Competitor Strengths Weaknesses Key Differentiators IT Enablers
    Competitor 1
    Competitor 2
    Competitor 3

    Complete the CEO-CIO Alignment Program

    Associated Activity icon Run the diagnostic program or use the alternative activities to complete your presentation

    INPUT: CEO-CEO Alignment Program (recommended)

    OUTPUT: Desired and target state of IT maturity, Innovation goals, Top priorities

    Materials: Presentation Deck, slides 11-13

    Participants: CEO, CIO

    Introduce the concept of the CEO-CIO Alignment Program using slide 10 of your presentation deck and the brief email text below.

    Talk to your advisory contact at Info-Tech about launching the program. More information is available on Info-Tech’s website.

    Once the report is complete, import the results into your presentation:

    • Slide 11, the CEO’s current and desired states
    • Slide 12, IT innovation goals
    • Slide 13, top projects and top departments from the CEO and the CIO

    Include any immediate recommendations you have.

    Hello CEO NAME,

    I’m excited to get started in my role as CIO, and to hit the ground running, I’d like to make sure that the IT department is aligned with the business leadership. We will accomplish this using Info-Tech Research Group’s CEO-CIO Alignment Program. It’s a simple survey of 20 questions to be completed by the CEO and the CIO.

    This survey will help me understand your perception and vision as I get my footing as CIO. I’ll be able to identify and build core IT processes that will automate IT-business alignment going forward and create an effective IT strategy that helps eliminate impediments to business growth.

    Research shows that IT departments that are effectively aligned to business goals achieve more success, and I’m determined to make our IT department as successful as possible. I look forward to further detailing the benefits of this program to you and answering any questions you may have the next time we speak.

    Regards,
    CIO NAME

    New KPIs for CEO-CIO Alignment — Recommended

    Info-Tech CEO-CIO Alignment Program

    Info-Tech's CEO-CIO Alignment Program is set up to build IT-business alignment in any organization. It helps the CIO understand CEO perspectives and priorities. The exercise leads to useful IT performance indicators, clarifies IT’s mandate and which new technologies it should invest in, and maps business goals to IT priorities.

    Benefits

    Master the Basics
    Cut through the jargon.
    Take a comprehensive look at the CEO perspective.
    Target Alignment
    Identify how IT can support top business priorities. Address CEO-CIO differences.
    Start on the Right Path
    Get on track with the CIO vision. Use correct indicators and metrics to evaluate IT from day one.

    Supporting Tool or Template icon Additional materials are available on Info-Tech’s website.

    The desired maturity level of IT — Alternative

    Associated Activity icon Use only if you can’t complete the CEO-CIO Alignment Program

    Step 1: Where are we today?

    Determine where the CEO sees the current overall maturity level of the IT organization.

    Step 2: Where do we want to be as an organization?

    Determine where the CEO wants the IT organization to be in order to effectively support the strategic direction of the business.

    A colorful visual representation of the different IT maturity levels. At the bottom is 'STRUGGLE, Unable to Provide Reliable Business Services', then moving upwards are 'SUPPORT, Reliable Infrastructure and IT Service Desk', 'OPTIMIZE, Effective Fulfillment of Work Orders, Functional Business Applications, and Reliable Service Management', 'EXPAND, Effective Execution on Business Projects, Strategic Use of Analytics and Customer Technology', and at the top is 'TRANSFORM, Reliable Technology Innovation'.

    Presentation Deck, slide 11

    Tim Cook's powerful use of language

    CASE STUDY

    Industry Consumer technology
    Source Carmine Gallo, Inc., 2019

    Apple CEO Tim Cook, an internal hire, had big shoes to fill after taking over from the late Steve Jobs. Cook's ability to control how the company is perceived is a big credit to his success. How does he do it? His favorite five words are “The way I see it..." These words allow him to take a line of questioning and reframe it into another perspective that he wants to get across. Similarly, he'll often say, "Let me tell you the way I look at it” or "To put it in perspective" or "To put it in context."

    In your first two weeks on the job, try using these phrases in your conversations with peers and direct reports. It demonstrates that you value their point of view but are independently coming to conclusions about the situation at hand.

    Photo of Tim Cook, CEO, Apple Inc.
    Tim Cook, CEO, Apple Inc. (Image source: Apple)

    Listen to 'The First 100 Days' podcast – Denis Gaudreault

    Inform your team that you plan to do an IT Management & Governance Diagnostic survey

    Associated Activity icon Run the diagnostic program or use the alternative activities to complete your presentation

    INPUT: IT Management & Governance Diagnostic (recommended)

    OUTPUT: Process to improve first, Processes important to the business

    Materials: Presentation Deck, slides 19-20

    Participants: CIO, IT staff

    Introduce the IT Management & Governance Diagnostic survey that will help you form your IT strategy.

    Explain that you want to understand current IT capabilities and you feel a formal approach is best. You’ll also be using this approach as an important metric to track your department’s success. Tell them that Info-Tech Research Group will be conducting the survey and it’s important to you that they take action on the email when it’s sent to them.

    Example email:

    Hello TEAM,

    I appreciate meeting each of you, and so far I’m excited about the talents and energy on the team. Now I need to understand the processes and capabilities of our department in a deeper way. I’d like to map our process landscape against an industry-wide standard, then dive deeper into those processes to understand if our team is aligned. This will help us be accountable to the business and plan the year ahead. Advisory firm Info-Tech Research Group will be reaching out to you with a simple survey that shouldn’t take too long to complete. It’s important to me that you pay attention to that message and complete the survey as soon as possible.

    Regards,
    CIO NAME

    Call 3

    Day 16 to Day 30

    Leverage team interviews as a source of determining organizational culture

    Info-Tech recommends that you hold group conversations with your team to uncover their opinions of the current organizational culture. This not only helps build transparency between you and your team but also gives you another means of observing behavior and reactions as you listen to team members’ characterizations of the current culture.

    A visualization of the organizational culture of a company asks the question 'What is culture?' Five boxes are stacked, the bottom two are noted as 'The invisible causes' and the top two are noted as 'The visible signs'. From the bottom, 'Fundamental assumptions and beliefs', 'Values and attitudes', 'The way we do things around here', 'Behaviors', and at the top, 'Environment'. (Source: Hope College Blog Network)

    Note: It is inherently difficult for people to verbalize what constitutes a culture – your strategy for extracting this information will require you to ask indirect questions to solicit the highest value information.

    Questions for Discussion:

    • What about the current organizational environment do you think most contributes to your success?
    • What barriers do you experience as you try to accomplish your work?
    • What is your favorite quality that is present in our organization?
    • What is the one thing you would most like to change about this organization?
    • Do the organization's policies and procedures support your efforts to accomplish work or do they impede your progress?
    • How effective do you think IT’s interactions are with the larger organization?
    • What would you consider to be IT’s top three guiding principles?
    • What kinds of people fail in this organization?

    Supporting Tool or Template icon See Info-Tech’s Cultural Archetype Calculator.

    Use the Competing Values Framework to define your organization’s cultural archetype

    THE COMPETING VALUES FRAMEWORK (CVF):

    CVF represents the synthesis of academic study of 39 indicators of effectiveness for organizations. Using a statistical analysis, two polarities that are highly predictive of differences in organizational effectiveness were isolated:

    1. Internal focus and integration vs. external focus and differentiation.
    2. Stability and control vs. flexibility and discretion.

    By plotting these dimensions on a matrix of competing values, four main cultural archetypes are identified with their own value drivers and theories of effectiveness.

    A map of cultural archetypes with 'Internal control and integration' on the left, 'External focus and differentiation' on the right, 'Flexibility and discretion' on top, and 'Stability and control' on the bottom. Top left is 'Clan Archetype', internal and flexible. Top right is 'Adhocracy Archetype', external and flexible. Bottom left is 'Hierarchy Archetype', internal and controlled. Bottom right is 'Market Archetype', external and controlled.

    Presentation Deck, slide 16

    Create a cultural adjustment plan

    Now that you've assessed the cultural archetype, you can plan an appropriate approach to shape the culture in a positive way. When new executives want to change culture, there are a few main options at hand:

    Autonomous evolution: Encourage teams to learn from each other. Empower hybrid teams to collaborate and reward teams that perform well.

    Planned and managed change: Create steering committee and project-oriented taskforces to work in parallel. Appoint employees that have cultural traits you'd like to replicate to hold responsibility for these bodies.

    Cultural destruction: When a toxic culture needs to be eliminated, get rid of its carriers. Putting new managers or directors in place with the right cultural traits can be a swift and effective way to realign.

    Each option boils down to creating the right set of incentives and deterrents. What behaviors will you reward and which ones will you penalize? What do those consequences look like? Sometimes, but not always, some structural changes to the team will be necessary. If you feel these changes should be made, it's important to do it sooner rather than later. (Source: “Enlarging Your Sphere of Influence in Your Organization,” MindTools Corporate, 2014.)

    As you're thinking about shaping a desired culture, it's helpful to have an easy way to remember the top qualities you want to espouse. Try creating an acronym that makes it easy for staff to remember. For example: RISE could remind your staff to be Responsive, Innovative, Sustainable, and Engaging (RISE). Draw upon your business direction from your manager to help produce desired qualities (Source: Jennifer Schaeffer).

    Presentation Deck, slide 17

    Gary Davenport’s welcome “surprise”

    CASE STUDY

    Industry Telecom
    Source Interview with Gary Davenport

    After Gary Davenport was hired on as VP of IT at MTS Allstream, his first weekend on the job was spent at an all-executive offsite meeting. There, he learned from the CEO that the IT department had a budget reduction target of 25%, like other departments in the company. “That takes your breath away,” Davenport says.

    He decided to meet the CEO monthly to communicate his plans to reduce spending while trying to satisfy business stakeholders. His top priorities were:

    1. Stabilize IT after seven different leaders in a five-year period.
    2. Get the IT department to be respected. To act like business owners instead of like servants.
    3. Better manage finances and deliver on projects.

    During Davenport’s 7.5-year tenure, the IT department became one of the top performers at MTS Allstream.

    Photo of Gary Davenport.
    Gary Davenport’s first weekend on the job at MTS Allstream included learning about a 25% reduction target. (Image source: Ryerson University)

    Listen to 'The First 100 Days' podcast – David Penny & Andrew Wertkin

    Initiate IT Management & Governance Diagnostic — Recommended

    Info-Tech Management & Governance Diagnostic

    Talk to your Info-Tech executive advisor about launching the survey shortly after informing your team to expect it. You'll just have to provide the names and email addresses of the staff you want to be involved. Once the survey is complete, you'll harvest materials from it for your presentation deck. See slides 19 and 20 of your deck and follow the instructions on what to include.

    Benefits

    A sample of the 'High Level Process Landscape' materials available from Info-Tech. A sample of the 'Strategy and Governance In Depth Results' materials available from Info-Tech. A sample of the 'Process Accountability' materials available from Info-Tech.
    Explore IT Processes
    Dive deeper into performance. Highlight problem areas.
    Align IT Team
    Build consensus by identifying opposing views.
    Ownership & Accountability
    Identify process owners and hold team members accountable.

    Supporting Tool or Template icon Additional materials available on Info-Tech’s website.

    Conduct a high-level analysis of current IT capabilities — Alternative

    Associated Activity icon

    INPUT: Interviews with IT leadership team, Capabilities graphic on next slide

    OUTPUT: High-level understanding of current IT capabilities

    Run this activity if you're not able to conduct the IT Management & Governance Diagnostic.

    Schedule meetings with your IT leadership team. (In smaller organizations, interviewing everyone may be acceptable.) Provide them a list of the core capabilities that IT delivers upon and ask them to rate them on an effectiveness scale of 1-5, with a short rationale for their score.

    • 1. Not effective (NE)
    • 2. Somewhat Effective (SE)
    • 3. Effective (E)
    • 4. Very Effective (VE)
    • 5. Extremely Effective (EE)

    Presentation Deck, slide 21

    Use the following set of IT capabilities for your assessment

    Strategy & Governance

    IT Governance Strategy Performance Measurement Policies Quality Management Innovation

    People & Resources

    Stakeholder Management Resource Management Financial Management Vendor Selection & Contract Management Vendor Portfolio Management Workforce Strategy Strategic Comm. Organizational Change Enablement

    Service Management & Operations

    Operations Management Service Portfolio Management Release Management Service Desk Incident & Problem Management Change Management Demand Management

    Infrastructure

    Asset Management Infrastructure Portfolio Management Availability & Capacity Management Infrastructure Management Configuration Management

    Information Security & Risk

    Security Strategy Risk Management Compliance, Audit & Review Security Detection Response & Recovery Security Prevention

    Applications

    Application Lifecycle Management Systems Integration Application Development User Testing Quality Assurance Application Maintenance

    PPM & Projects

    Portfolio Management Requirements Gathering Project Management

    Data & BI

    Data Architecture BI & Reporting Data Quality & Governance Database Operations Enterprise Content Management

    Enterprise Architecture

    Enterprise Architecture Solution Architecture

    Quick wins: CEO-CIO Alignment Program

    Complete this while waiting on the IT M&G survey results. Based on your completed CEO-CIO Alignment Report, identify the initiatives you can tackle immediately.

    If you are here... And want to be here... Drive toward... Innovate around...
    Business Partner Innovator Leading business transformation
    • Emerging technologies
    • Analytical capabilities
    • Risk management
    • Customer-facing tech
    • Enterprise architecture
    Trusted Operator Business Partner Optimizing business process and supporting business transformation
    • IT strategy and governance
    • Business architecture
    • Projects
    • Resource management
    • Data quality
    Firefighter Trusted Operator Optimize IT processes and services
    • Business applications
    • Service management
    • Stakeholder management
    • Work orders
    Unstable Firefighter Reduce use disruption and adequately support the business
    • Network and infrastructure
    • Service desk
    • Security
    • User devices

    Call 4

    Day 31 to Day 45

    Inform your peers that you plan to do a CIO Business Vision survey to gauge your stakeholders’ satisfaction

    Associated Activity icon Run the diagnostic program or use the alternative activities to complete your presentation

    INPUT: CIO Business Vision survey (recommended)

    OUTPUT: True measure of business satisfaction with IT

    Materials: Presentation Deck, slide 30

    Participants: CIO, IT staff

    Meet the business leaders at your organization face-to-face if possible. If you can't meet in person, try a video conference to establish some rapport. At the end of your introduction and after listening to what your colleague has to say, introduce the CIO Business Vision Diagnostic.

    Explain that you want to understand how to meet their business needs and you feel a formal approach is best. You'll also be using this approach as an important metric to track your department's success. Tell them that Info-Tech Research Group will be conducting the survey and it’s important to you that they take the survey when the email is sent to them.

    Example email:

    Hello PEER NAMES,

    I'm arranging for Info-Tech Research Group to invite you to take a survey that will be important to me. The CIO Business Vision survey will help me understand how to meet your business needs. It will only take about 15 minutes of your time, and the top-line results will be shared with the organization. We will use the results to plan initiatives for the future that will improve your satisfaction with IT.

    Regards,
    CIO NAME

    Gain feedback on your initial assessments from your IT team

    There are two strategies for gaining feedback on your initial assessments of the organization from the IT team:

    1. Review your personal assessments with the relevant members of your IT organization as a group. This strategy can help to build trust and an open channel for communication between yourself and your team; however, it also runs the risk of being impacted by groupthink.
    2. Ask for your team to complete their own assessments for you to compare and contrast. This strategy can help extract more candor from your team, as they are not expected to communicate what may be nuanced perceptions of organizational weaknesses or criticisms of the way certain capabilities function.

    Who you involve in this process will be impacted by the size of your organization. For larger organizations, involve everyone down to the manager level. In smaller organizations, you may want to involve everyone on the IT team to get an accurate lay of the land.

    Areas for Review:

    • Strategic Document Review: Are there any major themes or areas of interest that were not covered in my initial assessment?
    • Competitor Array: Are there any initiatives in flight to leverage new technologies?
    • Current State of IT Maturity: Does IT’s perception align with the CEO’s? Where do you believe IT has been most effective? Least effective?
    • IT’s Key Priorities: Does IT’s perception align with the CEO’s?
    • Key Performance Indicators: How has IT been measured in the past?

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    You need your team’s hearts and minds or you risk a short tenure. Overemphasizing business commitment by neglecting to address your IT team until after you meet your business stakeholders will result in a disenfranchised group. Show your team their importance.

    Susan Bowen's talent maximization

    CASE STUDY

    Industry Infrastructure Services
    Source Interview with Susan Bowen

    Susan Bowen was promoted to be the president of Cogeco Peer 1, an infrastructure services firm, when it was still a part of Cogeco Communications. Part of her mandate was to help spin out the business to a new owner, which occurred when it was acquired by Digital Colony. The firm was renamed Aptum and Bowen was put in place as CEO, which was not a certainty despite her position as president at Cogeco Peer 1. She credits her ability to put the right talent in the right place as part of the reason she succeeded. After becoming president, she sought a strong commitment from her directors. She gave them a choice about whether they'd deliver on a new set of expectations – or not. She also asks her leadership on a regular basis if they are using their talent in the right way. While it's tempting for directors to want to hold on to their best employees, those people might be able to enable many more people if they can be put in another place.

    Bowen fully rounded out her leadership team after Aptum was formed. She created a chief operating officer and a chief infrastructure officer. This helped put in place more clarity around roles at the firm and put an emphasis on client-facing services.

    Photo of Susan Bowen, CEO, Aptum.
    Susan Bowen, CEO, Aptum (Image source: Aptum)

    Listen to 'The First 100 Days' podcast – Susan Bowen

    Initiate CIO Business Vision survey – new KPIs for stakeholder management — Recommended

    Info-Tech CIO Business Vision

    Be sure to effectively communicate the context of this survey to your business stakeholders before you launch it. Plan to talk about your plans to introduce it in your first meetings with stakeholders. When ready, let your executive advisor know you want to launch the tool and provide the names and email addresses of the stakeholders you want involved. After you have the results, harvest the materials required for your presentation deck. See slide 30 and follow the instructions on what to include.

    Benefits

    Icon for Key Stakeholders. Icon for Credibility. Icon for Improve. Icon for Focus.
    Key Stakeholders
    Clarify the needs of the business.
    Credibility
    Create transparency.
    Improve
    Measure IT’s progress.
    Focus
    Find what’s important.

    Supporting Tool or Template icon Additional materials are available on Info-Tech’s website.

    Create a catalog of key stakeholder details to reference prior to future conversations — Alternative

    Only conduct this activity if you’re not able to run the CIO Business Vision diagnostic.

    Use the Organizational Catalog as a personal cheat sheet to document the key details around each of your stakeholders, including your CEO when possible.

    The catalog will be an invaluable tool to keep the competing needs of your different stakeholders in line, while ensuring you are retaining the information to build the political capital needed to excel in the C-suite.

    Note: It is important to keep this document private. While you may want to communicate components of this information, ensure your catalog remains under lock and (encryption) key.

    Screenshot of the Organizational Catalog for Stakeholders. At the top are spaces for 'Name', 'Job Title', etc. Boxes include 'Key Personal Details', 'Satisfaction Levels With IT', 'Preferred Communications', 'Key Activities', 'In-Flight and Scheduled Projects', 'Key Performance Indicators', and 'Additional Details'.

    Info-Tech Insight

    While profiling your stakeholders is important, do not be afraid to profile yourself as well. Visualizing how your interests overlap with those of your stakeholders can provide critical information on how to manage your communications so that those on the receiving end are hearing exactly what they need.

    Activity: Conduct interviews with your key business stakeholders — Alternative

    Associated Activity icon

    1. Once you have identified your key stakeholders through your interviews with your boss and your IT team, schedule a set of meetings with those individuals.
    2. Use the meetings to get to know your stakeholders, their key priorities and initiatives, and their perceptions of the effectiveness of IT.
      1. Use the probative questions to the right to elicit key pieces of information.
      2. Refer to the Organizational Catalog tool for more questions to dig deeper in each category. Ensure that you are taking notes separate from the tool and are keeping the tool itself secure, as it will contain private information specific to your interests.
    3. Following each meeting, record the results of your conversation and any key insights in the Organizational Catalog. Refer to the following slide for more details.

    Questions for Discussion:

    • Be indirect about your personal questions – share stories that will elicit details about their interests, kids, etc.
    • What are your most critical/important initiatives for the year?
    • What are your key revenue streams, products, and services?
    • What are the most important ways that IT supports your success? What is your satisfaction level with those services?
    • Are there any current in-flight projects or initiatives that are a current pain point? How can IT assist to alleviate challenges?
    • How is your success measured? What are your targets for the year on those metrics?

    Presentation Deck, slide 34

    Call 5

    Day 46 to Day 60

    Inform your team that you plan to do an IT staffing assessment

    Associated Activity icon Introduce the IT Staffing Assessment that will help you get the most out of your team

    INPUT: Email template

    OUTPUT: Ready to launch diagnostic

    Materials: Email template, List of staff, Sample of diagnostic

    Participants: CIO, IT staff

    Explain that you want to understand how the IT staff is currently spending its time by function and by activity. You want to take a formal approach to this task and also assess the team’s feelings about its effectiveness across different processes. The results of the assessment will serve as the foundation that helps you improve your team’s effectiveness within the organization.

    Example email:

    Hello PEER NAMES,

    The feedback I've heard from the team since joining the company has been incredibly useful in beginning to formulate my IT strategy. Now I want to get a clear picture of how everyone is spending their time, especially across different IT functions and activities. This will be an opportunity for you to share feedback on what we're doing well, what we need to do more of, and what we're missing. Expect to receive an email invitation to take this survey from Info-Tech Research Group. It's important to me that you complete the survey as soon as you're can. Attached you’ll find an example of the report this will generate. Thank you again for providing your time and feedback.

    Regards,
    CIO NAME

    Wayne Berger's shortcut to solve staffing woes

    CASE STUDY

    Industry Office leasing
    Source Interview with Wayne Berger

    Wayne Berger was hired to be the International Workplace Group (IWG) CEO for Canada and Latin America in 2014.

    Wayne approached his early days with the office space leasing firm as a tour of sorts, visiting nearly every one of the 48 office locations across Canada to host town hall meetings. He heard from staff at every location that they felt understaffed. But instead of simply hiring more staff, Berger actually reduced the workforce by 33%.

    He created a more flexible approach to staffing:

    • Employees no longer just reported to work at one office; instead, they were ready to go to wherever they were most needed in a specific geographic area.
    • He centralized all back-office functions for the company so that not every office had to do its own bookkeeping.
    • Finally, he changed the labor profile to consist of full-time staff, part-time staff, and time-on-demand workers.
    Photo of Wayne Berger, CEO, IWG Plc.
    Wayne Berger, CEO, IWG Plc (Image source: IWG)

    Listen to 'The First 100 Days' podcast – Wayne Berger

    Initiate IT Staffing Assessment – new KPIs to track IT performance — Recommended

    Info-Tech IT Staffing Assessment

    Info-Tech’s IT Staffing Assessment provides benchmarking of key metrics against 4,000 other organizations. Dashboard-style reports provide key metrics at a glance, including a time breakdown by IT function and by activity compared against business priorities. Run this survey at about the 45-day mark of your first 90 days. Its insights will be used to inform your long-term IT strategy.

    Benefits

    Icon for Right-Size IT Headcount. Icon for Allocate Staff Correctly. Icon for Maximize Teams.
    Right-Size IT Headcount
    Find the right level for stakeholder satisfaction.
    Allocate Staff Correctly
    Identify staff misalignments with priorities.
    Maximize Teams
    Identify how to drive staff.

    Supporting Tool or Template icon Additional materials are available on Info-Tech’s website.

    Quick wins: Make recommendations based on IT Management & Governance Framework

    Complete this exercise while waiting on the IT Staffing Assessment results. Based on your completed IT Management & Governance report, identify the initiatives you can tackle immediately. You can conduct this as a team exercise by following these steps:

    1. Create a shortlist of initiatives based on the processes that were identified as high need but scored low in effectiveness. Think as broadly as possible during this initial brainstorming.
    2. Write each initiative on a sticky note and conduct a high-level analysis of the amount of effort that would be required to complete it, as well as its alignment with the achievement of business objectives.
    3. Draw the matrix below on a whiteboard and place each sticky note onto the matrix based on its potential impact and difficulty to address.
    A matrix of initiative categories based on effort to achieve and alignment with business objectives. It is split into quadrants: the vertical axis is 'Potential Impact' with 'High, Fully supports achievement of business objectives' at the top and 'Low, Limited support of business objectives' at the bottom; the horizontal axis is 'Effort' with 'Low' on the left and 'High' on the right. Low impact, low effort is 'Low Current Value, No immediate attention required, but may become a priority in the future if business objectives change'. Low impact, high effort is 'Future Reassessment, No immediate attention required, but may become a priority in the future if business objectives change'. High impact, high effort is 'Long-Term Initiatives, High impact on business outcomes but will take more effort to implement. Schedule these in your long-term roadmap'. High impact, low effort is 'Quick Wins, High impact on business objectives with relatively small effort. Some combination of these will form your early wins'.

    Call 6

    Day 61 to Day 75

    Run a start, stop, continue exercise with your IT staff — Alternative

    This is an alternative activity to running an IT Staffing Assessment, which contains a start/stop/continue assessment. This activity can be facilitated with a flip chart or a whiteboard. Create three pages or three columns and label them Start, Stop, and Continue.

    Hand out sticky notes to each team member and then allow time for individual brainstorming. Instruct them to write down their contributions for each category on the sticky notes. After a few minutes, have everyone stick their notes in the appropriate category on the board. Discuss as a group and see what themes emerge. Record the results that you want to share in your presentation deck (GroupMap).

    Gather your team and explain the meaning of these categories:

    Start: Activities you're not currently doing but should start doing very soon.

    Stop: Activities you're currently doing but aren’t working and should cease.

    Continue: Things you're currently doing and are working well.

    Presentation Deck, slide 24

    Determine the alignment of IT commitments with business objectives

    Associated Activity icon

    INPUT: Interviews with IT leadership team

    OUTPUT: High-level understanding of in-flight commitments and investments

    Run this only as an alternative to the IT Management & Governance Diagnostic.

    1. Schedule meetings with IT leadership to understand what commitments have been made to the business in terms of new products, projects, or enhancements.
    2. Determine the following about IT’s current investment mix:
      1. What are the current IT investments and assets? How do they align to business goals?
      2. What investments in flight are related to which information assets?
      3. Are there any immediate risks identified for these key investments?
      4. What are the primary business issues that demand attention from IT consistently?
      5. What choices remain undecided in terms of strategic direction of the IT organization?
    3. Document your key investments and commitments as well as any points of misalignment between objectives and current commitments as action items to address in your long-term plans. If they are small fixes, consider them during your quick-win identification.

    Presentation Deck, slide 25

    Determine the alignment of IT commitments with business objectives

    Run this only as an alternative to the IT Staffing Assessment diagnostic.

    Schedule meetings with IT leadership to understand what commitments have been made to the business in terms of new products, projects, or enhancements.

    Determine the following about IT’s current investment mix:

    • What are the current IT investments and assets?
    • How do they align to business goals?
    • What in-flight investments are related to which information assets?
    • Are there any immediate risks identified for these key investments?
    • What are the primary business issues that demand attention from IT consistently?
    • What remains undecided in terms of strategic direction of the IT organization?

    Document your key investments and commitments, as well as any points of misalignment between objectives and current commitments, as action items to address in your long-term plans. If they are small-effort fixes, consider them during your quick-win identification.

    Presentation Deck, slide 25

    Make a categorized vendor list by IT process

    As part of learning the IT team, you should also create a comprehensive list of vendors under contract. Collaborate with the finance department to get a clear view of how much of the IT budget is spent on specific vendors. Try to match vendors to the IT processes they serve from the IT M&G framework.

    You should also organize your vendors based on their budget allocation. Go beyond just listing how much money you’re spending with each vendor and categorize them into either “transactional” relationships or “strategic relationships.” Use the grid below to organize them. Ideally, you’ll want most relationships to be high spend and strategic (Source: Gary Davenport).

    A matrix of vendor categories with the vertical axis 'Spend' increasing upward, and the horizontal axis 'Type of relationship' with values 'Transactional' or 'Strategic'. The bottom left corner is 'Low Spend Transactional', the top right corner is 'High Spend Strategic'.

    Where to source your vendor list:

    • Finance department
    • Infrastructure managers
    • Vendor manager in IT

    Further reading: Manage Your Vendors Before They Manage You

    Presentation Deck, slide 26

    Jennifer Schaeffer’s short-timeline turnaround

    CASE STUDY

    Industry Education
    Source Interview with Jennifer Schaeffer

    Jennifer Schaeffer joined Athabasca University as CIO in November 2017. She was entering a turnaround situation as the all-online university lacked an IT strategy and had built up significant technical debt. Armed with the mandate of a third-party consultant that was supported by the president, Schaeffer used a people-first approach to construct her strategy. She met with all her staff, listening to them carefully regardless of role, and consulted with the administrative council and faculty members. She reflected that feedback in her plan or explained to staff why it wasn’t relevant for the strategy. She implemented a “strategic calendaring” approach for the organization, making sure that her team members were participating in meetings where their work was assessed and valued. Drawing on Spotify as an inspiration, she designed her teams in a way that everyone was connected to the customer experience. Given her short timeline to execute, she put off a deep skills analysis of her team for a later time, as well as creating a full architectural map of her technology stack. The outcome is that 2.5 years later, the IT department is unified in using the same tooling and optimization standards. It’s more flexible and ready to incorporate government changes, such as offering more accessibility options.

    Photo of Jennifer Schaeffer.
    Jennifer Schaeffer took on the CIO role at Athabasca University in 2017 and was asked to create a five-year strategic plan in just six weeks.
    (Image source: Athabasca University)

    Listen to 'The First 100 Days' podcast – Eric Wright

    Call 7

    Day 76 to Day 90

    Finalize your vision – mission – values statement

    A clear statement for your values, vision, and mission will help crystallize your IT strategy and communicate what you're trying to accomplish to the entire organization.

    Mission: This statement describes the needs that IT was created to meet and answers the basic question of why IT exists.

    Vision: Write a statement that captures your values. Remember that the vision statement sets out what the IT organization wants to be known for now and into the future.

    Values: IT core values represent the standard axioms by which the IT department operates. Similar to the core values of the organization as a whole, IT’s core values are the set of beliefs or philosophies that guide its strategic actions.

    Further reading: IT Vision and Mission Statements Template

    Presentation Deck, slide 42

    John Chen's new strategic vision

    CASE STUDY

    Industry Mobile Services
    Source Sean Silcoff, The Globe and Mail

    John Chen, known in the industry as a successful turnaround executive, was appointed BlackBerry CEO in 2014 following the unsuccessful launch of the BlackBerry 10 mobile operating system and a new tablet.

    He spent his first three months travelling, talking to customers and suppliers, and understanding the company's situation. He assessed that it had a problem generating cash and had made some strategic errors, but there were many assets that could benefit from more investment.

    He was blunt about the state of BlackBerry, making cutting observations of the past mistakes of leadership. He also settled a key question about whether BlackBerry would focus on consumer or enterprise customers. He pointed to a base of 80,000 enterprise customers that accounted for 80% of revenue and chose to focus on that.

    His new mission for BlackBerry: to transform it from being a "mobile technology company" that pushes handset sales to "a mobile solutions company" that serves the mobile computing needs of its customers.

    Photo of John Chen, CEO of BlackBerry.
    John Chen, CEO of BlackBerry, presents at BlackBerry Security Summit 2018 in New York City (Image source: Brian Jackson)

    Listen to 'The First 100 Days' podcast – Erin Bury

    Quick wins: Make recommendations based on the CIO Business Vision survey

    Based on your completed CIO Business Vision survey, use the IT Satisfaction Scorecard to determine some initiatives. Focus on areas that are ranked as high importance to the business but low satisfaction. While all of the initiatives may be achievable given enough time, use the matrix below to identify the quick wins that you can focus on immediately. It’s important to not fail in your quick-win initiative.

    • High Visibility, Low Risk: Best bet for demonstrating your ability to deliver value.
    • Low Visibility, Low Risk: Worth consideration, depending on the level of effort required and the relative importance to the stakeholder.
    • High Visibility, High Risk: Limit higher-risk initiatives until you feel you have gained trust from your stakeholders, demonstrating your ability to deliver.
    • Low Visibility, High Risk: These will be your lowest value, quick-win initiatives. Keep them in a backlog for future consideration in case business objectives change.
    A matrix of initiative categories based on organizational visibility and risk of failure. It is split into quadrants: the vertical axis is 'Organizational Visibility' with 'High' at the top and 'Low' at the bottom; the horizontal axis is 'Risk of Failure' with 'Low' on the left and 'High' on the right. 'Low Visibility, Low Risk, Few stakeholders will benefit from the initiative’s implementation.' 'Low Visibility, High Risk, No immediate attention is required, but it may become a priority in the future if business objectives change.' 'High Visibility, Low Risk, Multiple stakeholders will benefit from the initiative’s implementation, and it has a low risk of failure.' 'High Visibility, High Risk, Multiple stakeholders will benefit from the initiative’s implementation, but it has a higher risk of failure.'

    Presentation Deck, slide 27

    Create and communicate a post-100 plan

    The last few slides of your presentation deck represent a roundup of all the assessments you’ve done and communicate your plan for the months ahead.

    Slide 38. Based on the information on the previous slide and now knowing which IT capabilities need improvement and which business priorities are important to support, estimate where you'd like to see IT staff spend their time in the near future. Will you be looking to shift staff from one area to another? Will you be looking to hire staff?

    Slide 39. Take your IT M&G initiatives from slide 19 and list them here. If you've already achieved a quick win, list it and mark it as completed to show what you've accomplished. Briefly outline the objectives, how you plan to achieve the result, and what measurement will indicate success.

    Slide 40. Reflect your CIO Business Vision initiatives from slide 31 here.

    Slide 41. Use this roadmap template to list your initiatives by roughly when they’ll be worked on and completed. Plan for when you’ll update your diagnostics.

    Expert Contributors

    Photo of Alan Fong, Chief Technology Officer, Dealer-FX Alan Fong, Chief Technology Officer, Dealer-FX
    Photo of Andrew Wertkin, Chief Strategy Officer, BlueCat NetworksPhoto of David Penny, Chief Technology Officer, BlueCat Networks Andrew Wertkin, Chief Strategy Officer, BlueCat Networks
    David Penny, Chief Technology Officer, BlueCat Networks
    Photo of Susan Bowen, CEO, Aptum Susan Bowen, CEO, Aptum
    Photo of Erin Bury, CEO, Willful Erin Bury, CEO, Willful
    Photo of Denis Gaudreault, Country Manager, Intel Canada and Latin America Denis Gaudreault, Country Manager, Intel Canada and Latin America
    Photo of Wayne Berger, CEO, IWG Plc Wayne Berger, CEO, IWG Plc
    Photo of Eric Wright, CEO, LexisNexis Canada Eric Wright, CEO, LexisNexis Canada
    Photo of Gary Davenport Gary Davenport, past president of CIO Association” of Canada, former VP of IT, Enterprise Solutions Division, MTS AllStream
    Photo of Jennifer Schaeffer, VP of IT and CIO, Athabasca University Jennifer Schaeffer, VP of IT and CIO, Athabasca University

    Bibliography

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    Bersohn, Diana. “Go Live on Day One: The Path to Success for a New CIO.” PDF document. Accenture, 2015. Web.

    Bradt, George. “Executive Onboarding When Promoted From Within To Follow A Successful Leader.” Forbes, 15 Nov. 2018. Web.

    “CIO Stats: Length of CIO Tenure Varies By Industry.” CIO Journal, The Wall Street Journal. 15 Feb. 2017. Web.

    “Enlarging Your Sphere of Influence in Your Organization: Your Learning and Development Guide to Getting People on Side.” MindTools Corporate, 2014.

    “Executive Summary.” The CIO's First 100 Days: A Toolkit. PDF document. Gartner, 2012. Web.

    Forbes, Jeff. “Are You Ready for the C-Suite?” KBRS, n.d. Web.

    Gallo, Carmine. “Tim Cook Uses These 5 Words to Take Control of Any Conversation.” Inc., 9 Aug. 2019. Web.

    Giles, Sunnie. “The Most Important Leadership Competencies, According to Leaders Around the World.” Harvard Business Review, 15 March 2016. Web.

    Godin, Seth. “Ode: How to tell a great story.” Seth's Blog. 27 April 2006. Web.

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    Hakobyan, Hayk. “On Louis Gerstner And IBM.” Hayk Hakobyan, n.d. Web.

    Bibliography

    Hargrove, Robert. Your First 100 Days in a New Executive Job, edited by Susan Youngquist. Kindle Edition. Masterful Coaching Press, 2011.

    Heathfield, Susan M. “Why ‘Blink’ Matters: The Power of Your First Impressions." The Balance Careers, 25 June 2019. Web.

    Hillis, Rowan, and Mark O'Donnell. “How to get off to a flying start in your new job.” Odgers Berndtson, 29 Nov. 2018. Web.

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    Silcoff, Sean. “Exclusive: John Chen’s simple plan to save BlackBerry.” The Globe & Mail, 24 Feb. 2014. Web.

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    “Start Stop Continue Retrospective.” GroupMap, n.d. Web.

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    Watkins, Michael D. The First 90 Days, Updated and Expanded. Harvard Business Review Press, 2013.

    Watkins, Michael D. “7 Ways to Set Up a New Hire for Success.” Harvard Business Review, 10 May 2019. Web.

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    Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}211|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.4/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $137,332 Average $ Saved
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    • Parent Category Name: Vendor Management
    • Parent Category Link: /vendor-management
    • Each year, IT organizations spend more money “outsourcing” tasks, activities, applications, functions, and other items.
    • The increased spend and associated outsourcing leads to less control, and more risk for IT organizations. Managing this becomes a higher priority for IT, but many IT organizations are ill-equipped to do this proactively.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Vendor management is not “plug and play” – each organization’s vendor management initiative (VMI) needs to fit its culture, environment, and goals. There are commonalites among vendor management initiatives, but the key is to adapt vendor management principles to fit your needs, not the other way around.
    • All vendors are not of equal importance to an organization. Internal resources are a scarce commodity and should be deployed so that they provide the best return on the organization’s investment. Classifying or segmenting your vendors allows you to focus your efforts on the most important vendors first, allowing your VMI to have the greatest impact possible.
    • Having a solid foundation is critical to the VMI’s ongoing success. Whether you will be creating a formal vendor management office or using vendor management techniques, tools, and templates “informally,” starting with the basics is essential. Make sure you understand why the VMI exists and what it hopes to achieve, what is in and out of scope for the VMI, what strengths the VMI can leverage and the obstacles it will have to address, and how it will work with other areas within your organization.

    Impact and Result

    • Build and implement a vendor management initiative tailored to your environment.
    • Create a solid foundation to sustain your vendor management initiative as it evolves and matures.
    • Leverage vendor management-specific tools and templates to manage vendors more proactively and improve communication.
    • Concentrate your vendor management resources on the right vendors.
    • Build a roadmap and project plan for your vendor management journey to ensure you reach your destination.
    • Build collaborative relationships with critical vendors.

    Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should jump start a vendor management initiative, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Plan

    Organize your VMI and document internal processes, relationships, roles, and responsibilities. The main outcomes from this phase are organizational documents, a baseline VMI maturity level, and a desired future state for the VMI.

    • Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative – Phase 1: Plan
    • Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium

    2. Build

    Configure and create the tools and templates that will help you run the VMI. The main outcomes from this phase are a clear understanding of which vendors are important to you, the tools to manage the vendor relationships, and an implementation plan.

    • Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative – Phase 2: Build
    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium
    • Jump – Phase 2 Vendor Classification Tool
    • Jump – Phase 2 Vendor Risk Assessment Tool

    3. Run

    Begin operating the VMI. The main outcomes from this phase are guidance and the steps required to implement your VMI.

    • Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative – Phase 3: Run

    4. Review

    Identify what the VMI should stop doing, start doing, and continue doing as it improves and matures. The main outcomes from this phase are ways to advance the VMI and maintain internal alignment.

    • Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative – Phase 4: Review

    Infographic

    Workshop: Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative

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

    1 Plan

    The Purpose

    Getting Organized

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Defined Roles and Goals for the VMI

    Activities

    1.1 Mission Statement and Goals

    1.2 Scope

    1.3 Strengths and Obstacles

    1.4 Roles and Responsibilities – OIC Chart

    1.5 Process Mapping

    1.6 Vendor Inventory Tool (Overview)

    Outputs

    Completed Mission Statement and Goals

    List of Items In Scope and Out of Scope for the VMI

    List of Strengths and Obstacles for the VMI

    Completed OIC Chart

    Sample Process Map for One Process

    Begun Using Vendor Inventory Tool

    2 Plan/Build/Run

    The Purpose

    Build VMI Tools and Templates

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Configured Tools and Templates for the VMI Based on Its Roles and Goals

    Activities

    2.1 Maturity Assessment

    2.2 Structure and Job Descriptions

    2.3 Attributes of a Valuable Vendor

    2.4 Classification Model

    2.5 Risk Assessment Tool

    2.6 Scorecards and Feedback

    2.7 Business Alignment Meeting Agenda

    Outputs

    Completed Maturity Assessment.

    Sample Job Descriptions and Phrases.

    List of Attributes of a Valuable Vendor.

    Configured Classification Model.

    Configured Risk Assessment Tool.

    Configured Scorecard and Feedback Questions.

    Configured Business Alignment Meeting Agenda.

    3 Build/Run

    The Purpose

    Continue Building VMI Tools and Templates

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Configured Tools and Templates for the VMI Based on Its Roles and Goals

    Activities

    3.1 Relationship Alignment Document

    3.2 Vendor Orientation

    3.3 Policies and Procedures

    3.4 3-Year Roadmap

    3.5 90-Day Plan

    3.6 Quick Wins

    3.7 Reports

    3.8 Kickoff Meeting

    Outputs

    Relationship Alignment Document Sample and Checklist

    Vendor Orientation Checklist

    Policies and Procedures Checklist

    Completed 3-Year Roadmap

    Completed 90-Day Plan

    List of Quick Wins

    List of Reports

    4 Review

    The Purpose

    Review the Past 12 Months of VMI Operations and Improve

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Keeping the VMI Aligned With the Organization’s Goals and Ensuring the VMI Is Leveraging Leading Practices

    Activities

    4.1 Develop/Improve Vendor Relationships.

    4.2 Assess Compliance.

    4.3 Incorporate Leading Practices.

    4.4 Leverage Lessons Learned.

    4.5 Maintain Internal Alignment.

    4.6 Update Governances.

    Outputs

    Further reading

    Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative

    Create and implement a vendor management framework to begin obtaining measurable results in 90 days.

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    What is vendor management?

    When you read the phrase “vendor management,” what comes to mind? This isn’t a rhetorical question. Take your time … I’ll wait.

    Unfortunately, those words conjure up a lot of different meanings, and much of that depends on whom you ask. Those who work in the vendor management field will provide a variety of answers. To complicate matters, those who are vendor management “outsiders” will have a totally different view of what vendor management is. Why is this important? Because we need a common definition to communicate more effectively, even if the definition is broad.

    Let’s start creating a working definition that is not circular. Vendor management is not simply managing vendors. That expression basically reorders the words and does nothing to advance our cause; it only adds to the existing confusion surrounding the concept.

    Vendor management is best thought of as a spectrum or continuum with many points rather than a specific discipline like accounting or finance. There are many functions and activities that fall under the umbrella term of vendor management: some of them will be part of your vendor management initiative (VMI), some will not, and some will exist in your organization but be outside the VMI. This is the unique part of vendor management – the part that makes it fun, but also the part that leads to the confusion. For example, accounts payable sits within the accounting department almost exclusively, but contract management can sit within or outside the VMI. The beauty of vendor management is its flexibility; your VMI can be created to meet your specific needs and goals while leveraging common vendor management principles.

    Every conversation around vendor management needs to begin with “What do you mean by that?” Only then can we home in on the scope and nature of what people are discussing. “Managing vendors” is too narrow because it often ignores many of the reasons organizations create VMIs in the first place: to reduce costs, to improve performance, to improve processes, to improve relationships, to improve communication, and to manage risk better.

    Vendor management is a strategic initiative that takes the big picture into account … navigating the cradle to grave lifecycle to get the most out of your interactions and relationships with your vendors. It is flexible and customizable; it is not plug and play or overly prescriptive. Tools, principles, templates, and concepts are adapted rather than adopted as is. Ultimately, you define what vendor management is for your organization.

    We look forward to helping you on your vendor management journey no matter what it looks like. But first, let’s have a conversation about how you want to define vendor management in your environment.

    This is a picture of Phil Bode, Principal  Research Director, Vendor Management at Info-Tech Research Group.

    Phil Bode
    Principal Research Director, Vendor Management
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Each year, IT organizations “outsource” tasks, activities, functions, and other items. During 2021:

    • Spend on as-a-service providers increased 38% over 2020.*
    • Spend on managed service providers increased 16% over 2020.*
    • IT service providers increased their merger and acquisition numbers by 47% over 2020.*

    *Source: Information Services Group, Inc., 2022.

    This leads to more spend, less control, and more risk for IT organizations. Managing this becomes a higher priority for IT, but many IT organizations are ill-equipped to do this proactively.

    Common Obstacles

    As new contracts are negotiated and existing contracts are renegotiated or renewed, there is a perception that the contracts will yield certain results, output, performance, solutions, or outcomes. The hope is that these will provide a measurable expected value to IT and the organization. Oftentimes, much of the expected value is never realized. Many organizations don’t have a VMI to help:

    • Ensure at least the expected value is achieved.
    • Improve on the expected value through performance management.
    • Significantly increase the expected value through a proactive VMI.

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    Vendor management is a proactive, cross-functional lifecycle. It can be broken down into four phases:

    • Plan
    • Build
    • Run
    • Review

    The Info-Tech process addresses all four phases and provides a step-by-step approach to configure and operate your VMI. The content in this blueprint helps you quickly establish your VMI and set a solid foundation for its growth and maturity.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Vendor management is not a one-size-fits-all initiative. It must be configured:

    • For your environment, culture, and goals.
    • To leverage the strengths of your organization and personnel.
    • To focus your energy and resources on your critical vendors.

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Spend on managed service providers and as-a-service providers continues to increase. In addition, IT services vendors continue to be active in the mergers and acquisitions arena. This increases the need for a VMI to help with the changing IT vendor landscape. In 2021, there was increases of:

    38%

    Spend on As-a-Service Providers

    16%

    Spend on Managed Services Providers

    47%

    IT Services Merger & Acquisition Growth (Transactions)

    Source: Information Services Group, Inc., 2022.

    Executive Summary

    Common Obstacles

    When organizations execute, renew, or renegotiate a contract, there is an “expected value” associated with that contract. Without a robust VMI, most of the expected value will never be realized. With a robust VMI, the realized value significantly exceeds the expected value during the contract term.

    A contract’s realized value with and without a vendor management initiative

    Two bars are depicted, showing that vendor collaboration and vendor performance management exceed expected value with a VMI, but without VMI, 75% of a contract's expected value can disappear within 18 months.

    Source: Based on findings from Geller & Company, 2003.

    Executive Summary

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    A sound, cyclical approach to vendor management will help you create a VMI that meets your needs and stays in alignment with your organization as they both change (i.e. mature and grow).

    This is an image of Info-Tech's approach to VMI.  It includes the following four steps: 01 - Plan; 02 - Build; 03 - Run; 04 - Review

    Info-Tech’s Methodology for Creating and Operating Your VMI

    Phase 1: Plan Phase 2: Build Phase 3: Run Phase 4: Review

    Phase Steps

    1.1 Mission Statement and Goals
    1.2 Scope
    1.3 Strengths and Obstacles
    1.4 Roles and Responsibilities
    1.5 Process Mapping
    1.6 Charter
    1.7 Vendor Inventory
    1.8 Maturity Assessment
    1.9 Structure

    2.1 Classification Model
    2.2 Risk Assessment Tool
    2.3 Scorecards and Feedback
    2.4 Business Alignment Meeting Agenda
    2.5 Relationship Alignment Document
    2.6 Vendor Orientation
    2.7 Job Descriptions
    2.8 Policies and Procedures
    2.9 3-Year Roadmap
    2.10 90-Day Plan
    2.11 Quick Wins
    2.12 Reports

    3.1 Classify Vendors
    3.2 Conduct Internal “Kickoff” Meeting
    3.3 Conduct Vendor Orientation
    3.4 Compile Scorecards
    3.5 Conduct Business Alignment Meetings
    3.6 Work the 90-Day Plan
    3.7 Manage the 3-Year Roadmap
    3.8 Measure and Monitor Risk
    3.9 Issue Reports
    3.10 Develop/Improve Vendor Relationships
    3.11 Contribute to Other Processes

    4.1 Assess Compliance
    4.2 Incorporate Leading Practices
    4.3 Leverage Lessons Learned
    4.4 Maintain Internal Alignment
    4.5 Update Governances

    Phase Outcomes

    This phase helps you organize your VMI and document internal processes, relationships, roles, and responsibilities. The main outcomes from this phase are organizational documents, a baseline VMI maturity level, and a desired future state for the VMI. This phase helps you configure and create the tools and templates that will help you run the VMI. The main outcomes from this phase are a clear understanding of which vendors are important to you, the tools to manage the vendor relationships, and an implementation plan. This phase helps you begin operating the VMI. The main outcomes from this phase are guidance and the steps required to implement your VMI. This phase helps the VMI identify what it should stop doing, start doing, and continue doing as it improves and matures. The main outcomes from this phase are ways to advance the VMI and maintain internal alignment.

    Insight Summary

    Insight 1

    Vendor management is not “plug and play” – each organization’s vendor management initiative (VMI) needs to fit its culture, environment, and goals. While there are commonalities and leading practices associated with vendor management, your initiative won’t look exactly like another organization’s. The key is to adapt vendor management principles to fit your needs.

    Insight 2

    All vendors are not of equal importance to your organization. Internal resources are a scarce commodity and should be deployed so that they provide the best return on the organization’s investment. Classifying or segmenting your vendors allows you to focus your efforts on the most important vendors first, allowing your VMI to have the greatest impact possible.

    Insight 3

    Having a solid foundation is critical to the VMI’s ongoing success. Whether you will be creating a formal vendor management office or using vendor management techniques, tools, and templates “informally,” starting with the basics is essential. Make sure you understand why the VMI exists and what it hopes to achieve, what is in and out of scope for the VMI, what strengths the VMI can leverage and the obstacles it will have to address, and how it will work with other areas within your organization.

    Blueprint Deliverables

    The four phases of creating and running a vendor management initiative are supported with configurable tools, templates, and checklists to help you stay aligned internally and achieve your goals.

    VMI Tools and Templates

    This image contains two screenshots of Info-Tech's VMI Tools and Templates

    Build a solid foundation for your VMI and configure tools and templates to help you manage your vendor relationships.

    Key Deliverables:

    1. Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium
    2. Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium
    3. Jump – Phase 2 Vendor Classification Tool
    4. Jump – Phase 2 Vendor Risk Assessment Tool

    A suite of tools and templates to help you create and implement your vendor management initiative.

    Blueprint benefits

    IT Benefits

    • Identify and manage risk proactively.
    • Reduce costs and maximize value.
    • Increase visibility with your critical vendors.
    • Improve vendor performance.
    • Create a collaborative environment with key vendors.
    • Segment vendors to allocate resources more effectively and more efficiently.

    Business Benefits

    • Improve vendor accountability.
    • Increase collaboration between departments.
    • Improve working relationships with your vendors.
    • Create a feedback loop to address vendor or customer issues before they get out of hand or are more costly to resolve.
    • Increase access to meaningful data and information regarding important vendors.

    Establish Baseline Metrics

    Baseline metrics will be improved through:

    Using the Maturity Assessment and 90-Day Plan tools, track how well you are able to achieve your goals and objectives:

    • Did you meet the targeted maturity level for each maturity category as determined by the point system?
    • Did you finish each activity in the 90-Day Plan completely and on time?
    1-Year Maturity Roadmap(by Category) Target Maturity (Total Points) Actual Maturity (Total Points)
    Contracts 12 12
    Risk 8 7
    Vendor Selection 9 9
    Vendor Relationships 21 21
    VMI Operations 24 16
    90-Day Plan (by Activity) Activity Completed
    Finalize mission and goals; gain executive approval Yes
    Finalize OIC chart; gain buy-in from other departments Yes
    Classify top 40 vendors by spend Yes
    Create initial scorecard Yes
    Develop the business alignment meeting agenda Yes
    Conduct two business alignment meetings No
    Update job descriptions Yes
    Map two VMI processes No

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

    DIY Toolkit

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

    Guided Implementation

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

    Workshop

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

    Consulting

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Phase 1 Phases 2 & 3 Phase 4

    Call #1: Mission statement and goals, scope, and strengths and obstacles.

    Call #5: Classification model.

    Call #9: Policies and procedures and reports.

    Call #12: Assess compliance, incorporate leading practices, leverage lessons learned, maintain internal alignment, and update governances.

    Call #2: Roles and responsibilities and process mapping.

    Call #6: Risk assessment.

    Call #10: 3-year roadmap.

    Call #3: Charter and vendor inventory.

    Call #7: Scorecards and feedback and business alignment meetings.

    Call #11: 90-day plan and quick wins.

    Call #4: Maturity assessment and VMI structure.

    Call #8: Relationship alignment document, vendor orientation, and job descriptions.

    Workshop Overview

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

    Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4
    Plan Plan/Build/Run Build/Run Review

    Activities

    1.1 Mission Statement and Goals
    1.2 Scope
    1.3 Strengths and Obstacles
    1.4 Roles and Responsibilities
    1.5 Process Mapping
    1.6 Charter
    1.7 Vendor Inventory
    1.8 Maturity Assessment
    1.9 Structure

    2.1 Classification Model
    2.2 Risk Assessment Tool
    2.3 Scorecards and Feedback
    2.4 Business Alignment Meeting Agenda
    2.5 Relationship Alignment Document
    2.6 Vendor Orientation
    2.7 Job Descriptions
    2.8 Policies and Procedures
    2.9 3-Year Roadmap
    2.10 90-Day Plan
    2.11 Quick Wins
    2.12 Reports

    3.1 Classify Vendors
    3.2 Conduct Internal “Kickoff” Meeting
    3.3 Conduct Vendor Orientation
    3.4 Compile Scorecards
    3.5 Conduct Business Alignment Meetings
    3.6 Work the 90-Day Plan
    3.7 Manage the 3-Year Roadmap
    3.8 Measure and Monitor Risk
    3.9 Issue Reports
    3.10 Develop/Improve Vendor Relationships
    3.11 Contribute to Other Processes

    4.1 Assess Compliance
    4.2 Incorporate Leading Practices
    4.3 Leverage Lessons Learned
    4.4 Maintain Internal Alignment
    4.5 Update Governances

    Deliverables

    1. Completed Mission Statement and Goals
    2. List of Items In Scope and Out of Scope for the VMI
    3. List of Strengths and Obstacles for the VMI
    4. Completed OIC Chart
    5. Sample Process Map for One Process
    6. Vendor Inventory tab
    1. Completed Maturity Assessment
    2. Sample Job Descriptions and Phrases
    3. List of Attributes of a Valuable Vendor
    4. Configured Classification Model
    5. Configured Risk Assessment Tool
    6. Configured Scorecard and Feedback Questions
    7. Configured Business Alignment Meeting Agenda
    1. Relationship Alignment Document Sample and Checklist
    2. Vendor Orientation Checklist
    3. Policies and Procedures Checklist
    4. Completed 3-Year Roadmap
    5. Completed 90-Day Plan
    6. List of Quick Wins
    7. List of Reports

    Phase 1: Plan

    Get Organized

    1.1 Mission Statement and Goals
    1.2 Scope
    1.3 Strengths and Obstacles
    1.4 Roles and Responsibilities
    1.5 Process Mapping
    1.6 Charter
    1.7 Vendor Inventory
    1.8 Maturity Assessment
    1.9 Structure

    Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4
    1.1 Mission Statement and Goals
    1.2 Scope
    1.3 Strengths and Obstacles
    1.4 Roles and Responsibilities
    1.5 Process Mapping
    1.6 Charter
    1.7 Vendor Inventory
    1.8 Maturity Assessment
    1.9 Structure

    2.1 Classification Model
    2.2 Risk Assessment Tool
    2.3 Scorecards and Feedback
    2.4 Business Alignment Meeting Agenda
    2.5 Relationship Alignment Document
    2.6 Vendor Orientation
    2.7 Job Descriptions
    2.8 Policies and Procedures
    2.9 3-Year Roadmap
    2.10 90-Day Plan
    2.11 Quick Wins
    2.12 Reports

    3.1 Classify Vendors
    3.2 Conduct Internal “Kickoff” Meeting
    3.3 Conduct Vendor Orientation
    3.4 Compile Scorecards
    3.5 Conduct Business Alignment Meetings
    3.6 Work the 90-Day Plan
    3.7 Manage the 3-Year Roadmap
    3.8 Measure and Monitor Risk
    3.9 Issue Reports
    3.10 Develop/Improve Vendor Relationships
    3.11 Contribute to Other Processes

    4.1 Assess Compliance
    4.2 Incorporate Leading Practices
    4.3 Leverage Lessons Learned
    4.4 Maintain Internal Alignment
    4.5 Update Governances

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    Organize your VMI and document internal processes, relationships, roles, and responsibilities. The main outcomes from this phase are organizational documents, a baseline VMI maturity level, and a desired future state for the VMI.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives
    • Procurement/Sourcing
    • IT
    • Others as needed

    Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative

    Phase 1: Plan

    Get organized.

    Phase 1: Plan focuses on getting organized. Foundational elements (mission statement, goals, scope, strengths and obstacles, roles and responsibilities, and process mapping) will help you define your VMI. These and the other elements of this Phase will follow you throughout the process of standing up your VMI and running it.

    Spending time up front to ensure that everyone is on the same page will help avoid headaches down the road. The tendency is to skimp (or even skip) on these steps to get to “the good stuff.” To a certain extent, the process provided here is like building a house. You wouldn’t start building your dream home without having a solid blueprint. The same is true with vendor management. Leveraging vendor management tools and techniques without the proper foundation may provide some benefit in the short term, but in the long term it will ultimately be a house of cards waiting to collapse.

    Step 1.1: Mission statement and goals

    Identify why the VMI exists and what it will achieve.

    Whether you are starting your vendor management journey or are already down the path, it is important to know why the vendor management initiative exists and what it hopes to achieve. The easiest way to document this is with a written declaration in the form of a mission statement and goals. Although this is the easiest way to proceed, it is far from easy.

    The mission statement should identify at a high level the nature of the services provided by the VMI, who it will serve, and some of the expected outcomes or achievements. The mission statement should be no longer than one or two sentences.

    The complement to the mission statement is the list of goals for the VMI. Your goals should not be a reassertion of your mission statement in bullet format. At this stage it may not be possible to make them SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable/Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound/Time-Based), but consider making them as SMART as possible. Without some of the SMART parameters attached, your goals are more like dreams and wishes. At a minimum, you should be able to determine the level of success achieved for each of the VMI goals.

    Although the VMI’s mission statement will stay static over time (other than for significant changes to the VMI or organization as a whole), the goals should be re-evaluated periodically using a SMART filter and adjusted as needed.

    1.1.1: Mission statement and goals

    20-40 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and use a brainstorming activity to list on a whiteboard or flip chart the reasons why the VMI will exist.
    2. Review external mission statements for inspiration.
    3. Review internal mission statements from other areas to ensure consistency.
    4. Draft and document your mission statement in the Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.1 Mission Statement and Goals.
    5. Continue brainstorming and identify the high-level goals for the VMI.
    6. Review the list of goals and make them as SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable/Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound/Time-Based) as possible.
    7. Document your goals in the Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.1 Mission Statement and Goals.
    8. Obtain sign-off on the mission statement and goals from stakeholders and executives as required.

    Input

    • Brainstorming results
    • Mission statements from other internal and external sources

    Output

    • Completed mission statement and goals

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.1 Mission Statement and Goals

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 1.2: Scope

    Determine what is in scope and out of scope for the VMI

    Regardless of where your VMI resides or how it operates, it will be working with other areas within your organization. Some of the activities performed by the VMI will be new and not currently handled by other groups or individuals internally; at the same time, some of the activities performed by the VMI may be currently handled by other groups or individuals internally. In addition, executives, stakeholders, and other internal personnel may have expectations or make assumptions about the VMI. As a result, there can be a lot of confusion about what the VMI does and doesn’t do, and the answers cannot always be found in the VMI’s mission statement and goals.

    One component of helping others understand the VMI landscape is formalizing the VMI scope. The scope will define boundaries for the VMI. The intent is not to fence itself off and keep others out but provide guidance on where the VMI’s territory begins and ends. Ultimately, this will help clarify the VMI’s roles and responsibilities, improve workflow, and reduce errant assumptions.

    When drafting your VMI scoping document, make sure you look at both sides of the equation (similar to what you would do when following best practices for a statement of work): Identify what is in scope and what is out of scope. Be specific when describing the individual components of the VMI scope, and make sure executives and stakeholders are on board with the final version.

    1.2.1: Scope

    20-40 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and use a brainstorming activity to list on a whiteboard or flip chart the activities and functions in scope and out of scope for the VMI.
      1. Be specific to avoid ambiguity and improve clarity.
      2. Go back and forth between in scope and out of scope as needed; it is not necessary to list all of the in-scope items and then turn your attention to the out-of-scope items.
    2. Review the lists to make sure there is enough specificity. An item may be in scope or out of scope but not both.
    3. Use the Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.2 Scope, to document the results.
    4. Obtain sign-off on the scope from stakeholders and executives as required.

    Input

    • Brainstorming
    • Mission statement and goals

    Output

    • Completed list of items in and out of scope for the VMI

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.2 Scope

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 1.3: Strengths and obstacles

    Pinpoint the VMI’s strengths and obstacles.

    A SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) is a valuable tool, but it is overkill for your VMI at this point. However, using a modified and simplified form of this tool (strengths and obstacles) will yield significant results and benefit the VMI as it grows and matures.

    Your output will be two lists: the strengths associated with the VMI and the obstacles facing the VMI. For example, strengths could include items such as smart people working within the VMI and executive support. Obstacles could include items such as limited headcount and training required for VMI staff.

    The goals are 1) to harness the strengths to help the VMI be successful and 2) to understand the impact of the obstacles and plan accordingly. The output can also be used to enlighten executives and stakeholders about the challenges associated with their directives or requests (e.g. human bandwidth may not be sufficient to accomplish some of the vendor management activities and there is a moratorium on hiring until the next budget year).

    For each strength identified, determine how you will or can leverage it when things are going well or when the VMI is in a bind. For each obstacle, list the potential impact on the VMI (e.g. scope, growth rate, and number of vendors that can actively be part of the VMI).

    As you do your brainstorming, be as specific as possible and validate your lists with stakeholders and executives as needed.

    1.3.1: Strengths and obstacles

    20-40 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and use a brainstorming activity to list on a whiteboard or flip chart the VMI’s strengths and obstacles.
      1. Be specific to avoid ambiguity and improve clarity.
      2. Go back and forth between strengths and obstacles as needed; it is not necessary to list all of the strengths and then turn your attention to the obstacles.
      3. It is possible for an item to be a strength and an obstacle; when this happens, add details to distinguish the situations.
    2. Review the lists to make sure there is enough specificity.
    3. Determine how you will leverage each strength and how you will manage each obstacle.
    4. Use the Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.3 Strengths and Obstacles, to document the results.
    5. Obtain sign-off on the strengths and obstacles from stakeholders and executives as required.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Brainstorming
    • Mission statement and goals
    • Scope

    Output

    • Completed list of items impacting the VMI’s ability to be successful: strengths the VMI can leverage and obstacles the VMI must manage

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/Flip Charts
    • Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.3 Strengths and Obstacles

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 1.4: Roles and responsibilities

    Obtain consensus on who is responsible for what.

    One crucial success factor for VMIs is gaining and maintaining internal alignment. There are many moving parts to an organization, and a VMI must be clear on the various roles and responsibilities related to the relevant processes. Some of this information can be found in the VMI’s scope, referenced in Step 1.2, but additional information is required to avoid stepping on each other’s toes since many of the processes require internal departments to work together. (For example, obtaining requirements for a request for proposal takes more than one person or one department to complete this process.) While it is not necessary to get too granular, it is imperative that you have a clear understanding of how the VMI activities will fit within the larger vendor management lifecycle (which is comprised of many sub processes) and who will be doing what.

    As we have learned through our workshops and guided implementations, a traditional RACI* or RASCI* chart does not work well for this purpose. These charts are not intuitive, and they lack the specificity required to be effective. For vendor management purposes, a higher-level view and a slightly different approach provide much better results.

    This step will lead your through the creation of an OIC* chart to determine vendor management lifecycle roles and responsibilities. Afterward, you’ll be able to say, “Oh, I see clearly who is involved in each part of the process and what their role is.”

    *RACI – Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed
    *RASCI – Responsible, Accountable, Support, Consulted, Informed
    *OIC – Owner, Informed, Contributor

    This is an image of a table which shows an example of which role would be responsible for which step

    Step 1.4: Roles and responsibilities (cont.)

    Obtain consensus on who is responsible for what.

    To start, define the vendor management lifecycle steps or process applicable to your VMI. Next, determine who participates in the vendor management lifecycle. There is no need to get too granular – think along the lines of departments, subdepartments, divisions, agencies, or however you categorize internal operational units. Avoid naming individuals other than by title; this typically happens when a person oversees a large group (e.g. the CIO [chief information officer] or the CPO [chief procurement officer]). Be thorough, but the chart can get out of hand quickly. For each role and step of the lifecycle, ask whether the entry is necessary – does it add value to the clarity of understanding the responsibilities associated with the vendor management lifecycle? Consider two examples, one for roles and one for lifecycle steps: 1) Is IT sufficient or do you need IT Operations and IT Development? 2) Is “negotiate contract documents” sufficient or do you need “negotiate the contract” and “negotiate the renewal”? The answer will always depend on your culture and environment, but be wary of creating a spreadsheet that requires an 85-inch monitor to view it in its entirety.

    After defining the roles (departments, divisions, agencies) and the vendor management lifecycle steps or process, assign one of three letters to each box in your chart:

    • O – Owner – who owns the process; they may also contribute to it.
    • I – Informed – who is informed about the progress or results of the process.
    • C – Contributor – who contributes or works on the process; it can be tangible or intangible contributions.

    This activity can be started by the VMI or done as a group with representatives from each of the named roles. If the VMI starts the activity, the resulting chart should be validated by the each of the named roles.

    1.4.1: Roles and responsibilities

    1-6 hours

    1. Meet with the participants and configure the OIC Chart in the Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.4 OIC Chart.
      1. Review the steps or activities across the top of the chart and modify as needed.
      2. Review the roles listed along the left side of the chart and modify as needed.
    2. For each activity or step across the top of the chart, assign each role a letter – O for owner of that activity or step; I for informed; or C for contributor. Use only one letter per cell.
    3. Work your way across the chart. Every cell should have an entry or be left blank if it is not applicable.
    4. Review the results and validate that every activity or step has an O assigned to it; there must be an owner for every activity or step.
    5. Obtain sign-off on the OIC chart from stakeholders and executives as required.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • A list of activities or steps to complete a project, starting with requirements gathering and ending with ongoing risk management
    • A list of internal areas (departments, divisions, agencies, etc.) and stakeholders that contribute to completing a project

    Output

    • Completed OCI chart indicating roles and responsibilities for the VMI and other internal areas

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.4 OIC Chart

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Procurement/Sourcing
    • IT
    • Representatives from other areas as needed
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives as needed

    Step 1.5: Process mapping

    Diagram the workflow.

    Although policies and procedures are important, their nature can make it difficult to grasp how things work at a high level (or even at the detail level). To help bridge the gap, map the applicable processes (determined by how deep and wide you want to go) involving the VMI. To start, look at the OIC chart from Step 1.4. You can expand the breadth and depth of your mapping to include the VMI scope, the 3-year roadmap (see Step 2.9), and the processes driven by the day-to-day work within the VMI.

    Various mapping tools can be used. Three common approaches that can be mixed and matched are:

    • Traditional flowcharts.
    • Swimlane diagrams.
    • Work breakdown structures.
    This is an example of a Workflow Process Map

    Step 1.5: Process mapping (cont.)

    Diagram the workflow.

    Your goal is not to create an in-depth diagram for every step of the vendor management lifecycle. However, for steps owned by the VMI, the process map should include sufficient details for the owner and the contributors (see Step 1.4) to understand what is required of them to support that step in the lifecycle.

    For VMI processes that don’t interact with other departments, follow the same pattern as outlined above for steps owned by the VMI.

    Whatever methodology you use to create your process map, make sure it includes enough details so that readers and users can identify the following elements:

    • Input:
      • What are the inputs?
      • Where do the inputs originate or come from?
    • Process:
      • Who is involved/required for this step?
      • What happens to the inputs in this step?
      • What additional materials, tools, or resources are used or required during this step?
    • Output:
      • What are the outputs?
      • Where do the outputs go next?

    1.5.1: Process Mapping

    1-8 hours (or more)

    1. Meet with the participants and determine which processes you want to map.
      1. For processes owned by the VMI, map the entire process.
      2. For processes contributed to by the VMI, map the entire process at a high level and map the VMI portion of the process in greater detail.
    2. Select the right charts/diagrams for your output.
      1. Flowchart
      2. Swimlane diagram
      3. Modified SIPOC (Supplier, Input, Process, Output, Customer)
      4. WBS (work breakdown structure)
    3. Begin mapping the processes either in a tool or using sticky notes. You want to be able to move the steps and associated information easily; most people don’t map the entire process accurately or with sufficient detail the first time through. An iterative approach works best.
    4. Obtain signoff on the process maps from stakeholders and executives as required. A copy of the final output can be kept in the Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.5 Process Mapping, if desired.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Existing processes (formal, informal, documented, and undocumented)
    • OIC chart

    Output

    • Process maps for processes contributed to or owned by the VMI

    Materials

    • Sticky Notes
    • Flowchart/process mapping software or something similar
    • (Optional) Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.5 Process Mapping

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Procurement/Sourcing
    • IT
    • Representatives from other areas as needed
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 1.6: Charter

    Document how the VMI will operate.

    As you continue getting organized by working through steps 1.1-1.5, you may want to document your progress in a charter and add some elements. Basically, a charter is a written document laying out how the VMI will operate within the organization. It clearly states the VMI’s mission, goals, scope, roles and responsibilities, and vendor governance model. In addition, it can include a list of team members and sponsors.

    Whether you create a VMI charter will largely depend on:

    • Your organization’s culture.
    • Your organization’s formality.
    • The perceived value of creating a charter.

    If you decide to create a VMI charter, this is a good place in the process to create an initial draft. As you continue working through the blueprint and your VMI matures, update the VMI charter as needed.

    VMI Charter:

    • Purpose
    • Sponsors
    • Roles
    • Responsibilities
    • Governance

    1.6.1: Charter

    1-4 hours

    1. Meet with the participants and review the template in Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.6 Charter.
    2. Determine whether the participants will use this template or add materials to your standard charter template.
    3. Complete as much of the charter as possible, knowing that some information may not be available until later.
    4. Return to the charter as needed until it is completed.
    5. Obtain sign-off on the charter from stakeholders and executives as required.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Mission statement and goals
    • Scope
    • Strengths and obstacles
    • OIC chart
    • List of stakeholders and executives and their VMI roles and responsibilities

    Output

    • Completed VMI charter

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.6 Charter
    • Your organization’s standard charter document

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 1.7: Vendor inventory

    Compile a list of vendors and relevant vendor information.

    As you prepare your VMI for being operational, it’s critical to identify all of your current vendors providing IT products or services to the organization. This can be tricky and may depend on how you view things internally. For example, you may have traditional IT vendors that are managed by IT, and you may have IT vendors that are managed by other internal departments (shadow IT or out-in-the-open IT). If it wasn’t determined with the help of stakeholders and executives before now, make sure you establish the purview of the VMI at this point. What types of vendors are included and excluded from the VMI?

    You may find that a vendor can be included and excluded based on the product or service they provide. A vendor may provide a service that is managed by IT and a service that is managed/controlled by another department. In this instance, a good working relationship and clearly defined roles and responsibilities between the VMI and the other department will be required. But, it all starts with compiling a list of vendors and validating the VMI’s purview (and any limitations) for the vendors with stakeholders and executives.

    Step 1.7: Vendor inventory (cont.)

    Compile a list of vendors and relevant vendor information.

    At a minimum, the VMI should be able to quickly retrieve key information about each of “its” vendors:

    • Vendor Name
    • Classification (see Steps 2.1 and 3.1)
    • Categories of Service
    • Names of Products and Services Provided
    • Brief Descriptions of Products and Services Provided
    • Annualized Vendor Spend
    • Vendor Contacts
    • Internal Vendor Relationship Owner

    Not all of this information will be available at this point, but you can begin designing or configuring your tool to meet your needs. As your VMI enters Phase 3: Run and continues to mature, you will return to this tool and update the information. For example, the vendor classification category won’t be known until Phase 3, and it can change over time.

    1.7.1: Vendor inventory

    1-10 hours

    Meet with the participants and review the Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.7 Vendor Inventory. Determine whether the VMI wants to collect and/or monitor additional information and make any necessary modifications to the tool.

    Enter the “Annual IT Vendor Spend” amount in the appropriate cell toward the top of the spreadsheet. This is for IT spend for vendor-related activities within the VMI’s scope; include shadow IT spend and “non-shadow” IT spend if those vendors will be included in the VMI’s scope.

    Populate the data fields for your top 50 vendors by annual spend; you may need multiple entries for the same vendor depending on the nature of the products and services they provide.

    Ignore the “Classification” column for now; you will return to this later when classification information is available.

    Ignore the “Percentage of IT Budget” column as well; it uses a formula to calculate this information.

    Input

    • Data from various internal and external sources such as accounts payable, contracts, and vendor websites

    Output

    • List of vendors with critical information required to manage relationships with key vendors

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.7 Vendor Inventory

    Participants

    • VMI team (directly)
    • Other internal and external personnel (indirectly)

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Step 1.8: Maturity assessment

    Establish a VMI maturity baseline and set an ideal future state.

    Knowing where you are and where you want to go are essential elements for any journey in the physical world, and the same holds true for your VMI journey. Start by assessing your current-state VMI maturity. This will provide you with a baseline to measure progress against. Next, using the same criteria, determine the level of VMI maturity you would like to achieve one year in the future. This will be your future-state VMI maturity. Lastly, identify the gaps and plot your course.

    The maturity assessment provides three main benefits:

    1. Focus – you’ll know what is important to you moving forward.
    2. 3-Year Roadmap (discussed more fully in Step 2.9) – you’ll have additional input for your short-term and long-term roadmap (1, 2, and 3 years out).
    3. Quantifiable Improvement – you’ll be able to measure your progress and make midcourse corrections when necessary.

    Step 1.8: Maturity assessment (cont.)

    Establish a VMI maturity baseline and set an ideal future state.

    The Info-Tech VMI Maturity Assessment tool evaluates your maturity across several criteria across multiple categories. Once completed, the assessment will specify:

    • A current-state score by category and overall.
    • A target-state score by category and overall.
    • A quantifiable gap for each criterion.
    • A priority assignment for each criterion.
    • A level of effort required by criterion to get from the current state to the target state.
    • A target due date by criterion for achieving the target state.
    • A rank order for each criterion (note: limit your ranking to your top 7 or 9).

    Many organizations will be tempted to mature too quickly. Resource constraints and other items from Step 1.3 (Strengths and Obstacles) will impact how quickly you can mature. Being aggressive is fine, but it must be tempered with a dose of reality. Otherwise, morale, perception, and results can suffer.

    1.8.1: Maturity assessment

    45-90 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and use Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.8 Maturity Assessment Input, to complete the first part of this activity. Provide the required information indicated below.
      1. Review each statement in column B and enter a value in the “Current” column using the drop-down menus based on how much you disagree or agree (0-4) with the statement. This establishes a baseline maturity.
      2. Repeat this process for the “Future” column using a target date of one year from now to achieve this level. This is your desired maturity.
      3. Enter information regarding priority, level of effort, and target due date in the applicable columns using the drop-down menus. (Priority levels are critical, high, medium, low, and maintain; Levels of Effort are high, medium, and low; Target Due Dates are broken into timelines: 1-3 months, 4-6 months, 7-9 months, and 10-12 months.)
    2. Review the information on Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.8 Maturity Assessment Output; use the Distribution Tables to help you rank your top priorities. Enter a unique number into the Priority (Rank) column. Limit your ranking to the top 7 to 9 activities to provide focus.

    Input

    • Knowledge of current VMI practices and desired future states

    Output

    • VMI maturity baseline
    • Desired VMI target maturity state (in one year)
    • Prioritized areas to improve and due dates
    • Graphs and tables to identify maturity deltas and track progress

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.8 Maturity Assessment Input
    • Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.8 Maturity Assessment Output

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 1.9: Structure

    Determine the VMI’s organizational and reporting structure.

    There are two parts to the VMI structure:

    1. Organization Structure. Who owns the VMI – where does it fit on the organization chart?
    2. Reporting Structure. What is the reporting structure within the VMI – what are the job functions, titles, and solid and dotted lines of accountability?

    VMI Organization Structure

    The decision regarding who owns the VMI can follow one of two paths:

    1. The decision has already been made by the board of directors, executives, senior leadership, or stakeholders; OR
    2. The decision has not been made, and options will be reviewed and evaluated before it is implemented.

    Many organizations overlook the importance of this decision. The VMI’s position on the organization chart can aid or hinder its success. Whether the decision has already been made or not, this is the perfect time to evaluate the decision or options based on the following question: Why is the VMI being created and how will it operate? Review the documents you created during Steps 1.1-1.8 and other factors to answer this question.

    Step 1.9: Structure (cont.)

    Determine the VMI’s organizational and reporting structure.

    Based on your work product from Steps 1.1-1.8 and other factors, select where the VMI will be best located from the following areas/offices or their equivalent:

    • Chief Compliance Officer (CCO)
    • Chief Information Officer (CIO)
    • Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
    • Chief Procurement Officer (CPO)
    • Chief Operating Officer (COO)
    • Other area

    Without the proper support and placement in the organization chart, the VMI can fail. It is important for the VMI to find a suitable home with a direct connection to one of the sponsors identified above and for the VMI lead to have significant stature (aka title) within the organization. For example, if the VMI lead is a “manager” level who is four reporting layers away from the chief officer/sponsor, the VMI will have an image issue within and outside of the sponsor’s organization (as well as within the vendor community). While this is not to say that the VMI lead should be a vice president* or senior director, our experience and research indicate that the VMI and the VMI lead will be taken more seriously when the VMI lead is at least a director level reporting directly to a CXO.

    *For purposes of the example above, the reporting structure hierarchy used is manager, senior manager, director, senior director, vice president, CXO.

    Step 1.9: Structure (cont.)

    Determine the VMI’s organizational and reporting structure.

    VMI Reporting Structure

    As previously mentioned, the VMI reporting structure describes and identifies the job functions, titles, and lines of accountability. Whether you have a formal vendor management office or you are leveraging the principles of vendor management informally, your VMI reporting structure design will involve some solid lines and some dotted lines. In this instance, the dotted lines represent part-time participation or people/areas that will assist the VMI in some capacity. For example, if the VMI sits within IT, a dotted line to Procurement will show that a good working relationship is required for both parties to succeed; or a dotted line to Christina in Legal will indicate that Christina will be helping the VMI with legal issues.

    There is no one-size-fits-all reporting structure for VMIs, and your approach must leverage the materials from Steps 1.1-1.8, your culture, and your needs. By way of example, your VMI may include some or all of the following functions:

    • Contract Management
    • Relationship Management
    • Financial Management
    • Asset Management
    • Performance Management
    • Sourcing/Procurement
    • Risk Management

    Step 1.9: Structure (cont.)

    Determine the VMI’s organizational and reporting structure.

    Once you’ve identified the functional groups, you can assign titles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships. A good diagram goes a long way to helping others understand your organization. Traditional organization charts work well with VMIs, but a target diagram allows for rapid absorption of the dotted-line relationships. Review the two examples below and determine an approach that works best for you.

    An organizational Chart is depicted.  At the top of the chart is: Office of the CIO.  Below that is: VMI: Legal; Accounting & Finance; Corporate Procurement; below that are the following: Vendor Risk Management; Vendor Reporting and Analysis; Asset Management; Performance Management; Contract Management; IT Procurement Three concentric circles are depicted.  In the inner circle is the term: VMI.  In the middle circle are the terms: Reporting & Analysis; Asset Mgmt; Contract Mgmt; Performance Mgmt; It Proc; Vendor Risk.  In the outer circle are the following terms: Compliance; Finance; HR; Accounting; Procurement; Business Units; Legal; IT

    1.9.1: Structure

    15-60 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and review decisions that have been made or options that are available regarding the VMI’s placement in the organization chart.
      1. Common options include the Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), or Chief Procurement Officer (CPO).
      2. Less common but viable options include the Chief Compliance Officer (CCO), Chief Operating Officer (COO), or another area.
    2. Brainstorm and determine the job functions and titles
    3. Define the reporting structure within the VMI.
    4. Identify the “dotted line” relationships between the VMI and other internal areas.
    5. Using flowchart, org. chart, or other similar software, reduce your results to a graphic representation that indicates where the VMI resides, its reporting structure, and its dotted-line relationships.
    6. Obtain sign-off on the structure from stakeholders and executives as required. A copy of the final output can be kept in the Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.9 Structure, if desired.

    Input

    • Mission statement and goals
    • Scope
    • Maturity assessment results (current and target state)
    • Existing org. charts
    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • Completed org. chart with job titles and reporting structure

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/flip chart
    • Sticky notes
    • Flowchart/org. chart software or something similar
    • (Optional) Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.9 Structure

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • VMI sponsor
    • Stakeholders and executives

    Phase 2: Build

    Create and Configure Tools, Templates, and Processes

    Phase 1Phase 2Phase 3Phase 4
    1.1 Mission Statement and Goals


    1.2 Scope

    1.3 Strengths and Obstacles

    1.4 Roles and Responsibilities

    1.5 Process Mapping

    1.6 Charter

    1.7 Vendor Inventory

    1.8 Maturity Assessment

    1.9 Structure

    2.1 Classification Model
    2.2 Risk Assessment Tool
    2.3 Scorecards and Feedback
    2.4 Business Alignment Meeting Agenda
    2.5 Relationship Alignment Document
    2.6 Vendor Orientation
    2.7 Job Descriptions
    2.8 Policies and Procedures
    2.9 3-Year Roadmap
    2.10 90-Day Plan
    2.11 Quick Wins
    2.12 Reports

    3.1 Classify Vendors
    3.2 Conduct Internal “Kickoff” Meeting
    3.3 Conduct Vendor Orientation
    3.4 Compile Scorecards
    3.5 Conduct Business Alignment Meetings
    3.6 Work the 90-Day Plan
    3.7 Manage the 3-Year Roadmap
    3.8 Measure and Monitor Risk
    3.9 Issue Reports
    3.10 Develop/Improve Vendor Relationships
    3.11 Contribute to Other Processes

    4.1 Assess Compliance
    4.2 Incorporate Leading Practices
    4.3 Leverage Lessons Learned
    4.4 Maintain Internal Alignment
    4.5 Update Governances

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    Configure and create the tools and templates that will help you run the VMI. The main outcomes from this phase are a clear understanding of which vendors are important to you, the tools to manage the vendor relationships, and an implementation plan.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives
    • Human Resources
    • Legal
    • Others as needed

    Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative

    Phase 2: Build

    Create and configure tools, templates, and processes.

    Phase 2: Build focuses on creating and configuring the tools and templates that will help you run your VMI. Vendor management is not a plug-and-play environment, and unless noted otherwise, the tools and templates included with this blueprint require your input and thought. The tools and templates must work in concert with your culture, values, and goals. That will require teamwork, insights, contemplation, and deliberation.

    During this Phase, you’ll leverage the various templates and tools included with this blueprint and adapt them for your specific needs and use. In some instances, you’ll be starting with mostly a blank slate; while in others, only a small modification may be required to make it fit your circumstances. However, it is possible that a document or spreadsheet may need heavy customization to fit your situation. As you create your VMI, use the included materials for inspiration and guidance purposes rather than as absolute dictates.

    Step 2.1: Classification model

    Configure the COST Vendor Classification Tool.

    One of the functions of a VMI is to allocate the appropriate level of vendor management resources to each vendor since not all vendors are of equal importance to your organization. While some people may be able intuitively to sort their vendors into vendor management categories, a more objective, consistent, and reliable model works best. Info-Tech’s COST model helps you assign your vendors to the appropriate vendor management category so that you can focus your vendor management resources where they will do the most good.

    COST is an acronym for Commodity, Operational, Strategic, and Tactical. Your vendors will occupy one of these vendor management categories, and each category helps you determine the nature of the resources allocated to that vendor, the characteristics of the relationship desired by the VMI, and the governance level used.

    The easiest way to think of the COST model is as a 2x2 matrix or graph. The model should be configured for your environment so that the criteria used for determining a vendor’s classification align with what is important to you and your organization. However, at this point in your VMI’s maturation, a simple approach works best. The Classification Model included with this blueprint requires minimal configuration to get you started and that is discussed on the activity slide associated with this Step 2.1.


    Speed
    Operational Strategic
    Commodity Tactical
    →→→
    Criticality and Risk to the Organization

    Step 2.1: Classification model (cont.)

    Configure the COST Vendor Classification Tool.

    Common Characteristics by Vendor Management Category

    Operational Strategic
    • Low to moderate risk and criticality; moderate to high spend and switching costs
    • Product or service used by more than one area
    • Price is a key negotiation point
    • Product or service is valued by the organization
    • Quality or the perception of quality is a differentiator (i.e. brand awareness)
    • Moderate to high risk and criticality; moderate to high spend and switching costs
    • Few competitors and differentiated products and services
    • Product or service significantly advances the organization’s vision, mission, and success
    • Well-established in their core industry
    Commodity Tactical
    • Low risk and criticality; low spend and switching costs
    • Product or service is readily available from many sources
    • Market has many competitors and options
    • Relationship is transactional
    • Price is the main differentiator
    • Moderate to high risk and criticality; low to moderate spend and switching costs
    • Vendor offerings align with or support one or more strategic objectives
    • Often IT vendors “outside” of IT (i.e. controlled and paid for by other areas)
    • Often niche or new vendors

    Source: Compiled in part from Stephen Guth, “Vendor Relationship Management Getting What You Paid for (And More)”

    2.1.1: Classification Model

    15-30 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants to configure the spend ranges in Jump – Phase 2 Vendor Classification Tool, Tab 1. Configuration, for your environment.
    2. Sort the data from Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.7 Vendor Inventory, by spend; if you used multiple line items for a vendor in the Vendor Inventory tab, you will have to aggregate the spend data for this activity.
    3. Update cells F14-J14 in the Classification Model based on your actual data.
      1. Cell F14 – set the boundary at a point between the spend for your 10th and 11th ranked vendors. For example, if the 10th vendor by spend is $1,009,850 and the 11th vendor by spend is $980,763, the range for F14 would be $1,000,00+.
      2. Cell G14 – set the bottom of the range at a point between the spend for your 30th and 31st ranked vendors; the top of the range will be $1 less than the bottom of the range specified in F14.
      3. Cell H14 – set the bottom of the range slightly below the spend for your 50th ranked vendor; the top of the range will be $1 less than the bottom of the range specified in G14.
      4. Cells I14 and J14 – divide the remaining range in half and split it between the two cells; for J14 the range will be $0 to $1 less than the bottom range in I14.
    4. Ignore the other variables at this time.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Vendor Risk Assessment Tool

    Input

    • Jump – Phase 1 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 1.7 Vendor Inventory

    Output

    • Configured Vendor Classification Tool

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Vendor Classification Tool, Tab 1. Configuration

    Participants

    • VMI team

    Step 2.2: Risk assessment tool

    Identify risks to measure, monitor, and report on.

    One of the typical drivers of a VMI is risk management. Organizations want to get a better handle on the various risks their vendors pose. Vendor risks originate from many areas: financial, performance, security, legal, and many others. However, security risk is the high-profile risk and the one organizations often focus on almost exclusively, which leaves the organization vulnerable in other areas.

    Risk management is a program, not a project – there is no completion date. A proactive approach works best and requires continual monitoring, identification, and assessment. Reacting to risks after they occur can be costly and can have other detrimental effects on the organization. Any risk that adversely affects IT will adversely affect the entire organization.

    While the VMI won’t necessarily be quantifying or calculating the risk directly, it generally is the aggregator of risk information across the risk categories, which it then includes in its reporting function. (See Steps 2.12 and 3.8.)

    At a minimum, your risk management strategy should involve:

    • Identifying the risks you want to measure and monitor.
    • Identifying your risk appetite (the amount of risk you are willing to live with).
    • Measuring, monitoring, and reporting on the applicable risks.
    • Developing and deploying a risk management plan to minimize potential risk impact.

    Vendor risk is a fact of life, but you do have options for how you handle it. Be proactive and thoughtful in your approach, and focus your resources on what is important.

    2.2.1: Risk assessment tool

    30-90 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants to configure the risk indicators in Jump – Phase 2 Vendor Risk Assessment Tool, Tab 1. Set Parameters, for your environment.
    2. Review the risk categories and determine which ones you will be measuring and monitoring.
    3. Review the risk indicators under each risk category and determine whether the indicator is acceptable as written, is acceptable with modifications, should be replaced, or should be deleted.
    4. Make the necessary changes to the risk indicators; these changes will cascade to each of the vendor tabs. Limit the number of risk indicators to no more than seven per risk category.
    5. Gain input and approval as needed from sponsors, stakeholders, and executives as required.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Vendor Risk Assessment Tool

    Input

    • Scope
    • OIC Chart
    • Process Maps
    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • Configured Vendor Classification Tool

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Vendor Classification Tool, Tab 1. Configuration

    Participants

    • VMI team

    Step 2.3: Scorecards and feedback

    Design a two-way feedback loop with your vendors.

    A vendor management scorecard is a great tool for measuring, monitoring, and improving relationship alignment. In addition, it is perfect for improving communication between you and the vendor.

    Conceptually, a scorecard is similar to a report card you received when you were in school. At the end of a learning cycle, you received feedback on how well you did in each of your classes. For vendor management, the scorecard is also used to provide periodic feedback, but there are some different nuances and some additional benefits and objectives when compared to a report card.

    Although scorecards can be used in a variety of ways, the main focus here will be on vendor management scorecards – contract management, project management, and other types of scorecards will not be included in the materials covered in this Step 2.3 or in Step 3.4.

    Category 1 Score
    Vendor Objective A 4
    Objective B 3
    Objective C 5
    Objective D 4 !

    Step 2.3: Scorecards and feedback (cont.)

    Design a two-way feedback loop with your vendors.

    Anatomy

    The Info-Tech Scorecard includes five areas:

    • Measurement Categories. Measurement categories help organize the scorecard. Limit the number of measurement categories to three to five; this allows the parties to stay focused on what’s important. Too many measurement categories make it difficult for the vendor to understand the expectations.
    • Criteria. The criteria describe what is being measured. Create criteria with sufficient detail to allow the reviewers to fully understand what is being measured and to evaluate it. Criteria can be objective or subjective. Use three to five criteria per measurement category.
    • Measurement Category Weights. Not all of your measurement categories may be of equal importance to you; this area allows you to give greater weight to a measurement category when compiling the overall score.
    • Rating. Reviewers will be asked to assign a score to each criteria using a 1 to 5 scale.
    • Comments. A good scorecard will include a place for reviewers to provide additional information regarding the rating or other items that are relevant to the scorecard.

    An overall score is calculated based on the rating for each criteria and the measurement category weights.

    Step 2.3: Scorecards and feedback (cont.)

    Design a two-way feedback loop with your vendors.

    Goals and Objectives

    Scorecards can be used for a variety of reasons. Some of the common ones are listed below:

    • Improve vendor performance.
    • Convey expectations to the vendor.
    • Identify and recognize top vendors.
    • Increase alignment between the parties.
    • Improve communication with the vendor.
    • Compare vendors across the same criteria.
    • Measure items not included in contract metrics.
    • Identify vendors for “strategic alliance” consideration.
    • Help the organization achieve specific goals and objectives.
    • Identify and resolve issues before they impact performance or the relationship.

    Identifying your scorecard drivers first will help you craft a suitable scorecard.

    Step 2.3: Scorecards and feedback (cont.)

    Design a two-way feedback loop with your vendors.

    Info-Tech recommends starting with simple scorecards to allow you and the vendors to acclimate to the new process and information. As you build your scorecards, keep in mind that internal personnel will be scoring the vendors and the vendors will be reviewing the scorecard. Make your scorecard easy for your personnel to fill out and composed of meaningful content to drive the vendor in the right direction. You can always make the scorecard more complex in the future.

    Our recommendation of five categories is provided below. Choose three to five categories to help you accomplish your scorecard goals and objectives:

    1. Timeliness – responses, resolutions, fixes, submissions, completions, milestones, deliverables, invoices, etc.
    2. Cost – total cost of ownership, value, price stability, price increases/decreases, pricing models, etc.
    3. Quality – accuracy, completeness, mean time to failure, bugs, number of failures, etc.
    4. Personnel – skilled, experienced, knowledgeable, certified, friendly, trustworthy, flexible, accommodating, etc.
    5. Risk – adequate contractual protections, security breaches, lawsuits, finances, audit findings, etc.

    Some criteria may be applicable in more than one category. The categories above should cover at least 80% of the items that are important to your organization. The general criteria listed for each category is not an exhaustive list, but most things break down into time, money, quality, people, and risk issues.

    Step 2.3: Scorecards and feedback (cont.)

    Design a two-way feedback loop with your vendors.

    Additional Considerations

    • Even a good rating system can be confusing. Make sure you provide some examples or a way for reviewers to discern the differences between 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Don’t assume your “Rating Key” will be intuitive.
    • When assigning weights, don’t go lower than 10% for any measurement category. If the weight is too low, it won’t be relevant enough to have an impact on the total score. If it doesn’t “move the needle,” don’t include it.
    • Final sign-off on the scorecard template should occur outside of the VMI. The heavy lifting can be done by the VMI to create it, but the scorecard is for the benefit of the organization overall and those impacted by the vendors specifically. You may end up playing arbiter or referee, but the scorecard is not the exclusive property of the VMI. Try to reach consensus on your final template whenever possible.
    • You should notice improved ratings and total scores over time for your vendors. One explanation for this is the Pygmalion Effect: “The Pygmalion [E]ffect describes situations where someone’s high expectations improves our behavior and therefore our performance in a given area. It suggests that we do better when more is expected of us.”* Convey your expectations and let the vendors’ competitive juices take over.
    • While you’re creating your scorecard and materials to explain the process to internal personnel, identify those pieces that will help you explain it to your vendors as part of your vendor orientation (see steps 2.6 and 3.4). Leveraging pre-existing materials is a great shortcut.

    *Source: The Decision Lab, 2020

    Step 2.3: Scorecards and feedback (cont.)

    Design a two-way feedback loop with your vendors.

    Vendor Feedback

    After you’ve built your scorecard, turn your attention to the second half of the equation – feedback from the vendor. A communication loop cannot be successful without the dialogue flowing both ways. While this can happen with just a scorecard, a mechanism specifically geared toward the vendor providing you with feedback improves communication, alignment, and satisfaction.

    You may be tempted to create a formal scorecard for the vendor to use. Our recommendation is to avoid that temptation until later in your maturity or development of the VMI. You’ll be implementing a lot of new processes, deploying new tools and templates, and getting people to work together in new ways. Work on those things first.

    For now, implement an informal process for obtaining information from the vendor. Start by identifying information that you will find useful, information that will allow you to improve overall, to reduce waste or time, to improve processes, to identify gaps in skills. Incorporate these items into your business alignment meetings (see Steps 2.4 and 3.5). Create three to five good questions to ask the vendor and include these in the business alignment meeting agenda. The goal is to get meaningful feedback, and that starts with asking good questions.

    Keep it simple at first. When the time is right, you can build a more formal feedback form or scorecard. Don’t be in a rush though. So long as the informal method works, keep using it.

    2.3.1: Scorecards and feedback

    30-60 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and brainstorm ideas for your scorecard measurement categories:
      1. What makes a vendor valuable to your organization?
      2. What differentiates a “good” vendor from a “bad” vendor?
      3. What items would you like to measure and provide feedback to the vendor to improve performance, the relationship, risk, and other areas?
    2. Select three, but no more than five, of the following measure categories: timeliness, cost, quality, personnel, and risk.
    3. Within each measurement category, list two or three criteria that you want to measure and track for your vendors; choose items that are as universal as possible rather than being applicable to one vendor or one vendor type.
    4. Assign a weight to each measurement category, ensuring that the total weight is 100% for all measurement categories.
    5. Document your results as you go in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.3 Scorecard.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • Configured scorecard template

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.3 Scorecard

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    2.3.2: Scorecards and feedback

    15-30 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and brainstorm ideas for feedback to seek from your vendors during your business alignment meetings. During the brainstorming, identify questions to ask the vendor about your organization that will:
      1. Help you improve the relationship.
      2. Help you improve your processes or performance.
      3. Help you improve ongoing communication.
      4. Help you evaluate your personnel.
    2. Identify the top five questions you want to include in your business alignment meeting agenda. (Note: you may need to refine the actual questions from the brainstorming activity before they are ready to include in your business alignment meeting agenda.)
    3. Document both your brainstorming activity and your final results in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.3 Feedback. The brainstorming questions can be used in the future as your VMI matures and your feedback transforms from informal to formal. The final results will be used in Steps 2.4 and 3.5.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • Feedback questions to include with the business alignment meeting agenda

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.3 Feedback

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 2.4: Business alignment meeting agenda

    Craft an agenda that meets the needs of the VMI.

    A business alignment meeting (BAM) is a great, multi-faceted tool to ensure the customer and the vendor stay focused on what is important to the customer at a high level. BAMs are not traditional “operational” meetings where the parties get into the details of the contracts, deal with installation problems, address project management issues, or discuss specific cost overruns. The main focus of the BAM is the scorecard (see Step 2.3), but other topics are discussed and other purposes are served. For example, you can use the BAM to develop the relationship with the vendor’s leadership team so that if escalation is ever needed, your organization is more than just a name on a spreadsheet or customer list; you can learn about innovations the vendor is working on (without the meeting turning into a sales call); you can address high-level performance trends and request corrective action as needed; you can clarify your expectations; you can educate the vendor about your industry, culture, and organization; and you can learn more about the vendor.

    As you build your BAM agenda, someone in your organization may say, “Oh, that’s just a quarterly business review (QBR) or top-to-top meeting.” However, in most instances, an existing QBR or top-to-top meeting is not the same as a BAM. Using the term QBR or top-to-top meeting instead of BAM can lead to confusion internally. The VMI may say to the business unit, Procurement, or another department, “We’re going to start running some QBRs for our strategic vendors.” The typical response is, “There’s no need to do that. We already run QBRs/top-to-top meetings with our important vendors.” This may be accompanied by an invitation to join their meeting, where you may be an afterthought, have no influence, and get five minutes at the end to talk about your agenda items. Keep your BAM separate so that it meets your needs.

    Step 2.4: Business alignment meeting agenda (cont.)

    Craft an agenda that meets the needs of the VMI.

    As previously noted, using the term BAM more accurately depicts the nature of the VMI meeting and prevents confusion internally with other meetings already occurring. In addition, hosting the BAM yourself rather than piggybacking onto another meeting ensures that the VMI’s needs are met. The VMI will set and control the BAM agenda and determine the invite list for internal personnel and vendor personnel. As you may have figured out by now, having the right customer and vendor personnel attend will be essential.

    BAMs are conducted at the vendor level … not the contract level. As a result, the frequency of the BAMs will depend on the vendor’s classification category (see Steps 2.1 and 3.1). General frequency guidelines are provided below, but they can be modified to meet your goals:

    • Commodity Vendors – Not applicable
    • Operational Vendors – Biannually or annually
    • Strategic Vendors – Quarterly
    • Tactical Vendors – Quarterly or biannually

    BAMs can help you achieve some additional benefits not previously mentioned:

    • Foster a collaborative relationship with the vendor.
    • Avoid erroneous assumptions by the parties.
    • Capture and provide a record of the relationship (and other items) over time.

    Step 2.4: Business alignment meeting agenda (cont.)

    Craft an agenda that meets the needs of the VMI.

    As with any meeting, building the proper agenda will be one of the keys to an effective and efficient meeting. A high-level BAM agenda with sample topics is set out below:

    BAM Agenda

    • Opening Remarks
      • Welcome and introductions
      • Review of previous minutes
    • Active Discussion
      • Review of open issues
      • Scorecard and feedback
      • Current status of projects to ensure situational awareness by the vendor
      • Roadmap/strategy/future projects
      • Accomplishments
    • Closing Remarks
      • Reinforce positives (good behavior, results, and performance, value added, and expectations exceeded)
      • Recap
    • Adjourn

    2.4.1: Business alignment meeting agenda

    20-45 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and review the sample agenda in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.4 BAM Agenda.
    2. Using the sample agenda as inspiration and brainstorming activities as needed, create a BAM agenda tailored to your needs.
      1. Select the items from the sample agenda applicable to your situation.
      2. Add any items required based on your brainstorming.
      3. Add the feedback questions identified during Activity 2.3.2 and documented in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.3 Feedback.
    3. Gain input and approval from sponsors, stakeholders, and executives as required or appropriate.
    4. Document the final BAM agenda in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.4 BAM Agenda.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Brainstorming
    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.3 Feedback

    Output

    • Configured BAM agenda

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.4 BAM Agenda

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 2.5: Relationship alignment document

    Draft a document to convey important VMI information to your vendors.

    Throughout this blueprint, alignment is mentioned directly (e.g. business alignment meetings [Steps 2.4 and 3.5]) or indirectly implied. Ensuring you and your vendors are on the same page, have clear and transparent communication, and understand each other’s expectations is critical to fostering strong relationships. One component of gaining and maintaining alignment with your vendors is the relationship alignment document (RAD). Depending upon the scope of your VMI and what your organization already has in place, your RAD will fill in the gaps on various topics.

    Early in the VMI’s maturation, the easiest approach is to develop a short document (i.e. 1 page) or a pamphlet (i.e. the classic trifold) describing the rules of engagement when doing business with your organization. The RAD can convey expectations, policies, guidelines, and other items. The scope of the document will depend on 1) what you believe is important for the vendors to understand, and 2) any other similar information already provided to the vendors.

    The first step to drafting a RAD is to identify what information vendors need to know to stay on your good side. For example, you may want vendors to know about your gift policy (e.g. employees may not accept gifts from vendors above a nominal value such as a pen or mousepad). Next, compare your list of what vendors need to know and determine if the content is covered in other vendor-facing documents such as a vendor code of conduct or your website’s vendor portal. Lastly, create your RAD to bridge the gap between what you want and what is already in place. In some instances, you may want to include items from other documents to reemphasize them with the vendor community.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The RAD can be used with all vendors regardless of classification category. It can be sent directly to the vendors or given to them during vendor orientation (see Step 3.3)

    2.5.1: Relationship alignment document

    1-4 hours

    1. Meet with the participants and review the RAD sample and checklist in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.5 Relationship Alignment Doc.
    2. Determine:
      1. Whether you will create one RAD for all vendors or one RAD for strategic vendors and another RAD for tactical and operational vendors; whether you will create a RAD for commodity vendors.
      2. The concepts you want to include in your RAD(s).
      3. The format for your RAD(s) – traditional, pamphlet, or other.
      4. Whether signoff or acknowledgement will be required by the vendors.
    3. Draft your RAD(s) and work with other internal areas such as Marketing to create a consistent brand for the RADS and Legal to ensure consistent use and preservation of trademarks or other intellectual property rights and other legal issues.
    4. Review other vendor-facing documents (e.g. supplier code of conduct, onsite safety and security protocols) for consistencies between them and the RAD(s).
    5. Obtain signoff on the RAD(s) from stakeholders, sponsors, executives, Legal, Marketing, and others as needed.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Brainstorming
    • Vendor-facing documents, policies, and procedures

    Output

    • Completed relationship alignment document(s)

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.5 Relationship Alignment Doc

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Marketing, as needed
    • Legal, as needed

    Step 2.6: Vendor orientation

    Create a VMI awareness process to build bridges with your vendors.

    Vendor Orientation: 01 - Orientation; 02 - Reorientation; 03 - Debrief

    Your organization is unique. It may have many similarities with other organizations, but your culture, risk tolerance, mission, vision, and goals, finances, employees, and “customers” (those that depend on you) make it different. The same is true of your VMI. It may have similar principles, objectives, and processes to other organizations’ VMIs, but yours is still unique. As a result, your vendors may not fully understand your organization and what vendor management means to you.

    Vendor orientation is another means to helping you gain and maintain alignment with your important vendors, educate them on what is important to you, and provide closure when/if the relationship with the vendor ends. Vendor orientation is comprised of three components, each with a different function:

    • Orientation
    • Reorientation
    • Debrief

    Vendor orientation focuses on the vendor management pieces of the puzzle (e.g. the scorecard process) rather than the operational pieces (e.g. setting up a new vendor in the system to ensure invoices are processed smoothly).

    Step 2.6: Vendor orientation (cont.)

    Create a VMI awareness process to build bridges with your vendors.

    Vendor Orientation: 01 - Orientation

    Orientation

    Orientation is conceptually similar to new hire orientation for employees at your organization. Generally conducted as a meeting, orientation provides your vendors with the information they need to be successful when working with your organization. Sadly, this is often overlooked by customers; it can take months or years for vendors to figure it out by themselves. By controlling the narrative and condensing the timeline, vendor relationships and performance improve more rapidly.

    A partial list of topics for orientation is set out below:

    • Your organization’s structure
    • Your organization’s culture
    • Your relationship expectations
    • Your governances (VMI and other)
    • Their vendor classification designation (commodity, operational, strategic, or tactical)
    • The scorecard process
    • Business alignment meetings
    • Relationship alignment documents

    In short, this is the first step toward building (or continuing to build) a robust, collaborative, mutually beneficial relationship with your important vendors.

    Step 2.6: Vendor orientation (cont.)

    Create a VMI awareness process to build bridges with your vendors.

    Vendor Orientation: 02 - Reorientation

    Reorientation

    Reorientation is either identical or similar to orientation, depending upon the circumstances. Reorientation occurs for a number of reasons, and each reason will impact the nature and detail of the reorientation content. Reorientation occurs whenever:

    • There is a significant change in the vendor’s products or services.
    • The vendor has been through a merger, acquisition, or divestiture.
    • A significant contract renewal/renegotiation has recently occurred.
    • Sufficient time has passed from orientation; commonly 2 to 3 years.
    • The vendor has been placed in a “performance improvement plan” or “relationship improvement plan” protocol.
    • Significant turnover has occurred within your organization (executives, key stakeholders, and/or VMI personnel).
    • Substantial turnover has occurred at the vendor at the executive or account management level.
    • The vendor has changed vendor classification categories after the most current classification.

    As the name implies, the goal is to refamiliarize the vendor with your current VMI situation, governances, protocols, and expectations. The drivers for reorientation will help you determine its scope, scale, and frequency.

    Step 2.6: Vendor orientation (cont.)

    Create a VMI awareness process to build bridges with your vendors.

    Vendor Orientation: 03 - Debrief

    Debrief

    To continue the analogy from orientation, debrief is similar to an exit interview for an employee when their employment is terminated. In this case, debrief occurs when the vendor is no longer an active vendor with your organization – all contracts have terminated or expired, and no new business with the vendor is anticipated within the next three months.

    Similar to orientation and reorientation, debrief activities will be based on the vendor’s classification category within the COST model. Strategic vendors don’t go away very often; usually, they transition to operational or tactical vendors first. However, if a strategic vendor is no longer providing products or services to you, dig a little deeper into their experiences and allocate extra time for the debrief meeting.

    The debrief should provide you with feedback on the vendor’s experience with your organization and their participation in your VMI. In addition, it can provide closure for both parties since the relationship is ending. Be careful that the debrief does not turn into a finger-pointing meeting or therapy session for the vendor. It should be professional and productive; if it is going off the rails, terminate the meeting before more damage can occur.

    End the debrief on a high note if possible. Thank the vendor, highlight its key contributions, and single out any personnel who went above and beyond. You never know when you will be doing business with this vendor again – don’t burn bridges!

    Step 2.6: Vendor orientation (cont.)

    Create a VMI awareness process to build bridges with your vendors.

    • As you create your vendor orientation materials, focus on the message you want to convey.
    • For orientation and reorientation:
      • What is important to you that vendors need to know?
      • What will help the vendors understand more about your organization … your VMI?
      • What and how are you different from other organizations overall … in your “industry”?
      • What will help them understand your expectations?
      • What will help them be more successful?
      • What will help you build the relationship?
    • For debrief:
      • What information or feedback do you want to obtain?
      • What information or feedback to you want to give?
    • The level of detail you provide strategic vendors during orientation and reorientation may be different from the information you provide tactical and operational vendors. Commodity vendors are not typically involved in the vendor orientation process. The orientation meetings can be conducted on a one-to-one basis for strategic vendors and a one-to-many basis for operational and tactical vendors; reorientation and debrief are best conducted on a one-to-one basis. Lastly, face-to-face or video meetings work best for vendor orientation; voice-only meetings, recorded videos, or distributing only written materials seldom hit their mark or achieve the desired results.

    2.6.1: Vendor orientation

    1 to several hours

    1. Meet with the participants and review the Phase Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.6 Vendor Orientation.
      1. Use the orientation checklist to identify the materials you want to create for your orientation meetings.
      2. Use the reorientation checklist to identify the materials you want to create for your reorientation meetings.
    2. The selections can be made by classification category (i.e. different items can apply to strategic, operational, and tactical vendors).
    3. Create the materials and seek input and/or approval from sponsors, stakeholders, and executives as needed.
    4. Use the debrief section of the tool to create an agenda, list the questions you want to ask vendors, and list information you want to provide to vendors. The agenda, questions, and information can be segregated by classification category.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • Agendas and materials for orientation, reorientation, and debrief

    Materials

    • Phase Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.6 Vendor Orientation

    Participants

    • VMI team

    Step 2.7: Job descriptions

    Ensure new and existing job descriptions are up to date.

    Based on your work product from Steps 1.1-1.9, it’s time to start drafting new or modifying existing job descriptions applicable to the VMI team members. Some of the VMI personnel may be dedicated full-time to the VMI, while others may be supporting the VMI on a part-time basis. At a minimum, create or modify your job descriptions based on the categories set out below. Remember to get the internal experts involved so that you stay true to your environment and culture.

    01 Title

    This should align overall with what the person will be doing and what the person will be responsible for. Your hands may be tied with respect to titles, but try to make them intuitively descriptive if possible.

    02 Duties

    This is the main portion of the job description. List the duties, responsibilities, tasks, activities, and results expected. Again, there may be some limitations imposed by your organization, but be as thorough as possible.

    03 Qualifications

    This tends to be a gray area for many organizations, with the qualifications, certifications, and experience desired expressed in “ranges” so that good candidates are not eliminated from consideration unnecessarily.

    2.7.1: Job descriptions

    1 to several hours

    1. Meet with the participants and review the VMI structure from Step 1.9.
      1. List the positions that require new job descriptions.
      2. List the positions that require updated job descriptions.
    2. Review the other Phase 1 work product and list the responsibilities, tasks, and functions that need to be incorporated into the new and updated job descriptions.
    3. Review the sample VMI job descriptions and sample VMI job description language in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.7 Job Descriptions, and identify language and concepts you want to include in the new and revised job descriptions.
    4. Using your template, draft the new job descriptions and modify the existing job descriptions to synchronize with the VMI structure. Work with other internal areas such as Human Resources to ensure cultural fit and compliance.
    5. Obtain input and signoff on the job descriptions from stakeholders, sponsors, executives, Human Resources, and others as needed.
    6. Document your final job descriptions in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.7 Job Descriptions.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Brainstorming
    • Existing job descriptions
    • Work product from Phase 1

    Output

    • Job descriptions for new positions
    • Updated job descriptions for existing positions

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.7 Job Descriptions

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Human Resources (as needed)
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 2.8: Policies and procedures

    Prepare policies and procedures for VMI functions.

    Policies and procedures are often thought of as boring documents that are 1) tedious to create, 2) seldom read after creation, and 3) only used to punish people when they do something “wrong.” However, when done well, these documents:

    • Communicate expectations.
    • Capture institutional knowledge.
    • Provide guidance for decision making.
    • Help workers avoid errors and minimize risk.
    • Ensure regulatory and organizational compliance.
    • List the steps required to achieve consistent results.

    Definitions of Policies and Procedures

    Policies and procedures are essential, but they are often confused with each other. A policy is a rule, guideline, or framework for making decisions. For example, in the vendor management space, you may want a policy indicating your organization’s view on gifts from vendors. A procedure is a set of instructions for completing a task or activity. For example, staying in the vendor management space, you may want a procedure to outline the process for classifying vendors.

    Step 2.8: Policies and procedures (cont.)

    Prepare policies and procedures for VMI functions.

    Start With Your Policy/Procedure Template or Create One for Consistency

    When creating policies and procedures, follow your template. If you don’t have one (or want to see if anything is missing from your template) the following list of potential components for your governance documents is provided.* Not every concept is required. Use your judgment and err on the side of caution when drafting; balance readability and helpfulness against over documenting and over complicating.

    • Descriptive Title
    • Policy Number
    • Brief Overview
    • Purpose
    • Scope
    • The Policy or Procedure
    • Definitions
    • Revision Date
    • History
    • Related Documents
    • Keywords

    Step 2.8: Policies and procedures (cont.)

    Prepare policies and procedures for VMI functions.

    Although they are not ever going to be compared to page-turning novels, policies and procedures can be improved by following a few basic principles. By following the guidelines set out below, your VMI policies and procedures will contribute to the effectiveness of your initiative.*

    • Use short sentences.
    • Organize topics logically.
    • Use white space liberally.
    • Use mandatory language.
    • Use gender-neutral terms.
    • Write with an active voice.
    • Avoid jargon when possible.
    • Use a consistent “voice” and tone.
    • Use pictures or diagrams when they will help.
    • Write in the same tense throughout the document.
    • Use icons and colors to designate specific elements.
    • Make sure links to other policies and procedures work.
    • Define all acronyms and jargon (when it must be used).
    • Avoid a numbering scheme with more than three levels.

    *Adapted in part from smartsheet.com

    Info-Tech Insight

    Drafting policies and procedures is an iterative process that requires feedback from the organization’s leadership team.

    2.8.1: Policies and procedures

    Several hours

    1. Meet with the participants and review the sample policies and procedures topics in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.8 Policies and Procedures.
    2. Determine:
      1. The concepts you want to include in your policies and procedures; brainstorm for any additional concepts you want to include.
      2. The format/template for your policies and procedures.
    3. Draft your policies and procedures based on the sample topics and your brainstorming activity. Work with other internal areas such as Legal and Human Resources to ensure cultural and environmental fit within your organization.
    4. Obtain input and signoff on the policies and procedures from stakeholders, sponsors, executives, Legal, Human Resources, and others as needed.
    5. Document your final policies and procedures in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.8 Policies and Procedures.
    6. Publish your policies and procedures and conduct training sessions or awareness sessions as needed.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Existing policies and procedures (if any)
    • Existing policies and procedures template (if any)
    • Scope
    • OIC chart
    • Process maps
    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • VMI policies and procedures

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.8 Policies and Procedures

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Legal and Human Resources (as needed)
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 2.9: 3-year roadmap

    Plot your path at a high level.

    The VMI exists in many planes concurrently: 1) it operates both tactically and strategically, and 2) it focuses on different timelines or horizons (e.g. the past, the present, and the future). Creating a 3-year roadmap facilitates the VMI’s ability to function effectively across these multiple landscapes.

    The VMI roadmap will be influenced by many factors. The work product from Phase 1: Plan, input from executives, stakeholders, and internal clients, and the direction of the organization as a whole are great sources of information as you begin to build your roadmap.

    To start, identify what you would like to accomplish in Year 1. This is arguably the easiest year to complete: budgets are set (or you have a good idea what the budget will look like), personnel decisions have been made, resources have been allocated, and other issues impacting the VMI are known with a higher degree of certainty than any other year. This does not mean things won’t change during the first year of the VMI, but expectations are usually lower and the short event horizon makes things more predictable during the Year-1 ramp-up period.

    Years 2 and 3 are more tenuous, but the process is the same: identify what you would like to accomplish or roll out in each year. Typically, the VMI maintains the Year 1 plan into subsequent years and adds to the scope or maturity. For example, you may start Year 1 with BAMs and scorecards for three of your strategic vendors; during Year 2, you may increase that to five vendors; and during Year 3, you may increase that to nine vendors. Or, you may not conduct any market research during Year 1, waiting to add it to your roadmap in Year 2 or 3 as you mature.

    Breaking things down by year helps you identify what is important and the timing associated with your priorities. A conservative approach is recommended. It is easy to overcommit, but the results can be disastrous and painful.

    2.9.1: 3-year roadmap

    45-90 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and decide how to coordinate Year 1 of your 3-year roadmap with your existing fiscal year or reporting year. Year 1 may be shorter or longer than a calendar year.
    2. Review the VMI activities listed in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.9 3-Year Roadmap. Use brainstorming and your prior work product from Phase 1 and Phase 2 to identify additional items for the roadmap and add them at the bottom of the spreadsheet.
    3. Starting with the first activity, determine when that activity will begin and put an X in the corresponding column; if the activity is not applicable, leave it blank or insert N/A.
    4. Go back to the top of the list and add information as needed.
      1. For any Year-1 or Year-2 activities, add an X in the corresponding columns if the activity will be expanded/continued in subsequent periods (e.g. if a Year 2 activity will continue in Year 3, put an X in Year 3 as well).
      2. Use the comments column to provide clarifying remarks or additional insights related to your plans or “X’s.” For example, “Scorecards begin in Year 1 with three vendors and will roll out to five vendors in Year 2 and nine vendors in Year 3.”
    5. Obtain signoff from stakeholders, sponsors, and executives as needed.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Phase 1 work product
    • Steps 2.1-2.8 work product
    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • High level 3-year roadmap for the VMI

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.9 3-Year Roadmap

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 2.10: 90-day plan

    Pave your short-term path with a series of detailed quarterly plans.

    Now that you have prepared a 3-year roadmap, it’s time to take the most significant elements from the first year and create action plans for each three-month period. Your first 90-day plan may be longer or shorter if you want to sync to your fiscal or calendar quarters. Aligning with your fiscal year can make it easier for tracking and reporting purposes; however, the more critical item is to make sure you have a rolling series of four 90-day plans to keep you focused on the important activities and tasks throughout the year.

    The 90-day plan is a simple project plan that will help you measure, monitor, and report your progress. Use the Info-Tech tool to help you track:

    • Activities
    • Tasks comprising each activity
    • Who will be performing the tasks
    • An estimate of the time required per person per task
    • An estimate of the total time to achieve the activity
    • A due date for the activity
    • A priority of the activity

    The first 90-day plan will have the greatest level of detail and should be as thorough as possible; the remaining three 90-day plans will each have less detail for now. As you approach the middle of the first 90-day plan, start adding details to the next 90-day plan; toward the end of the first quarter add a high-level 90-day plan to the end of the chain. Continue repeating this cycle each quarter and consult the 3-year roadmap and the leadership team as necessary.

    90 Days

    2.10.1: 90-day plan

    45-90 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and decide how to coordinate the first 90-day plan with your existing fiscal year or reporting cycles. Your first plan may be shorter or longer than 90 days.
    2. Looking at the Year 1 section of the 3-year roadmap, identify the activities that will be started during the next 90 days.
    3. Using the Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.10 90-Day Plan, enter the following information into the spreadsheet for each activity to be accomplished during the next 90 days:
      1. Activity description
      2. Tasks required to complete the activity (be specific and descriptive)
      3. The people who will be performing each task
      4. The estimated number of hours required to complete each task
      5. The start date and due date for each task or the activity
    4. Validate the tasks are a complete list for each activity and the people performing the tasks have adequate time to complete the tasks by the due date(s).
    5. Assign a priority to each activity.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • 3-year roadmap
    • Phase 1 work product
    • Steps 2.1-2.9 work product
    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • Detailed plan for the VMI for the next quarter or 90 days

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.10 90-Day Plan

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Step 2.11: Quick wins

    Identify potential short-term successes to gain momentum and show value immediately.

    As the final step in the timeline trilogy, you are ready to identify some quick wins for the VMI. Using the first 90-day plan and a brainstorming activity, create a list of things you can do in 15 to 30 days that add value to your initiative and build momentum.

    As you evaluate your list of potential candidates, look for things that:

    • Are achievable within the stated timeline.
    • Don’t require a lot of effort.
    • Involve stopping a certain process, activity, or task; this is sometimes known as a “stop doing stupid stuff” approach.
    • Will reduce or eliminate inefficiencies; this is sometimes known as the war on waste.
    • Have a moderate to high impact or bolster the VMI’s reputation.

    As you look for quick wins, you may find that everything you identify does not meet the criteria. That’s ok … don’t force the issue. Return your focus to the 90-day plan and 3-year roadmap, and update those documents if the brainstorming activity associated with this Step 2.11 identified anything new.

    2.11.1: Quick wins

    15-30 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and review the 3-year roadmap and 90-day plan. Determine if any item on either document can be completed:
      1. Quickly (30 days or less)
      2. With minimal effort
      3. To provide or show moderate to high levels of value or provide the VMI with momentum
    2. Brainstorm to identify any other items that meet the criteria in step 1 above.
    3. Compile a comprehensive list of these items and select up to five to pursue.
    4. Document the list in the Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.11 Quick Wins.
    5. Manage the quick wins list and share the results with the VMI team and applicable stakeholders and executives.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • 3-year roadmap
    • 90-day plan
    • Brainstorming

    Output

    • A list of activities that require low levels of effort to achieve moderate to high levels of value in a short period

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.11 Quick Wins

    Participants

    • VMI team

    Step 2.12: Reports

    Construct your reports to resonate with your audience.

    Issuing reports is a critical piece of the VMI since the VMI is a conduit of information for the organization. It may be aggregating risk data from internal areas, conducting vendor research, compiling performance data, reviewing market intelligence, or obtaining relevant statistics, feedback, comments, facts, and figures from other sources. Holding onto this information minimizes the impact a VMI can have on the organization; however, the VMI’s internal clients, stakeholders, and executives can drown in raw data and ignore it completely if it is not transformed into meaningful, easily-digested information.

    Before building a report, think about your intended audience:

    • What information are they looking for … what will help them understand the big picture?
    • What level of detail is appropriate, keeping in mind the audience may not be like-minded?
    • What items are universal to all of the readers and what items are of interest to one or two readers?
    • How easy or hard will it be to collect the data … who will be providing it, how time consuming will it be?
    • How accurate, valid, and timely will the data be?
    • How frequently will each report need to be issued?

    Step 2.12: Reports (cont.)

    Construct your reports to resonate with your audience.

    Use the following guidelines to create reports that will resonate with your audience:

    • Value information over data, but sometimes data does have a place in your report.
    • Use pictures, graphics, and other representations more than words, but words are often necessary in small, concise doses.
    • Segregate your report by user; for example, general information up top, CIO information below that on the right, CFO information to the left of CIO information, etc.
    • Send a draft report to the internal audience and seek feedback, keeping in mind you won’t be able to cater to or please everyone.

    Step 2.12: Reports (cont.)

    Construct your reports to resonate with your audience.

    The report’s formatting and content display can make or break your reports.*

    • Make the report look inviting and easy to read. Use:
      • Short paragraphs and bullet points.
      • A simple layout and uncluttered, wide margins.
      • Minimal boldface, underline, or italics to attract the readers’ attention.
      • High contrast between text and background.
    • Charts, graphs, and infographics should be intuitive and tell the story on their own.
    • Make it easy to peruse the report for topics of interest.
      • Maintain consistent design features.
      • Use impactful, meaningful headings and subheadings.
      • Include callouts to draw attention to important high-level information.
    • Demonstrate the impact of the accomplishments or success stories when appropriate.
    • Finish with a simple concise summary when appropriate. Consider adding:
      • Key points for the reader to takeaway.
      • Action items or requests.
      • Plans for next reporting period.

    *Sources: Adapted and compiled in part from: designeclectic.com, ahrq.gov, and 60secondmarketer.com.

    2.12.1: Reports

    15-45 minutes

    1. Meet with the participants and review the applicable work product from Phases 1 and 2; identify qualitative and quantitative items the VMI measures, monitors, tracks, or aggregates.
    2. Determine which items will be reported and to whom (by category):
      1. Internally to personnel within the VMI
      2. Internally to personnel outside the VMI
      3. Externally to vendors
    3. Within each category above, determine your intended audiences/recipients. For example, you may have a different list of recipients for a risk report than you do a scorecard summary report. This will help you identify the number of reports required.
    4. Create a draft structure for each report based on the audience and the information being conveyed. Determine the frequency of each report and person responsible for creating for each report.
    5. Document your final choices in Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.12 Reports.

    Download the Info-Tech Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium

    Input

    • Brainstorming
    • Phase 1 work product
    • Steps 2.1-2.11 work product

    Output

    • A list of reports used by the VMI
    • For each report:
    • The conceptual content
    • A list of who will receive or have access
    • A creation/distribution frequency

    Materials

    • Jump – Phase 2 Tools and Templates Compendium, Tab 2.12 Reports

    Participants

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives (as needed)

    Phase 3: Run

    Implement Your Processes and Leverage Your Tools and Templates

    Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4
    1.1 Mission Statement and Goals
    1.2 Scope
    1.3 Strengths and Obstacles
    1.4 Roles and Responsibilities
    1.5 Process Mapping
    1.6 Charter
    1.7 Vendor Inventory
    1.8 Maturity Assessment
    1.9 Structure

    2.1 Classification Model
    2.2 Risk Assessment Tool
    2.3 Scorecards and Feedback
    2.4 Business Alignment Meeting Agenda
    2.5 Relationship Alignment Document
    2.6 Vendor Orientation
    2.7 Job Descriptions
    2.8 Policies and Procedures
    2.9 3-Year Roadmap
    2.10 90-Day Plan
    2.11 Quick Wins
    2.12 Reports

    3.1 Classify Vendors
    3.2 Conduct Internal “Kickoff” Meeting
    3.3 Conduct Vendor Orientation
    3.4 Compile Scorecards
    3.5 Conduct Business Alignment Meetings
    3.6 Work the 90-Day Plan
    3.7 Manage the 3-Year Roadmap
    3.8 Measure and Monitor Risk
    3.9 Issue Reports
    3.10 Develop/Improve Vendor Relationships
    3.11 Contribute to Other Processes

    4.1 Assess Compliance
    4.2 Incorporate Leading Practices
    4.3 Leverage Lessons Learned
    4.4 Maintain Internal Alignment
    4.5 Update Governances

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    Begin operating the VMI. The main outcomes from this phase are guidance and the steps required to implement your VMI.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives
    • Others as needed

    Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative

    Phase 3: Run

    Implement your processes and leverage your tools and templates.

    All of the hard work invested in Phase 1: Plan and Phase 2: Build begins to pay off in Phase 3: Run. It’s time to stand up your VMI and ensure that the proper level of resources is devoted to your vendors and the VMI itself. There’s more hard work ahead, but the foundational elements are in place. This doesn’t mean there won’t be adjustments and modifications along the way, but you are ready to use the tools and templates in the real world; you are ready to begin reaping the fruits of your labor.

    Phase 3: Run guides you through the process of collecting data, monitoring trends, issuing reports, and conducting effective meetings to:

    • Manage risk better.
    • Improve vendor performance.
    • Improve vendor relationships.
    • Identify areas where the parties can improve.
    • Improve communication between the parties.
    • Increase the value proposition with your vendors.

    Step 3.1: Classify vendors

    Begin classifying your top 25 vendors by spend.

    Step 3.1 sets the table for many of the subsequent steps in Phase 3: Run. The results of your classification process will determine: which vendors go through the scorecarding process (Step 3.4); which vendors participate in BAMs (Step 3.5); the nature and content of the vendor orientation activities (Step 3.3); which vendors will be part of the risk measurement and monitoring process (Step 3.8); which vendors will be included in the reports issued by the VMI (Step 3.9); and which vendors you will devote relationship-building resources to (Step 3.10).

    As you begin classifying your vendors, Info-Tech recommends using an iterative approach initially to validate the results from the classification model you configured in Step 2.1.

    1. Using the information from the Vendor Inventory tab (Step 1.7), identify your top 25 vendors by spend.
    2. Run your top 10 vendors by spend through the classification model and review the results.
      1. If the results are what you expected and do not contain any significant surprises, go to next page.
      2. If the results are not what you expected or contain significant surprises, look at the configuration page of the tool (Tab 1) and adjust the weights or the spend categories slightly. Be cautious in your evaluation of the results before modifying the configuration page – some legitimate results are unexpected or surprising based on bias. If you modify the weighting, review the new results and repeat your evaluation. If you modify the spend categories, review the answers on the vendor tabs to ensure that the answers are still accurate; review the new results and repeat your evaluation.

    Step 3.1: Classify vendors (cont.)

    Review your results and adjust the classification tool as needed.

    1. Run your top 11 through 25 vendors by spend through the classification model and review the results. Identify any unexpected results or surprises. Determine if further configuration makes sense and repeat the process outlined in 2.b, previous page, as necessary. If no further modifications are required, continue to 4, below.
    2. Share the preliminary results with the leadership team, executives, and stakeholders to obtain their approval or adjustments to the results.
      1. They may have questions and want to understand the process before approving the results.
      2. They may request that you move a vendor from one quadrant to another based on your organization’s roadmap, the vendor’s roadmap, or other information not available to you.
    3. Identify the vendors that will be part of the VMI at this stage – how many and which ones. Based on this number and the VMI’s scope (Step 1.2), make sure you have the resources necessary to accommodate the number of vendors participating in the VMI. Proceed cautiously and gradually increase the number of vendors participating in the VMI.

    Step 3.1: Classify vendors (cont.)

    Finalize the results and update VMI tools and templates.

    1. Update the Vendor Inventory tab (Step 1.7) to indicate the current classification status for the top 25 vendors by spend. Once your vendors have been classified, you can sort the Vendor Inventory tab by classification status to see all the vendors in that category at once.
    2. Review your 3-year roadmap (Step 2.9) and 90-day plans (Step 2.10) to determine if any modifications are needed to the activities and timelines.

    Additional classification considerations:

    • You should only have a few vendors that fit in the strategic category. As a rough guideline, no more than 5% to 10% of your IT vendors should end up in the strategic category. If you have a large number of vendors, even 5% may be too many. The classification model is an objective start to the classification process, but common sense must prevail over the “math” at the end of the day.
    • At this point, there is no need to go beyond the top 25 by spend. Most VMIs starting out can’t handle more than three to five strategic vendors initially. Allow the VMI to run a pilot program with a small sample size, work out any bugs, make adjustments, and then ramp up the VMI’s rollout in waves. Vendors can be added quarterly, biannually, or annually, depending upon the desired goals and available resources.

    Step 3.1: Classify vendors (cont.)

    Align your vendor strategy to your classification results.

    As your VMI matures, additional vendors will be part of the VMI. Review the table below and incorporate the applicable strategies into your deployment of vendor management principles over time. Stay true to your mission, goals, and scope, and remember that not all of your vendors are of equal importance.

    Operational Strategic
    • Focus on spend containment
    • Concentrate on lowering total cost of ownership
    • Invest moderately in cultivating the relationship
    • Conduct BAMs biannually or annually
    • Compile scorecards quarterly or biannually
    • Identify areas for performance and cost improvement
    • Focus on value, collaboration, and alignment
    • Review market intelligence for the vendor’s industry
    • Invest significantly in cultivating the relationship
    • Initiate executive-to-executive relationships
    • Conduct BAMs quarterly
    • Compile scorecards quarterly
    • Understand how the vendors view your organization

    Commodity

    Tactical

    • Investigate vendor rationalization and consolidation
    • Negotiate for the best-possible price
    • Leverage competition during negotiations
    • Streamline the purchasing and payment process
    • Allocate minimal VMI resources
    • Assign the lowest priority for vendor management metrics
    • Conduct risk assessments biannually or annually
    • Cultivate a collaborative relationship based on future growth plans or potential with the vendor
    • Conduct BAMs quarterly or biannually
    • Compile scorecards quarterly
    • Identify areas of performance improvement
    • Leverage innovation and creative problem solving

    Step 3.1: Classify vendors (cont.)

    Be careful when using the word “partner” with your strategic and other vendors.

    For decades, vendors have used the term “partner” to refer to the relationship they have with their clients and customers. In many regards, this is often an emotional ploy used by the vendors to get the upper hand. To fully understand the terms “partner” and “partnership” let’s evaluate them through two more-objective, less-cynical lenses.

    If you were to talk to your in-house or outside legal counsel, you may be told that partners share in profits and losses, and they have a fiduciary obligation to each other. Unless there is a joint venture between the parties, you are unlikely to have a partnership with a vendor from this perspective.

    What about a “business” partnership … one that doesn’t involve sharing profits and losses? What would that look like? Here are some indicators of a business partnership (or preferably a strategic alliance):

    • Trust and transparent communication exist.
    • You have input into the vendor’s roadmap for products and services.
    • The vendor is aligned with your desired outcomes and helps you achieve success.
    • You and the vendor are accountable for actions and inactions, with both parties being at risk.
    • There is parity in the peer-to-peer relationships between the organizations (e.g. C-Level to C-Level).
    • The vendor provides transparency in pricing models and proactively suggests ways for you to reduce costs.
    • You and the vendor work together to make each party better, providing constructive feedback on a regular basis.
    • The vendor provides innovative suggestions for you to improve your processes, performance, the bottom line, etc.
    • Negotiations are not one-sided; they are meaningful and productive, resulting in an equitable distribution of money and risk.

    Step 3.1: Classify vendors (cont.)

    Understand the implications and how to leverage the words “partner” and “partnership.”

    By now you might be thinking, “What’s all the fuss? Why does it matter?” At Info-Tech, we’ve seen firsthand how referring to the vendor as a partner can have the following impact:

    • Confidences are disclosed unnecessarily.
    • Negotiation opportunities and leverage are lost.
    • Vendors no longer have to earn the customer’s business.
    • Vendor accountability is missing due to shared responsibilities.
    • Competent skilled vendor resources are assigned to other accounts.
    • Value erodes over time since contracts are renewed without being competitively sourced.
    • One-sided relationships are established, and false assurances are provided at the highest levels within the customer organization.

    Proceed with caution when using partner or partnership with your vendors. Understand how your organization benefits from using these terms and mitigate the negatives outlined above by raising awareness internally to ensure people understand the psychology behind the terms. Finally, use the term to your advantage when warranted by referring to the vendor as a partner when you want or need something that the vendor is reluctant to provide. Bottom line: Be strategic in how you refer to vendors and know the risks.

    Step 3.2: Conduct internal “kickoff” meeting

    Raise awareness about the VMI and its mission, vision, and goals.

    To be effective, your VMI needs executive support, a clear vision, appropriate governances and tools, personnel with the right skills, and other items discussed in this blueprint. However, the VMI doesn’t exist in a vacuum … it can’t sit back and be reactive. As part of being proactive, the VMI must be aware of its brand and “market” its services. An effective way to market the VMI is to conduct an internal kickoff meeting. There are at least a couple of ways to do this:

    • Host a meeting for stakeholders, executives, and others who will be contributing to the VMI processes (but are not part of the VMI). The meeting can be part of a townhall or standalone meeting; it can be done live or via a recorded video.
    • Attend appropriate staff meetings and make your presentation.

    With either approach above or one of your choosing, keep in mind the following objectives for your kickoff meeting:

    • Make sure you provide a way for those in attendance to ask questions at that time and later. You want to create and foster a communication loop with the people who will be impacted by the VMI or participating with it.
    • Raise awareness of your existence and personnel. Tell the VMI’s story by sharing your mission statement, goals, and scope; this will help dispel (or confirm) rumors about the VMI that often lead to confusion and faulty assumptions.
    • As you share the VMI’s vision, connect the story to how the VMI will impact the organization and individuals and to how they can help. The VMI tends to be the least autonomous area within an organization; it needs the assistance of others to be successful. Convey an atmosphere of collaboration and appreciation for their help.

    Host a kickoff meeting annually to kickoff the new year. Remind people of your story, announce successes from the past year, and indicate what the future year holds. Keep it brief, make it personal for the audience, and help them connect the names of VMI personnel to faces.

    Step 3.3: Conduct vendor orientation

    Introduce your VMI to your top vendors.

    Based on the results from your vendor classification (Step 3.1) and your VMI deployment timeline, identify the vendors who will participate in the initial orientation meetings. Treat the orientation as a formal, required meeting for the vendors to attend. Determine the attendee list for your organization and the vendors, and send out invites. Ideally, you will want the account manager, a sales director or vice president, the “delivery” director or vice president, and an executive from the vendor in the meeting. From the customer side, you may need more than one or two people from the VMI to entice the vendor’s leadership team to attend; you may need attendance from your own leadership team to add weight or credibility to the meeting (unfortunately).

    Before going into the meeting, make sure everyone on your side knows their roles and responsibilities, and review the agenda. Control the agenda or the meeting is likely to get out of hand and turn into a sales call.

    Conduct orientation meetings even if the participating vendors have been doing business with you for several years. Don’t assume they know all about your organization and your VMI (even if their other clients have a VMI).

    Run two or three orientation meetings and then review the “results.” What needs to be modified? What lessons have you learned? Make any necessary adjustments and continue rolling out the orientation meetings.

    Early in the VMI’s deployment, reorientation and debrief may not be in play. As time passes, it is important to remember them! Use them when warranted to help with vendor alignment.

    Step 3.4: Compile scorecards

    Begin scoring your top vendors.

    The scorecard process typically is owned and operated by the VMI, but the actual rating of the criteria within the measurement categories is conducted by those with day-to-day interactions with the vendors, those using or impacted by the services and products provided by the vendors, and those with the skills to research other information on the scorecard (e.g. risk). Chances are one person will not be able to complete an entire scorecard by themselves. As a result, the scorecard process is a team sport comprising sub-teams where necessary.

    The VMI will compile the scores, calculate the final results, and aggregate all of the comments into one scorecard. There are two common ways to approach this task:

    1. Send out the scorecard template to those who will be scoring the vendor and ask them to return it when completed, providing them with a due date a few days before you actually need it; you’ll need time to compile, calculate, and aggregate.
    2. Invite those who will be scoring the vendor to a meeting and let the contributors use that time to score the vendors; make VMI team members available to answer questions and facilitate the process.

    Step 3.4: Compile scorecards (cont.)

    Gather input from stakeholders and others impacted by the vendors.

    Since multiple people will be involved in the scorecarding process or have information to contribute, the VMI will have to work with the reviewers to ensure that the right mix of data is provided. For example:

    • If you are tracking lawsuits filed by or against the vendor, one person from Legal may be able to provide that, but they may not be able to evaluate any other criteria on the scorecard.
    • If you are tracking salesperson competencies, multiple people from multiple areas may have valuable insights.
    • If you are tracking deliverable timeliness, several project managers may want to contribute across several projects.

    Where one person is contributing exclusively to limited criteria, make it easy for the person to identify the criteria they are to evaluate. When multiple people from the same functional area will provide insights, they can contribute individually (and the VMI will average their responses) or they can respond collectively after reaching consensus among themselves.

    After the VMI has compiled, calculated, and aggregated, share the results with executives, impacted stakeholders, and others who will be attending the BAM for that vendor. Depending upon the comments provided by internal personnel, you may need to create a sanitized version of the scorecard for the vendor.

    Make sure your process timeline has a buffer built in. You’ll be sending the final scorecard to the vendor three to five days before the BAM, and you’ll need some time to assemble the results. The scorecarding process can be perceived as a low-priority activity for people outside of the VMI, and other “priorities” will arise for them. Without a timeline buffer, the VMI may find itself behind schedule and unprepared due to things beyond its control.

    Step 3.5: Conduct business alignment meetings

    Determine which vendors will participate and how long the meetings will last.

    At their core, BAMs aren’t that different from any other meeting. The basics of running a meeting still apply, but there are a few nuances that apply to BAMs Set out below are leading practices for conducing your BAMs; adapt them to meet your needs and suit your environment.

    Who

    Initially, BAMs are conducted with the strategic vendors in your pilot program. Over time, you’ll add vendors until all of your strategic vendors are meeting with you quarterly. After that, roll out the BAMs to those tactical and operational vendors located close to the strategic quadrant in the classification model (Steps 2.1 and 3.1) and as VMI resources allow. It may take several years before you are holding regular BAMs with all of your strategic, tactical, and operational vendors.

    Duration

    Keep the length of your meetings reasonable. The first few with a vendor may need to be 60 to 90 minutes long. After that, you should be able to trim them to 45 to 60 minutes. The BAM does not have to fill the entire time. When you are done, you are done.

    Step 3.5: Conduct business alignment meetings (cont.)

    Identify who will be invited and send out invitations.

    Invitations

    Set up a recurring meeting whenever possible. Changes will be inevitable, but keeping the timeline regular works to your advantage. Also, the vendors included in your initial BAMs won’t change for twelve months. For the first BAM with a vendor, provide adequate notice; four weeks is sufficient in most instances, but calendars will fill up quickly for the main attendees from the vendor. Treat the meeting as significant and make sure your invitation reflects this. A simple meeting request will often be rejected, treated as optional, or ignored completely by the vendor’s leadership team (and maybe yours as well!).

    Invitees

    Internal invitees should include those with a vested interest in the vendor’s performance and the relationship. In addition, other functional areas may be invited based on need or interest. Be careful the attendee list doesn’t get too big. Based on this, internal BAM attendees often include representatives from IT, Sourcing/Procurement, and the applicable business units. At times, Finance and Legal are included.

    From the vendor’s side, strive to have decision makers and key leaders attend. The salesperson/account manager is often included for continuity, but a director or vice president of sales will have more insights and influence. The project manager is not needed at this meeting due to the nature of the meeting and its agenda; however, a director or vice president from the “product or service delivery” area is a good choice. Bottom line: get as high into the vendor’s organization as possible whenever possible; look at the types of contracts you have with that vendor to provide guidance on the type of people to invite.

    Step 3.5: Conduct business alignment meetings (cont.)

    Prepare for the meetings and maintain control.

    Preparation

    Send the scorecard and agenda to the vendor five days prior to the BAM. The vendor should provide you with any information you require for the meeting five days prior as well.

    Decide who will run the meeting. Some customers like to lead and others let the vendor present. How you craft the agenda and your preferences will dictate who runs the show.

    Make sure the vendor knows what materials it should bring to the meeting or have access to. This will relate to the agenda and any specific requests listed under the discussion points. You don’t want the vendor to be caught off guard and unable to discuss a matter of importance to you.

    Running the BAM

    Regardless of which party leads, make sure you manage the agenda to stay on topic. This is your meeting – not the vendor’s, not IT’s, not Procurement’s or Sourcing’s. Don’t let anyone hijack it.

    Make sure someone is taking notes. If you are running this virtually, consider recording the meeting. Check with your legal department first for any concerns, notices, or prohibitions that may impact your recording the session.

    As a reminder, this is not a sales call, and this is not a social activity. Innovation discussions are allowed and encouraged, but that can quickly devolve into a sales presentation. People can be friendly toward one another, but the relationship building should not overwhelm the other purposes.

    Step 3.5: Conduct business alignment meetings (cont.)

    Follow these additional guidelines to maximize your meetings.

    More Leading Practices

    • Remind everyone that the conversation may include items covered by various confidentiality provisions or agreements.
    • Publish the meeting minutes on a timely basis (within 48 hours).
    • Focus on the bigger picture by looking at trends over time; get into the details only when warranted.
    • Meet internally immediately beforehand to prepare – don’t go in cold; review the agenda and the roles and responsibilities for the attendees.
    • Physical meetings are better than virtual meetings, but travel constraints, budgets, and pandemics may not allow for physical meetings.

    Final Thoughts

    • When performance or the relationship is suffering, be constructive in your feedback and conversations rather than trying to assign blame; lead with the carrot rather than the stick.
    • Look for collaborative solutions whenever possible and avoid referencing the contract if possible. Communicate your willingness to help resolve outstanding issues.
    • Use inclusive language and avoid language that puts the vendor on the defensive.
    • Make sure that your meetings are not focused exclusively on the negative, but don’t paint a rosy picture where one doesn’t exist.
    • A vendor that is doing well should be commended. This is an important part of relationship building.

    Step 3.6: Work the 90-day plan

    Monitor your progress and share your results.

    Having a 90-day plan is a good start, but assuming the tasks on the plan will be accomplished magically or without any oversight can lead to failure. While it won’t take a lot of time to work the plan, following a few basic guidelines will help ensure the 90-day plan gets results and wasn’t created in vain.

    90-Day Plan: Activity 1; Activity 2; Activity 3; Activity 4; Activity 5
    1. Measure and track your progress against the initial/current 90-day plan at least weekly; with a short timeline, any delay can have a huge impact.
    2. If adjustments are needed to any elements of the plan, understand the cause and the impact of those adjustments before making them.
    3. Make adjustments ONLY when warranted. The temptation will be to push activities and tasks further out on the timeline (or to the next 90-day plan!) when there is any sort of “hiccup” along the way, especially when personnel outside the VMI are involved. Hold true to the timeline whenever possible; once you start slipping, it often becomes a habit.
    4. Report on progress every week and hold people accountable for their assignments and contributions.
    5. Take the 90-day plan seriously and treat it as you would any significant project – this is part of the VMI’s branding and image.

    Step 3.7: Manage the 3-year roadmap

    Keep an eye on the future since it will feed the present.

    The 3-year roadmap is a great planning tool, but it is not 100% reliable. There are inherent flaws and challenges. Essentially, the roadmap is a set of three “crystal balls” attempting to tell you what the future holds. The vision for Year 1 may be fairly clear, but for each subsequent year, the crystal ball becomes foggier. In addition, the timeline is constantly changing; before you know it, tomorrow becomes today and Year 2 becomes Year 1.

    To help navigate through the roadmap and maximize its potential, follow these principles:

    • Manage each year of the roadmap differently.
      • Review the Year 1 map each quarter to update your 90-day plans (See steps 2.10 and 3.6).
      • Review the Year 2 map every six months to determine if any changes are necessary. As you cycle through this, your vantage point of Year 2 will be 6 months or 12 months away from the beginning of Year 2, and time moves quickly.
      • Review the Year 3 map annually, and determine what needs to be added, changed, or deleted. Each time you review Year 3, it will be a “new” Year 3 that needs to be built.
    • Analyze the impact on the proposed modifications from two perspectives: 1) What is the impact if a requested modification is made? 2) What is the impact if a requested modification is not made?
    • Validate all modifications with leadership and stakeholders before updating the 3-year roadmap to ensure internal alignment.

    Step 3.8: Measure and monitor risk

    Understand and manage risk levels.

    Using the configured Vendor Risk Assessment Tool (Step 2.2), confirm which risks you will be measuring and monitoring and identify the vendors that will be part of the initial risk management process. Generally, organizations start measuring and monitoring risk in two to five risk categories for two or three strategic vendors. Over time, additional risk categories and/or vendors can be added in waves. Resist the temptation to add risk categories or vendors into the mix too quickly. Expanding requires resources inside and outside of the VMI.

    The VMI will rely heavily on other areas to provide input or the risk data, and the VMI needs to establish good working relationships with those areas. For example, if legal risk is something being measured and monitored, the VMI will need data from Legal on the number and nature of any lawsuits filed by or against the applicable vendors; the VMI will need data from Legal, Contract Management, or Procurement/Sourcing on the number and nature of any agreed upon deviations from your organization’s preferred contract terms that increase legal risk.

    With respect to risk, the VMI’s main role is threefold: 1) take the data obtained from others (or in some instances the VMI may have the data) and turn it into useful information, 2) monitor the risk categories over time and periodically issue reports, and 3) work with other areas to manage the risk.

    Step 3.9: Issue reports

    Inform internal personnel and vendors about trends, issues, progress, and results.

    Issuing the reports created in Step 2.12 is one of the main ways the VMI 1) will communicate with internal and external personnel and 2) track trends and information over time. Even with input from the potential reviewers of the reports, you’ll still want to seek their feedback and input periodically. It may take a few iterations until the reports are hitting their mark. You may find that a metric is no longer required, that a metric is missing completely or it is missing a component, or a formatting change would improve the report’s readability. Once a report has been “finalized,” try not to change it until you are engaged in Phase 4: Review activities. It can be unsettling for the reviewers when reports change constantly.

    Whenever possible, find ways to automate the reports. While issuing reports is critical, the function should not consume more time than necessary. Automation can remove some of the manual and repetitive tasks.

    Internal reports may need to be kept confidential. An automated dashboard or reporting tool can help lock down who has access to the information. At a minimum, the internal reports should contain a “Confidential” stamp, header, watermark, or other indicator that the materials are sensitive and should not be disclosed outside of your organization without approval.

    Reports for vendors may not need to be sent as often as reports are generated or prepared for internal personnel. Establish a cadence by classification model category and stick to it. Letting each vendor choose the frequency will make it more difficult for you to manage. The vendors can choose to ignore the report if they so choose.

    This is an image of an example of a bar graph showing ROI and Benchmark for Categories 1-6

    Step 3.10: Develop/improve vendor relationships

    Drive better performance through better relationships.

    One of the key components of a VMI is relationship management. Good relationships with your vendors provide many benefits for both parties, but they don’t happen by accident. Do not assume the relationship will be good or is good merely because your organization is buying products and services from a vendor.

    In many respects, the VMI should mirror a vendor’s sales organization by establishing relationships at multiple levels within the vendor organizations – not just with the salesperson or account manager. Building and maintaining relationships is hard work, but the return on investment makes it worthwhile.

    Business relationships are comprised of many components, not all of which have to be present to have a great relationship. However, there are some essential components. Whether you are trying to develop, improve, or maintain a relationship with a vendor, make sure you are conscious of the following:*

    • Focus your energies on strategic vendors first and then tactical and operational vendors.
    • Be transparent and honest in your communications.
    • Continue building trust by being responsive and honoring commitments (timely).
    • Create a collaborative environment and build upon common ground.
    • Thank the vendor when appropriate.
    • Resolve disputes early, avoid the “blame game,” and be objective when there are disagreements.

    Step 3.11: Contribute to other processes

    Continue assisting others and managing roles and responsibilities outside of the VMI.

    The VMI has processes that it owns and processes that it contributes to. Based on the VMI scope (Step 1.2), the OIC chart (Step 1.4), and the process mapping activities (Step 1.5), ensure that the VMI is honoring its contribution commitments. This is often easier said than done though. A number of factors can make it difficult to achieve the balance required to handle VMI processes and contribute to other processes associated with the VMI’s mission and vision. Understanding the issues is half the battle. If you see signs of these common “vampires,” take action quickly to address the situation.

    • The VMI’s first focus is often internal, and the tendency is to operate in a bubble. Classifying vendors, running BAMs, coordinating the risk process, and other inward-facing processes can consume all of the VMI’s energy. As a result, there is little time, effort, or let’s be honest, desire to participate in other processes outside of the VMI.
    • It is easy for VMI personnel to get dragged into processes and situations that are outside of its scope. This often happens when personnel join the VMI from other internal areas or departments and have good relationships with their former teammates. The relationships make it hard to say “No” when out-of-scope assistance is being requested.
    • The VMI may have “part-time” personnel who have responsibilities across internal departments, divisions, agencies, or teams. When the going gets tough and time is at a premium, people gravitate toward the easiest or most comfortable work. That work may not be VMI work.

    Phase 4: Review

    Keep Your VMI Up to Date and Running Smoothly

    Phase 1Phase 2Phase 3Phase 4
    1.1 Mission Statement and Goals


    1.2 Scope

    1.3 Strengths and Obstacles

    1.4 Roles and Responsibilities

    1.5 Process Mapping

    1.6 Charter

    1.7 Vendor Inventory

    1.8 Maturity Assessment

    1.9 Structure

    2.1 Classification Model
    2.2 Risk Assessment Tool
    2.3 Scorecards and Feedback
    2.4 Business Alignment Meeting Agenda
    2.5 Relationship Alignment Document
    2.6 Vendor Orientation
    2.7 Job Descriptions
    2.8 Policies and Procedures
    2.9 3-Year Roadmap
    2.10 90-Day Plan
    2.11 Quick Wins
    2.12 Reports

    3.1 Classify Vendors
    3.2 Conduct Internal “Kickoff” Meeting
    3.3 Conduct Vendor Orientation
    3.4 Compile Scorecards
    3.5 Conduct Business Alignment Meetings
    3.6 Work the 90-Day Plan
    3.7 Manage the 3-Year Roadmap
    3.8 Measure and Monitor Risk
    3.9 Issue Reports
    3.10 Develop/Improve Vendor Relationships
    3.11 Contribute to Other Processes

    4.1 Assess Compliance
    4.2 Incorporate Leading Practices
    4.3 Leverage Lessons Learned
    4.4 Maintain Internal Alignment
    4.5 Update Governances

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    Identify what the VMI should stop doing, start doing, and continue doing as it improves and matures. The main outcomes from this phase are ways to advance the VMI and maintain internal alignment.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • VMI team
    • Applicable stakeholders and executives
    • Others as needed

    Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative

    Phase 4: Review

    Keep your VMI up to date and running smoothly.

    As the old adage says, “The only thing constant in life is change.” This is particularly true for your VMI. It will continue to mature; people inside and outside of the VMI will change; resources will expand or contract from year to year; your vendor base will change. As a result, your VMI needs the equivalent of a physical every year. In place of bloodwork, x-rays, and the other paces your physician may put you through, you’ll assess compliance with your policies and procedures, incorporate leading practices, leverage lessons learned, maintain internal alignment, and update governances.

    Be thorough in your actions during this Phase to get the most out of it. It requires more than the equivalent of gauging a person’s health by taking their temperature, measuring their blood pressure, and determining their body mass index. Keeping your VMI up to date and running smoothly takes hard work.

    Some of the items presented in this Phase require an annual review; others may require quarterly review or timely review (i.e. when things are top of mind and current). For example, collecting lessons learned should happen on a timely basis rather than annually, and classifying your vendors should occur annually rather than every time a new vendor enters the fold.

    Ultimately, the goal is to improve over time and stay aligned with other areas internally. This won’t happen by accident. Being proactive in the review of your VMI further reinforces the nature of the VMI itself – proactive vendor management, NOT reactive!

    Step 4.1: Assess compliance

    Determine what is functionally going well and not going well.

    Whether you have a robust set of vendor management-related policies and procedures or they are the bare minimum, gathering data each quarter and conducting an assessment each year will provide valuable feedback. The scope of your assessment should focus on two concepts: 1) are the policies and procedures being followed and 2) are the policies and procedures accurate and relevant. This approach requires parallel thinking, but it will help you understand the complete picture and minimize the amount of time required.

    Use the steps listed below (or modify them for your culture) to conduct your assessment:

    • Determine the type of assessment – formal or informal.
    • Determine the scale of the assessment – which policies and procedures will be reviewed and how many people will be interviewed.
    • Determine the compliance levels, and seek feedback on the policies and procedures – what is going well and what can be improved?
    • Review the compliance deviations.
    • Conduct a root cause analysis for the deviations.
    • Create a list of improvements and gain approval.
    • Create a plan for minimizing noncompliance in the future.
      • Improve/increase education and awareness.
      • Clarify/modify policies and procedures.
      • Add resources, tools, and people (as necessary and as allowed).

    Step 4.2: Incorporate leading practices

    Identify and evaluate what external VMIs are doing.

    The VMI’s world is constantly shifting and evolving. Some changes will take place slowly, while others will occur quickly. Think about how quickly the cloud environment has changed over the past five years versus the 15 years before that; or think about issues that have popped up and instantly altered the landscape (we’re looking at you COVID-19 and ransomware). As a result, the VMI needs to keep pace, and one of the best ways to do that is to incorporate leading practices.

    At a high level, a leading practice is a way of doing something that is better at producing a particular outcome or result or performing a task or activity than other ways of proceeding. The leading practice can be based on methodologies, tools, processes, procedures, and other items. Leading practices change periodically due to innovation, new ways of thinking, research, and other factors. Consequently, a leading practice is to identify and evaluate leading practices each year.

    Step 4.2: Incorporate leading practices (cont.)

    Update your VMI based on your research.

    • A simple approach for incorporating leading practices into your regular review process is set out below:
    • Research:
      • What other VMIs in your industry are doing.
      • What other VMIs outside your industry are doing.
      • Vendor management in general.
    • Based on your results, list specific leading practices others are doing that would improve your VMI (be specific – e.g. other VMIs are incorporating risk into their classification process).
    • Evaluate your list to determine which of these potential changes fit or could be modified to fit your culture and environment.
    • Recommend the proposed changes to leadership (with a short business case or explanation/justification, as needed) and gain approval.

    Remember: Leading practices or best practices may not be what is best for you. In some instances, you will have to modify them to fit your culture and environment; in other instances, you will elect not to implement them at all (in any form).

    Step 4.3: Leverage lessons learned

    Tap into the collective wisdom and experience of your team members.

    There are many ways to keep your VMI running smoothly, and creating a lessons learned library is a great complement to the other ways covered in this Phase 4: Review. By tapping into the collective wisdom of the team and creating a safe feedback loop, the VMI gains the following benefits:

    • Documented institutional wisdom and knowledge normally found only in the team members’ brains.
    • The ability for one team member to gain insights and avoid mistakes without having to duplicate the events leading to the insights or mistakes.
    • Improved methodologies, tools, processes, procedures, skills, and relationships.

    Many of the processes raised in this Phase can be performed annually, but a lessons learned library works best when the information is “deposited” in a timely manner. How you choose to set up your lessons learned process will depend on the tools you select and your culture. You may want to have regular “input” meetings to share the lessons as they are being deposited, or you may require team members to deposit lessons learned on a regular basis (within a week after they happen, monthly, or quarterly). Waiting too long can lead to vague or lost memories and specifics – timeliness of the deposits is a crucial element.

    Step 4.3: Leverage lessons learned (cont.)

    Create a library to share valuable information across the team.

    Lessons learned are not confined to identifying mistakes or dissecting bad outcomes. You want to reinforce good outcomes as well. When an opportunity for a lessons-learned deposit arises, identify the following basic elements:

    • A brief description of the situation and outcome.
    • What went well (if anything) and why did it go well?
    • What didn't go well (if anything) and why didn't it go well?
    • What would/could you do differently next time?
    • A synopsis of the lesson(s) learned.

    Info-Tech Insights

    The lessons learned library needs to be maintained. Irrelevant material needs to be culled periodically, and older or duplicate material may need to be archived.

    The lessons learned process should be blameless. The goal is to share insightful information … not to reward or punish people based on outcomes or results.

    Step 4.4: Maintain internal alignment

    Review the plans of other internal areas to stay in sync.

    Maintaining internal alignment is essential for the ongoing success of the VMI. Over time, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the VMI does not operate in a vacuum; it is an integral component of a larger organization whose parts must work well together to function optimally. Focusing annually on the VMI’s alignment within the enterprise helps reduce any breakdowns that could derail the organization.

    To ensure internal alignment:

    • Review the key components of the applicable materials from Phase 1: Plan and Phase 2: Build with the appropriate members of the leadership team (e.g. executives, sponsors, and stakeholders). Not every item from those Phases and Steps needs to be reviewed, but err on the side of caution for the first set of alignment discussions, and be prepared to review each item. You can gauge the audience’s interest on each topic and move quickly when necessary or dive deeper when needed. Identify potential changes required to maintain alignment.
    • Review the strategic plans (e.g. 1-, 3-, and 5- year plans) for various portions of the organization if you have access to them or gather insights if you don’t have access.
      • If the VMI is under the IT umbrella, review the strategic plans for IT and its departments.
      • Review the strategic plans for the areas the VMI works with (e.g. Procurement, Business Units).
      • The organization itself.
    • Create and vet a list of modifications to the VMI and obtain approval.
    • Develop a plan for making the necessary changes.

    Step 4.5: Update governances

    Revise your protocols and return to the beginning of cyclical processes.

    You’re at the final Step and ready to update governances. This is comprised of two sequential paths.

    • First, use the information from Steps 4.1-4.4 to make any required modifications to the items in Phase 1: Plan, Phase 2: Build, and Phase 3: Run. For example, you may need to update your policies and procedures (Step 2.8) based on your findings in Step 4.1; or you may need to update the VMI’s scope (Step 1.2) to ensure internal alignment issues identified in Step 4.4. are accounted for.
    • Second, return to Phase 3: Run to perform the activities below; they tend to be performed annually, but use your discretion and perform them on an as-needed basis:
      • Reclassify vendors.
      • Complete a new maturity assessment.
      • Run reorientation sessions for vendors.
      • Conduct a kickoff meeting to update internal personnel.

    Other activities and tasks (e.g. scorecards and BAMs) may be impacted by the modifications made above, but the nature of their performance follows a shorter cadence. As a result, they are not specifically called out here in this Step 4.5 since they are performed on an ongoing basis. However, don’t overlook them as part of your update.

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Problem Solved

    Vendor management is a broad, often overwhelming, comprehensive spectrum that encompasses many disciplines. By now, you should have a great idea of what vendor management can or will look like in your organization. Focus on the basics first: Why does the VMI exist and what does it hope to achieve? What is its scope? What are the strengths you can leverage, and what obstacles must you manage? How will the VMI work with others? From there, the spectrum of vendor management will begin to clarify and narrow.

    Leverage the tools and templates from this blueprint and adapt them to your needs. They will help you concentrate your energies in the right areas and on the right vendors to maximize the return on your organization’s investment in the VMI of time, money, personnel, and other resources. You may have to lead by example internally and with your vendors at first, but they will eventually join you on your path if you stay true to your course.

    At the heart of a good VMI is the relationship component. Don’t overlook its value in helping you achieve your vendor management goals. The VMI does not operate in a vacuum, and relationships (internal and external) will be critical.

    Lastly, seek continual improvement from the VMI and from your vendors. Both parties should be held accountable, and both parties should work together to get better. Be proactive in your efforts, and you, the VMI, and the organization will be rewarded.

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

    Contact your account representative for more information

    workshops@infotech.com

    1-888-670-8889

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    Bibliography

    “Best Practices for Writing Corporate Policies and Procedures.” PowerDMS, 29 Dec. 2020. Accessed 11 January 2022.

    Duncan. “Top 10 Tips for Creating Compelling Reports.” Design Eclectic, 11 October 2019. Accessed 29 March 2022.

    Eby, Kate. “Master Writing Policies, Procedures, Processes, and Work Instructions.” 1 June 2018, updated 19 July 2021. Accessed 11 January 2022.

    “Enterprise Risk Management.” Protiviti, n.d. Accessed 16 Feb. 2017.

    Geller & Company. “World-Class Procurement — Increasing Profitability and Quality.” Spend Matters, 2003. Accessed 4 March 2019.

    Guth, Stephen. “Vendor Relationship Management Getting What You Paid for (And More).” Citizens, 26 Feb. 2015. Web.

    Guth, Stephen. The Vendor Management Office: Unleashing the Power of Strategic Sourcing. Lulu.com, 2007. Print.

    “ISG Index 4Q 2021.” Information Services Group, Inc., 2022. Web.

    “Six Tips for Making a Quality Report Appealing and Easy To Skim.” AHRQ, Oct. 2019. Accessed 29 March 2022.

    Tucker, Davis. “Marketing Reporting: Tips to Create Compelling Reports.” 60 Second Marketer, 28 March 2020. Accessed 29 March 2022.

    “Why Do We Perform Better When Someone Has High Expectations of Us?” The Decision Lab, 9 Sept. 2020. Accessed 31 January 2022.

    Drive Business Value With a Right-Sized Project Gating Process

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}445|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $61,999 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 21 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Portfolio Management
    • Parent Category Link: /portfolio-management
    • Low sponsor commitment on projects.
    • Poor quality on completed projects.
    • Little to no visibility into the project portfolio.
    • Organization does not operationalize change .
    • Analyzing, fixing, and redeploying is a constant struggle. Even when projects are done well, they fail to deliver the intended outcomes and benefits.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Stop applying a one-size-fits-all-projects approach to governance.
    • Engage the sponsor by shifting the accountability to the business so they can get the most out of the project.
    • Do not limit the gating process to project management – expand to portfolio management.

    Impact and Result

    • Increase Project Throughput: Do more projects by ensuring the right projects and right amount of projects are approved and executed.
    • Validate Project Quality: Ensure issues are uncovered and resolved with standard check points in the project.
    • Increase Reporting and Visibility: Easily compare progress of projects across the portfolio and report outcomes to leadership.
    • Reduce Resource Waste: Terminate low-value projects early and assign the right resources to approved projects.
    • Achieve Intended Project Outcomes: Keep the sponsor engaged throughout the gating process to achieve desired outcomes.

    Drive Business Value With a Right-Sized Project Gating Process Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should design a right-sized project gating process, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you.

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

    1. Lay the groundwork for tailored project gating

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

  • Understand the role of gating and why we need it.
  • Determine what projects will follow the gating process and how to classify them.
  • Establish the role of the project sponsor throughout the entire project lifecycle.
    • Drive Business Value With a Right-Sized Project Gating Process – Phase 1: Lay the Groundwork for Tailored Project Gating
    • Project Intake Classification Matrix
    • Project Sponsor Role Description Template

    2. Establish level 1 project gating

    This phase will help you customize Level 1 Project Gates with appropriate roles and responsibilities.

    • Drive Business Value With a Right-Sized Project Gating Process – Phase 2: Establish Level 1 Project Gating
    • Project Gating Strategic Template

    3. Establish level 2 project gating

    This phase will help you customize Level 2 Project Gates with appropriate roles and responsibilities.

    • Drive Business Value With a Right-Sized Project Gating Process – Phase 3: Establish Level 2 Project Gating

    4. Establish level 3 project gating

    This phase will help you customize Level 3 Project Gates with appropriate roles and responsibilities. It will also help you determine next steps and milestones for the adoption of the new process.

    • Drive Business Value With a Right-Sized Project Gating Process – Phase 4: Establish Level 3 Project Gating
    • Project Gating Reference Document
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Drive Business Value With a Right-Sized Project Gating Process

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

    1 Lay the Groundwork for Tailored Project Gating

    The Purpose

    Understand the role of gating and why we need it.

    Determine what projects will follow the gating process and how to classify them.

    Establish the role of the project sponsor throughout the entire project lifecycle.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Get stakeholder buy-in for the process.

    Ensure there is a standard leveling process to determine size, risk, and complexity of requests.

    Engage the project sponsor throughout the portfolio and project processes.

    Activities

    1.1 Project Gating Review

    1.2 Establish appropriate project levels

    1.3 Define the role of the project sponsor

    Outputs

    Project Intake Classification Matrix

    Project Sponsor Role Description Template

    2 Establish Level 1 Project Gating

    The Purpose

    This phase will help you customize Level 1 Project Gates with appropriate roles and responsibilities.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Create a lightweight project gating process for small projects.

    Activities

    2.1 Review level 1 project gating process

    2.2 Determine what gates should be part of your custom level 1 gating process

    2.3 Establish required artifacts for each gate

    2.4 Define the stakeholder’s roles and responsibilities at each gate

    Outputs

    Documented outputs in the Project Gating Strategic Template

    3 Establish Level 2 Project Gating

    The Purpose

    This phase will help you customize Level 2 Project Gates with appropriate roles and responsibilities.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Create a heavier project gating process for medium projects.

    Activities

    3.1 Review level 2 project gating process

    3.2 Determine what gates should be part of your custom level 2 gating process

    3.3 Establish required artifacts for each gate

    3.4 Define the stakeholder’s roles and responsibilities at each gate

    Outputs

    4 Establish Level 3 Project Gating

    The Purpose

    This phase will help you customize Level 3 Project Gates with appropriate roles and responsibilities.

    Come up with a roadmap for the adoption of the new project gating process.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Create a comprehensive project gating process for large projects.

    Activities

    4.1 Review level 3 project gating process

    4.2 Determine what gates should be part of your custom level 3 gating process

    4.3 Establish required artifacts for each gate

    4.4 Define the stakeholder’s roles and responsibilities at each gate

    4.5 Determine next steps and milestones for process adoption

    Outputs

    Documented outputs in the Project Gating Strategic Template

    Documented Project Gating Reference Document for all stakeholders

    Adopt Generative AI in Solution Delivery

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    • Parent Category Name: Development
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    • Delivery teams are under continuous pressure to deliver high value and quality solutions with limited capacity in complex business and technical environments. Common challenges experienced by these teams include:
      • Attracting and retaining talent
      • Maximizing the return on technology
      • Confidently shifting to digital
      • Addressing competing priorities
      • Fostering a collaborative culture
      • Creating high-throughput teams
    • Gen AI offers a unique opportunity to address many of these challenges.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Your stakeholders' understanding of Gen AI, its value, and its application can be driven by hype and misinterpretation. This confusion can lead to unrealistic expectations and set the wrong precedent for the role Gen AI is intended to play.
    • Your SDLC is not well documented and is often executed inconsistently. An immature practice will not yield the benefits stakeholders expect.
    • The Gen AI marketplace is broad and diverse. Selecting the appropriate tools and partners is confusing and overwhelming.
    • There is a skills gap for what is needed to configure, adopt, and operate Gen AI.

    Impact and Result

    • Ground your Gen AI expectations. Set realistic and achievable goals centered on driving business value and efficiency across the entire SDLC by enabling Gen AI in key tasks and activities. Propose the SDLC as the ideal pilot for Gen AI.
    • Select the right Gen AI opportunities. Discuss how proven Gen AI capabilities can be applied to your solution delivery practice to achieve the outcomes and priorities stakeholders expect. Lessons learned sow the foundation for future Gen AI scaling.
    • Assess your Gen AI readiness in your solution delivery teams. Clarify the roles, processes, and tools needed for the implementation, use, and maintenance of Gen AI.

    Adopt Generative AI in Solution Delivery Research & Tools

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

    1. Adopt Generative AI in Solution Delivery Storyboard – A step-by-step guide that helps you assess whether Gen AI is right for your solution delivery practices.

    Gain an understanding of the potential opportunities that Gen AI can provide your solution delivery practices and answer the question "What should I do next?"

    • Adopt Generative AI in Solution Delivery Storyboard

    2. Gen AI Solution Delivery Readiness Assessment Tool – A tool to help you understand if your solution delivery practice is ready for Gen AI.

    Assess the readiness of your solution delivery team for Gen AI. This tool will ask several questions relating to your people, process, and technology, and recommend whether or not the team is ready to adopt Gen AI practices.

    • Gen AI Solution Delivery Readiness Assessment Tool
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Adopt Generative AI in Solution Delivery

    Drive solution quality and team productivity with the right generative AI capabilities.

    Analyst Perspective

    Build the case for Gen AI with the right opportunities.

    Generative AI (Gen AI) presents unique opportunities to address many solution delivery challenges. Code generation can increase productivity, synthetic data generation can produce usable test data, and scanning tools can identify issues before they occur. To be successful, teams must be prepared to embrace the changes that Gen AI brings. Stakeholders must also give teams the opportunity to optimize their own processes and gauge the fit of Gen AI.

    Start small with the intent to learn. The right pilot initiative helps you learn the new technology and how it benefits your team without the headache of complex setups and lengthy training and onboarding. Look at your existing solution delivery tools to see what Gen AI capabilities are available and prioritize the use cases where Gen AI can be used out of the box.

    This is a picture of Andrew Kum-Seun

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

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Delivery teams are under continuous pressure to deliver high-value, high-quality solutions with limited capacity in complex business and technical environments. Common challenges experienced by these teams include:

    • Attracting and retaining talent
    • Maximizing the return on technology
    • Confidently shifting to digital
    • Addressing competing priorities
    • Fostering a collaborative culture
    • Creating high-throughput teams

    Generative AI (Gen AI) offers a unique opportunity to address many of these challenges.

    Common Obstacles

    • Your stakeholders' understanding of what is Gen AI, its value and its application, can be driven by hype and misinterpretation. This confusion can lead to unrealistic expectations and set the wrong precedent for the role Gen AI is intended to play.
    • Your solution delivery process is not well documented and is often executed inconsistently. An immature practice will not yield the benefits stakeholders expect.
    • The Gen AI marketplace is very broad and diverse. Selecting the appropriate tools and partners is confusing and overwhelming.
    • There is a skills gap for what is needed to configure, adopt, and operate Gen AI.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    • Ground your Gen AI expectations. Set realistic and achievable goals centered on driving business value and efficiency across the entire solution delivery process by enabling Gen AI in key tasks and activities. Propose this process as the ideal pilot for Gen AI.
    • Select the right Gen AI opportunities. Discuss how proven Gen AI capabilities can be applied to your solution delivery practice and achieve the outcomes and priorities stakeholders expect. Lessons learned sow the foundation for future Gen AI scaling.
    • Assess your Gen AI readiness in your solution delivery teams. Clarify the roles, processes, and tools needed for the implementation, use, and maintenance of Gen AI.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Position Gen AI as a tooling opportunity to enhance the productivity and depth of your solution delivery practice. Current Gen AI tools are unable to address the various technical and human complexities that commonly occur in solution delivery. Assess the fit of Gen AI by augmenting low-risk, out-of-the-box tools in key areas of your solution delivery process and teams.

    Insight Summary

    Overarching Info-Tech Insight

    Position Gen AI is a tooling opportunity to enhance the productivity and depth of your solution delivery practice. However, current Gen AI tools are unable to address the various technical and human complexities that commonly occur in solution delivery. Assess the fit of Gen AI by augmenting low-risk, out-of-the-box tools in key areas of your solution delivery process and teams.

    Understand and optimize first, automate with Gen AI later.
    Gen AI magnifies solution delivery inefficiencies and constraints. Adopt a user-centric perspective to understand your solution delivery teams' interactions with solution delivery tools and technologies to better replicate how they complete their tasks and overcome challenges.

    Enable before buy. Buy before build.
    Your solution delivery vendors see AI as a strategic priority in their product and service offering. Look into your existing toolset and see if you already have the capabilities. Otherwise, prioritize using off-the-shelf solutions with pre-trained Gen AI capabilities and templates.

    Innovate but don't experiment.
    Do not reinvent the wheel and lower your risk of success. Stick to the proven use cases to understand the value and fit of Gen AI tools and how your teams can transform the way they work. Use your lessons learned to discover scaling opportunities.

    Blueprint benefits

    IT benefits

    Business benefits

    • Select the Gen AI tools and capabilities that meet both the solution delivery practice and team goals, such as:
    • Improved team productivity and throughput.
    • Increased solution quality and value.
    • Greater team satisfaction.
    • Motivate stakeholder buy-in for the investment in solution delivery practice improvements.
    • Validate the fit and opportunities with Gen AI for future adoption in other IT departments.
    • Increase IT satisfaction by improving the throughput and speed of solution delivery.
    • Reduce the delivery and operational costs of enterprise products and services.
    • Use a pilot to demonstrate the fit and value of Gen AI capabilities and supporting practices across business and IT units.

    What is Gen AI?

    An image showing where Gen AI sits within the artificial intelligence.  It consists of four concentric circles.  They are labeled from outer-to-inner circle in the following order: Artificial Intelligence; Machine Learning; Deep Learning; Gen AI

    Generative AI (Gen AI)
    A form of ML whereby, in response to prompts, a Gen AI platform can generate new output based on the data it has been trained on. Depending on its foundational model, a Gen AI platform will provide different modalities and use case applications.

    Machine Learning (ML)
    The AI system is instructed to search for patterns in a data set and then make predictions based on that set. In this way, the system learns to provide accurate content over time. This requires a supervised intervention if the data is inaccurate. Deep learning is self-supervised and does not require intervention.

    Artificial Intelligence (AI)
    A field of computer science that focuses on building systems to imitate human behavior. Not all AI systems have learning behavior; many systems (such as customer service chatbots) operate on preset rules.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Many vendors have jumped on Gen AI as the latest marketing buzzword. When vendors claim to offer Gen AI functionality, pin down what exactly is generative about it. The solution must be able to induce new outputs from inputted data via self-supervision – not trained to produce certain outputs based on certain inputs.

    Augment your solution delivery teams with Gen AI

    Position Gen AI as a tooling opportunity to enhance the productivity and depth of your solution delivery practice. Current Gen AI tools are unable to address the various technical and human complexities that commonly occur in solution delivery; assess the fit of Gen AI by augmenting low-risk, out-of-the-box tools in key areas of your solution delivery process and teams.

    Solution Delivery Team

    Humans

    Gen AI Bots

    Product owner and decision maker
    Is accountable for the promised delivery of value to the organization.

    Business analyst and architect
    Articulates the requirements and aligns the team to the business and technical needs.

    Integrator and builder
    Implements the required solution.

    Collaborator
    Consults and supports the delivery.

    Administrator
    Performs common administrative tasks to ensure smooth running of the delivery toolchain and end-solutions.

    Designer and content creator
    Provides design and content support for common scenarios and approaches.

    Paired developer and tester
    Acts as a foil for existing developer or tester to ensure high quality output.

    System monitor and support
    Monitors and recommends remediation steps for operational issues that occur.

    Research deliverable

    This research is accompanied by a supporting deliverable to help you accomplish your goals.

    Gen AI Solution Delivery Readiness Assessment Tool

    Assess the readiness of your solution delivery team for Gen AI. This tool will ask several questions relating to your people, process, and technology, and recommend whether the team is ready to adopt Gen AI practices.

    This is a series of three screenshots from the Gen AI Solution Delivery Readiness Assessment Tool

    Step 1.1

    Set the context

    Activities

    1.1.1 Understand the challenges of your solution delivery teams.

    1.1.2 Outline the value you expect to gain from Gen AI.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Applications VP
    • Applications Director
    • Solution Delivery Manager
    • Solution Delivery Team

    Outcomes of this step

    • SWOT Analysis to help articulate the challenges facing your teams.
    • A Gen AI Canvas that will articulate the value you expect to gain.

    IT struggles to deliver solutions effectively

    • Lack of skills and resources
      Forty-six percent of respondents stated that it was very or somewhat difficult to attract, hire, and retain developers (GitLab, 2023; N=5,010).
    • Delayed software delivery
      Code development (37%), monitoring/observability (30%), deploying to non-production environments (30%), and testing (28%) were the top areas where software delivery teams or organizations encountered the most delays (GitLab, 2023, N=5,010).
    • Low solution quality and satisfaction
      Only 64% of applications were identified as effective by end users. Effective applications are identified as at least highly important and have high feature and usability satisfaction (Application Portfolio Assessment, August 2021 to July 2022; N=315).
    • Burnt out teams
      While workplace flexibility comes with many benefits, longer work hours jeopardize wellbeing. Sixty-two percent of organizations reported increased working hours, while 80% reported an increase in flexibility ("2022 HR Trends Report," McLean & Company, 2022; N=394) .

    Creating high-throughput teams is an organizational priority.

    CXOs ranked "optimize IT service delivery" as the second highest priority. "Achieve IT business" was ranked first.

    (CEO-CIO Alignment Diagnostics, August 2021 to July 2022; n=568)

    1.1.1 Understand the challenges of your solution delivery teams

    1-3 hours

    1. Complete a SWOT analysis of your solution delivery team to discover areas where Gen AI can be applied.
    2. Record this information in the Gen AI Solution Delivery Readiness Assessment Tool.

    Strengths

    Internal characteristics that are favorable as they relate to solution delivery

    Weaknesses

    Internal characteristics that are unfavorable or need improvement

    Opportunities

    External characteristics that you may use to your advantage

    Threats

    External characteristics that may be potential sources of failure or risk

    Record the results in the Gen AI Solution Delivery Readiness Assessment Tool

    Output

    • SWOT analysis of current state of solution delivery practice

    Participants

    • Applications VP
    • Applications Director
    • Solution Delivery Manager
    • Solution Delivery Team

    Gen AI can help solve your solution delivery challenges

    Why is software delivery an ideal pilot candidate for Gen AI?

    • Many software delivery practices are repeatable and standardized.
    • Software delivery roles that are using and implementing Gen AI are technically savvy.
    • Automation is a staple in many commonly used tools.
    • Change will likely not impact business operations.

    Improved productivity

    Gen AI jumpstarts the most laborious and mundane parts of software delivery. Delivery teams saved 22 hours (avg) per software use case when using AI in 2022, compared to last year when AI was not used ("Generative AI Speeds Up Software Development," PRNewswire, 2023).

    Fungible resources

    Teams are transferrable across different frameworks, platforms, and products. Gen AI provides the structure and guidance needed to work across a wider range of projects ("Game changer: The startling power generative AI is bringing to software development," KPMG, 2023).

    Improved solution quality

    Solution delivery artifacts (e.g. code) are automatically scanned to quickly identify bugs and defects based on recent activities and trends and validate against current system performance and capacity.

    Business empowerment

    AI enhances the application functionalities workers can build with low- and no-code platforms. In fact, "AI high performers are 1.6 times more likely than other organizations to engage non-technical employees in creating AI applications" ("The state of AI in 2022 — and a half decade in review." McKinsey, 2022, N=1,492).

    However, various fears, uncertainties, and doubts challenge Gen AI adoption

    Black Box

    Little transparency is provided on the tool's rationale behind content creation, decision making, and the use and storage of training data, creating risks for legal, security, intellectual property, and other areas.

    Role Replacement

    Some workers have job security concerns despite Gen AI being bound to their rule-based logic framework, the quality of their training data, and patterns of consistent behavior.

    Skills Gaps

    Teams need to gain expertise in AI/ML techniques, training data preparation, and continuous tooling improvements to support effective Gen AI adoption across the delivery practice and ensure reliable operations.

    Data Inaccuracy

    Significant good quality data is needed to build trust in the applicability and reliability of Gen AI recommendations and outputs. Teams must be able to combine Gen AI insights with human judgment to generate the right outcome.

    Slow Delivery of AI Solution

    Timelines are sensitive to organizational maturity, experience with Gen AI, and investments in good data management practices. 65% of organizations said it took more than three months to deploy an enterprise-ready AIOps solution (OpsRamp, 2022).

    Define the value you want Gen AI to deliver

    Well-optimized Gen AI instills stakeholder confidence in ongoing business value delivery and ensures stakeholder buy-in, provided proper expectations are set and met. However, business value is not interpreted or prioritized the same across the organization. Come to a common business value definition to drive change in the right direction by balancing the needs of the individual, team, and organization.

    Business value cannot always be represented by revenue or reduced expenses. Dissecting value by the benefit type and the value source's orientation allows you to see the many ways in which Gen AI brings value to the organization.

    Financial benefits vs. intrinsic needs

    • Financial benefits refers to the degree to which the value source can be measured through monetary metrics, such as revenue generation and cost saving.
    • Intrinsic needs refers to how a product, service, or business capability enhanced with Gen AI meets functional, user experience, and existential needs.

    Inward vs. outward orientation

    • Inward refers to value sources that are internally impacted by Gen AI and improve your employees' and teams' effectiveness in performing their responsibilities.
    • Outward refers to value sources that come from your interaction with external stakeholders and customers and were improved from using Gen AI.

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

    An image of the Business Value Matrix for Gen AI

    Measure success with the right metrics

    Establishing and monitoring metrics are powerful ways to drive behavior and strategic changes in your organization. Determine the right measures that demonstrate the value of your Gen AI implementation by aligning them with your Gen AI objectives, business value drivers, and non-functional requirements.

    Select metrics with different views

    1. Solution delivery practice effectiveness
      The ability of your practice to deliver, support, and operate solutions with Gen AI
      Examples: Solution quality and throughput, delivery and operational costs, number of defects and issues, and system quality
    2. Solution quality and value
      The outcome of your solutions delivered with Gen AI tools
      Examples: Time and money saved, utilization of products and services, speed of process execution, number of errors, and compliance with standards
    3. Gen AI journey goals and milestones
      Your organization's position in your Gen AI journey
      Examples: Maturity score, scope of Gen AI adoption, comfort and
      confidence with Gen AI capabilities, and complexity of Gen AI use cases

    Leverage Info-Tech's Diagnostics

    IT Management & Governance

    • Improvement to application development quality and throughput effectiveness
    • Increased importance of application delivery and maintenance capabilities across the IT organization
    • Delegation of delivery accountability across more IT roles

    CIO Business Vision

    • Improvements to IT satisfaction and value from delivered solutions
    • Changes to the value and importance of IT core services enabled with Gen AI
    • The state of business and IT relationships
    • Capability to deliver and support Gen AI effectively

    1.1.2 Outline the value you expect to gain from Gen AI

    1-3 hours

    1. Complete the following fields to build your Gen AI canvas:
      1. Problem that Gen AI is intending to solve
      2. List of stakeholders
      3. Desired business and IT outcomes
      4. In-scope solution delivery teams, systems, and capabilities.
    2. Record this information in the Gen AI Solution Delivery Readiness Assessment Tool.

    Output

    • Gen AI Canvas

    Participants

    • Applications VP
    • Applications Director
    • Solution Delivery Manager
    • Solution Delivery Team

    Record the results in the Gen AI Solution Delivery Readiness Assessment Tool

    1.1.2 Example

    Example of an outline of the value you expect to gain from Gen AI

    Problem statements

    • Manual testing procedures hinder pace and quality of delivery.
    • Inaccurate requirement documentation leads to constant redesigning.

    Business and IT outcomes

    • Improve code quality and performance.
    • Expedite solution delivery cycle.
    • Improve collaboration between teams and reduce friction.

    List of stakeholders

    • Testing team
    • Application director
    • CIO
    • Design team
    • Project manager
    • Business analysts

    In-scope solution delivery teams, system, and capabilities

    • Web
    • Development
    • App development
    • Testing
    • Quality assurance
    • Business analysts
    • UI/UX design

    Align your objectives to the broader AI strategy

    Why is an organizational AI strategy important for Gen AI?

    • All Gen AI tactics and capabilities are designed, delivered, and managed to support a consistent interpretation of the broader AI vision and goals.
    • An organizational strategy gives clear understanding of the sprawl, criticality, and risks of Gen AI solutions and applications to other IT capabilities dependent on AI.
    • Gen AI initiatives are planned, prioritized, and coordinated alongside other software delivery practice optimizations and technology modernization initiatives.
    • Resources, skills, and capacities are strategically allocated to meet the needs of Gen AI considering other commitments in the software delivery optimization backlog and roadmap.
    • Gen AI expectations and practices uphold the persona, values, and principles of the software delivery team.

    What is an AI strategy?

    An AI strategy details the direction, activities, and tactics to deliver on the promise of your AI portfolio. It often includes:

    • AI vision and goals
    • Application, automation, and process portfolio involved or impacted by AI
    • Values and principles
    • Health of your AI portfolio
    • Risks and constraints
    • Strategic roadmap

    Step 1.2

    Evaluate opportunities for Gen AI

    Activities

    1.2.1 Align Gen AI opportunities with teams and capabilities.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Applications VP
    • Applications Director
    • Solution Delivery Manager
    • Solution Delivery Team

    Outcomes of this step

    • Understand the Gen AI opportunities for your solution delivery practice.

    Learn how Gen AI is employed in solution delivery

    Gen AI opportunity Common Gen AI tools and vendors Teams than can benefit How can teams leverage this? Case study
    Synthetic data generation
    • Testing
    • Data Analysts
    • Privacy and Security
    • Create test datasets
    • Replace sensitive personal data

    How Unity Leverages Synthetic Data

    Code generation
    • Development
    • Testing
    • Code Templates & Boilerplate
    • Code Refactoring

    How CI&T accelerated development by 11%

    Defect forecasting and debugging
    • Project Manager & Quality Assurance
    • Development
    • Testing
    • Identify root cause
    • Static and dynamic code analysis
    • Debugging assistance

    Altran Uses Microsoft Code Defect AI Solution

    Requirements documentation and elicitation
    • Business Analysts
    • Development
    • Document functional requirements
    • Writing test cases

    Google collaborates with Replit to reduce time to bring new products to market by 30%

    UI design and prototyping
    • UI/UX Design
    • Development
    • Deployment
    • Rapid prototyping
    • Design assistance

    How Spotify is Upleveling Their Entire Design Team

    Other common AI opportunities solutions include test case generation, code translation, use case creation, document generation, and automated testing.

    Opportunity 1: Synthetic data generation

    Create artificial data that mimics the structure of real-life data.

    What are the expected benefits?

    • Availability of test data: Creation of large volumes of data compatible for testing multiple systems within the organization.
    • Improved privacy: Substituting real data with artificial leads to reduced data leaks.
    • Quicker data provisioning: Automated generation of workable datasets aligned to company policies.

    What are the notable risks and challenges?

    • Generalization and misrepresentations: Data models used in synthetic data generation may not be an accurate representation of production data because of potentially conflicting definitions, omission of dependencies, and multiple sources of truth.
    • Lack of accurate representation: It is difficult for synthetic data to fully capture real-world data nuances.
    • Legal complexities: Data to build and train the Gen AI tool does not comply with data residency and management standards and regulations.

    How should teams prepare for synthetic data generation?

    It can be used:

    • To train machine learning models when there is not enough real data, or the existing data does not meet specific needs.
    • To improve quality of test by using data that closely resembles production without the risk of leveraging sensitive and private information.

    "We can simply say that the total addressable market of synthetic data and the total addressable market of data will converge,"
    Ofir Zuk, CEO, Datagen (Forbes, 2022)

    Opportunity 2: Code generation

    Learn patterns and automatically generate code.

    What are the expected benefits?

    • Increased productivity: It allows developers to generate more code quickly.
    • Improved code consistency: Code is generated using a standardized model and lessons learnt from successful projects.
    • Rapid prototyping: Expedite development of a working prototype to be verified and validated.

    What are the notable risks and challenges?

    • Limited contextual understanding: AI may lack domain-specific knowledge or understanding of requirements.
    • Dependency: Overreliance on AI generated codes can affect developers' creativity.
    • Quality concerns: Generated code is untested and its alignment to coding and quality standards is unclear.

    How should teams prepare for code generation?

    It can be used to:

    • Build solutions without the technical expertise of traditional development.
    • Discover different solutions to address coding challenges.
    • Kickstart new development projects with prebuilt code.

    According to a survey conducted by Microsoft's GitHub, a staggering 92% of programmers were reported as using AI tools in their workflow (GitHub, 2023).

    Opportunity 3: Defect forecasting & debugging

    Predict and proactively address defects before they occur.

    What are the expected benefits?

    • Reduced maintenance cost: Find defects earlier in the delivery process, when it's cheaper to fix them.
    • Increased efficiency: Testing efforts can remain focused on critical and complex areas of solution.
    • Reduced risk: Find critical defects before the product is deployed to production.

    What are the notable risks and challenges?

    • False positives and negatives: Incorrect interpretation and scope of defect due to inadequate training of the Gen AI model.
    • Inadequate training: Training data does not reflect the complexity of the solutions code.
    • Not incorporating feedback: Gen AI models are not retrained in concert with solution changes.

    How should teams prepare for defect forecasting and debugging?

    It can be used to:

    • Perform static and dynamic code analysis to find vulnerabilities in the solution source code.
    • Forecast potential issues of a solution based on previous projects and industry trends.
    • Find root cause and suggest solutions to address found defects.

    Using AI technologies, developers can reduce the time taken to debug and test code by up to 70%, allowing them to finish projects faster and with greater accuracy (Aloa, 2023).

    Opportunity 4: Requirements documentation & elicitation

    Capturing, documenting, and analyzing function and nonfunctional requirements.

    What are the expected benefits?

    • Improve quality of requirements: Obtain different perspectives and contexts for the problem at hand and help identify ambiguities and misinterpretation of risks and stakeholder expectation.
    • Increased savings: Fewer resources are consumed in requirements elicitation activities.
    • Increased delivery confidence: Provide sufficient information for the solution delivery team to confidently estimate and commit to the delivery of the requirement.

    What are the notable risks and challenges?

    • Conflicting bias: Gen AI models may interpret the problem differently than how the stakeholders perceive it.
    • Organization-specific interpretation: Inability of the Gen AI models to accommodate unique interpretation of terminologies, standards, trends and scenarios.
    • Validation and review: Interpreting extracted insights requires human validation.

    How should teams prepare for requirements documentation & elicitation?

    It can be used to:

    • Document requirements in a clear and concise manner that is usable to the solution delivery team.
    • Analyze and test requirements against various user, business, and technical scenarios.

    91% of top businesses surveyed report having an ongoing investment in AI (NewVantage Partners, 2021).

    Opportunity 5: UI design and prototyping

    Analyze existing patterns and principles to generate design, layouts, and working solutions.

    What are the expected benefits?

    • Increased experimentation: Explore different approaches and tactics to solve a solution delivery problem.
    • Improved collaboration: Provide quick design layouts that can be reshaped based on stakeholder feedback.
    • Ensure design consistency: Enforce a UI/UX design standard for all solutions.

    What are the notable risks and challenges?

    • Misinterpretation of UX Requirements: Gen AI model incorrectly assumes a specific interpretation of user needs, behaviors, and problem.
    • Incorrect or missing requirements: Lead to extensive redesigns and iterations, adding to costs while hampering user experience.
    • Design creativity: May lack originality and specific brand aesthetics if not augmented well with human customizability and creativity.

    How should teams prepare for UI design and prototyping?

    It can be used to:

    • Visualize the solution through different views and perspectives such as process flows and use-case diagrams.
    • Create working prototypes that can be verified and validated by stakeholders and end users.

    A study by McKinsey & Company found that companies that invest in AI-driven design outperform their peers in revenue growth and customer experience metrics. They were found to achieve up to two times higher revenue growth than industry peers and up to 10% higher net promoter score (McKinsey & Company, 2018).

    Determine the importance of your opportunities by answering these questions

    Realizing the complete potential of Gen AI relies on effectively fostering its adoption and resulting changes throughout the entire solution delivery process.

    What are the challenges faced by your delivery teams that could be addressed by Gen AI?

    • Recognize the precise pain points, bottlenecks, or inefficiencies faced by delivery teams.
    • Include all stakeholders' perspectives during problem discovery and root cause analysis.

    What's holding back Gen AI adoption in the organization?

    • Apart from technical barriers, address cultural and organizational challenges and discuss how organizational change management strategies can mitigate Gen AI adoption risk.

    Are your objectives aligned with Gen AI capabilities?

    • Identify areas where processes can be modernized and streamlined with automation.
    • Evaluate the current capabilities and resources available within the organization to leverage Gen AI technologies effectively.

    How can Gen AI improve the entire solution delivery process?

    • Investigate and evaluate the improvements Gen AI can reasonably deliver, such as increased accuracy, quickened delivery cycles, improved code quality, or enhanced cross-functional collaboration.

    1.2.1 Align Gen AI opportunities to teams and capabilities

    1-3 hours

    1. Associate the Gen AI opportunities that can be linked to your system capabilities. These opportunities refer to the potential applications of generative AI techniques, such as code generation or synthetic data, to address specific challenges.
      1. Start by analyzing your system's requirements, constraints, and areas where Gen AI techniques can bring value. Identify the potential benefits of integrating Gen AI, such as increased productivity, or enhanced creativity.
      2. Next, discern potential risks or challenges, such as dependency or quality concerns, associated with the opportunity implementation.
    2. Record this information in the Gen AI Solution Delivery Readiness Assessment Tool.

    Output

    • Gen AI opportunity selection

    Participants

    • Applications VP
    • Applications Director
    • Solution Delivery Manager
    • Solution Delivery Team

    Record the results in the Gen AI Solution Delivery Readiness Assessment Tool

    Keep an eye out for red flags

    Not all Gen AI opportunities are delivered and adopted the same. Some present a bigger risk than others.

    • Establishing vague targets and success criteria
    • Defining Gen AI as substitution of human capital
    • Open-source software not widely adopted or validated
    • High level of dependency on automation
    • Unadaptable cross-functional training across organization
    • Overlooking privacy, security, legal, and ethical implications
    • Lack of Gen AI expertise and understanding of good practices

    Step 1.3

    Assess your readiness for Gen AI

    Activities

    1.3.1 Assess your readiness for Gen AI.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Applications VP
    • Applications Director
    • Solution Delivery Manager
    • Solution Delivery Team

    Outcomes of this step

    • A completed Gen AI Readiness Assessment to confirm how prepared you are to embrace Gen AI in your solution delivery team.

    Prepare your SDLC* to leverage Gen AI

    As organizations evolve and adopt more tools and technology, their solution delivery processes become more complex. Process improvement is needed to simplify complex and undocumented software delivery activities and artifacts and prepare it for Gen AI. Gen AI scales process throughput and output quantity, but it multiplies the negative impact of problems the process already has.

    When is your process ready for Gen AI?

    • Solution value Ensures the accuracy and alignment of the committed feature and change requests to what the stakeholder truly expects and receives.
    • ThroughputDelivers new products, enhancements, and changes at a pace and frequency satisfactory to stakeholder expectations and meets delivery commitments.
    • Process governance Has clear ownership and appropriate standardization. The roles, activities, tasks, and technologies are documented and defined. At each stage of the process someone is responsible and accountable.
    • Process management Follows a set of development frameworks, good practices, and standards to ensure the solution and relevant artifacts are built, tested, and delivered consistently and repeatably.
    • Technical quality assurance – Accommodates committed non-functional requirements within the stage's outputs to ensure products meet technical excellence expectations.

    *software development lifecycle

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

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Build a Winning Business Process Automation Playbook

    Assess the impacts from Gen AI changes

    Ensure that no stone is left unturned as you evaluate the fit of Gen AI and prepare your adoption and support plans.

    By shining a light on considerations that might have otherwise escaped planners and decision makers, an impact analysis is an essential component to Gen AI success. This analysis should answer the following questions on the impact to your solution delivery teams.

    1. Will the change impact how our clients/customers receive, consume, or engage with our products/services?
    2. Will there be an increase in operational costs, and a change to compensation and/or rewards?
    3. Will this change increase the workload and alter staffing levels?
    4. Will the vision or mission of the team change?
    5. Will a new or different set of skills be needed?
    6. Will the change span multiple locations/time zones?
    7. Are multiple products/services impacted by this change?
    8. Will the workflow and approvals be changed, and will there be a substantial change to scheduling and logistics?
    9. Will the tools of the team be substantially different?
    10. Will there be a change in reporting relationships?

    See our Master Organizational Change Management Practices blueprint for more information.

    Brace for impact

    A thorough analysis of change impacts will help your software delivery teams and change leaders:

    • Bypass avoidable problems.
    • Remove non-fixed barriers to success.
    • Acknowledge and minimize the impact of unavoidable barriers.
    • Identify and leverage potential benefits.
    • Measure the success of the change.

    Many key IT capabilities are required to successfully leverage Gen AI

    Portfolio Management

    An accurate and rationalized inventory of all Gen AI tools verifies they support the goals and abide to the usage policies of the broader delivery practice. This becomes critical when tooling is updated frequently and licenses and open- source community principles drastically change (e.g. after an acquisition).

    Quality Assurance

    Gen AI tools are routinely verified and validated to ensure outcomes are accurate, complete, and aligned to solution delivery quality standards. Models are retrained using lessons learned, new use cases, and updated training data.

    Security & Access Management

    Externally developed and trained Gen AI models may not include the measures, controls, and tactics you need to prevent vulnerabilities and protect against threats that are critical in your security frameworks, policies, and standards.

    Data Management & Governance

    All solution delivery data and artifacts can be transformed and consumed in various ways as they transit through solution delivery and Gen AI tools. Data integrations, structures, and definitions must be well-defined, governed, and monitored.

    OPERATIONAL SUPPORT

    Resources are available to support the ongoing operations of the Gen AI tool, including infrastructure, preparing training data, and managing integration with other tools. They are also prepared to recover backups, roll back, and execute recovery plans at a moment's notice.

    Apply Gen AI good practices in your solution delivery practice

    1. Keep the human in the loop.
      Gen AI models cannot produce high-quality content with 100% confidence. Keeping the human in the loop allows people to directly give feedback to the model to improve output quality.
    2. Strengthen prompt and query engineering.
      The value of the outcome is dependent on what is being asked. Good prompts and queries focus on creating the optimal input by selecting and phrasing the appropriate words, sentence structures, and punctuation to illustrate the focus, scope, problem, and boundaries.
    3. Thoughtfully prepare your training data.
      Externally hosted Gen AI tools may store your training data in their systems or use it to train their other models. Intellectual property and sensitive data can leak into third-party systems and AI models if it is not properly masked and sanitized.
    4. Build guardrails into your Gen AI models.
      Guardrails can limit the variability of any misleading Gen AI responses by defining the scope and bounds of the response, enforcing the policies of its use, and clarifying the context of its response.
    5. Monitor your operational costs.
      The cost breakdown will vary among the types of Gen AI solution and the vendor offerings. Cost per query, consultant fees, infrastructure hosting, and licensing costs are just a few cost factors. Open source can be an attractive cost-saving option, but you must be willing to invest in the roles to assume traditional vendor accountabilities.
    6. Check the licenses of your Gen AI tool.
      Each platform has licenses and agreements on how their solution can or cannot be used. They limit your ability to use the tool for commercial purposes or reproductions or may require you to purchase and maintain a specific license to use their solution and materials.

    See Build Your Generative AI Roadmap for more information.

    Assess your Gen AI readiness

    • Solution delivery team
      The team is educated on Gen AI, its use cases, and the tools that enable it. They have the skills and capacity to implement, create, and manage Gen AI.
    • Solution delivery process and tools
      The solution delivery process is documented, repeatable, and optimized to use Gen AI effectively. Delivery tools are configured to enable, leverage and manage Gen AI assets to improve their performance and efficiency.
    • Solution delivery artifacts
      Delivery artifacts (e.g. code, scripts, documents) that will be used to train and be leveraged by Gen AI tools are discoverable, accurate, complete, standardized, of sufficient quantity, optimized for Gen AI use, and stored in an accessible shared central repository.
    • Governance
      Defined policies, role definitions, guidelines, and processes that guide the implementation, development, operations, and management of Gen AI.
    • Vision and executive support
      Clear alignment of Gen AI direction, ambition, and objectives with broader business and IT priorities. Stakeholders support the Gen AI initiative and allocate human and financial resources for its implementation within the solution delivery team.
    • Operational support
      The capabilities to manage the Gen AI tools and ensure they support the growing needs of the solution delivery practice, such as security management, hosting infrastructure, risk and change management, and data and application integration.

    1.3.1 Assess your readiness for Gen AI

    1-3 hours

    1. Review the current state of your solution delivery teams including their capacity, skills and knowledge, delivery practices, and tools and technologies.
    2. Determine the readiness of your team to adopt Gen AI.
    3. Discuss the gaps that need to be filled to be successful with Gen AI.
    4. Record this information in the Gen AI Solution Delivery Readiness Assessment Tool.

    Record the results in the Gen AI Solution Delivery Readiness Assessment Tool

    Output

    • Gen AI Solution Delivery Readiness Assessment

    Participants

    • Applications VP
    • Applications Director
    • Solution Delivery Manager
    • Solution Delivery Team

    Recognize that Gen AI does not require a fully optimized solution delivery process

    1. Consideration; 2. Exploration; 3. Incorporation; 4. Proliferation; 5. Optimization.  Steps 3-5 are Recommended maturity levels to properly embrace Gen AI.

    To learn more, visit Info-Tech's Develop Your Value-First Business Process Automation (BPA) Strategy.

    Be prepared to take the next steps

    Deliver Gen AI to your solution delivery teams

    Modernize Your SDLC
    Efficient and effective SDLC practices are vital, as products need to readily adjust to evolving and changing business needs and technologies.

    Adopt Generative AI in Solution Delivery
    Generative AI can drive productivity and solution quality gains to your solution delivery teams. Level set expectations with the right use case to demonstrate its value potential.

    Select Your AI Vendor & Implementation Partner
    The right vendor and partner are critical for success. Build the selection criteria to shortlist the products and services that best meets the current and future needs of your teams.

    Drive Business Value With Off-the-Shelf AI
    Build a framework that will guide your teams through the selection of an off-the-shelf AI tool with a clear definition of the business case and preparations for successful adoption.

    Build Your Enterprise Application Implementation Playbook
    Your Gen AI implementation doesn't start with technology, but with an effective plan that your team supports and is aligned to broader stakeholder and sponsor priorities and goals.

    Build your Gen AI practice

    • Get Started With AI
    • AI Strategy & Generative AI Roadmap
    • AI Governance

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Build a Winning Business Process Automation Playbook
    Optimize and automate your business processes with a user-centric approach.

    Embrace Business Managed Applications
    Empower the business to implement their own applications with a trusted business-IT relationship.

    Application Portfolio Management Foundations
    Ensure your application portfolio delivers the best possible return on investment.

    Maximize the Benefits from Enterprise Applications with a Center of Excellence
    Optimize your organization's enterprise application capabilities with a refined and scalable methodology.

    Create an Architecture for AI
    Build your target state architecture from predefined best-practice building blocks.

    Deliver on Your Digital Product Vision
    Build a product vision your organization can take from strategy through execution.

    Enhance Your Solution Architecture Practices
    Ensure your software systems solution is architected to reflect stakeholders' short- and long-term needs.

    Apply Design Thinking to Build Empathy With the Business
    Use design thinking and journey mapping to make IT the business' go-to problem solver.

    Modernize Your SDLC
    Deliver quality software faster with new tools and practices.

    Drive Business Value With Off-the-Shelf AI
    A practical guide to ensure return on your off-the-shelf AI investment.

    Bibliography

    "Altran Helps Developers Write Better Code Faster with Azure AI." Microsoft, 2020.
    "Apply Design Thinking to Complex Teams, Problems, and Organizations." IBM, 2021.
    Bianca. "Unleashing the Power of AI in Code Generation: 10 Applications You Need to Know — AITechTrend." AITechTrend, 16 May 2023.
    Biggs, John. "Deep Code Cleans Your Code with the Power of AI." TechCrunch, 26 Apr 2018.
    "Chat GPT as a Tool for Business Analysis — the Brazilian BA." The Brazilian BA, 24 Jan 2023.
    Davenport, Thomas, and Randy Bean. "Big Data and AI Executive Survey 2019." New Vantage Partners, 2019.
    Davenport, Thomas, and Randy Bean. "Big Data and AI Executive Survey 2021." New Vantage Partners, 2021.
    Das, Tamal. "9 Best AI-Powered Code Completion for Productive Development." Geek flare, 5 Apr 2023.
    Gondrezick, Ilya. "Council Post: How AI Can Transform the Software Engineering Process." Forbes, 24 Apr 2020.
    "Generative AI Speeds up Software Development: Compass UOL Study." PR Newswire, 29 Mar 2023.
    "GitLab 2023 Global Develops Report Series." Gitlab, 2023.
    "Game Changer: The Startling Power Generative AI Is Bringing to Software Development." KPMG, 30 Jan 2023.
    "How AI Can Help with Requirements Analysis Tools." TechTarget, 28 July 2020.
    Indra lingam, Ashanta. "How Spotify Is Upleveling Their Entire Design Team." Framer, 2019.
    Ingle, Prathamesh. "Top Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools That Can Generate Code to Help Programmers." Matchcoat, 1 Jan 2023.
    Kaur, Jagreet . "AI in Requirements Management | Benefits and Its Processes." Xenon Stack, 13 June 2023.
    Lange, Danny. "Game On: How Unity Is Extending the Power of Synthetic Data beyond the Gaming Industry." CIO, 17 Dec 2020.
    Lin, Ying. "10 Artificial Intelligence Statistics You Need to Know in 2020." OBERLO, 17 Mar. 2023.
    Mauran, Cecily. "Whoops, Samsung Workers Accidentally Leaked Trade Secrets via ChatGPT." Mashable, 6 Apr 2023.

    Build a More Effective Brand Architecture

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    Neglecting to maintain the brand architecture can have the following consequences:

    • Inconsistent branding across product lines, services, and marketing communications.
    • Employee confusion regarding product lines, services, and brand structure.
    • Difficulties in launching new products or services or integrating acquired brands.
    • Poor customer experience in navigating the website or understanding the offerings.
    • Inability to differentiate from competitors.
    • Weak brand equity and a lack of brand loyalty.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Brand architecture is the way a company organizes and manages its portfolio of brands to achieve strategic goals. It encompasses the relationships between brands, from sub-brands to endorsed brands to independent brands, and how they interact with each other and with the master brand. With a clear brand architecture, businesses can optimize their portfolio, enhance their competitive position, and achieve sustainable growth and success in the long run.

    Impact and Result

    Establishing and upholding a well-defined brand architecture is critical to achieve:

    • Easy recognition and visibility
    • Consistent branding
    • Operational efficiency
    • Customer loyalty
    • Ability to easily adapt to changes
    • Competitive differentiation
    • Distinctive brand image
    • Business success

    Build a More Effective Brand Architecture Research & Tools

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

    1. Build a More Effective Brand Architecture Storyboard – Develop a brand architecture that supports your business goals, clarifies your brand portfolio, and enhances your overall brand equity.

    We recommend a two-step approach that involves defining or reimagining the brand architecture. This means choosing the right strategy by analyzing the current brand portfolio, identifying the core brand elements, and determining and developing the structure that fits with the brand and business goals. A well-thought-out brand architecture also facilitates the integration of new brands and new product launches.

    • Build a More Effective Brand Architecture Storyboard

    2. Brand Architecture Strategy Template – The brand architecture template is a tool for creating a coherent brand identity.

    Create a brand identity that helps you launch new products and services, prepare for acquisitions, and modify your brand strategy. Allocate resources more effectively and identify new opportunities for growth. A brand architecture can provide insights into how different brands fit together and contribute to the overall brand strategy.

    • Brand Architecture Strategy Template

    Infographic

    Workshop: Build a More Effective Brand Architecture

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

    1 Brand Mind Mapping

    The Purpose

    The brand mind mapping workshop is an exercise that helps with visualizing brand architecture and improving coherence and effectiveness in brand portfolio management.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    This exercise can help businesses:

    Allocate their resources more effectively.

    Identify new opportunities for growth.

    Gain a competitive advantage in their market.

    Activities

    1.1 Brand Mind Mapping

    Outputs

    Visual representation of the brand architecture and its various components

    Further reading

    Build a More Effective Brand Architecture

    Strategically optimize your portfolio to increase brand recognition and value.

    Analyst perspective

    Brand Architecture

    Nathalie Vezina, Marketing Research Director, SoftwareReviews Advisory

    Nathalie Vezina
    Marketing Research Director
    SoftwareReviews Advisory

    This blueprint highlights common brand issues faced by companies, such as inconsistencies in branding and sub-branding due to absent or inadequate planning and documentation or non-compliance with the brand architecture. It emphasizes the importance of aligning or modifying the company's brand strategy with the existing architecture to create a consistent brand when launching new products, services, or divisions or preparing for acquisitions.

    Changing the brand architecture can be challenging, as it often requires significant resources, time, and effort. Additionally, there may be resistance from stakeholders who have become attached to the existing brand architecture and may not see the value in making changes. However, it's important for companies to address suboptimal brand architecture to ensure consistency and clarity in brand messaging and support business growth and success.

    This blueprint guides brand leaders on building and updating their brand architecture for optimal clarity, consistency, adaptability, and efficiency.

    Executive summary

    Your Challenge Common Obstacles SoftwareReviews’ Approach
    A company's brand architecture can help brand managers build a stronger brand that supports the company's goals and increases brand value. Failing to maintain the brand architecture can have the following consequences:
    • Inconsistent branding across product lines, services, and marketing communications
    • Employee confusion regarding product lines, services, and brand structure.
    • Difficulties in launching new products or services or integrating acquired brands.
    • Poor customer experience in navigating the website or understanding the offerings.
    • Inability to differentiate from competitors.
    • Weak brand equity and a lack of brand loyalty.
    Establishing and maintaining a clear brand architecture can pose significant issues for brand leaders. Despite these obstacles, defining the brand architecture can yield substantial benefits for businesses. Common constraints are:
    • Lack of knowledge on the subject, resulting in difficulties securing buy-in from stakeholders.
    • Siloed teams and competing priorities.
    • Limited resources and time constraints.
    • Resistance to change from employees or customers.
    • Inconsistent execution and adherence to brand guidelines.
    • Lack of communication and coordination when acquiring new brands.
    With focused and effective efforts and guidance, brand leaders can define or reimagine their brand architecture. Developing and maintaining a clear and consistent brand architecture involves:
    • Defining the brand architecture strategy.
    • Analyzing the current brand portfolio and identifying the core brand elements.
    • Determining and developing the proper brand structure.
    • Updating brand guidelines and messaging.
    • Rolling out the brand architecture across touchpoints and assets.
    • Facilitating the integration of new brands.
    • Monitoring and adjusting the architecture as needed for relevance to business goals.

    "[B]rand architecture is like a blueprint for a house...the foundation that holds all the pieces together, making sure everything fits and works seamlessly."
    Source: Verge Marketing

    The basics of brand architecture

    The significance of brand hierarchy organization

    Brand architecture is the hierarchical organization and its interrelationships. This includes shaping the brand strategy and structuring the company's product and service portfolio.

    A well-designed brand architecture helps buyers navigate a company's product offerings and creates a strong brand image and loyalty.

    A company's brand architecture typically includes three levels:

    • Master or parent brand
    • Sub-brands
    • Endorsed brands

    Choosing the right architecture depends on business strategy, products and services, and target audience. It should be reviewed periodically as the brand evolves, new products and services are launched, or new brands are acquired.

    "A brand architecture is the logical, strategic, and relational structure for your brands, or put another way, it is the entity's 'family tree' of brands, sub-brands, and named products."
    Source: Branding Strategy Insider

    Enhancing a company's brand hierarchy for better business outcomes

    Maximize brand strategy with a well-defined and managed brand architecture.

    Align brand architecture with business goals
    A well-defined brand architecture aligned with business objectives contributes to building brand recognition, facilitating brand extension, and streamlining brand portfolio management. In addition, it improves marketing effectiveness and customer experience.
    With a clear and consistent brand architecture, companies can strengthen their brand equity, increase awareness and loyalty, and grow in their competitive environment.

    Effectively engage with the desired buyers
    A clear and consistent brand architecture enables companies to align their brand identity and value proposition with the needs and preferences of their target audience, resulting in increased customer loyalty and satisfaction.
    Establishing a unique market position and reinforcing brand messaging and positioning allows companies to create a more personalized and engaging customer experience, driving business growth.

    Maintain a competitive edge
    An effective brand architecture allows companies to differentiate themselves from their competitors by establishing their unique position in the market. It also provides a structured framework for introducing new products or services under the same brand, leveraging the existing one.
    By aligning their brand architecture with their business objectives, companies can achieve sustainable growth and outperform their competitors in the marketplace.

    "A well-defined brand architecture provides clarity and consistency in how a brand is perceived by its audience. It helps to create a logical framework that aligns with a brand's overall vision and objectives."
    Source: LinkedIn

    Pitfalls of neglecting brand guidelines

    Identifying the negative effects on business and brand value.

    Deficient brand architecture can manifest in various ways.

    Here are some common symptoms:

    • Lack of clarity around the brand's personality and values
    • Inconsistent messaging and branding
    • Inability to differentiate from competitors
    • Weak brand identity
    • Confusion among customers and employees
    • Difficulty launching new products/services or integrating acquired brands
    • Lack of recognition and trust from consumers, leading to potential negative impacts on the bottom line

    Brand architecture helps to ensure that your company's brands are aligned with your business goals and objectives, and that they work together to create a cohesive and consistent brand image.

    The most common obstacles in developing and maintaining a clear brand architecture

    Establishing and maintaining a clear brand architecture requires the commitment of the entire organization and a collaborative effort.

    Lack of stakeholder buy-in > Resistance to change

    Siloed teams > Inconsistent execution

    Limited resources > Lack of education and communication

    Types of brand architectures

    Different approaches to structuring brand hierarchy

    Brand architecture is a framework that encompasses three distinct levels, each comprising a different type of branding strategy.

    Types of brand architectures

    Examples of types of brand architectures

    Well-known brands with different brand and sub-brands structures

    Examples of types of brand architectures

    Pros and cons of each architecture types

    Different approaches to organizing a brand portfolio

    The brand architecture impacts the cohesiveness, effectiveness, and market reach. Defining or redefining organization changes is crucial for company performance.

    Branded House Endorsed Brands House of Brands
    Other Designations
    • "Monolithic brands"
    • "Sub-brands"
    • "Freestanding brands"
    Description
    • Single brand name for all products/services
    • Creates a unique and powerful image that can easily be identified
    • The master brand name endorses a range of products/services marketed under different sub-brands
    • Decentralized brands
    • Can target diverse markets with separate brand names for each product/service
    Marketing & Comms
    • Highly efficient
    • Eliminates split branding efforts by product/service
    • Product differentiation and tailoring messages to specific customer segments are limited
    • Each brand has its unique identity
    • Benefit from the support and resources of the master brand
    • Allows for unique branding and messaging per products/services for specific customer segments
    • Can experiment with different offerings and strategies
    Impact on Sales
    • Good cross-selling opportunities by leveraging a strong brand name
    • Benefit from the master brand's credibility, building customer trust and increasing sales
    • Tailored marketing to specific segments can increase market share and profitability
    • Creates competitive advantage and builds loyalty
    Cost Effectiveness
    • Cost-effective
    • No separate branding efforts per product/service
    • Lack of economy of scale
    • Fragmentation of resources and duplication of effort
    • Lack of economy of scale
    • Fragmentation of resources and duplication of effort
    Reputation and Image
    • More control over the brand image, messages, and perception, leading to strong recognition
    • Increased vulnerability to negative events can damage the entire brand, products/services offered
    • Mitigated risk, protecting the master brand's reputation and financial performance
    • Negative events with one brand can damage the master and other brands, causing a loss of credibility
    • Reduced risk, safeguarding the master brand's reputation and financial performance
    • Each brand builds its own equity, enhancing the company's financial performance and value
    Consistency
    • Ensures consistency with the company's brand image, values, and messaging
    • Helps build trust and loyalty
    • Inconsistent branding and messaging can cause confusion and misunderstandings
    • Unclear link between master/endorsed brands
    • Reduces trust and brand loyalty
    • Difficult to establish a clear and consistent corporate identity
    • Can reduce overall brand recognition and loyalty

    Brand naming decision tree

    Create a naming process for brand alignment and resonance with the target audience

    To ensure a chosen name is effective and legally/ethically sound, consider the ease of pronunciation/spelling, the availability for registration of brand/domain name, any negative connotations/associations in any language/culture, and potential legal/ethical issues.

    Brand naming decision tree

    To ensure a chosen name is effective and legally/ethically sound, consider the ease of pronunciation/spelling, the availability for registration of brand/domain name, any negative connotations/associations in any language/culture, and potential legal/ethical issues.

    Advantages of defining brand architecture

    Maximize your brand potential with a clear architecture strategy.

    Clear offering

    Adaptability

    Consistent branding

    Competitive differentiation

    Operational efficiency

    Strong brand identity

    Customer loyalty

    Business success

    "Responding to external influences, all brands must adapt and change over time. A clear system can aid in managing the process, ensuring that necessary changes are implemented effectively and efficiently."
    Source: The Branding Journal

    SoftwareReviews' brand architecture creation methodology

    Develop and Implement a Robust Brand Architecture

    Phase Steps

    Step 1 Research and Analysis
    1.1 Define brand architecture strategy
    1.2 Brand audit
    1.3 Identify brand core elements

    Step 2 Development and Implementation
    2.1 Determine brand hierarchy
    2.2 Develop or update brand guidelines
    2.3 Roll out brand architecture

    Phase Outcomes
    • Brand current performance is assessed
    • Issues are highlighted and can be addressed
    • Brand structure is developed and implemented across touchpoints and assets
    • Adjustments are made on an ongoing basis for consistency and relevance to business goals

    Insight summary

    Brand Architecture: Organize and manage your portfolio of brands
    Brand architecture is the way a company organizes and manages its portfolio of brands to achieve strategic goals. It encompasses the relationships between brands, from sub-brands to endorsed brands to independent brands, and how they interact with each other and with the master brand. With a clear brand architecture, businesses can optimize their portfolio, enhance their competitive position, and achieve sustainable growth and success in the long run.

    Aligning brand architecture to business strategy
    Effective brand architecture aligns with the company's business strategy, marketing objectives, and customer needs. It provides clarity and coherence to the brand portfolio, helps customers navigate product offerings, and maximizes overall equity of the brand.

    Choosing between three types of brand architecture
    A company's choice of brand architecture depends on factors like product range, target markets, and strategic objectives. Each approach, Branded House, Endorsed, or House of Brands, has its own pros and cons, and the proper option relies on the company's goals, resources, and constraints.

    A logical brand hierarchy for more clarity
    The order of importance of brands in the portfolio, including the relationships between the master and sub-brands, and the positioning of each in the market is fundamental. A clear and logical hierarchy helps customers understand the value proposition of each brand and reduces confusion.

    A win-win approach
    Clear brand architecture can help customers easily navigate and understand the product offering, reinforce the brand identity and values, and improve customer loyalty and retention. Additionally, it can help companies optimize their marketing strategies, streamline their product development and production processes, and maximize their revenue and profitability.

    Brand architecture, an ongoing process
    Brand architecture is not a one-time decision but an ongoing process that requires regular review and adjustment. As business conditions change, companies may need to revise their brand portfolio, brand hierarchy, or brand extension and acquisition strategies to remain competitive and meet customer needs.

    Brand architecture creation tools

    This blueprint comes with tools to help you develop your brand architecture.

    Brand Architecture Toolkit

    This kit includes a Brand Architecture Mini-Audit, a Brand Architecture template, and templates for Brand Matrix, Ecosystem, and Development Strategy.

    Use this kit to develop a strong brand architecture that aligns with your business goals, clarifies your brand portfolio, and enhances overall brand equity.

    Brand Architecture Toolkit

    Brand Architecture

    Develop a robust brand architecture that supports your business goals, clarifies your brand portfolio, and enhances your overall brand equity.

    "A brand architecture is the logical, strategic, and relational structure for your brands, or put another way, it is the entity's 'family tree' of brands, sub-brands, and named products."
    Source: Branding Strategy Insider

    Consequences of Neglected Brand Guidelines

    When a company neglects its brand architecture and guidelines, it can result in a number of negative consequences, such as:

    • Lack of clarity around the brand's personality and values
    • Inconsistent messaging and branding
    • Inability to differentiate from competitors
    • Weak brand identity
    • Confusion among customers and employees
    • Difficulty launching new products/services or integrating acquired brands
    • Lack of recognition and trust from consumers, leading to potential negative impacts on the bottom line.

    Benefits of SoftwareReviews' Methodology

    By following SoftwareReviews' methodology to develop and maintain a brand architecture, businesses can:

    • Establish a unique market position and stand out from competitors
    • Ensure that marketing efforts are focused and effective
    • Create personalized and engaging customer experiences
    • Reinforce messaging and positioning
    • Increase customer loyalty and satisfaction
    • Build brand recognition and awareness

    Marq, formerly Lucidpress, surveyed over 400 brand management experts and found that "if the brand was consistent, revenue would increase by 10-20%."

    Methodology for Defining Brand Architecture

    Who benefits from this research?

    This research is designed for:

    • Organizations that value their brand and want to ensure that it is communicated effectively and consistently across all touchpoints.
    • Business owners, marketers, brand managers, creative teams, and anyone involved in the development and implementation of brand strategy.

    This research will also assist:

    • Sales and customer experience teams
    • Channel partners
    • Buyers

    This research will help you:

    • Establish a unique market position and stand out from competitors.
    • Create a more personalized and engaging customer experience.
    • Ensure that marketing efforts are focused and effective.
    • Reinforce brand messaging and positioning.

    This research will help them:

    • Increase customer loyalty and satisfaction
    • Build brand recognition and awareness
    • Drive business growth and profitability.

    SoftwareReviews offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

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

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Research & Analysis
    Call #1: Discuss brand architecture strategy (define objectives, scope and stakeholders). Call #3: Identify core brand components and ensure they align with the brand strategy. Call #5: Develop or update brand guidelines. Optional Calls:
    • Brand Diagnostic
    • Brand Strategy and Tactics
    • Brand Voice Guidelines
    • Asset Creation and Management
    • Brand Messaging
    Call #2: Conduct a brand audit. Call #4: Define and document the brand hierarchy. Call #6: Roll out the brand architecture and monitoring.

    A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with a SoftwareReviews Marketing Analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

    Your engagement managers will work with you to schedule analyst calls.

    Brand Mind Mapping Workshop Overview

    Total duration: 3-4 hours

    Activities
    Visually map out the different elements of your brand portfolio, including corporate brands, sub-brands, product brands, and their relationships with each other.

    The workshop also aims to explore additional elements, such as brand expansions, acquisitions, and extensions, and brand attributes and positioning.

    Deliverables
    Get a mind map that represents the brand architecture and its various components, which can be used to evaluate and improve the overall coherence and effectiveness of the brand portfolio. The mind map can also provide insights into how different brands fit together and contribute to the overall brand strategy.

    Participants

    • Business owners
    • Head of Branding and anyone involved with the brand strategy

    Tools

    • Brand Architecture Template, slides 7 and 8

    Brand Mind Mapping

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

    Get started!

    Develop a brand architecture that supports your business goals, clarifies your brand portfolio, and enhances your overall brand equity.

    Develop and Implement a Robust Brand Architecture

    Step 1 Research and Analysis
    1.1 Define architecture strategy
    1.2 Perform brand audit
    1.3 Identify brand core elements

    Step 2 Development and Implementation
    2.1 Determine brand hierarchy
    2.2 Develop or update brand guidelines
    2.3 Roll out brand architecture

    Phase Outcome

    • Brand current performance is assessed
    • Issues are highlighted and can be addressed
    • Brand structure is developed and implemented across touchpoints and assets
    • Adjustments made on an ongoing basis for consistency and relevance to business goals

    Develop and implement a robust brand architecture

    Steps 1.1, 1.2 & 1.3 Define architecture strategy, audit brand, and identify core elements.

    Total duration: 2.5-4.5 hours

    Objective
    Define brand objectives (hierarchy, acquired brand inclusion, product distinction), scope, and stakeholders. Analyze the brand portfolio to identify gaps or inconsistencies. Identify brand components (name, logo, tagline, personality) and align them with the brand and business strategy.

    Output
    By completing these steps, you will assess your current brand portfolio and evaluate its consistency and alignment with the overall brand strategy.

    Participants

    • Business owners
    • Head of Branding and anyone involved with the brand strategy

    Tools

    • Diagnose Brand Health to Improve Business Growth Blueprint (optional)
    • Brand Awareness Strategy Template (optional)

    1.1 Define Brand Architecture Strategy
    (60-120 min.)

    Define

    Define brand objectives (hierarchy, inclusion of an acquired brand, product distinction), scope, and stakeholders.

    1.2 Conduct Brand Audit
    (30-60 min.)

    Assess

    Assess the state of your brand architecture using the "Brand architecture mini-audit checklist," slide 9 of the Brand Architecture Strategy Template. Check the boxes that correspond to the state of your brand architecture. Those left unchecked represent areas for improvement.

    For a more in-depth analysis of your brand performance, follow the instructions and use the tools provided in the Diagnose Brand Health to Improve Business Growth blueprint (optional).

    1.3 Identify Core Brand Elements
    (60-90 min.)

    Identify

    Define brand components (name, logo, tagline, personality). Align usage with strategy. You can develop your brand strategy, if not already existing, using the Brand Awareness Strategy Template (optional).

    Tip!

    Continuously monitor and adjust your brand architecture - it's not static and should evolve over time. You can also adapt your brand strategy as needed to stay relevant and competitive.

    Develop and implement a robust brand architecture

    Steps 2.1. 2.2 & 2.3 Develop brand hierarchy, guidelines, and rollout architecture.

    Total duration: 3.5-5.5 hours

    Objective
    Define your brand structure and clarify the role and market position of each. Create concise brand expression guidelines, implement them across all touchpoints and assets, and adjust as needed to stay aligned with your business goals.

    Output
    This exercise will help you establish and apply your brand structure, with a plan for ongoing updates and adjustments to maintain consistency and relevance.

    Participants

    • Business owners
    • Head of Branding and anyone involved with the brand strategy

    Tools

    • Brand Architecture Template
    • Brand Voice Guidelines
    • Brand Messaging Template
    • Asset Creation and Management List Template

    2.1 Determine Brand Hierarchy
    (30-60 min.)

    Analyze & Document

    In the Brand Architecture Strategy Template, complete the brand matrix, ecosystem, development strategy matrix, mind mapping, and architecture, to develop a strong brand architecture that aligns with your business goals and clarifies your brand portfolio and market position.

    2.2 Develop/Update Brand Guidelines
    (120-180 min.)

    Develop/Update

    Develop (or update existing) clear, concise, and actionable brand expression guidelines using the Brand Voice Guidelines and Brand Messaging Template.

    2.2 Rollout Brand Architecture
    Preparation (60-90 min.)

    Create & Implement

    Use the Asset Creation and Management List Template to implement brand architecture across touchpoints and assets.

    Monitor and Adjust

    Use slide 8, "Brand Strategy Development Matrix," of the Brand Architecture Strategy Template to identify potential and future brand development strategies to build or enhance your brand based on your current brand positioning and business goals. Monitor, and adjust as needed, for relevance to the brand and business strategy.

    Tip!

    Make your brand architecture clear and simple for your target audience, employees, and stakeholders. This will avoid confusion and help your audience understand your brand structure.

    Prioritizing clarity and simplicity will communicate your brand's value proposition effectively and create a strong brand that resonates with your audience and supports your business goals.

    Related SoftwareReviews research

    Diagnose Brand Health to Improve Business Growth

    Have a significant and well-targeted impact on business success and growth by knowing how your brand performs, identifying areas of improvement, and making data-driven decisions to fix them.

    • Increase brand awareness and equity.
    • Build trust and improve customer retention and loyalty.
    • Achieve higher and faster growth.

    Accelerate Business Growth and Valuation by Building Brand Awareness

    Successfully build awareness and help the business grow. Stand out from the competition and continue to grow in a sustainable way.

    • Get a clear understanding of the buyer's needs and your key differentiator.
    • Achieve strategy alignment and readiness.
    • Create and manage assets.

    Bibliography

    "Brand Architecture: Definition, Types, Strategies, and Examples." The Branding Journal, 2022.

    "Brand Architecture: What It Is and How to Build Your Brand's Framework." HubSpot, 2021.

    "Brand Architecture Framework." Verge Marketing, 2021.

    "Brand consistency-the competitive advantage and how to achieve it." Marq/Lucidpress, 2021.

    "Building brands for growth: A fresh perspective." McKinsey & Company. Accessed on 31 March 2023.

    Daye, Derrick. "Brand Architecture Strategy Guide." Branding Strategy Insider, The Blake Project, 13 May 2021.

    Todoran, Adrian. "Choosing the Perfect Brand Architecture Strategy for Your Business." LinkedIn, 2023.

    Advisory Call Outline: Software Selection Engagement

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    • Parent Category Name: Selection & Implementation
    • Parent Category Link: /selection-and-implementation
    • Selection takes forever. Traditional software selection drags on for years, sometimes in perpetuity.
    • IT is viewed as a bottleneck and the business has taken control of software selection.
    • “Gut feel” decisions rule the day. Intuition, not hard data, guides selection, leading to poor outcomes.
    • Negotiations are a losing battle. Money is left on the table by inexperienced negotiators.
    • Overall: Poor selection processes lead to wasted time, wasted effort, and applications that continually disappoint.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Adopt a formal methodology to accelerate and improve software selection results.
    • Improve business satisfaction by including the right stakeholders and delivering new applications on a truly timely basis.
    • Kill the “sacred cow” requirements that only exist because “it’s how we’ve always done it.”
    • Forget about “RFP” overload and hone in on the features that matter to your organization.
    • Skip the guesswork and validate decisions with real data.
    • Take control of vendor “dog and pony shows” with single-day, high-value, low-effort, rapid-fire investigative interviews.
    • Master vendor negotiations and never leave money on the table.

    Impact and Result

    • Improving software selection is a critical project that will deliver huge value.
    • Hit a home run with your business stakeholders: use a data-driven approach to select the right application vendor for their needs – fast.
    • Shatter stakeholder expectations with truly rapid application selections.
    • Boost collaboration and crush the broken telephone with concise and effective stakeholder meetings.
    • Lock in hard savings and do not pay list price by using data-driven tactics.

    Advisory Call Outline: Software Selection Engagement Research & Tools

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

    1. Advisory Call Outline

    Info-Tech's expert analyst guidance will help you save money, align stakeholders, and speed up the application selection process.

    • Advisory Call Outline: Software Selection Engagement Deck

    2. Workshop Overview

    Info-Tech's workshop will help you implement a repeatable, data-driven approach that accelerates software selection efforts.

    • Rapid Software Selection Workshop Overview
    [infographic]

    Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization

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    • member rating average dollars saved: $1,133,999 Average $ Saved
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    • Parent Category Name: Requirements & Design
    • Parent Category Link: /requirements-and-design
    • CIOs have trouble integrating new technologies (e.g. mobile, cloud solutions) with legacy applications, and lack standards for using APIs across the organization.
    • Organizations produce APIs that are error-prone, not consistently configured, and not maintained effectively.
    • Organizations are looking for ways to increase application quality and code reusability to improve development throughput using web APIs.
    • Organizations are looking for opportunities to create an application ecosystem which can expose internal services across the organization and/or to external third parties and business partners.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Organizations are looking to go beyond current development practices to provide scalable and reusable web services.
    • Web API development is a tactical competency that is important to enabling speed of development, quality of applications, reusability, innovation, and business alignment.
    • Design your web API as a product that promotes speed of development and service reuse.
    • Optimize the design, development, testing, and monitoring of your APIs incrementally and iteratively to cover all use cases in the long term.

    Impact and Result

    • Create a repeatable process to improve the quality, reusability, and governance of your web APIs.
    • Define the purpose of your API and the common uses cases that it will service.
    • Understand what development techniques are required to develop an effective web API based on Info-Tech’s web API framework.
    • Continuously reiterate your web API to demonstrate to business stakeholders the value your web API provides.

    Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

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

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

    1. Examine the opportunities web APIs can enable

    Assess the opportunities of web APIs.

    • Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization – Phase 1: Examine the Opportunities Web APIs Can Enable

    2. Design and develop a web API

    Design and develop web APIs that support business processes and enable reusability.

    • Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization – Phase 2: Design and Develop a Web API
    • Web APIs High-Level Design Requirements Template
    • Web API Design Document Template

    3. Test the web API

    Accommodate web API testing best practices in application test plans.

    • Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization – Phase 3: Test the Web API
    • Web API Test Plan Template

    4. Monitor and continuously optimize the web API

    Monitor the usage and value of web APIs and plan for future optimizations and maintenance.

    • Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization – Phase 4: Monitor and Continuously Optimize the Web API
    • Web API Process Governance Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Develop APIs That Work Properly for the Organization

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

    1 Examine the Opportunities Web APIs Can Enable

    The Purpose

    Gauge the importance of web APIs for achieving your organizational needs.

    Understand how web APIs can be used to achieve below-the-line and above-the-line benefits.

    Be aware of web API development pitfalls. 

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding the revenue generation and process optimization opportunities web APIs can bring to your organization.

    Knowledge of the current web API landscape. 

    Activities

    1.1 Examine the opportunities web APIs can enable.

    Outputs

    2 Design & Develop Your Web API

    The Purpose

    Establish a web API design and development process.

    Design scalable web APIs around defined business process flows and rules.

    Define the web service objects that the web APIs will expose. 

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Reusable web API designs.

    Identification of data sets that will be available through web services.

    Implement web API development best practices. 

    Activities

    2.1 Define high-level design details based on web API requirements.

    2.2 Define your process workflows and business rules.

    2.3 Map the relationships among data tables through ERDs.

    2.4 Define your data model by mapping the relationships among data tables through data flow diagrams.

    2.5 Define your web service objects by effectively referencing your data model.

    Outputs

    High-level web API design.

    Business process flow.

    Entity relationship diagrams.

    Data flow diagrams.

    Identification of web service objects.

    3 Test Your Web API

    The Purpose

    Incorporate APIs into your existing testing practices.

    Emphasize security testing with web APIs.

    Learn of the web API testing and monitoring tool landscape.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Creation of a web API test plan.

    Activities

    3.1 Create a test plan for your web API.

    Outputs

    Web API Test Plan.

    4 Monitor and Continuously Optimize Your Web API

    The Purpose

    Plan for iterative development and maintenance of web APIs.

    Manage web APIs for versioning and reuse.

    Establish a governance structure to manage changes to web APIs. 

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Implement web API monitoring and maintenance best practices.

    Establishment of a process to manage future development and maintenance of web APIs. 

    Activities

    4.1 Identify roles for your API development projects.

    4.2 Develop governance for web API development.

    Outputs

    RACI table that accommodates API development.

    Web API operations governance structure.

    Manage Exponential Value Relationships

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    • Parent Category Name: Vendor Management
    • Parent Category Link: /vendor-management

    Implementing exponential IT will require businesses to work with external vendors to facilitate the rapid adoption of cutting-edge technologies such as generative artificial intelligence. IT leaders must:

    These challenges require new skills which build trust and collaboration among vendors.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Outcome-based relationships require a higher degree of trust than traditional vendor relationships. Build trust by sharing risks and rewards.

    Impact and Result

    • Assess your readiness to take on the new types of vendor relationships that will help you succeed.
    • Identify where you need to build your capabilities in order to successfully manage relationships.
    • Successfully manage outcomes, financials, risk, and relationships in complex vendor relationships.

    Manage Exponential Value Relationships Research & Tools

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

    1. Manage Exponential Value Relationships Storyboard – Learn about the new era of exponential vendor relationships and the capabilities needed to succeed.

    This research walks you through how to assess your capabilities to undertake a new model of vendor relationships and drive exponential IT.

    • Manage Exponential Value Relationships Storyboard

    2. Exponential Relationships Readiness Assessment – Assess your readiness to engage in exponential vendor partnerships.

    This tool will facilitate your readiness assessment.

    • Exponential Relationships Readiness Assessment
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Manage Exponential Value Relationships

    Are you ready to manage outcome-based agreements?

    Analyst Perspective

    Outcome-based agreements require a higher degree of mutual trust.

    Kim Osborne Rodriguez

    Exponential IT brings with it an exciting new world of cutting-edge technology and increasingly accelerated growth of business and IT. But adopting and driving change through this paradigm requires new capabilities to grow impactful and meaningful partnerships with external vendors who can help implement technologies like artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

    Building outcome-based partnerships involves working very closely with vendors who, in many cases, will have just as much to lose as the organizations implementing these new technologies. This requires a greater degree of trust between parties than a standard vendor relationship. It also drastically increases the risks to both organizations; as each loses some control over data and outcomes, they must trust that the other organization will follow through on commitments and obligations.

    Outcome-based partnerships build upon traditional vendor management practices and create the potential for organizations to embrace emerging technology in new ways.

    Kim Osborne Rodriguez
    Research Director, CIO Advisory
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Exponential IT drives change

    Vendor relationships must evolve

    To deliver exponential value

    Implementing exponential IT will require businesses to work with external vendors to facilitate the rapid adoption of cutting-edge technologies such as generative artificial intelligence. IT leaders must:

    • Build strategic relationships with external entities to support the autonomization of the enterprise.
    • Procure, operate, and manage contracts and performance in outcome-based relationships.
    • Build relationships with new vendors.

    These challenges require new skills which build trust and collaboration with vendors.

    Traditional vendor management approaches are still important for organizations to develop and maintain. But exponential relationships bring new challenges:

    • A shift from managing technology service agreements to managing business capability agreements
    • Increased vendor access to intellectual property, confidential information, and customers

    IT leaders must adapt traditional vendor management capabilities to successfully lead this change.

    Outcome-based relationships should not be undertaken lightly as they can significantly impact the risk profile of the organization. Use this research to:

    • Assess your foundational vendor management capabilities as well as the transformative capabilities you need to manage outcome-based relationships.
    • Identify where you need to build your capabilities in order to successfully manage relationships.
    • Successfully manage outcomes, financials, risk, and relationships in complex vendor partnerships.

    Exponential value relationships will help drive exponential IT and autonomization of the enterprise.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Outcome-based partnerships require a higher degree of trust than traditional vendor relationships. Build trust by sharing risks and rewards.

    Vendor relationships can be worth billions of dollars

    Positive vendor relationships directly impact the bottom line, sometimes to the tune of billions of dollars annually.

    • Organizations typically spend 40% to 80% of their total budget on external suppliers.
    • Greater supplier trust translates directly to greater business profits, even in traditional vendor relationships.1
    • Based on over a decade of data from vehicle manufacturers, greater supplier relationships nearly doubled the unit profit margin on vehicles, contributing over $20 billion to Toyota’s annual profits based on typical sales volume.2
    • Having positive vendor relationships can be instrumental in times of crisis – when scarcity looms, vendors often choose to support their best customers.3,4 For example, Toyota protected itself from the losses many original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) faced in 2020 and showed improved profitability that year due to increased demand for vehicles which it was able to supply as a result of top-ranked vendor relationships.
    1 PR Newswire, 2022.
    2 Based on 10 years of data comparing Toyota and Nissan, every 1-point increase in the company’s Working Relations Index was correlated with a $15.77 net profit increase per unit. Impact on Toyota annual profits is based on 10.5 million units sold in 2021 and 2022.
    3 Interview with Renee Stanley, University of Texas at Arlington. Conducted 17 May 2023.
    4 Plante Moran, 2020.

    Supplier Trust Impacts OEM Profitability

    Sources: Macrotrends, Plante Moran 2022, Nissan 2022 and 2023, and Toyota 2022. Profit per car is based on total annual profit divided by total annual sales volume.

    Outcome-based relationships are a new paradigm

    In a new model where organizations are procuring autonomous capabilities, outcomes will govern vendor relationships.

    An outcome-based relationship requires a higher level of mutual trust than traditional vendor relationships. This requires shared reward and shared risk.

    Don’t forget about traditional vendor management relationships! Not all vendor relationships can (or should) be outcome-based.

    Managing Exponential Value Relationships.

    Case study

    INDUSTRY: Technology

    SOURCE: Press Release

    Microsoft and OpenAI partner on Azure, Teams, and Microsoft Office suite

    In January 2023, Microsoft announced a $10 billion investment in OpenAI, allowing OpenAI to continue scaling its flagship large language model, ChatGPT, and giving Microsoft first access to deploy OpenAI’s products in services like GitHub, Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Teams.

    Shared risk

    Issues with OpenAI’s platforms could have a debilitating effect on Microsoft’s own reputation – much like Google’s $100 billion stock loss following a blunder by its AI platform Bard – not to mention the financial loss if the platform does not live up to the hype.

    Shared reward

    This was a particularly important strategic move by Microsoft, as its main competitors develop their own AI models in a race to the top. This investment also gave OpenAI the resources to continue scaling and evolving its services much faster than it would be capable of on its own. If OpenAI’s products succeed, there is a significant upside for both companies.

    The image contains a graph that demonstrates time to reach 1 million users.

    Adapt your approach to vendor relationships

    Both traditional vendors and exponential relationships are important.

    Traditional

    procurement

    Vendor

    management

    Exponential vendor relationships

    • Ideal for procuring a product or service
    • Typically evaluates vendors based on their capabilities and track record of success
    • Focuses on metrics, KPIs, and contracts to deliver success to the organization purchasing the product or service
    • Vendors typically only have access to company data showing what is required to deliver their product or service
    • Ideal for managing vendors supplying products or services
    • Typically evaluates vendors based on the value and the criticality of a vendor to drive VM-resource allocation
    • External vendors do not generally participate in sharing of risks or rewards outside of payment for services or incentives/penalties
    • Vendors typically have limited access to company data
    • Ideal for procuring an autonomous capability
    • Typically evaluated based on the total possible value creation for both parties
    • External vendors share in substantial portions of the risks and rewards of the relationship
    • Vendors typically have significant access to company data, including proprietary methods, intellectual property, and customer lists

    Use this research to successfully
    manage outcome-based relationships.

    Use Info-Tech’s research to Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative.

    Common obstacles

    Exponential relationships require new approaches to vendor management as businesses autonomize:

    • Autonomization refers to the shift toward autonomous business capabilities which leverage technologies such as AI and quantum computing to operate independently of human interaction.
    • The speed and complexity of technology advancement requires that businesses move quickly and confidently to develop strong relationships and deliver value.
    • We are seeing businesses shift from procuring products and services to procuring autonomous business capabilities (sometimes called “as a service,” or aaS). This shift can drive exponential value but also increases complexity and risk.
    • Exponential IT requires a shift in emphasis toward more mature relationship and risk management strategies, compared to traditional vendor management.

    The shift from technology service agreements to business capability agreements needs a new approach

    Eighty-seven percent of organizations are currently experiencing talent shortages or expect to within a few years.

    Source: McKinsey, “Mind the [skills] gap”, 2021.

    Sixty-three percent of IT leaders plan to implement AI in their organizations by the end of 2023.

    Source: Info-Tech Research Group survey, 2022

    Insight summary

    Build trust

    Successfully managing exponential relationships requires increased trust and the ability to share both risks and rewards. Outcome-based vendors typically have greater access to intellectual property, customer data, and proprietary methods, which can pose a risk to the organization if this information is used to benefit competitors. Build mutual trust by sharing both risks and rewards.

    Manage risk

    Outcome-based relationships with external vendors can drastically affect an organization’s risk profile. Carefully consider third-party risk and shared risk, including ESG risk, as well as the business risk of losing control over capabilities and assets. Qualified risk specialists (such as legal, regulatory, contract, intellectual property law) should be consulted before entering outcome-based relationships.

    Drive outcomes

    Fostering strategic relationships can be instrumental in times of crisis, when being the customer of choice for key vendors can push your organization up the line from the vendor’s side – but be careful about relying on this too much. Vendor objectives may not align with yours, and in the end, everyone needs to protect themselves.

    Assess your readiness for exponential value relationships

    Key deliverable:

    Exponential Relationships Readiness Assessment

    Determine your readiness to build exponential value relationships.

    Measure the value of this blueprint

    Save thousands of dollars by leveraging this research to assess your readiness, before you lose millions from a relationship gone bad.

    Our research indicates that most organizations would take months to prepare this type of assessment without using our research. That’s over 80 person-hours spent researching and gathering data to support due diligence, for a total cost of thousands of dollars. Doesn’t your staff have better things to do?

    Start by answering a few brief questions, then return to this slide at the end to see how much your answers have changed.

    Establish Baseline Metrics

    Use Info-Tech’s research to Exponential Relationships Readiness Assessment.

    Estimated time commitment without Info-Tech’s research (person-hours)

    Establish a baseline

    Gauge the effectiveness of this research by asking yourself the following questions before and after completing your readiness assessment:

    Questions

    Before

    After

    To what extent are you satisfied with your current vendor management approach?

    How many of your current vendors would you describe as being of strategic importance?

    How much do you spend on vendors annually?

    How much value do you derive from your vendor relationships annually?

    Do you have a vendor management strategy?

    What outcomes are you looking to achieve through your vendor relationships?

    How well do you understand the core capabilities needed to drive successful vendor management?

    How well do you understand your current readiness to engage in outcome-based vendor relationships?

    Do you feel comfortable managing the risks when working with organizations to implement artificial intelligence and other autonomous capabilities?

    How to use this research

    Five tips to get the most out of your readiness assessment.

    1. Each category consists of five competencies, with a maximum of five points each. The maximum score on this assessment is 100 points.
    2. Effectiveness levels range from basic (level 1) to advanced (level 5). Level 1 is generally considered the baseline for most effectively operating organizations. If your organization is struggling with level 1 competencies, it is recommended to improve maturity in those areas before pursuing exponential relationships.
    3. This assessment is qualitative; complete the assessment to the best of your ability, based on the scoring rubric provided. If you fall between levels, use the lower one in your assessment.
    4. The scoring rubric may not perfectly fit the processes and practices within every organization. Consider the spirit of the description and score accordingly.
    5. Other industry- and region-specific competencies may be required to succeed at exponential relationships. The competencies in this assessment are a starting point, and internal validation and assessments should be conducted to uncover additional competencies and skills.

    Financial management

    Manage your budget and spending to stay on track throughout your relationship.

    “Most organizations underestimate the amount of time, money, and skill required to build and maintain a successful relationship with another organization. The investment in exponential relationships is exponential in itself – as are the returns.”

    – Jennifer Perrier, Principal Research Director,
    Info-Tech Research Group

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Executive leadership team, including CIO
    • CFO
    • Vendor management leader
    • Other internal stakeholders of vendor relationships

    Activities:

    • Assess your ability to manage scope and budget in exponential IT relationships.

    Successfully manage complex finances

    Stay on track and keep your relationship running smoothly.

    Why is this important?

    • Finance is at the core of most business – it drives decision making, acts as a constraint for innovation and optimization, and plays a key role in assessing options (such as return on investment or payback period).
    • Effectively managing finances is a critical success factor in developing strong relationships. Each organization must be able to manage their own budget and spending in order to balance the risk and reward in the relationship. Often, these risks and rewards will come in the form of profit and loss or revenue and spend.

    Build it into your practice:

    1. Ensure your financial decision-making practices are aligned with the organizational and relationship strategy. Do metrics and criteria reflect the organization’s goals?
    2. Develop strong accounting and financial analysis practices – this includes the ability to conduct financial due diligence on potential vendors.
    3. Develop consistent methodology to track and report on the desired outcomes on a regular basis.

    Build your ability to manage finances

    The five competencies needed to manage finances in exponential value relationships are:

    Budget procedures

    Financial alignment

    Adaptability

    Financial analysis

    Reporting & compliance

    Clearly articulate and communicate budgets, with proactive analysis and reporting.

    There is a strong, direct alignment between financial outcomes and organizational strategy and goals.

    Financial structures can manage many different types of relationships and structures without major overhaul.

    Proactive financial analysis is conducted regularly, with actionable insights.

    This exceeds legal requirements and includes proactive and actionable reporting.

    Relationship management

    Drive exponential value by becoming a customer of choice.

    “The more complex the business environment becomes — for instance, as new technologies emerge or as innovation cycles get faster — the more such relationships make sense. And the better companies get at managing individual relationships, the more likely it is that they will become “partners of choice” and be able to build entire portfolios of practical and value-creating partnerships.”

    (“Improving the management of complex business partnerships.” McKinsey, 2019)

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Executive leadership team, including CIO
    • Vendor management leader
    • Other internal stakeholders of vendor relationships

    Activities:

    • Assess your ability to manage relationships in exponential IT relationships.

    Take your relationships to the next level

    Maintaining positive relationships is key to building trust.

    Why is this important?

    • All relationships will experience challenges, and the ability to resolve these issues will rely heavily on the relationship management skills and soft skills of the leadership within each organization.
    • Based on a 20-year study of vendor relationships in the automotive sector, business-to-business trust is a function of reasonable demands, follow-through, and information sharing.
    (Source: Plante Moran, 2020)

    Build it into your practice:

    1. Develop the soft skills necessary to promote psychological safety, growth mindset, and strong and open communication channels.
    2. Be smart about sharing information – you don’t need to share everything, but being open about relevant information will enhance trust.
    3. Both parties need to work hard to develop trust necessary to build a true relationship. This will require increased access to decision-makers, clearly defined guardrails, and the ability for unsatisfied parties to leave.

    Build your ability to manage relationships

    The five competencies needed to manage relationships in exponential partnerships are:

    Strategic alignment

    Follow-through

    Information sharing

    Shared risk & rewards

    Communication

    Work with vendors to create roadmaps and strategies to drive mutual success.

    Ensure demands are reasonable and consistently follow through on commitments.

    Proactively and freely share relevant information between parties.

    Equitably share responsibility for outcomes and benefits from success.

    Ensure clear, proactive, and frequent communication occurs between parties.

    Performance management

    Outcomes management focuses on results, not methods.

    According to Jennifer Robinson, senior editor at Gallup, “This approach focuses people and teams on a concrete result, not the process required to achieve it. Leaders define outcomes and, along with managers, set parameters and guidelines. Employees, then, have a high degree of autonomy to use their own unique talents to reach goals their own way.” (Forbes, 2023)

    In the context of exponential relationships, vendors can be given a high degree of autonomy provided they meet their objectives.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Executive leadership team, including CIO
    • Vendor management leader
    • Other internal stakeholders of vendor relationships

    Activities:

    • Assess your ability to manage outcomes in exponential IT relationships.

    Manage outcomes to drive mutual success

    Build trust by achieving shared objectives.

    Why is this important?

    • Relationships are based on shared risk and shared reward for all parties. In order to effectively communicate the shared rewards, you must first understand and communicate your objectives for the relationship, then measure outcomes to ensure all parties are benefiting.
    • Effectively managing outcomes reduces the risk that one party will choose to leave based on a perception of benefits not being achieved. Parties may still leave the agreement, but decisions should be based on shared facts and issues should be communicated and addressed early.

    Build it into your practice:

    1. Clearly articulate what you hope to achieve by entering an outcome-based relationship. Each party should outline and agree to the goals, objectives, and desired outcomes from the relationship.
    2. Document how rewards will be shared among parties. What type of rewards are anticipated? Who will benefit and how?
    3. Develop consistent methodology to track and report on the desired outcomes on a regular basis. This might consist of a vendor scorecard or a monthly meeting.

    Build your ability to manage outcomes

    The five competencies needed to manage outcomes in exponential value relationships are:

    Goal setting

    Negotiation

    Performance tracking

    Issue
    resolution

    Scope management

    Set specific, measurable and actionable goals, and communicate them with stakeholders.

    Clearly articulate and agree upon measurable outcomes between all parties.

    Proactively track progress toward goals/outcomes and discuss results with vendors regularly.

    Openly discuss potential issues and challenges on a regular basis. Find collaborative solutions to problems.

    Proactively manage scope and discuss with vendors on a regular basis.

    Risk management

    Exponential IT means exponential risk – and exponential rewards.

    One of the key differentiators between traditional vendor relationships and exponential relationships is the degree to which risk is shared between parties. This is not possible in all industries, which may limit companies’ ability to participate in this type of exponential relationship.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Executive leadership team, including CIO
    • Vendor management leader
    • Risk management leader
    • Other internal stakeholders of vendor relationships

    Activities:

    • Assess your ability to manage risk in exponential IT relationships.

    Relationships come with a lot of hidden risks

    Successfully managing complex risks can be the difference between a spectacular success and company-ending failure.

    Why is this important?

    • Relationships inherently involve a loss of control. You are relying on another party to fulfill their part of the agreement, and you depend on the success of the outcome. Loss of control comes with significant risks.
    • Sharing in risk is what differentiates an outcome-based relationship from a traditional vendor relationship; vendors must have skin in the game.
    • Organizations must consider many different types of risk when considering a relationship with a vendor: fraud, security, human rights, labor relations, ESG, and operational risks. Remember that risk is not inherently bad; some risk is necessary.

    Build it into your practice:

    1. Build or hire the necessary risk expertise needed to properly assess and evaluate the risks of potential vendor relationships. This includes intellectual property, ESG, legal/regulatory, cybersecurity, data security, and more.
    2. Develop processes and procedures which clearly communicate and report on risk on a regular basis.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Some highly regulated industries (such as finance) are prevented from transferring certain types of risk. In these industries, it may be much more difficult to form vendor relationships.

    Don’t forget about third-party ESG risk

    Customers care about ESG. You should too.

    Protect yourself against third-party ESG risks by considering the environmental and social impacts of your vendors.

    Third-party ESG risks can include the following:

    • Environmental risk: Vendors with unsustainable practices such as carbon emissions or waste generation of natural resource depletion can negatively impact the organization’s environmental goals.
    • Social risk: Unsafe or illegal labor practices, human rights violations, and supply chain management issues can reflect negatively on organizations that choose to work with vendors who engage in such practices.
    • Governance risk: Vendors who engage in illegal or unethical behaviors, including bribery and corruption or data and privacy breaches can impact downstream customers.

    Working with vendors that have a poor record of ESG carries a very real reputational risk for organizations who do not undertake appropriate due diligence.

    A global survey of nearly 14,000 customers revealed that…

    Source: EY Future Consumer Index, 2021

    Seventy-seven percent of customers believe companies have a responsibility to manufacture sustainably.

    Sixty-eight percent of customers believe businesses should ensure their suppliers meet high social and environmental standards.

    Fifty-five percent of customers consider the environmental impact of production in their purchasing decisions.

    Build your ability to manage risk

    The five competencies needed to manage risk in exponential value relationships are:

    Third-party risk

    Value chain

    Data management

    Regulatory & compliance

    Monitoring & reporting

    Understand and assess third-party risk, including ESG risk, in potential relationships.

    Assess risk throughout the value chain for all parties and balance risk among parties.

    Proactively assess and manage potential data risks, including intellectual property and strategic data.

    Manage regulatory and compliance risks, including understanding risk transfer and ultimate risk holder.

    Proactive and open monitoring and reporting of risks, including regular communication among stakeholders.

    Contract management

    Contract management is a critical part of vendor management.

    Well-managed contracts include clearly defined pricing, performance-based outcomes, clear roles and responsibilities, and appropriate remedies for failure to meet requirements. In outcome-based relationships, contracts are generally used as a secondary method of enforcing performance, with relationship management being the primary method of addressing challenges and ensuring performance.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Executive leadership team, including CIO
    • Vendor management leader
    • Risk management leader
    • Other internal stakeholders of vendor relationships

    Activities:

    • Assess your ability to manage risk in exponential IT relationships.

    Build your ability to manage contracts

    The five competencies needed to manage contracts in exponential value relationships are:

    Pricing

    Performance outcomes

    Roles and responsibilities

    Remedies

    Payment

    Pricing is clearly defined in contracts so that the total cost is understood including all fees, optional pricing, and set caps on increases.

    Contracts are performance-based whenever possible, including deliverables, milestones, service levels, due dates, and outcomes.

    Each party's roles and responsibilities are clearly defined in the contract documents with adequate detail.

    Contracts contain appropriate remedies for a vendor's failure to meet SLAs, due dates, and other obligations.

    Payment is made after performance targets are met, approved, or accepted.

    Activity 1: Assess your readiness for exponential relationships

    1-3 hours

    1. Gather key stakeholders from across your organization to participate in the readiness assessment exercise.
    2. As a group, review the core competencies from the previous four sections and determine where your organization’s effectiveness lies for each competency. Record your responses in the Exponential Relationships Readiness Assessment tool.

    Download the Exponential Relationships Readiness Assessment tool.

    Input Output
    • Core competencies
    • Knowledge of internal processes and capabilities
    • Readiness assessment
    Materials Participants
    • Exponential
      Relationships Readiness Assessment
      tool
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Executive leadership team, including CIO
    • Vendor management leader
    • Other internal stakeholders of vendor relationships

    Understand your assessment

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Executive leadership team, including CIO
    • Vendor management leader
    • Other internal stakeholders of vendor relationships

    Activities:

    • Create an action plan.

    Understand the results of your assessment

    Consider the following recommendations based on your readiness assessment scores:

    • The chart to the right shows sample results. The bars indicate the recommended scores, and the line indicates the readiness score.
    • Three or more categories below the recommended scores, or any categories more than five points below the recommendation: outcome-based relationships are not recommended at this time.
    • Two or more categories below the recommended scores: Proceed with caution and limit outcome-based relationships to low-risk areas. Continue to mature capabilities.
    • One category below the recommended scores: Evaluate the risks and benefits before engaging in higher-risk vendor relationships. Continue to mature capabilities.
    • All categories at or above the recommended scores: You have many of the core capabilities needed to succeed at exponential relationships! Continue to evaluate and refine your vendor relationships strategy, and identify any additional competencies needed based on your industry or region.

    Acme Corp Exponential Relationships Readiness.

    Activity 2: Create an action plan

    1 hour

    1. Gather the stakeholders who participated in the readiness assessment exercise.
    2. As a group, review the results of the readiness assessment. Where there any surprise? Do the results reflect your understanding of the organization’s maturity?
    3. Determine which areas are likely to limit the organization’s relationship capability, based on lowest scoring areas and relative importance to the organization.
    4. Break out into groups and have each group identify three actions the organization could take to mature the lowest scoring areas.
    5. Bring the group back together and prioritize the actions. Note who will be accountable for each next step.
    InputOutput
    • Readiness assessment
    • Action plan to improve maturity of capabilities
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Exponential
      Relationship Readiness Assessment
      tool
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Executive leadership team, including CIO
    • Vendor management leader
    • Other internal stakeholders of vendor relationships

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Jump Start Your Vendor Management Initiative
    Create and implement a vendor management framework to begin obtaining measurable results in 90 days.

    Elevate Your Vendor Management Initiative
    Transform your VMI from tactical to strategic to maximize its impact and value

    Evaluate Your Vendor Account Team to Optimize Vendor Relations
    Understand the value of knowing your account team’s influence in the organization, and your influence, to drive results.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Build an IT Risk Management Program
    Mitigate the IT risks that could negatively impact your organization.

    Build an IT Budget
    Effective IT budgets are more than a spreadsheet. They tell a story.

    Adopt an Exponential IT Mindset
    Thrive through the next paradigm shift..

    Author

    Kim Osborne Rodriguez

    Kim Osborne Rodriguez
    Research Director, CIO Advisory
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Kim is a professional engineer and Registered Communications Distribution Designer (RCDD) with over a decade of experience in management and engineering consulting spanning healthcare, higher education, and commercial sectors. She has worked on some of the largest hospital construction projects in Canada, from early visioning and IT strategy through to design, specifications, and construction administration. She brings a practical and evidence-based approach, with a track record of supporting successful projects.

    Kim holds a Bachelor’s degree in Honours Mechatronics Engineering and an option in Management Sciences from the University of Waterloo.

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Jack Hakimian

    Jack Hakimian
    Senior Vice President
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Jack has more than 25 years of technology and management consulting experience. He has served multibillion-dollar organizations in multiple industries including financial services and telecommunications. Jack also served several large public sector institutions.

    He is a frequent speaker and panelist at technology and innovation conferences and events and holds a Master’s degree in Computer Engineering as well as an MBA from the ESCP-EAP European School of Management.

    Michael Tweedie

    Michael Tweedie
    Practice Lead, CIO Strategy
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Mike Tweedie brings over 25 years as a technology executive. He’s led several large transformation projects across core infrastructure, application and IT services as the head of Technology at ADP Canada. He was also the Head of Engineering and Service Offerings for a large French IT services firm, focused on cloud adoption and complex ERP deployment and management.

    Mike holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Ryerson University.

    Scott Bickley

    Scott Bickley
    Practice Lead, VCCO
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Scott Bickley is a Practice Lead & Principal Research Director at Info-Tech Research Group, focused on Vendor Management and Contract Review. He also has experience in the areas of IT Asset Management (ITAM), Software Asset Management (SAM), and technology procurement along with a deep background in operations, engineering, and quality systems management.

    Scott holds a B.S. in Justice Studies from Frostburg State University. He also holds active IAITAM certification designations of CSAM and CMAM and is a Certified Scrum Master (SCM).

    Donna Bales

    Donna Bales
    Principal Research Director
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Donna Bales is a Principal Research Director in the CIO Practice at Info-Tech Research Group, specializing in research and advisory services in IT risk, governance, and compliance. She brings over 25 years of experience in strategic consulting and product development and has a history of success in leading complex, multistakeholder industry initiatives.

    Donna has a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Western Ontario.

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Jennifer Perrier

    Jennifer Perrier
    Principal Research Director
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Jennifer has 25 years of experience in the information technology and human resources research space, joining Info-Tech in 1998 as the first research analyst with the company. Over the years, she has served as a research analyst and research manager, as well as in a range of roles leading the development and delivery of offerings across Info-Tech’s product and service portfolio, including workshops and the launch of industry roundtables and benchmarking. She was also Research Lead for McLean & Company, the HR advisory division of Info-Tech, during its start-up years.

    Jennifer’s research expertise spans the areas of IT strategic planning, governance, policy and process management, people management, leadership, organizational change management, performance benchmarking, and cross-industry IT comparative analysis. She has produced and overseen the development of hundreds of publications across the full breadth of both the IT and HR domains in multiple industries. In 2022, Jennifer joined Info-Tech’s IT Financial Management Practice with a focus on developing financial transparency to foster meaningful dialogue between IT and its stakeholders and drive better technology investment decisions.

    Phil Bode

    Phil Bode
    Principal Research Director
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Phil has 30+ years of experience with IT procurement-related topics: contract drafting and review, negotiations, RFXs, procurement processes, and vendor management. Phil has been a frequent speaker at conferences, a contributor to magazine articles in CIO Magazine and ComputerWorld, and quoted in many other magazines. He is a co-author of the book The Art of Creating a Quality RFP.

    Phil has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a double major of Finance and Entrepreneurship and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a major of Accounting, both from the University of Arizona.

    Research Contributors

    Erin Morgan

    Erin Morgan
    Assistant Vice President, IT Administration
    University of Texas at Arlington

    Renee Stanley

    Renee Stanley
    Assistant Director IT Procurement and Vendor Management
    University of Texas at Arlington

    Note: Additional contributors did not wish to be identified.

    Bibliography

    Andrea, Dave. “Plante Moran’s 2022 Working Relations Index® (WRI) Study shows supplier relations can improve amid industry crisis.” Plante Moran, 25 Aug 2022. Accessed 18 May 2023.
    Andrea, Dave. “Trust between suppliers and OEMs can better prepare you for the next crisis.” Plante Moran, 9 Sept 2020. Accessed 17 May 2023.
    Cleary, Shannon, and Carolan McLarney. “Organizational Benefits of an Effective Vendor Management Strategy.” IUP Journal of Supply Chain Management, Vol. 16, Issue 4, Dec 2019.
    De Backer, Ruth, and Eileen Kelly Rinaudo. “Improving the management of complex business partnerships.” McKinsey, 21 March 2019. Accessed 9 May 2023 .
    Dennean, Kevin et al. “Let's chat about ChatGPT.” UBS, 22 Feb 2023. Accessed 26 May 2023.
    F&I Tools. “Nissan Worldwide Vehicle Sales Report.” Factory Warranty List, 2022. Accessed 18 May 2023.
    Gomez, Robin. “Adopting ChatGPT and Generative AI in Retail Customer Service.” Radial, 235, April 2023. Accessed 10 May 2023.
    Harms, Thomas and Kristina Rogers. “How collaboration can drive value for you, your partners and the planet.” EY, 26 Oct 2021. Accessed 10 May 2023.
    Hedge & Co. “Toyota, Honda finish 1-2; General Motors finishes at 3rd in annual Supplier Working Relations Study.” PR Newswire, 23 May 2022. Accessed 17 May 2023.
    Henke Jr, John W., and T. Thomas. "Lost supplier trust, lost profits." Supply Chain Management Review, May 2014. Accessed 17 May 2023.
    Information Services Group, Inc. “Global Demand for IT and Business Services Continues Upward Surge in Q2, ISG Index™ Finds.” BusinessWire, 7 July 2021. Accessed 8 May 2023.
    Kasanoff, Bruce. “New Study Reveals Costs Of Bad Supplier Relationships.” Forbes, 6 Aug 2014. Accessed 17 May 2023.
    Macrotrends. “Nissan Motor Gross Profit 2010-2022.” Macrotrends. Accessed 18 May 2023.
    Macrotrends. “Toyota Gross Profit 2010-2022.” Macrotrends. Accessed 18 May 2023.
    McKinsey. “Mind the [skills] gap.” McKinsey, 27 Jan 2021. Accessed 18 May 2023.
    Morgan, Blake. “7 Examples of How Digital Transformation Impacted Business Performance.” Forbes, 21 Jul 2019. Accessed 10 May 2023.
    Nissan Motor Corporation. “Nissan reports strong financial results for fiscal year 2022.” Nissan Global Newsroom, 11 May 2023. Accessed 18 May 2023.

    Bibliography

    “OpenAI and Microsoft extend partnership.” Open AI, 23 Jan 2023. Accessed 26 May 2023.
    Pearson, Bryan. “The Apple Of Its Aisles: How Best Buy Lured One Of The Biggest Brands.“ Forbes, 23 Apr 2015. Accessed 23 May 2023.
    Perifanis, Nikolaos-Alexandros and Fotis Kitsios. “Investigating the Influence of Artificial Intelligence on Business Value in the Digital Era of Strategy: A Literature Review.” Information, 2 Feb 2023. Accessed 10 May 2023.
    Scott, Tim and Nathan Spitse. “Third-party risk is becoming a first priority challenge.” Deloitte. Accessed 18 May 2023.
    Stanley, Renee. Interview by Kim Osborne Rodriguez, 17 May 2023.
    Statista. “Toyota's retail vehicle sales from 2017 to 2021.” Statista, 27 Jul 2022. Accessed 18 May 2023.
    Tlili, Ahmed, et al. “What if the devil is my guardian angel: ChatGPT as a case study of using chatbots in education.” Smart Learning Environments, 22 Feb 2023. Accessed 9 May 2023.
    Vitasek, Kate. “Outcome-Based Management: What It Is, Why It Matters And How To Make It Happen.” Forbes, 12 Jan 2023. Accessed 9 May 2023.

    Migrate to Office 365 Now

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    • member rating overall impact: 9.3/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $19,928 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 9 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: End-User Computing Applications
    • Parent Category Link: /end-user-computing-applications
    • As Microsoft continues to push Office 365, the transition to Office 365 has likely already been decided, but uncertainty surrounds the starting point and the best path forward.
    • The lack of a clear migration process that considers all the relevant risks and opportunities creates significant ambiguity around an Office 365 migration.
    • As organizations migrate to Office 365, the change in Office’s licensing structure presents obscurity in spending that could cost the business tens of thousands of unnecessary dollars spent if not approached strategically.
    • The fear of overlooking risks regarding the cloud, data, and existing infrastructure threatens to place IT in a position of project paralysis.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Many businesses are opting for a one-size-fits-all licensing strategy. Without selecting licensing to suit actual user needs, you will oversupply users and overspend on licensing.
    • Jumping into an Office 365 migration project without careful thought of the risks of a cloud migration will lead to project halt and interruption. Intentionally plan in order to expose risk to develop project foresight for a smooth migration.
    • A migration to Office 365 represents a significant change in the way users interact with Office. Be careful not to forget about the user as you take on the project. Engage the users consistently for a smooth transition.

    Impact and Result

    • Start by evaluating the business, users, and infrastructure requirements to ensure that all needs are clearly defined and the best fit-for-purpose migration plan can be decided on.
    • Assess the underlying risk associated with a migration to the cloud and build mitigation strategies to counter risk or impending issues and identify project interruptions before they happen.
    • Build a roadmap through a logical step-by-step process to outline major milestones and develop a communication plan to engage users throughout the migration. Demonstrate IT’s due diligence by relaying the project findings and results back to the business using Info-Tech’s Office 365 migration plan.

    Migrate to Office 365 Now Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should migrate to Office 365 now, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Evaluate requirements and licensing

    Evaluate the business, user, and infrastructure requirements to ensure that all needs are clearly defined and the best fit-for-purpose migration plan can be decided on.

    • Migrate to Office 365 Now – Phase 1: Evaluate Requirements and Licensing
    • Office 365 Migration Plan Report
    • Office 365 Migration Workbook

    2. Mitigate key risks of the cloud

    Expose key cloud risks across five major areas and build mitigation strategies to counter risk and gain foresight for migration.

    • Migrate to Office 365 Now – Phase 2: Mitigate Key Risks of the Cloud

    3. Build the roadmap

    Outline major milestones of migration and build the communication plan to transition users smoothly. Complete the Office 365 migration plan report to present to business stakeholders.

    • Migrate to Office 365 Now – Phase 3: Build the Roadmap
    • End-User Engagement Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Migrate to Office 365 Now

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

    1 Evaluate Office 365 License Needs

    The Purpose

    Review corporate and project goals.

    Review and prioritize relevant services and applications to shape the migration path.

    Review Office 365 license models.

    Profile end users to rightsize licensing.

    Estimate dollar impact of new licensing model.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Corporate goals for Office 365.

    Prioritized migration path of applications.

    Decision on user licensing structure.

    Projected cost of licensing.

    Activities

    1.1 Outline corporate and project goals to paint the starting line.

    1.2 Review and prioritize services.

    1.3 Rightsize licensing.

    Outputs

    Clear goals and metrics for migration

    Prioritized list of applications

    Effective licensing structure

    2 Assess Value, Readiness, and Risks

    The Purpose

    Conduct value and readiness assessment of current on-premises services.

    Identify and evaluate risks and challenges.

    Assess IT’s readiness to own and manage Office 365.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Completed value and readiness assessment.

    Current targets for service and deployment models.

    List of perceived risks according to five major risk areas.

    Assessed IT’s readiness to own and manage Office 365.

    Established go/caution/stop for elected Office 365 services.

    Activities

    2.1 Assess value and readiness.

    2.2 Identify key risks.

    2.3 Identify changes in IT skills and roles.

    Outputs

    Cloud service appropriateness assessment

    Completed risk register

    Reorganization of IT roles

    3 Mitigate Risks

    The Purpose

    Review Office 365 risks and discuss mitigation strategies.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Completed risks and mitigation strategies report.

    Activities

    3.1 Build mitigation strategies.

    3.2 Identify key service requests.

    3.3 Build workflows.

    Outputs

    Defined roles and responsibilities

    Assigned decision rights

    List of staffing gaps

    4 Build the Roadmap

    The Purpose

    Build a timeline of major milestones.

    Plan and prioritize projects to bridge gaps.

    Build a communication plan.

    Review Office 365 strategy and roadmap.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Milestone roadmap.

    Critical path of milestone actions.

    Communication plan.

    Executive report.

    Activities

    4.1 Outline major milestones.

    4.2 Finalize roadmap.

    4.3 Build and refine the communication plan.

    Outputs

    Roadmap plotted projects, decisions, mitigations, and user engagements

    Finalized roadmap across timeline

    Communication and training plan

    Recruit and Retain People of Color in IT

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    • Parent Category Name: Engage
    • Parent Category Link: /engage
    • Organizations have been trying to promote equality for many years. Diversity and inclusion strategies and a myriad of programs have been implemented in companies across the world. Despite the attempts, many organizations still struggle to ensure that their workforce is representative of the populations they support or want to support.
    • IT brings another twist. Many IT companies and departments are based on the culture of white males, and underrepresented ethnic communities find it more of a challenge to fit in.
    • This sometimes means that talented minorities are less incentivized to join or stay in technology.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Diversity and inclusion cannot be a one-time campaign or a one-off initiative.
    • For real change to happen, every leader needs to internalize the value of creating and retaining diverse teams.

    Impact and Result

    • To stay competitive, IT leaders need to be more involved and commit to a plan to recruit and retain people of color in their departments and organizations. A diverse team is an answer to innovation that can differentiate your company.
    • Treat recruiting and retaining a diverse team as a business challenge that requires full engagement. Info-Tech offers a targeted solution that will help IT leaders build a plan to attract, recruit, engage, and retain people of color.

    Recruit and Retain People of Color in IT Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should recruit and retain people of color in your IT department or organization, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the ways we can support you in this endeavor.

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

    1. Recruit people of color in IT

    Diverse teams are necessary to foster creativity and guide business strategies. Overcome limitations by recruiting people of color and creating a diverse workforce.

    • Recruit and Retain People of Color in IT – Phase 1: Recruit People of Color in IT
    • Support Plan
    • IT Behavioral Interview Question Library

    2. Retain people of color in IT

    Underrepresented employees benefit from an expansive culture. Create an inclusive environment and retain people of color and promote value within your organization.

    • Recruit and Retain People of Color in IT – Phase 2: Retain People of Color in IT

    Infographic

    Workshop: Recruit and Retain People of Color in IT

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

    1 Setting the Stage

    The Purpose

    Introduce challenges and concerns around recruiting and retaining people of color.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Gain a sense of direction.

    Activities

    1.1 Introduction to diversity conversations.

    1.2 Assess areas to focus on and determine what is right, wrong, missing, and confusing.

    1.3 Obtain feedback from your team about the benefits of working at your organization.

    1.4 Establish your employee value proposition (EVP).

    1.5 Discuss and establish your recruitment goals.

    Outputs

    Current State Analysis

    Right, Wrong, Missing, Confusing Quadrant

    Draft EVP

    Recruitment Goals

    2 Refine Your Recruitment Process

    The Purpose

    Identify areas in your current recruitment process that are preventing you from hiring people of color.

    Establish a plan to make improvements.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Optimized recruitment process

    Activities

    2.1 Brainstorm and research community partners.

    2.2 Review current job descriptions and equity statement.

    2.3 Update job description template and equity statement.

    2.4 Set team structure for interview and assessment.

    2.5 Identify decision-making structure.

    Outputs

    List of community partners

    Updated job description template

    Updated equity statement

    Interview and assessment structure

    Behavioral Question Library

    3 Culture and Management

    The Purpose

    Create a plan for an inclusive culture where your managers are supported.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Awareness of how to better support employees of color.

    Activities

    3.1 Discuss engagement and belonging.

    3.2 Augment your onboarding materials.

    3.3 Create an inclusive culture plan.

    3.4 Determine how to support your management team.

    Outputs

    List of onboarding content

    Inclusive culture plan

    Management support plan

    4 Close the Loop

    The Purpose

    Establish mechanisms to gain feedback from your employees and act on them.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Finalize the plan to create your diverse and inclusive workforce.

    Activities

    4.1 Ask and listen: determine what to ask your employees.

    4.2 Create your roadmap.

    4.3 Wrap-up and next steps.

    Outputs

    List of survey questions

    Roadmap

    Completed support plan

    Manage Your Chromebooks and MacBooks

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    • Parent Category Name: End-User Computing Devices
    • Parent Category Link: /end-user-computing-devices

    Windows is no longer the only option. MacBooks and Chromebooks are justified, but now you have to manage them.

    • If you have modernized your end-user computing strategy, you may have Windows 10 devices as well as MacBooks.
    • Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and desktop as a service (DaaS) are becoming popular. Chromebooks may be ideal as a low-cost interface into DaaS for your employees.
    • Managing Chromebooks can be particularly challenging as they grow in popularity in the education sector.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Managing end-user devices may be accomplished with a variety of solutions, but many of those solutions advocate integration with a Microsoft-friendly solution to take advantage of features such as conditional access, security functionality, and data governance.

    Impact and Result

    • Many solutions are available to manage end-user devices, and they come with a long list of options and features. Clarify your needs and define your requirements before you purchase another endpoint management tool. Don’t purchase capabilities that you may never use.
    • Use the associated Endpoint Management Selection Tool spreadsheet to identify your desired endpoint solution features and compare vendor solution functionality based on your desired features.

    Manage Your Chromebooks and MacBooks Research & Tools

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

    1. Manage Your Chromebooks and MacBooks deck – MacBooks and Chromebooks are growing in popularity in enterprise and education environments, and now you have to manage them.

    Explore options, guidance and some best practices related to the management of Chromebooks and MacBooks in the enterprise environment and educational institutions. Our guidance will help you understand features and options available in a variety of solutions. We also provide guidance on selecting the best endpoint management solution for your own environment.

    • Manage Your Chromebooks and MacBooks Storyboard

    2. Endpoint Management Selection Tool – Select the best endpoint management tool for your environment. Build a table to compare endpoint management offerings in relation to the features and options desired by your organization.

    This tool will help you determine the features and options you want or need in an endpoint management solution.

    • Endpoint Management Selection Tool
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Manage Your Chromebooks and MacBooks

    Financial constraints, strategy, and your user base dictate the need for Chromebooks and MacBooks – now you have to manage them in your environment.

    Analyst Perspective

    Managing MacBooks and Chromebooks is similar to managing Windows devices in many ways and different in others. The tools have many common features, yet they struggle to achieve the same goals.

    Until recently, Windows devices dominated the workplace globally. Computing devices were also rare in many industries such as education. Administrators and administrative staff may have used Windows-based devices, but Chromebooks were not yet in use. Most universities and colleges were Windows-based in offices with some flavor of Unix in other areas, and Apple devices were gaining some popularity in certain circles.

    That is a stark contrast compared to today, where Chromebooks dominate the classrooms and MacBooks and Chromebooks are making significant inroads into the enterprise environment. MacBooks are also a common sight on many university campuses. There is no doubt that while Windows may still be the dominant player, it is far from the only one in town.

    Now that Chromebooks and MacBooks are a notable, if not significant, part of the education and enterprise environments, they must be afforded the same considerations as Windows devices in those environments when it comes to management. The good news is that there is no lack of available solutions for managing these devices, and the endpoint management landscape is continually evolving and improving.

    This is a picture of P.J. Ryan, Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations, Info-Tech Research Group

    P.J. Ryan
    Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    • You modernized your end-user computing strategy and now have Windows 10 devices as well as MacBooks.
    • Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and desktop as a service (DaaS) are becoming popular. Chromebooks would be ideal as a low-cost interface into DaaS for your employees.
    • You are responsible for the management of all the new Chromebooks in your educational district.
    • Windows is no longer the only option. MacBooks and Chromebooks are justified, but now you have to manage them.

    Common Obstacles

    • Endpoint management solutions typically do a great job at managing one category of devices, like Windows or MacBooks, but they struggle to fully manage alternative endpoints.
    • Multiple solutions to manage multiple devices will result in multiple dashboards. A single view would be better.
    • One solution may not fit all, but multiple solutions is not desirable either, especially if you have Windows devices, MacBooks, and Chromebooks.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    • Use the tools at your disposal first – don't needlessly spend money if you don't have to. Many solutions can already manage other types of devices to some degree.
    • Use the integration capabilities of endpoint management tools. Many of them can integrate with each other to give you a single interface to manage multiple types of devices while taking advantage of additional functionality.
    • Don't purchase capabilities you will never use. Using 80% of a less expensive tool is economically smarter than using 10% of a more expensive tool.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Managing end-user devices may be accomplished with a variety of solutions, but many of those solutions advocate integration with a Microsoft-friendly solution to take advantage of features such as conditional access, security functionality, and data governance.

    Insight Summary

    Insight 1

    Google Admin Console is necessary to manage Chromebooks, but it can be paired with other tools. Implementation partnerships provide solutions to track the device lifecycle, track the repair lifecycle, sync with Google Admin Console as well as PowerSchool to provide a more complete picture of the user and device, and facilitate reminders to return the device, pay fees if necessary, pick up a device when a repair is complete, and more.

    Insight 2

    The Google Admin Console allows admins to follow an organizational unit (OU) structure very similar to what they may have used in Microsoft's Active Directory environment. This familiarity makes the task of administering Chromebooks easier for admins.

    Insight 3

    Chromebook management goes beyond securing and manipulating the device. Controls to protect the students while online, such as Safe Search and Safe Browsing, should also be implemented.

    Insight 4

    Most companies choose to use a dedicated MacBook management tool. Many unified endpoint management (UEM) tools can manage MacBooks to some extent, but admins tend to agree that a MacBook-focused endpoint management tool is best for MacBooks while a Windows-based endpoint management tool is best for Windows devices.

    Insight 5

    Some MacBook management solutions advocate integration with Windows UEM solutions to take advantage of Microsoft features such as conditional access, security functionality, and data governance. This approach can also be applied to Chromebooks.

    Chromebooks

    Chromebooks had a respectable share of the education market before 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic turbocharged the penetration of Chromebooks in the education industry.

    Chromebooks are also catching the attention of some decision makers in the enterprise environment.

    "In 2018, Chromebooks represented an incredible 60 percent of all laptop or tablet devices in K-12 -- up from zero percent when the first Chromebook launched during the summer break in 2011."
    – "Will Chromebooks Rule the Enterprise?" Computerworld

    "Chromebooks were the best performing PC products in Q3 2020, with shipment volume increasing to a record-high 9.4 million units, up a whopping 122% year-on-year."
    – Android Police

    "Until the pandemic, Chrome OS' success was largely limited to U.S. schools. Demand in 2020 appears to have expanded beyond that small but critical part of the U.S. PC market."
    – Geekwire

    "In addition to running a huge number of Chrome Extensions and Apps at once, Chromebooks also run Android, Linux and Windows apps."
    – "Will Chromebooks Rule the Enterprise?" Computerworld

    Managing Chromebooks

    Start with the Google Admin Console (GAC)

    GAC is necessary to initially manage Chrome OS devices.

    GAC gives you a centralized console that will allow you to:

    • Create organizational units
    • Add your Chromebook devices
    • Add users
    • Assign users to devices
    • Create groups
    • Create and assign policies
    • Plus more

    GAC can facilitate device management with features such as:

    • Control admin permissions
    • Encryption and update settings
    • App deployment, screen timeout settings
    • Perform a device wipe if required
    • Audit user activity on a device
    • Plus more

    Device and user addition, group and organizational unit creation and administration, applying policies to devices and users – does all this remind you of your Active Directory environment?

    GAC lets you administer users and devices with a similar approach.

    Managing Chromebooks

    Use Active Directory to manage Chromebooks.

    • Enable Active Directory (AD) management from within GAC and you will be able to integrate your Chromebook devices with your AD environment.
    • Devices will be visible in both the GAC and AD environment.
    • Use Windows Group Policy to manage devices and to push policies to users and devices.
    • Users can use their AD username and password to sign into Chromebook devices.
    • GAC can still be used for devices that are not synced with AD.

    Chromebooks can also be managed through these approved partners:

    • Cisco Meraki
    • Citrix XenMobile
    • IBM MaaS360
    • ManageEngine Mobile Device Manager Plus
    • VMware Workspace ONE

    Source: Google

    You must be running the Chrome Enterprise Upgrade and have any licenses required by the approved partner to take advantage of this management option. The partner admin policies supersede GAC.

    If you stop using the approved partner admin console to manage your devices, the polices and settings in GAC will immediately take over the devices.

    Microsoft still has the market share when it comes to device sales, and many administrators are already familiar with Microsoft's Active Directory. Google took advantage of that familiarity when it designed the Google Admin Console structure for users, groups, and organizational units.

    Chromebook Deployment

    Chromebook deployment becomes a challenge when device quantities grow. The enrollment process can be time consuming, and every device must be enrolled before it can be used by an employee or a student. Many admins enlist their full IT teams to assist in the short term. Some vendor partners may assist with distribution options if staffing levels permit. Recent developments from Google have opened additional options for device enrollment beyond the manual enrollment approach.

    Enrolling Chromebooks comes down to one of two approaches:

    1. Manually enrolling one device at a time
      • Users can assist by entering some identifying details during the enrollment if permitted.
      • Some third-party solutions exist, such as USB drives to reduce repetitive keystrokes or hubs to facilitate manually enrolling multiple Chromebooks simultaneously.
    2. Google's Chrome Enterprise Upgrade or the Chrome Education Upgrade
      • This allows you to let your users enroll devices after they accept the end-user license agreement.
      • You can take advantage of Google's vendor partner program and use a zero-touch deployment method where the Chromebook devices automatically receive the assigned policies, apps, and settings as soon as the device is powered on and an authorized user signs in.
      • The Enterprise Upgrade and the Education Upgrade do come with an annual cost per device, which is currently less than US$50.
      • The Enterprise and Education Upgrades come with other features as well, such as enhanced security.

    Chromebooks are automatically assigned to the top-level organizational unit (OU) when enrolled. Devices can be manually moved to another OU, but admins can also create enrollment policies to place newly enrolled devices in a specific OU or have the device locate itself in the same OU as the user.

    Chromebooks in Education

    GAC is also used with Education-licensed devices

    Most of the settings and features previously mentioned are also available for Education-licensed devices and users. Enterprise-specific features will not be available to Education licenses. (Active Directory integration with Education licenses, for example, is accomplished using a different approach)

    • Groups, policies, administrative controls, app deployment and management, adding devices and users, creating organizational units, and more features are all available to Education Admins to use.

    Education device policies and settings tend to focus more on protecting the students with controls such as:

    • Disable incognito mode
    • Disable location tracking
    • Disable external storage devices
    • Browser based protections such as Safe Search or Safe Browsing
    • URL blocking
    • Video input disable for websites
    • App installation prevention, auto re-install, and app blocking
    • Forced re-enrollment to your domain after a device is wiped
    • Disable Guest Mode
    • Restrict who can sign in
    • Audit user activity on a device

    When a student takes home a Chromebook assigned to them, that Chromebook may be the only computer in the household. Administrative polices and settings must take into account the fact that the device may have multiple users accessing many different sites and applications when the device is outside of the school environment.

    Chromebook Management Extended

    An online search for Chromebook management solutions will reveal several software solutions that augment the capabilities of the Google Admin Console. Many of these solutions are focused on the education sector and classroom and student options, although the features would be beneficial to enterprises and educational organizations alike.

    These solutions assist or augment Chromebook management with features such as:

    • Ability to sync with Google Admin Console
    • Ability to sync with student information systems, such as PowerSchool
    • Financial management, purchase details, and chargeback
    • Asset lifecycle management
    • 1:1 Chromebook distribution management
    • Repair programs and repair process management
    • Check-out/loan program management
    • Device distribution/allocation management, including barcode reader integration
    • Simple learning material distribution to the classroom for teachers
    • Facilitate GAC bulk operations
    • Manage inventory of non-IT assets such as projectors, TVs, and other educational assets
    • Plus more

    "There are many components to managing Chromebooks. Schools need to know which student has which device, which school has which device, and costs relating to repairs. Chromebook Management Software … facilitates these processes."
    – VIZOR

    MacBooks

    • MacBooks are gaining popularity in the Enterprise world.
    • Some admins claim MacBooks are less expensive in the long run over Windows-based PCs.
    • Users claim less issues when using a MacBook, and overall, companies report increased retention rates when users are using MacBooks.

    "Macs now make up 23% of endpoints in enterprises."
    – ComputerWeekly.com

    "When given the choice, no less than 72% of employees choose Macs over PCs."
    – "5 Reasons Mac is a must," Jamf

    "IBM says it is 3X more expensive to manage PCs than Macs."
    – Computerworld

    "74% of those who previously used a PC for work experienced fewer issues now that they use a Mac"
    – "Global Survey: Mac in the Enterprise," Jamf

    "When enterprise moves to Mac, staff retention rates improve by 20%. That's quite a boost! "
    – "5 Reasons Mac is a must," Jamf

    Managing MacBooks

    Can your existing UEM keep up?

    Many Windows unified endpoint management (UEM) tools can manage MacBooks, but most companies choose to use a dedicated MacBook management tool.

    • UEM tools that are primarily Windows focused do not typically go deep enough into the management capabilities of non-Windows devices.
    • Admins have noted limitations when it comes to using Windows UEM tools, and reasons they prefer a dedicated MacBook management solution include:
      • Easier to use
      • Faster response times when deploying settings and policies
      • Better control over notification settings and lock screen settings.
      • Easier Apple Business Manager (ABM) integration and provisioning.
    • Note that not every UEM will have the same limitations or advantages. Functionality is different between vendor products.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Most Windows UEM tools are constantly improving, and it is only a matter of time before they rival many of the dedicated MacBook management tools out there.

    Admins tend to agree that a Windows UEM is best for Windows while an Apple-based UEM is best for Apple devices.

    Managing MacBooks

    The market for "MacBook-first" management solutions includes a variety of players of varying ages such as:

    • Jamf
    • Kandji
    • Mosyle
    • SimpleMDM
    • Others

    MacBook-focused management tools can provide features such as:

    • Encryption and update settings
    • App deployment and lifecycle management
    • Remote device wipe, scan, shutdown, restart, and lock
    • Zero touch deployment and support
    • Location tracking
    • Browser content filtering
    • Enable, hide/block, or disable built-in features
    • Configure Wi-Fi, VPN, and certificate-based settings
    • Centralized dashboard with device and app listings as well as individual details
    • Data restrictions
    • Plus more

    Unified endpoint management (UEM) solutions that can provide MacBook management to some degree include (but are not limited to):

    • Intune
    • Ivanti
    • Endpoint Central
    • WorkspaceOne

    Dedicated solutions advocate integration with UEM solutions to take advantage of conditional access, security functionality, and data governance features.

    Jamf and Microsoft entered into a collaboration several years ago with the intention of making the MacBook management process easier and more secure.

    Microsoft Intune and Jamf Pro: Better together to manage and secure Macs
    Microsoft Conditional Access with Jamf Pro ensures that company data is only accessed by trusted users, on trusted devices, using trusted apps. Jamf extends this Enterprise Mobile + Security (EMS) functionality to Mac, iPhone and iPad.
    – "Microsoft Intune and Jamf Pro," Jamf

    Endpoint Management Selection Tool
    Activity

    There are many solutions available to manage end-user devices, and they come with a long list of options and features. Clarify your needs and define your requirements before you purchase another endpoint management tool. Don't purchase capabilities that you may never use.

    Use the Endpoint Management Selection Tool to identify your desired endpoint solution features and compare vendor solution functionality based on your desired features.

    1. List out the desired features you want in an endpoint solution for your devices and record those features in the first column. Use the features provided, or add your own and edit or delete the existing ones if necessary.
    2. List your selected endpoint management solution vendors in each of the columns in place of "Vendor 1," "Vendor 2," etc.
    3. Fill out the spreadsheet by changing the corresponding desired feature cell under each vendor to a "yes" or "no" based on your findings while investigating each vendor solution.
    4. When you have finished your investigation, review your spreadsheet to compare the various offerings and pros and cons of each vendor.
    5. Select your endpoint management solution.

    Endpoint Management Selection Tool

    In the first column, list out the desired features you want in an endpoint solution for your devices. Use the features provided if desired, or add your own and edit or delete the existing ones if necessary. As you look into various endpoint management solution vendors, list them in the columns in place of "Vendor 1," "Vendor 2," etc. Use the "Desired Feature" list as a checklist and change the values to "yes" or "no" in the corresponding box under the vendors' names. When complete, you will be able to look at all the features and compare vendors in a single table.

    Desired Feature Vendor 1 Vendor 2 Vendor 3
    Organizational unit creation Yes No Yes
    Group creation Yes Yes Yes
    Ability to assign users to devices No Yes Yes
    Control of administrative permissions Yes Yes Yes
    Conditional access No Yes Yes
    Security policies enforced Yes No Yes
    Asset management No Yes No
    Single sign-on Yes Yes Yes
    Auto-deployment No Yes No
    Repair lifecycle tracking No Yes No
    Application deployment Yes Yes No
    Device tracking Yes Yes Yes
    Ability to enable encryption Yes No Yes
    Device wipe Yes No Yes
    Ability to enable/disable device tracking No No Yes
    User activity audit No No No

    Related Info-Tech Research

    this is a screenshot from Info-Tech's Modernize and Transform Your End-User Computing Strategy.

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

    Best Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) Software 2022 | SoftwareReviews
    Compare and evaluate unified endpoint management vendors using the most in-depth and unbiased buyer reports available. Download free comprehensive 40+ page reports to select the best unified endpoint management software for your organization.

    Best Enterprise Mobile Management (EMM) Software 2022 | (softwarereviews.com)
    Compare and evaluate enterprise mobile management vendors using the most in-depth and unbiased buyer reports available. Download free comprehensive 40+ page reports to select the best enterprise mobile management software for your organization.

    Bibliography

    Bridge, Tom. "Macs in the enterprise – what you need to know". Computerweekly.com, TechTarget. 27 May 2022. Accessed 12 Aug. 2022.
    Copley-Woods, Haddayr. "5 reasons Mac is a must in the enterprise". Jamf.com, Jamf. 28 June 2022. Accessed 16 Aug. 2022.
    Duke, Kent. "Chromebook sales skyrocketed in Q3 2020 with online education fueling demand." androidpolice.com, Android Police. 16 Nov 2020. Accessed 10 Aug. 2022.
    Elgin, Mike. "Will Chromebooks Rule the Enterprise? (5 Reasons They May)". Computerworld.com, Computerworld. 30 Aug 2019. Accessed 10 Aug. 2022.
    Evans, Jonny. "IBM says it is 3X more expensive to manage PCs than Macs". Computerworld.com, Computerworld. 19 Oct 2016. Accessed 23 Aug. 2022.
    "Global Survey: Mac in the Enterprise". Jamf.com, Jamf. Accessed 16 Aug. 2022.
    "How to Manage Chromebooks Like a Pro." Vizor.cloud, VIZOR. Accessed 10 Aug. 2022.
    "Manage Chrome OS Devices with EMM Console". support.google.com, Google. Accessed 16 Aug. 2022.
    Protalinski, Emil. "Chromebooks outsold Macs worldwide in 2020, cutting into Windows market share". Geekwire.com, Geekwire. 16 Feb 2021. Accessed 22 Aug. 2022.
    Smith, Sean. "Microsoft Intune and Jamf Pro: Better together to manage and secure Macs". Jamf.com, Jamf. 20 April 2022. Accessed 16 Aug. 2022.

    Customer Service Management Software Selection Guide

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}530|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: N/A
    • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
    • member rating average days saved: N/A
    • Parent Category Name: Customer Relationship Management
    • Parent Category Link: /customer-relationship-management
    • The business is unaware of cross-selling opportunities across multiple product lines.
    • Customer service staff attrition rates continue to be high, creating longer response delays for voice channels.
    • Customer service responses are reactive in nature, reinforcing a poor culture for customer experience.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • After-sales customer service is critical for creating, maintaining, and growing customer relationships. Organizations that fail to provide adequate service will be ill positioned for future customer service and sales efforts.
    • Shift left toward delivering predictive service instead of reactive service to enhance customer experiences.
    • Ensure your key performance indicators accurately reflect the incentives you want to give your customer support staff for delivering appropriate customer service.

    Impact and Result

    • Determine your organization’s customer service maturity (and thus if a standalone CSM tool is relevant).
    • Understand key trends and differentiating features in the CSM marketspace.
    • Evaluate major vendors in the CSM marketspace to discover the best-fitting provider.

    Customer Service Management Software Selection Guide Research & Tools

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

    1. Customer Service Management Software Selection Guide – A guide to walk you through the process of selecting CSM software.

    This trends and buyer’s guide will help you:

    • Customer Service Management Software Selection Guide Storyboard

    2. CSM Platform RFP Template – A template to provide vendors with a detailed account of the requirements and the expected capabilities of the desired suite.

    Create your own request for proposal (RFP) for your customer service management suite procurement process by customizing Info-Tech's RFP template.

    • CSM Platform RFP Template

    3. CSM Platform Opportunity Assessment Tool – A tool to assess whether a CSM solution is right for your organization.

    Use this tool to assess your maturity and fit for a CSM solution. It will help identify your current CSM state and assist with the decision to move forward with a new solution or augment certain features.

    • CSM Platform Opportunity Assessment Tool

    4. Software Selection Workbook – A workbook to document your progress as your select software.

    Keep stakeholders engaged with simple and friction-free templates to document your progress for Rapid Application Selection.

    • The Software Selection Workbook

    5. Vendor Evaluation Workbook – A workbook to assess vendor capabilities and compare vendors.

    Leverage a traceable and straightforward Vendor Evaluation Workbook to narrow the field of potential vendors and accelerate the application selection process.

    • The Vendor Evaluation Workbook

    6. CSM Platform RFP Scoring Tool – A tool to support your business in objectively evaluating the CSM vendors being considered for procurement.

    Create an objective and fair scoring process to evaluate the RFPs and demonstrations provided by shortlisted vendors. Within this framework, provide a multidimensional evaluation that analyzes the solution's functional capabilities, architecture, costs, service support, and overall suitability in comparison to the organization's expressed requirements.

    • CSM Platform RFP Scoring Tool

    7. CSM Platform Vendor Demo Script Template – A template to support your business’ evaluation of vendors and their solutions with an effective demonstration.

    Create an organized and streamlined vendor demonstration process by clearly outlining your expectations for the demo. Use the demo as an opportunity to ensure that capabilities expressed by vendors are actually present within the considered solution.

    • CSM Platform Vendor Demo Script Template
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Customer Service Management Software Selection

    Market trends and buyer’s guide

    Analyst Perspective

    The pandemic and growing younger demographic have shifted the terrain of customer service delivery. Customer service management (CSM) tools ensure organizations enhance customer acquisition, customer retention, and overall revenues into the future.

    It is one thing to research customer service best practices; it is another to experience such service. Whether being put on hold for an hour with a telecommunications company, encountering voice biometric security with a bank, or receiving automated FAQs from a chatbot, we all perform our own primary research in customer service by going about our daily lives. Yet while the pandemic required a shift to this multichannel and digital assistant environment (to account for ongoing agent attrition), this trend was actually just accelerated. A growing younger demographic now prefers online communication channels to voice. Social media (whichever the platform) is a fundamental part of this demographic’s online presence and has instigated the need for customer service delivery to meet customers where they are – for both damage control and enhancing customer relationships.

    Organizations delivering customer service across multiple product lines need to examine what delivery channels they need to satisfy customers, alongside assessing how customer loyalty and cross-selling can increase revenues and company reputation. Customer service management tools can assist and enable the future state.

    Thomas Randall, Ph.D., Research Director

    Thomas Randall, Ph.D.
    Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge Common Obstacles Info-Tech’s Solution
    • The business is unaware of cross-selling opportunities across multiple product lines.
    • Customer service staff attrition rates continue to be high, creating longer response delays for voice channels.
    • Customer service responses are reactive in nature, reinforcing a poor culture for customer experience.
    • It is not clear if a CSM tool would resolve the business’ challenges or if a better-fitting technology solution is preferable (such as a customer relationship management add-on).
    • The business does not know its customer service maturity well enough to assess the feasibility of adopting a CSM tool.
    This trends and buyer’s guide will help you:
    1. Determine your organization’s customer service maturity (and thus if a standalone CSM tool is relevant).
    2. Understand key trends and differentiating features in the CSM marketspace.
    3. Evaluate major vendors in the CSM marketspace to discover the best-fitting provider.

    The objective at the end of the day is to have a single interface that the front-line staff interacts with. I think that is the holy grail when we look at CSM technology. The objective that everyone has in mind is we'd all like to get to one screen and one window. Ultimately, the end game really hasn't changed: How can we make it easy for the agents and how can we minimize their errors? How can we streamline the process so they can work?
    Colin Taylor, CEO, The Taylor Reach Group

    Customer service management tools form an integral part of your CXM technology portfolio

    Customer service management tools are an integral part of CXM

    Info-Tech’s methodology for selecting the right CSM platform

    1. Contextualize the CSM Landscape 2. Select the Right CSM Vendor
    Phase Steps
    1. Define CSM tools.
    2. Explore CSM trends.
    3. Understand if CSM tools are a good fit for your organization.
    1. Build the business case.
    2. Streamline requirements elicitation for CSM.
    3. Construct the request for proposal (RFP)/vendor evaluation workbook.
    Phase Outcomes
    1. Consensus on scope of CSM and key CSM capabilities
    2. Identify your customer service maturity and use for CSM tools
    1. CSM business case
    2. High-value use cases and requirements
    3. CSM RFP/vendor evaluation workbook

    Info-Tech Insight
    Need help constructing your RFP? Use Info-Tech’s CSM Platform RFP Template!

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Phase 1 Phase 2

    Call #1: Discover if CSM tools are right for your organization. Understand what a CSM platform is and discover the “art of the possible.”

    Call #2: Identify right-sized vendors and build the business case to select a CSM platform.

    Call #3: Define your key CSM requirements.

    Call #4: Build procurement items, such as an RFP and demo script.

    Call #5: Evaluate vendors and perform final due diligence.

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

    The CSM selection process should be broken into segments:

    1. CSM vendor shortlisting with this buyer’s guide
    2. Structured approach to selection
    3. Contract review

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

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks are used throughout all four options

    Software Selection Engagement

    Five Advisory Calls Over a Five-Week Period to Accelerate Your Selection Process

    Expert analyst guidance over five weeks on average to select and negotiate software

    Save money, align stakeholders, speed up the process, and make better decisions

    Use a repeatable, formal methodology to improve your application selection process

    Better, faster results, guaranteed, included in membership

    Five advisory calls over a five week period to accelerate your selection process

    Book Your Selection Engagement

    Software Selection Workshops

    40 Hours of Advisory Assistance Delivered Online

    Select Better Software, Faster

    40 hours of expert analyst guidance

    Project & stakeholder management assistance

    Save money, align stakeholders, speed up the process, and make better decisions

    Better, faster results, guaranteed, $25,000 standard engagement fee

    Software selection workshops

    Book Your Workshop Engagement

    Customer Service Management (CSM) Software

    Phase 1: Contextualize the CSM Landscape

    Receive and resolve after-sales requests within a unified CSM platform

    MULTIPLE CHANNELS
    Customers may resolve their issues via a variety of channels, including voice, SMS, email, social media, and live webchat.
    KNOWLEDGE BASE
    Provide a knowledge base for FAQs that is both customer facing (via customer portal) and agent facing (for live resolutions).
    ANALYTICS
    Track customer satisfaction, agent performances, ticket resolutions, backlogs, traffic analysis, and other key performance indicators (KPIs).
    COLLABORATION
    Enable agents to escalate and collaborate within a unified platform (e.g. tagging colleagues to flag a relevant customer query).

    Info-Tech Insight
    After-sales customer service is critical for creating, maintaining, and growing customer relationships. Organizations that fail to provide adequate service will be poorly positioned for future customer service and sales efforts.

    Identify your differentiating CSM requirements that align to your use cases

    INTEGRATIONS
    Note what integrations are available for your contact center, CRM, or industry-specific solutions (e.g. inventory management) to get the most out of CSM.

    SENTIMENT ANALYSIS
    Reads, contextualizes, and categorizes tickets by sentiment (e.g. “positive”) before escalating to an appropriate agent.

    AUTO-RESPONSE EDITOR
    Built-in AI provides prewritten responses or auto-pulls the relevant knowledge article, assisting agents with speed to resolution.

    ATTRIBUTES-BASED ROUTING
    Learns over time how best to route tickets to appropriate agents based on skills, availability, or proximity of an agent (e.g. multilingual, local, or specialist agents).

    AUTOMATED WORKFLOWS
    CSM tool providers have varying usability for workflow building and enablement. Ensure your use cases align.

    TICKET PRIORITIZATION
    Adapts and prioritizes customer issues by service-level agreement (SLA), priority, and severity according to inputted KPIs.

    Good technology will not fix a bad process. I don't care how good the technology is. If the use case is wrong and the process is wrong, it's not going to work.
    Colin Taylor, CEO
    The Taylor Reach Group

    Leverage CSM tools to shift left toward predictive customer service

    Real-time Pre-event Post-event
    Channel example: Notifications via SMS or social media. Channel example: Notifications via SMS or social media. Channel example: Working with an agent or live chatbot. Channel example: Working with an agent or live chatbot.
    “Your car may need a check-up for faulty parts.” “Here is a local garage to fix your tire pressure.” “I see you have poor tire pressure. Here is a local garage.” “Thank you for your patience, how can we help?”
    Predictive Service
    The CSM recommends mitigation options to the customer before the issue occurs and before the customer knows they need it.
    Proactive Service
    The issue occurs but the CSM recommends mitigation options to the customer before the customer contacts the organization.
    Real-Time Service
    The organization offers real-time mitigation options while working with the customer to resolve the issue.
    Reactive Service
    The customer approaches the organization after the issue occurs, but the organization has no insight into the event.

    Selecting a CSM tool should form part of your broader CXM strategy

    Organizations should ask whether they need a standalone CSM solution or a CSM as part of a broader suite of CXM tools. The latter is especially relevant if your organization already invests in a CXM platform.

    Matrix of CMS tools as part of CXM strategy

    CSM tools are best-suited for organizations with high product and service complexity

    Customer Service Complexity

    Low complexity refers to primarily transactional inquiries. High complexity refers to service workflows for symptom analysis, problem identification, and solution delivery.

    Product Complexity

    High complexity refers to having a large number of brands and individual SKUs, technologically complex products, and products with many add-ons.

    A matrix showing that a standalone CSM tool is best where customer service complexity and product complexity are both high.

    Info-Tech Insight
    Use Info-Tech’s CSM Platform Opportunity Assessment Tool to discover your organization’s customer service maturity.

    Activity: Discover your customer service maturity

    30 minutes

    1. Complete the CSM Platform Opportunity Assessment Tool.
    2. Evaluate your result and document whether a CSM business case is warranted (or if a separate technology selection process is needed).
    Input Output
    • Understanding of the current state and how complex the organization’s product line and help desk support are
    • Ranking of the importance of each decision point
    • Assessment results that provide a high-level view of whether your organization’s product and customer service complexity warrant a standalone CSM tool
    Materials Participants
    • CSM Platform Opportunity Assessment Tool
    • Shared screen or projection
    • Customer support analyst(s)
    • Infrastructure and Operations lead(s)
    • Representative customer support staff
    • Product management analyst(s)

    Download the CSM Platform Opportunity Assessment Tool

    Finalize whether your organization is well positioned to leverage CSM tools

    Bypass Adopt
    Monochannel approach
    You do not participate in multichannel campaigns or your customer personas are typically limited to one or two channels (e.g. voice or SMS).
    Multichannel approach
    You are pursuing multifaceted, customer-specific campaigns across a multitude of channels.
    Small to mid-sized business with small CX team
    Do not buy what you do not need. Focus on the foundations of customer experience (CX) first before extending into a full-fledged CSM tool.
    Maturing CX department
    Customer service needs are extending into managing budgets, generating and segmenting leads, and measuring channel effectiveness.
    Limited product range
    CSM tools typically gain return on investment (ROI) if the organization has a complex product range and is looking to increase cross-sell opportunities across different customer personas.
    Multiple product lines
    Customer base and product lines are large enough to engage in opportunities for cross- and up-selling.

    Case Study

    AkzoNobel

    INDUSTRY
    Retail

    SOURCE
    Sprinklr (2021)

    Use CSM tools to unify the multichannel experience and reduce response time.

    Challenge Solution Results
    AzkoNobel is a leading global paints and coatings company. AzkoNobel had 60+ fragmented customer service accounts on social media for multiple brands. There was little consistency in customer experience and agent responses. Moreover, the customer journey was not being tracked, resulting in lost opportunities for cross-selling across brands. The result: slow response times (up to one week) and unsatisfied customers, leaving the AzkoNobel brand in a vulnerable state.

    AkzoNobel leveraged Sprinklr, a customer experience software provider, to unify six social channels, 19 accounts, and six brands. Sprinklr aligned governance across social media channels with AzkoNobel’s strategic business goals, emphasizing the need for process, increasing revenue, and streamlining customer service.

    AzkoNobel was able to use keywords from customers’ inbound messaging to put an escalation process in place.

    Since bringing on Sprinklr in 2015-2016, unifying customer service channels under one multichannel platform resulted in:

    • 172% increase in customer engagement.
    • 133% increase in post comments.
    • 80% reduced response times.
    • 47% of inquiries answered within five minutes.
    • $18,500 added revenues via social media responses.

    How it got here: The birth of CSM tools

    CSM developed alongside the telephone and call center, rather than customer relationship management platforms.

    1920s 1950s 1967-1973 1980-1990s 2000-2010s
    The introduction of lines of credit and growth of household appliance innovations meant households were buying products at an unprecedented rate. Department stores would set up customer service sections to assist with live fixes or returns. Following the Great Depression and World War II, process, efficiency, and computational technology became defining features of customer service. These features were played out in call centers as automatic call distribution (ACD) technology began to scale. With the development of private automatic branch exchange (PABX), AT&T introduced the toll-free telephone number. Companies began training staff and departments for customer service and building loyalty. With the development of interactive voice response (IVR) in 1973, call centers became increasingly more efficient at routing. Analog technology shifted to digital and the term “contact center” was coined. These centers began being outsourced internationally. With the advent of the internet, CSM technology (in the early guise of a “help desk”) became equipped with computer telephony integration (CTI). Software as a service (SaaS) and CRM maturation strengthened the retention and organization of customer data. Social media also enhanced consumer power as companies rushed to prevent online embarrassment. This prompted investment in multichannel customer service.

    Where it’s going: The future of CSM tools lies in predictive analytics

    The capabilities below are available today but will mature over the next few years. Use the roadmap as a guide for your year of implementation.

    2023
    Go mobile first
    85% of customers believe a company’s mobile website should be just as good as its desktop website. Enabling user-friendly mobile websites provides an effective channel to keep inbound calls down.

    2024
    Shift from multichannel to omnichannel
    Integrating CSM tools with your broader CXM suite enables customer data to seamlessly travel between channels for an omnichannel experience.

    2025
    Enable predictive service
    CSM tools integrate with Internet of Things (IoT) systems to provide automated notifications that alert staff of issues and mitigate issues with customers before the issue even occurs.

    2026
    Leverage predictive analytics for ML use cases
    Use customers’ historic data and preferences to perform better automated customer service over time (e.g. providing personalized resolutions based on previous customer engagements).

    Context and scenario play a huge role in measuring good customer service. Ensure your KPIs accurately reflect the incentives you want to give your customer support staff for delivering appropriate customer service.
    David Thomas, Customer Service Specialist
    Freedom Mobile
    (Reve Chat, 2022)

    Key trends in CSM technology

    As predictive analytics matures, organizations are making use of CSM tools’ ability to enhance personalization, improve their social media response times, and enable self-service.

    BIOMETRICS
    65% of customers say they would accept voice recognition to authorize their identity when calling a customer support line (GetApp, 2021).

    PERSONALIZATION
    51% of marketers, advocating for personalization across multiple touchpoints saw 300% ROI (KoMarketing, 2020).

    SOCIAL MEDIA
    29% of customers aged 18 to 39 prefer online chat communication before and after purchase (RingCentral, 2020).

    SELF-SERVICE
    92% of customers say they would use a knowledge base for self-service support if it was available (Vanilla, 2020).

    Customer Service Management (CSM) Software

    Phase 2: Select the Right CSM Vendor

    Conduct a business impact assessment to document the case for CSM tool selection

    Business Opportunity
    Determine high-level understanding of the need that must be addressed, along with the project goals and affiliated key metrics. Establish KPIs to measure project success.

    System Diagram
    Determine the impact on the application portfolio and where integration is necessary.

    Risks
    Identify potential blockers and risk factors that will impede selection.

    High-Level Requirements
    Consider the business functions and processes affected.

    People Impact
    Confirm who will be affected by the output of the technology selection.

    Overall Business Case
    Calculate the ROI and the financial implications of the application selection. Highlight the overarching value.

    Activity: Build the business case

    2 hours

    1. Access the Business Impact Assessment within the Software Selection Workbook (linked below). Store the assessment in a shared folder (such as in SharePoint, OneDrive, or Google Drive).
    2. Set aside two hours (does not need to be all at once) to ensure the selection team aligns with the unifying rationale for selection.
    3. Complete the six steps to arrive at a high-level business case. This case can then be shared and communicated with interested parties (e.g. impacted stakeholders).
    InputOutput
    • Drivers for the business opportunity to adopt CSM tools
    • Understanding of key stakeholders
    • Overview of application portfolio
    • Budgetary information
    • Business Impact Assessment, which captures your high-level business case
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Software Selection Workbook
    • Screen sharing or projector
    • Whiteboard and drawing materials
    • Customer support analyst(s)
    • Infrastructure and Operations lead(s)
    • Representative customer support staff
    • Product management analyst(s)

    Download the Software Selection Workbook

    Elicit and prioritize granular requirements for your CSM platform

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

    Signs of poorly scoped requirements Best practices
    • Requirements focus on how the solution should work instead of what it must accomplish.
    • Multiple levels of detail exist within the requirements, which are inconsistent and confusing.
    • Requirements drill all the way down into system-level detail.
    • Language is technical and dense, leaving some stakeholder groups confused on what they are actually looking for in a solution.
    • Requirements are copied from a market analysis of the art of the possible, abstract from organization’s own customer persona analysis.
    • Get a clear understanding of what the system needs to do and what it is expected to produce. Build customer personas to assist with identifying high-value use cases.
    • Test against the principle of MECE – requirements should be “mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive.”
    • Use language that is consistent with that of the market and focus on key differentiators – not table stakes.
    • Include the appropriate level of detail, which should be suitable for procurement and sufficient for differentiating vendors.

    Info-Tech Insight
    Review Info-Tech’s requirements gathering methodology to improve your requirements gathering process.

    Choose your route: RFP or otherwise?

    As you gather requirements, decide which procurement route best suits your context.

    RFI (Request for Information) RFQ (Request for Quotation) RFP (Request for Proposal)
    Purpose and Usage

    Gather information about products/services when you know little about what’s available.

    Often followed by an RFP.

    Solicit pricing and delivery information for products/services with clearly defined requirements.

    Best for standard or commodity products/services.

    Solicit formal proposals from vendors to conduct an evaluation and selection process.

    Formal and fair process; identical for each participating vendor.

    Level of Intent

    Fact-finding there is no commitment to engage the vendor.

    Vendors are often reluctant to provide quotes.

    Committed to procure a specific product/service at the lowest price.

    Intent to buy the products/services in the RFP.

    Business case/approval to spend is already obtained.

    Level of Detail High-level requirements and business goals.

    Detailed specifications of what products/services are needed.

    Detailed contract and delivery terms.

    Detailed business requirements and objectives.

    Standard questions and contract term requests for all vendors.

    Response

    Generalized response with high-level product/services.

    Sometimes standard pricing quote.

    Price quote and confirmation of ability to fulfill desired terms.

    Detailed solution description, delivery approach, customized price quote, and additional requested information.

    Product demo and/or hands-on trial.

    Info-Tech Insight
    If you are in a hurry, consider instead issuing Info-Tech’s Vendor Evaluation Workbook. This workbook speeds up the typical procurement process by adding RFP-like requirements (such as operational and technical requirements) while driving the procurement process via emphasis on high-value use cases.

    Download the Vendor Evaluation Workbook

    Activity: Document requirements

    2 hours

    1. Review each tab of Info-Tech’s CSM Platform RFP Scoring Tool to generate use cases and ideas for your requirements building.
    2. Modify and include additional features you may need, using Info-Tech’s CSM Platform RFP Template to assist with structure (if pursuing an RFP process) or Vendor Evaluation Workbook (if an RFP process is not needed). Pay attention to any nonfunctional requirements (such as security or integrations), alongside future trends of CSM. Vendors must be able to scale with your organization’s growth.
    3. You can use the CSM Platform RFP Scoring Tool again when assessing vendor responses.
    Input Output
    • Key use cases that capture your most important customer service support processes
    • Discussion of CSM future trends and differentiating features
    • Confirmation on organization’s significant nonfunctional requirements (e.g. security or integrations)
    • Either a Requirements Workbook to go straight to shortlisted vendor(s) or an RFP document to solicit a broader market response
    Materials Participants
    • CSM Platform RFP Scoring Tool
    • CSM Platform RFP Template
    • Vendor Evaluation Workbook
    • Customer support analyst(s)
    • Infrastructure and Operations lead(s)
    • Other major stakeholders (for requirements elicitation)

    Download the CSM Platform RFP Scoring Tool

    Download the CSM Platform RFP Template

    Once vendor responses are in, turn product demos into investigative interviews

    Avoid vendor glitz and glamour shows by ensuring vendors are concretely applying their solution to your high-value use cases.

    1 Minimize the number of vendors to four to keep up the pace of the selection process.
    2 Provide a demo script that captures your high-value use cases and differentiating requirements.
    3 Ensure demos are booked close together and the selection committee attends all demos.

    Conduct a day of rapid-fire vendor demos

    Zoom in on high-value use cases and answers to targeted questions

    Rapid-fire vendor investigative interview

    Invite vendors to come onsite (or join you via videoconference) to demonstrate the product and answer questions. Use a highly targeted demo script to help identify how a vendor’s solution will fit your organization’s particular business capability needs.

    Give each vendor 90 to 120 minutes to give a rapid-fire presentation. We suggest the following structure:

    • 30 minutes: Company introduction and vision
    • 60 minutes: Walkthrough of two or three high-value demo scenarios
    • 30 minutes: Targeted Q&A from the business stakeholders and procurement team

    To ensure a consistent evaluation, vendors should be asked analogous questions and answers should be tabulated.

    How to challenge the vendors in the investigative interview

    • Change the visualization/presentation.
    • Change the underlying data.
    • Add additional data sets to the artifacts.
    • Test voice quality (if the vendor offers a native telephony channel).
    • Test collaboration capabilities.

    To kick-start scripting your demo scenarios, leverage our CSM Platform Vendor Demo Script Template.

    A vendor scoring model provides a clear anchor point for your evaluation of CRM vendors based on a variety of inputs

    A vendor scoring model is a systematic method for effectively assessing competing vendors. A weighted-average scoring model is an approach that strikes a strong balance between rigor and evaluation speed.

    How do I build a scoring model? What are some of the best practices?
    • Start by shortlisting the key criteria you will use to evaluate your vendors. Functional capabilities should always be a critical category, but you’ll also want to look at criteria such as affordability, architectural fit, and vendor viability.
    • Depending on the complexity of the project, you may break down some criteria into subcategories to assist with evaluation (for example, breaking down functional capabilities into constituent use cases so you can score each one).
    • Once you’ve developed the key criteria for your project, the next step is weighting each criterion. Your weightings should reflect the priorities for the project at hand. For example, some projects may put more emphasis on affordability, others on vendor partnership.
    • Using the information collected in the subsequent phases of this blueprint, score each criterion from 1 to 100, then multiply by the weighting factor. Add up the weighted scores to arrive at the aggregate evaluation score for each vendor on your shortlist.
    • While the criteria for each project may vary, it’s helpful to have an inventory of repeatable criteria that can be used across application selection projects. The next slide contains an example that you can add to or subtract from.
    • Don’t go overboard on the number of criteria: five to ten weighted criteria should be the norm for most projects. The more criteria (and subcriteria) you must score against, the longer it will take to conduct your evaluation. Always remember, link the level of rigor to the size and complexity of your project! It’s possible to create a convoluted scoring model that takes significant time to fill out but yields little additional value.
    • Creation of the scoring model should be a consensus-driven activity among IT, procurement, and the key business stakeholders – it should not be built in isolation. Everyone should agree on the fundamental criteria and weights that are employed.
    • Consider using not just the outputs of investigative interviews and RFP responses to score vendors, but also third-party review services like SoftwareReviews.

    Info-Tech Insight
    Even the best scoring model will still involve some “art” rather than science. Scoring categories such as vendor viability always entail a degree of subjective interpretation.

    Define how you will score vendor responses and demos

    Your key CSM criteria should be informed by the following goals, use cases, and requirements.

    Criteria Description
    Functional Capabilities How well does the vendor align with the top-priority functional requirements identified in your accelerated needs assessment? What is the vendor’s functional breadth and depth?
    Affordability How affordable is this vendor? Consider a three-to-five-year total cost of ownership (TCO) that encompasses not just licensing costs but also implementation, integration, training, and ongoing support costs.
    Architectural Fit How well does this vendor align with your direction from an enterprise architecture perspective? How interoperable is the solution with existing applications in your technology stack? Does the solution meet your deployment model preferences?
    Extensibility How easy is it to augment the base solution with native or third-party add-ons as your business needs may evolve?
    Scalability How easy is it to expand the solution to support increased user, data, and/or customer volumes? Does the solution have any capacity constraints?
    Vendor Viability How viable is this vendor? Are they an established player with a proven track record or a new and untested entrant to the market? What is the financial health of the vendor? How committed are they to the particular solution category?
    Vendor Vision Does the vendor have a cogent and realistic product roadmap? Are they making sensible investments that align with your organization’s internal direction?
    Emotional Footprint How well does the vendor’s organizational culture and team dynamics align to yours?
    Third-Party Assessments and/or References How well-received is the vendor by unbiased third-party sources like SoftwareReviews? For larger projects, how well does the vendor perform in reference checks (and how closely do those references mirror your own situation)?

    Leverage Info-Tech’s Contract Review Services to level the playing field with shortlisted vendors

    You may be faced with multiple products, services, master service agreements, licensing models, service agreements, and more.

    Use Info-Tech’s Contract Review Services to gain insights on your agreements.

    Consider the aspects of a contract review:

    1. Are all key terms included?
    2. Are they applicable to your business?
    3. Can you trust that results will be delivered?
    4. What questions should you be asking from an IT perspective?

    Validate that a contract meets IT’s and the business’ needs by looking beyond the legal terminology. Use a practical set of questions, rules, and guidance to improve your value for dollar spent.

    Book Contract Review Service

    Download Master Contract Review and Negotiation for Software Agreements

    Customer Service Management (CSM) Software

    Vendor Analysis

    Evaluate software category leaders through vendor rankings and awards

    SoftwareReviews

    The Data Quadrant is a thorough evaluation and ranking of all software in an individual category to compare platforms across multiple dimensions.

    Vendors are ranked by their Composite Score, based on individual feature evaluations, user satisfaction rankings, vendor capability comparisons, and likeliness to recommend the platform.

    The Emotional Footprint is a powerful indicator of overall user sentiment toward the relationship with the vendor, capturing data across five dimensions.

    Vendors are ranked by their Customer Experience (CX) Score, which combines the overall Emotional Footprint rating with a measure of the value delivered by the solution.

    Speak with category experts to dive deeper into the vendor landscape

    SoftwareReviews

    Fact-based reviews of business software from IT professionals.

    Product and category reports with state-of-the-art data visualization.

    Top-tier data quality backed by a rigorous quality assurance process.

    User-experience insight that reveals the intangibles of working with a vendor.

    SoftwareReviews is powered by Info-Tech

    Technology coverage is a priority for Info-Tech, and SoftwareReviews provides the most comprehensive, unbiased data on today’s technology. Combined with the insight of our expert analysts, our members receive unparalleled support in their buying journey.

    Click here to access SoftwareReviews

    Comprehensive software reviews to make better IT decisions

    We collect and analyze the most detailed reviews on enterprise software from real users to give you an unprecedented view into the product and vendor before you buy.

    Microsoft Dynamics 365

    Est. 2003 | WA, USA | MSFT:NASDAQ

    Bio

    To accelerate your digital transformation, you need a new type of business application. One that breaks down the silos between CRM and ERP, that’s powered by data and intelligence, and helps capture new business opportunities. That’s Microsoft Dynamics 365.

    Offices

    Microsoft is located all over the world. For a full list, see Microsoft Worldwide Sites.

    representative Customers

    Stated Industry Specializations

    • Covers an extremely wide range of industries, such as finance, education, government, healthcare, manufacturing, and retail.

    Software review for Microsoft

    SoftwareReviews’ CSM Enterprise Vendor Ranking
    (out of 7)

    Likeliness to Recommend

    • 7th (81%)

    Plan to Renew

    • 6th (93%)

    Satisfaction That Cost Is Fair Relative to Value

    • 2nd (81%)

    Strengths

    • Product Strategy and Rate of Improvement (1st)
    • Ease of Customization (1st)
    • Breadth of Features (2nd)

    Areas to Improve

    • Availability and Quality of Training (5th)
    • Ease of Implementation (7th)
    • Usability and Intuitiveness (7th

    Microsoft Dynamics 365

    History

    Founded 2003 (as Microsoft Dynamics CRM)
    2005 Second version branded Dynamics 3.0.
    2009 Dynamics CRM 4.0 (Titan) passes 1 million user mark.
    2015 Announces availability of CRM Cloud design for FedRAMP compliance.
    2016 Dynamics 365 released as successor to Dynamics CRM.
    2016 Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn provides line of data to 500 million users.
    2021 First-party voice channel added to Dynamics 365.
    2022 Announces Digital Contact Center Platform powered with Nuance AI, MS Teams, and Dynamics 365.

    Microsoft is rapidly innovating in the customer experience technology marketspace. Alongside Dynamics 365’s omnichannel offering, Microsoft is building out its own native contact center platform. This will provide new opportunities for centralization without multivendor management between Dynamics 365, Microsoft Teams, and an additional third-party telephony or contact-center-as-a-service (CCaaS) vendor. SoftwareReviews reports suggest that Microsoft is a market leader in the area of product innovation for CSM, and this area of voice channel capability is where I see most industry interest.

    Of course, Dynamics 365 is not a platform to get only for CSM functionality. Users will typically be a strong Microsoft shop already (using Dynamics 365 for customer relationship management) and are looking for native CSM features to enhance customer service workflow management and self-service.
    Thomas Randall
    Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

    Info-Tech Insight
    Pricing for Microsoft Dynamics 365 is often contextualized to an organization’s needs. However, this can create complicated licensing structures. Two Info-Tech resources to assist are:

    *This service may be used for other enterprise CSM providers too, including Salesforce, ServiceNow, SAP, and Oracle.
    Contact your account manager to review your access to this service.

    Freshworks

    Est. 2010 | CA, USA | FRSH:NASDAQ

    Bio

    Freshworks' cloud-based customer support software, Freshdesk, makes customer happiness refreshingly easy. With powerful features, an easy-to-use interface, and a freemium pricing model, Freshdesk enables companies of all sizes to provide a seamless multichannel support experience across email, phone, web, chat, forums, social media, and mobile apps. Freshdesk’s capabilities include robust ticketing, SLA management, smart automations, intelligent reporting, and game mechanics to motivate agents.

    Offices

    • Americas: US
    • Asia-Pacific (APAC): Australia, India, Singapore
    • Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA): France, Germany, Netherlands, UK

    Freshworks Representative Customers

    Stated Industry Specializations

    • Automotive
    • Education
    • Energy
    • Finance
    • Healthcare
    • Nonprofit
    • Professional Services
    • Publishing
    • Real Estate
    • Retail
    • Travel

    Software Review of Freshworks

    SoftwareReviews’ CSM Enterprise Vendor Ranking
    (out of 7)

    Likeliness to Recommend

    • 3rd (83%)

    Plan to Renew

    • 4th (94%)

    Satisfaction That Cost Is Fair Relative to Value

    • 3rd (80%)

    Strengths

    • Breadth of Features (1st)
    • Usability and Intuitiveness (1st)
    • Ease of Implementation (2nd)

    Areas to Improve

    • Ease of IT Administration (3rd)
    • Vendor Support (4th)
    • Product Strategy and Rate of Improvement (4th)

    Freshworks

    History

    Founded 2010
    2011 Freshdesk forms a core component of product line.
    2014 Raises significant capital in Series D round: $31M.
    2016 Acquires Airwoot, enabling real-time customer support on social media.
    2019 Raises $150M in Series H funding round.
    2019 Acquires Natero, which predicts, analyzes, and drives customer behavior.
    2021 Surpasses $300M in annual recurring revenues.
    2021 Freshworks posts its IPO listing.

    Freshworks stepped into the SaaS customer support marketspace in 2010 to attract dissatisfied Zendesk eSupport customers, following Zendesk’s large price increases that year (of 300%). After performing well during the pandemic, Freshworks has reinforced its global positioning in the CSM tool marketspace; SoftwareReviews data suggests Freshworks performs very well against its competitors for breadth and intuitiveness of its features.

    Freshworks receives strong recommendations from Info-Tech’s members, boasting a broad product selection that enables opportunities for scaling and receiving a high rate of value return. Of note are Freshworks’ internal customer management solution and its native contact center offering, limiting multivendor management typically required for integrating separate IT service management (ITSM) and CCaaS solutions.
    Thomas Randall
    Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

    Free Growth Pro Enterprise
    • $0 up to 10 agents
    • Knowledge base
    • Ticket routing
    • Out-of-box analytics
    • $15 agent/month
    • Collision detection
    • Integrations
    • Automated follow-ups
    • $49 agent/month
    • Multiple product lines
    • Personalization
    • CSAT surveys
    • Customer journey
    • $79 agent/month
    • Assist bot and email bot
    • Skill-based routing

    *Pricing correct as of November 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
    See pricing on vendor’s website for latest information.

    Help Scout

    Est. 2006 | MA, USA | HUBS:NYSE

    Bio
    Help Scout is designed with your customers in mind. Provide email and live chat with a personal touch and deliver help content right where your customers need it, all in one place, all for one low price. The customer experience is simple and training staff is painless, but Help Scout still has all the powerful features you need to provide great support at scale. With best-in-class reporting, an integrated knowledge base, 50+ integrations, and a robust API, Help Scout lets your team focus on what really matters: your customers.

    Offices

    • Americas: Canada, Colombia, US
    • APAC: Australia, Japan, Singapore
    • EMEA: Belgium, France, Ireland, Germany, UK

    Questions for support transition

    Stated Industry Specializations

    • eCommerce
    • Education
    • Finance
    • Healthcare
    • Logistics
    • Manufacturing
    • Media
    • Professional Services
    • Property Management
    • Software

    Software Review of Help Scout

    SoftwareReviews’ CSM Enterprise Vendor Ranking
    (out of 7)

    Likeliness to Recommend

    • 4th (82%)

    Plan to Renew

    • 7th (87%)

    Satisfaction That Cost Is Fair Relative to Value

    • 7th (71%)

    Strengths

    • Business Value Created (1st)
    • Ease of Data Integration (1st)
    • Breadth of Features (3rd)

    Areas to Improve

    • Ease of IT Administration (5th)
    • Product Strategy and Rate of Improvement (5th)
    • Quality of Features (6th)

    Help Scout

    History

    Founded 2011
    2015 Raised $6M in Series A funding.
    2015 Rebrands from Brightwurks to Help Scout.
    2015 Named by Appstorm as one of six CSM tools to delight Mac users.
    2016 iOS app released.
    2017 Android app released.
    2020 All employees instructed to work remotely.
    2021 Raises $15M in Series B funding.

    Help Scout provides a simplified, standalone CSM tool that operates like a shared email inbox. Best suited for mid-sized organizations, customers can expect live chat, in-app messaging, and knowledge-base functionality. A particular strength is Help Scout’s integration capabilities, with a wide range of CRM, eCommerce, marketing, and communication APIs available. This strength is also reflected in the data: SoftwareReviews lists Help Scout as first in its CSM category for ease of data integrations.

    Customers who are expecting a broader range of channels (including voice, video cobrowsing, and so on) will not find good return on investment with Help Scout. However, for mid-sized organizations looking to begin maturing their customer service management, Help Scout provides a strong foundation – especially for enhancing in-house collaboration between support staff.
    Thomas Randall
    Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

    Standard Plus Pro
    • $20 user/month
    • Live chat
    • Up to 25 users
    • 50+ integrations
    • 2 mailboxes
    • $40 user/month
    • Advanced permissions
    • Group users
    • 5 mailboxes
    • $65 user/month
    • HIPAA compliance
    • Onboarding service
    • Dedicated account manager

    *Pricing correct as of November 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
    See pricing on vendor’s website for latest information.

    HubSpot

    Est. 2006 | MA, USA | HUBS:NYSE

    Bio
    HubSpot’s Service Hub brings all your customer service data and channels together in one place and helps scale your support through automation and self-service. The result? More time for proactive service that delights, retains, and grows your customer base. HubSpot provides software and support to help businesses grow better. The overall platform includes marketing, sales, service, and website management products that start free and scale to meet our customers’ needs at any stage of growth.

    Offices

    • Americas: Canada, Colombia, US
    • APAC: Australia, Japan, Singapore
    • EMEA: Belgium, France, Ireland, Germany, UK

    HubSpot Representative Customers

    Stated Industry Specializations

    • Covers an extremely wide range of industries, such as finance, education, healthcare, manufacturing, and retail.

    Software Review for HubSpot

    SoftwareReviews’ CSM Enterprise Vendor Ranking
    (out of 7)

    Likeliness to Recommend

    • 1st (88%)

    Plan to Renew

    • 1st (98%)

    Satisfaction That Cost Is Fair Relative to Value

    • 5th (78%)

    Strengths:

    • Vendor Support (1st)
    • Availability and Quality of Training (1st)
    • Ease of IT Administration (1st)

    Areas to Improve:

    • Ease of Data Integration (5th)
    • Ease of Customization (5th)
    • Breadth of Features (7th)

    HubSpot

    History

    Founded 2006
    2013 Opens first international office in Ireland.
    2014 First IPO listing on NYSE, raising $140M.
    2015 Milestone for acquiring 15,000 customers
    2017 Acquires Kemvi for AI and ML support for sales teams.
    2019 Acquires PieSync for customer data synchronization.
    2021 Yamini Rangan is announced as new CEO.
    2021 Records $1B in revenues.

    HubSpot is a competitive player in the enterprise sales and marketing technology market. Offering an all-in-one platform, HubSpot allows users to leverage its CRM, marketing solutions, content management tool, and CSM tool. Across knowledge management, contact center integration, and customer self-service, SoftwareReviews data pits HubSpot as performing better than its enterprise competitors.

    While customers can leverage HubSpot’s CSM tool independently, watch out for scope creep. HubSpot’s other offerings are tightly integrated and module extensions could quickly add up in price. HubSpot may not be affordable for most regional, mid-sized organizations, and a poor ROI may be expected. For instance, the Pro plan is required to get a knowledge base, which is typically a standard CSM feature – yet the same plan also comes with multicurrency support, which could remain unleveraged.
    Thomas Randall
    Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

    Free Starter Pro Enterprise
    • $0 month
    • Ticketing
    • Live chat
    • 200 notifications per month
    • $45 month
    • 5,000 email templates
    • White label
    • 500 calling minutes
    • $450 month
    • 30 currencies
    • Knowledge base
    • Up to 300 workflows
    • $1,200 month
    • Conversation intelligence
    • SSO

    *Pricing correct as of November 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
    See pricing on vendor’s website for latest information.

    Salesforce

    Est. 1999 | CA, USA | CRM:NYSE

    Bio

    Service Cloud customer service software gives you faster, smarter customer support. Salesforce provides customer relationship management software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, analytics, and application development.

    Offices

    • Americas: US
    • APAC: Australia, India, Singapore
    • EMEA: France, Germany, Netherlands, UK

    Salesforce Representative Customers

    Stated Industry Specializations

    • Covers an extremely wide range of industries, such as finance, education, government, healthcare, manufacturing, and retail.

    Software Review for Salesforce

    SoftwareReviews’ CSM Enterprise Vendor Ranking
    (out of 7)

    Likeliness to Recommend

    • 6th (81%)

    Plan to Renew

    • 2nd (96%)

    Satisfaction That Cost Is Fair Relative to Value

    • 4th (79%)

    Strengths:

    • Usability and Intuitiveness (5th)
    • Breadth of Features (5th)
    • Ease of Implementation (6th)

    Areas to Improve:

    • Ease of IT Administration (7th)
    • Availability and Quality of Training (7th)
    • Ease of Customization (7th)

    Salesforce

    History

    Founded 1999
    2000 Salesforce launches its cloud-based products.
    2003 The first Dreamforce (a leading CX conference) happens.
    2005 Salesforce unveils AppExchange.
    2013 Salesforce acquires ExactTarget and expands Marketing Cloud offering.
    2016 Salesforce acquires Demandware, launches Commerce Cloud.
    2019 Salesforce acquires Tableau to expand business intelligence capabilities.
    2021 Salesforce buys major collaboration vendor Slack.

    Salesforce was an early disruptor in CRM marketspace, placing a strong emphasis on a SaaS delivery model and end-user experience. This allowed Salesforce to rapidly gain market share at the expense of complacent enterprise application vendors. A series of savvy acquisitions over the years has allowed Salesforce to augment its core Sales and Service Clouds with a wide variety of other solutions, from ecommerce to marketing automation – and recently Slack for internal collaboration.

    Salesforce Service Cloud Voice is now available to take advantage of integrating telephony and voice channels into your CRM. This service is still maturing, though, with Salesforce selecting Amazon Connect as its preferred integrator. However, Connect is not necessarily plug-and-play – it is a communications platform as a service, requiring you to build your own contact center solution. This is either a fantastic opportunity for creativity or a time suck of already tied-up resources.
    Thomas Randall
    Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

    Service Cloud Essentials Service Cloud Professional Service Cloud Enterprise Service Cloud Unlimited
    • $25 user/month
    • Small businesses after basic functionality
    • $75 user/month
    • Mid-market target
    • $150 user/month
    • Enterprise target
    • Web Services API
    • $300 user/month
    • Strong upmarket feature additions

    *Pricing correct as of November 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
    See pricing on vendor’s website for latest information.

    Zendesk

    Est. 2007 | CA, USA | ZEN:NYSE

    Bio

    Zendesk streamlines your support with time-saving tools like ticket views, triggers, and automations. This helps you get straight to what matters most – better customer service and more meaningful conversations. Today, Zendesk is the champion of great service everywhere for everyone and powers billions of conversations, connecting more than 100,000 brands with hundreds of millions of customers over telephony, chat, email, messaging, social channels, communities, review sites, and help centers.

    Offices

    • Americas: Brazil, Canada, US
    • APAC: Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam
    • EMEA: Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, UK

    Zendesk Representative Customers

    Stated Industry Specializations

    • Education
    • Finance
    • Government
    • Healthcare
    • Manufacturing
    • Media
    • Retail
    • Software
    • Telecommunications

    Software Review for Zendesk

    SoftwareReviews’ CSM Enterprise Vendor Ranking
    (out of 7)

    Likeliness to Recommend

    • 5th (81%)

    Plan to Renew

    • 5th (94%)

    Satisfaction That Cost Is Fair Relative to Value

    • 6th (77%)

    Strengths

    • Ease of IT Administration (2nd)
    • Ease of Implementation (5th)
    • Quality of Features (5th)

    Areas to Improve

    • Business Value Created (7th)
    • Vendor Support (7th)
    • Product Strategy and Rate of Improvement (7th)

    Zendesk

    History

    Founded 2007
    2008 Initial seed funding of $500,000.
    2009 Receives $6M through Series B Funding.
    2009 Relocates from Copenhagen to San Francisco.
    2014 Acquires Zopin Technologies.
    2014 Listed on NYSE.
    2015 Acquires We Are Cloud SAS.
    2018 Launches Zendesk Sell.

    Zendesk is a global player in the CSM tool marketspace and works with enterprises across a wide variety of industries. Unlike some other CSM players, Zendesk provides more service channels at its lowest licensing offer, affording organizations a quicker expansion in customer service delivery without making enterprise-grade investments. However, the price of the lowest licensing offer starts much higher than Zendesk’s competitors; organizations will need to consider if the cost to try Zendesk over an annual contract is within budget.

    Unfortunately, SoftwareReviews data suggests that Zendesk may not always provide that immediate value, especially to mid-sized organizations. Zendesk is rated lower for vendor support and business value created. However, Zendesk provides strong functionality that competes with other enterprise players, and mid-sized organizations are continually impressed with Zendesk’s automation workflows.
    Thomas Randall
    Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

    *Pricing correct as of November 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
    See pricing on vendor’s website for latest information.

    Team Growth Pro
    • $49 user/month
    • Ticketing
    • Email, voice, SMS, and live chat channels
    • $79 user/month
    • AI-powered knowledge management
    • Self-service portal
    • $99 user/month
    • HIPAA compliance
    • Customizable dashboards

    LiveChat

    Est. 2002 | Poland | WSE:LVC

    Bio

    Manage all emails from customers in one app and save time on customer support. LiveChat is a real-time live-chat software tool for ecommerce sales and support that is helping ecommerce companies create a new sales channel. It serves more than 30,000 businesses in over 150 countries, including large brands like Adobe, Asus, LG, Acer, Better Business Bureau, and Air Asia and startups like SproutSocial, Animoto, and HasOffers.

    Offices

    • Americas: US
    • EMEA: Poland

    LiveChat Representative Customers

    Stated Industry Specializations

    • eCommerce
    • Education
    • Finance
    • Software and IT

    Software Review for LiveChat

    SoftwareReviews’ CSM Midmarket Vendor Ranking
    (out of 8)

    Likeliness to Recommend

    • 1st (93%)

    Plan to Renew

    • 4th (92%)

    Satisfaction That Cost Is Fair Relative to Value

    • 5th (83%)

    Strengths

    • Product Strategy and Rate of Improvement (1st)
    • Usability and Intuitiveness (1st)
    • Breadth of Features (1st)

    Areas to Improve

    • Ease of Implementation (5th)
    • Ease of IT Administration (5th)
    • Ease of Customization (7th)

    LiveChat

    History

    Founded 2002
    2006 50% of company stock bought by Capital Partners.
    2008 Capital Partners sells entire stake to Naspers.
    2011 LiveChat buys back majority of stakeholder shares.
    2013 Listed by Red Herring in group of most innovative companies across Europe.
    2014 Listed on Warsaw Stock Exchange.
    2019 HelpDesk is launched.
    2020 Offered services for free to organizations helping mitigate the pandemic.

    LiveChat’s HelpDesk solution for CSM is a relatively recent solution (2019) that is proving very popular for small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) – especially across Western Europe. SoftwareReviews’ data shows that HelpDesk is well-rated for breadth of features, usability and intuitiveness, and rate of improvement. Indeed, LiveChat has won and been shortlisted for several awards over the past decade for customer feedback, innovation, and fast growth to IPO.

    When shortlisting LiveChat’s HelpDesk, SMBs should be careful of scope creep. LiveChat offers a range of other solutions that are intended to work together. The LiveChat self-titled product is designed to integrate with HelpDesk to provide ticketing, email management, and chat management. Moreover, LiveChat’s AI-based ChatBot (for automated webchat) comes with additional cost (starting at $52 team/month).
    Thomas Randall
    Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

    Team Plan Enterprise
    • $29 user/month.
    • Customized canned responses
    • Real-time reporting
    • Request quote
    • White labelling
    • Product training
    • Account manager

    *Pricing correct as of November 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
    See pricing on vendor’s website for latest information.

    ManageEngine

    Est. 1996 | India | Privately Owned

    Bio

    SupportCenter Plus is a web-based customer support software that lets organizations effectively manage customer tickets, their account and contact information, and their service contracts, and in the process provide a superior customer experience. ManageEngine is a division of Zoho.

    Offices

    • Americas: Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, US
    • APAC: Australia, China, India, Japan, Singapore
    • EMEA: Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, UAE, UK

    ManageEngine Representative Customers

    Stated Industry Specializations

    • None stated but representative customers cover manufacturing, R&D, real estate, and transportation.

    Software Review for ManageEngine

    SoftwareReviews’ CSM Midmarket Vendor Ranking
    (out of 8)

    Likeliness to Recommend

    • 6th (85%)

    Plan to Renew

    • 5th (91%)

    Satisfaction That Cost Is Fair Relative to Value

    • 6th (83%)

    Strengths

    • Ease of Customization (1st)
    • Ease of Implementation (2nd)
    • Ease of IT Administration (2nd)

    Areas to Improve

    • Quality of Features (4th)
    • Usability and Intuitiveness (6th)
    • Availability and Quality of Training (8th)

    ManageEngine

    History

    Founded 1996
    2002 Branches from Zoho to become division focused on IT management.
    2004 Becomes an authorized MySQL Partner.
    2009 Begins shift of offerings into the cloud.
    2010 Tops 35,000 customers.
    2011 Integration with Zoho Assist.
    2015 Integration with Zoho Reports.

    ManageEngine, as a division of Zoho, has its strengths in IT operations management (ITOM). SupportCenter thus scores well in our SoftwareReviews data for ease of customization, implementation, and administration. As ManageEngine is a frequently discussed low-cost vendor in the ITOM market, customers often get good scalability across IT, sales, and marketing teams. Although SupportCenter is aimed at the midmarket and is low cost, organizations have the benefit of ManageEngine’s global presence and backing by Zoho for viability.

    However, because ManageEngine’s focus is ITOM, the breadth and quality of features for SupportCenter are not rated as well compared to its competitors. These features may be “good enough,” but usability and intuitiveness is not scored high. Organizations thinking about SupportCenter are recommended to identify their high-value use cases and perform user acceptance testing before adopting.
    Thomas Randall
    Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

    Standard* Pro* Enterprise*
    • Account and contact management
    • Knowledge base
    • SLA management
    • Customer portal
    • Active Directory integration
    • Reporting and dashboards
    • Billing contracts
    • Live chat
    • APIs
    • Automation tools

    *Pricing unavailable. Request quote.
    See pricing on vendor’s website for latest information.

    Zoho Desk

    Est. 1996 | India | Privately Owned

    Bio

    Use the power of customer context to improve agent productivity, promote self-service, manage cross-functional service processes, and increase customer happiness. Zoho offers beautifully smart software to help you grow your business. With over 80 million users worldwide, Zoho's 55+ products (including Zoho Desk) aid your sales and marketing, support and collaboration, finance, and recruitment needs – letting you focus only on your business.

    Offices

    • Americas: Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, US
    • APAC: Australia, China, India, Japan, Singapore
    • EMEA: Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, UAE, UK

    Zoho Desk Representative Customers

    Stated Industry Specializations

    • Covers an extremely wide range of industries, such as finance, education, government, healthcare, manufacturing, and retail.

    Software Review for Zoho Desk

    SoftwareReviews’ CSM Midmarket Vendor Ranking
    (out of 8)

    Likeliness to Recommend

    • 2nd (90%)

    Plan to Renew

    • 2nd (98%)

    Satisfaction That Cost Is Fair Relative to Value

    • 3rd (83%)

    Strengths

    • Breadth of Features (2nd)
    • Quality of Features (3rd)
    • Ease of Implementation (3rd)

    Areas to Improve

    • Business Value Created (5th)
    • Ease of Data Integration (5th)
    • Product Strategy and Rate of Improvements (5th)

    Zoho Desk

    History

    Founded 1996
    2001 Expands into Japan and shifts focus to SMBs.
    2006 Zoho CRM is launched, alongside first Office suite.
    2008 Reaches 1M users.
    2009 Rebrands from AdventNet to Zoho Corp.
    2011 Zoho Desk is built and launched.
    2017 Zoho One, a suite of applications, is launched.
    2020 Reaches 50M users.

    Zoho Desk is one of the highest scoring CSM tool providers for likelihood to renew and recommend (98% and 90%, respectively). A major reason is that users receive a broad range of functionality for a lower-cost price model. There is also the capacity to scale with Zoho Desk as midmarket customers expand; companies can grow with Zoho and can receive high return on investment in the process.

    However, while Zoho Desk can be used as a standalone CSM tool, there is danger of scope creep with other Zoho products. Zoho now has 50+ applications, all tied into one another. For Zoho Desk, customers may also lean into Zoho Assist (for troubleshooting customer problems via remote access) and Zoho Lens (for reality-based remote assistance, typically for plant machinery or servers). Consequently, customers should keep an eye on business value created if the scope of CSM grows wider.
    Thomas Randall
    Research Director, Info-Tech Research Group

    Standard Pro Enterprise
    • $14 user/month
    • 1 social media channel
    • 5 workflow rules
    • $23 user/month
    • Telephony channel
    • Round-robin ticket assignment
    • Ticket sharing
    • $40 user/month
    • Live chat
    • Contract management SLAs

    *Pricing correct as of November 2022. Listed in USD and absent discounts.
    See pricing on vendor’s website for latest information.

    Summary of AccomplishmentSuccessful selection of a CSM tool

    In this trends and buyer’s guide for CSM tool selection, we engaged in several activities to:

    1. Contextualize the CSM technology marketspace.
    2. Engage in a selection process for CSM tools.

    The result:

    • Understanding of key trends and differentiating features in the CSM marketspace.
    • Determination of your organization’s customer service maturity (and thus if a standalone CSM tool is relevant).
    • Identification of high-value use cases that CSM tools should successfully enable.
    • Evaluation of major vendors in the CSM marketspace to discover the best-fitting provider.
    • Procurement items to finalize selection process.

    If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through an Info-Tech workshop or Guided Implementation

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

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Governance and Management of Enterprise Software Implementation

    • Being Agile will increase the likelihood of success.

    The Rapid Application Selection Framework

    • Application selection is a critical activity for IT departments. Implement a repeatable, data-driven approach that accelerates application selection efforts.

    Build a Strong Technology Foundation for Customer Experience Management

    • Design an end-to-end technology strategy to drive sales revenue, enhance marketing effectiveness, and create compelling experiences for your customers.

    Bibliography

    Capers, Zach. “How the Pandemic Changed Customer Attitudes Toward Biometric Technology.” GetApp, 21 Feb. 2022. Accessed Nov. 2022.

    Gomez, Jenny. “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: A History of Customer Service.” Lucidworks, 15 Jul. 2021. Accessed Nov. 2022.

    Hoory. “History of Customer Service: How Did It All Begin?” Hoory, 24 Mar. 2022. Accessed Nov. 2022.

    Patel, Snigdha. “Top 10 Customer Service Technology Trends to Follow in 2022.” Reve Chat, 21 Feb. 2021. Accessed Nov. 2022.

    RingCentral. “The 2020 Customer Communications Review: A Survey of How Consumers Prefer to Communicate with Businesses.” RingCentral, 2020. Accessed Nov. 2022.

    Robinson-Yu, Sarah. “What is a Knowledgebase? How Can It Help my Business?” Vanilla, 25 Feb. 2022. Accessed Nov. 2022.

    Salesforce. “The Complete History of CRM.” Salesforce, n.d. Accessed Nov. 2022.

    Salesforce. “State of the Connected Customer.” 5th ed. Salesforce, 2022. Accessed Nov. 2022.

    Sprinklr. “How AzkoNobel UK Reduced Response Times and Increased Engagement.” Sprinklr, 2021. Accessed Nov. 2022.

    Vermes, Krystle. “Study: 70% of Marketers Using Advanced Personalization Seeing 200% ROI.” KoMarketing, 2 Jun. 2020. Accessed Nov. 2022.

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Colin Taylor, CEO, The Taylor Research Group

    Colin Taylor
    CEO
    The Taylor Reach Group

    Recognized as one of the leading contact/call center pioneers and experts, Colin has received 30 awards on two continents for excellence in contact center management and has been acknowledged as a leader and influencer on the topics of call/contact centers, customer service, and customer experience, in published rankings on Huffington Post, Call Center Helper, and MindShift. Colin was recognized as number 6 in the global 100 for customer service.

    The Taylor Reach Group is a contact center, call center and customer experience (CX) consultancy specializing in CX consulting and call and contact center consulting, management, performance, technologies, site selection, tools, training development and center leadership training, center audits, benchmarking, and assessments.

    David Thomas, Customer Service Specialist, Freedom Mobile

    David Thomas
    Customer Service Specialist
    Freedom Mobile

    David Thomas has both managerial and hands-on experience with delivering quality service to Freedom Mobile customers. With several years being involved in training customer support and being at the forefront of retail during the pandemic, David has witnessed first-hand how to incentivize staff with the right metrics that create positive experiences for both staff and customers.

    Freedom Mobile Inc. is a Canadian wireless telecommunications provider owned by Shaw Communications. It has 6% market share of Canada, mostly in urban areas of Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta. Freedom Mobile is the fourth-largest wireless carrier in Canada.

    A special thanks to three other anonymous contributors, all based in customer support and contact center roles for Canada’s National Park Booking Systems’ software provider.

    Sprint Toward Data-Driven Culture Using DataOps

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}199|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $10,399 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 9 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Enterprise Integration
    • Parent Category Link: /enterprise-integration
    • Data teams do not have a mechanism to integrate with operations teams and operate in a silo.
    • Significant delays in the operationalization of analytical/algorithms due to lack of standards and a clear path to production.
    • Raw data is shared with end users and data scientists due to poor management of data, resulting in more time spent on integration and less on insight generation and analytics.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Data and analytics teams need a clear mechanism to separate data exploratory work and repetitive data insights generation. Lack of such separation is the main cause of significant delays, inefficiencies, and frustration for data initiatives.
    • Access to data and exploratory data analytics is critical. However, the organization must learn to share insights and reuse analytics.
    • Once analytics finds wider use in the organization, they need to adopt a disciplined approach to ensure its quality and continuous integration in the production environment.

    Impact and Result

    • Use a metrics-driven approach and common framework across silos to enable the rapid development of data initiatives using Agile principles.
    • Implement an approach that allows business, data, and operation teams to collaboratively work together to provide a better customer experience.
    • Align DataOps to an overall data management and governance program that promotes collaboration, transparency, and empathy across teams, establishes the appropriate roles and responsibilities, and ensures alignment to a common set of goals.
    • Assess the current maturity of the data operations teams and implement a roadmap that considers the necessary competencies and capabilities and their dependencies in moving towards the desired DataOps target state.

    Sprint Toward Data-Driven Culture Using DataOps Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to understand the operational challenges associated with productizing the organization's data-related initiative. Review Info-Tech’s methodology for enabling the improved practice to operationalize data analytics and how we will support you in creating an agile data environment.

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

    1. Discover benefits of DataOps

    Understand the benefits of DataOps and why organizations are looking to establish agile principles in their data practice, the challenges associated with doing so, and what the new DataOps strategy needs to be successful.

    • Sprint Toward Data-Driven Culture Using DataOps – Phase 1: Discover Benefits of DataOps

    2. Assess your data practice for DataOps

    Analyze DataOps using Info-Tech’s DataOps use case framework, to help you identify the gaps in your data practices that need to be matured to truly realize DataOps benefits including data integration, data security, data quality, data engineering, and data science.

    • Sprint Toward Data-Driven Culture Using DataOps – Phase 2: Assess Your Data Practice for DataOps
    • DataOps Roadmap Tool

    3. Mature your DataOps practice

    Mature your data practice by putting in the right people in the right roles and establishing DataOps metrics, communication plan, DataOps best practices, and data principles.

    • Sprint Toward Data-Driven Culture Using DataOps – Phase 3: Mature Your DataOps Practice
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Sprint Toward Data-Driven Culture Using DataOps

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

    1 Identify the Drivers of the Business for DataOps

    The Purpose

    Understand the DataOps approach and value proposition.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A clear understanding of organization data priorities and metrics along with a simplified view of data using Info-Tech’s Onion framework.

    Activities

    1.1 Explain DataOps approach and value proposition.

    1.2 Review the common business drivers and how the organization is driving a need for DataOps.

    1.3 Understand Info-Tech’s DataOps Framework.

    Outputs

    Organization's data priorities and metrics

    Data Onion framework

    2 Assess DataOps Maturity in Your Organization

    The Purpose

    Assess the DataOps maturity of the organization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Define clear understanding of organization’s DataOps capabilities.

    Activities

    2.1 Assess current state.

    2.2 Develop target state summary.

    2.3 Define DataOps improvement initiatives.

    Outputs

    Current state summary

    Target state summary

    3 Develop Action Items and Roadmap to Establish DataOps

    The Purpose

    Establish clear action items and roadmap.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Define clear and measurable roadmap to mature DataOps within the organization.

    Activities

    3.1 Continue DataOps improvement initiatives.

    3.2 Document the improvement initiatives.

    3.3 Develop a roadmap for DataOps practice.

    Outputs

    DataOps initiatives roadmap

    4 Plan for Continuous Improvement

    The Purpose

    Define a plan for continuous improvements.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Continue to improve DataOps practice.

    Activities

    4.1 Create target cross-functional team structures.

    4.2 Define DataOps metrics for continuous monitoring.

    4.3 Create a communication plan.

    Outputs

    DataOps cross-functional team structure

    DataOps metrics

    Navigate the Digital ID Ecosystem to Enhance Customer Experience

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}76|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: N/A
    • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
    • member rating average days saved: N/A
    • Parent Category Name: IT Strategy
    • Parent Category Link: /it-strategy
    • Amid the pandemic-fueled surge in online services, organizations require secure solutions to safeguard digital interactions. These solutions must be uniform, interoperable, and fortified against security threats.
    • Although the digital identity ecosystem has garnered significant attention and investment, many organizations remain uncertain about its potential for authentication and the authorization required for B2B and B2C transactions, and in turn reducing their cost of operations and transferring their data risks.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Limited / lack of understanding of the global digital ID ecosystem and its varying approaches across countries handicaps businesses in defining the benefits digital ID can bring to customer interactions and overall business management.
    • In addition, key obstacles exist in balancing customer privacy, data security, and regulatory requirements while pursuing excellent end-user experience and high customer adoption.
    • Info-Tech Insight: Focusing on customer touchpoints and transforming them are key to excellent experience and increasing their life-time value (LTV) to them and to your organization. Digital ID is that tool of transformation.

    Impact and Result

    • Digital ID has many dimensions, and its ecosystem's sustainability lies in the key principles it is built on. Understanding the digital identity ecosystem and its responsibilities is crucial to formulating an approach to adopt it. Also, focusing on key success factors drives digital ID adoption.
    • Before embarking on the digital identity adoption journey, it is essential to assess your readiness. It is also necessary to understand the risks and challenges. Specific steps to digital ID adoption can help realize the potential of digital identity and enhance the customers' experience.

    Navigate the Digital ID Ecosystem to Enhance Customer Experience Research & Tools

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

    1. Navigate the Digital ID Ecosystem to Enhance Customer Experience Storyboard – Learn how to adopt Digital ID to drive benefits, enhance customer experience, improve efficiency, manage data risks, and uncover new opportunities.

    This research focuses on verified digital identity ecosystems and explores risks, opportunities, and challenges of relying on verified digital IDs and also how adopting digital identity initiatives can improve customer experience and operational efficiency. It covers:

  • Definition and dimensions of digital identity
  • Key responsibilities and principles of digital identity ecosystem
  • Success factors for digital identity adoption
  • Global evolution and unique approaches in Estonia, India, Canada, UK, and Australia
  • Industries that benefit most from digital ID development
  • Key use cases of digital ID
  • Benefits to governments, ID providers, ID consumers, and end users
  • Readiness checklist and ten steps to digital ID adoption
  • Risks and challenges of digital identity adoption
  • Key recommendations to realize potential of digital identity
  • Taxonomy and definitions of terms in the digital identity ecosystem
    • Navigate the Digital ID Ecosystem to Enhance Customer Experience Storyboard
    • Familiarize Yourself With the Digital ID Ecosystem Taxonomy
    • Assess Your Digital ID Adoption Readiness

    Infographic

    Further reading

    Navigate the Digital ID Ecosystem to Enhance Customer Experience

    Beyond the hype: How it can help you become more customer-focused?

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Common Obstacles

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    Amid the pandemic-fueled surge of online services, organizations require secure solutions to safeguard digital interactions. These solutions must be uniform, interoperable, and fortified against security threats.

    Although the digital identity ecosystem has garnered significant attention and investment, many organizations remain uncertain about its potential for authentication and authorization required for B2B and B2C transactions.

    They still wonder if digital ID can help reduce cost of operations and transfer data risks.

    Limited or lack of understanding of the global Digital ID ecosystem and its varying approaches across countries handicap businesses in defining the potential benefits Digital ID can bring to customer interactions and overall business management.

    In addition, key obstacles exist in balancing customer privacy (including the right to be forgotten), data security, and regulatory requirements while pursuing desired end-user experience and high customer adoption.

    Digital ID has many dimensions, and its ecosystem's sustainability lies in the key principles it is built on. Understanding the digital identity ecosystem and its responsibilities is crucial to formulate an approach to adopt it. Also, focusing on key success factors drives digital ID adoption.

    Before embarking on the digital identity adoption journey, it is essential to assess your readiness. It is also necessary to understand the risks and challenges. Specific steps to digital ID adoption can help realize the potential of digital identity and enhance the customers' experience.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Focusing on customer touchpoints and transforming them is key to excellent user experience and increasing their lifetime value (LTV) to them and to your organization. Digital ID is that tool of transformation.

    Analyst Perspective

    Manish Jain.

    Manish Jain

    Principal Research Director

    Analyst Profile

    “I just believed. I believed that the technology would change people's lives. I believed putting real identity online - putting technology behind real identity - was the missing link.”

    - Sheryl Sandberg (Brockes, Emma. “Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg: who are you calling bossy?” The Guardian, 5 April 2014)

    Sometimes dismissed as mere marketing gimmicks, digital identity initiatives are anything but. While some argue that any online credential is a "Digital ID," rendering the hype around it pointless, the truth is that a properly built digital ID ecosystem has the power to transform laggard economies into global digital powerhouses. Moreover, digital IDs can help businesses transfer some of their cybersecurity risks and unlock new revenue channels by enabling a foundation for secure and efficient value delivery.

    In addition, digital identity is crucial for digital and financial inclusion, simplifying onboarding processes and opening up new opportunities for previously underserved populations. For example, in India, the Aadhaar digital ID ecosystem brought over 481 million1 people into the formal economy by enabling access to financial services. Similarly, in Indonesia, the e-KIP digital ID program paved the way for 10 million new bank accounts, 94% of which were for women2.

    However, digital identity initiatives also come with valid concerns, such as the risk of a single point of failure and the potential to widen the digital divide.

    This research focuses on the verified digital identity ecosystem, exploring the risks, opportunities, and challenges organizations face relying on these verified digital IDs to know their customers before delivering value. By understanding and adopting digital identity initiatives, organizations can unlock their full potential and provide a seamless customer experience while ensuring operational efficiency.

    1 India Aadhaar PMJDY (https://pmjdy.gov.in/account)
    2 Women’s World Banking, 2020.

    Digital Identity Ecosystem and vital ingredients of adoption

    Digital Identity Ecosystem.

    What is digital identity?

    Definitions may vary, depending on the focus.

    “Digital identity (ID) is a set of attributes that links a physical person with their online interactions. Digital ID refers to one’s online persona - an online footprint. It touches important aspects of one’s everyday life, from financial services to health care and beyond.” - DIACC Canada

    “Digital identity is a digital representation of a person. It enables them to prove who they are during interactions and transactions. They can use it online or in person.” - UK Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework

    “Digital identity is an electronic representation of an entity (person or other entity such as a business) and it allows people and other entities to be recognized online.” - Australia Trusted Digital Identity Framework

    A digital identity is primarily an electronic form of identity representing an entity uniquely , while abstracting all other identity attributes of the entity. In addition to an electronic form, it may also exist in a physical form (identity certificate), linked through an identifier representing the same entity.

    Digital identity has many dimensions*, and in turn categories

    Trust

    • Verified (Govt. issued IDs)
    • Unverified (Email Id)

    Subject

    • Individual
    • Organization
    • Device
    • Service

    Usability

    • Single-purpose (Disposable)
    • Multi-purpose (Reusable)

    Provider

    • Sovereign Government
    • Provincial Government
    • Local Government
    • Public Organization
    • Private Organization
    • Self

    Jurisdiction

    • Global (Passport)
    • National (DL)
    • State/Provincial (Health Card)
    • Local (Voting Card)
    • Private (Social)

    Form

    • Physical Card
    • Virtual Identifier
    • Online/App Account
    • PKI Keys
    • Tokens

    Governance

    • Sovereign
    • Federated
    • Decentralized
    • Trust Framework -based
    • Self-sovereign

    Expiry

    • Permanent (Lifetime, Years)
    • Temporary (Minutes, Hours)
    • Revocable

    Usage Mode

    • online only
    • offline only
    • Online/offline

    Purpose

    • Authorization (driver’s license, passport, employment)
    • Authentication (birth certificate, social security number)
    • Activity Linking (preferences, habits, and priorities)
    • Historical Record (Resume, educational financial, health history)
    • Social Interactions (Social Media)
    • Machine Connectivity

    Info-Tech Insight

    Digital ID has taken different meanings for different people, serving different purposes in different environments. Based on various aspects of Digital Identification, it can be categorized in several types. However, most of the time when people refer to a form of identification as Digital ID, they refer to a verified id with built-in trust either from the government OR the eco-system.

    * Please refer to Taxonomy for the definition of each of the dimensions

    Understanding a digital identity ecosystem is key to formulating your approach to adopt it

    The image contains a screenshot of a digital identity ecosystem diagram.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Digital identity ecosystems comprise many entities playing different roles, and sometimes more than one. In addition, variations in approach by jurisdictions drive how many active players are in the ecosystem for that jurisdiction.

    For example, in countries like Estonia and India, government plays the role of trust and governance authority as well as ID provider, but didn’t start with any Digital ID wallet. In contrast, in Ukraine, Diia App is primarily a Digital ID Wallet. Similarly, in the US, different states are adopting private Digital ID Wallet providers like Apple.

    Digital ID ecosystem’s sustainability lies in the key principles it is built on

    Social, economic, and legal alignment with target stakeholders
    Transparent governance and operation
    Legally auditable and enforceable
    Robust and Resilient – High availability
    Security – At rest, in progress, and in transit
    Privacy and Control with users
    Omni-channel Convenience – User and Operations
    Minimum data transfer between entities
    Technical interoperability enabled through open standards and protocol
    Scalable and interoperable at policy level
    Cost effective – User and operations
    Inclusive and accessible

    Info-Tech Insight

    A transparent, resilient, and auditable digital ID system must be aligned with socio-economic realities of the target stakeholders. It not only respects their privacy and security of their data by minimizing the data transfer between entities, but also drives desired customer experience by providing an omni-channel, interoperable, scalable, and inclusive ecosystem while still being cost-effective for the collaborators.

    Source: Adapted from Canada PCTF, UK Trust framework, European Commission, Australia TDIF, and others

    Focus on key success factors to drive the digital ID adoption

    Digital ID success factors

    Legislative regulatory framework – Removes uncertainty
    Security & Privacy Assurance- builds trust
    Smooth user experience – Drives preferences
    Transparent ecosystem – Drives inclusivity
    Multi-channel – Drive consistent experience online / offline
    Inter-operability thorough open standards
    Digital literacy – Education and awareness
    Multi-purpose & reusable – Reduce consumer burden
    Collaborative ecosystem –Build network effect

    Source: Adapted from Canada PCTF, UK digital identity & attributes trust framework , European eIDAS, and others

    Info-Tech Insight

    Driving adoption of Digital ID requires affirmative actions from all ecosystem players including governing authorities, identity providers, and identity consumers (relying parties).

    These nine success factors can help drive sustainable adoption of the Digital ID.

    Among many responsibilities the ecosystem players have, identity governance is the key to sustainability

    • Digital identity provision
      • Creating identity attributes
      • Create a reusable identity and attribute service
      • Create a digital identity
      • Assess and manage quality of an identity and attributes
      • Making identity provision inclusive and accessible
    • Digital identity resolution
      • Enabling inclusive access to products and services through digital identity
      • Authenticate and authorize identity subjects before permitting access to their identity and attributes
    • Digital identity governance
      • Manage digital identity and attributes
      • Make Identity service interoperable, and sharable
      • Recover digital identity and attribute accounts
      • Notifying users on accessing identity or making changes on more attributes
      • Report and audit – exclusion, accessibility
      • Retiring an identity or attribute service
      • Respond to complaints and disputes
    • Enterprise risk management and governance
    The image contains a screenshot of a diagram to demonstrate how identity governance is the key to sustainability.
    • Privacy and security
      • Use encryption
      • Privacy compliance framework
      • Consumer Privacy Protection laws (CPPA, GDPR etc.)
      • Acquiring and managing user consents & agreements
      • Prohibited processing of personal data
      • Security controls and governance
    • Information management
      • Record management
      • Archival
      • Disposal (on expiry or to comply with regulations)
      • CIA (confidentiality, integrity, availability)
    • Fraud management
      • Fraud monitoring and reporting
      • Fraud intelligence and analysis
      • Sharing threat indicators
      • Legal, policies and procedures for fraud management
    • Incident response
      • Respond to fraud incidents
      • Respond to a service delivery incident
      • Responding to data breaches
      • Performing and participating in investigation

    Global evolution of digital ID is following the socio-economic aspirations of countries

    The image contains a screenshot of a graph that demonstrates global evolution of digital ID.

    Source: Adapted from the book: Identification Revolution: Can Digital ID be harnessed for Development? (Gelb & Metz), 2018

    Info-Tech Insight

    The world became global a long time ago; however, it sustained economic progress without digital IDs for most of the world's population.

    With the pandemic, when political rhetoric pointed to the demand for localized supply chains, economies became irreversibly digital. In this digital economy, the digital ID ecosystem is the fulcrum of sustainable growth.

    At a time in overlapping jurisdictions, multiple digital IDs can exist. For example, one is issued by a local municipality, one by the province, and another by the national government.

    Global footprint of digital ID is evolving rapidly, but varies in approach

    The image contains a screenshot of a Global footprint of digital ID.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Countries’ approach to the digital ID is rooted in their socio-economic environment and global aspirations.

    Emerging economies with large underserved populations prioritize fast implementation of digital ID through centralized systems.

    Developed economies with smaller populations, low trust in government, and established ID systems prioritize developing trust frameworks to drive decentralized full-scale implementation.

    There is no right way except the one which follows Digital ID principles and aligns with a country’s and its people’s aspirations.

    Estonia's e-identity is the key to its digital agenda 2030

    • Regulatory Body and Operational Governance: Estonian Information System Authority (RIA).
    • Identity Providers: Government of Estonia; Private sector doesn’t issue IDs but can leverage Digital ID ecosystem.
    • Decentralized Approach: Permissioned Blockchain Architecture with built-in data traceability implemented on KSI (Keyless Signature Infrastructure).
    • X-Road – Secure, interoperable open-source data exchange platform between collection point where Data is stored.
    • Digital Identity Form: e-ID
    • Key Use cases:
      • Financial, Telecom: e-KYC, e-Banking
      • Digital Authentication: ID Card, Mobile ID, Smart ID, Digital Signatures
      • E-governance: e-Voting, e-Residency, e-Services Registries, e-Business Register
      • Smart City and mobility: Freight Transportation, Passenger Mobility
      • Healthcare: e-Health Record, e-Prescription, e-Ambulance
    • ID-card
    • Smart ID
    • Mobile ID
    • e-Residency

    Uniqueness

    Estonia pioneered the digital ID implementation with a centralized approach and later transitioned to a decentralized ecosystem driving trust to attract non-citizens into Estonia’s digital economy.

    99% Of Estonian residents have an ID card enabling use of electronic ID

    1.4 B Digital signatures given (2021)

    99% Public Services available as e-Services

    17K+ Productive years saved (five working days/citizen/year saved accessing public services)

    25K E-resident companies contributed more than €32 million in tax

    *Source: https://e-estonia.com/wp-content/uploads/e-estonia-211022_eng.pdf ;

    https://www.e-resident.gov.ee/dashboard

    The image contains a timeline of events from 2001-2020 for Estonia..

    India’s Aadhaar is the foundation of its digital journey through “India stack”

    • Regulatory Accountability and Operational Governance: Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
    • Identity Provider: Govt. of India.
    • Digital Identity Form: Physical and electronic ID Card; Online (Identifier + OTP), and offline (identifier + biometric) usage; mAadhaar App & Web Portal
    • India Stack: a set of open APIs and digital assets to leverage Aadhaar in identity, data, and payments at scale.
    • Key Use cases:
      • Financial, Telecom: eKYC, Unified Payments Interface (UPI)
      • Digital Wallet: Digi Locker
      • Digital Authentication: eSign, and Aadhaar Auth.
      • Public Welfare: Public Distribution of Service, Social Pension, Employment Guarantee
      • Public service access: Enrollment to School, Healthcare

    1.36B People enrolled

    80% Beneficiaries feel Aadhaar has made PDS, employment guarantee and social pensions more reliable

    91.6% Are very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with Aadhaar

    14B eKYC transactions done by 218 eKYC authentication agencies (KUA)

    Source: https://uidai.gov.in/aadhaar_dashboard/india.php; https://www.stateofaadhaar.in/

    World Bank Report on Private Sector Impacts from ID

    Uniqueness

    “The Aadhaar digital identity system could reduce onboarding costs for Indian firms from 1,500 rupees to as low as an estimated 10 rupees.”

    -World Bank Report on Private Sector Impacts from ID

    With lack of public trust in private sector, government brought in private sector executives in public ecosystem to lead the largest identity program globally and build the India stack to leverage the power of Digital Identity.

    The image contains a screenshot of India's Aadhaar timeline from 2009-2022.

    Ukraine’s Diia is a resilient act to preserve their identities during threat to their existence

    Regulatory Accountability and Operational Governance: Ministry of Digital Transformation.

    Identity provider: Federated govt. agencies.

    Digital identity form: Diia App & Portal as a digital wallet for all IDs including digital driving license.

    • Key use cases:
      • eGovernance – Issuing license and permits, business registration, vaccine certificates.
      • Public communication: air-raid alerts, notifications, court decisions and fines.
      • Financial, Telecom: KYC compliance, mobile donations.
      • eBusiness: Diia City legal framework for IT industry, Diia Business Portal for small and medium businesses.
      • Digital sharing and authentication: Diia signature and Diia QR.
      • Public service access: Diia Education Portal for digital education and digital skills development, healthcare.

    18.5M People downloaded the Diia app.

    14 Digital IDs provided by other ID providers are available through Diia.

    70 Government services are available through Diia.

    ~1M Private Entrepreneurs used Diia to register their companies.

    1300 Tons of paper estimated to be saved by reducing paper applications for new IDs and replacements.

    Source:

    • Ukraine Govt. Website for Invest and trade
    • Diia Case study prepared for the office of Canadian senator colin deacon.

    Uniqueness

    “One of the reasons for the Diia App's popularity is its focus on user experience. In September 2022, the Diia App simplified 25 public services and digitized 16 documents. The Ministry of Digital Transformation aims to make 100% of all public services available online by 2024.”

    - Vladyslava Aleksenko

    Project Lead—digital Identity, Ukraine

    The image contains a screenshot of the timeline for Diia.

    Canada’s PCTF (Pan Canadian Trust Framework) driving the federated digital identity ecosystem

    • Regulatory Accountability: Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS); Canadian Digital Service (CDS); Office of CIO
    • Standard Setting: Digital Identification and Authentication Council of Canada (DIACC)
    • Frameworks:
      • Treasury Board Directive on Identity Management
      • Pan Canadian Trust Framework (PCTF)
      • Voilà Verified Trustmark Program: ISO aligned compliance certification program on PCTF
      • Governing / Certificate Authority: Trustmark Oversight Board (TOB) and DIACC accredited assessor
      • Operational Governance: Federated between identity providers and identity consumers
      • Identity Providers: Public and Private Sector
      • Other entities involved: Digital ID Lab (Voila Verified Auditor); Kuma (Accredited Assessor)
    The image contains a screenshot of PCTF Components.

    82% People supportive of Digital ID.

    2/3 Canadians prefer public-private partnership for Pan-Canadian digital ID framework.

    >40% Canadians prefer completing various tasks and transactions digitally.

    75% Canadians are willing to share personal information for better experience.

    >80% Trust government, healthcare providers, and financial institutions with their personal information.

    Source: DIACC Survey 2021

    Uniqueness

    Although a few provinces in Canada started their Digital ID journey already, federally, Canada lacked an approach.

    Now Canada is developing a federated Digital ID ecosystem driven through the Pan-Canadian Trust Framework (PCTF) led by a non-profit (DIACC) formed with public and private partnership.

    The image contains a screenshot of Canada's PCTF timeline from 2002-2025.

    Australia’s digital id is pivotal to its vision to become one of the Top-3 digital governments globally by 2025*

    * Australia Digital Government Strategy 2021
    • Regulatory responsibility and standard: Digital Transformation Agency (DTA)’s Digital Identity
    • Operational support and oversight: Service Australia, Interim Oversight Authority (IOA).
    • Accredited identity providers (by 2022): Australian Taxation Office (ATO)’s myGovID, Australia Post’s Digital ID, MasterCard’s ID, OCR Labs App
    • Framework: Trusted Digital Identity Framework (TDIF)
      • Digital Identity Exchange
      • Identity Service Providers and Attribute Verification Service
      • Attribute Service Providers
      • Credential Service Providers
      • Relying Parties
    • Others: States such as NSW, Victoria, and Queensland have their own digital identity programs

    8.6M People using myGovID by Jun-2022

    117 Services accessible through Digital Id System

    The image contains a screenshot diagram of Digital Identity.

    Uniqueness

    Australia started its journey of Digital ID with a centralized Digital ID ecosystem.

    However, now it preparing to transition to a centrally governed Trust framework-based ecosystem expanding to private sector.

    The image contains a screenshot of Australia's Digital id timeline from 2014-2022.

    UK switches gear to the Trust Framework approach to build a public-private digital ID ecosystem

    • Government: Ministry of Digital Infrastructure / Department of Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport
    • Governing Body / Certificate Authority / Operational Governance: TBD
    • Approach: Trust Framework-based UK Digital Identity and attributes trust framework (UKDIATF)
    • Identity providers: Transitioning from “GOV.UK Verify” to a federated digital identity system aligned with “Trust Framework” – enabling both government (“One Login for Government”) and private sector identity providers.
    The image contains a screenshot of the Trust Framework.

    Uniqueness

    UK embarked its Digital ID journey through Gov.UK Verify but decided to scrap it recently.

    It is now preparing to build a trust framework-based federated digital ID ecosystem with roles like schema-owners and orchestration service providers for private sector and drive the collaboration between industry players.

    The image contains a screenshot of UK timeline from 2011-2023.

    Digital ID will transform all industries, though financial services and e-governance will gain most

    Cross Industry

    Financial Services

    Insurance

    E-governance

    Healthcare & Lifesciences

    Travel and Tourism

    E-Commerce

    • Onboarding (customer, employee, patient, etc.)
    • Fraud-prevention (identity theft)
    • Availing restricted services (buying liquor)
    • Secure-sharing of credentials and qualifications (education, experience, gig worker)
    • For businesses, customer 360
    • For businesses, reliable data-driven decision making with lower frequency of ‘astroturfing’ (false identities) and ‘ballot-stuffing’ (duplicate identities)
    • Account opening
    • Asset transfer
    • Payments
    • For businesses, risk management - know your customer (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML), customer due diligence (CDD)
    • Insurance history
    • Insurance claim
    • Public distribution schemes (PDS)
    • Subsidy payments (direct to consumer)
    • Obtain government benefits (maternity, pension, employment guarantee / insurance payments)
    • Tax filing
    • Issuing credentials (birth certificate, passport)
    • Voting
    • For businesses, availing governments supports
    • For SMB businesses, easier regulatory compliance
    • Digital health
    • Out of state public healthcare
    • Secure access to health and diagnostic records
    • For businesses, data sharing between providers and with payers
    • Travel booking
    • Cross-border travel
    • Car rental
    • Secure peer-to-peer sales
    • Secure peer-to-peer sales

    USE CASE

    Car rental

    INDUSTRY: Travel & Tourism

    Source: Info-Tech Research Group

    Challenge

    Solution

    Results

    Verifying the driver’s license (DL) is the first step a car rental company takes before handing over the keys.

    While the rental company only need to know the validity of the DL and if it belongs to the presenter, is bears the liability of much more data presented to them through the DL.

    For customers, it is impossible to rent a car if they forget their DL. If the customer has their driver’s license, they compromise their privacy and security as they hand over their license to the representative.

    The process is not only time consuming, it also creates unnecessary risks to both the business and the renter.

    A digital id-based rental process allows the renter to present the digital id online or in person.

    As the customer approaches the car rental they present their digital id on the mobile app, which has already authenticated the presenter though the biometrics or other credentials.

    The customer selects the purpose of the business as “Car Rental”, and only the customer’s name, photo, and validity of the DL appear on the screen for the representative to see (selective disclosures).

    If the car pick-up is online, only this information is shared with the car rental company, which in turn shares the car and key location with the renter.

    A digital identity-based identity verification can ensure a rental company has access to the minimum data it needs to comply with local laws, which in turn reduces its data leak risk.

    It also reduces customer risks linked to forgetting the DL, and data privacy.

    Digital identity also reduces the risk originated from identity fraud leading to stolen cars.

    USE CASE

    e-Governance public distribution service

    INDUSTRY: Government

    Source: Info-Tech Research Group

    Challenge

    Solution

    Results

    In both emerging and developed economies, public distribution of resources – food, subsidies, or cash – is a critical process through which many people (especially from marginalized sections) survive on.

    They often either don’t have required valid proof of identity or fall prey to low-level corruption when someone defrauds them by claiming the benefit.

    As a result, they either completely miss out on claiming government-provided social benefits OR only receive a part of what they are eligible for.

    A Digital ID based public distribution can help created a Direct Benefit Transfer ecosystem.

    Here beneficiaries register (manually OR automatically from other government records) for the benefits they are eligible for.

    On the specific schedule, they receive their benefit – monetary benefit in their bank accounts, and non-cash benefits, in person from authorized points-of-sales (POS), without any middleman with discretionary decision powers on the distribution.

    India launched its Financial Inclusion Program (Prime Minister's Public Finance Scheme) in 2014.

    The program was linked with India’s Digital Id Aadhaar to smoothen the otherwise bureaucratic and discretionary process for opening a bank account.

    In last eight years, ~481M (Source: PMJDY) beneficiaries have opened a bank account and deposited ~ ₹1.9Trillion (USD$24B), a part of which came as social benefits directly deposited to these accounts from the government of India.

    USE CASE

    Real-estate investment and sale

    INDUSTRY: Asset Management

    Source: Info-Tech Research Group

    Challenge

    Solution

    Results

    “Impersonators posing as homeowners linked to 32 property fraud cases in Ontario and B.C.” – Global News Canada1

    “The level of fraud in the UK is such that it is now a national security threat” – UK Finance Lobby Group2

    Real estate is the most expensive investment people make in their lives. However, lately it has become a soft target for title fraud. Fraudsters steal the title to one’s home and sell it or apply for a new mortgage against it.

    At the root cause of these fraud are usually identity theft when a fraudster steals someone’s identity and impersonates them as the title owner.

    Digital identity tagged to the home ownership / title record can reduce the identity fraud in title transfer.

    When a person wants to sell their house OR apply for a new mortgage on house, multiple notifications will be triggered to their contact attributes on digital ID – phone, email, postal address, and digital ID Wallet, if applicable.

    The homeowner will be mandated to authorize the transaction on at least two channels they had set as preferred, to ensure that the transaction has the consent of the registered homeowner.

    This process will stop any fraud transactions until at least two modes are compromised.

    Even if two modes are compromised, the real homeowner will receive the notification on offline communication modes, and they can then alert the institution or lawyer to block the transaction.

    It will especially help elderly people, who are more prone to fall prey to identity frauds when somebody uses their IDs to impersonate them.

    1 Global News (https://globalnews.ca/news/9437913/homeowner-impersonators-lined-32-fraud-cases-ontario-bc/)

    2 UK Finance Lobby Group (https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/system/files/Half-year-fraud-update-2021-FINAL.pdf)

    Adopting digital ID benefits everybody – governments, id providers, id consumers, and end users

    Governments & identity providers

    (public & private)

    Customers and end users

    (subjects)

    Identity consumer

    (relying parties)

    • Growth in GDP
    • Save costs of providing identity
    • Unlock new revenue source by economic expansion
    • Choice and convenience
    • Control of what data is shared
    • Experience driven by simplicity and data minimalization
    • Reduced cost of availing services
    • Operational efficiency
    • Overall cost efficiency of delivering service and products
    • Reduce risk of potential litigation
    • Reduce risk of fraud
    • Enhanced customer experience leading to increased lifetime value
    • Streamlined storage and access
    • Encourage innovation

    Digital ID will transform all industries, though financial services and e-governance will gain most

    Governments and identity providers (public and private)

    • Growth in GDP by reducing bureaucracy and discretion from the governance processes.
      • As per a McKinsey report, digital ID could unlock the economic value equivalent of 3%-13% of GDP across seven focus countries (Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, China, UK, USA) in 2030.
      • “Estonia saves two percent of GDP by signing things digitally; imagine if it could go global.” - aavi Rõivas, Prime Minister of the Republic of Estonia (International Peace Institute)
    • Unlock new revenue source by economic expansion.
      • Estonia earned €32 million in tax revenue from e-resident companies (e-Estonia).
    • Save costs of providing identity in collaboration with 3rd parties and reduce fraud.
      • Canada estimates savings of $482 million for provincial and federal governments, and $4.5 billion for private sector organizations through digital id adoption (2022 Budget Statement).

    Digital ID brings end users choice, convenience, control, and cost-saving, driving overall experience

    Customers and end users (subjects)

    • Choice: Citizens have the choice and convenience to interact safely and conveniently online and offline.
    • Convenience: No compulsion to make physical trips to access service, as end users can identify themselves safely and reliably online, as they do offline.
    • Control: A decentralized, privacy enhancing solution – neither government nor private companies control your digital ID. How and when you use digital ID is entirely up to you.
    • Cost Saving: Save costs of availing service by reducing the offline documentation.
    • Experience: Improved experience while availing service without a need to present multiple documents every time.

    Digital id benefits identity consumers by enhancing multiple dimensions of their value streams

    Identity consumer (relying parties)

    • Operational efficiency: Eliminating unnecessary steps and irrelevant data from the value stream increases overall operational efficiency.
    • Cost efficiency: Helps businesses to reduce overall cost of operations like regulatory requirements.
      • World Bank estimated that the Aadhaar could reduce onboarding costs for Indian firms from ₹1,500/- ($23) to as low as an estimated ₹10/- ($0.15) (*World Bank ID4D)
    • Reduce risk of potential litigation issues: Encourage data minimization.
    • Privacy and security: Businesses can reduce the risk of fraud to organizations and users and can significantly boost the privacy and security of their IT assets.
    • Enhanced customer experience: The decrease in the number of touchpoints and faster turnaround.
    • Streamlined storage and access: Store all available data in a single place, and when required.
    • Encourage innovation: Reduce efforts required in authentication and authorization of users.

    Before embarking on the digital identity adoption journey, assess your readiness

    Legislative coverage

    Does your target jurisdiction have adequate legislative framework to enable uses of digital identities in your industry?

    Trust framework

    If the Digital ID ecosystem in your target jurisdiction is trust framework-based, do you have adequate understanding of it?

    Customer touch-points

    Do you have exact understanding of value stream and customer touch-points where you interact with user identity?

    Relevant identity attributes

    Do you have exact understanding of the identity attributes that your business processes need to deliver customer value?

    Regulatory compliance

    Do you have required systems to ensure your compliance with industry regulations around customer PII and identity?

    Interoperability with IMS

    Is your existing identity management system interoperable with Open-source Digital Identity ecosystem?

    Enterprise governance

    Have you established an integrated enterprise governance framework covering business processes, technical systems, and risk management?

    Communication strategy

    Do have a clear strategy (mode, method, means) to communicate with your target customer and persuade them to adopt digital identity?

    Security operations center

    Do you have security operations center coordinating detection, response, resolution, and communication of potential data breaches?

    Ten steps to adopt to enhance the customer experience

    Considering the complexity of digital identity adoption, and its impact on customer experience, it is vital to assess the ecosystem and adopt an MVP approach before a big-bang launch.

    Diagram to help assess the ecosystem.

    1. Define the use case and identify the customer touchpoint in the value stream which can be improved with a verified digital identity.
    2. Ensure your organization is ready to adopt digital identity (Refer to Digital identity adoption readiness),
    3. Identify an Identity Service Provider (Government, private sector), if there are options.
    4. Understand its technical requirements and assess, to the finer detail, your technical landscape for interoperability.
    5. Set-up a business contract for terms of usages and liabilities.
    6. Create and execute a Minimum Viable Program (MVP) of integration which can be tested with real customers.
    7. Extend MVP to the complete solution and define key success metrics.
    8. Canary-launch with a segment of target customers before a full launch.
    9. Educate customers on the usages and benefits, and adapt your communication plan taking feedback
    10. Monitor and continuously improve the solution based on the feedback from ecosystem partners and end-customers, and regulatory changes.

    Understand and manage the risks and challenges of digital identity adoption

    Digital ID adoption is a major change for everyone in the ecosystem.

    Manage associated risks to avoid the derailing of integration with your business processes and a negative impact on customer experience.

    Manage Risks.

    1. Privacy and security risks – Customer’s sensitive data may get centralized with the identity provider.
    2. Single point of failure while relying a specific IDs; it also increases the impact of identity theft and fraud risk.
    3. Centralization and control risks – Identity provider or identity service broker / orchestrator may control who can participate.
    4. Not universal, interoperability risks – if purpose-specific.
    5. Impact omni-channel experience - Not always available (legal / printable) for offline use.
    6. Exclusion and discrimination risks – Specific data requirements may exclude a group of people.
    7. Scope for misuse and misinterpretation if compromised and not reclaimed in timely manner.
    8. Adoption and usability risks – Subjects / relying parties may not see benefit due to lack of awareness or suspicion.
    9. Liability Agreement gaps between identity provider and identity consumer (relying party).

    Recommendations to help you realize the potential of digital identity into your value streams

    1

    Customer-centricity

    Digital identity initiative should prioritize customer experience when evaluating its fit in the value stream. Adopting it should not sacrifice end-user experience to gain a few brownie points.

    See Info-Tech’s Adopt Design Thinking in Your Organization blueprint, to ensure customer remains at the center of your Digital Adoption initiative.

    2

    Privacy and security

    Adopting digital identity reduces data risk by minimizing data transfer between providers and consumers. However, securing identity attributes in value streams still requires strengthening enterprise security systems and processes.

    See Info-Tech’s Assess and Govern Identity Security blueprint for the actions you may take to secure and govern digital identity.

    3

    Inclusion and awareness

    Adopting digital identity may alter customer interaction with an organization. To avoid excluding target customer segments, design digital identity accordingly. Educating and informing customers about the changes can facilitate faster adoption.

    See Info-Tech’s Social Media blueprint and IT Diversity & Inclusion Tactics to make inclusion and awareness part of digital adoption

    4

    Quantitative success metrics

    To measure the success of a digital ID adoption program, it's essential to use quantitative metrics that align with business KPIs. Some measurable KPIs may include:

    • Reduction in number of IDs business used to serve 90% of customers
    • Reduction in overall cost of operation
      • Reduction in cost of user authentication
    • Reduction in process cycle time (less time required to complete a task – e.g. KYC)

    Taxonomy – Digital ID ecosystem

    (Alphabetical order)

    Continues..

    Attributes: An identity attribute is a statement or information about a specific aspect of entity’s identity ,substantiating they are who they claim to be, own, or have.

    Attribute (or Credential) provider: An attribute or credential provider could be an organization which issues the primary attribute or credential to a subject or entity. They are also responsible for identity-attribute binding, credential maintenance, suspension, recovery, and authentication.

    Attribute (or Credential) service provider: An attribute service provider could be an organization which originally vetted user’s credentials and certified a specific attribute of their identity. It could also be a software, such as digital wallet, which can store and share a user’s attribute with a third party once consented by the user. (Source: UK Govt. Trust Framework)

    Attribute binding: This is a process an attribute service providers uses to link the attributes they created to a person or an organization through an identifier. This process makes attributes useful and valuable for other entities using these attributes. For example, when a new employee joins a company, they are given a unique employee number (an identifier), which links the person with their job title and other aspects (attributes) of his job. (Source: UK Govt. Trust Framework)

    Authentication service provider: An organization which is responsible for creating and managing authenticators and their lifecycle (issuance, suspension, recovery, maintenance, revocation, and destruction of authenticators). (Source: DIACC)

    Authenticator: Information or biometric characteristics under the control of an individual that is a specific instance of something the subject has, knows, or does. E.g. private signing keys, user passwords, or biometrics like face, fingerprints. (Source: Canada PCTF)

    Authentication (identity verification): The process of confirming or denying that the identity presented relates to the subject who is making the claim by comparing the credentials presented with the ones presented during identity proofing.

    Authorization: The process of validating if the authenticated entity has permission to access a resource (service or product).

    Biometrics attributes: Human attributes like retina (iris), fingerprint, heartbeat, facial, handprint, thumbprint, voice print.

    Centralized identity: Digital identities which are fully governed by a centralized government entity. It may have enrollment or registration agencies, private or public sector, to issue the identities, and the technical system may still be decentralized to keep data federated.

    Certificate Authority (CA or accredited assessors): An organization or an entity that conducts assessments to validate the framework compliance of identity or attribute providers (such as websites, email addresses, companies, or individual persons) serving other users, and binding them to cryptographic keys through the issuance of electronic documents known as digital certificates.

    Taxonomy – Digital ID ecosystem

    (Alphabetical order)

    Continues..

    Collective (non-resolvable) attributes: Nationality, domicile, citizenship, immigration status, age group, disability, income group, membership, (outstanding) credit limit, credit score range.

    Contextual identity: A type of identity which establishes an entity’s existence in a specific context – real or virtual. These can be issued by public or private identity providers and are governed by the organizational policies. E.g. employee ID, membership ID, social media ID, machine ID.

    Credentials: A physical or a digital representation of something that establishes an entity’s eligibility to do something for which it is seeking permission, or an association/affiliation with another, generally well-known entity. E.g. Passport, DL, password. In the context of Digital Identity, every identity needs to be attached with a credential to ensure that the subject of the identity can control how and by whom that identity can be used.

    Cryptographic hash function: A hash function is a one-directional mathematical operation performed on a message of any length to get a unique, deterministic, and fixed size numerical string (the hash) which can’t be reverse engineered to get the input data without deploying disproportionate resources. It is the foundation of modern security solutions in DLT / blockchain as they help in verifying the integrity and authenticity of the message.

    Decentralized identity (DID) or self-sovereign identity: This is a way to give back the control of identity to the subject whose identity it is, using an identity wallet in which they collect verified information about themselves from certified issuers (such as the government). By controlling what information is shared from the wallet to requesting third parties (e.g. when registering for a new online service), the user can better manage their privacy, such as only presenting proof that they’re over 18 without needing to reveal their date of birth. Source: (https://www.gsma.com/identity/decentralised-identity)

    Digital identity wallet: A type of digital wallet refers to a secure, trusted software applications (native mobile app, mobile web apps, or Rivas-hosted web applications) based on common standards, allowing a user to store and use their identity attributes, identifiers, and other credentials without loosing or sharing control of them. This is different than Digital Payment Wallets used for financial transactions. (Source: https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/photos/1440x300/2022/feb/eID_WB_presentation_BS.pdf)

    Digital identity: A digital identity is primarily an electronic form of identity representing an entity uniquely , while abstracting all other identity attributes of the entity. In addition to an electronic form, it may also exist in a physical form (identity certificate), linked through an identifier representing the same entity. E.g. Estonia eID , India Aadhar, digital citizenship ID.

    Digital object architecture: DOA is an open architecture for interoperability among various information systems, including ID wallets, identity providers, and consumers. It focuses on digital objects and comprises three core components: the identifier/resolution system, the repository system, and the registry system. There are also two protocols that connect these components. (Source: dona.net)

    Digital signature: A digital signature is an electronic, encrypted stamp of authentication on digital information such as email messages, macros, or electronic documents. A signature confirms that the information originated from the signer and has not been altered. (Source: Microsoft)

    Taxonomy – Digital ID ecosystem

    (Alphabetical order)

    Continues..

    Entity (or Subject): In the context of identity, an entity is a person, group, object, or a machine whose claims need to be ascertained and identity needs to be established before his request for a service or products can be fulfilled. An entity can also be referred to as a subject whose identity needs to be ascertained before delivering a service.

    Expiry: This is another dimension of an identity and determines the validity of an ID. Most of the identities are longer term, but there can be a few like digital tokens and URLs which can be issued for a few hours or even minutes. There are some which can be revoked after a pre-condition is met.

    Federated identity: Federated identity is an agreement between two organizations about the definition and use of identity attributes and identifiers of a consumer entity requesting a service. If successful, it allows a consumer entity to get authenticated by one organization (identity provider) and then authorized by another organization. E.g. accessing a third-party website using Google credentials.

    Foundational identity: A type of identity which establishes an entity’s existence in the real world. These are generally issued by public sector / government agencies, governed by a legal farmwork within a jurisdiction, and are widely accepted at least in that jurisdiction. E.g. birth certificate, citizenship certificate.

    Governance: This is a dimension of identity that covers the governance model for a digital ID ecosystem. While traditionally it has been under the sovereign government or a federated structure, in recent times, it has been decentralized through DLT technologies or trust-framework based. It can also be self-sovereign, where individuals fully control their data and ID attributes.

    Identifier: A digital identifier is a string of characters that uniquely represents an entity’s identity in a specific context and scope even if one or more identity attributes of the subject change over time. E.g. driver’s license, SSN, SIN, email ID, digital token, user ID, device ID, cookie ID.

    Identity: An identity is an instrument used by an entity to provide the required information about itself to another entity in order to avail a service, access a resource, or exercise a privilege. An identity formed by 1-n identity attributes and a unique identifier.

    Identity and access management (IAM): IAM is a set of frameworks, technologies, and processes to enable the creation, maintenance, and use of digital identity, ensuring that the right people gain access to the right materials and records at the right time. (Source: https://iam.harvard.edu/)

    Identity consumer (Relying party): An organization, or an entity relying on identity provider to mitigate IT risks around knowing its customers before delivering the end-user value (product/service) without deteriorating end-user experience. E.g. Canada Revenue Agency using SecureKey service and relying on Banking institutions to authenticate users; Telecom service providers in India relying on Aadhaar identity system to authenticate the customer's identity.

    Identity form: A dimension of identity that defines its forms depending on the scope it wants to serve. It can be a physical card for offline uses, a virtual identifier like a number, or an app/account with multiple identity attributes. Cryptographic keys and tokens can also be forms of identity.

    Taxonomy – Digital ID ecosystem

    (Alphabetical order)

    Continues...

    Identity infrastructure provider: Organizations involved in creating and maintaining technological infrastructure required to manage the lifecycle of digital identities, attributes, and credentials. They implement functions like security, privacy, resiliency, and user experience as specified in the digital identity policy and trust framework.

    Identity proofing: A process of asserting the identification of a subject at a useful identity assurance level when the subject provides evidence to a credential service provider (CSP), reliably identifying themselves. (Source: NIST Special Publication 800-63A)

    Identity provider (Attestation authority): An organization or an entity validating the foundation or contextual claims of a subject and establishing identifier(s) for a subject. E.g. DMV (US) and MTA (Canada) issuing drivers’ licenses; Google / Facebook issuing authentication tokens for their users logging in on other websites.

    Identity validation: The process of confirming or denying the accuracy of identity information of a subject as established by an authorized party. It doesn’t ensure that the presenter is using their own identity.

    Identity verification (Authentication): The process of confirming or denying that the identity presented relates to the subject who is making the claim by comparing the credentials presented with the ones presented during identity proofing.

    Internationalized resource identifier (IRI): IRIs are equivalent to URIs except that IRIs also allow non-ascii characters in the address space, while URIs only allow us-ascii encoding. (Source: w3.org)

    Jurisdiction: A dimension of identity that covers the physical area or virtual space where an identity is legally acceptable for the purpose defined under law. It can be global, like it is for passport, or it can be local within a municipality for specific services. For unverified digital IDs, it can be the social network.

    Multi-factor Authentication (MFA): Multi-factor authentication is a layered approach to securing digital assets (data and applications), where a system requires a user to present a combination of two or more credentials to verify a user’s identity for login. These factors can be a combination of (i) something you know like a password/PIN; (ii) something you have like a token on mobile device; and (iii) something you are like a biometric. (Adapted from https://www.cisa.gov/publication/multi-factor-authentication-mfa)

    Oauth (Open authorization): OAuth is a standard authorization protocol and used for access delegation. It allows internet users to access websites by using credentials managed by a third-party authorization server / Identity Provider. It is designed for HTTP and allows access tokens to be issued by an authorization server to third-party websites. E.g. Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn use Oauth to delegate access.

    OpenID: OpenID is a Web Authentication Protocol and implements reliance authentication mechanism. It facilitates the functioning of federated identity by allowing a user to use an existing account (e.g. Google, Facebook, Yahoo) to sign into third-party websites without needing to create new credentials. (Source: https://openid.net/).

    Taxonomy – Digital ID ecosystem

    (Alphabetical order)

    Continues...

    Personally identifiable information (PII): PII is a set of attributes which can be used, through direct or indirect means, to infer the real-world identity of the individual whose information is input. E.g. National ID (SSN/SIN/Aadhar) DL, name, date of birth, age, address, age, identifier, university credentials, health condition, email, domain name, website URI (web resolvable) , phone number, credit card number, username/password, public key / private key. (Source: https://www.dol.gov)

    Predicates: The mathematical or logical operations such as equality or greater than on attributes (e.g. prove your salary is greater than x or your age is greater than y) to prove a claim without sharing the actual values.

    Purpose: This dimension of a digital id defines for what purpose digital id can be used. It can be one or many of these – authentication, authorization, activity linking, historical record keeping, social interactions, and machine connectivity for IoT use cases.

    Reliance authentication: Relying on a third-party authentication before providing a service. It is a method followed in a federated entity system.

    Risk-based authentication: A mechanism to protect against account compromise or identity theft. It correlates an authentication request with transitional facts like requester’s location, past frequency of login, etc. to reduce the risk of potential fraud.

    Scheme in trust framework: A specific set of rules (standard and custom) around the use of digital identities and attributes as agreed by one or more organizations. It is useful when those organizations have similar products, services, business processes. (Source: UK Govt. Trust Framework). E.g. Many credit unions agree on how they will use the identity in loan origination and servicing.

    Selective disclosure (Assertion): A way to present one’s identity by sharing only a limited amount information that is critical to make an authentication / authorization decision. E.g. when presenting your credentials, you could share something proving you are 18 years or above, but not share your name, exact age, address, etc.

    Trust: A dimension of an identity, which essentially is a belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of that identity. While in the physical world all acceptable form of identities come with a verified trust, in online domain, it can be unverified. Also, where an identity is only acceptable as per the contract between two entities, but not widely.

    Trust framework: The trust framework is a set of rules that different organizations agree to follow to deliver one or more of their services. This includes legislation, standards, guidance, and the rules in this document. By following these rules, all services and organizations using the trust framework can describe digital identities and attributes they’ve created in a consistent way. This should make it easier for organizations and users to complete interactions and transactions or share information with other trust framework participants. (Source: UK Govt. Trust Framework)

    Taxonomy – Digital ID ecosystem

    (Alphabetical order)

    Continues...

    Uniform resource identifier (URI): A universal name in registered name spaces and addresses referring to registered protocols or name spaces.

    Uniform resource locator (URL): A type of URI which expresses an address which maps onto an access algorithm using network protocols. (Source: https://www.w3.org/)

    Uniform resource name (URN): A type of URI that includes a name within a given namespace but may not be accessible on the internet.

    Usability: A dimension of identity that defines how many times it can be used. While most of the identities are multi-use, a few digital identities are in token form and can be used only once to authenticate oneself.

    Usage mode: A dimension of identity that defines the service mode in which a digital ID can be used. While all digital IDs are made for online usage, many can also be used in offline interactions.

    Verifiable credentials: This W3C standard specification provides a standard way to express credentials on the Web in a way that is cryptographically secure, privacy-respecting, and machine-verifiable. (Source: https://www.w3.org/TR/vc-data-model/)

    X.509 Certificates: X.509 certificates are standard digital documents that represent an entity providing a service to another entity. They're issued by a certification authority (CA), subordinate CA, or registration authority. These certificates play an important role in ascertaining the validity of an identity provider and in turn the identities issued by it. (Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/iot-hub/reference-x509-certificates)

    Zero-knowledge proofs: A method by which one party (the prover) can prove to another party (the verifier) that something is true, without revealing any information apart from the fact that this specific statement is true. (Source: 1989 SIAM Paper)

    Zero-trust security: A cybersecurity paradigm focused on resource protection and the premise that trust is never granted implicitly but must be continually evaluated. It evaluates each access request as if it is a fraud attempt, and grants access only if it passes the authentication and authorization test. (Source: Adapted from NIST, SP 800-207: Zero Trust Architecture, 2020)

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Build a Zero Trust Roadmap
    Leverage an iterative and repeatable process to apply zero trust to your organization.

    Assess and Govern Identity Security
    Strong identity security and governance are the keys to the zero-trust future.

    Adopt Design Thinking in Your Organization
    Innovation needs design thinking to ensure customer remains at the center of everything the organization does.

    Social Media
    Leveraging Social Media to connect with your customers and educate them to drive the value proposition of your efforts.

    IT Diversity & Inclusion Tactics
    Equip your teams to create an inclusive environment and mobilize inclusion efforts across the organization.


    Research Contributors and Experts

    David Wallace

    David Wallace
    Executive Counselor

    Erik Avakian

    Erik Avakian
    Technical Counselor, Data Architecture and Governance

    Matthew Bourne

    Matthew Bourne
    Managing Partner, Public Sector Global Services

    Mike Tweedie

    Mike Tweedie
    Practice Lead, CIO Research Development

    Aaron Shum

    Aaron Shum
    Vice President, Security & Privacy

    Works Cited

    India Aadhaar PMJDY (https://pmjdy.gov.in/account)
    Theis, S., Rusconi, G., Panggabean, E., Kelly, S. (2020). Delivering on the Potential of Digitized G2P: Driving Women’s Financial Inclusion and Empowerment through Indonesia’s Program Keluarga Harapan. Women’s World Banking.
    DIACC Canada (https://diacc.ca/the-diacc/)
    UK digital identity & attributes trust framework alpha v2 (0.2) - GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-digital-identity-attributes-trust-framework-updated-version/uk-digital-identity-and-attributes-trust-framework-alpha-version-2)
    Australia Trusted Digital Identity Framework (https://www.digitalidentity.gov.au/tdif#changes)
    eIDAS (https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/eidas-regulation)
    Europe Digital Wallet – POTENTIAL (https://www.digital-identity-wallet.eu/)
    Canada PCTF (https://diacc.ca/trust-framework/)
    Identification Revolution: Can Digital ID be harnessed for Development? (Gelb & Metz), 2018
    e-Estonia website (https://e-estonia.com/solutions/e-identity/id-card/)
    Aadhaar Dashboard (https://uidai.gov.in/)
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    Australia Digital ID website (https://www.digitalidentity.gov.au/tdif#changes)
    UK Policy paper - digital identity & attributes trust framework (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-digital-identity-attributes-trust-framework-updated-version/uk-digital-identity-and-attributes-trust-framework-alpha-version-2)
    Ukraine Govt. website (https://ukraine.ua/invest-trade/digitalization/)
    Singapore SingPass Website (https://www.tech.gov.sg/products-and-services/singpass/)
    Norway BankID Website (https://www.bankid.no/en/private/about-us/)
    Brazil National ID Card website (https://www.gov.br/casacivil/pt-br/assuntos/noticias/2022/julho/nova-carteira-de-identidade-nacional-modelo-unico-a-partir-de-agosto)
    Indonesia Coverage in Professional Security Magazine (https://www.professionalsecurity.co.uk/products/id-cards/indonesian-cards/)
    Philippine ID System (PhilSys) website (https://www.philsys.gov.ph/)
    China coverage on eGovReview (https://www.egovreview.com/article/news/559/china-announces-plans-national-digital-ids)
    Thales Group Website - DHS’s Automated Biometric Identification System IDENT (https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/markets/digital-identity-and-security/government/customer-cases/ident-automated-biometric-identification-system)
    FranceConnect (https://franceconnect.gouv.fr/)
    Germany: Office for authorization cert. (https://www.personalausweisportal.de/Webs/PA/DE/startseite/startseite-node.html)
    Italian Digital Services Authority (https://www.spid.gov.it/en/)
    Monacco Mconnect (https://mconnect.gouv.mc/en)
    Estonia eID (https://e-estonia.com/wp-content/uploads/e-estonia-211022_eng.pdf)
    E-Residency Dashboard (https://www.e-resident.gov.ee/dashboard)
    Unique ID authority of India (https://uidai.gov.in/aadhaar_dashboard/india.php)
    State of Aadhaar (https://www.stateofaadhaar.in/)
    World Bank (https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/219201522848336907/pdf/Private-Sector-Economic-Impacts-from-Identification-Systems.pdf)
    WorldBank - ID4D 2022 Annual Report (https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/099437402012317995/idu00fd54093061a70475b0a3b50dd7e6cdfe147)
    Ukraine Govt. Website for Invest and trade (https://ukraine.ua/invest-trade/digitalization/)
    Diia Case study prepared for the office of Canadian senator colin deacon (https://static1.squarespace.com/static/63851cbda1515c69b8a9a2b9/t/6398f63a9d78ae73d2fd5725/1670968891441/2022-case-study-report-diia-mobile-application.pdf)
    Canadian Digital Identity Research (https://diacc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/DIACC-2021-Research-Report-ENG.pdf)
    Voilà Verified Trustmark (https://diacc.ca/voila-verified/)
    Digital Identity, 06A Federation Onboarding Guidance paper, March 2022 (https://www.digitalidentity.gov.au/sites/default/files/2022-04/TDIF%2006A%20Federation%20Onboarding%20Guidance%20-%20Release%204.6%20%28Doc%20Version%201.2%29.pdf)
    UK digital identity & attributes trust framework alpha v2 (0.2) - GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-digital-identity-attributes-trust-framework-updated-version/uk-digital-identity-and-attributes-trust-framework-alpha-version-2)
    A United Nations Estimate of KYC/AML (https://www.imf.org/Publications/fandd/issues/2018/12/imf-anti-money-laundering-and-economic-stability-straight)
    India Aadhaar PMJDY (https://pmjdy.gov.in/account)
    Global News (https://globalnews.ca/news/9437913/homeowner-impersonators-lined-32-fraud-cases-ontario-bc/)
    UK Finance Lobby Group (https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/system/files/Half-year-fraud-update-2021-FINAL.pdf) McKinsey Digital ID report ( https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/digital-identification-a-key-to-inclusive-growth) International Peace Institute ( https://www.ipinst.org/2016/05/information-technology-and-governance-estonia#7)
    E-Estonia Report (https://e-estonia.com/wp-content/uploads/e-estonia-211022_eng.pdf)
    2022 Budget Statement (https://diacc.ca/2022/04/07/2022-budget-statement/)
    World Bank ID4D - Private Sector Economic Impacts from Identification Systems 2018 (https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/219201522848336907/Private-Sector-Economic-Impacts-from-Identification-Systems.pdf)
    DIACC Canada (https://diacc.ca/the-diacc/)
    UK digital identity & attributes trust framework alpha v2 (0.2) - GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-digital-identity-attributes-trust-framework-updated-version/uk-digital-identity-and-attributes-trust-framework-alpha-version-2)
    https://www.gsma.com/identity/decentralised-identity
    https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/photos/1440x300/2022/feb/eID_WB_presentation_BS.pdf
    Microsoft Digital signatures and certificates (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/digital-signatures-and-certificates-8186cd15-e7ac-4a16-8597-22bd163e8e96)
    https://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/photos/1440x300/2022/feb/eID_WB_presentation_BS.pdf
    https://www.dona.net/digitalobjectarchitecture
    IAM (https://iam.harvard.edu/)
    NIST Special Publication 800-63A (https://pages.nist.gov/800-63-3/sp800-63a.html)
    https://www.cisa.gov/publication/multi-factor-authentication-mfa
    https://openid.net/
    U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR (https://www.dol.gov/)
    UK govt. trust framework (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-digital-identity-attributes-trust-framework-updated-version/uk-digital-identity-and-attributes-trust-framework-alpha-version-2)
    https://www.w3.org/
    Verifiable Credentials Data Model v1.1 (https://www.w3.org/TR/vc-data-model/)
    https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/iot-hub/reference-x509-certificates

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    Critical Insight

    • To leverage AI capabilities, you first need to assess the current state of your IT operations and know what your priorities are.
    • Contemplate use cases that will get the most benefit from automation and start with processes that you are relatively comfortable handling.
    • Analyze your initial plan to identify easy wins, then expand your AIOps.

    Impact and Result

    • Perform a current state assessment to spot which areas within your operations management are the least mature and causing you the most grief. Identify which functional areas within operations management need to be prioritized for improvement.
    • Make a shortlist of use cases that will get the most benefit from AI-based technology.
    • Prepare a plan to deploy AI capabilities to improve your IT operations.

    Improve IT Operations With AI and ML Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out about the latest improvements in AIOps and how these can help you improve your IT operations. Review Info-Tech’s methodology and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Assess the current state of IT operations management

    Identify where your organization currently stands in its operations management practices.

    • AIOps Project Summary Template
    • AIOps Prerequisites Assessment Tool

    2. Identify initiatives that align with operations requirements

    Recognize the benefits of AI and ML for your business. Determine the necessary roles and responsibilities for potential initiatives, then develop and assess your shortlist.

    • AIOps RACI Template
    • AIOps Shortlisting Tool

    3. Develop the AI roadmap

    Analyze your ROI for AIOps and create an action plan. Communicate your AI and ML initiatives to stakeholders to obtain their support.

    • AIOps ROI Calculator
    • AIOps Roadmap Tool
    • AIOps Communications Plan Template
    [infographic]

    Build an IT Risk Taxonomy

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    • Parent Category Name: IT Governance, Risk & Compliance
    • Parent Category Link: /it-governance-risk-and-compliance
    • Business leaders, driven by the need to make more risk-informed decisions, are putting pressure on IT to provide more timely and consistent risk reporting.
    • IT risk managers need to balance the emerging threat landscape with not losing sight of the risks of today.
    • IT needs to strengthen IT controls and anticipate risks in an age of disruption.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    A common understanding of risks, threats, and opportunities gives organizations the flexibility and agility to adapt to changing business conditions and drive corporate value.

    Impact and Result

    • Use this blueprint as a baseline to build a customized IT risk taxonomy suitable for your organization.
    • Learn about the role and drivers of integrated risk management and the benefits it brings to enterprise decision-makers.
    • Discover how to set up your organization up for success by understanding how risk management links to organizational strategy and corporate performance.

    Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Research & Tools

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

    1. Build an IT Risk Taxonomy – Develop a common approach to managing risks to enable faster, more effective decision making.

    Learn how to develop an IT risk taxonomy that will remain relevant over time while providing the granularity and clarity needed to make more effective risk-based decisions.

    • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy – Phases 1-3

    2. Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Guideline and Template – A set of tools to customize and design an IT risk taxonomy suitable for your organization.

    Leverage these tools as a starting point to develop risk levels and definitions appropriate to your organization. Take a collaborative approach when developing your IT risk taxonomy to gain greater acceptance and understanding of accountability.

    • IT Risk Taxonomy Committee Charter Template
    • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Guideline
    • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Definitions
    • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template

    3. IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook – A place to complete activities and document decisions that may need to be communicated.

    Use this workbook to document outcomes of activities and brainstorming sessions.

    • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook

    4. IT Risk Register – An internal control tool used to manage IT risks. Risk levels archived in this tool are instrumental to achieving an integrated and holistic view of risks across an organization.

    Leverage this tool to document risk levels, risk events, and controls. Smaller organizations can leverage this tool for risk management while larger organizations may find this tool useful to structure and define risks prior to using a risk management software tool.

    • Risk Register Tool

    Infographic

    Workshop: Build an IT Risk Taxonomy

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

    1 Review IT Risk Fundamentals and Governance

    The Purpose

    Review IT risk fundamentals and governance.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Learn how enterprise risk management and IT risk management intersect and the role the IT taxonomy plays in integrated risk management.

    Activities

    1.1 Discuss risk fundamentals and the benefits of integrated risk.

    1.2 Create a cross-functional IT taxonomy working group.

    Outputs

    IT Risk Taxonomy Committee Charter Template

    Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook

    2 Identify Level 1 Risk Types

    The Purpose

    Identify suitable IT level 1 risk types.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Level 1 IT risk types are determined and have been tested against ERM level one risk types.

    Activities

    2.1 Discuss corporate strategy, business risks, macro trends, and organizational opportunities and constraints.

    2.2 Establish level 1 risk types.

    2.3 Test soundness of IT level 1 types by mapping to ERM level 1 types.

    Outputs

    Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook

    3 Identify Level 2 and Level 3 Risk Types

    The Purpose

    Define level 2 and level 3 risk types.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Level 2 and level 3 risk types have been determined.

    Activities

    3.1 Establish level 2 risk types.

    3.2 Establish level 3 risk types (and level 4 if appropriate for your organization).

    3.3 Begin to test by working backward from controls to ensure risk events will aggregate consistently.

    Outputs

    Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template

    Risk Register Tool

    4 Monitor, Report, and Respond to IT Risk

    The Purpose

    Test the robustness of your IT risk taxonomy by populating the risk register with risk events and controls.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Your IT risk taxonomy has been tested and your risk register has been updated.

    Activities

    4.1 Continue to test robustness of taxonomy and iterate if necessary.

    4.2 Optional activity: Draft your IT risk appetite statements.

    4.3 Discuss communication and continual improvement plan.

    Outputs

    Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template

    Risk Register Tool

    Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook

    Further reading

    Build an IT Risk Taxonomy

    If integrated risk is your destination, your IT risk taxonomy is the road to get you there.

    Analyst Perspective

    Donna Bales.

    The pace and uncertainty of the current business environment introduce new and emerging vulnerabilities that can disrupt an organization’s strategy on short notice.

    Having a long-term view of risk while navigating the short term requires discipline and a robust and strategic approach to risk management.

    Managing emerging risks such as climate risk, the impact of digital disruption on internal technology, and the greater use of third parties will require IT leaders to be more disciplined in how they manage and communicate material risks to the enterprise.

    Establishing a hierarchical common language of IT risks through a taxonomy will facilitate true aggregation and integration of risks, enabling more effective decision making. This holistic, disciplined approach to risk management helps to promote a more sustainable risk culture across the organization while adding greater rigor at the IT control level.

    Donna Bales
    Principal Research Director
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Common Obstacles

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    IT has several challenges when managing and responding to risk events:

    • Business leaders, driven by the need to make more risk-informed decisions, are putting pressure on IT to provide more timely and consistent risk reporting.
    • Navigating today’s ever-evolving threat landscape is complex. IT risk managers need to balance the emerging threat landscape while not losing sight of the risks of today.
    • IT needs to strengthen IT controls and anticipate risks in an age of disruption.

    Many IT organizations encounter obstacles in these areas:

    • Ensuring an integrated, well-coordinated approach to risk management across the organization.
    • Developing an IT risk taxonomy that will remain relevant over time while providing sufficient granularity and definitional clarity.
    • Gaining acceptance and ensuring understanding of accountability. Involving business leaders and a wide variety of risk owners when developing your IT risk taxonomy will lead to greater organizational acceptance.

    .

    • Take a collaborative approach when developing your IT risk taxonomy to gain greater acceptance and understanding of accountability.
    • Spend the time to fully analyze your current and future threat landscape when defining your level 1 IT risks and consider the causal impact and complex linkages and intersections.
    • Recognize that the threat landscape will continue to evolve and that your IT risk taxonomy is a living document that must be continually reviewed and strengthened.

    Info-Tech Insight

    A common understanding of risks, threats, and opportunities gives organizations the flexibility and agility to adapt to changing business conditions and drive corporate value.

    Increasing threat landscape

    The risk landscape is continually evolving, putting greater pressure on the risk function to work collaboratively throughout the organization to strengthen operational resilience and minimize strategic, financial, and reputational impact.

    Financial Impact

    Strategic Risk

    Reputation Risk

    In IBM’s 2021 Cost of a Data Breach Report, the Ponemon Institute found that data security breaches now cost companies $4.24 million per incident on average – the highest cost in the 17-year history of the report.

    58% percent of CROs who view inability to manage cyber risks as a top strategic risk.

    EY’s 2022 Global Bank Risk Management survey revealed that Chief Risk Officers (CROs) view the inability to manage cyber risk and the inability to manage cloud and data risk as the top strategic risks.

    Protiviti’s 2023 Executive Perspectives on Top Risks survey featured operational resilience within its top ten risks. An organization’s failure to be sufficiently resilient or agile in a crisis can significantly impact operations and reputation.

    Persistent and emerging threats

    Organizations should not underestimate the long-term impact on corporate performance if emerging risks are not fully understood, controlled, and embedded into decision-making.

    Talent Risk

    Sustainability

    Digital Disruption

    Protiviti’s 2023 Executive Perspectives on Top Risks survey revealed talent risk as the top risk organizations face, specifically organizations’ ability to attract and retain top talent. Of the 38 risks in the survey, it was the only risk issue rated at a “significant impact” level.

    Sustainability is at the top of the risk agenda for many organizations. In EY’s 2022 Global Bank Risk Management survey, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks were identified as a risk focus area, with 84% anticipating it to increase in priority over the next three years. Yet Info-Tech’s Tech Trends 2023 report revealed that only 24% of organizations could accurately report on their carbon footprint.

    Source: Info-Tech 2023 Tech Trends Report

    The risks related to digital disruption are vast and evolving. In the short term, risks surface in compliance and skills shortage, but Protiviti’s 2023 Executive Perspectives survey shows that in the longer term, executives are concerned that the speed of change and market forces may outpace an organization’s ability to compete.

    Build an IT risk taxonomy: As technology and digitization continue to advance, risk management practices must also mature. To strengthen operational and financial resiliency, it is essential that organizations move away from a siloed approach to IT risk management wart an integrated approach. Without a common IT risk taxonomy, effective risk assessment and aggregation at the enterprise level is not possible.

    Blueprint benefits

    IT Benefits

    Business Benefits

    • Simple, customizable approach to build an IT risk taxonomy
    • Improved satisfaction with IT for senior leadership and business units
    • Greater ability to respond to evolving threats
    • Improved understanding of IT’s role in enterprise risk management (ERM)
    • Stronger, more reliable internal control framework
    • Reduced operational surprises and failures
    • More dynamic decision making
    • More proactive risk responses
    • Improve transparency and comparability of risks across silos
    • Better financial resilience and confidence in meeting regulatory requirements
    • More relevant risk assurance for key stakeholders

    Blueprint deliverables

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

    IT Risk Taxonomy Committee Charter Template

    Create a cross-functional IT risk taxonomy committee.

    The image contains a screenshot of the IT risk taxonomy committee charter template.

    Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Guideline

    Use IT risk taxonomy as a baseline to build your organization’s approach.

    The image contains a screenshot of the build an it risk taxonomy guideline.

    Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template

    Use this template to design and test your taxonomy.

    The image contains a screenshot of the build an IT risk taxonomy design template.

    Risk Register Tool

    Update your risk register with your IT risk taxonomy.

    The image contains a screenshot of the risk register tool.

    Key deliverable:

    Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook

    Use the tools and activities in each phase of the blueprint to customize your IT risk taxonomy to suit your organization’s needs.

    The image contains a screenshot of the build an IT risk taxonomy workbook.

    Benefit from industry-leading best practices

    As a part of our research process, we used the COSO, ISO 31000, and COBIT 2019 frameworks. Contextualizing IT risk management within these frameworks ensures that our project-focused approach is grounded in industry-leading best practices for managing IT risk.

    COSO’s Enterprise Risk Management —Integrating with Strategy and Performance addresses the evolution of enterprise risk management and the need for organizations to improve their approach to managing risk to meet the demands of an evolving business environment.

    ISO 31000 – Risk Management can help organizations increase the likelihood of achieving objectives, improve the identification of opportunities and threats, and effectively allocate and use resources for risk treatment.

    COBIT 2019’s IT functions were used to develop and refine the ten IT risk categories used in our top-down risk identification methodology.

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

    DIY Toolkit

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

    Guided Implementation

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

    Workshop

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

    Consulting

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Guided Implementation

    Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

    Call #1: Review risk management fundamentals.

    Call #2: Review the role of an IT risk taxonomy in risk management.

    Call #3: Establish a cross-functional team.

    Calls #4-5: Identify level 1 IT risk types. Test against enterprise risk management.

    Call #6: Identify level 2 and level 3 risk types.

    Call #7: Align risk events and controls to level 3 risk types and test.

    Call #8: Update your risk register and communicate taxonomy internally.

    A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series

    of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

    A typical GI is 6 to 8 calls over the course of 3 to 6 months.

    Workshop Overview

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

    Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5

    Review IT Risk Fundamentals and Governance

    Identify Level 1 IT Risk Types

    Identify Level 2 and Level 3 Risk Types

    Monitor, Report, and Respond to IT Risk

    Next Steps and
    Wrap-Up (offsite)

    Activities

    1.1 Discuss risk fundamentals and the benefits of integrated risk.

    1.2 Create a cross-functional IT taxonomy working group.

    2.1 Discuss corporate strategy, business risks, macro trends, and organizational opportunities and constraints.

    2.2 Establish level 1 risk types.

    2.3 Test soundness of IT level 1 types by mapping to ERM level 1 types.

    3.1 Establish level 2 risk types.

    3.2 Establish level 3 risk types (and level 4 if appropriate for your organization).

    3.3 Begin to test by working backward from controls to ensure risk events will aggregate consistently.

    4.1 Continue to test robustness of taxonomy and iterate if necessary.

    4.2 Optional activity: Draft your IT risk appetite statements.

    4.3 Discuss communication and continual improvement plan.

    5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days.

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

    Deliverables
    1. T Risk Taxonomy Committee Charter Template
    2. Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
    1. Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
    1. IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template
    2. Risk Register
    1. IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template
    2. Risk Register
    3. Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
    1. Workshop Report

    Phase 1

    Understand Risk Management Fundamentals

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    • Governance, Risk, and Compliance
    • Enterprise Risk Management
    • Enterprise Risk Appetite
    • Risk Statements and Scenarios
    • What Is a Risk Taxonomy?
    • Functional Role of an IT Risk Taxonomy
    • Connection to Enterprise Risk Management
    • Establish Committee
    • Steps to Define IT Risk Taxonomy
    • Define Level 1
    • Test Level 1
    • Define Level 2 and 3
    • Test via Your Control Framework

    Governance, risk, and compliance (GRC)

    Risk management is one component of an organization’s GRC function.

    GRC principles are important tools to support enterprise management.

    Governance sets the guardrails to ensure that the enterprise is in alignment with standards, regulations, and board decisions. A governance framework will communicate rules and expectations throughout the organization and monitor adherence.

    Risk management is how the organization protects and creates enterprise value. It is an integral part of an organization’s processes and enables a structured decision-making approach.

    Compliance is the process of adhering to a set of guidelines; these could be external regulations and guidelines or internal corporate policies.

    GRC principles are tightly bound and continuous

    The image contains a screenshot of a continuous circle that is divided into three parts: risk, compliance, and governance.

    Enterprise risk management

    Regardless of size or structure, every organization makes strategic and operational decisions that expose it to uncertainties.

    Enterprise risk management (ERM) is a strategic business discipline that supports the achievement of an organization’s objectives by addressing the full spectrum of its risks and managing the combined impact of those risks as an interrelated risk portfolio (RIMS).

    An ERM is program is crucial because it will:

    • Help shape business objectives, drive revenue growth, and execute risk-based decisions.
    • Enable a deeper understanding of risks and assessment of current risk profile.
    • Support forward-looking risk management and more constructive dialogue with the board and regulatory agencies.
    • Provide insight on the robustness and efficacy of risk management processes, tools, and controls.
    • Drive a positive risk culture.

    ERM is supported by strategy, effective processes, technology, and people

    The image contains a screenshot that demonstrates how ERM is supported by strategy, effective processes, technology, and people.

    Risk frameworks

    Risk frameworks are leveraged by the industry to “provide a structure and set of definitions to allow enterprises of all types and sizes to understand and better manage their risk environments.” COSO Enterprise Risk Management, 2nd edition

    • Many organizations lean on the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations’ Enterprise Risk Management framework (COSO ERM) and ISO 31000 to view organizational risks from an enterprise perspective.
    • Prior to the introduction of standardized risk frameworks, it was difficult to quantify the impact of a risk event on the entire enterprise, as the risk was viewed in a silo or as an individual risk component.
    • Recently, the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) published guidance on developing an enterprise risk management approach. The guidance helps to bridge the gap between best practices in enterprise risk management and processes and control techniques that cybersecurity professionals use to meet regulatory cybersecurity risk requirements.

    The image contains a screenshot of NIST ERM approach to strategic risk.

    Source: National Institute of Standards and Technology

    New NIST guidance (NISTIR 8286) emphasizes the complexity of risk management and the need for the risk management process to be carried out seamlessly across three tiers with the overall objective of continuous improvement.

    Enterprise risk appetite

    “The amount of risk an organization is willing to take in pursuit of its objectives”

    – Robert R. Moeller, COSO ERM Framework Model
    • A primary role of the board and senior management is to balance value creation with effectively management of enterprise risks.
    • As part of this role, the board will approve the enterprise’s risk appetite. Placing this responsibility with the board ensures that the risk appetite is aligned with the company’s strategic objectives.
    • The risk appetite is used throughout the organization to assess and respond to individual risks, acting as a constant to make sure that risks are managed within the organization’s acceptable limits.
    • Each year, or in reaction to a risk trigger, the enterprise risk appetite will be updated and approved by the board.
    • Risk appetite will vary across organizations for several reasons, such as industry, company culture, competitors, the nature of the objectives pursued, and financial strength.

    Change or new risks » adjust enterprise risk profile » adjust risk appetite

    Risk profile vs. risk appetite

    Risk profile is the broad parameters an organization considers in executing its business strategy. Risk appetite is the amount of risk an entity is willing to accept in pursuit of its strategic objectives. The risk appetite can be used to inform the risk profile or vice versa. Your organization’s risk culture informs and is used to communicate both.

    Risk Tolerant

    Moderate

    Risk Averse

    • You have no compliance requirements.
    • You have no sensitive data.
    • Customers do not expect you to have strong security controls.
    • Revenue generation and innovative products take priority and risk is acceptable.
    • The organization does not have remote locations.
    • It is likely that your organization does not operate within the following industries:
      • Finance
      • Healthcare
      • Telecom
      • Government
      • Research
      • Education
    • You have some compliance requirements, such as:
      • HIPAA
      • PIPEDA
    • You have sensitive data and are required to retain records.
    • Customers expect strong security controls.
    • Information security is visible to senior leadership.
    • The organization has some remote locations.
    • Your organization most likely operates within the following industries:
      • Government
      • Research
      • Education
    • You have multiple strict compliance and/or regulatory requirements.
    • You house sensitive data, such as medical records.
    • Customers expect your organization to maintain strong and current security controls.
    • Information security is highly visible to senior management and public investors.
    • The organization has multiple remote locations.
    • Your organization operates within the following industries:
      • Finance
      • Healthcare
      • Telecom

    Where the IT risk appetite fits into the risk program

    • Your organization’s strategy and associated risk appetite cascade down to each business department. Overall strategy and risk appetite also set a strategy and risk appetite for each department.
    • Both risk appetite and risk tolerances set boundaries for how much risk an organization is willing or prepared to take. However, while appetite is often broad, tolerance is tactical and focused.
    • Tolerances apply to specific objectives and provide guidance to those executing on a day-to-day basis. They measure the variation around performance expectations that the organization will tolerate.
    • Ideally, they are incorporated into existing governance, risk, and compliance systems and are also considered when evaluated business cases.
    • IT risk appetite statements are based on IT level 1 risk types.

    The risk appetite has a risk lens but is also closely linked to corporate performance.

    The image contains a screenshot of a diagram that demonstrates how risk appetite has a risk lens, and how it is linked to corporate performance.

    Statements of risk

    The image contains a screenshot of a diagram of the risk landscape.

    Risk Appetite

    Risk Tolerance

    • The general amount of risk an organization is willing to accept while pursuing its objectives.
    • Proactive, future view of risks that reflects the desired range of enterprise performance.
    • Reflects the longer-term strategy of what needs to be achieved and the resources available to achieve it, expressed in quantitative criteria.
    • Risk appetites will vary for several reasons, such as the company culture, financial strength, and capabilities.
    • Risk tolerance is the acceptable deviation from the level set by the risk appetite.
    • Risk tolerance is a tactical tool often expressed in quantitative terms.
    • Key risk indicators are often used to align to risk tolerance limits to ensure the organization stays within the set risk boundary.

    Risk scenarios

    Risk scenarios serve two main purposes: to help decision makers understand how adverse events can affect organizational strategy and objectives and to prepare a framework for risk analysis by clearly defining and decomposing the factors contributing to the frequency and the magnitude of adverse events.

    ISACA
    • Organizations’ pervasive use of and dependency on technology has increased the importance of scenario analysis to identify relevant and important risks and the potential impacts of risk events on the organization if the risk event were to occur.
    • Risk scenarios provide “what if” analysis through a structured approach, which can help to define controls and document assumptions.
    • They form a constructive narrative and help to communicate a story by bringing in business context.
    • For the best outcome, have input from business and IT stakeholders. However, in reality, risk scenarios are usually driven by IT through the asset management practice.
    • Once the scenarios are developed, they are used during the risk analysis phase, in which frequency and business impacts are estimated. They are also a useful tool to help the risk team (and IT) communicate and explain risks to various business stakeholders.

    Top-down approach – driven by the business by determining the business impact, i.e. what is the impact on my customers, reputation, and bottom line if the system that supports payment processing fails?

    Bottom-up approach – driven by IT by identifying critical assets and what harm could happen if they were to fail.

    Example risk scenario

    Use level 1 IT risks to derive potential scenarios.

    Risk Scenario Description

    Example: IT Risks

    Risk Scenario Title

    A brief description of the risk scenario

    The enterprise is unable to recruit and retain IT staff

    Risk Type

    The process or system that is impacted by the risk

    • Service quality
    • Product and service cost

    Risk Scenario Category

    Deeper insight into how the risk might impact business functions

    • Inadequate capacity to support business needs
    • Talent and skills gap due to inability to retain talent

    Risk Statement

    Used to communicate the potential adverse outcomes of a particular risk event and can be used to communicate to stakeholders to enable informed decisions

    The organization chronically fails to recruit sufficiently skilled IT workers, leading to a loss of efficiency in overall technology operation and an increased security exposure.

    Risk Owner

    The designated party responsible and accountable for ensuring that the risk is maintained in accordance with enterprise requirements

    • Head of Human Resources
    • Business Process Owner

    Risk Oversight

    The person (role) who is responsible for risk assessments, monitoring, documenting risk response, and establishing key risk indicators

    CRO/COO

    Phase 2

    Set Your Organization Up for Success

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    • Governance, Risk, and Compliance
    • Enterprise Risk Management
    • Enterprise Risk Appetite
    • Risk Statements and Scenarios
    • What Is a Risk Taxonomy?
    • Functional Role of an IT Risk Taxonomy
    • Connection to Enterprise Risk Management
    • Establish Committee
    • Steps to Define IT Risk Taxonomy
    • Define Level 1
    • Test Level 1
    • Define Level 2 and 3
    • Test via Your Control Framework

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • How to set up a cross-functional IT risk taxonomy committee

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • CISO
    • CRO
    • IT Risk Owners
    • Business Leaders
    • Human Resources

    What is a risk taxonomy?

    A risk taxonomy provides a common risk view and enables integrated risk

    • A risk taxonomy is the (typically hierarchical) categorization of risk types. It is constructed out of a collection of risk types organized by a classification scheme.
    • Its purpose is to assist with the management of an organization’s risk by arranging risks in a classification scheme.
    • It provides foundational support across the risk management lifecycle in relation to each of the key risks.
    • More material risk categories form the root nodes of the taxonomy, and risk types cascade into more granular manifestations (child nodes).
    • From a risk management perspective, a taxonomy will:
      • Enable more effective risk aggregation and interoperability.
      • Provide the organization with a complete view of risks and how risks might be interconnected or concentrated.
      • Help organizations form a robust control framework.
      • Give risk managers a structure to manage risks proactively.

    Typical Tree Structure

    The image contains a screenshot of the Typical Tree Structure.

    What is integrated risk management?

    • Integrated risk management is the process of ensuring all forms of risk information, including risk related to information and technology, are considered and included in the organization’s risk management strategy.
    • It removes the siloed approach of classifying risks related to specific departments or areas of the organization, recognizing that each risk is a potential threat to the overarching enterprise.
    • By aggregating the different threats or uncertainty that might exist within an organization, integrated risk management enables more informed decisions to be made that align to strategic goals and continue to drive value back to the business.
    • By holistically considering the different risks, the organization can make informed decisions on the best course of action that will reduce any negative impacts associated with the uncertainty and increase the overall value.

    The image contains a screenshot of the ERM.

    Integrated risk management: A strategic and collaborative way to manage risks across the organization. It is a forward-looking, business-specific outlook with the objective of improving risk visibility and culture.

    Drivers and benefits of integrated risk

    Drivers for Integrated Risk Management

    • Business shift to digital experiences
    • The breadth and number of risks requiring oversight
    • The need for faster risk analysis and decision making

    Benefits of Integrated Risk Management

    • Enables better scenario planning
    • Enables more proactive risk responses
    • Provides more relevant risk assurance to key stakeholders
    • Improves transparency and comparability of risks across organizational silos
    • Supports better financial resilience

    Business velocity and complexity are making real-time risk management a business necessity.

    If integrated risk is the destination, your taxonomy is your road to get you there

    Info-Tech’s Model for Integrated Risk

    The image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech's Model for Integrated Risk.

    How the risk practices intersect

    The risk taxonomy provides a common classification of risks that allows risks to roll up systematically to enterprise risk, enabling more effective risk responses and more informed decision making.

    The image contains a screenshot of a diagram that demonstrates how the risk practices intersect.

    ERM taxonomy

    Relative to the base event types, overall there is an increase in the number of level 1 risk types in risk taxonomies

    Oliver Wyman
    • The changing risk profile of organizations and regulatory focus in some industries is pushing organizations to rethink their risk taxonomies.
    • Generally, the expansion of level 1 risk types is due to the increase in risk themes under the operational risk umbrella.
    • Non-financial risks are risks that are not considered to be traditional financial risks, such as operational risk, technology risk, culture, and conduct. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risk is often referred to as a non-financial risk, although it can have both financial and non-financial implications.
    • Certain level 1 ERM risks, such as strategic risk, reputational risk, and ESG risk, cover both financial and non-financial risks.

    The image contains a screenshot of a diagram of the Traditional ERM Structure.

    Operational resilience

    • The concept of operational resiliency was first introduced by European Central Bank (ECB) in 2018 as an attempt to corral supervisory cooperation on operational resiliency in financial services.
    • The necessity for stronger operational resiliency became clear during the early stages of COVID-19 when many organizations were not prepared for disruption, leading to serious concern for the safety and soundness of the financial system.
    • It has gained traction and is now defined in global supervisory guidance. Canada’s prudential regulator, Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), defines it as “the ability of a financial institution to deliver its operations, including its critical operations, through disruption.”
    • Practically, its purpose is to knit together several operational risk management categories such as business continuity, security, and third-party risk.
    • The concept has been adopted by information and communication technology (ICT) companies, as technology and cyber risks sit neatly under this risk type.
    • It is now not uncommon to see operational resiliency as a level 1 risk type in a financial institution’s ERM framework.

    Operational resilience will often feature in ERM frameworks in organizations that deliver critical services, products, or functions, such as financial services

    Operational Resilience.

    ERM level 1 risk categories

    Although many organizations have expanded their enterprise risk management taxonomies to address new threats, most organizations will have the following level 1 risk types:

    ERM Level 1

    Definition

    Definition Source

    Financial

    The ability to obtain sufficient and timely funding capacity.

    Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP)

    Non-Financial

    Non-financial risks are risks that are not considered to be traditional financial risks such as operational risk, technology risk, culture and conduct.

    Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI)

    Reputational

    Potential negative publicity regarding business practices regardless of validity.

    US Federal Reserve

    Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP)

    Strategic

    Risk of unsuccessful business performance due to internal or external uncertainties, whether the event is event or trend driven. Actions or events that adversely impact an organizations strategies and/or implementation of its strategies.

    The Risk Management Society (RIMS)

    Sustainability (ESG)

    This risk of any negative financial or reputational impact on an organizations stemming from current or prospective impacts of ESG factors on its counterparties or invested assets.

    Open Risk Manual

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Talent and Risk Culture

    The widespread behaviors and mindsets that can threaten sound decision-making, prudent risk-taking, and effective risk management and can weaken an institution’s financial and operational resilience.

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Different models of ERM

    Some large organizations will elevate certain operational risks to level 1 organizational risks due to risk materiality.

    Every organization will approach its risk management taxonomy differently; the number of level 1 risk types will vary and depend highly on perceived impact.

    Some of the reasons why an organization would elevate a risk to a level 1 ERM risk are:

    • The risk has significant impact on the organization's strategy, reputation, or financial performance.
    • The regulator has explicitly called out board oversight within legislation.
    • It is best practice in the organization’s industry or business sector.
    • The organization has structured its operations around a particular risk theme due to its potential negative impact. For example, the organization may have a dedicated department for data privacy.

    Level 1

    Potential Rationale

    Industries

    Risk Definition

    Advanced Analytics

    Use of advanced analytics is considered material

    Large Enterprise, Marketing

    Risks involved with model risk and emerging risks posed by artificial intelligence/machine learning.

    Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Fraud

    Risk is viewed as material

    Financial Services, Gaming, Real Estate

    The risk of exposure to financial crime and fraud.

    Conduct Risk

    Sector-specific risk type

    Financial Services

    The current or prospective risk of losses to an institution arising from inappropriate supply of financial services including cases of willful or negligent misconduct.

    Operational Resiliency

    Sector-specific risk type

    Financial Services, ICT

    Organizational risk resulting from an organization’s failure to deliver its operations, including its critical operations, through disruption.

    Privacy

    Board driven – perceived as material risk to organization

    Healthcare, Financial Services

    The potential loss of control over personal information.

    Information Security

    Board driven – regulatory focus

    All may consider

    The people, processes, and technology involved in protecting data (information) in any form – whether digital or on paper – through its creation, storage, transmission, exchange, and destruction.

    Risk and impact

    Mapping risks to business outcomes happens within the ERM function and by enterprise fiduciaries.

    • When mapping risk events to enterprise risk types, the relationship is rarely linear. Rather, risk events typically will have multiple impacts on the enterprise, including strategic, reputational, ESG, and financial impacts.
    • As risk information is transmitted from lower levels, it informs the next level, providing the appropriate information to prioritize risk.
    • In the final stage, the enterprise portfolio view will reflect the enterprise impacts according to risk dimensions, such as strategic, operational, reporting, and compliance.

    Rolling Up Risks to a Portfolio View

    The image contains a screenshot to demonstrate rolling up risks to a portfolio view.

    1. A risk event within IT will roll up to the enterprise via the IT risk register.
    2. The impact of the risk on cash flow and operations will be aggregated and allocated in the enterprise risk register by enterprise fiduciaries (e.g. CFO).
    3. The impacts are translated into full value exposures or modified impact and likelihood assessments.

    Common challenges

    How to synthesize different objectives between IT risk and enterprise risk

    Commingling risk data is a major challenge when developing a risk taxonomy, but one of the underlying reasons is that the enterprise and IT look at risk from different dimensions.

    • The role of the enterprise in risk management is to provide and preserve value, and therefore the enterprise evaluates risk on an adjusted risk-return basis.
    • To do this effectively, the enterprise must break down silos and view risk holistically.
    • ERM is a top-down process of evaluating risks that may impact the entity. As part of the process, ERM must manage risks within the enterprise risk framework and provide reasonable assurances that enterprise objectives will be met.
    • IT risk management focuses on internal controls and sits as a function within the larger enterprise.
    • IT takes a bottom-up approach by applying an ongoing process of risk management and constantly identifying, assessing, prioritizing, and mitigating risks.
    • IT has a central role in risk mitigation and, if functioning well, will continually reduce IT risks, simplifying the role for ERM.

    Establish a team

    Cross-functional collaboration is key to defining level 1 risk types.

    Establish a cross-functional working group.

    • Level 1 IT risk types are the most important to get right because they are the root nodes that all subtypes of risk cascade from.
    • To ensure the root nodes (level 1 risk types) address the risks of your organization, it is vital to have a strong understanding or your organization’s value chain, so your organizational strategy is a key input for defining your IT level 1 risk types.
    • Since the taxonomy provides the method for communicating risks to the people who need to make decisions, a wide understanding and acceptance of the taxonomy is essential. This means that multiple people across your organization should be involved in defining the taxonomy.
    • Form a cross-functional tactical team to collaborate and agree on definitions. The team should include subject matter experts and leaders in key risk and business areas. In terms of governance structure, this committee might sit underneath the enterprise risk council, and members of your IT risk council may also be good candidates for this tactical working group.
    • The committee would be responsible for defining the taxonomy as well as performing regular reviews.
    • The importance of collaboration will become crystal clear as you begin this work, as risks should be connected to only one risk type.

    Governance Layer

    Role/ Responsibilities

    Enterprise

    Defines organizational goals. Directs or regulates the performance and behavior of the enterprise, ensuring it has the structure and capabilities to achieve its goals.

    Enterprise Risk Council

    • Approve of risk taxonomy

    Strategic

    Ensures business and IT initiatives, products, and services are aligned to the organization’s goals and strategy and provide expected value. Ensures adherence to key principles.

    IT Risk Council

    • Provide input
    • May review taxonomy ahead of going to the enterprise risk council for approval

    Tactical

    Ensures key activities and planning are in place to execute strategic initiatives.

    Subcommittee

    • Define risk types and definitions
    • Establish and maintain taxonomy
    • Recommend changes
    • Advocate and communicate internally

    2.1 Establish a cross-functional working group

    2-3 hours

    1. Consider your organization’s operating model and current governance framework, specifically any current risk committees.
    2. Consider the members of current committees and your objectives and begin defining:
      1. Committee mandate, goals, and success factors.
      2. Responsibility and membership.
      3. Committee procedures and policies.
    3. Make sure you define how this tactical working group will interact with existing committees.

    Download Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook

    Input Output
    • Organization chart and operating model
    • Corporate governance framework and existing committee charters
    • Cross-functional working group charter
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
    • IT Taxonomy Committee Charter
    • CISO
    • Human resources
    • Corporate communications
    • CRO or risk owners
    • Business leaders

    Phase 3

    Structure Your IT Risk Taxonomy

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3

    • Governance, Risk, and Compliance
    • Enterprise Risk Management
    • Enterprise Risk Appetite
    • Risk Statements and Scenarios
    • What Is a Risk Taxonomy?
    • Functional Role of an IT Risk Taxonomy
    • Connection to Enterprise Risk Management
    • Establish Committee
    • Steps to Define IT Risk Taxonomy
    • Define Level 1
    • Test Level 1
    • Define Level 2 and 3
    • Test via Your Control Framework

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Establish level 1 risk types
    • Test level 1 risk types
    • Define level 2 and level 3 risk types
    • Test the taxonomy via your control framework

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • CISO
    • CRO
    • IT Risk Owners
    • Business Leaders
    • Human Resources

    Structuring your IT risk taxonomy

    Do’s

    • Ensure your organization’s values are embedded into the risk types.
    • Design your taxonomy to be forward looking and risk based.
    • Make level 1 risk types generic so they can be used across the organization.
    • Ensure each risk has its own attributes and belongs to only one risk type.
    • Collaborate on and communicate your taxonomy throughout organization.

    Don’ts

    • Don’t develop risk types based on function.
    • Don’t develop your taxonomy in a silo.

    A successful risk taxonomy is forward looking and codifies the most frequently used risk language across your organization.

    Level 1

    Parent risk types aligned to organizational values

    Level 2

    Subrisks to level 1 risks

    Level 3

    Further definition

    Steps to define your IT risk taxonomy

    Step 1

    Leverage Info-Tech’s Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Guideline and identify IT level 1 risk types. Consider corporate inputs and macro trends.

    Step 2

    Test level 1 IT risk types by mapping to your enterprise's ERM level 1 risk types.

    Step 3

    Draft your level 2 and level 3 risk types. Be mutually exclusive to the extent possible.

    Step 4

    Work backward – align risk events and controls to the lowest level risk category. In our examples, we align to level 3.

    Step 5

    Add risk levels to your risk registry.

    Step 6

    Optional – Add IT risk appetite statements to risk register.

    Inputs to use when defining level 1

    To help you define your IT risk taxonomy, leverage your organization’s strategy and risk management artifacts, such as outputs from risk assessments, audits, and test results. Also consider macro trends and potential risks unique to your organization.

    Step 1 – Define Level 1 Risk Types

    Use corporate inputs to help structure your taxonomy

    • Corporate Strategy
    • Risk Assessment
    • Audit
    • Test Results

    Consider macro trends that may have an impact on how you manage IT risks

    • Geopolitical Risk
    • Economic Downturn
    • Regulation
    • Competition
    • Climate Risk
    • Industry Disruption

    Evaluate from an organizational lens

    Ask risk-based questions to help define level 1 IT risks for your organization.

    IT Risk Type

    Example Questions

    Technology

    How reliant is our organization on critical assets for business operations?

    How resilient is the organization to an unexpected crisis?

    How many planned integrations do we have (over the next 24 months)?

    Talent Risk

    What is our need for specialized skills, like digital, AI, etc.?

    Does our culture support change and innovation?

    How susceptible is our organization to labor market changes?

    Strategy

    What is the extent of digital adoption or use of emerging technologies in our organization?

    How aligned is IT with strategy/corporate goals?

    How much is our business dependent on changing customer preferences?

    Data

    How much sensitive data does our organization use?

    How much data is used and stored aggregately?

    How often is data moved? And to what locations?

    Third-party

    How many third-party suppliers do we have?

    How reliant are we on the global supply chain?

    What is the maturity level of our third-party suppliers?

    Do we have any concentration risk?

    Security

    How equipped is our organization to manage cyber threats?

    How many security incidents occur per year/quarter/day?

    Do we have regulatory obligations? Is there risk of enforcement action?

    Level 1 IT taxonomy structure

    Step 2 – Consider your organization’s strategy and areas where risks may manifest and use this guidance to advance your thinking. Many factors may influence your taxonomy structure, including internal organizational structure, the size of your organization, industry trends and organizational context, etc.

    Most IT organizations will include these level 1 risks in their IT risk taxonomy

    IT Level 1

    Definition

    Definition Source

    Technology

    Risk arising from the inadequacy, disruption, destruction, failure, damage from unauthorized access modifications, or malicious use of information technology assets, people or processes that enable and support business needs, and can result in financial loss and/or reputational damage.

    Open Risk Manual

    Note how this definition by OSFI includes cyber risk as part of technology risk. Smaller organizations and organizations that do not use large amounts of sensitive information will typically fold cyber risks under technology risks. Not all organizations will take this approach. Some organizations may elevate security risk to level 1.

    “Technology risk”, which includes “cyber risk”, refers to the risk arising from the inadequacy, disruption, destruction, failure, damage from unauthorized access, modifications, or malicious use of information technology assets, people or processes that enable and support business needs, and can result in financial loss and/or reputational damage.

    Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI)

    Talent

    The risk of not having the right knowledge and skills to execute strategy.

    Info-Tech Research Group/McLean & Company

    Human capital challenges including succession challenges and the ability to attract and retain top talent are considered the most dominant risk to organizations’ ability to meet their value proposition (Protiviti, 2023).

    Strategic

    Risks that threaten IT’s ability to deliver expected business outcomes.

    Info-Tech Research Group

    IT’s role as strategic enabler to the business has never been so vital. With the speed of disruptive innovation, IT must be able to monitor alignment, support opportunities, and manage unexpected crises.

    Level 1 IT taxonomy structure cont'd

    Step 2 – Large and more complex organizations may have more level 1 risk types. Variances in approaches are closely linked to the type of industry and business in which the organization operates as well as how they view and position risks within their organization.

    IT Level 1

    Definition

    Definition Source

    Data

    Data risk is the exposure to loss of value or reputation caused by issues or limitations to an organization’s ability to acquire, store, transform, move, and use its data assets.

    Deloitte

    Data risk encompasses the risk of loss value or reputation resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people and systems or from external events impacting on data.

    Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) CPG 235 -2013)

    Data is increasingly being used for strategic growth initiatives as well as for meeting regulatory requirements. Organizations that use a lot of data or specifically sensitive information will likely have data as a level 1 IT risk type.

    Third-Party

    The risk adversely impacting the institutions performance by engaging a third party, or their associated downstream and upstream partners or another group entity (intragroup outsourcing) to provide IT systems or related services.

    European Banking Association (EBA)

    Open Risk Manual uses EBA definition

    Third-party risk (supply chain risk) received heightened attention during COVID-19. If your IT organization is heavily reliant on third parties, you may want to consider elevating third-party risk to level 1.

    Security

    The risk of unauthorized access to IT systems and data from within or outside the institution (e.g., cyber-attacks). An incident is viewed as a series of events that adversely affects the information assets of an organization. The overall narrative of this type of risk event is captured as who, did what, to what (or whom), with what result.

    Open Risk Manual

    Some organizations and industries are subject to regulatory obligations, which typically means the board has strict oversight and will elevate security risk to a level 1.

    Common challenges

    Considerations when defining level 1 IT risk types

    • Ultimately, the identification of a level 1 IT risk type will be driven by the potential for and materiality of vulnerabilities that may impede an organization from delivering successful business outcomes.
    • Senior leaders within organizations play a central role in protecting organizations against vulnerabilities and threats.
    • The size and structure of your organization will influence how you manage risk.
    • The following slide shows typical roles and responsibilities for data privacy.
    • Large enterprises and organizations that use a lot of personal identifiable information (PII) data, such as those in healthcare, financial services, and online retail, will typically have data as a level 1 IT risk and data privacy as a level 2 risk type.
    • However, smaller organizations or organizations that do not use a lot of data will typically fold data privacy under either technology risk or security risk.

    Deciding placement in taxonomy

    Deciding Placement in Taxonomy.

    • In larger enterprises, data risks are managed within a dedicated functional department with its own governance structure. In small organizations, the CIO is typically responsible and accountable for managing data privacy risk.

    Global Enterprise

    Midmarket

    Privacy Requirement

    What Is Involved

    Accountable

    Responsible

    Accountable & Responsible

    Privacy Legal and Compliance Obligations

    • Ensuring the relevant Accountable roles understand privacy obligations for the jurisdictions operated in.

    Privacy Officer (Legal)

    Privacy Officer (Legal)

    Privacy Policy, Standards, and Governance

    • Defining polices and ensuring they are in place to ensure all privacy obligations are met.
    • Monitoring adherence to those policies and standards.

    Chief Risk Officer (Risk)

    Head of Risk Function

    Data Classification and Security Standards and Best-Practice Capabilities

    • Defining the organization’s data classification and security standards and ensuring they align to the privacy policy.
    • Designing and building the data security standards, processes, roles, and technologies required to ensure all security obligations under the privacy policy can be met.
    • Providing oversight of the effectiveness of data security practices and leading resolution of data security issues/incidents.

    Chief Information Security Officer (IT)

    Chief Information Security Officer (IT)

    Technical Application of Data Classification, Management and Security Standards

    • Ensuring all technology design, implementation, and operational decisions adhere to data classification, data management, and data security standards.

    Chief Information Officer (IT)

    Chief Data Architect (IT)

    Chief Information Officer (IT)

    Data Management Standards and Best-Practice Capabilities

    • Defining the organization’s data management standards and ensuring they align to the privacy policy.
    • Designing and building the data management standards, processes, roles, and technologies required to ensure data classification, access, and sharing obligations under the privacy policy can be met.
    • Providing oversight of the effectiveness of data classification, access, and sharing practices and leading resolution of data management issues/incidents.

    Chief Data Officer

    Where no Head of Data Exists and IT, not the business, is seen as de facto owner of data and data quality

    Execution of Data Management

    • Ensuring business processes that involve data classification, sharing, and access related to their data domain align to data management standards (and therefore privacy obligations).

    L1 Business Process Owner

    L2 Business Process Owner

    Common challenges

    Defining security risk and where it resides in the taxonomy

    • For risk management to be effective, risk professionals need to speak the same language, but the terms “information security,” “cybersecurity,” and “IT security” are often used interchangeably.
    • Traditionally, cyber risk was folded under technology risk and therefore resided at a lower level of a risk taxonomy. However, due to heightened attention from regulators and boards stemming from the pervasiveness of cyber threats, some organizations are elevating security risks to a level 1 IT risk.
    • Furthermore, regulatory cybersecurity requirements have emphasized control frameworks. As such, many organizations have adopted NIST because it is comprehensive, regularly updated, and easily tailored.
    • While NIST is prescriptive and action oriented, it start with controls and does not easily integrate with traditional ERM frameworks. To address this, NIST has published new guidance focused on an enterprise risk management approach. The guidance helps to bridge the gap between best practices in enterprise risk management and processes and control techniques that cybersecurity professionals use to meet regulatory cybersecurity risk requirements.

    Definitional Nuances

    “Cybersecurity” describes the technologies, processes, and practices designed to protect networks, computers, programs, and data from attack, damage, or unauthorized access.

    “IT security” describes a function as well as a method of implementing policies, procedures, and systems to defend the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of any digital information used, transmitted, or stored throughout the organization’s environment.

    “Information security” defines the people, processes, and technology involved in protecting data (information) in any form – whether digital or on paper – through its creation, storage, transmission, exchange, and destruction.

    3.1 Establish level 1 risk types

    2-3 hours

    1. Consider your current and future corporate goals and business initiatives, risk management artifacts, and macro industry trends.
    2. Ask questions to understand risks unique to your organization.
    3. Review Info-Tech’s IT level 1 risk types and identify the risk types that apply to your organization.
    4. Add any risk types that are missing and unique to your organization.
    5. Refine the definitions to suit your organization.
    6. Be mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive to the extent possible.

    Download Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook

    InputOutput
    • Organization's strategy
    • Other organizational artifacts if available (operating model, outputs from audits and risk assessments, risk profile, and risk appetite)
    • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Guideline
    • IT Risk Taxonomy Definitions
    • Level 1 IT risk types customized to your organization
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
    • CISO
    • Human resources
    • Corporate communications
    • CRO or risk owners
    • Business leaders

    3.2 Map IT risk types against ERM level 1 risk types

    1-2 hours

    1. Using the output from Activity 3.1, map your IT risk types to your ERM level 1 risk types.
    2. Record in the Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook.

    Download Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook

    InputOutput
    • IT level 1 risk types customized to your organization
    • ERM level 1 risk types
    • Final level 1 IT risk types
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
    • CISO
    • Human resources
    • Corporate communications
    • CRO or risk owners
    • Business leaders

    Map IT level 1 risk types to ERM

    Test your level 1 IT risk types by mapping to your organization’s level 1 risk types.

    Step 2 – Map IT level 1 risk types to ERM

    The image contains two tables. 1 table is ERM Level 1 Risks, the other table is IT Level 1 Risks.

    3.3 Establishing level 2 and 3 risk types

    3-4 hours

    1. Using the level 1 IT risk types that you have defined and using Info-Tech’s Risk Taxonomy Guideline, first begin to identify level 2 risk types for each level 1 type.
    2. Be mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive to the extent possible.
    3. Once satisfied with your level 2 risk types, break them down further to level 3 risk types.

    Note: Smaller organizations may only define two risk levels, while larger organizations may define further to level 4.

    Download Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template

    InputOutput
    • Output from Activity 3.1, Establish level 1 risk types
    • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
    • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Guideline
    • Level 2 and level 3 risk types recorded in Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
    • CISO
    • Human resources
    • Corporate communications
    • CRO or risk owners
    • Business leaders

    Level 2 IT taxonomy structure

    Step 3 – Break down your level 1 risk types into subcategories. This is complicated and may take many iterations to reach a consistent and accepted approach. Try to make your definitions intuitive and easy to understand so that they will endure the test of time.

    The image contains a screenshot of Level 2 IT taxonomy Structure.

    Security vulnerabilities often surface through third parties, but where and how you manage this risk is highly dependent on how you structure your taxonomy. Organizations with a lot of exposure may have a dedicated team and may manage and report security risks under a level 1 third-party risk type.

    Level 3 IT taxonomy structure

    Step 3 – Break down your level 2 risk types into lower-level subcategories. The number of levels of risk you have will depend on the size of and magnitude of risks within your organization. In our examples, we demonstrate three levels.

    The image contains a screenshot of Level 3 IT taxonomy Structure.

    Risk taxonomies for smaller organizations may only include two risk levels. However, large enterprises or more complex organizations may extend their taxonomy to level 3 or even 4. This illustration shows just a few examples of level 3 risks.

    Test using risk events and controls

    Ultimately risk events and controls need to roll up to level 1 risks in a consistent manner. Test the robustness of your taxonomy by working backward.

    Step 4 – Work backward to test and align risk events and controls to the lowest level risk category.

    • A key function of IT risk management is to monitor and maintain internal controls.
    • Internal controls help to reduce the level of inherent risk to acceptable levels, known as residual risk.
    • As risks evolve, new controls may be needed to upgrade protection for tech infrastructure and strengthen connections between critical assets and third-party suppliers.

    Example – Third Party Risk

    Third Party Risk example.

    3.4 Test your IT taxonomy

    2-3 hours

    1. Leveraging the output from Activities 3.1 to 3.3 and your IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template, begin to test the robustness of the taxonomy by working backward from controls to level 1 IT risks.
    2. The lineage should show clearly that the control will mitigate the impact of a realized risk event. Refine the control or move the control to another level 1 risk type if the control will not sufficiently reduce the impact of a realized risk event.
    3. Once satisfied, update your risk register or your risk management software tool.

    Download Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template

    InputOutput
    • Output from Activities 3.1 to 3.3
    • IT risk taxonomy documented in the IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • IT risk register
    • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
    • CISO
    • Human resources
    • Corporate communications
    • CRO or risk owners
    • Business leaders

    Update risk register

    Step 5 – Once you are satisfied with your risk categories, update your risk registry with your IT risk taxonomy.

    Use Info-Tech’s Risk Register Tool or populate your internal risk software tool.

    Risk Register.

    Download Info-Tech’s Risk Register Tool

    Augment the risk event list using COBIT 2019 processes (Optional)

    Other industry-leading frameworks provide alternative ways of conceptualizing the functions and responsibilities of IT and may help you uncover additional risk events.

    1. Managed IT Management Framework
    2. Managed Strategy
    3. Managed Enterprise Architecture
    4. Managed Innovation
    5. Managed Portfolio
    6. Managed Budget and Costs
    7. Managed Human Resources
    8. Managed Relationships
    9. Managed Service Agreements
    10. Managed Vendors
    11. Managed Quality
    12. Managed Risk
    13. Managed Security
    14. Managed Data
    15. Managed Programs
    16. Managed Requirements Definition
    17. Managed Solutions Identification and Build
    18. Managed Availability and Capacity
    19. Managed Organizational Change Enablement
    20. Managed IT Changes
    21. Managed IT Change Acceptance and Transitioning
    22. Managed Knowledge
    23. Managed Assets
    24. Managed Configuration
    25. Managed Projects
    26. Managed Operations
    27. Managed Service Requests and Incidents
    28. Managed Problems
    29. Managed Continuity
    30. Managed Security Services
    31. Managed Business Process Controls
    32. Managed Performance and Conformance Monitoring
    33. Managed System of Internal Control
    34. Managed Compliance with External Requirements
    35. Managed Assurance
    36. Ensured Governance Framework Setting and Maintenance
    37. Ensured Benefits Delivery
    38. Ensured Risk Optimization
    39. Ensured Resource Optimization
    40. Ensured Stakeholder Engagement

    Example IT risk appetite

    When developing your risk appetite statements, ensure they are aligned to your organization’s risk appetite and success can be measured.

    Example IT Risk Appetite Statement

    Risk Type

    Technology Risk

    IT should establish a risk appetite statement for each level 1 IT risk type.

    Appetite Statement

    Our organization’s number-one priority is to provide high-quality trusted service to our customers. To meet this objective, critical systems must be highly performant and well protected from potential threats. To meet this objective, the following expectations have been established:

    • No appetite for unauthorized access to systems and confidential data.
    • Low appetite for service downtime.
      • Service availability objective of 99.9%.
      • Near real-time recovery of critical services – ideally within 30 minutes, no longer than 3 hours.

    The ideal risk appetite statement is qualitative and supported by quantitative measures.

    Risk Owner

    Chief Information Officer

    Ultimately, there is an accountable owner(s), but involve business and technology stakeholders when drafting to gain consensus.

    Risk Oversight

    Enterprise Risk Committee

    Supporting Framework(s)

    Business Continuity Management, Information Security, Internal Audit

    The number of supporting programs and frameworks will vary with the size of the organization.

    3.5 Draft your IT risk appetite statements

    Optional Activity

    2-3 hours

    1. Using your completed taxonomy and your organization’s risk appetite statement, draft an IT risk appetite statement for each level 1 risk in your workbook.
    2. Socialize the statements and gain approval.
    3. Add the approved risk appetite statements to your IT risk register.

    Download Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook

    Input Output
    • Organization’s risk appetite statement
    • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
    • IT Risk Taxonomy Design Template
    • IT risk appetite statements
    Materials Participants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
    • CISO, CIO
    • Human resources
    • Corporate communications
    • CRO or risk owners
    • Business leaders

    Key takeaways and next steps

    • The risk taxonomy is the backbone of a robust enterprise risk management program. A good taxonomy is frequently used and well understood.
    • Not only is the risk taxonomy used to assess organizational impact, but it is also used for risk reporting, scenarios analysis and horizon scanning, and risk appetite expression.
    • It is essential to capture IT risks within the ERM framework to fully understand the impact and allow for consistent risk discussions and meaningful aggregation.
    • Defining an IT risk taxonomy is a team sport, and organizations should strive to set up a cross-functional working group that is tasked with defining the taxonomy, monitoring its effectiveness, and ensuring continual improvement.
    • The work does not end when the taxonomy is complete. The taxonomy should be well socialized throughout the organization after inception through training and new policies and procedures. Ultimately, it should be an activity embedded into risk management practices.
    • The taxonomy is a living document and should be continually improved upon.

    3.6 Prepare to communicate the taxonomy internally

    1-2 hours

    To gain acceptance of your risk taxonomy within your organization, ensure it is well understood and used throughout the organization.

    1. Consider your audience and agree on the key elements you want to convey.
    2. Prepare your presentation.
    3. Test your presentation with a smaller group before communicating to senior leadership or the board.

    Coming soon: Look for our upcoming research Communicate Any IT Initiative.

    InputOutput
    • Build an IT Risk Taxonomy Workbook
    • Upcoming research: Communicate Any IT Initiative
    • Presentation
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Upcoming research: Communicate Any IT Initiative
    • Internal communication templates
    • CISO, CIO
    • Human resources
    • Corporate communications
    • CRO or risk owners
    • Business leaders

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Build an IT Risk Management Program

    • Use this blueprint to transform your ad hoc risk management processes into a formalized ongoing program and increase risk management success.
    • Learn how to take a proactive stance against IT threats and vulnerabilities by identifying and assessing IT’s greatest's risks before they occur.

    Integrate IT Risk Into Enterprise Risk

    • Use this blueprint to understand gaps in your organization’s approach to risk management.
    • Learn how to integrate IT risks into the foundational risk practice

    Coming Soon: Communicate Any IT initiative

    • Use this blueprint to compose an easy-to-understand presentation to convey the rationale of your initiative and plan of action.
    • Learn how to identify your target audience and tailor and deliver the message in an authentic and clear manner.

    Risk definitions

    Term Description
    Emergent Risk Risks that are poorly understood but expected to grow in significance.
    Residual Risk The amount of risk you have left after you have removed a source of risk or implemented a mitigation approach (controls, monitoring, assurance).
    Risk Acceptance If the risk is within the enterprise's risk tolerance or if the cost of otherwise mitigating the risk is higher than the potential loss, the enterprise can assume the risk and absorb any losses.
    Risk Appetite An organization’s general approach and attitude toward risk; the total exposed amount that an organization wishes to undertake on the basis of risk-return trade-offs for one or more desired and expected outcomes.
    Risk Assessment The process of estimating and evaluating risk.
    Risk Avoidance The risk response where an organization chooses not to perform a particular action or maintain an existing engagement due to the risk involved.
    Risk Event A risk occurrence (actual or potential) or a change of circumstances. Can consist of more than one occurrence or of something not happening. Can be referred to as an incident or accident.
    Risk Identification The process of finding, recognizing, describing, and documenting risks that could impact the achievement of objectives.
    Risk Management The capability and related activities used by an organization to identify and actively manage risks that affect its ability to achieve goals and strategic objectives. Includes principles, processes, and framework.
    Risk Likelihood The chance of a risk occurring. Usually measured mathematically using probability.
    Risk Management Policy Expresses an organization’s commitment to risk management and clarifies its use and direction.
    Risk Mitigation The risk response where an action is taken to reduce the impact or likelihood of a risk occurring.
    Risk Profile A written description of a set of risks.

    Risk definitions

    Term Description
    Risk Opportunity A cause/trigger of a risk with a positive outcome.
    Risk Owner The designated party responsible and accountable for ensuring that the risk is maintained in accordance with enterprise requirements.
    Risk Register A tool used to identify and document potential and active risks in an organization and to track the actions in place to manage each risk.
    Risk Response How you choose to respond to risk (accept, mitigate, transfer, or avoid).
    Risk Source The element that, alone or in combination, has potential to give rise to a risk. Usually this is the root cause of the risk.
    Risk Statement A description of the current conditions that may lead to the loss, and a description of the loss.
    Risk Tolerance The amount of risk you are prepared or able to accept (in terms of volume or impact); the amount of uncertainty an organization is willing to accept in the aggregate (or more narrowly within a certain business unit or for a specific risk category). Expressed in quantitative terms that can be monitored (such as volatility or deviation measures), risk tolerance often is communicated in terms of acceptable/unacceptable outcomes or as limited levels of risk. Risk tolerance statements identify the specific minimum and maximum levels beyond which the organization is unwilling to accept variations from the expected outcome.
    Risk Transfer The risk response where you transfer the risk to a third party.

    Research Contributors and Experts

    LynnAnn Brewer
    Director
    McLean & Company

    Sandi Conrad
    Principal Research Director
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Valence Howden
    Principal Research Director
    Info-Tech Research Group

    John Kemp
    Executive Counsellor – Executive Services
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Brittany Lutes
    Research Director
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Carlene McCubbin
    Practice Lead – CIO Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Frank Sargent
    Senior Workshop Director
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Frank Sewell
    Advisory Director
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Ida Siahaan
    Research Director
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Steve Willis
    Practice Lead – Data Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Bibliography

    Andrea Tang, “Privacy Risk Management”. ISACA Journal, June 2020, Accessed January 2023
    Anthony Kruizinga, “Reshaping the risk taxonomy”. PwC, April 2021, Accessed January 2023
    Auditboard, "The Essentials of Integrated Risk Management (IRM)", June 2022, Accessed January 2023
    Brenda Boultwood, “How to Design an ERM-Friendly Risk Data Architecture”. Global Association of Risk Professionals, February 2020, Accessed January 2023
    BSI Standards Publication, "Risk Management Guidelines", ISO 31000, 2018
    Dan Swinhoe, "What is Physical Security, How to keep your facilities and devices safe from onsite attackers", August 2021, Accessed January 2023
    Eloise Gratton, “Data governance and privacy risk in Canada: A checklist for boards and c-suite”. Borden Ladner Gervais, November 2022 , Accessed January 2023
    European Union Agency for Cyber Security Glossary
    European Banking Authority, "Guidelines on ICT Risk Assessment under the Supervisory Review and Evaluation process (SREP)", September 2017, Accessed February 2023
    European Banking Authority, "Regulatory Framework for Mitigating Key Resilient Risks", Sept 2018, Accessed February 2023
    EY, "Seeking stability within volatility: How interdependent risks put CROs at the heart of the banking business", 12th annual EY/IFF global bank risk management survey, 2022, Accessed February 2023
    Financial Stability Board, "Cyber Lexicon", November 2018, Accessed February 2023
    Financial Stability Board, "Principles for Effective Risk Appetite Framework", November 2013, Accessed January 2023
    Forbes Technology Council, "14 Top Data Security Risks Every Business Should Address", January 2020, Accessed January 2023
    Frank Martens, Dr. Larry Rittenberg, "COSO, Risk Appetite Critical for Success, Using Risk Appetite to Thrive in a Changing World", May 2020, Accessed January 2023
    Gary Stoneurmer, Alice Goguen and Alexis Feringa, "NIST, Risk Management Guide for Information Technology Systems", Special Publication, 800-30, September 2012, Accessed February 2023
    Guy Pearce, "Real-World Data Resilience Demands and Integrated Approach to AI, Data Governance and the Cloud", ISACA Journal, May 2022
    InfoTech Tech Trends Report, 2023
    ISACA, "Getting Started with Risk Scenarios", 2022, Accessed February 2023
    James Kaplan, "Creating a technology risk and cyber risk appetite framework," McKinsey & Company, August 2022, Accessed February 2023
    Jean-Gregorie Manoukian, Wolters Kluwer, "Risk appetite and risk tolerance: what’s the difference?", Sept 2016, Accessed February 2023
    Jennifer Bayuk, “Technology’s Role in Enterprise Risk Management”, ISACA Journal, March 2018, Accessed in February 2023
    John Thackeray, "Global Association of Risk Professionals, 7 Key Elements of Effective ERM", January 2020, Accessed January 2023
    KPMG, "Regulatory rigor: Managing technology and cyber risk, How FRFI’s can achieve outcomes laid out in OSFI B-13", October 2022, Accessed January 2023
    Marc Chiapolino et al, “Risk and resilience priorities, as told by chief risk officers”, McKinsey and Company, December 2022, Accessed January 2023
    Mike Rost, Workiva, "5 Steps to Effective Strategic Management", Updated February 2023. Accessed February 2023
    NIST, "Risk Management Framework for Information Systems and Organization, The System Life Cycle Approach for Security and Privacy," December 2018, Accessed February 2023
    NIST, NISTIR, "Integrating CyberSecurity and Enterprise Risk", October 2020, Accessed February 2023
    Oliver Wyman, "The ORX Reference Taxonomy for operational and non-financial risk summary report", 2019, Accessed February 2023.
    Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, "Operational Resilience Consultation Results Summary", December 2021, Accessed January 2023
    Open Risk Manual, Risk Taxonomy Definitions
    Ponemon. "Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021." IBM, July 2021. Web.
    Protiviti, "Executive Perspectives on Top Risks, 2023 & 2032, Key Issues being discussed in the boardroom and c-suite", February 2023, Accessed February 2023
    RIMS, ISACA, "Bridging the Digital Gap, How Collaboration Between IT and Risk Management can Enhance Value Creation", September 2019, Accessed February 2023
    Robert, R. Moeller, "COSO, Enterprise Risk Management, Second Edition, 2011", Accessed February 2023
    Robert Putrus, "Effective Reporting to the BoD on Critical Assets, Cyberthreats and Key Controls: The Qualitative and Quantitative Model", ISACA Journal, January 2021, Accessed January 2023
    Ron Brash, "Prioritizing Asset Risk Management in ICS Security", August 2020, Accessed February 2023
    Ronald Van Loon, "What is Data Culture and How to Implement it?", November 2023, Accessed February 2023
    SAS, "From Crisis to Opportunity, Redefining Risk Management", 2021Accessed January 2023
    Satori, Cloudian, "Data Protection and Privacy: 12 Ways to Protect User Data", Accessed January 2023
    Spector Information Security, "Building your Asset and Risk Register to Manage Technology Risk", November 2021, Accessed January 2023
    Talend, "What is data culture", Accessed February 2023
    Tom Schneider, "Managing Cyber Security Risk as Enterprise Risk", ISACA Journal, September 2022, Accessed February 2023
    Tony Martin –Vegue, "How to Write Strong Risk Scenarios and Statements", ISACA Journal, September 2021, Accessed February 2023
    The Wall Street Journal, "Making Data Risk a Top Priority", April 2018, Accessed February 2023

    Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}281|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: N/A
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    • Parent Category Name: Mobile Development
    • Parent Category Link: /mobile-development
    • Organizations see the value of mobile applications in improving productivity and reach of day-to-day business and IT operations. This motivates leaders to begin the planning of their first application.
    • However, organizations often lack the critical foundational knowledge and skills to deliver and maintain high quality and valuable applications that meet business and user priorities and technical requirements.
    • Mobile technologies and trends are continually evolving and maturing. It is hard to predict which trends will make a significant impact and to prepare current mobile investments to harness their value of these trends.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

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

    Impact and Result

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

    Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools Research & Tools

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

    1. Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools Storyboard

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

    • Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools Storyboard

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

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

    • Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    Infographic

    Workshop: Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools

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

    1 Choose Your Platform and Delivery Solution

    The Purpose

    Choose the right mobile platform.

    Shortlist your mobile delivery solution and desired features and services.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A chosen mobile platform that meets user and enterprise needs.

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

    Activities

    1.1 Select your platform approach.

    1.2 Shortlist your mobile delivery solution.

    1.3 Build your feature and service lists.

    Outputs

    Desired mobile platform approach.

    Shortlisted mobile delivery solutions.

    Desired list of vendor features and services.

    2 Create Your Roadmap

    The Purpose

    Design the mobile application minimal viable product (MVP).

    Create your mobile roadmap.

    Key Benefits Achieved

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

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

    Activities

    2.1 Define your MVP release.

    2.2 Build your roadmap.

    Outputs

    MVP design.

    Mobile delivery roadmap.

    3 Set the Mobile Context

    The Purpose

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

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

    Identify your mobile application opportunities.

    Key Benefits Achieved

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

    Level set stakeholder expectations and establish targeted objectives.

    Prioritized list of mobile opportunities.

    Activities

    3.1 Generate user personas with empathy maps.

    3.2 Build your mobile application canvas.

    3.3 Build your mobile backlog.

    Outputs

    User personas.

    Mobile objectives and metrics.

    Mobile opportunity backlog.

    4 Identify Your Technical Needs

    The Purpose

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

    Understand the state of your current system to support mobile.

    Identify your definition of mobile application quality.

    List the concerns with mobile delivery.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Clear understanding of the desired mobile experience.

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

    Grounded understanding of mobile application quality.

    Holistic readiness assessment to proceed with mobile delivery.

    Activities

    4.1 Discuss your mobile needs.

    4.2 Conduct a technical assessment.

    4.3 Define mobile application quality.

    4.4 Verify your decision to deliver mobile applications.

    Outputs

    List of mobile features to enable the desired mobile experience.

    System current assessment.

    Mobile application quality definition.

    Verification to proceed with mobile delivery.

    Further reading

    Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools

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

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    Mobile is the way of working.

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

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

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

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

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

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

    Common Obstacles

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

    Info-Tech's Approach

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

    Insight Summary

    Overarching Info-Tech Insight

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

    Phase 1: Set the Mobile Context

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

    Phase 2: Define Your Mobile Approach

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

    Mobile is how the business works today

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

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

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

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

    Mobile applications enable and drive your digital business strategy

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

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

    Goal: Enhance Customer Experience

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

    Goal: Increase Workflow Throughput & Efficiency

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

    Source: Broadridge, 2022

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

    Well developed mobile applications bring unique opportunities to drive more value

    Role

    Opportunities With Mobile Applications

    Expected Value

    Stationary Worker

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

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

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

    Roaming Worker
    (Engineer)

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

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

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

    Roaming Worker
    (Nurse)

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

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

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    Workers expect IT to deliver against their high mobile expectations

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

    Why is IT considering building their own applications?

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

    Continuously meeting aggressive user expectations will not be easy

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Accept change as the norm

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Address the difficulties in managing enterprise mobile technologies

    Adaptability During Development

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

    High Cybersecurity Standards

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

    Integration with Other Systems

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

    Finding the Right Mobile Developers

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

    Source: Radoslaw Szeja, Netguru, 2022.

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

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

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

    Business Value

    Continuous modernization

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

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

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

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

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

    Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools

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

    WORKFLOW

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

    Strategic Perspective
    Business and Product Strategies

    1. End-User Perspective

    End User Needs

    • Productivity
    • Innovation
    • Transformation

    Native User Experience

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

    2. Platform Perspective

    Technical Requirements

    Security

    Performance

    Integration

    Mobile Platform

    3. Solution Perspective

    Vendor Support

    Services

    Stack Mgmt.

    Quality & Risk

    Mobile Delivery Solutions

    Make user experience (UX) the standard

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

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

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

    Enable a greater experience with UX-driven thinking

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

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

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

    Source: Marky Roden, Xomino, 2018

    Define the mobile experience your end users want

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

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

    Mobile value is dependent on the platform you choose

    What is a platform?

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

    Web

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

    • Progressive Web Applications (PWA)
    • Mobile Web Sites

    Hybrid

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

    Cross-Platform

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

    Native

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

    Start mobile development on a mobile web platform

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

    Why choose a mobile web platform?

    Pros

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

    Cons

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

    Other Notable Benefits with Web Languages

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

    Select your mobile platform

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

    When does a platform makes sense to use?

    Web

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

    Hybrid / Cross-Platform

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

    Native

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

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

    Understand the common attributes of a mobile delivery solution

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

    What are mobile delivery solutions?

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

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    Select your mobile delivery solutions

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

    Optimize your software delivery process

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

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

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

    How should the process change?

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

    Achieve mobile success with MVPs

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

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

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

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

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

    Gauge the value with the right metrics

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

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

    What should I measure?

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

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

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

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

    USE THE PROGRAM DIAGNOSTIC TO:

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

    INTEGRATE DIAGNOSTIC RESULTS TO:

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

    Grow your mobile delivery practice

    Level 1: Mobile Delivery Foundations

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

    Level 2: Scaled Mobile Delivery

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

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

    Level 3: Leading-Edge Mobile Delivery

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

    Hit a home run with your stakeholders

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

    Awareness Education & Discovery Evaluation Selection

    Negotiation & Configuration

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

    1.3 Conduct an Accelerated Business Needs Assessment

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

    Investing time improving your software selection methodology has big returns.

    Info-Tech Insight

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

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

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

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

    INFO-TECH DELIVERABLE

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

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

    1. Set the Mobile Context

    2. Define Your Mobile Approach

    Phase Steps

    Step 1.1 Build Your Mobile Backlog

    Step 1.2 Identify Your Technical Needs

    Step 1.3 Define Your Non-Functional Requirements

    Step 2.1 Choose Your Platform Approach

    Step 2.2 Shortlist Your Mobile Delivery Solution

    Step 2.3 Create a Roadmap for Mobile Delivery

    Phase Outcomes

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

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

    DIY Toolkit

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

    Guided Implementation

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

    Workshop

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

    Consulting

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Phase 1 Phase 2

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

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

    Call #5: Discuss the desired mobile platform.

    Call #8: Discuss your mobile MVP.

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

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

    Call #9: Review your mobile delivery roadmap.

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

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

    Workshop Overview

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

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

    1.1 Generate user personas with empathy maps

    1.2 Build your mobile application canvas

    1.3 Build your mobile backlog

    2.1 Discuss your mobile needs

    2.2 Conduct a technical assessment

    2.3 Define mobile application quality

    2.4 Verify your decision to deliver mobile applications

    3.1 Select your platform approach

    3.2 Shortlist your mobile delivery solution

    3.3 Build your feature and service lists

    4.1 Define your MVP release

    4.2 Build your roadmap

    5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days.

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

    Deliverables

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

    Phase 1

    Set the Mobile Context

    Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools

    This phase will walk you through the following steps:

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

    This phase involves the following participants:

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

    Step 1.1

    Build Your Mobile Backlog

    Activities

    1.1.1 Generate user personas with empathy maps

    1.1.2 Build your mobile application canvas

    1.1.3 Build your mobile backlog

    Set the Mobile Context

    This step involves the following participants:

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

    Outcomes of this step

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

    Users expect your organization to support their mobile way of working

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

    How has technologies evolved to easily enable mobile capabilities?

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

    Make user experience (UX) the standard

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

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

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

    Enable a greater experience with UX-driven thinking

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

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

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

    Source: Marky Roden, Xomino, 2018

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    UI-Function Balance to Achieve Highly Satisfying Mobile Applications

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Typical Focus of Mobile UX

    Aesthetics
    What Are the Colors & Fonts?

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

    UI Design
    Where Are the Interaction Points?

    Content Layout
    How Is Content Organized?

    Critical Areas of Mobile UX That Are Often Ignored

    Web Infrastructure
    How Will Your Application Be Operationally Supported?

    Human Behavior
    What Do the Users Feel About Your Application?

    Coding Language
    What Is the Best Language to Use?

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

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

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

    Application Support
    How Will My Requests and Issues Be Handled?

    Use personas to envision who will be using your mobile application

    What Are Personas?

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

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

    Why Are Personas Important to UX?

    They are important because they help:

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

    Key Elements of a Persona:

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

    Create empathy maps to gain a deeper understanding of stakeholder personas

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

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

    Source: XPLANE, 2017

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

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

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

    1.1.1 Generate user personas with empathy maps

    1-3 hours

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

    Input

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

    1.1.1 cont'd

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

    Download the Empathy Map Canvas

    Many business priorities are driving mobile

    Mobile Applications

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    How to write a vision statement

    It's ok to dream a little!

    When thinking about a vision statement, think about:

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

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

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

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

    Info-Tech Best Practice

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

    Ensure mobile supports ongoing value delivery and stakeholder expectations

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

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

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

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

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

    Set realistic mobile goals

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Gauge the value with the right metrics

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

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

    What should I measure?

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

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

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

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

    USE THE PROGRAM DIAGNOSTIC TO:

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

    INTEGRATE DIAGNOSTIC RESULTS TO:

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

    Use a canvas to define key elements of your mobile initiative

    Mobile Application Initiative Name

    Owner:
    Parent Initiative:
    Updated:

    NAME
    LINK
    October 05, 2022

    Problem Statement

    Vision

    The problem or need mobile applications are addressing

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

    Business Goals & Metrics

    Capabilities, Processes & Application Systems

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

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

    Personas/Customers/Users

    Stakeholders

    List of groups who consume the mobile application

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

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

    1.1.2 Build your mobile application canvas

    1-3 hours

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

    Download the Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    Input

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

    1.1.2 cont'd

    Mobile Application Initiative Name

    Owner:
    Parent Initiative:
    Updated:

    NAME
    LINK
    October 05, 2022

    Problem Statement

    Vision

    [Problem Statement]

    [Vision]

    Business Goals & Metrics

    Capabilities, Processes & Application Systems

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

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

    Personas/Customers/Users

    Stakeholders

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

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

    Create your mobile backlog

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

    Opportunities
    Trends
    MVP

    External Sources

    Internal Sources

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

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

    Find your mobile opportunities

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

    Examples of Mobile Opportunities:

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

    1.1.3 Build your mobile backlog

    1-3 hours

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

    Input

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

    Manage your mobile backlog

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

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

    2 – QUALIFIED
    Researched and qualified opportunities awaiting refinement.

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

    Adapted from Essential Scrum

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

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

    (Source Perforce, 2018)

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

    Step 1.2

    Identify Your Technical Needs

    Activities

    1.2.1 Discuss your mobile needs

    1.2.2 Conduct a technical assessment

    Set the Mobile Context

    This step involves the following participants:

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

    Outcomes of this step

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

    Describe your desired mobile experiences with journey maps

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

    Why are journey maps an important for mobile application delivery?

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

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

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

    Pinpoint specific mobile needs in your journey map

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

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

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

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

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

    Is the data sensitive and can it be locally stored?

    What is the level of detail in my view?

    Multi-factor authentication required.

    Highly sensitive data requires encryption in transit and at rest.

    Minor calculations and preparation needed before data view.

    Generate a status report.

    View social media channels.

    View contact information.

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

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

    How much data can I edit?

    Is the data automatically gathered?

    Bandwidth restrictions.

    Multi-factor authentication required.

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

    Multiple types and formats of gathered data.

    Manual and automatic data gathering

    Book appointments with clients.

    Update inventory.

    Tracking movement of company assets.

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

    How complex are my calculations?

    Can computations be offloaded?

    What resources are needed to complete the analysis?

    Memory and processing limitations on device.

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

    Scope and precision of analysis and modifications.

    Evaluate and propose trends.

    Gauge user sentiment.

    Propose next steps and directions.

    Define the mobile experience your end users want

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

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

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

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

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

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

    1.2.1 Discover your mobile needs

    1-3 hours

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

    Input

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

    1.2.1 cont'd

    Workflow

    Trigger

    Conduct initial analysis

    Get planning help

    Complete and submit RFP

    Design and implement solution

    Implement changes

    Activities, Channels, and Touchpoints

    Need is recognized in CIO council meeting

    See if we have a sufficient solution internally

    Seek planning help (various channels)

    *Meet with IT shared services business analyst

    Select the appropriate vendor

    Follow action plan

    Compliance rqmt triggered by new law

    See if we have a sufficient solution internally

    *Hold in-person initial meeting with IT shared services

    *Review and approve rqmts (email)

    Seek miscellaneous support

    Implement project and manage change

    Research potential solutions in the marketplace

    Excess budget identified for utilization

    Pick a "favorite" solution

    *Negotiate and sign statement of work (email)

    Prime organization for the change

    Create action plan

    If solution is unsatisfactory, plan remediation

    Current Technology

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

    Legend:

    Bold – Touchpoint

    * – Activities or Touchpoints That Can Benefit with Mobile

    1.2.1 cont'd

    1-3 hours

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

    Download the Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    1.2.1 cont'd

    Example

    This image contains an example workflow for determining mobile needs.

    1.2.1 cont'd

    Template:

    Workflow

    TriggerStep 1Step 2Step 3Step 4

    Desired Outcome

    Journey Map

    Activities & Touch-points

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    Must-Haves

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    Nice-to-Haves

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    Hidden Needs

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    <>

    Emotional Journey

    <>

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

    Understand how mobile fits with your current system

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

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

    Application Architecture Views

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

    Ask key questions in your current system assessment

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

    1.2.2 Conduct a technical assessment

    1-3 hours

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

    Download the Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    Input

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

    1.2.2 cont'd

    Current State System Quality Assessment

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

    1.2.2 cont'd

    Current State System Management Assessment

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

    Step 1.3

    Define Your Non-Functional Requirements

    Activities

    1.3.1 Define mobile application quality

    1.3.2 Verify your decision to deliver mobile applications

    Set the Mobile Context

    This step involves the following participants:

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

    Outcomes of this step

    • Mobile application quality definition
    • Readiness for mobile delivery

    Build a strong foundation of mobile application quality

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

    What is Mobile Application Quality?

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

    Why is Mobile Quality Assurance Critical?

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

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

    Mobile emphasizes the importance of good security, performance and integration

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

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

    Mobile risks opening and widening existing security gaps

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

    Mobile attacks can come from various vectors:

    Attack Surface: Mobile Device

    Attack Surface: Network

    Attack Surface: Data Center

    Browser:
    Phishing
    Buffer Overflow
    Data Caching

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

    Phone:
    SMSishing
    Radio Frequency Attacks

    Apps:
    Configuration Manipulation
    Runtime Injection
    Improper SSL Validation

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

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

    Database:
    SQL Injection
    Data Dumping

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

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

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

    Good mobile application performance drives satisfaction and value delivery

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

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

    Productive Users Need
    Performant Mobile Applications

    Persona

    Mobile Application Use Case

    Optimized Mobile Application

    Stationary Worker

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

    Roaming Worker (Engineer)

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

    Enhance the performance of the entire mobile stack

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

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

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    Create an API-centric integration strategy

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Guide your integration strategy with principles

    Craft your principles around good API management and integration practices

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

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

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

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

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

    Source: 5 Pillars of API Management, Broadcom, 2021

    Clarify your definition of mobile quality

    Quality does not mean the same thing to everyone

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

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

    For example:

    Mobile Application Owner
    What does an accessible mobile application mean?

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

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

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

    Example: A School Board's Quality Definition

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

    Scalability

    There are two kinds of scalability:

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

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

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

    1.3.1 Define mobile application quality

    1-3 hours

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

    Download the Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    Input

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

    1.3.1 cont'd

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

    Quality AttributeDeveloperOperations & Support TeamEnd Users

    Usability

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

    Security

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

    1.3.2 Verify your decision to deliver mobile applications

    1-3 hours

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

    Input

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

    1.3.2 cont'd

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

    Phase 2

    Define Your Mobile Approach

    Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

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

    This phase involves the following participants:

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

    Step 2.1

    Choose Your Platform Approach

    Activities

    2.1.1 Select your platform approach

    Define Your Mobile Approach

    This step involves the following participants:

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

    Outcomes of this step

    • Desired mobile platform approach

    Mobile value is dependent on the platform you choose

    What is a platform?

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

    Web

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

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

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

    Hybrid

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

    Some notable examples:

    • Gmail
    • Instagram

    Cross-Platform

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

    Some notable examples:

    • Facebook
    • Skype
    • Slack

    Native

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

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

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

    WebHybridCross-PlatformNative

    Pros

    Cons

    Pros

    Cons

    Pros

    Cons

    Pros

    Cons

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

    Start mobile development on a mobile web platform

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

    Why choose a mobile web platform?

    Pros

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

    Cons

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

    Other Notable Benefits with Web Languages

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

    Do you need a native platform?

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

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

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

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    Architect and configure your entire mobile stack with a plan

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

    See our Enhance Your Solution Architecture for more information.

    Do Not Forget Your Security and Performance Requirements

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

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

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

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

    Enterprise platform selection requires a shift in perspective

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

    Begin Platform Selection with a User-Centric Approach

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

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

    Refine Platform Selection with an Enterprise-Centric Approach

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

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    Select your mobile platform

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

    When does a platform makes sense to use?

    Web

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

    Hybrid / Cross-Platform

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

    Native

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

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

    2.1.1 Select your platform approach

    1-3 hours

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

    Download the Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    Input

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

    2.1.1 cont'd

    User-Centric Needs: Functional Requirements

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

    2.1.1 cont'd

    User-Centric Needs: Native User Experience Factors

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

    2.1.1 cont'd

    Enterprise-Centric Needs: Non-Functional Requirements

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

    2.1.1 cont'd

    Enterprise-Centric Needs: Delivery Capacity

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

    2.1.1 cont'd

    Example:

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

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

    Build a scalable and manageable platform

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

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

    Step 2.2

    Shortlist Your Mobile Delivery Solution

    Activities

    2.2.1 Shortlist your mobile delivery solution

    2.2.2 Build your feature and service lists

    Define Your Mobile Approach

    This step involves the following participants:

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

    Outcomes of this step

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

    Ask yourself: should I build or buy?

    Build Buy

    Multi-Source Best-of-Breed

    Vendor Add-Ons & Integrations

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

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

    Pros

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

    Cons

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

    Pros

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

    Cons

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

    Multi-Source Custom

    Single Source

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

    Buy an application/system from one vendor only.

    Pros

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

    Cons

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

    Pros

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

    Cons

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

    Weigh the pros and cons of mobile enablement versus development

    Mobile Enablement

    Mobile Development

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

    Understand the common attributes of a mobile delivery solution

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

    What are mobile delivery solutions?

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

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

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    Select your mobile delivery solutions

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

    Explore the various solution options

    Vendor Hosted Mobile Platform

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

    Cross-Platform Development SDKs

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

    Custom Native Development Solutions

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

    Commercial-Off-the-Shelf Solutions

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

    Hybrid Development SDKs

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

    Custom Web Development Solutions

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

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

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

    Platform Runtime

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

    Extensions

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

    Platform Services

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

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

    Application Architecture

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

    This image contains an example of mobile application architecture.

    Source: "HCL Volt MX", HCL.

    Build your shortlist decision criteria

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

    Who is the Mobile Delivery Team?

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

    What are the Use Cases?

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

    How Complex is the System?

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

    How Much Can We Tolerate?

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

    2.2.1 Shortlist your mobile delivery solution

    1-3 hours

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

    Download the Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    Input

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

    2.2.1 cont'd

    Stack Management

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

    2.2.1 cont'd

    Example:

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

    Commercial-Off-the-Shelf Solution

    Hybrid Development Solution

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

    Consider the following in your solution selection and implementation

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

    Enhance your SDLC to support mobile delivery

    What is the SDLC?

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

    How will mobile delivery influence my SDLC?

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

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

    Example: Low- & No-Code Mobile Delivery Pipeline

    Low Code

    Data Modeling & Configuration

    No Code

    Visual Interface with Complex Data Models

    Data Modeling & Configuration

    Visual Interfaces with Simple Data Models

    GUI Designer with Customizable Components & Entities

    UI Definition & Design

    GUI Designer with Canned Templates

    Visual Workflow and Custom Scripting

    Business Logic Rules and Workflow Specification

    Visual Workflow and Natural Language Scripting

    Out-of-the-Box Plugins & Custom Integrations

    Integration of External Services (via 3rd Party APIs)

    Out-of-the-Box Plugins

    Automated and Manual Build & Packaging

    Build & Package

    Automated Build & Packaging

    Automated & Manual Testing

    Test

    Automated Testing

    One-Click Push or IT Push to App Store

    Publish to App Store

    One-Click Push to App Store

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

    Mobile success requires more than a set of good tools.

    Overcome the Common Challenges Faced with Building Mobile Applications

    Common Challenges with Digital Applications

    Suggested Solutions

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

    Source: DronaHQ, 2021

    Learn the differentiators of mobile delivery solutions

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

    Define your mobile delivery vendor selection criteria

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

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

    Build your features list

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

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

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

    Mobile Developer

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

    Mobile IT Professional

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

    2.2.2 Build your feature and service lists

    1-3 hours

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

    End user personas and desired mobile experience

    Objectives and expectations

    Desired mobile features and platform

    Mobile delivery solutions

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

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

    Download the Mobile Application Delivery Communication Template

    Input

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

    Hit a home run with your stakeholders

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

    AwarenessEducation & DiscoveryEvaluationSelection

    Negotiation & Configuration

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

    1.3 Conduct an Accelerated Business Needs Assessment

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

    Investing time improving your software selection methodology has big returns.

    Info-Tech Insight

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

    Step 2.3

    Create a Roadmap for Mobile Delivery

    Activities

    2.3.1 Define your MVP release

    2.3.2 Build your roadmap

    Define Your Mobile Approach

    This step involves the following participants:

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

    Outcomes of this step

    • MVP design
    • Mobile delivery roadmap

    Achieve mobile success with MVPs

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

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

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

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

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

    Leverage a canvas to detail your MVP

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

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

    2.3.1 Define your MVP release

    1-3 hours

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

    Input

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

    2.3.1 cont'd

    MVP Name

    Owner:
    Parent Initiative:
    Updated:

    NAME
    LINK
    October 05, 2022

    MVP Theme/Goals

    [Theme / Goal]

    Use Cases

    Value

    Costs

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

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

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

    Impacted Personas

    Impacted Workflows

    Stakeholders

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

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

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

    Build your mobile roadmap

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

    Your mobile roadmap

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

    However, it is not:

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

    Roadmap your MVPs against your milestones and release dates

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

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

    Understand what is communicated in your roadmap

    WHY is the work being done?

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

    WHO is doing the work?

    Categorizes the different groups delivering the work on the product.

    WHAT is the work being done?

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

    WHEN is the work being done?

    Explains when the work will be delivered within your timeline.

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

    Pay attention to organizational changes

    Be prepared to answer:

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

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

    Anticipate and prepare for changes and issues

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

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

    Use the "Now, Next, Later" roadmap

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

    Now

    What are you going to do now?

    Next

    What are you going to do very soon?

    Later

    What are you going to do in the future?

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

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

    2.3.2 Build your roadmap

    1-3 hours

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

    Input

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

    2.3.2 cont'd

    Example: Tactical Roadmap

    Milestone 1

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

    Milestone 2

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

    Milestone 3

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

    Pitch your roadmap initiatives

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

    Audience

    Key Contents

    Outcome

    Outcome

    • Costs or benefits estimates

    Sign off on cost and benefit projections

    Executives and decision makers

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

    Revisions, edits, and approval

    IT teams

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

    Clarity of vision and direction and readiness for delivery

    Business workers

    • Business rationale
    • Proposed business operations changes
    • Application roadmap

    Verification on proposed changes and feedback

    Continuously measure the benefits and value realized in your mobile applications

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

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

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

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

    Business Value Matrix

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

    Grow your mobile delivery practice

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

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

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

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

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

    Grow your mobile delivery practice (cont'd)

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

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

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

    Security

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

    Performance Optimization

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

    API Development

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

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Choose Your Mobile Platform and Tools

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

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

    Contact your account representative for more information

    workshops@infotech.com

    1-888-670-8889

    Research Contributors and Experts

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

    Chaim Yudkowsky
    Chief Information Officer
    The American Israel Public Affairs Committee

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

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    Appendix A

    Sample Reference Frameworks

    Reference Framework: Web Platform

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

    This is an image of the Reference Framework: Web Platform

    Reference Framework: Mobile Web Application

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

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

    Source: MaLavolta, Ivono, 2012.

    Web Platform: Anatomy of a Web Server

    Web Server Services

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

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

    Reference Framework: Hybrid Platform

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

    This is an image of the Reference Framework: Hybrid Platform

    Reference Framework: Native Platform

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

    This is an image of the Reference Framework: Native Platform

    Appendix B

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

    Supplementary List of Features

    Graphical user interface

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

    Interoperability support

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

    Security Support

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

    Collaborative development support

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

    Reusability support

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

    Scalability

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

    Business logic specification mechanisms

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

    Application build mechanisms

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

    Deployment support

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

    Kinds of supported applications

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

    Source: Sahay, Apurvanand et al., 2020

    Design and Build a User-Facing Service Catalog

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    • Parent Category Name: Service Management
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    • Business users don’t know what breadth of services are available to them.
    • It is difficult for business users to obtain useful information regarding services because they are often described in technical language.
    • Business users have unrealistic expectations of what IT can do for them.
    • There is no defined agreement on what is available, so the business assumes everything is.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Define services from the business user’s perspective, not IT’s perspective.
      • A service catalog is of no use if a user looks at it and sees a significant amount of information that doesn’t apply to them.
    • Separate the enterprise services from the Line of Business (LOB) services.
      • This will simplify the process of documenting your service definitions and make it easier for users to navigate, which leads to a higher chance of user acceptance.

    Impact and Result

    • Our program helps you organize your services in a way that is relevant to the users, and practical and manageable for IT.
    • Our approach to defining and categorizing services ensures your service catalog remains a living document. You may add or revise your service records with ease.
    • Our program creates a bridge between IT and the business. Begin transforming IT’s perception within the organization by communicating the benefits of the service catalog.

    Design and Build a User-Facing Service Catalog Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise executive brief to understand why building a Service Catalog is a good idea for your business, and how following our approach will help you accomplish this difficult task.

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

    1. Launch the project

    The Launch the Project phase will walk through completing Info-Tech's project charter template. This phase will help build a balanced project team, create a change message and communication plan, and achieve buy-in from key stakeholders.

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

    2. Identify and define enterprise services

    The Identify and Define Enterprise Services phase will help to target enterprise services offered by the IT team. They are offered to everyone in the organization, and are grouped together in logical categories for users to access them easily.

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

    3. Identify and define Line of Business (LOB) services

    After completing this phase, all services IT offers to each LOB or functional group should have been identified. Each group should receive different services and display only these services in the catalog.

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

    4. Complete the Services Definition Chart

    Completing the Services Definition Chart will help the business pick which information to include in the catalog. This phase also prepares the catalog to be extended into a technical service catalog through the inclusion of IT-facing fields.

    • Design & Build a User-Facing Service Catalog – Phase 4: Complete Service Definitions
    • Services Definition Chart
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Design and Build a User-Facing Service Catalog

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

    1 Launch the Project

    The Purpose

    The purpose of this module is to help engage IT with business decision making.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    This module will help build a foundation for the project to begin. The buy-in from key stakeholders is key to having them take onus on the project’s completion.

    Activities

    1.1 Assemble the project team.

    1.2 Develop a communication plan.

    1.3 Establish metrics for success.

    1.4 Complete the project charter.

    Outputs

    A list of project members, stakeholders, and a project leader.

    A change message, communication strategy, and defined benefits for each user group.

    Metrics used to monitor the usefulness of the catalog, both from a performance and monetary perspective.

    A completed project charter to engage users in the initiative.

    2 Identify and Define Enterprise Services

    The Purpose

    The purpose of this module is to review services which are offered across the entire organization.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A complete list of enterprise services defined from the user’s perspective to help them understand what is available to them.

    Activities

    2.1 Identify enterprise services used by almost everyone across the organization.

    2.2 Categorize services into logical groups.

    2.3 Define the services from the user’s perspective.

    Outputs

    A complete understanding of enterprise services for both IT service providers and business users.

    Logical groups for organizing the services in the catalog.

    Completed definitions in business language, preferably reviewed by business users.

    3 Identify and Define Line of Business (LOB) Services

    The Purpose

    The purpose of this module is to define the remaining LOB services for business users, and separate them into functional groups.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Business users are not cluttered with LOB definitions that do not pertain to their business activities.

    Business users are provided with only relevant IT information.

    Activities

    3.1 Identify the LOBs.

    3.2 Determine which one of two methodologies is more suitable.

    3.3 Identify LOB services using appropriate methodology.

    3.4 Define services from a user perspective.

    Outputs

    A structured view of the different functional groups within the business.

    An easy to follow process for identifying all services for each LOB.

    A list of every service for each LOB.

    Completed definitions in business language, preferably reviewed by business users.

    4 Complete the Full Service Definitions

    The Purpose

    The purpose of this module is to guide the client to completing their service record definitions completely.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    This module will finalize the deliverable for the client by defining every user-facing service in novice terms.

    Activities

    4.1 Understand the components to each service definition (information fields).

    4.2 Pick which information to include in each definition.

    4.3 Complete the service definitions.

    Outputs

    A selection of information fields to be included in the service catalog.

    A selection of information fields to be included in the service catalog.

    A completed service record design, ready to be implemented with the right tool.

    Further reading

    Design and Build a User-Facing Service Catalog

    Improve user satisfaction with IT with a convenient menu-like catalog.

    Our understanding of the problem

    This Research Is Designed For:

    • CIOs
    • Directors and senior managers within IT and the business

    This Research Will Help You:

    • Articulate all of the services IT provides to the business in a language the business users understand.
    • Improve IT and business alignment through a common understanding of service features and IT support.

    This Research Will Help Them

    • Standardize and communicate how users request access to services.
    • Standardize and communicate how users obtain support for services.
    • Clearly understand IT’s role in providing each service.

    What is a service catalog?

    The user-facing service catalog is the go-to place for IT service-related information.

    The catalog defines, documents, and organizes the services that IT delivers to the organization. The catalog also describes the features of the services and how the services are intended to be used.

    The user-facing service catalog creates benefits for both the business and IT.

    For business users, the service catalog:

    1. Documents how to request access to the service, hours of availability, delivery timeframes, and customer responsibilities.
    2. Specifies how to obtain support for the services, support hours, and documentation.

    For IT, the service catalog:

    1. Identifies who owns the services and who is authorized to use the services.
    2. Specifies IT support requirements for the services, including support hours and documentation.

    What is the difference between a user-facing service catalog and a technical service catalog?

    This blueprint is about creating a user-facing service catalog written and organized in a way that focuses on the services from the business’ view.

    User facing

    User-friendly, intuitive, and simple overview of the services that IT provides to the business.

    The items you would see on the menu at a restaurant are an example of User Facing. The content is relatable and easy to understand.

    Technical

    Series of technical workflows, supporting services, and the technical components that are required to deliver a service.

    The recipe book with cooking instructions is an example of Technical Facing. This catalog is intended for the IT teams and is “behind the scene.”

    What is a service and what does it mean to be service oriented?

    The sum of the people, processes, and technologies required to enable users to achieve a business outcome is a Service.

    A service is used directly by the end users and is perceived as a coherent whole.

    Business Users →Service = Application & Systems + People & Processes

    Service Orientation is…

    • A focus on business requirements and business value, rather than IT driven motives.
    • Services are designed to enable required business activities.
    • Services are defined from the business perspective using business language.

    In other words, put on your user hat and leave behind the technical jargons!

    A lack of a published user-facing service catalog could be the source of many pains throughout your organization

    IT Pains

    • IT doesn’t understand all the services they provide.
    • Business users would go outside of IT for solutions, proliferating shadow IT.
    • Business users have a negative yet unrealistic perception of what IT is capable of.
    • IT has no way of managing expectations for their users, which tend to inflate.
    • There is often no defined agreement on services; the business assumes everything is available.

    Business Pains

    • Business users don’t know what services are available to them.
    • It is difficult to obtain useful information regarding a service because IT always talks in technical language.
    • Without a standard process in place, business users don’t know how to request access to a service with multiple sources of information available.
    • Receiving IT support is a painful, long process and IT doesn’t understand what type of support the business requires.

    An overwhelming majority of IT organizations still need to improve how they demonstrate their value to the business

    This image contains a pie chart with a slice representing 23% of the circle This image contains a pie chart with a slice representing 47% of the circle This image contains a pie chart with a slice representing 92% of the circle

    23% of IT is still viewed as a cost center.

    47% of business executives believe that business goals are going unsupported by IT.

    92% of IT leaders see the need to prove the business value of IT’s contribution.

    How a Service Catalog can help:

    Use the catalog to demonstrate how IT is an integral part of the organization and IT services are essential to achieve business objectives.

    Source: IT Communication in Crisis Report

    Transform the perception of IT by articulating all the services that are provided through the service catalog in a user-friendly language.

    Source: Info-Tech Benchmarking and Diagnostic Programs

    Increase IT-business communication and collaboration through the service catalog initiative. Move from technology focused to service-oriented.

    Source: IT Communication in Crisis Report

    Project Steps

    Phase 1 – Project Launch

    1.2 Project Team

    The team must be balanced between representatives from the business and IT.

    1.2 Communication Plan

    Communication plan to facilitate input from both sides and gain adoption.

    1.3 Identify Metrics

    Metrics should reflect the catalog benefits. Look to reduced number of service desk inquiries.

    1.4 Project Charter

    Project charter helps walk you through project preparation.

    This blueprint separates enterprise service from line of business service.

    This image contains a comparison between Enterprise IT Service and Line of Business Service, which will be discussed in further detail later in this blueprint.

    Project steps

    Phase 2 – Identify and Define Enterprise Services

    2.1 Identify the services that are used across the entire organization.

    2.2 Users must be able to identify with the service categories.

    2.3 Create basic definitions for enterprise services.

    Phase 3 – Identify and Define Line of Business Services

    3.1 Identify the different lines of business (LOBs) in the organization.

    3.2 Understand the differences between our two methodologies for identifying LOB services.

    3.3 Use methodology 1 if you have thorough knowledge of the business.

    3.4 Use methodology 2 if you only have an IT view of the LOB.

    Phase 4 – Complete Service Definitions

    4.1 Understand the different components to each service definition, or the fields in the service record.

    4.2 Identify which information to include for each service definition.

    4.3 Define each enterprise service according to the information and field properties.

    4.3 Define each LOB service according to the information and field properties.

    Define your service catalog in bundles to achieve better catalog design in the long run

    Trying to implement too many services at once can be overwhelming for both IT and the users. You don’t have to define and implement all of your services in one release of the catalog.

    Info-Tech recommends implementing services themselves in batches, starting with enterprise, and then grouping LOB services into separate releases. Why? It benefits both IT and business users:

    • It enables a better learning experience for IT – get to test the first release before going full-scale. In other words, IT gets a better understanding of all components of their deliverable before full adoption.
    • It is easier to meet customer agreements on what is to be delivered early, and easier to be able to meet those deadlines.
    This image depicts how you can use bundles to simplify the process of catalog design using bundles. The cycle includes the steps: Identify Services; Select a Service Bundle; Review Record Design; followed by a cycle of: Pick a service; Service X; Service Data Collection; Create Service Record, followed by Publish the bundle; Communicate the bundle; Rinse and Repeat.

    After implementing a service catalog, your IT will be able to:

    Use the service catalog to communicate all the services that IT provides to the business.

    Improve IT’s visibility within the organization by creating a single source of information for all the value creating services IT has to offer. The service catalog helps the business understand the value IT brings to each service, each line of business, and the overall organization.

    Concentrate more on high-value IT services.

    The service catalog contains information which empowers business users to access IT services and information without the help of IT support staff. The reduction in routine inquiries decreases workload and increases morale within the IT support team, and allows IT to concentrate on providing higher value services.

    Reduce shadow IT and gain control of services.

    Service catalog brings more control to your IT environment by reducing shadow IT activities. The service catalog communicates business requests responsively in a language the business users understand, thus eliminating the need for users to seek outside help.

    After implementing a service catalog, your business will be able to:

    Access IT services with ease.

    The language of IT is often confusing for the business and the users don’t know what to do when they have a concern. With a user-facing service catalog, business users can access information through a single source of information, and better understand how to request access or receive support for a service through clear, consistent, and business-relevant language.

    Empower users to self-serve.

    The service catalog enables users to “self-serve” IT services. Instead of calling the service desk every time an issue occurs, the users can rely on the service catalog for information. This simplified process not only reduces routine service requests, but also provides information in a faster, more efficient manner that increases productivity for both IT and the business.

    Gain transparency on the IT services provided.

    With every service clearly defined, business users can better understand the current support level, communicate their expectation for IT accountability, and help IT align services with critical business strategies.

    Leverage the different Info-Tech deliverable tools to help you along the way

    1. Project Charter

    A project charter template with a few samples completed. The project charter helps you govern the project progress and responsibilities.

    2. Enterprise Service Definitions

    A full list of enterprise definitions with features and descriptions pre-populated. These are meant to get you on your feet defining your own enterprise services, or editing the ones already there.

    3. Basic Line of Business Service Definitions

    Similar to the enterprise services deliverable, but with two separate deliverables focusing on different perspectives – functional groups services (e.g. HR and finance) and industry-specific services (e.g. education and government).

    Service Definitions & Service Record Design

    Get a taste of a completed service catalog with full service definitions and service record design. This is the final product of the service catalog design once all the steps and activities have been completed.

    The service catalog can be the foundation of your future IT service management endeavors

    After establishing a catalog of all IT services, the following projects are often pursued for other objectives. Service catalog is a precursor for all three.

    1. Technical Service Catalog

    Need an IT-friendly breakdown of each service?
    Keep better record of what technical components are required to deliver a service. The technical service catalog is the IT version of a user-facing catalog.

    2. Service-Based Costing

    Want to know how much each IT service is costing you?
    Get a better grip on the true cost of IT. Using service-based costing can help justify IT expenses and increase budgetary allotment.

    3. Chargeback

    Want to hold each business unit accountable for the IT services they use?
    Some business units abuse their IT services because they are thought to be free. Keep them accountable and charge them for what they use.

    The service catalog need not be expensive – organizations of all sizes (small, medium, large) can benefit from a service catalog

    No matter what size organization you may be, every organization can create a service catalog. Small businesses can benefit from the catalog the same way a large organization can. We have an easy step-by-step methodology to help introduce a catalog to your business.

    It is common that users do not know where to go to obtain services from IT… We always end up with a serious time-crunch at the beginning of a new school year. With automated on- and off-boarding services, this could change for the better.Dean Obermeyer, Technology Coordinator, Los Alamos Public Schools

    CIO Call to Action

    As the CIO and the project sponsor, you need to spearhead the development of the service catalog and communicate support to drive engagement and adoption.

      Start

    1. Select an experienced project leader
    2. Identify stakeholders and select project team members with the project leader
    3. Throughout the project

    4. Attend or lead the project kick-off meeting
    5. Create checkpoints to regularly touch base with the project team
    6. Service catalog launch

    7. Communicate the change message from beginning to implementation

    Identify a project leader who will drive measurable results with this initiative

    The project leader acts on behalf of the CIO and must be a senior level staff member who has extensive knowledge of the organization and experiences marshalling resources.

    Influential & Impactful

    Developing a service catalog requires dedication from many groups within IT and outside of IT.
    The project leader must hold a visible, senior position and can marshal all the necessary resources to ensure the success of the project. Ability to exert impact and influence around both IT and the business is a must.

    Relationship with the Business

    The user-facing service catalog cannot be successful if business input is not received.
    The project leader must leverage his/her existing relationship with the business to test out the service definitions and the service record design.

    Results Driven

    Creating a service catalog is not an easy job and the project leader must continuously engage the team members to drive results and efficiency.
    The highly visible nature of the service catalog means the project leader must produce a high-quality outcome that satisfies the business users.

    Info-Tech’s methodology helps organization to standardize how to define services

    CASE STUDY A
    Industry Municipal Government
    Source Onsite engagement

    Municipal Government
    The IT department of a large municipal government in the United States provides services to a large number of customers in various government agencies.
    Service Catalog Initiative
    The municipal government allocated a significant amount of resources to answer routine inquiries that could have been avoided through user self-service. The government also found that they do not organize all the services IT provides, and they could not document and publish them to the customer. The government has already begun the service catalog initiative, but was struggling with how to identify services. Progress was slow because people were arguing amongst themselves – the project team became demoralized and the initiative was on the brink of failure.
    Results
    With Info-Tech’s onsite support, the government was able to follow a standardized methodology to identify and define services from the user perspective. The government was able to successfully communicate the initiative to the business before the full adoption of the service catalog.

    We’re in demos with vendors right now to purchase an ITSM tool, and when the first vendor looked at our finished catalog, they were completely impressed.- Client Feedback

    [We feel] very confident. The group as a whole is pumped up and empowered – they're ready to pounce on it. We plan to stick to the schedule for the next three months, and then review progress/priorities. - Client Feedback

    CASE STUDY B
    Industry Healthcare
    Source Onsite engagement

    Healthcare Provider
    The organization is a healthcare provider in Canada. It treats patients with medical emergencies, standard operations, and manages a faculty of staff ranging from nurses and clerks, to senior doctors. This organization is run across several hospitals, various local clinics, and research centers.
    Service Catalog Initiative
    Because the organization is publicly funded, it is subject to regular audit requirements – one of which is to have a service catalog in place.
    The organization also would like to charge back its clients for IT-related costs. In order to do this, the organization must be able to trace it back to each service. Therefore, the first step would be to create a user-facing service catalog, followed by the technical service catalog, which then allows the organization to do service-based costing and chargeback.
    Results
    By leveraging Info-Tech’s expertise on the subject, the healthcare provider was able to fast-track its service catalog development and establish the groundwork for chargeback abilities.

    "There is always some reticence going in, but none of that was apparent coming out. The group dynamic was very good. [Info-Tech] was able to get that response, and no one around the table was silent.
    The [expectation] of the participants was that there was a purpose in doing the workshop. Everybody knew it was for multiple reasons, and everyone had their own accountability/stakes in the development of it. Highly engaged."
    - Client Feedback

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

    DIY Toolkit

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

    Guided Implementation

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

    Workshop

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

    Consulting

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Launch the Project

    Identify Enterprise Services

    Identify Line of Business Services

    Complete Service Definitions

    Best-Practice Toolkit

    1.1 Assemble the project team.

    1.2 Develop a communication plan.

    1.3 Establish metrics for success.

    1.4 Complete the project charter.

    2.1 Identify services available organization-wide.

    2.2 Categorize services into logical groups.

    2.3 Define the services.

    3.1 Identify different LOBs.

    3.2 Pick one of two methodologies.

    3.3 Use method to identify LOB services.

    4.1 Learn components to each service definition.

    4.2 Pick which information to include in each definition.

    4.3 Define each service accordingly.

    Guided Implementations Identify the project leader with the appropriate skills.

    Assemble a well-rounded project team.

    Develop a mission statement and change messages.

    Create a comprehensive list of enterprise services that are used across the organization.

    Create a categorization scheme that is based on the needs of the business users.

    Walk through the two Info-Tech methodologies and understand which one is applicable.

    Define LOB services using the appropriate methodology.

    Decide what should be included and what should be kept internal for the service record design.

    Complete the full service definitions.

    Onsite Workshop Phase 1 Results:

    Clear understanding of project objectives and support obtained from the business.

    Phase 2 Results:

    Enterprise services defined and categorized.

    Phase 3 Results:

    LOB services defined based on user perspective.

    Phase 4 Results:

    Service record designed according to how IT wishes to communicate to the business.

    Workshop overview

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

    Workshop Day 1 Workshop Day 2 Workshop Day 3 Workshop Day 4
    Activities

    Launch the Project

    Identify Enterprise Services

    Identify Line of Business Services

    Complete Service Definitions

    1.1 Assemble the project team.

    1.2 Develop a communication plan.

    1.3 Establish metrics for success.

    1.4 Complete the project charter.

    2.1 Identify services available organization-wide.

    2.2 Categorize services into logical groups.

    2.3 Define the services.

    3.1 Identify different LOBs.

    3.2 Pick one of two methodologies.

    3.3 Use method to identify LOB services.

    4.1 Learn components to each service definition.

    4.2 Pick which information to include in each definition.

    4.3 Define each service accordingly.

    Deliverables
    • Service Catalog Project Charter
    • Enterprise Service Definitions
    • LOB Service Definitions – Functional groups
    • LOB Service Definitions – Industry specific
    • Service Definitions Chart

    PHASE 1

    Launch the Project

    Design & Build a User-Facing Service Catalog

    Step 1 – Create a project charter to launch the initiative

    1. Complete the Project Charter
    2. Create Enterprise Services Definitions
    3. Create Line of Business Services Definitions
    4. Complete Service Definitions

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Develop a mission statement to obtain buy-ins from both IT and business stakeholders.
    • Assemble a well-rounded project team to increase the success of the project.
    • Identify and obtain support from stakeholders.
    • Create an impactful change message to the organization to promote the service catalog.
    • Determine project metrics to measure the effectiveness and value of the initiative.

    Step Insights

    • The project leader must have a strong relationship with the business, the ability to garner user input, and the authority to lead the team in creating a user-facing catalog that is accessible and understandable to the user.
    • Having two separate change messages prepared for IT and the business is a must. The business change message advocates how the catalog will make IT more accessible to users, and the IT message centers around how the catalog will make IT’s life easier through a standardized request process.

    Phase 1 outline

    Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 1: Launch the project
    Proposed Time to Completion: 2 weeks
    Step 1.2: Create change messages

    Step 1.2: Create change messages

    Start with an analyst kick off call:

    • Identify the key objectives of creating a user-facing service catalog.
    • Identify the necessary members of the project team.

    Review findings with analyst:

    • Prioritize project stakeholders according to their involvement and influence.
    • Create a change message for IT and the business articulating the benefits.

    Then complete these activities…

  • Assemble a team with representatives from all areas of IT.
  • Identify the key project stakeholders.
  • Create a project mission statement.
  • Then complete these activities…

  • Create a separate change message for IT and the business.
  • Determine communication methods and channels.
  • With these tools & templates: Service

    Catalog Project Charter

    With these tools & templates:

    Service Catalog Project Charter

    Use Info-Tech’s Service Catalog Project Charter to begin your initiative

    1.1 Project Charter

    The following section of slides outline how to effectively use Info-Tech’s sample project charter.

    The Project Charter is used to govern the initiative throughout the project. IT should provide the foundation for project communication and monitoring.

    It has been pre-populated with information appropriate for Service Catalog projects. Please review this sample text and change, add, or delete information as required.

    Building the charter as a group will help you to clarify your key messages and help secure buy-in from critical stakeholders upfront.

    You may feel like a full charter isn’t necessary, and depending on your organizational size, it might not be. However, the exercise of building the charter is important none-the-less. No matter your current climate, some elements of communicating the value and plans for implementing the catalog will be necessary.

    The Charter includes the following sections:

    • Mission Statement
    • Project team members
    • Project stakeholders
    • Change message
    • Communication and organizational plan
    • Metrics

    Use Info-Tech’s Service Catalog Project Charter.

    Create a mission statement to articulate the purpose of this project

    The mission statement must be compelling because embarking on creating a service catalog is no easy task. It requires significant commitment from different people in different areas of the business.

    Good mission statements are directive, easy to understand, narrow in focus, and favor substance over vagueness.

    While building your mission statement, think about what it is intended to do, i.e. keep the project team engaged and engage others to adopt the service catalog. Included in the project charter’s mission statement section is a brief description of the goals and objectives of the service catalog.

    Ask yourself the following questions:

    1. What frustrations does your business face regarding IT services?
    2. f our company continues growing at this rate, will IT be able to manage service levels?
    3. How has IT benefited from consolidating IT services into a user perspective?

    Project Charter

    Info-Tech’s project charter contains two sample mission statements, along with additional tips to help you create yours.

    Tackle the project with a properly assembled team to increase the speed and quality in which the catalog will be created

    Construct a well-balanced project team to increase your chances of success.

    Project Leader

    Project leader will be the main catalyst for the creation of the catalog. This person is responsible for driving the whole initiative.

    Project Participants

    IT project participants’ input and business input will be pivotal to the creation of the catalog.

    Project Stakeholders

    The project stakeholders are the senior executives who have a vested interest in the service catalog. IT must produce periodic and targeted communication to these stakeholders.

    Increase your chances of success by creating a dynamic group of project participants

    Your project team will be a major success factor for your service catalog. Involvement from IT management and the business is a must.

    IT Team Member

    IT Service Desk Manager

    • The Service Desk team will be an integral part of the service catalog creation. Because of their client-facing work, service desk technicians can provide real feedback about how users view and request services.

    Senior Manager/Director of Application

    • The Application representative provides input on how applications are used by the business and supported by IT.

    Senior Manager/Director of Infrastructure

    • The infrastructure representative provides input on services regarding data storage, device management, security, etc.

    Business Team Member

    Business IT Liaison

    • This role is responsible for bridging the communication between IT and the business. This role could be fulfilled by the business relationship manager, service delivery manager, or business analyst. It doesn’t have to be a dedicated role; it could be part of an existing role.

    Business representatives from different LOBs

    • Business users need to validate the service catalog design and ensure the service definitions are user facing and relevant.

    Project Charter

    Input your project team, their roles, and relevant contact information into your project charter, Section 2.

    Identify the senior managers who are the stakeholders for the service catalog

    Obtain explicit buy-in from both IT and business stakeholders.

    The stakeholders could be your biggest champions for the service catalog initiative, or they could pull you back significantly. Engage the stakeholders at the start of the project and communicate the benefits of the service catalog to them to gain their approval.

    Stakeholders

    Benefits

    CIO
    • Improved visibility and perception for IT
    • Ability to better manage business expectation

    Manager of Service Desk

    • Reduced number of routine inquires
    • Respond to business needs faster and uniformly

    Senior Manager/Director of Application & Infrastructure

    • Streamlined and standardized request/support process
    • More effective communication with the business

    Senior Business Executives from Major LOBs

    • Self-service increases user productivity for business users
    • Better quality of services provided by IT

    Project Charter

    Document a list of stakeholders, their involvement in the process (why they are stakeholders), and their contact information in Section 3.

    Articulate the creation of the service catalog to the organization

    Spread the word of service catalog implementation. Bring attention to your change message through effective mediums and organizational changes.

    Key aspects of a communication plan

    The methods of communication (e.g. newsletters, email broadcast, news of the day, automated messages) notify users of implementation.

    In addition, it is important to know who will deliver the message (delivery strategy). Talking to the business leaders is very important, and you need IT executives to deliver the message. Work hard on obtaining their support as they are the ones communicating to their staff and could be your project champions.

    Recommended organizational changes

    The communication plan should consist of changes that will affect the way users interact with the catalog. Users should know of any meetings pertinent to the maintenance and improvement of the catalog, and ways to access the catalog (e.g. link on desktop/start menu).

    This image depicts the cycle of communicating change. the items in the cycle include: What is the change?; Why are we doing it?; How are we going to go about it?; What are we trying to achieve?; How often will we be updated?

    The Qualities of Leadership: Leading Change

    Project Charter

    Your communication plan should serve as a rough guide. Communication happens in several unpredictable happenstances, but the overall message should be contained within.

    Ensure you get the whole company on board for the service catalog with a well practiced change message

    The success of your catalog implementation hinges on the business’ readiness.

    One of the top challenges for organizations that are implementing a service catalog is the acceptance and adoption of the change. Effective planning for implementation and communication is pivotal. Ensure you create tailored plans for communication and understand how the change will impact staff.

    1. Draft your change message
    2. “Better Service, Better Value.” It is important to have two change messages prepared: one for the IT department and one for business users.
      Outline a few of the key benefits each user group will gain from adopting the service catalog (e.g. Faster, ease of use, convenient, consistent…)

    3. Address feedback
    4. Anticipate some resistances of service catalog adoption and prepare responses. These may be the other benefits which were not included in the change message (e.g. IT may be reluctant to think in business language.)

    5. Conduct training sessions
    6. Host lunch & learns to demonstrate the value of the service catalog to both business and IT user groups.
      These training sessions also serve as a great way to gather feedback from users regarding style and usability.

    Project Charter

    Pick your communication medium, and then identify your target audience. You should have a change message for each: the IT department and the business users. Pay careful consideration to wording and phrasing with regard for each.

    Track metrics throughout the project to keep stakeholders informed

    In order to measure the success of your service catalog, you must establish baseline metrics to determine how much value the catalog is creating for your business.

    1. Number of service requests via the service catalog
    2. The number of service catalog requests should be carefully monitored so that it does not fluctuate too greatly. In general, the number of requests via the service catalog should increase, which indicates a higher level of self-serve.

    3. Number of inquiry calls to the service desk
    4. The number of inquiry calls should decrease because customers are able to self-serve routine IT inquiries that would otherwise have gone through the service desk.

    5. Customer satisfaction – specific questions
    6. The organization could adopt the following sample survey questions:
      From 0-5: How satisfied are you with the functionality of the service catalog? How often do you turn to the service catalog first to solve IT problems?

    7. Number of non-standard requests
    8. The number of non-standard requests should decrease because a majority of services should eventually be covered in the service catalog. Users should be able to solve nearly any IT related problem through navigating the service catalog.

    Metric Description Current Metric Future Goal
    Number of service requests via the Service Catalog
    Number of inquiry calls to the service desk
    Customer Satisfaction – specific question
    Number of non-standard requests

    Use metrics to monitor the monetary improvements the service catalog creates for the business

    When measuring against your baseline, you should expect to see the following two monetary improvements:

    1. Improved service desk efficiency
    2. (# of routine inquiry calls reduced) x (average time for a call) x (average service desk wage)

      Routine inquiries often take up a significant portion of the service desk’s effort, and the majority of them can be answered via the service catalog, thus reducing the amount of time required for a service desk employee to engage in routine solutions. The reduction in routine inquiries allows IT to allocate resources to high-value services and provide higher quality of support.

    Example

    Originally, the service desk of an organization answers 850 inquiries per month, and around 540 of them are routine inquiries requesting information on when a service is available, who they can contact if they want to receive a service, and what they need to do if they want access to a service, etc.

    IT successfully communicated the introduction of the service catalog to the business and 3 months after the service catalog was implemented, the number of routine inquiries dropped to 60 per month. Given that the average time for IT to answer the inquiry is 10 minutes (0.167 hour) and the hourly wage of a service desk technician is $25, the monthly monetary cost saving of the service catalog is:

    (540 – 60) x 0.167 x 25 = $2004.00

    • Reduced expense by eliminating non-standard requests

    (Average additional cost of non-standard request) x (Reduction of non-standard request)
    +
    (Extra time IT spends on non-standard request fulfilment) x (Average wage)

    Non-standard requests require a lot of time, and often a lot of money. IT frequently incurs additional cost because the business is not aware of how to properly request service or support. Not only can the service catalog standardize and streamline the service request process, it can also help IT define its job boundary and say no to the business if needed.

    Example

    The IT department of an organization often finds itself dealing with last-minute, frustrating service requests from the business. For example, although equipment requests should be placed a week in advance, the business often requests equipment to be delivered the next day, leaving IT to pay for additional expedited shipping costs and/or working fanatically to allocate the equipment. Typically, these requests happen 4 times a month, with an additional cost of $200.00. IT staff work an extra 6 hours per each non-standard request at an hourly wage of $30.00.

    With the service catalog, the users are now aware of the rules that are in place and can submit their request with more ease. IT can also refer the users to the service catalog when a non-standard request occurs, which helps IT to charge the cost to the department or not meet the terms of the business.

    The monthly cost saving in this case is:

    $200.00 x 4 + 6 hours x 30 = $980.00

    Create your project charter for the service catalog initiative to get key stakeholders to buy in

    1.1 2-3 hours

    The project charter is an important document to govern your project process. Support from the project sponsors is important and must be documented. Complete the following steps working with Info-Tech’s sample Project Charter.

    1. The project leader and the core project team must identify key reasons for creating a service catalog. Document the project objectives and benefits in the mission statement section.
    2. Identify and document your project team. The team must include representatives from the Infrastructure, Applications, Service desk, and a Business-IT Liaison.
    3. Identify and document your project stakeholders. The stakeholders are those who have interest in seeing the service catalog completed. Stakeholders for IT are the CIO and management of different IT practices. Stakeholders for the business are executives of different LOBs.
    4. Identify your target audience and choose the communication medium most effective to reach them. Draft a communication message hitting all key elements.
      Info-Tech’s project charter contains sample change messages for the business and IT.
    5. Develop a strategy as to how the change message will be distributed, i.e. the communication and organizational change plan.
    6. Use the metrics identified as a base to measure your service catalog’s implementation. If you have identified any other objectives, add new metrics to monitor your progress from the baseline to reaching those objectives.
    7. Sign and date the project charter to officiate commitment to completing the project and reaching your objectives. Have the signed and dated charter available to members of the project team.

    INPUT

    • A collaborative discussion between team members

    OUTPUT

    • Thorough briefing for project launch
    • A committed team

    Materials

    • Communication message and plan
    • Metric tracking

    Participants

    • Project leader
    • Core project team

    Obtain buy-in from business users at the beginning of the service catalog initiative

    CASE STUDY A
    Industry Government
    Source Onsite engagement

    Challenge

    The nature of government IT is quite complex: there are several different agencies located in a number of different areas. It is extremely important to communicate the idea of the service catalog to all the users, no matter the agency or location.

    The IT department had yet to let business leaders of the various agencies know about the initiative and garner their support for the project. This has proven to be prohibitive for gaining adoption from all users.

    Solution

    The IT leaders met and identified all the opportunities to communicate the service catalog to the business leaders and end users.

    To meet with the business leaders, IT leaders hosted a service level meeting with the business directors and managers. They adopted a steering committee for the continuation of the project.

    To communicate with business users, IT leaders published announcements on the intranet website before releasing the catalog there as well.

    Results

    Because IT communicated the initiative, support from business stakeholders was obtained early and business leaders were on board shortly after.

    IT also managed to convince key business stakeholders to become project champions, and leveraged their network to communicate the initiative to their employees.

    With this level of adoption, it meant that it was easier for IT to garner business participation in the project and to obtain feedback throughout.

    Info-Tech assists project leader to garner support from the project team

    CASE STUDY A
    Industry Government
    Source Onsite engagement

    Challenge

    The project received buy-in from the CIO and director of infrastructure. Together they assembled a team and project leader.

    The two struggled to get buy-in from the rest of the team, however. They didn’t understand the catalog or its benefits and objectives. They were reluctant to change their old ways. They didn’t know how much work was required from them to accomplish the project.

    Solution

    With the Info-Tech analyst on site, the client was able to discuss the benefits within their team as well as the project team responsibilities.

    The Info-Tech analyst convinced the group to move towards focusing on a business- and service-oriented mindset.

    The workshop discussion was intended to get the entire team on board and engaged with meeting project objectives.

    Results

    The project team had experienced full buy-in after the workshop. The CIO and director relived their struggles of getting project members on-board through proper communication and engagement.

    Engaging the members of the project team with the discussion was key to having them take ownership in accomplishing the project.

    The business users understood that the service catalog was to benefit their long-term IT service development.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts

    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.
    The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:
    1.1 this image contains a screenshot from section 1.1 of this blueprint. Begin your project with a mission statement
    A strong mission statement that outlines the benefits of the project is needed to communicate the purpose of the project. The onsite Info-Tech analysts will help you customize the message and establish the foundation of the project charter.
    1.2 this image contains a screenshot from section 1.2 of this blueprint.

    Identify project team members

    Our onsite analysts will help you identify high-value team members to contribute to this project.

    1.3 This image contains a screenshot from section 1.3 of this blueprint.

    Identify important business and IT stakeholders

    Buy-in from senior IT and business management is a must. Info-Tech will help you identify the stakeholders and determine their level of influence and impact.

    1.4 This image contains a screenshot from section 1.4 of this blueprint.

    Create a change message for the business and IT

    It is important to communicate changes early and the message must be tailored for each target audience. Our analysts will help you create an effective message by articulating the benefits of the service catalog to the business and to IT.

    1.5 This image contains a screenshot from section 1.5 of this blueprint.

    Determine service project metrics

    To demonstrate the value of the service catalog, IT must come up with tangible metrics. Info-Tech’s analysts will provide some sample metrics as well as facilitate a discussion around which metrics should be tracked and monitored.

    PHASE 2

    Identify and Define Enterprise Services

    Design & Build a User-Facing Service Catalog

    Step 2 – Create Enterprise Services Definitions

    1. Complete the Project Charter
    2. Create Enterprise Services Definitions
    3. Create Line of Business Services Definitions
    4. Complete Service Definitions

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Identify and define enterprise services that are commonly used across the organization.
    • Create service descriptions and features to accurately sum up the functionality of each service.
    • Create service categories and assign each service to a category.

    Step Insights

    • When defining services, be sure to carefully distinguish between what is a feature and what is a service. Often, separate services are defined in situations when they would be better off as features of existing services, and vice versa.
    • When coming up with enterprise services categories, ensure the categories group the services in a way that is intuitive. The users should be able to find a service easily based on the names of the categories.

    Phase 2 outline

    Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 2: Define Enterprise Services
    Proposed Time to Completion: 4 weeks

    Step 2.1: Identify enterprise services

    Step 2.2: Create service categories

    Start with an analyst kick off call:

    • Identify enterprise services that are commonly used.
    • Ensure the list is comprehensive and capture common IT needs.
    • Create service descriptions and features.

    Review findings with analyst:

    • Review full list of identified enterprise services.
    • Identify service categories that are intuitive to the users.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Use Info-Tech’s sample enterprise service definitions as a guide, and change/add/delete the service definitions to customize them to your organization.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Group identified services into categories that are intuitive to the users.

    With these tools & templates: Service

    Sample Enterprise Services

    With these tools & templates:

    Sample Enterprise Services

    Identify enterprise services in the organization apart from the services available to lines of business

    Separating enterprise services from line of business services helps keep things simple to organize the service catalog. -

    Documentation of all business-facing IT services is an intimidating task, and a lack of parameters around this process often leads to longer project times and unsatisfactory outcomes.

    To streamline this process, separating enterprise services from line of business services allows IT to effectively and efficiently organize these services. This method increases the visibility of the service catalog through user-oriented communication plans.

    Enterprise Services are common services that are used across the organization.

    1. Common Services for all users within the organization (e.g. Email, Video Conferencing, Remote Access, Guest Wireless)
    2. Service Requests organized into Service Offerings (e.g. Hardware Provisioning, Software Deployment, Hardware Repair, Equipment Loans)
    3. Consulting Services (e.g. Project Management, Business Analysis, RFP Preparation, Contract Negotiation)

    All user groups access Enterprise Services

    Enterprise Services

    • Finance
    • IT
    • Sales
    • HR

    Ensure your enterprise services are defined from the user perspective and are commonly used

    If you are unsure whether a service is enterprise wide, ask yourself these two questions:

    This image contains an example of how you would use the two questions: Does the user directly use the service themselves?; and; Is the service used by the entire organization (or nearly everyone)?. The examples given are: A. Video Conferencing; B. Exchange Server; C. Email & Fax; D. Order Entry System

    Leverage Info-Tech’s Sample Enterprise Services definition

    2.1 Info-Tech’s Sample Enterprise Services definitions

    Included with this blueprint is Info-Tech’s Sample Enterprise Services definitions.

    The sample contains dozens of services common across most organizations; however, as a whole, they are not complete for every organization. They must be modified according to the business’ needs. Phase two will serve as a guide to identifying an enterprise service as well as how to fill out the necessary fields.

    This image contains a screenshot of definitions from Info-Tech's Sample Enterprises services

    Info-Tech Insight

    Keep track of which services you either modify or delete. You will have to change the same services in the final Info-Tech deliverable.

    The next slide will introduce you to the information for each service record that can be edited.

    Info-Tech’s Sample Enterprise Services definitions is designed to be easily customized

    2.1 Info-Tech’s Sample Enterprise Services definitions

    Below is an example of a service record and its necessary fields of information. This is information that can be kept, deleted, or expanded upon.

    Name the service unambiguously and from the user’s perspective.

    Brief description of how the service allows users to perform tasks.

    Describe the functionality of the service and how it helps users to achieve their business objectives.

    Cluster the services into logical groups.

    Service Name Description Features Category
    Email Email communication to connect with other employees, suppliers, and customers
    • Inbox
    • Calendar
    • Resource Scheduling (meeting rooms)
    • Access to shared mailboxes
    • Limit on mailbox size (‘x’ GB)
    • Address book/external contacts
    • Spam filtering, virus protection
    • Archiving and retrieval of older emails
    • Web/browser access to email
    • Mass email/notification (emergency, surveys, reporting)
    • Setting up a distribution list
    • Setting up Active Sync for email access on mobile devices
    Communications

    Distinguish between a feature and a unique service

    It can be difficult to determine what is considered a service itself, and what is a feature of another service. Use these tips and examples below to help you standardize this judgement.

    Example 1

    Web Conferencing has already been defined as a service. Is Audio Conferencing its own service or a feature of Web Conferencing?

    Info-Tech Tip: Is Audio Conferencing run by the same application as the Web Conferencing? Does it use the same equipment? If not, Audio Conferencing is probably its own service.

    Example 2

    Web Conferencing has already been defined as a service. Is “Screen Sharing” its own service or a feature of Web Conferencing?

    Info-Tech Tip: It depends on how the user interacts with Screen Sharing. Do they only screen share when engaged in a Web Conference? If so, Screen Sharing is a feature and not a service itself.

    Example 3

    VoIP is a popular alternative to landline telephone nowadays, but should it be part of the telephony service or a separate service?

    Info-Tech Tip: It depends on how the VoIP phone is set up.

    If the user uses the VoIP phone the same way they would use a landline phone – because the catalog is user facing – consider the VoIP as part of the telephone service.

    If the user uses their computer application to call and receive calls, consider this a separate service on its own.

    Info-Tech Insight

    While there are some best practices for coming up with service definitions, it is not an exact science and you cannot accommodate everyone. When in doubt, think how most users would perceive the service.

    Change or delete Info-Tech’s enterprise services definitions to make them your own

    2.1 3 hours

    You need to be as comprehensive as possible and try to capture the entire breadth of services IT provides to the business.

    To achieve this, a three-step process is recommended.

    1. First, assemble your project team. It is imperative to have representatives from the service desk. Host two separate workshops, one with the business and one with IT. These workshops should take the form of focus groups and should take no more than 1-2 hours.
    2. Business Focus Group:
    • In an open-forum setting, discuss what the business needs from IT to carry out their day-to-day activities.
    • Engage user-group representatives and business relationship managers.

    IT Focus Group:

    • In a similar open-forum setting, determine what IT delivers to the business. Don’t think about it from a support perspective, but from an “ask” perspective – e.g. “Service Requests.
    • Engage the following individuals: team leads, managers, directors.
  • Review results from the focus groups and compare with your service desk tickets – are there services users inquire about frequently that are not included? Finalize your list of enterprise services as a group.
  • INPUT

    • Modify Info-Tech’s sample services

    OUTPUT

    • A list of some of your business’ enterprise services

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/marker
    • Info-Tech sample enterprise services

    Participants

    • Key members of the project team
    • Service desk rep
    • Business rep

    Using Info-Tech’s Sample Enterprise Services, expand upon the services to add those that we did not include

    2.2 1-3 hours (depending on size and complexity of the IT department)

    Have your user hat on when documenting service features and descriptions. Try to imagine how the users interact with each service.

    1. Once you have your service name, start with the service feature. This field lists all the functionality the service provides. Think from the user’s perspective and document the IT-related activities they need to complete.
    2. Review the service feature fields with internal IT first to make sure there isn’t any information that IT doesn’t want to publish. Afterwards, review with business users to ensure the language is easy to understand and the features are relatable.
    3. Lastly, create a high-level service description that defines the nature of the service in one or two sentences.

    INPUT

    • Collaborate and discuss to expand on Info-Tech’s example

    OUTPUT

    • A complete list of your business’ enterprise services

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/marker
    • Info-Tech sample enterprise services

    Participants

    • Key members of the project team
    • Service desk rep
    • Business rep

    Follow Info-Tech’s guidelines to establish categories for the enterprise services that IT provides to the business

    Similar to the services and their features, there is no right or wrong way to categorize. The best approach is to do what makes sense for your organization and understand what your users think.

    What are Service Categories?

    Categories organize services into logical groups that the users can identify with. Services with similar functions are grouped together in a common category.

    When deciding your categories, think about:

    • What is best for the users?
    • Look at the workflows from the user perspective: how and why do they use the service?
    • Will the user connect with the category name?
    • Will they think about the services within the category?
    Enterprise Service Categories
    Accounts and Access
    Collaboration
    Communication
    Connectivity
    Consulting
    Desktop, Equipment, & Software
    Employee Services
    Files and Documents
    Help & Support
    Training

    Sample categories

    Categorize the services from the list below; how would you think to group them?

    There is no right or wrong way to categorize services; it is subjective to how they are provided by IT and how they are used by the business. Use the aforementioned categories to group the following services. Sample solutions are provided on the following slide.

    Service Name
    Telephone
    Email
    Remote access
    Internet
    BYOD (wireless access)
    Instant Messaging
    Video Conferencing
    Audio Conferencing
    Guest Wi-Fi
    Document Sharing

    Tips and tricks:

    1. Think about the technology behind the service. Is it the same application that provides the services? For example: is instant messaging run by the same application as email?
    2. Consider how the service is used by the business. Are two services always used together? If instant messaging is always used during video conferencing, then they belong in the same category.
    3. Consider the purpose of the services. Do they achieve the same outcomes? For example, document sharing is different from video conferencing, though they both support a collaborative working environment.

    This is a sample of different categorizations – use these examples to think about which would better suit your business

    Example 1 Example 2

    Desktop, Equipment, & Software Services

    Connectivity

    Mobile Devices

    Communications

    Internet

    Telephone

    BYOD (wireless access)

    Telephone

    Guest Wi-Fi

    Internet

    Email

    Remote Access

    Instant Messaging

    Video Conferencing

    Audio Conferencing

    Communications

    Collaboration

    Storage and Retrieval

    Accounts and Access

    Telephone

    Email

    Document Sharing

    Remote access

    Email

    Instant Messaging

    Connectivity

    Mobile Devices

    Video Conferencing

    Internet

    BYOD (wireless access)

    Audio Conferencing

    Guest Wi-Fi

    Guest Wi-Fi

    Document Sharing

    Info-Tech Insight

    Services can have multiple categories only if it means the users will be better off. Try to limit this as much as possible.

    Neither of these two examples are the correct answer, and no such thing exists. The answers you came up with may well be better suited for the users in your business.

    With key members of your project team, categorize the list of enterprise services you have created

    2.3 1 hour

    Before you start, you must have a modified list of all defined enterprise services and a modified list of categories.

    1. Write down the service names on sticky notes and write down the categories either on the whiteboard or on the flipchart.
    2. Assign the service to a category one at a time. For each service, obtain consensus on how the users would view the service and which category would be the most logical choice. In some cases, discuss whether a service should be included in two categories to create better searchability for the users.
    3. If a consensus could not be reached on how to categorize a service, review the service features and category name. In some cases, you may go back and change the features or modify or create new categories if needed.

    INPUT

    • Collaborate and discuss to expand on Info-Tech’s example

    OUTPUT

    • A complete list of your business’ enterprise services

    Materials

    • Whiteboard/marker
    • Info-Tech sample enterprise services

    Participants

    • Key members of the project team
    • Service desk rep
    • Business rep

    Accounts & Access Services

    • User ID & Access
    • Remote Access
    • Business Applications Access

    Communication Services

    • Telephone
    • Email
    • Mobile devices

    Files & Documents

    • Shared Folders
    • File Storage
    • File Restoration
    • File Archiving

    Collaboration

    • Web Conferencing
    • Audio Conferencing
    • Video Conferencing
    • Chat
    • Document Sharing

    Employee Services

    • Onboarding & Off Boarding
    • Benefits Self Service
    • Time and Attendance
    • Employee Records Management

    Help & Support

    • Service Desk
    • Desk Side Support
    • After Hours Support

    Desktop, Equipment, & Software

    • Printing
    • Hardware Provisioning
    • Software Provisioning
    • Software Support
    • Device Move
    • Equipment Loaner

    Education & Training Services

    • Desktop Application Training
    • Corporate Application Training
    • Clinical Application Training
    • IT Training Consultation

    Connectivity

    • BYOD (wireless access)
    • Internet
    • Guest Wi-Fi

    IT Consulting Services

    • Project Management
    • Analysis
    • RFP Reviews
    • Solution Development
    • Business Analysis/Requirements Gathering
    • RFI/RFP Evaluation
    • Security Consulting & Assessment
    • Contract Management
    • Contract Negotiation

    IT department identifies a comprehensive list of enterprise services

    CASE STUDY A
    Industry Government
    Source Onsite engagement

    Challenge

    Because of the breadth of services IT provides across several agencies, it was challenging to identify what was considered enterprise beyond just the basic ones (email, internet, etc.)

    IT recognized that although the specific tasks of service could be different, there are many services that are offered universally across the organization and streamlining the service request and delivery process would reduce the burden on IT.

    Solution

    The client began with services that users interact with on a daily basis; this includes email, wireless, telephone, internet, printing, etc.

    Then, they focused on common service requests from the users, such as software and hardware provisioning, as well as remote access.

    Lastly, they began to think of other IT services that are provided across the organization, such as RFP/RFI support, project management analysis, employee onboarding/off-boarding, etc.

    Results

    By going through the lists and enterprise categories, the government was able to come up with a comprehensive list of all services IT provides to the business.

    Classifying services such as onboarding meant that IT could now standardize IT services for new recruits and employee termination.

    By capturing all enterprise services offered to the organization, IT centralized its management of services instead of having scattered request processes.

    Organization distinguishes features from services using Info-Tech’s tips and techniques

    CASE STUDY B
    Industry Government
    Source Onsite engagement

    Challenge

    For some services, the project team had difficulty deciding on what was a service and what was a feature. They found it hard to distinguish between a service with features or multiple services.

    For example, the client struggled to define the Wi-Fi services because they had many different user groups and different processes to obtain the service. Patients, visitors, doctors, researchers, and corporate employees all use Wi-Fi, but the service features for each user group were different.

    Solution

    The Info-Tech analyst came on-site and engaged the project team in a discussion around how the users would view the services.

    The analyst also provided tips and techniques on identifying services and their features.

    Because patients and visitors do not access Wi-Fi or receive support for the service in the same way as clinical or corporate employees, Wi-Fi was separated into two services (one for each user group).

    Results

    Using the tips and techniques that were provided during the onsite engagement, the project team was able to have a high degree of clarity on how to define the services by articulating who the authorized users are, and how to access the process.

    This allowed the group to focus on the users’ perspective and create clear, unambiguous service features so that users could clearly understand eligibility requirements for the service and how to request them.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts

    this is a picture of an Info-Tech Analyst

    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.
    The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:
    2.1 This image contains a screenshot from section 2.1 of this blueprint.

    Understand what enterprise services are

    The project team must have a clear understanding of what qualifies as an enterprise service. The onsite analysts will also promote a user-oriented mindset so the catalog focuses on business needs.

    2.2 this image contains a screenshot from section 2.2 of this blueprint.

    Identify enterprise services

    The Info-Tech analysts will provide a list of ready-to-use services and will work with the project team to change, add, and delete service definitions and to customize the service features.

    2.3 this image contains a screenshot from section 2.3 of this blueprint.

    Identify categories for enterprise services

    The Info-Tech analyst will again emphasize the importance of being service-oriented rather than IT-oriented. This will allow the group to come up with categories that are intuitive to the users.

    PHASE 3

    Identify and Define Line of Business Services

    Design & Build a User-Facing Service Catalog

    Step 3 – Create Line of Business Services Definitions

    1. Complete the Project Charter
    2. Create Enterprise Services Definitions
    3. Create Line of Business Services Definitions
    4. Complete Service Definitions

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Identify lines of business (LOB) within the organization as well as the user groups within the different LOBs.
    • Determine which one of Info-Tech’s two approaches is more suitable for your IT organization.
    • Define and document LOB services using the appropriate approach.
    • Categorize the LOB services based on the organization’s functional structure.

    Step Insights

    • Collaboration with the business significantly strengthens the quality of line of business service definitions. A significant amount of user input is crucial to create impactful and effective service definitions.
    • If a strong relationship with the business is not in place, IT can look at business applications and the business activities they support in order to understand how to define line of business services.

    Phase 3 outline

    Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 3: Define LOB Services

    Proposed Time to Completion: 4 weeks

    Step 3.1: Identify LOB services

    Step 3.2: Define LOB services

    Start with an analyst kick off call:

    • Identify enterprise services that are commonly used.
    • Ensure the list is comprehensive and capture common IT needs.
    • Create service descriptions and features.

    Review findings with analyst:

    • Use either the business view or the IT view methodology to identify and define LOB services.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Select one of the methodologies and either compile a list of business applications or a list of user groups/functional departments.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Validate the service definitions and features with business users.

    With these tools & templates: Service

    LOB Services – Functional Group
    LOB Services – Industry Specific

    With these tools & templates:

    LOB Services – Functional Group
    LOB Services – Industry Specific

    Communicate with your business users to get a clear picture of each line of business

    Within a business unit, there are user groups that use unique applications and IT services to perform business activities. IT must understand which group is consuming each service to document to their needs and requirements. Only then is it logical to group services into lines of business.

    Covering every LOB service is a difficult task. Info-Tech offers two approaches to identifying LOB services, though we recommend working alongside business user groups to have input on how each service is used directly from the users. Doing so makes the job of completing the service catalog easier, and the product more detailed and user friendly.

    Some helpful questions to keep in mind when characterizing user groups:

    • Where do they fall on the organizational chart?
    • What kind of work do they do?
    • What is included in their job description?
    • What are tasks that they do in addition to their formal responsibilities?
    • What do they need from IT to do their day-to-day tasks?
    • What does their work day look like?
    • When, why, and how do they use IT services?

    Info-Tech Insight

    With business user input, you can answer questions as specific as “What requirements are necessary for IT to deliver value to each line of business?” and “What does each LOB need in order to run their operation?”

    Understand when it is best to use one of Info-Tech’s two approaches to defining LOB services

    1. Business View

    Business View is the preferred method for IT departments with a better understanding of business operations. This is because they can begin with input from the user, enabling them to more successfully define every service for each user group and LOB.

    In addition, IT will also have a chance to work together with the business and this will improve the level of collaboration and communication. However, in order to follow this methodology, IT needs to have a pre-established relationship with the business and can demonstrate their knowledge of business applications.

    2. IT View

    The IT view begins with considering each business application used within the organization’s lines of business. Start with a broad view, following with a process of narrowing down, and then iterate for each business application.

    This process leads to each unique service performed by every application within the business’ LOBs.

    The IT view does not necessarily require a substantial amount of information about the business procedures. IT staff are capable of deducing what business users often require to maintain their applications’ functionality.

    Use one of Info-Tech’s two methodologies to help you identify each LOB service

    Choose the methodology that fits your IT organization’s knowledge of the business.

    This image demonstrates a comparison between the business view of service and the IT View of Service. Under the Business View, the inputs are LOB; User Groups; and Business Activity. Under the IT View, the inputs are Business Application and Functionality, and the outputs are Business Activity; User Groups; and LOB.

    1. Business View

    If you do have knowledge of business operations, using the business view is the better option and the service definition will be more relatable to the users.

    2. IT View

    For organizations that don’t have established relationships with the business or detailed knowledge of business activities, IT can decompose the application into services. They have more familiarity and comfort with the business applications than with business activities.

    It is important to continue after the service is identified because it helps confirm and solidify the names and features. Determining the business activity and the user groups can help you become more user-oriented.

    Identifying LOB services using Info-Tech’s Business View method

    We will illustrate the two methodologies with the same example.

    If you have established an ongoing relationship with the business and you are familiar with their business operations, starting with the LOB and user groups will ensure you cover all the services IT provides to the business and create more relatable service names.

    This is a screenshot of an example of the business view of Service.

    Identifying LOB services using Info-Tech’s IT View method

    If you want to understand what services IT provides to the Sales functional group, and you don’t have comprehensive knowledge of the department, you need to start with the IT perspective.

    This is a screenshot of an example of the business view of Service.

    Info-Tech Insight

    If you are concerned about the fact that people always associate a service with an application, you can include the application in the service name or description so users can find the service through a search function.

    Group LOB services into functional groups as you did enterprise services into categories

    3.1 Sample Line of Business Services Definitions – Functional Groups & Industry Examples

    Like categories for enterprise services in Phase Two, LOB services are grouped into functional groups. Functional groups are the components of an organizational chart (HR, Finance, etc.) that are found in a company’s structure.

    Functional Groups

    Functional groups enable a clear view for business users of what services they need, while omitting services that do not apply to them. This does not overwhelm them, and provides them with only relevant information.

    Industry Services

    To be clear, industry services can be put into functional groups.

    Info-Tech provides a few sample industry services (without their functional group) to give an idea of what LOB service is specific to these industries. Try to extrapolate from these examples to create LOB services for your business.

    Use Info-Tech’s Sample LOB Services – Functional Group and Sample LOB Services – Industry Specific documents.

    This is a screenshot of Info-Tech's Functional Group Services

    Info-Tech Insight

    Keep track of which services you either modify or delete. You will have to change the same services in the final Info-Tech deliverable.

    Identify the user group and business activity within each line of business – Business view

    3.1 30-45 minutes per line of business

    Only perform this activity if you have a relationship with the business that can enable you to generate business input on service identifications and definitions.

    In a group of your project participants, repeat the sequence for each LOB.

    1. Brainstorm each user group within the LOB that is creating value for the business by performing functional activities.
    2. Think of what each individual end user must do to create their value. Think of the bigger picture rather than specifics at this point. For example, sales representatives must communicate with clients to create value.
    3. Now that you have each user group and the activities they perform, consider the specifics of how they go about doing that activity. Consider each application they use and how much they use that application. Think of any and all IT services that could occur as a result of that application usage.

    INPUT

    • A collaborative discussion (with a business relationship)

    OUTPUT

    • LOB services defined from the business perspective

    Materials

    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard/marker

    Participants

    • Members of the project team
    • Representatives from the LOBs

    Identify the user group and business activity within each line of business – IT view

    3.1 30-45 minutes per application

    Only perform this activity if you cannot generate business input through your relationships, and must begin service definitions with business applications.

    In a group of your project participants, repeat the sequence for each application.

    1. Brainstorm all applications that the business provides through IT. Cross out the ones that provide enterprise services.
    2. In broad terms, think about what the application is accomplishing to create value for the business from IT’s perspective. What are the modules? Is it recording interactions with the clients? Each software can have multiple functionalities.
    3. Narrow down each functionality performed by the application and think about how IT helps deliver that value. Create a name for the service that the users can relate to and understand.
    4. → Optional

    5. Now go beyond the service and think about the business activities. They are always similar to IT’s application functionality, but from the user perspective. How would the user think about what the application’s functionality to accomplish that particular service is? At this point, focus on the service, not the application.
    6. Determine the user groups for each service. This step will help you complete the service record design in phase 4. Keep in mind that multiple user groups may access one service.

    INPUT

    • A collaborative discussion (without a business relationship)

    OUTPUT

    • LOB services defined from the IT perspective

    Materials

    • Sticky notes
    • Whiteboard/marker

    Participants

    • Members of the project team

    You must review your LOB service definitions with the business before deployment

    Coming up with LOB service definitions is challenging for IT because it requires comprehension of all lines of business within the organization as well as direct interaction with the business users.

    After completing the LOB service definitions, IT must talk to the business to ensure all the user groups and business activities are covered and all the features are accurate.

    Here are some tips to reviewing your LOB Service Catalog generated content:

    • If you plan to talk to a business SME, plan ahead to help complete the project in time for rollout.
    • Include a business relationship manager on the project team to facilitate discussion if you do not have an established relationship with the business.

    Sample Meeting Agenda

    Go through the service in batches. Present 5-10 related services to the business first. Start with the service name and then focus on the features.

    In the meeting, discuss whether the service features accurately sum up the business activities, or if there are missing key activities. Also discuss whether certain services should be split up into multiple services or combined into one.

    Organization identifies LOB services using Info-Tech’s methodologies

    CASE STUDY A
    Industry Government
    Source Onsite engagement

    Challenge

    There were many users from different LOBs, and IT provided multiple services to all of them. Tracking them and who had access to what was difficult.

    IT didn’t understand who provided the services (service owner) and who the customers were (business owner) for some of the services.

    Solution

    After identifying the different Lines of Business, they followed the first approach (Business View) for those that IT had sufficient knowledge of in terms of business operations:

    1. Identified lines of business
    2. Identified user groups
    3. Identified business activities

    For the LOBs they weren’t familiar with, they used the IT view method, beginning with the application:

    1. Identified business apps
    2. Deduced the functionalities of each application
    3. Traced the application back to the service and identified the service owner and business owner

    Results

    Through these two methodologies, IT was able to define services according to how the users both perceive and utilize them.

    IT was able to capture all the services it provides to each line of business effectively without too much help from the business representatives.

    By capturing all enterprise services offered to the organization, IT centralized its management of services instead of having scattered request processes.

    Info-Tech helps organization to identify LOB services using the IT View

    CASE STUDY B
    Industry Healthcare
    Source Onsite engagement

    Challenge
    The organization uses a major application containing several modules used by different users for various business activities.

    The challenge was to break down the application into multiple services in a way that makes sense to the business users. Users should be able to find services specific to them easily.

    Therefore, the project team must understand how to map the modules to different services and user groups.


    Solution
    The project team identified the major lines of business and took various user groups such as nurses and doctors, figured out their daily tasks that require IT services, and mapped each user-facing service to the functionality of the application.

    The project team then went back to the application to ensure all the modules and functionalities within the application were accounted for. This helped to ensure that services for all user groups were covered and prepared to be released in the catalog.


    Results
    Once the project team had come up with a comprehensive list of services for each line of business, they were able to sit with the business and review the services.

    IT was also able to use this opportunity to demonstrate all the services it provides. Having all the LOB services demonstrates IT has done its preparation and can show the value they help create for the business in a language the users can understand. The end result was a strengthened relationship between the business and the IT department.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts

    This is a picture of an Info-Tech Analyst

    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.
    The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:
    3.1 this image contains a screenshot from section 3.1 of this blueprint.

    Understand what Line of Business services are

    The onsite analysts will provide a clear distinction between enterprise services and LOB services. The analysts will also articulate the importance of validating LOB services with the business.

    3.2 this image contains a screenshot from section 3.2 of this blueprint.

    Identify LOB services using the business’ view

    There are two methods for coming up with LOB services. If IT has comprehensive knowledge of the business, they can identify the services by outlining the user groups and their business activities.

    3.3 This image contains a screenshot from section 3.3 of this blueprint.

    Identify LOB services using IT’s view

    If IT does not understand the business and cannot obtain business input, Info-Tech’s analysts will present the second method, which allows IT to identify services with more comfortability through business applications/systems.

    3.4 This image contains a screenshot from section 3.4 of this blueprint.

    Categorize the LOB services into functional groups

    The analysts will help the project team categorize the LOB services based on user groups or functional departments.

    PHASE 4

    Complete Service Definitions

    Design & Build a User-Facing Service Catalog

    Step 4: Complete service definitions and service record design

    1. Complete the Project Charter
    2. Create Enterprise Services Definitions
    3. Create Line of Business Services Definitions
    4. Complete Service Definitions

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Select which fields of information you would like to include in your service catalog design.
    • Determine which fields should be kept internal for IT use only.
    • Complete the service record design with business input if possible.

    Step Insights

    • Don’t overcomplicate the service record design. Only include the pieces of information the users really need to see.
    • Don’t publish anything that you don’t want to be held accountable for. If you are not ready, keep the metrics and costs internal.
    • It is crucial to designate a facilitator and a decision maker so confusions and disagreements regarding service definitions can be resolved efficiently.

    Phase 3 outline

    Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

    Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

    Guided Implementation 4: Complete service definitions
    Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 4 weeks

    Step 4.1: Design service record

    Step 4.2: Complete service definitions

    Start with an analyst kick off call:

    • Review Info-Tech’s sample service record and determine which fields to add/change/delete.
    • Determine which fields should be kept internal.

    Review findings with analyst:

    • Complete all fields in the service record for each identified service.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Finalize the design of the service record and bring over enterprise services and LOB services.

    Then complete these activities…

    • Test the service definitions with business users prior to catalog implementation.

    With these tools & templates: Service

    Services Definition Chart

    With these tools & templates:

    Services Definition Chart

    Utilize Info-Tech’s Services Definition Chart to map out your final service catalog design

    Info-Tech’s Sample Services Definition Chart

    Info-Tech has provided a sample Services Definition Chart with standard service definitions and pre-populated fields. It is up to you throughout this step to decide which fields are necessary to your business users, as well as how much detail you wish to include in each of them.

    This image contains a screenshot from Info-Tech's Services Definition Chart.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Keep track of which services you either modify or delete. You will have to change the same services in the final Info-Tech deliverable.

    Tips and techniques for service record design

    The majority of the fields in the service catalog are user facing, which means they must be written in business language that the users can understand.

    If there is any confusion or disagreement in filling out the fields, a facilitator is required to lead the working groups in coming up with a definitive answer. If a decision is still not reached, it should be escalated to the decision maker (usually the service owner).

    IT-Facing Fields

    There are IT facing fields that should not be published to the business users – they are for the benefit of IT. For example, you may want to keep Performance Metrics internal to IT until you are ready to discuss it with the business.

    If the organization is interested in creating a Technical Service Catalog following this initiative, these fields will provide a helpful starting place for IT to identify the people, process, and technology required to support user-facing services.

    Info-Tech Insight

    It is important for IT-facing fields to be kept internal. If business users are having trouble with a service and the service owner’s name is available to them, they will phone them for support even if they are not the support owner.

    Design your service catalog with business input: have the user in mind

    When completing the service record, adopt the principle that “Less is More.” Keep it simple and write the service description from the user’s perspective, without IT language. From the list below, pick which fields of information are important to your business users.

    What do the users need to access the service quickly and with minimal assistance?

    The depicted image contains an example of an analysis of what users need to access the service quickly and with minimal assistance. The contents are as follows. Under Service Overview, Name; Description; Features; Category; and Supporting Services. Under Owners, are Service Owner; Business Owner. Under Access Policies and Procedures, are Authorized Users; Request Process; Approval Requirements/Process; Turnaround Time; User Responsibility. Under Availability and Service Levels are Support Hours; Hours of Availability; Planned Downtime; and Metrics. Under Support Policies & Procedures are Support Process; Support Owner; Support Documentation. Under Costs are Internal Cost; Customer Cost. The items which are IT Facing are coloured Red. These include Supporting Services; Service Owner; Business Owner; Metrics; Support Owner; and Internal Cost.

    Identify service overview

    “What information must I have in each service record? What are the fundamentals required to define a service?”

    Necessary Fields – Service Description:

    • Service name → a title for the service that gives a hint of its purpose.
    • Service description → what the service does and expected outcomes.
    • Service features → describe functionality of the service.
    • Service category → an intuitive way to group the service.
    • Support services → applications/systems required to support the service.

    Description: Delivers electronic messages to and from employees.

    Features:

    • Desk phone
    • Teleconference phones (meeting rooms)
    • Voicemail
    • Recover deleted voicemails
    • Team line: call rings multiple phones/according to call tree
    • Employee directory
    • Caller ID, Conference calling

    Category: Communications

    This image contains an example of a Service overview table. The headings are: Description; Features; Category; Supporting Services (Systems, Applications).

    Identify owners

    Who is responsible for the delivery of the service and what are their roles?

    Service Owner and Business Owner

    Service owner → the IT member who is responsible and accountable for the delivery of the service.

    Business owner → the business partner of the service owner who ensures the provided service meets business needs.

    Example: Time Entry

    Service Owner: Manager of Business Solutions

    Business Owner: VP of Human Resources

    This image depicts a blank table with the headings Service Owner, and Business Owner

    Info-Tech Insight

    For enterprise services that are used by almost everyone in the organization, the business owner is the CIO.

    Identify access policies and procedures

    “Who is authorized to access this service? How do they access it?”

    Access Policies & Procedures

    Authorized users → who can access the service.

    Request process → how to request access to the service.

    Approval requirement/process → what the user needs to have in place before accessing the service.

    Example: Guest Wi-Fi

    Authorized Users: All people on site not working for the company

    Request Process: Self-Service through website for external visitors

    Approval Requirement/Process: N/A

    This image depicts a blank table with the headings: Authorized Users; Request Process; Approval Requirement/Process

    Info-Tech Insight

    Clearly defining how to access a service saves time and money by decreasing calls to the service desk and getting users up and running faster. The result is higher user productivity.

    Identify access policies and procedures

    “Who is authorized to access this service? How do they access it?”

    Access Policies & Procedures

    Requirements & pre-requisites → details of what must happen before a service can be provided.

    Turnaround time → how much time it will take to grant access to the service.

    User responsibility → What the user is expected to do to acquire the service.

    Example: Guest Wi-Fi

    Requirements & Pre-requisites: Disclaimer of non-liability and acceptance

    Turnaround time: Immediate

    User Responsibility: Adhering to policies outlined in the disclaimer

    This image depicts a blank table with the headings: Authorized Users; Request Process; Approval Requirement/Process

    Info-Tech Insight

    Clearly defining how to access a service saves time and money by decreasing calls to the service desk and getting users up and running faster. The result is higher user productivity.

    Identify availability and service levels

    “When is this service available to users? What service levels can the user expect?”

    Availability & Service Levels

    Support hours → what days/times is this service available to users?

    Hours of availability/planned downtime → is there scheduled downtime for maintenance?

    Performance metrics → what level of performance can the user expect for this service?

    Example: Software Provisioning

    Support Hours: Standard business hours

    Hours of Availability/Planned Downtime: Standard business hours; can be agreed to work beyond operating hours either earlier or later

    Performance Metrics: N/A

    This image depicts a blank table with the headings: Support hours; Hours of availability/planned downtime; Performance Metrics.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Manage user expectations by clearly documenting and communicating service levels.

    Identify support policies and procedures

    “How do I obtain support for this service?”

    Support Policies & Procedures

    Support process → what is the process for obtaining support for this service?

    Support owner → who can users contact for escalations regarding this service?

    Support documentation → where can users find support documentation for this service?

    Example: Shared Folders

    Support Process: Contact help desk or submit a ticket via portal

    Support Owner: Manager, client support

    Support Documentation: .pdf of how-to guide

    This image depicts a blank table with the headings: Support Process; Support Owner; Support Documentation

    Info-Tech Insight

    Clearly documenting support procedures enables users to get the help they need faster and more efficiently.

    Identify service costs and approvals

    “Is there a cost for this service? If so, how much and who is expensing it?”

    Costs

    Internal Cost → do we know the total cost of the service?

    Customer Cost → a lot of services are provided without charge to the business; however, certain service requests will be charged to a department’s budget.

    Example: Hardware Provisioning

    Internal Cost: For purposes of audit, new laptops will be expensed to IT.

    Customer Cost: Cost to rush order 10 new laptops with retina displays for the graphics team. Charged for extra shipment cost, not for cost of laptop.

    This image depicts a blank table with the headings: Internal Costs; Customer costs

    Info-Tech Insight

    Set user expectations by clearly documenting costs associated with a service and how to obtain approval for these costs if required.

    Complete the service record design fields for every service

    4.1 3 Hours

    This is the final activity to completing the service record design. It has been a long journey to make it here; now, all that is left is completing the fields and transferring information from previous activities.

    1. Organize the services however you think is most appropriate. A common method of organization is alphabetically by enterprise category, and then each LOB functional group.
    2. Determine which fields you would like to keep or edit to be part of your design. Also add any other fields you can think of which will add value to the user or IT. Remember to keep them IT facing if necessary.
    3. Complete the fields for each service one by one. Keep in mind that for some services, a field or two may not apply to the nature of that service and may be left blank or filled with a null value (e.g. N/A).

    INPUT

    • A collaborative discussion

    OUTPUT

    • Completed service record design ready for a catalog

    Materials

    • Info-Tech sample service record design.

    Participants

    • Project stakeholders, business representatives

    Info-Tech Insight

    Don’t forget to delete or bring over the edited LOB and Enterprise services from the phase 2 and 3 deliverables.

    Complete the service definitions and get them ready for publication

    Now that you have completed the first run of service definitions, you can go back and complete the rest of the identified services in batches. You should observe increased efficiency and effectiveness in filling out the service definitions.

    This image depicts how you can use bundles to simplify the process of catalog design using bundles. The cycle includes the steps: Identify Services; Select a Service Bundle; Review Record Design; followed by a cycle of: Pick a service; Service X; Service Data Collection; Create Service Record, followed by Publish the bundle; Communicate the bundle; Rinse and Repeat.

    This blueprint’s purpose is to help you design a service catalog. There are a number of different platforms to build the catalog offered by application vendors. The sophistication of the catalog depends on the size of your business. It may be as simple as an Excel book, or something as complex as a website integrated with your service desk.

    Determine how you want to publish the service catalog

    There are various levels of maturity to consider when you are thinking about how to deploy your service catalog.

    1. Website/User Portal 2. Catalog Module Within ITSM Tool

    3. Homegrown Solution

    Prerequisite

    An internet website, or a user portal

    An existing ITSM tool with a built-in service catalog module

    Database development capabilities

    Website development capabilities

    Pros

    Low cost

    Low effort

    Easy to deploy

    Customized solution tailored for the organization

    High flexibility regarding how the service catalog is published

    Cons

    Not aesthetically appealing

    Lacking sophistication

    Difficult to customize to organization’s needs

    Limitation on how the service catalog info is published

    High effort

    High cost

    → Maturity Level →

    Organization uses the service catalog to outline IT’s and users’ responsibilities

    CASE STUDY A
    Industry Government
    Source Onsite engagement

    Challenge

    The client had collected a lot of good information, but they were not sure about what to include to ensure the users could understand the service clearly.

    They were also not sure what to keep internal so the service catalog did not increase IT’s workload. They want to help the business, but not appear as if they are capable of solving everything for everyone immediately. There was a fear of over-commitment.

    Solution

    The government created a Customer Responsibility field for each service, so it was not just IT who was providing solutions. Business users needed to understand what they had to do to receive some services.

    The Service Owner and Business Owner fields were also kept internal so users would go through the proper request channel instead of calling Service Owners directly.

    Lastly, the Performance Metrics field was kept internal until IT was ready to present service metrics to the business.

    Results

    The business was provided clarity on their responsibility and what was duly owed to them by IT staff. This established clear boundaries on what was to be expected of IT services projected into the future.

    The business users knew what to do and how to obtain the services provided to them. In the meantime, they didn’t feel overwhelmed by the amount of information provided by the service catalog.

    Organization leverages the service catalog as a tool to define IT workflows and business processes

    CASE STUDY B
    Industry Healthcare
    Source Onsite engagement

    Challenge

    There is a lack of clarity and a lack of agreement between the client’s team members regarding the request/approval processes for certain services. This was an indication that there is a level of ambiguity around process. Members were not sure what was the proper way to access a service and could not come up with what to include in the catalog.

    Different people from different teams had different ways of accessing services. This could be true for both enterprise and LOB services.

    Solution

    The Info-Tech analyst facilitated a discussion about workflows and business processes.

    In particular, the discussion focused around the approval/authorization process, and IT’s workflows required to deliver the service. The Info-Tech analyst on site walked the client through their different processes to determine which one should be included in the catalog.

    Results

    The discussion brought clarity to the project team around both IT and business process. Using this new information, IT was able to communicate to the business better, and create consistency for IT and the users of the catalog.

    The catalog design was a shared space where IT and business users could confer what the due process and responsibilities were from both sides. This increased accountability for both parties.

    If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

    Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts

    this is a picture of an Info-Tech Analyst

    • To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
    • Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
    • Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.
    The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:
    4.1 this image contains a screenshot from section 4.1 of this blueprint.

    Determine which fields should be included in the record design

    The analysts will present the sample service definitions record and facilitate a discussion to customize the service record so unique business needs are captured.

    4.2 this image contains a screenshot from section 4.2.1 of this blueprint.

    Determine which fields should be kept internal

    The onsite analysts will explain why certain fields are used but not published. The analysts will help the team determine which fields should be kept internal.

    4.3 this image contains a screenshot from section 4.3 of this blueprint.

    Complete the service definitions

    The Info-Tech analysts will help the group complete the full service definitions. This exercise will also provide the organization with a clear understanding of IT workflows and business processes.

    Summary of accomplishment

    Knowledge Gained

    • Understanding why it is important to identify and define services from the user’s perspective.
    • Understand the differences between enterprise services and line of business services.
    • Distinguish service features from services.
    • Involve the business users to define LOB services using either IT’s view or LOB’s view.

    Processes Optimized

    • Enterprise services identification and documentation.
    • Line of business services identification and documentation.

    Deliverables Completed

    • Service catalog project charter
    • Enterprise services definitions
    • Line of business service definitions – functional groups
    • Line of business service definitions – industry specific
    • Service definition chart

    Project step summary

    Client Project: Design and Build a User-Facing Service Catalog

    1. Launch the Project – Maximize project success by assembling a well-rounded team and managing all important stakeholders.
    2. Identify Enterprise Services – Identify services that are used commonly across the organization and categorize them in a user-friendly way.
    3. Identify Line of Business Services – Identify services that are specific to each line of business using one of two Info-Tech methodologies.
    4. Complete the Service Definitions – Determine what should be presented to the users and complete the service definitions for all identified services.

    Info-Tech Insight

    This project has the ability to fit the following formats:

    • Onsite workshop by Info-Tech Research Group consulting analysts.
    • Do-it-yourself with your team.
    • Remote delivery (Info-Tech Guided Implementation).

    Related Info-Tech research

    Establish a Service-Based Costing Model

    Develop the right level of service-based costing capability by applying our methodology.

    IT Governance

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    • Parent Category Name: Strategy and Governance
    • Parent Category Link: /strategy-and-governance
    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you may want to redesign your IT governance, Review our methodology, and understand how we can support you in completing this process.

    Enable Omnichannel Commerce That Delights Your Customers

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    • Parent Category Name: Customer Relationship Management
    • Parent Category Link: /customer-relationship-management
    • Today’s customers expect to be able to transact with you in the channels of their choice. The proliferation of e-commerce, innovations in brick-and-mortar retail, and developments in mobile commerce and social media selling mean that IT organizations are managing added complexity in drafting a strategy for commerce enablement.
    • The right technology stack is critical in order to support world-class e-commerce and brick-and-mortar interactions with customers.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Support the right transactional channels for the right customers: there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to commerce enablement – understand your customers to drive selection of the right transactional channels.
    • Don’t assume that “traditional” commerce channels have stagnated: IoT, customer analytics, and blended retail are reinvigorating brick-and-mortar selling.
    • Don’t buy best-of-breed; buy best-for-you. Base commerce vendor selection on your requirements and use cases, not on the vendor’s overall performance.

    Impact and Result

    • Leverage Info-Tech’s proven, road-tested approach to using personas and scenarios to build strong business drivers for your commerce strategy.
    • Before selecting and deploying technology solutions, create a cohesive channel matrix outlining which channels your organization will support with transactional capabilities.
    • Understand evolving trends in the commerce solution space, such as AI-driven product recommendations and integration with other essential enterprise applications (i.e. CRM and marketing automation platforms).
    • Understand and apply operational best practices such as content optimization and dynamic personalization to improve the conversion rate via your e-commerce channels.

    Enable Omnichannel Commerce That Delights Your Customers Research & Tools

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

    1. Enable Omnichannel Commerce Deck – A deck outlining the importance of creating a cohesive omnichannel framework to improve your customer experience.

    E-commerce channels have proliferated, and traditional brick-and-mortar commerce is undergoing reinvention. In order to provide your customers with a strong experience, it's imperative to create a strategy – and to deploy the right enabling technologies – that allow for robust multi-channel commerce. This storyboard provides a concise overview of how to do just that.

    • Enable Omnichannel Commerce That Delights Your Customers – Phases 1-2

    2. Create Personas to Drive Omnichannel Requirements Template – A template to identify key customer personas for e-commerce and other channels.

    Customer personas are archetypal representations of your key audience segments. This template (and populated examples) will help you construct personas for your omnichannel commerce project.

    • Create Personas to Drive Omnichannel Requirements Template
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Enable Omnichannel Commerce That Delights Your Customers

    Create a cohesive, omnichannel framework that supports the right transactions through the right channels for the right customers.

    Analyst Perspective

    A clearly outlined commerce strategy is a necessary component of a broader customer experience strategy.

    This is a picture of Ben Dickie, Research Lead, Research – Applications at Info-Tech Research Group

    Ben Dickie
    Research Lead, Research – Applications
    Info-Tech Research Group

    “Your commerce strategy is where the rubber hits the road, converting your prospects into paying customers. To maximize revenue (and provide a great customer experience), it’s essential to have a clearly defined commerce strategy in place.

    A strong commerce strategy seeks to understand your target customer personas and commerce journey maps and pair these with the right channels and enabling technologies. There is not a “one-size-fits-all” approach to selecting the right commerce channels: while many organizations are making a heavy push into e-commerce and mobile commerce, others are seeking to differentiate themselves by innovating in traditional brick-and-mortar sales. Hybrid channel design now dominates many commerce strategies – using a blend of e-commerce and other channels to deliver the best-possible customer experience.

    IT leaders must work with the business to create a succinct commerce strategy that defines personas and scenarios, outlines the right channel matrix, and puts in place the right enabling technologies (for example, point-of-sale and e-commerce platforms).”

    Stop! Are you ready for this project?

    This Research Is Designed For:

    • IT leaders and business analysts supporting their commercial and marketing organizations in developing and executing a technology enablement strategy for e-commerce or brick-and-mortar commerce.
    • Any organization looking to develop a persona-based approach to identifying the right channels for their commerce strategy.

    This Research Will Help You:

    • Identify key personas and customer journeys for a brick-and-mortar and/or e-commerce strategy.
    • Select the right channels for your commerce strategy and build a commerce channel matrix to codify the results.
    • Review the “art of the possible” and new developments in brick-and-mortar and e-commerce execution.

    This Research Will Also Assist:

    • Sales managers, brand managers, and any marketing professional looking to build a cohesive commerce strategy.
    • E-commerce or POS project teams or working groups tasked with managing an RFP process for vendor selection.

    This Research Will Help Them:

    • Build a persona-centric commerce strategy.
    • Understand key technology trends in the brick-and-mortar and e-commerce space.

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Today’s customers expect to be able to transact with you in the channels of their choice.

    The proliferation of e-commerce, innovations in brick-and-mortar retail, and developments in mobile commerce and social media selling mean that IT organizations are managing added complexity in drafting a strategy for commerce enablement.

    The right technology stack is critical to support world-class e-commerce and brick-and-mortar interactions with customers.

    Common Obstacles

    Many organizations do not define strong, customer-centric drivers for dictating which channels they should be investing in for transactional capabilities.

    As many retailers look to move shopping experiences online during the pandemic, the impetus for having a strong e-commerce suite has markedly increased. The proliferation of commerce vendors has made it difficult to identify and shortlist the right solution, while the pandemic has also highlighted the importance of adopting new vendors quickly and efficiently: companies need to understand the top players in different commerce market landscapes.

    IT is receiving a growing number of commerce platform requests and must be prepared to speak intelligently about requirements and the “art of the possible.”

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    • Leverage Info-Tech’s proven, road-tested approach to using personas and scenarios to build strong business drivers for your commerce strategy.
    • Before selecting and deploying technology solutions, create a cohesive channel matrix outlining which channels your organization will support with transactional capabilities.
    • Understand evolving trends in the commerce solution space, such as AI-driven product recommendations and integration with other essential enterprise applications (i.e. customer relationship management [CRM] and marketing automation platforms).
    • Understand and apply operational best practices such as content optimization and dynamic personalization to improve the conversion rate via your e-commerce channels.

    Info-Tech Insight

    • Support the right transactional channels for the right customers: there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to commerce enablement – understand your customers to drive selection of the right transactional channels.
    • Don’t assume that “traditional” commerce channels have stagnated: IoT, customer analytics, and blended retail are reinvigorating brick-and-mortar selling.
    • Don’t buy best-of-breed; buy best-for-you: base commerce vendor selection on your requirements and use cases, not on the vendor’s overall performance.

    A strong commerce strategy is an essential component of a savvy approach to customer experience management

    A commerce strategy outlines an organization’s approach to selling its products and services. A strong commerce strategy identifies target customers’ personas, commerce journeys that the organization wants to support, and the channels that the organization will use to transact with customers.

    Many commerce strategies encompass two distinct but complementary branches: a commerce strategy for transacting through traditional channels and an e-commerce strategy. While the latter often receives more attention from IT, it still falls on IT leaders to provide the appropriate enabling technologies to support traditional brick-and-mortar channels as well. Traditional channels have also undergone a digital renaissance in recent years, with forward-looking companies capitalizing on new technology to enhance customer experiences in their stores.

    Traditional Channels

    • Physical Stores (Brick and Mortar)
    • Kiosks or Pop-Up Stores
    • Telesales
    • Mail Orders
    • EDI Transactions

    E-Commerce Channels

    • E-Commerce Websites
    • Mobile Commerce Apps
    • Embedded Social Shopping
    • Customer Portals
    • Configure Price Quote Tool Sets (CPQ)
    • Hybrid Retail

    Info-Tech Insight

    To better serve their customers, many companies position themselves as “click-and-mortar” shops – allowing customers to transact at a store or online.

    Customers’ expectations are on the rise: meet them!

    Today’s consumers expect speed, convenience, and tailored experiences at every stage of the customer lifecycle. Successful organizations strive to support these expectations.

    58%
    of retail customers admitted that their expectations now are higher than they were a year ago (FinancesOnline).

    70%
    of consumers between the ages of 18 and 34 have increasing customer expectations year after year (FinancesOnline).

    69%
    of consumers now expect store associates to be armed with a mobile device to deliver value-added services, such as looking up product information and checking inventory (V12).

    73%
    of support leaders agree that customer expectations are increasing, but only…

    42%
    of support leaders are confident that they’re actually meeting those expectations.

    How can you be sure that you are meeting your customers’ expectations?

    1. Offer more personalization throughout the entire customer journey
    2. Practice quality customer service – ensure staff have up-to-date knowledge and offer quick resolution time for complaints
    3. Focus on offering low-effort experiences and easy-to-use platforms (i.e. “one-click buying”)
    4. Ensure your products and services perform well and do what they’re meant to do
    5. Ensure omnichannel availability – 9 in 10 consumers want a seamless omnichannel experience

    Info-Tech Insight

    Customers expect to interact with organizations through the channels of their choice. Now more than ever, you must enable your organization to provide tailored commerce and transactional experiences.

    Omnichannel commerce is the way of the future

    Create a strategy that embraces this reality with the right tools!

    Get ahead of the competition by doing omnichannel right! Devise a strategy that allows you to create and maintain a consistent, seamless commerce experience by optimizing operations with an omnichannel framework. Customers want to interact with you on their own terms, and it falls to IT to ensure that applications are in place to support and manage both traditional and e-commerce channels. There must also be consistency of copy, collateral, offers, and pricing between commerce channels.

    71%
    of consumers want a consistent experience across all channels, but only…

    29%
    say that they actually get it.

    (Source: Business 2 Community, 2020)

    Omnichannel is a “multichannel approach that aims to provide customers with a personalized, integrated, and seamless shopping experience across diverse touchpoints and devices.”
    Source: RingCentral, 2021

    IT is responsible for providing technology enablement of the commerce strategy: e-commerce platforms are a cornerstone

    An e-commerce platform is an enterprise application that provides end-to-end capabilities for allowing customers to purchase products or services from your company via an online channel (e.g. a traditional website, a mobile application, or an embedded link in a social media post). Modern e-commerce platforms are essential for delivering a frictionless customer journey when it comes to purchasing online.

    $6.388
    trillion dollars worth of sales will be conducted online by 2024 (eMarketer, 14 Jan. 2021).

    44%
    of all e-commerce transactions are expected to be completed via a mobile device by 2024 (Insider).

    21.8%
    of all sales will be made from online purchases by 2024 (eMarketer, 14 Jan. 2021).

    Strong E-Commerce Platforms Enable a Wide Range of Functional Areas:

    • Product Catalog Management
    • Web Content Delivery
    • Product Search Engine
    • Inventory Management
    • Shopping Cart Management
    • Discount and Coupon Management
    • Return Management and Reverse Logistics
    • Dynamic Personalization
    • Dynamic Promotions
    • Predictive Re-Targeting
    • Predictive Product Recommendations
    • Transaction Processing
    • Compliance Management
    • Commerce Workflow Management
    • Loyalty Program Management
    • Reporting and Analytics

    An e-commerce solution boosts the effectiveness and efficiency of your operations and drives top-line growth

    Take time to learn the capabilities of modern e-commerce applications. Understanding the “art of the possible” will help you to get the most out of your e-commerce platform.

    An e-commerce platform helps marketers and sales staff in three primary ways:

    1. It allows the organization to effectively and efficiently operate e-commerce operations at scale.
    2. It allows commercial staff to have a single system for managing and monitoring all commercial activity through online channels.
    3. It allows the organization to improve the customer-facing e-commerce experience, boosting conversions and top-line sales.

    A dedicated e-commerce platform improves the efficiency of customer-commerce operations

    • Workflow automation reduces the amount of time spent executing dynamic e-commerce campaigns.
    • The use of internal or third-party data increases conversion effectiveness from customer databases across the organization.

    Info-Tech Insight

    A strong e-commerce provides marketers with the data they need to produce actionable insights about their customers.

    Case Study

    INDUSTRY - Retail
    SOURCE - Salesforce (a)

    PetSmart improves customer experience by leveraging a new commerce platform in the Salesforce ecosystem

    PetSmart

    PetSmart is a leading retailer of pet products, with a heavy footprint across North America. Historically, PetSmart was a brick-and-mortar retailer, but it has placed a heavy emphasis on being a true multi-channel “click-and-mortar” retailer to ensure it maintains relevance against competitors like Amazon.

    E-Commerce Overhaul Initiative

    To improve its e-commerce capabilities, PetSmart recognized that it needed to consolidate to a single, unified e-commerce platform to realize a 360-degree view of its customers. A new platform was also required to power dynamic and engaging experiences, with appropriate product recommendations and tailored content. To pursue this initiative, the company settled on Salesforce.com’s Commerce Cloud product after an exhaustive requirements definition effort and rigorous vendor selection approach.

    Results

    After platform implementation, PetSmart was able to effortlessly handle the massive transaction volumes associated with Black Friday and Cyber Monday and deliver 1:1 experiences that boosted conversion rates.

    PetSmart standardized on the Commerce Cloud from Salesforce to great effect.

    This is an image of the journey from Discover & Engage to Retain & Advocate.

    Case Study

    Icebreaker exceeds customer expectations by using AI to power product recommendations

    INDUSTRY - Retail
    SOURCE - Salesforce (b)

    Icebreaker

    Icebreaker is a leading outerwear and lifestyle clothing company, operating six global websites and owning over 5,000 stores across 50 countries. Icebreaker is focused on providing its shoppers with accurate, real-time product suggestions to ensure it remains relevant in an increasingly competitive online market.

    E-Commerce Overhaul Initiative

    To improve its e-commerce capabilities, Icebreaker recognized that it needed to adopt a predictive recommendation engine that would offer its customers a more personalized shopping experience. This new system would need to leverage relevant data to provide both known and anonymous shoppers with product suggestions that are of interest to them. To pursue this initiative, Icebreaker settled on using Salesforce.com’s Commerce Cloud Einstein, a fully integrated AI.

    Results

    After integrating Commerce Cloud Einstein on all its global sites, Icebreaker was able to cross-sell and up-sell its merchandise more effectively by providing its shoppers with accurate product recommendations, ultimately increasing average order value.

    IT must also provide technology enablement for other channels, such as point-of-sale systems for brick-and-mortar

    Point-of-sale systems are the “real world” complement to e-commerce platforms. They provide functional capabilities for selling products in a physical store, including basic inventory management, cash register management, payment processing, and retail analytics. Many firms struggle with legacy POS environments that inhibit a modern customer experience.

    $27.338
    trillion dollars in retail sales are expected to be made globally in 2022 (eMarketer, 2022).

    84%
    of consumers believe that retailers should be doing more to integrate their online and offline channels (Invoca).

    39%
    of consumers are unlikely or very unlikely to visit a retailer’s store if the online store doesn’t provide physical store inventory information (V12).

    Strong Point-of-Sale Platforms Enable a Wide Range of Functional Areas:

    • Product Catalog Management
    • Discount Management
    • Coupon Management and Administration
    • Cash Management
    • Cash Register Reconciliation
    • Product Identification (Barcode Management)
    • Payment Processing
    • Compliance Management
    • Basic Inventory Management
    • Commerce Workflow Management
    • Exception Reporting and Overrides
    • Loyalty Program Management
    • Reporting and Analytics

    E-commerce and POS don’t live in isolation

    They’re key components of a well-oiled customer experience ecosystem!

    Integrate commerce solutions with other customer experience applications – and with ERP or logistics systems – to handoff transactions for order fulfilment.

    Having a customer master database – the central place where all up-to-the-minute data on a customer profile is stored – is essential for traditional and e-commerce success. Typically, the POS or e-commerce platform is not the system of record for the master customer profile: this information lives in a CRM platform or customer data warehouse. Conceptually, this system is at the center of the customer-experience ecosystem.

    Strong POS and e-commerce solutions orchestrate transactions but typically do not do the heavy lifting in terms of order fulfilment, shipping logistics, economic inventory management, and reverse logistics (returns). In an enterprise-grade environment, these activities are executed by an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution – integrating your commerce systems with a back-end ERP solution is a crucial step from an application architecture point of view.

    This is an example of a customer experience ecosystem.  Core Apps (CRM, ERP): MMS Suite; E-Commerce; POS; Web CMS; Data Marts/BI Tools; Social Media Platforms

    Case Study

    INDUSTRY - Retail
    SOURCES - Amazon, n.d. CNET, 2020

    Amazon is creating a hybrid omnichannel experience for retail by introducing innovative brick-and-mortar stores

    Amazon

    Amazon began as an online retailer of books in the mid-1990s, and rapidly expanded its product portfolio to nearly every category imaginable. Often hailed as the foremost success story in online commerce, the firm has driven customer loyalty via consistently strong product recommendations and a well-designed site.

    Bringing Physical Retail Into the Digital Age

    Beginning in 2016 (and expanding in 2018), Amazon introduced Amazon Go, a next-generation grocery retailer, to the Seattle market. While most firms that pursue an e-commerce strategy traditionally come from a brick-and-mortar background, Amazon upended the usual narrative: the world’s largest online retailer opening physical stores to become a true omnichannel, “click-and-mortar” vendor. From the get-go, Amazon Go focused on innovating the physical retail experience – using cameras, IoT capabilities, and mobile technologies to offer “checkout-free” virtual shopping carts that automatically know what products customers take off the shelves and bill their Amazon accounts accordingly.

    Results

    Amazon received a variety of industry and press accolades for re-inventing the physical store experience and it now owns and operates seven separate store brands, with more still on the horizon.

    Case Study

    INDUSTRY - Retail
    SOURCES - Glossy, 2020

    Old Navy

    Old Navy is a clothing and accessories retail company that owns and operates over 1,200 stores across North America and China. Typically, Old Navy has relied on using traditional marketing approaches, but recently it has shifted to producing more digitally focused campaigns to drive revenue.

    Bringing Physical Retail Into the Digital Age

    To overcome pandemic-related difficulties, including temporary store closures, Old Navy knew that it had to have strong holiday sales in 2020. With the goal of stimulating retail sales growth and maximizing its pre-existing omnichannel capabilities, Old Navy decided to focus more of its holiday campaign efforts online than in years past. With this campaign centered on connected TV platforms, such as Hulu, and social media channels including Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, Old Navy was able to take a more unique, fun, and good-humored approach to marketing.

    Results

    Old Navy’s digitally focused campaign was a success. When compared with third quarter sales figures from 2019, third quarter net sales for 2020 increased by 15% and comparable sales increased by 17%.

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

    DIY Toolkit

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

    Guided Implementation

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

    Workshop

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

    Consulting

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4 Phase 5

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

    Call #2: Assess current maturity.

    Call #4: Identify relationship between current initiatives and capabilities.

    Call #6: Identify strategy risks.

    Call #8: Identify and prioritize improvements.

    Call #3: Identify target-state capabilities.

    Call #5: Create initiative profiles.

    Call #7: Identify required budget.

    Call #9: Summarize results and plan next steps.

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

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

    Enable Omnichannel Commerce That Delights Your Customers – Project Overview

    1. Identify Critical Drivers for Your Omnichannel Commerce Strategy 2. Map Drivers to the Right Channels and Technologies
    Best Practice Toolkit

    1.1 Assess Personas and Scenarios

    1.2 Create Key Drivers and Metrics

    2.1 Build the Commerce Channel Matrix

    2.2 Review Technology and Trends Primer

    Guided Implementations
    • Validate customer personas.
    • Validate commerce scenarios.
    • Review key drivers and metrics.
    • Build the channel matrix.
    • Discuss technology and trends.
    Onsite Workshop

    Module 1:

    Module 2:

    Identify Critical Drivers for Your Omnichannel Commerce Strategy

    Map Drivers to the Right Channels and Technologies

    Phase 1 Outcome:

    Phase 2 Outcome:

    An initial shortlist of customer-centric drivers for your channel strategy and supporting metrics.

    A completed commerce channel matrix tailored to your organization, and a snapshot of enabling technologies and trends.

    Phase 1

    Identify Critical Drivers for Your Omnichannel Commerce Strategy

    1.1 Assess Personas and Scenarios

    1.2 Create Key Drivers and Metrics

    Enable Omnichannel Commerce That Delights Your Customers

    Step 1.1

    Assess Personas and Scenarios

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    1.1.1 Build key customer personas for your commerce strategy.

    1.1.2 Create commerce scenarios (journey maps) that you need to enable.

    Identify Critical Drivers for Your Omnichannel Commerce Strategy

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Business stakeholders (Sales, Marketing)
    • IT project team

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Critical customer personas
    • Key traditional and e-commerce scenarios

    Use customer personas to picture who will be using your commerce channels and guide scenario design and key drivers

    What Are Personas?

    Personas are detailed descriptions of the targeted audience of your e-commerce presence. Effective personas:

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

    Source: Usability.gov, n.d.

    Why Are Personas Important?

    Personas help:

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

    Key Elements of a Persona:

    • Persona Group (e.g. executives)
    • Demographics (e.g. nationality, age, language spoken)
    • Purpose of Using Commerce Channels (e.g. product search versus ready to transact)
    • Typical Behaviors and Tendencies (e.g. goes to different websites when cannot find products in 20 seconds)
    • Technological Environment of User (e.g. devices, browsers, network connection)
    • Professional and Technical Skills and Experiences (e.g. knowledge of websites, area of expertise)

    Use Info-Tech’s guidelines to assist in the creation of personas

    How many personas should I create?

    The number of personas that should be created is based on the organizational coverage of your commerce strategy. Here are some questions you should ask:

    • Do the personas cover a majority of your revenues or product lines?
    • Is the number manageable for your project team to map out?

    How do I prioritize which personas to create?

    The identified personas should generate the most revenue – or provide a significant opportunity – for your business. Here are some questions that you should ask:

    • Are the personas prioritized based on the revenue they generate for the business?
    • Is the persona prioritization process considering both the present and future revenues the persona is generating?

    Sample: persona for e-commerce platform

    Example

    Persona quote: “After I call the company about the widget, I would usually go onto the company’s website and look at further details about the product. How am I supposed to do so when it is so hard to find the company’s website on everyday search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing?”

    Michael is a middle-aged manager working in the financial district. He wants to buy the company’s widgets for use in his home, but since he is distrusting of online shopping, he prefers to call the company’s call center first. Afterwards, if Michael is convinced by the call center representative, he will look at the company’s website for further research before making his purchase.

    Michael does not have a lot of free time on his hands, and tries to make his free time as relaxing as possible. Due to most of his work being client-facing, he is not in front of a computer most of the time during his work. As such, Michael does not consider himself to be skilled with technology. Once he makes the decision to purchase, Michael will conduct online transactions and pay most delivery costs due to his shortage of time.

    Needs:

    • Easy-to-find website and widget information.
    • Online purchasing and delivery services.
    • Answer to his questions about the widget.
    • To maintain contact post-purchase for easy future transactions.

    Info-Tech Tip

    The quote attached to a persona should be from actual quotes that your customers have used when you reviewed your voice of the customer (VoC) surveys or focus groups to drive home the impact of their issues with your company.

    1.1.1 Activity: Build personas for your key customers that you’ll need to support via traditional and e-commerce channels

    1 hour

    1. In two to four groups, list all the major, target customer personas that need to be built. In doing so, consider the people who interact with your e-commerce site (or other channels) most often.
    2. Build a demographic profile for each customer persona. Include information such as age, geographic location, occupation, and annual income.
    3. Augment the persona with a psychographic profile. Consider the goals and objectives of each customer persona and how these might inform buyer behaviors.
    4. Introduce your group’s personas to the entire group, in a round-robin fashion, as if you are introducing your persona at a party.
    5. Summarize the personas in a persona map. Rank your personas according to importance and remove any duplicates.
    6. Use Info-Tech’s Create Personas to Drive Omnichannel Requirements Template to assist.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Persona building is typically used for understanding the external customer; however, if you need to gain a better understanding of the organization’s internal customers (those who will be interacting with the e-commerce platform), personas can also be built for this purpose. Examples of useful internal personas are sales managers, brand managers, and customer service directors.

    1.1.1 Activity: Build personas for your key customers that you’ll need to support via traditional and e-commerce channels (continued)

    Input

    • Customer demographics and psychographics

    Output

    • List of prioritized customer personas

    Materials

    • Whiteboard
    • Markers

    Participants

    • Project team

    Build use-case scenarios to model the transactional customer journey and inform drivers for your commerce strategy

    A use-case scenario is a story or narrative that helps explore the set of interactions that a customer has with an organization. Scenario mapping will help identify key business and technology drivers as well as more granular functional requirements for POS or e-commerce platform selection.

    A GOOD SCENARIO…

    • Describes specific task(s) that need to be accomplished.
    • Describes user goals and motivations.
    • Describes interactions with a compelling but not overwhelming amount of detail.
    • Can be rough, as long as it provokes ideas and discussion.

    SCENARIOS ARE USED TO...

    • Provide a shared understanding about what a user might want to do and how they might want to do it.
    • Help construct the sequence of events that are necessary to address in your user interface(s).

    TO CREATE GOOD SCENARIOS…

    • Keep scenarios high level, not granular, in nature.
    • Identify as many scenarios as possible. If you’re time constrained, try to develop two to three key scenarios per persona.
    • Sketch each scenario out so that stakeholders understand the goal of the scenario.

    1.1.2 Exercise: Build commerce user scenarios to understand what you want your customers to do from a transactional viewpoint

    1 hour

    Example

    Simplified E-Commerce Workflow Purchase Products

    This image contains an example of a Simplified E-Commerce Workflow Purchase Products

    Step 1.2

    Create Key Drivers and Metrics

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Create the business drivers you need to enable with your commerce strategy.
    • Enumerate metrics to track the efficacy of your commerce strategy.

    Identify Critical Drivers for Your Omnichannel Commerce Strategy

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Business stakeholders (Sales, Marketing)
    • IT project team

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Business drivers for the commerce strategy
    • Metrics and key performance indicators for the commerce strategy

    1.2 Finish elaboration of your scenarios and map them to your personas: identify core business drivers for commerce

    1.5 hours

    1. List all commerce scenarios required to satisfy the immediate needs of your personas.
      1. Does the use-case scenario address commonly felt user challenges?
      2. Can the scenario be used by those with changing behaviors and tendencies?
    2. Look for recurring themes in use-case scenarios (for example, increasing average transaction cost through better product recommendations) and identify business drivers: drivers are common thematic elements that can be found across multiple scenarios. These are the key principles for your commerce strategy.
    3. Prioritize your use cases by leveraging the priorities of your business drivers.

    Example

    This is an example of how step 1.2 can help you identify business drivers

    1.2 Finish elaboration of your scenarios and map them to your personas: identify core business drivers for commerce (continuation)

    Input

    • User personas

    Output

    • List of use cases
    • Alignment of use cases to business objectives

    Materials

    • Whiteboard
    • Markers

    Participants

    • Business Analyst
    • Developer
    • Designer

    Show the benefits of commerce solution deployment with metrics aimed at both overall efficacy and platform adoption

    The ROI and perceived value of the organization’s e-commerce and POS solutions will be a critical indication of the success of the suite’s selection and implementation.

    Commerce Strategy and Technology Adoption Metrics

    EXAMPLE METRICS

    Commerce Performance Metrics

    Average revenue per unique transaction

    Quantity and quality of commerce insights

    Aggregate revenue by channel

    Unique customers per channel

    Savings from automated processes

    Repeat customers per channel

    User Adoption and Business Feedback Metrics

    User satisfaction feedback

    User satisfaction survey with technology

    Business adoption rates

    Application overhead cost reduction

    Info-Tech Insight

    Even if e-commerce metrics are difficult to track right now, the implementation of a dedicated e-commerce platform brings access to valuable customer intelligence from data that was once kept in silos.

    Phase 2

    Map Drivers to the Right Channels and Technologies

    2.1 Build the Commerce Channel Matrix

    2.2 Review Technology and Trends Primer

    Enable Omnichannel Commerce That Delights Your Customers

    Step 2.1

    Build the Commerce Channel Matrix

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Based on your business drivers, create a blended mix of e-commerce channels that will suit your organization’s and customers’ needs.

    Map Drivers to the Right Channels and Technologies

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Business stakeholders (Sales, Marketing)
    • IT project team

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Commerce channel map

    Pick the transactional channels that align with your customer personas and enable your target scenarios and drivers

    Traditional Channels

    E-Commerce Channels

    Hybrid Channels

    Physical stores (brick and mortar) are the mainstay of retailers selling tangible goods – some now also offer intangible service delivery.

    E-commerce websites as exemplified by services like Amazon are accessible by a browser and deliver both goods and services.

    Online ordering/in-store fulfilment is a model whereby customers can place orders online but pick the product up in store.

    Telesales allows customers to place orders over the phone. This channel has declined in favor of mobile commerce via smartphone apps.

    Mobile commerce allows customers to shop through a dedicated, native mobile application on a smartphone or tablet.

    IoT-enabled smart carts/bags allow customers to shop in store, but check-out payments are handled by a mobile application.

    Mail order allows customers to send (”snail”) mail orders. A related channel is fax orders. Both have diminished in favor of e-commerce.

    Social media embedded shopping allows customers to order products directly through services such as Facebook.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Your channel selections should be driven by customer personas and scenarios. For example, social media may be extensively employed by some persona types (i.e. millennials) but see limited adoption in other demographics or use cases (i.e. B2B).

    2.1 Activity: Build your commerce channel matrix

    30 minutes

    1. Inventory which transactional channels are currently used by your firm (segment by product lines if variation exists).
    2. Interview product leaders, sales leaders, and marketing managers to determine if channels support transactional capabilities or are used for marketing and service delivery.
    3. Review your customer personas, scenarios, and drivers and assess which of the channels you will use in the future to sell products and services. Document below.

    Example: Commerce Channel Map

    Product Line A Product Line B Product Line C
    Currently Used? Future Use? Currently Used? Future Use? Currently Used? Future Use?
    Store Yes Yes No No No No
    Kiosk Yes No No No No No
    E-Commerce Site/Portal No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
    Mobile App No No Yes Yes No Yes
    Embedded Social Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

    Input

    • Personas, scenarios, and driver

    Output

    • Channel map

    Materials

    • Whiteboard
    • Markers

    Participants

    • Project team

    Step 2.2

    Review Technology and Trends Primer

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Review the scope of e-commerce and POS solutions and understand key drivers impacting e-commerce and traditional commerce.

    Map Drivers to the Right Channels and Technologies

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Business stakeholders (Sales, Marketing)
    • IT project team

    Outcomes of this step:

    • Understanding of key technologies
    • Understanding of key trends

    Application spotlight: e-commerce platforms

    How It Enables Your Strategy

    • Modern e-commerce platforms provide capabilities for end-to-end orchestration of online commerce experiences, from product site deployment to payment processing.
    • Some e-commerce platforms are purpose-built for business-to-business (B2B) commerce, emphasizing customer portals and EDI features. Other e-commerce vendors place more emphasis on business-to-consumer (B2C) capabilities, such as product catalog management and executing transactions at scale.
    • There has been an increasing degree of overlap between traditional web experience management solutions and the e-commerce market; for example, in 2018, Adobe acquired Magento to augment its overall web experience offering within Adobe Experience Manager.
    • E-commerce platforms typically fall short when it comes to order fulfilment and logistics; this piece of the puzzle is typically orchestrated via an ERP system or logistics management module.
    • This research provides a starting place for defining e-commerce requirements and selection artefacts.

    Key Trends

    • E-commerce vendors are rapidly supporting a variety of form factors and integration with other channels such as social media. Mobile is sufficiently popular that some vendors and industry commentators refer to it as “m-commerce” to differentiate app-based shopping experiences from those accessed through a traditional browser.
    • Hybrid commerce is driving more interplay between e-commerce solutions and POS.

    E-Commerce KPIs

    Strong e-commerce applications can improve:

    • Bounce Rates
    • Exit Rates
    • Lead Conversion Rates
    • Cart Abandonment Rates
    • Re-Targeting Efficacy
    • Average Cart Size
    • Average Cart Value
    • Customer Lifetime Value
    • Aggregate Reach/Impressions

    Familiarize yourself with the e-commerce market

    How it got here

    Initial Traction as the Dot-Com Era Came to Fruition

    Unlike some enterprise application markets, such as CRM, the e-commerce market appeared almost overnight during the mid-to-late nineties as the dot-com explosion fueled the need to have reliable solutions for executing transactions online.

    Early e-commerce solutions were less full-fledged suites than they were mediums for payment processing and basic product list management. PayPal and other services like Digital River were pioneers in the space, but their functionality was limited vis-à-vis tools such as web content management platforms, and their ability to amalgamate and analyze the data necessary for dynamic personalization and re-targeting was virtually non-existent.

    Rapidly Expanding Scope of Functional Capabilities as the Market Matured

    As marketers became more sophisticated and companies put an increased focus on customer experience and omnichannel interaction, the need arose for platforms that were significantly more feature rich than their early contemporaries. In this context, vendors such as Shopify and Demandware stepped into the limelight, offering far richer functionality and analytics than previous offerings, such as asset management, dynamic personalization, and the ability to re-target customers who abandoned their carts.

    As the market has matured, there has also been a series of acquisitions of some players (for example, Demandware by Salesforce) and IPOs of others (i.e. Shopify). Traditional payment-oriented services like PayPal still fill an important niche, while newer entrants like Square seek to disrupt both the e-commerce market and point-of-sale solutions to boot.

    Familiarize yourself with the e-commerce market

    Where it’s going

    Support for a Proliferation of Form Factors and Channels

    Modern e-commerce solutions are expanding the number of form factors (smartphones, tablets) they support via both responsive design and in-app capabilities. Many platforms now also support embedded purchasing options in non-owned channels (for example, social media). With the pandemic leading to a heightened affinity for online shopping, the importance of fully using these capabilities has been further emphasized.

    AI and Machine Learning

    E-commerce is another customer experience domain ripe for transformation via the potential of artificial intelligence. Machine learning algorithms are being used to enhance the effectiveness of dynamic personalization of product collateral, improve the accuracy of product recommendations, and allow for more effective re-targeting campaigns of customers who did not make a purchase.

    Merger of Online Commerce and Traditional Point-of-Sale

    Many e-commerce vendors – particularly the large players – are now going beyond traditional e-commerce and making plays into brick-and-mortar environments, offering point-of-sale capabilities and the ability to display product assets and customizations via augmented reality – truly blending the physical and virtual shopping experience.

    Emphasis on Integration with the Broader Customer Experience Ecosystem

    The big names in e-commerce recognize they don’t live on an island: out-of-the-box integrations with popular CRM, web experience, and marketing automation platforms have been increasing at a breakneck pace. Support for digital wallets has also become increasingly popular, with many vendors integrating contactless payment technology (i.e. Apple Pay) directly into their applications.

    E-Commerce Vendor Snapshot: Part 1

    Mid-Market E-Commerce Solutions

    This image contains the logos for the following Companies: Magento; Spryker; Bigcommerce; Woo Commerce; Shopify

    E-Commerce Vendor Snapshot: Part 2

    Large Enterprise and Full-Suite E-Commerce Platforms

    This image contains the logos for the following Companies: Salesforce commerce cloud; Oracle Commerce Cloud; Adobe Commerce Cloud; Sitecore; Sap Hybris Commerce

    Speak with category experts to dive deeper into the vendor landscape

    • Fact-based reviews of business software from IT professionals.
    • Product and category reports with state-of-the-art data visualization.
    • Top-tier data quality backed by a rigorous quality assurance process.
    • User-experience insight that reveals the intangibles of working with a vendor.

    Software Reviews is powered by Info-Tech

    Technology coverage is a priority for Info-Tech, and SoftwareReviews provides the most comprehensive unbiased data on today’s technology. The insights of our expert analysts provide unparalleled support to our members at every step of their buying journey.

    CLICK HERE to access SoftwareReviews Comprehensive software reviews to make better IT decisions.

    We collect and analyze the most detailed reviews on enterprise software from real users to give you an unprecedented view into the product and vendor before you buy.

    Evaluate software category leaders through vendor rankings and awards

    SoftwareReviews

    This is an image of the data quarant report

    The Data Quadrant is a thorough evaluation and ranking of all software in an individual category to compare platforms across multiple dimensions.

    This is an image of the data quarant report chart

    Vendors are ranked by their Composite Score, based on individual feature evaluations, user satisfaction rankings, vendor capability comparisons, and likeliness to recommend the platform.

    This is a image of the Emotional Footprint Report

    The Emotional Footprint is a powerful indicator of overall user sentiment toward the relationship with the vendor, capturing data across five dimensions.

    This is a image of the Emotional Footprint Report chart

    Vendors are ranked by their Customer Experience (CX) Score, which combines the overall Emotional Footprint rating with a measure of the value delivered by the solution.

    Leading B2B E-Commerce Platforms

    As of February 2022

    Data Quadrant

    This image contains a screenshot of the Data Quadrant chart for B2B E-commerce

    Emotional Footprint

    This image contains a screenshot of the Emotional Footprint chart for B2B E-commerce

    Leading B2C E-Commerce Platforms

    As of February 2022

    Data Quadrant

    This image contains a screenshot of the Data Quadrant chart for B2C E-commerce

    Emotional Footprint

    This image contains a screenshot of the Emotional Footprint chart for B2C E-commerce

    Application spotlight: point-of-sale solutions

    How It Enables Your Strategy

    • Point-of-sale solutions provide capabilities for cash register/terminal management, transaction processing, and lightweight inventory management.
    • Many POS vendors also offer products that have the ability to create orders from EDI, phone, or fax channels.
    • An increasing emphasis has been placed on retail analytics by POS vendors – providing reporting and analysis tools to help with inventory planning, promotion management, and product recommendations.
    • Integration of POS systems with a central customer data warehouse or other system of record for customer information allows for the ability to build richer customer profiles and compare shopping habits in physical stores against other transactional channels that are offered.
    • POS vendors often offer (or integrate with) loyalty management solutions to track, manage, and redeem loyalty points. See this note on loyalty management systems.
    • Legacy and/or homegrown POS systems tend to be an area of frustration for customer experience management modernization.

    Key Trends

    • POS solutions are moving from “cash-register-only” solutions to encompass mobile POS form factors like smartphones and tablets. Vendors such as Square have experienced tremendous growth in opening up the market via “mPOS” platforms that have lower costs to entry than the traditional hardware needed to support full-fledged POS solutions.
    • This development puts robust POS toolsets in the hands of small and medium businesses that otherwise would be priced out of the market.

    POS KPIs

    Strong POS applications can improve:

    • Customer Data Collection
    • Inventory or Cash Shrinkage
    • Cost per Transaction
    • Loyalty Program Administration Costs
    • Cycle Time for Transaction Execution

    Point-of-Sales Vendor Snapshot: Part 1

    Mid-Market POS Solutions

    This image contains the following company Logos: Square; Shopify; Vend; Heartland|Retail

    Point-of-Sales Vendor Snapshot: Part 2

    Large Enterprise POS Platforms

    This image contains the following Logos: Clover; Oracle Netsuite; RQ Retail Management; Salesforce Commerce Cloud; Korona

    Leading Retail POS Systems

    As of February 2022

    Data Quadrant

    This is an image of the Data Quadrant Chart for the Leading Retail Pos Systems

    Emotional Footprint

    This is an image of the Emotional Footprint chart for the Leading Retail POS Systems

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Knowledge Gained

    • Commerce channel framework
    • Customer affinities
    • Commerce channel overview
    • Commerce-enabling technologies

    Processes Optimized

    • Persona definition for commerce strategy
    • Persona channel shortlist

    Deliverables Completed

    • Customer personas
    • Commerce user scenarios
    • Business drivers for traditional commerce and e-commerce
    • Channel matrix for omnichannel commerce

    Bibliography

    “25 Amazing Omnichannel Statistics Every Marketer Should Know (Updated for 2021).” V12, 29 June 2021. Accessed 12 Jan. 2022.

    “Amazon Go.” Amazon, n.d. Web.

    Andersen, Derek. “33 Statistics Retail Marketers Need to Know in 2021.” Invoca, 19 July 2021. Accessed 12 Jan. 2022.

    Andre, Louie. “115 Critical Customer Support Software Statistics: 2022 Market Share Analysis & Data.” FinancesOnline, 14 Jan. 2022. Accessed 25 Jan. 2022.

    Chuang, Courtney. “The future of support: 5 key trends that will shape customer care in 2022.” Intercom, 10 Jan. 2022. Accessed 11 Jan. 2022.

    Cramer-Flood, Ethan. “Global Ecommerce Update 2021.” eMarketer, 13 Jan. 2021. Accessed 12 Jan. 2022.

    Cramer-Flood, Ethan. “Spotlight on total global retail: Brick-and-mortar returns with a vengeance.” eMarketer, 3 Feb. 2022. Accessed 12 Apr. 2022.

    Fox Rubin, Ben. “Amazon now operates seven different kinds of physical stores. Here's why.” CNET, 28 Feb. 2020. Accessed 12 Jan. 2022.

    Krajewski, Laura. “16 Statistics on Why Omnichannel is the Future of Your Contact Center and the Foundation for a Top-Notch Competitive Customer Experience.” Business 2 Community, 10 July 2020. Accessed 11 Jan. 2022.

    Manoff, Jill. “Fun and convenience: CEO Nany Green on Old Navy’s priorities for holiday.” Glossy, 8 Dec. 2020. Accessed 12 Jan. 2022.

    Meola, Andrew. “Rise of M-Commerce: Mobile Ecommerce Shopping Stats & Trends in 2021.” Insider, 30 Dec. 2020. Accessed 12 Jan. 2022.

    “Outdoor apparel retailer Icebreaker uses AI to exceed shopper expectations.” Salesforce, n.d.(a). Accessed 20 Jan. 2022.

    “Personas.” Usability.gov., n.d. Web. 28 Aug. 2018.

    “PetSmart – Why Commerce Cloud?” Salesforce, n.d.(b). Web. 30 April 2018.

    Toor, Meena. “Customer expectations: 7 Types all exceptional researchers must understand.” Qualtrics, 3 Dec. 2020. Accessed 11 Jan. 2022.

    Westfall, Leigh. “Omnichannel vs. multichannel: What's the difference?” RingCentral, 10 Sept. 2021. Accessed 11 Jan. 2022.

    “Worldwide ecommerce will approach $5 trillion this year.” eMarketer, 14 Jan. 2021. Accessed 12 Jan. 2022.

    Transition Projects Over to the Service Desk

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}495|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: N/A
    • member rating average dollars saved: N/A
    • member rating average days saved: N/A
    • Parent Category Name: Service Desk
    • Parent Category Link: /service-desk
    • IT suffers from a lack of strategy and plan for transitioning support processes to the service desk.
    • Lack of effective communication between the project delivery team and the service desk, leads to an inefficient knowledge transfer to the service desk.
    • New service is not prioritized and categorized, negatively impacting service levels and end-user satisfaction.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Make sure to build a strong knowledge management strategy to identify, capture, and transfer knowledge from project delivery to the service desk.

    Impact and Result

    • Build touchpoints between the service desk and project delivery team and make strategic points in the project lifecycles to ensure service support is done effectively following the product launch.
    • Develop a checklist of action items on the initiatives that should be done following project delivery.
    • Build a training plan into the strategy to make sure service desk agents can handle tickets independently.

    Transition Projects Over to the Service Desk Research & Tools

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

    1. Transition Projects Over to the Service Desk – A guideline to walk you through transferring project support to the service desk.

    This storyboard will help you craft a project support plan to document information to streamline service support.

    • Transition Projects Over to the Service Desk Storyboard

    2. Project Handover and Checklist – A structured document to help you record information on the project and steps to take to transfer support.

    Use these two templates as a means of collaboration with the service desk to provide information on the application/product, and steps to take to make sure there are efficient service processes and knowledge is appropriately transferred to the service desk to support the service.

    • Project Handover Template
    • Service Support Transitioning Checklist
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Transition Projects Over to the Service Desk

    Increase the success of project support by aligning your service desk and project team.

    Analyst Perspective

    Formalize your project support plan to shift customer service to the service desk.

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

    As a service support team member, you receive a ticket from an end user about an issue they’re facing with a new application. You are aware of the application release, but you don’t know how to handle the issue. So, you will need to either spend a long time investigating the issue via peer discussion and research or escalate it to the project team.

    Newly developed or improved services should be transitioned appropriately to the support team. Service transitioning should include planning, coordination, and communication. This helps project and support teams ensure that upon a service failure, affected end users receive timely and efficient customer support.

    At the first level, the project team and service desk should build a strategy around transitioning service support to the service desk by defining tasks, service levels, standards, and success criteria.

    In the second step, they should check the service readiness to shift support from the project team to the service desk.

    The next step is training on the new services via efficient communication and coordination between the two parties. The project team should allocate some time, according to the designed strategy, to train the service desk on the new/updated service. This will enable the service desk to provide independent service handling.

    This research walks you through the above steps in more detail and helps you build a checklist of action items to streamline shifting service support to the service desk.

    Mahmoud Ramin, PhD

    Senior Research Analyst
    Infrastructure and Operations
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    • IT suffers from a lack of strategy and planning for transitioning support processes to the service desk.
    • Lack of effective communication between the project delivery team and the service desk leads to an inefficient knowledge transfer to the service desk.
    • New service is not prioritized and categorized, negatively impacting service levels and end-user satisfaction.

    Common Obstacles

    • Building the right relationship between the service desk and project team is challenging, making support transition tedious.
    • The service desk is siloed; tasks and activities are loosely defined. Service delivery is inconsistent, which impacts customer satisfaction.
    • Lack of training on new services forces the service desk to unnecessarily escalate tickets to other levels and delays service delivery.

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    • Build touchpoints between the service desk and project delivery team and make strategic points in the project lifecycles to ensure service support is done effectively following the product launch.
    • Develop a checklist of action items on the initiatives that should be done following project delivery.
    • Build a training plan into the strategy to make sure service desk agents can handle tickets independently.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Make sure to build a strong knowledge management strategy to identify, capture, and transfer knowledge from project delivery to the service desk.

    A lack of formal service transition process presents additional challenges

    When there is no formal transition process following a project delivery, it will negatively impact project success and customer satisfaction.

    Service desk team:

    • You receive a request from an end user to handle an issue with an application or service that was recently released. You are aware of the features but don’t know how to solve this issue particularly.
    • You know someone in the project group who is familiar with the service, as he was involved in the project. You reach out to him, but he is very busy with another project.
    • You get back to the user to let them know that this will be done as soon as the specialist is available. But because there is no clarity on the scope of the issue, you cannot tell them when this will be resolved.
    • Lack of visibility and commitment to the service recovery will negatively impact end-user satisfaction with the service desk.

    Project delivery team:

    • You are working on an exciting project, approaching the deadline. Suddenly, you receive a ticket from a service desk agent asking you to solve an incident on a product that was released three months ago.
    • Given the deadline on the current project, you are stressed, thinking about just focusing on the projects. On the other hand, the issue with the other service is impacting multiple users and requires much attention.
    • You spend extra time handling the issue and get back to your project. But a few days later the same agent gets back to you to take care of the same issue.
    • This is negatively impacting your work quality and causing some friction between the project team and the service desk.

    Link how improvement in project transitioning to the service desk can help service support

    A successful launch can still be a failure if the support team isn't fully informed and prepared.

    • In such a situation, the project team sends impacted users a mass notification without a solid plan for training and no proper documentation.
    • To provide proper customer service, organizations should involve several stakeholder groups to collaborate for a seamless transition of projects to the service desk.
    • This shift in service support takes time and effort; however, via proper planning there will be less confusion around customer service, and it will be done much faster.
      • For instance, if AppDev is customizing an ERP solution without considering knowledge transfer to the service desk, relevant tickets will be unnecessarily escalated to the project team.
    • On the other hand, the service desk should update configuration items (CIs) and the service catalog and related requests, incidents, problems, and workarounds to the relevant assets and configurations.
    • In this transition process, knowledge transfer plays a key role. Users, the service desk, and other service support teams need to know how the new application or service works and how to manage it when an issue arises.
    • Without a knowledge transfer, service support will be forced to either reinvent the wheel or escalate the ticket to the development team. This will unnecessarily increase the time for ticket handling, increase cost per ticket, and reduce end-user satisfaction.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Involve the service desk in the transition process via clear communication, knowledge transfer, and staff training.

    Integrate the service desk into the project management lifecycle for a smooth transition of service support

    Service desk involvement in the development, testing, and maintenance/change activity steps of your project lifecycle will help you logically define the category and priority level of the service and enable service level improvement accordingly after the project goes live.

    Project management lifecycle

    As some of the support and project processes can be integrated, responsibility silos should be broken

    Processes are done by different roles. Determine roles and responsibilities for the overlapping processes to streamline service support transition to the service desk.

    The project team is dedicated to projects, while the support team focuses on customer service for several products.

    Siloed responsibilities:

    • Project team transfers the service fully to the service desk and leaves technicians alone for support without a good knowledge transfer.
    • Specialists who were involved in the project have deep knowledge about the product, but they are not involved in incident or problem management.
    • Service desk was not involved in the planning and execution processes, which leads to lack of knowledge about the product. This leaves the support team with some vague knowledge about the service, which negatively impacts the quality of incident and problem management.

    How to break the silos:

    Develop a tiered model for the service desk and include project delivery in the specialist tier.

    • Use tier 1 (service desk) as a single point of contact to support all IT services.
    • Have tier 2/3 as experts in technology. These agents are a part of the project team. They are also involved in incident management, root-cause analysis, and change management.

    Determine the interfaces

    At the project level, get a clear understanding of support capabilities and demands, and communicate them to the service desk to proactively bring them into the planning step.

    The following questions help you with an efficient plan for support transition

    Questions for support transition

    Clear responsibilities help you define the level of involvement in the overlapping processes

    Conduct a stakeholder analysis to identify the people that can help ensure the success of the transition.

    Goal: Create a prioritized list of people who are affected by the new service and will provide support.

    Why is stakeholder analysis essential?

    Why is stakeholder analysis essential

    Identify the tasks that are required for a successful project handover

    Embed the tasks that the project team should deliver before handing support to the service desk.

    Task/Activity Example

    Conduct administrative work in the application

    • New user setup
    • Password reset

    Update documentation

    • Prepare for knowledge transfer>
    Service request fulfillment/incident management
    • Assess potential bugs
    Technical support for systems troubleshooting
    • Configure a module in ITSM solution

    End-user training

    • FAQs
    • How-to questions
    Service desk training
    • Train technicians for troubleshooting

    Support management (monitoring, meeting SLAs)

    • Monitoring
    • Meeting SLAs

    Report on the service transitioning

    • Transition effectiveness
    • Four-week warranty period
    Ensure all policies follow the transition activities
    • The final week of transition, the service desk will be called to a meeting for final handover of incidents and problems

    Integrate project description and service priority throughout development phase

    Include the service desk in discussions about project description, so it will be enabled to define service priority level.

    • Project description will be useful for bringing the project forward to the change advisory board (CAB) for approval and setting up the service in the CMDB.
    • Service priority is used for adding the next layer of attributes to the CMDB for the service and ensuring the I&O department can set up systems monitoring.
    • This should be done early in the process in conjunction with the project manager and business sponsors.
    • It should be done as the project gets underway and the team can work on specifically where that milestone will be in each project.
    • What to include in the project description:
      • Name
      • Purpose
      • Publisher
      • Departments that will use the service
      • Service information
      • Regulatory constrains
    • What to include in the service priority information:
      • Main users
      • Number of users
      • Service requirements
      • System interdependencies
      • Criticality of the dependent systems
      • Service category
      • Service SME and support backup
      • System monitoring resources
      • Alert description and flow

    Document project description and service priority in the Project Handover Template.

    Embed service levels and maintenance information

    Include the service desk in discussions about project description, so it will be enabled to define service priority level.

    • Service level objectives (SLOs) will be added to CMDB to ensure the product is reviewed for business continuity and disaster recovery and that the service team knows what is coming.
    • This step will be good to start thinking about training agents and documenting knowledgebase (KB) articles.
    • What to include in SLO:
      • Response time
      • Resolution time
      • Escalation time
      • Business owner
      • Service owner
      • Vendor(s)
      • Vendor warranties
      • Data archiving/purging
      • Availability list
      • Business continuity/recovery objectives
      • Scheduled reports
      • Problem description
    • Maintenance and change requirements: You should add maintenance windows to the change calendar and ensure the maintenance checklist is added to KB articles and technician schedules.
    • What to include in maintenance and change requirements:
      • Scheduled events for the launch
      • Maintenance windows
      • Module release
      • Planned upgrades
      • Anticipated intervals for changes and trigger points
      • Scheduled batches

    Document service level objectives and maintenance in the Project Handover Template.

    Enhance communication between the project team and the service desk

    Communicating with the service desk early and often will ensure that agents fully get a deep knowledge of the new technology.

    Transition of a project to the service desk includes both knowledge transfer and execution transfer.

    01

    Provide training and mentoring to ensure technical knowledge is passed on.

    02

    Transfer leadership responsibilities by appointing the right people.

    03

    Transfer support by strategically assigning workers with the right technical and interpersonal skills.

    04

    Transfer admin rights to ensure technicians have access rights for troubleshooting.

    05

    Create support and a system to transfer work process. For example, using an online platform to store knowledge assets is a great way for support to access project information.

    Info-Tech Insight

    A communication plan and executive presentation will help project managers outline recommendations and communicate their benefits.

    Communicate reasons for projects and how they will be implemented

    Proactive communication of the project to affected stakeholders will help get their buy-in for the new technology and feedback for better support.

    Leaders of successful change spend considerable time developing a powerful change message, i.e. a compelling narrative that articulates the desired end state, that makes the change concrete and meaningful to staff.

    The message should:

    • Explain why the change or new application is needed.
    • Summarize what will stay the same.
    • Highlight what will be left behind.
    • Emphasize what is being changed due to the new or updated product.
    • Explain how the application will be implemented.
    • Address how this will affect various roles in the organization.
    • Discuss the staff’s role in making the project successful.
    • Communicate the supporting roles in the early implementation stages and later on.

    Five elements of communicating change

    Implement knowledge transfer to the service desk to ensure tickets won’t be unnecessarily escalated

    The support team usually uses an ITSM solution, while the project team mostly uses a project management solution. End users’ support is done and documented in the ITSM tool.

    Even terminologies used by these teams are different. For instance, service desk’s “incident” is equivalent to a project manager’s “defect.” Without proper integration of the development and support processes, the contents get siloed and outdated over time.

    Potential ways to deal with this challenge:

    Use the same platform for both project and service support

    This helps you document information in a single platform and provides better visibility of the project status to the support team as well. It also helps project team find out change-related incidents for a faster rollback.

    Note: This is not always feasible because of the high costs incurred in purchasing a new application with both ITSM and PM capabilities and the long time it takes for implementing such a solution.

    Integrate the PM and ITSM tools to improve transition efficiency

    Note: Consider the processes that should be integrated. Don’t integrate unnecessary steps in the development stage, such as design, which will not be helpful for support transition.

    Build a training plan for the new service

    When a new system is introduced or significant changes are applied, describe the steps and timeline for training.

    Training the service desk has two-fold benefits:
    Improve support:
    • Support team gets involved in user acceptance testing, which will provide feedback on potential bugs or failures in the technology.
    • Collaboration between specialists and tier 1 technicians will allow the service desk to gather information for handling potential incidents on the application.
    Shift-left enablement:
    • At the specialist level, agents will be more focused on other projects and spend less time on application issues, as they are mostly handled by the service desk.
    • As you shift service support left:
      • Cost per ticket decreases as more of the less costly resources are doing the work.
      • Average time to resolve decreases as the ticket is handled by the service desk.
      • End-user satisfaction increases as they don’t need to wait long for resolution.

    Who resolves the incident

    For more information about shift-left enablement, refer to InfoTech’s blueprint Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy.

    Integrate knowledge management in the transition plan

    Build a knowledge transfer process to streamline service support for the newly developed technology.

    Use the following steps to ensure the service desk gets trained on the new project.

    1. Identify learning opportunities.
    2. Prioritize the identified opportunities based on:
    • Risk of lost knowledge
    • Impact of knowledge on support improvement
  • Define ways to transfer knowledge from the project team to the service desk. These could be:
    • One-on-one meetings
    • Mentoring sessions
    • Knowledgebase articles
    • Product road test
    • Potential incident management shadowing
  • Capture and transfer knowledge (via the identified means).
  • Support the service desk with further training if the requirement arises.
  • Info-Tech Insight

    Allocate knowledge transfer within ticket handling workflows. When incident is resolved by a specialist, they will assess if it is a good candidate for technician training and/or a knowledgebase article. If so, the knowledge manager will be notified of the opportunity to assign it to a SME for training and documentation of an article.

    For more information about knowledge transfer, refer to phase 3 of Info-Tech’s blueprint Standardize the Service Desk.

    Focus on the big picture first

    Identify training functions and plan for a formal knowledge transfer

    1. Brainstorm training functions for each group.
    2. Determine the timeline needed to conduct training for the identified training topics.
    RoleTraining FunctionTimeline

    Developer/Technical Support

    • Coach the service desk on the new application
    • Document relevant KB articles
    Business Analysts
    • Conduct informational interviews for new business requirements

    Service Desk Agents

    • Conduct informational interviews
    • Shadow incident management procedures
    • Document lessons learned
    Vendor
    • Provide cross-training to support team

    Document your knowledge transfer plan in the Project Handover Template.

    Build a checklist of the transition action items

    At this stage, the project is ready to go live and support needs to be independently done by the service desk.

    Checklist of the transition action items

    Info-Tech Insight

    No matter how well training is done, specialists may need to work on critical incidents and handle emergency changes. With effective service support and transition planning, you can make an agreement between the incident manager, change manager, and project manager on a timeline to balance critical incident or emergency change management and project management and define your SLA.

    Activity: Prepare a checklist of initiatives before support transition

    2-3 hours

    Document project support information and check off each support transition initiative as you shift service support to the service desk.

    1. As a group, review the Project Handover Template that you filled out in the previous steps.
    2. Download the Service Support Transitioning Checklist, and review the items that need to be done throughout the development, testing, and deployment steps of your project.
    3. Brainstorm at what step service desk needs to be involved.
    4. As you go through each initiative and complete it, check it off to make sure you are following the agreed document for a smooth transition of service support.
    Input Output
    • Project information
    • Support information for developed application/service
    • List of transitioning initiatives
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Project Handover Template
    • Service Support Transitioning Checklist
    • Project Team
    • Service Desk Manager
    • IT Lead

    Download the Project Handover Template

    Download the Service Support Transitioning Checklist

    Define metrics to track the success of project transition

    Consider key metrics to speak the language of targeted end users.

    You won’t know if transitioning support processes are successful unless you measure their impact. Find out your objectives for project transition and then track metrics that will allow you to fulfill these goals.

    Determine critical success factors to help you find out key metrics:

    High quality of the service

    Effectiveness of communication of the transition

    Manage risk of failure to help find out activities that will mitigate risk of service disruption

    Smooth and timely transition of support to the service desk

    Efficient utilization of the shared services and resources to mitigate conflicts and streamline service transitioning

    Suggested metrics:

    • Time to fulfill requests and resolve incidents for the new project
    • Time spent training the service desk
    • Number of knowledgebase articles created by the project team
    • Percentage of articles used by the service desk that prevented ticket escalation
    • First-level resolution
    • Ratio of escalated tickets for the new project
    • Problem ticket volume for the new project
    • Average customer satisfaction with the new project support
    • SLA breach rate

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Problem Solved

    Following the steps outlined in this research has helped you build a strategy to shift service support from the project team to the service desk, resulting in an improvement in customer service and agent satisfaction.

    You have also developed a plan to break the silo between the service desk and specialists and enable knowledge transfer so the service desk will not need to unnecessarily escalate tickets to developers. In the meantime, specialists are also responsible for service desk training on the new application.

    Efficient communication of service levels has helped the project team set clear expectations for managers to create a balance between their projects and service support.

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

    Contact your account representative for more information

    workshops@infotech.com

    1-888-670-8889

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Standardize the Service Desk

    Improve customer service by driving consistency in your support approach and meeting SLAs.

    Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy

    The best type of service desk ticket is the one that doesn’t exist.

    Tailor IT Project Management Processes to Fit Your Projects

    Right-size PMBOK for all of your IT projects.

    Works Cited

    Brown, Josh. “Knowledge Transfer: What it is & How to Use it Effectively.” Helpjuice, 2021. Accessed November 2022.

    Magowan, Kirstie. “Top ITSM Metrics & KPIs: Measuring for Success, Aiming for Improvement.” BMC Blogs, 2020. Accessed November 2022.

    “The Complete Blueprint for Aligning Your Service Desk and Development Teams (Process Integration and Best Practices).” Exalate, 2021. Accessed October 2022.

    “The Qualities of Leadership: Leading Change.” Cornelius & Associates, 2010. Web.

    Recruit and Retain More Women in IT

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}575|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 9.3/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $14,532 Average $ Saved
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    • Parent Category Name: Attract & Select
    • Parent Category Link: /attract-and-select
    • While the number of jobs in IT has increased dramatically, the percentage of women in IT has progressed disproportionately, with only 25% of IT jobs being held by women (CIO from IDG, 2021).
    • The challenge is not a lack of talented women with the competencies to excel within IT, but rather organizations lack an effective strategy to recruit and retain women in IT.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Retaining and attracting top women is good business, not personal. As per McKinsey Global Institute, “$4.3 trillion of additional annual GDP in 2025 could be added to the U.S. by fully bridging the gender gap.”
    • In the war on talent, having a strategy around how you will recruit & retain of women in IT is Marketing 101. What influences whether women apply for roles and stay at organizations is different than men; traditional models won’t cut it.

    Impact and Result

    To stay competitive, IT leaders need to radically change the way they recruit and retain talent, and women in IT represent one of the largest untapped markets for IT talent. CIOs need a targeted strategy to attract and retain the best, and this requires a shift in how leaders currently manage the talent lifecycle. Info-Tech offers a targeted solution that will help IT leaders:

    1. Build a Recruitment Playbook: Leverage Info-Tech tools to effectively sell to, search for, and secure top talent.
    2. Build a Retention Strategy: Follow Info-Tech’s step-by-step process to identify initiatives and opportunities to retain your top talent.

    Recruit and Retain More Women in IT Research & Tools

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

    1. Recruit and Retain More Women in IT Deck – A step-by-step document that walks you through how to build a recruitment and retention plan for women in IT.

    Create a targeted recruitment and retention strategy for women. Increase the number of viable candidates by leveraging best practices to sell to, search for, and secure top women in IT. Take a data-driven approach to improving retention of women by using best practices to measure and improve employee engagement.

    • Recruit and Retain More Women in IT – Phases 1-2

    2. Employee Value Proposition Tools – Build and road-test your employee value proposition to ensure that it is aligned, clear, compelling, and differentiated.

    These tools tap into best practices to help you collect the information you need to build, assess, test, and adopt an employee value proposition.

    • Employee Value Proposition (EVP) Interview Guide
    • Employee Value Proposition (EVP) Scorecard
    • Employee Value Proposition (EVP) Internal Scorecard Handout

    3. IT Behavioral Interview Question Library – A complete list of sample questions aligned with core, leadership, and IT competencies.

    Don’t hire by intuition, consider leveraging behavioral interview questions to reduce bias and uncover candidates that will be able to execute on the job.

    • IT Behavioral Interview Question Library

    4. Stay Interview Guide – Use this tool to guide one-on-one conversations with your team members to monitor employee engagement between surveys.

    Stay interviews are an effective method for monitoring employee engagement. Have these informal conversations to gain insight into what your employees really think about their jobs, what causes them to stay, and what may lead them to leave.

    • Stay Interview Guide

    Infographic

    Workshop: Recruit and Retain More Women in IT

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

    1 Make the Case for Strategically Recruiting and Retaining Women in IT

    The Purpose

    Identify the need for a targeted strategy to recruit and retain women in IT and pinpoint your largest opportunities to drive diversity in your IT team.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Establish goals and targets for the changes to be made to your IT recruitment and retention strategies.

    Activities

    1.1 Understand trends in IT staffing.

    1.2 Assess your talent lifecycle challenges and opportunities.

    1.3 Make the case for changes to recruitment and retention strategies.

    Outputs

    Recruitment & Retention Metrics Report

    Business Case for Recruitment and Retention Changes

    2 Develop Strategies to Sell Your Organization to Wider Candidate Pool

    The Purpose

    The way you position the organization impacts who is likely to apply to posted positions. Ensure you are putting a competitive foot forward by developing a unique, meaningful, and aspirational employee value proposition and clear job descriptions.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Implement effective strategies to drive more applications to your job postings.

    Activities

    2.1 Develop an IT employee value proposition.

    2.2 Adopt your employee value proposition.

    2.3 Write meaningful job postings.

    Outputs

    Employee Value Proposition

    EVP Marketing Plan

    Revised Job Ads

    3 Expand Your Talent Sourcing Strategy

    The Purpose

    Sourcing shouldn’t start with an open position, it should start with identifying an anticipated need and then building and nurturing a talent pipeline.

    IT participation in this is critical to effectively promote the employee experience and foster relationships before candidates even apply.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Develop a modern job requisition form though role analysis.

    Increase your candidate pool by expanding sourcing programs.

    Activities

    3.1 Build realistic job requisition forms.

    3.2 Identify new alternative sourcing approaches for talent.

    3.3 Build a sourcing strategy.

    Outputs

    Job requisition form for key roles

    Sourcing strategy for key roles

    4 Secure Top Talent

    The Purpose

    Work with your HR department to influence the recruitment process by taking a data-driven approach to understanding the root cause of applicant drop-off and success and take corrective actions.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Optimize your selection process.

    Implement non-bias interview techniques in your selection process.

    Activities

    4.1 Assess key selection challenges.

    4.2 Implement behavioral interview techniques.

    Outputs

    Root-Cause Analysis of Section Challenges

    Behavioral Interview Guide

    5 Retain Top Women in IT

    The Purpose

    Employee engagement is one of the greatest predictors of intention to stay.

    To retain employees you need to understand not only engagement, but also your employee experience and the moments that matter, and actively work to create positive experience.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Identify opportunities to drive engagement across your IT organization.

    Implement tactical programs to reduce turnover in IT.

    Activities

    5.1 Measure employee engagement and review results.

    5.2 Identify new alternative sourcing approaches for talent.

    5.3 Train managers to conduct stay interviews and drive employee engagement.

    Outputs

    Identified Employee Engagement Action Plan

    Action Plan to Execute Stay Interviews

    Further reading

    Recruit and Retain More Women in IT

    Gender diversity is directly correlated to IT performance.

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Technology has never been more important to organizations, and as a result, recruiting and retaining quality IT employees is increasingly difficult.

    • IT unemployment rates continue to hover below 2% in the US.
    • The IT talent market has evolved into one where the employer is the seller and the employee is the buyer.

    Common Obstacles

    • While the number of jobs in IT has increased dramatically, the percentage of women in IT has progressed disproportionately, with only 25% of IT jobs being held by women.*
    • The challenge is not a lack of talented women with the competencies to excel within IT, but rather organizations lack an effective strategy to recruit and retain women in IT.

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    To stay competitive, IT leaders need to radically change the way they recruit and retain talent, and women in IT represent one of the largest untapped markets. CIOs need a targeted strategy to attract and retain the best, and this requires a shift in how leaders currently manage the talent lifecycle. Info-Tech offers a targeted solution to help:

    • Build a Recruitment Playbook: Leverage Info-Tech tools to effectively sell to, search for, and secure top talent.
    • Build a Retention Strategy: Follow Info-Tech’s step-by-step process to identify initiatives and opportunities to retain your top talent.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Retaining and attracting top women is good business, not personal. Companies with greater gender diversity on executive teams were 25% more likely to have above-average profitability.1 In the war on talent, having a strategy around how you will recruit and retain women in IT is Marketing 101. What influences whether women apply for roles and stay at organizations is different than men; traditional models won’t cut it.

    *– McKinsey & Company, 2020; 2 – CIO From IDG, 2021
    The image contains a screenshot of a thought model titled: Recruit and Retain More Women in IT. Its subheading is: Gender Diversity is Directly Correlated to IT Performance. The thought model lists critical methods to recruit and retain, and also a traditional method to compare.

    Diversity & inclusion – it’s good business, not personal

    Why should organizations care about diversity?

    1. The war for talent is real. Every CIO needs a plan of attack. Unemployment rates are dropping and 54% of CIOs report that the skills shortage is holding them up from meeting their strategic objectives.
    2. Source: Harvey Nash and KPMG, 2020
    3. Diversity has clear ROI – both in terms of recruitment and retention. Eighty percent of technology managers experienced increased turnover in 2021. Not only are employee tenures decreasing, the competition for talent is fierce and the average cost of turnover is 150% of an IT worker’s salary.
    4. Source: Robert Half, 2021
    5. Inability to recruit and retain talent will reduce business satisfaction. Organizations who are continuously losing talent will be unable to meet corporate objectives due to lost productivity, keeping them in firefighting mode. An engaged workforce is a requirement for driving innovation and project success.

    ISACA’s 2020 study shows a disconnect between what men and women think is being done to recruit and retain female employees

    Key findings from ISACA’s 2020 Tech Workforce survey

    65% of men think their employers have a program to encourage hiring women. But only 51% of women agree.

    71% of men believe their employers have a program to encourage the promotion or advancement of women. But only 59% of women agree.

    49% of women compared to 44% of men in the survey feel they must work harder than their peers.

    22% of women compared to 14% of men feel they are underpaid.

    66% of women compared to 72% of men feel they are receiving sufficient resources to sustain their career.

    30% of women compared to 23% of men feel they have unequal growth opportunities.

    74% of women compared to 64% of men feel they lack confidence to negotiate their salaries.

    To see ISACA’s full report click here.
    The image contains a screenshot of a multi bar graph to demonstrate the percentage of female employees in the workforce of major tech companies. The major tech companies include: Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Google, and Microsoft.
    Image: Statista, 2021, CC BY-ND 4.0

    The chart to the left, compiled by Statista, (based on self-reported company figures) shows that women held between 23% to 25% of the tech jobs at major tech companies.

    Women are also underrepresented in leadership positions: 34% at Facebook, 31% at Apple, 29% at Amazon, 28% at Google, and 26% at Microsoft.

    (Statista, 2021)

    To help support women in tech, 78% of women say companies should promote more women into leadership positions. Other solutions include:

    • Providing mentorship opportunities (72%)
    • Offering flexible scheduling (64%)
    • Conducting unconscious bias training (57%)
    • Offering equal maternity and paternity leave (55%)
    • (HRD America, 2021)

    Traditional retention initiatives target the majority – the drivers that impact the retention of women in IT are different

    Ranked correlation of impact of engagement drivers on retention

    The image contains a screenshot that demonstrates the differences in retaining men and women in IT.

    * Recent data stays consistent, but, the importance of compensation and recognition in retaining women in IT is increasing.

    Info-Tech Research Group Employee Engagement Diagnostic; N=1,856 IT employees

    The majority of organizations take a one-size-fits-all approach to retaining and engaging employees.

    However, studies show that women are leaving IT in significantly higher proportions than men and that the drivers impacting men’s and women’s retention are different. Knowing how men and women react differently to engagement drivers will help you create a targeted retention strategy.

    In particular, to increase the retention and engagement of women, organizations should develop targeted initiatives that focus on:

    • Organizational culture
    • Employee empowerment
    • Manager relationships

    Why organizations need to focus on the recruitment and retention of women in IT

    1. Women expand the talent pool. Women represent a vast, untapped talent pool that can bolster the technical workforce. Unfortunately, traditional IT recruitment processes are targeted toward a limited IT profile – the key to closing the IT skills gap is to look for agile learners and expand your search criteria to cast a larger net.
    2. Diversity increases innovation opportunities. Groups with greater diversity solve complex problems better and faster than homogenous groups, and the presence of women is more likely to increase the problem-solving and creative abilities of the group.
    3. Women increase your ROI. Research shows that companies with the highest representation of women in their management teams have a 34% higher return on investment than those with few or no women. Further, organizations who are unable to retain top women in their organization are at risk for not being able to deliver to SLAs or project expectations and lose the institutional knowledge needed for continuous improvement.
    4. Source: Bureau of Labour Statistics; Info-Tech Research Group/McLean & Company Analysis

    Improving the representation of women in your organization requires rethinking recruitment and retention strategies

    SIGNS YOU MAY NEED A TARGETED RECRUITMENT STRATEGY…

    SIGNS YOU MAY NEED A TARGETED RETENTION STRATEGY…

    • “It takes longer than 8 weeks to fill a posted IT position.”
    • “Less than 35% of applicants to posted positions are women.”
    • “In the last year the number of applicants to posted positions has decreased.”
    • “The number of female employees who have referred employees in the last year is significantly lower than men in the department.”
    • “Less than 35% of your IT workforce is made up of women.”
    • “Proportionally women decline IT roles in higher rates than men in IT.”
    • “Voluntary turnover of high performers and high potentials is above 5%.”
    • “Turnover of women in IT is disproportionate to the percentage of IT staff.”
    • “Employee rankings of the IT department on social networking sites (e.g. Glassdoor) are low.”
    • “Employees are frequently absent from their jobs.”
    • “Less than 25% of management roles in IT are filled by women.”
    • “Employee engagement scores are lower among women than men.”

    Info-Tech’s approach to improving gender diversity at your organization

    Info-Tech takes a practical, tactical approach to improving gender diversity at organizations, which starts with straightforward tactics that will help you improve the recruitment and retention of women in your organization.

    How we can help

    1. Leverage Info-Tech’s tools to define your current challenges and opportunities for gender diversity to improve your recruitment and retention issues.
    2. Employ straightforward and tested tactics to increase talent acquisition of women in IT by optimizing how you sell to, search for, and secure top female talent.
    3. Take a data-driven approach to measure and increase the retention and engagement of women within your IT organization, and know how and when to involve your staff for optimal results.

    Leverage Info-Tech’s customizable deliverables to improve the recruitment and retention of women in your organization

    RECRUIT Top Women in IT

    If you don’t have a targeted recruitment strategy for women, you are missing out on 50% of the candidate pool. Increase the number of viable candidates by leveraging best practices to sell to, search for, and secure top women in IT.

    Key metrics to track:

    • Average number of female candidates per posting
    • Average time to fill position
    • Percentage of new hires still at the organization one year later

    RETAIN Top Women in IT

    The drivers that impact the retention of men and women are different. Take a data-driven approach to improving retention of women in your organization by using best practices to measure and improve employee engagement.

    Key metrics to track:

    • Voluntary turnover rates of men and women
    • Average tenure of men and women
    • Percentage of internal promotions going to men and women
    • Employee engagement scores

    Info-Tech’s methodology for Recruit and Retain More Women in IT

    1. Enhance Your Recruitment Strategies

    2. Enhance Your Retention Strategies

    Phase Steps

    1. Sell:
    • Develop an attractive employee value proposition.
    • Understand the impact of language on applicants.
  • Search:
    • Define meaningful job requirements
    • Evaluate various sourcing pools.
  • Secure:
    • Improve the interview experience.
    • Leverage behavioral interview questions to limit bias.
    1. Drive engagement in key areas correlated with driving higher retention of women in IT.
    2. Train managers to understand key moments that matter in the employee experience.
    3. Understand what motivates key performers to stay at your organization.

    Phase Outcomes

    Recruitment Optimization Plan

    Retention Optimization Plan

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

    DIY Toolkit

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

    Guided Implementation

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

    Workshop

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

    Consulting

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks are used throughout all four options.

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization. A typical GI is 6 calls over the course of 1 to 2 months.

    1. Tactics to Recruit More Women in IT

    Call #1: Develop a strategy to better sell your organization to diverse candidates.

    Call #2: Evaluate your candidate search practices to reach a wider audience.

    Call #3: Introduce best practices in your interviews to improve the candidate experience and limit bias.

    2. Tactics to Retain More Women in IT

    Call #4: Launch focus groups to improve performance of key retention drivers.

    Call #5: Measure the employee experience and identify key moments that matter to staff.

    Call #6: Conduct stay interviews and establish actions to improve retention.

    Workshop Overview

    Contact your account representative for more information.

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

    Day 1

    Day 2

    Day 3

    Day 4

    Day 5

    Make the Case

    Develop Strategies to Sell to a Wider Candidate Pool

    Expand Your Talent Sourcing Strategy

    Secure & Retain Top Talent

    Next Steps and Wrap-Up (offsite)

    Activities

    1.1 Understand trends in IT staffing.

    1.2 Assess your talent lifecycle.

    1.3 Make the case for changes to recruitment and retention strategies.

    2.1 Develop an IT employee value proposition (EVP).

    2.2 Adopt your employee value proposition.

    2.3 Write meaningful job postings.

    3.1 Build realistic job requisition forms.

    3.2 Identify new alternative sourcing approaches for talent.

    3.3 Build a sourcing strategy.

    4.1 Assess key selection challenges.

    4.2 Implement behavioral interview techniques.

    4.3 Measure employee engagement and review results.

    4.4 Develop programs to improve employee engagement.

    4.5 Train managers to conduct stay interviews and drive employee engagement.

    5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days.

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

    Deliverables

    1. Recruitment & retention metrics report
    2. Business case for recruitment and retention changes
    1. Employee Value Proposition
    2. EVP marketing plan
    3. Revised job ads
    1. Job requisition form for key roles
    2. Sourcing strategy for key roles
    1. Root-cause analysis of section challenges
    2. Behavioral interview guide
    3. Identified employee engagement action plan
    4. Action plan to execute stay interviews
    1. Completed recruitment optimization plan
    2. Completed retention optimization plan

    Phase 1

    Enhance Your Recruitment Strategies

    Phase 1

    • 1.1 Sell
    • 1.2 Search
    • 1.3 Secure

    Phase 2

    • 2.1 Engagement
    • 2.2 Employee Experience
    • 2.3 Stay Interviews

    Consider key factors within the recruitment process

    Key Talent Pipeline Opportunities:

    • In today’s talent landscape IT leaders need to be highly strategic about how they recruit new talent to the organization.
    • IT professionals have a huge number of options to choose from when considering their next career.
    • IT leaders need to actively market and expand their search to attract top talent. The “where” and “how” to recruit men and women in IT are different and your strategy should reflect this.
    • Partnering with your HR department to help you improve the number of applicants, expand your search criteria, and optimize the interview experience will all directly impact your talent pipeline.
    1. Sell
    2. How do you position the value of working for your organization and roles in a meaningful way?

    3. Search
    4. How can you expand your key search criteria and sourcing strategies to reach more candidates?

    5. Secure
    6. How can you reduce bias in your interview process and create positive candidate experiences?

    Info-Tech’s Sell-Search-Secure recruitment model

    Follow these steps to increase your pool of female candidates.

    1. Sell Tactics:
    2. 1. Develop an employee value proposition that will attract female candidates.

      2. Understand how your job postings may be deterring female candidates.

    3. Search Tactics:
    4. 3. Identify opportunities to expand your role analysis for job requisitions.

      4. Increase your candidate pool by expanding sourcing programs.

    5. Secure Tactics:
    6. 5. Identify tactics to improve women’s interview experience.

      6. Leverage behavioral interview questions to limit bias in interviews.

    Please note, this section is not a replacement or a full talent strategy. Rather, this blueprint will highlight key tactics within talent acquisition practices that the IT leadership team can help to influence to drive greater diversity in recruitment.

    Understand where leaks exist in your talent pipeline

    Start your recruitment enhancement here.

    Work with your HR department to track critical metrics around where you need to make improvements and where you can partner with your recruitment team to improve your recruitment process and build a more diverse pipeline. Identify where you have significant drops or variation in diversity or overall need and select where you’d like to focus your recruitment improvement efforts.

    Selection Process Step

    Sample Metrics to Track

    Sell

    Average time to fill a vacant position

    Average number of applicants for posted positions

    Total # of Candidates; # of Male Candidates (% of total);

    # of Female Candidates (% of total); % Difference Male & Female

    Number of page visits vs. applications for posted positions

    Total # of Candidates

    # of Male Candidates

    % of total

    # of Female Candidates

    % of total

    % Difference Male & Female

    Search

    Number of applicants coming from your different sourcing channels (one line per sourcing channel: LinkedIn Group A, website, job boards, specific events, etc.)

    Number of applicants coming from referrals

    Secure

    Number of applicants meeting qualifications

    Number of applicants selected for second interview

    Number of applicants rejecting an offer

    Number of applicants accepting an offer

    Number of employees retained for one year

    Enhance your recruitment strategies

    The way you position the organization impacts who is likely to apply to posted positions. Ensure you are putting a competitive foot forward by developing a unique, meaningful, and aspirational employee value proposition and clear job descriptions.

    Sell the organization

    What is an employee value proposition?

    An employee value proposition (EVP) is a unique and clearly defined set of attributes and benefits that capture an employee’s overall work experience within an organization. An EVP is your opportunity to showcase the unique benefits and opportunities of working at your organization, allowing you to attract a wider pool of candidates.

    How is an employee value proposition used?

    Your EVP should be used internally and externally to promote the unique benefits of working within the department. As a recruiting tool, you can use it to attract candidates, highlighting the benefits of working for your organization. The EVP is often highlighted where you are most likely to reach your target audience, whether that is through social media, in-person events, or in other advertising activities.

    Why tailor this to multiple audiences?

    While your employee value proposition should remain constant in terms of the unique benefits of working for your organization, you want to ensure that the EVP appeals to multiple audiences and that it is backed up by relevant stories that support how your organization lives your EVP every day. Candidates need to be able to relate to the EVP and see it as desirable, so ensuring that it is relatable to a diverse audience is key.

    Develop a strong employee value proposition

    Three key steps

    The image contains a cycle to demonstrate the three key steps. The steps are: Build and Assess the EVP, Test the EVP, and Adopt the EVP.

    1. Build and Assess the EVP

    Assess your existing employee value proposition and/or build a forward-looking, meaningful, authentic, aspirational EVP.

    2. Test the EVP

    Gather feedback from staff to ensure the EVP is meaningful internally and externally.

    3. Adopt the EVP

    Identify how and where you will leverage the EVP internally and externally, and integrate the EVP into your candidate experience, job ads, and employee engagement initiatives.

    As you build your EVP, keep in mind that while it’s important to brand your IT organization as an inclusive workplace to help you attract diverse candidates, be honest about your current level of diversity and your intentions to improve. Otherwise, new recruits will be disappointed and leave.

    What is an employee value proposition?

    And what are the key components?

    The employee value proposition is your opportunity to showcase the unique benefits and opportunities of working at your organization, allowing you to attract a wider pool of candidates.

    AN EMPLOYEE VALUE PROPOSITION IS:

    AN EMPLOYEE VALUE PROPOSITION IS NOT:

    • An authentic representation of the employee experience
    • Aligned with organizational culture
    • Fundamental to all stages of the employee lifecycle
    • A guide to help investment in programs and policies
    • Short and succinct
    • What the employee can do for you
    • A list of programs and policies
    • An annual project

    THE FOUR KEY COMPONENTS OF AN EMPLOYEE VALUE PROPOSITION

    Rewards

    Organizational Elements

    Working Conditions

    Day-to-Day Job Elements

    • Compensation
    • Health Benefits
    • Retirement Benefits
    • Vacation
    • Culture
    • Customer Focus
    • Organization Potential
    • Department Relationships
    • Senior Management Relationships
    • Work/Life Balance
    • Working Environment
    • Employee Empowerment
    • Development
    • Rewards & Recognition
    • Co-Worker Relationships
    • Manager Relationships

    Creating a compelling EVP that presents a picture of your employee experience, with a focus on diversity, will attract females to your team. This can lead to many internal and external benefits for your organization.

    Collect relevant information

    Existing Employee Value Proposition: If your organization or IT department has an existing employee value proposition, rather than starting from scratch, we recommend leveraging that and moving to the testing phase to see if the EVP still resonates with staff and external parties.

    Employee Engagement Results: If your organization does an employee engagement survey, review the results to identify the areas in which the IT organization is performing well. Identify and document any key comment themes in the report around why employees enjoy working for the organization or what makes your IT department a great place to work.

    Social Media Sites. Prepare for the good, the bad, and the ugly. Social media websites like Glassdoor and Indeed make it easier for employees to share their experiences at an organization honestly and candidly. While postings on these sites won’t relate exclusively to the IT department, they do invite participants to identify their department in the organization. You can search these to identify any positive things people are saying about working for the organization and potentially opportunities for improvement (which you can use as a starting point in the retention section of this report).

    Step 1.1

    Sell – Assess the current state and develop your employee value proposition

    Activities

    1.1.1 Gather feedback on unique benefits

    1.1.2 Build key messages

    1.1.3 Test your EVP

    1.1.4 Adopt your EVP

    1.1.5 Review job postings for gender bias

    1.1.1 Gather feedback

    1. Hold a series of focus groups with employees to understand what about the organization attracted them to join and to stay at the organization.
    2. Start by identifying if you will interview all employees or a subset. If you are going to use a subset, ensure you have at least one male and one female participating from each team and representation of all levels within the department.
    3. Print the EVP Interview Guide to focus your conversation, and ask each individual to take 15 minutes and respond to questions 1-3 in the Guide:
    4. Draw a quadrant on the board and mark each quadrant with four categories: Day-to-Day Elements, Organizational Elements, Compensation & Benefits, and Working Conditions. Provide each participant with sticky notes and ask them to brainstorm the top five things they value most about working at the organization. Ask them to place each sticky in the appropriate category and identify any key themes.
    5. Ask participants to hand in their EVP Interview Guides and document all of the key findings.

    Input

    Output

    • Employee opinions
    • Employee responses to four EVP components
    • Content for EVP

    Materials

    Participants

    • EVP Interview Guide handout
    • Pen and paper for documenting responses
    • Male and female employees
    • Different departments
    • Different role levels

    Download the EVP Interview Guide

    1.1.2 Build key messages

    1. Collect all of the information from the various focus groups and begin to build out the employee value proposition statements.
    2. Identify the key elements that staff felt were unique and highly valued by employees and group these into common themes.
    3. Identify categories that related to one of the five key drivers* of women’s retention in IT and highlight any key elements related to these:
    • Culture: The degree to which an employee identifies with the beliefs, values, and attitudes of the organization.
    • Company Potential: An employee’s understanding, commitment, and excitement about the organization’s mission and future.
    • Employee Empowerment: The degree to which employees have accountability and control over their work within a supported environment.
    • Learning and Development: A cooperative and continuous effort to enhance an employee’s skill set and expertise and meet an employee’s career objectives.
    • Manager Relationships: The professional and personal relationship an employee has with their manager, including trust, support, and development.
  • Identify up to four key statements to focus on for the EVP, ensuring that your EVP speaks to at least one of the five categories above.
  • Integrate these into one overall statement.
  • *See Engagement Driver Handout slides for more details on these five drivers.

    Input

    Output

    • Feedback from focus groups
    • EVP and supporting statements

    Materials

    Participants

    • EVP Interview Guide handout
    • Pen and paper for documenting responses
    • IT leadership team

    Quality test your revised EVP

    Use Info-Tech’s EVP Scorecard.

    Internally and Externally

    Use the EVP Scorecard and EVP Scorecard Handout throughout this step to assess your EVP against:

    Internal Criteria:

    • Accuracy
    • Alignment
    • Aspirational
    • Differentiation

    External Criteria:

    • Clear
    • Compelling
    • Concise
    • Differentiation
    The image contains screenshots of Info-Tech's EVP Scorecard.

    Ensure your EVP resonates with employees and prospects

    Test your EVP with internal and external audiences.

    INTERNAL TEST REVOLVES AROUND THE 3A’s

    EXTERNAL TEST REVOLVES AROUND THE 3C’s

    ALIGNED: The EVP is in line with the organization’s purpose, vision, values, and processes. Ensure policies and programs are aligned with the organization’s EVP.

    CLEAR: The EVP is straightforward, simple, and easy to understand. Without a clear message in the market, even the best intentioned EVPs can be lost in confusion.

    ACCURATE: The EVP is clear and compelling, supported by proof points. It captures the true employee experience, which matches the organization’s communication and message in the market.

    COMPELLING: The EVP emphasizes the value created for employees and is a strong motivator to join this organization. A strong EVP will be effective in drawing in external candidates. The message will resonate with them and attract them to your organization.

    ASPIRATIONAL: The EVP inspires both individuals and the IT organization as a whole. Identify and invest in the areas that are sure to generate the highest returns for employees.

    COMPREHENSIVE: The EVP provides enough information for the potential employee to understand the true employee experience and to self-assess whether they are a good fit for your organization. If the EVP lacks depth, the potential employee may have a hard time understanding the benefits and rewards of working for your organization.

    1.1.3 Test your EVP

    1. Identify the internal and external individuals who you want to gather feedback from about the EVP.
    2. For internal candidates, send a copy of the EVP and ask them to complete the Internal Assessment (ensure that you have at least 50% representation of women).
    3. For external candidates, identify first how you will reach out to them; popular options are to have team members in key roles reach out to members of their LinkedIn network who are in similar roles to themselves. Request that they look for a diverse group to gather feedback from.
    4. Have the external candidates complete the External Assessment.
    5. Collect the feedback around the EVP and enter the findings into the EVP Scorecard Tool.
    6. If you are dissatisfied with the scorecard results, go back to the employees you interviewed to ask for additional feedback, focusing on the areas that scored low.
    7. Incorporate the feedback and present the revised EVP to see if the changes resonate with stakeholders.
    8. If you are satisfied with the results, present to the leadership and HR teams for agreement and proceed to adopting the EVP in your organization.

    Input

    Output

    • Internal assessment
    • External assessment
    • Finalized EVP

    Materials

    Participants

    • EVP Internal Assessmentt
    • EVP External Assessment
    • Internal staff members
    • External IT professionals

    1.1.4 Adopt your EVP

    Identify your target audience and marketing channels.

    1. Identify the internal and external individuals who you want to gather feedback from about the EVP.
    • The target audience for your employee value proposition
    • Internal and/or external
    • Local, national, international
    • Experience
    • Applicant pool (e.g. new graduates, professionals, internship)
  • For each target audience, identify where you want to reach them with your employee value proposition.
    • Internal: Town hall meetings, fireside chats
    • External: Social media, advertising, job postings
    • Global: Professional affiliations, head hunters
  • For each target audience, build the communication strategy and identify messaging, mediums, timeline, and task ownership.
  • Input

    Output

    • Employee value proposition
    • EVP plan

    Materials

    Participants

    • Pen and paper
    • EVP participants

    Case Study

    INDUSTRY: Restaurant

    SOURCE: McDonald’s Careers, Canadian Business via McLean & Company

    McDonald’s saw a divide between employee experience and its vision. McDonald’s set out to reinvent its employer image and create the reputation it wanted.

    Challenge

    • Historically, McDonald’s has had a challenging employer brand. Founded on the goal of cost effectiveness, a “McJob” was often associated with lower pay and a poor reputation.
    • McDonald’s reached out to employees using a global survey and asked, “What is it you love most about working at McDonald’s?”

    Solution

    • McDonald’s revaluated its employer brand by creating an EVP focused on the three F’s.
    1. Future – career growth and development opportunities
    2. Flexibility – flexible working hours and job variety
    3. Family & Friends – a people-centric work culture

    Results

    • As a result of developing and promoting its EVP internally, McDonald’s has experienced higher engagement and a steady decrease in turnover.
    • Externally, McDonald’s has been recognized numerous times by the Great Place to Work Institute and has been classified by Maclean’s magazine as one of Canada’s top 50 employers for 13 years running.

    Make your job descriptions more attractive to female applicants

    10 WAYS TO REMOVE GENDER BIAS FROM JOB DESCRIPTIONS – GLASSDOOR – AN EXCERPT

    1. USE GENDER-NEUTRAL TITLES: Male-oriented titles can inadvertently prevent women from clicking on your job in a list of search results. Avoid including words in your titles like “hacker,” “rockstar,” “superhero,” “guru,” and “ninja,” and use neutral, descriptive titles like “engineer,” “project manager,” or “developer.
    2. CHECK PRONOUNS: When describing the tasks of the ideal candidate, use “they” or “you.” Example: “As Product Manager for XYZ, you will be responsible for setting the product vision and strategy.
    3. AVOID (OR BALANCE) YOUR USE OF GENDER-CHARGED WORDS: Analysis from language tool Textio found that the gender language bias in your job posting predicts the gender of the person you’re going to hire. Use a tool like Textio tool or the free Gender Decoder to identify problem spots in your word choices. Examples: “Analyze” and “determine” are typically associated with male traits, while “collaborate” and “support” are considered female. Avoid aggressive language like “crush it.
    4. AVOID SUPERLATIVES: Excessive use of superlatives such as “expert,” “superior,” and “world class” can turn off female candidates who are more collaborative than competitive in nature. Research also shows that women are less likely than men to brag about their accomplishments. In addition, superlatives related to a candidate’s background can limit the pool of female applicants because there may be very few females currently in leading positions at “world-class” firms
    5. LIMIT THE NUMBER OF REQUIREMENTS: Identify which requirements are “nice to have” versus “must have,” and eliminate the “nice to haves.” Research shows that women are unlikely to apply for a position unless they meet 100 percent of the requirements, while men will apply if they meet 60 percent of the requirements.

    For the full article please click here.

    1.1.5 Review job postings

    To understand potential gender bias

    1. Select a job posting that you are looking to fill, review the descriptions, and identify if any of the following apply:
    • Are the titles gender neutral? This doesn’t mean you can’t be creative in your naming, but consider if the name really represents the role you are looking to fill.
    • Do you use pronouns? If there are instances where the posting says “he” OR “she” change this to “they” or “you.”
    • Are you overusing superlatives? Review the posting and ensure that when words like “expert” or “world class” are used that you genuinely need someone who is at that level.
    • Are all of the tasks/responsibilities listed the ones that are absolutely essential to the job? Women are less likely to apply if they don’t have direct experience with 100% of the criteria – if it’s a non-essential, consider whether it’s needed in the posting.
    • Is there any organization-specific jargon used? Where possible, avoid using organization-specific jargon in order to create an inclusive posting. Avoid using terms/acronyms that are only known to your organization.
  • Select four to six members of your staff, both male and female, and have them highlight within the job posting what elements appeal to them and what elements do not appeal to them or would concern them about the job.
  • Review the feedback from staff, and identify potential opportunities to reduce bias within the posting.
  • Input

    Output

    • Job posting
    • Updated job posting

    Materials

    Participants

    • Pen and paper
    • IT staff members

    Case Study

    INDUSTRY: Social Media

    SOURCE: Buffer Open blog

    When the social media platform Buffer replaced one word in a job posting, it noticed an increase in female candidates.

    Challenge

    For the social media platform Buffer, all employees were called “hackers.” It had front-end hackers, back-end hackers, Android hackers, iOS hackers, and traction hackers.

    As the company began to grow and ramp up hiring, the Chief Technology Officer, Sunil Sadasivan, noticed that Buffer was seeing a very low percentage of female candidates for these “hacker” jobs.

    In researching the challenge in lack of female candidates, the Buffer team discovered that the word “hacker” may be just the reason why.

    Solution

    Understanding that wording has a strong impact on the type of candidates applying to work for Buffer started a great and important conversation on the Buffer team.

    Buffer wanted to be as inviting as possible in job listings, especially because it hires for culture fit over technical skill.

    Buffer went through a number of wording choices that could replace “hacker,” and ended on the term “developer.” All external roles were updated to reflect this wording change.

    Results

    By making this slight change to the wording used in their jobs, Buffer went from seeing a less than 2% female representation of applicants for developer jobs to around 12% female representation for the same job.

    Step 1.2

    Search – Reach more candidates by expanding key search criteria and sourcing strategies

    Activities

    1.2.1 Complete role analysis

    1.2.2 Expand your sourcing pools

    Enhance your recruitment strategies

    Sourcing shouldn’t start with an open position; it should start with identifying an anticipated need and building and nurturing a talent pipeline. IT participation in this is critical to effectively promote the employee experience and foster relationships before candidates even apply.

    Expand your search

    What is a candidate sourcing program?

    A candidate sourcing program is one element of the overall HR sourcing approach, which consists of the overall process (steps to source talent), the people responsible for sourcing, and the programs (internal talent mobility, social media, employee referral, alumni network, campus recruitment, etc.).

    What is a sourcing role analysis?

    Part of the sourcing plan will outline how to identify talent for a role, which includes both the role analysis and the market assessment. The market assessment is normally completed by the HR department and consists of analyzing the market conditions as they relate to specific talent needs. The role analysis looks at what is necessary to be successful in a role, including competencies, education, background experience, etc.

    How will this enable you to attract female candidates?

    Expanding your sourcing programs and supporting deeper role analysis will allow your HR department to reach a larger candidate pool and better understand the type of talent that will be successful in roles within your organization. By expanding from traditional pools and criteria you will open the organization up to a wider variety of talent options.

    Minimize bias in sourcing to hire the right talent and protect against risk

    Failure to take an inclusive approach to sourcing will limit your talent pool by sidelining entire groups or discouraging applicants from diverse backgrounds. Address bias in sourcing so that diverse candidates are not excluded from the start. Solutions such as removing biographical data from CVs prior to interviews may reduce bias, but they may come too late to impact diversity.

    Potential areas of bias in sourcing:

    Modifications to reduce bias:

    Intake Session

    • Describing a specific employee when identifying what it takes to be successful in the role. This may include attributes that do not actually promote success (e.g. school or program) but will decrease diversity of thought.
    • Hiring managers display a “like me” bias where they describe a successful candidate as similar to themselves.
    • Focus on competencies for the role rather than attributes of current employees or skills. Technology is changing rapidly – look for people who have demonstrated a capability over a specific skill.

    Sourcing Pools

    • Blindly hunting or sourcing individuals from a few sources, assuming that these sources are always better than others (e.g. Ivy League schools always produce the best candidates).
    • Expand sources. Don’t exclude diverse sources because they’re not popular.
    • Objectively measure source effectiveness to address underlying assumptions.

    1.2.1 Role analysis

    Customize a sourcing plan for key roles to guide talent pipeline creation.

    1. Complete a role analysis to understand key role requirements. If you are hiring for an existing role, start by taking an inventory of who your top and low performers are within the role today.
    2. Consider your top performers and identify what a successful employee can do better than a less successful one. Start by considering their alignment with job requirements, and identify the education, designations/certifications, and experiences that are necessary for this job. Do not limit yourself; carefully consider if the requirements you are including are actually necessary or just nice to have.
    3. Required Entry Criteria

      Preferred Entry Criteria

      Education

      • University Degree – Bachelors
      • University Degree – Masters

      Experience

      • 5+) years design, or related, experience
      • Experience leading a team
      • External consulting experience
      • Healthcare industry experience

      Designations/Certifications

      • ITIL Foundations
    4. Review Info-Tech’s Job Competency Library in the Workforce Planning Workbook, identify the key competencies that are ideal for this anticipated role, and write a description of how this would manifest in your organization.
    5. Competency

      Level of Proficiency

      Behavioral Descriptions

      Business Analysis

      Level 2: Capable

      • Demonstrates a basic understanding of business roles, processes, planning, and requirements in the organization.
      • Demonstrates a basic understanding of how technologies assist in business processes.
      • Develop basic business cases using internal environment analysis for the business unit level.
    6. Hold a meeting with your HR team or recruiter to highlight the types of experience and competencies you are looking for in a hire to expand the search criteria.

    Target diverse talent pools through different sources

    When looking to diversify your workforce, it’s critical that you look to attract and recruit talent from a variety of different talent pools.

    SOURCING APPROACH

    INTERNAL MOBILITY PROGRAM

    Positioning the right talent in the right place, at the right time, for the right reasons, and supporting them appropriately. Often tied to succession or workforce planning, mentorship, and learning and development.

    SOCIAL MEDIA PROGRAM

    The widely accessible electronic tools that enable anyone to publish and access information, collaborate on common efforts, and build relationships. Think beyond the traditional and consider niche social media platforms.

    EMPLOYEE REFERRAL PROGRAM

    Employees recommend qualified candidates. If the referral is hired, the referring employee typically receives some sort of reward.

    ALUMNI PROGRAM

    An alumni referral program is a formalized way to maintain ongoing relationships with former employees of the organization.

    CAMPUS RECRUITING PROGRAM

    A formalized means of attracting and hiring individuals who are about to graduate from schools, colleges, or universities.

    EVENTS & ASSOCIATION PROGRAM

    A targeted approach for participation in non-profit associations and industry events to build brand awareness of your organization and create a forward-looking talent pipeline.

    1.2.2 Expand your sourcing pools

    Increase the number of female applicants.

    1. Identify where your employees are currently being sourced from and identify how many female candidates you have gotten from each channel as a percentage of applicants.
    2. # of Candidates From Approach

      % of Female Candidates From Approach

      Target # of Female Candidates

      Internal Talent Mobility

      Social Media Program

      Employee Referral Program

      Alumni Program

      Campus Recruiting Program

      Events & Non-Profit Affiliations

      Other (job databases, corporate website, etc.)

    3. Work with your HR partner or organization’s recruiter to identify three recruitment channels from the list that you will work on expanding.
    4. Review the following two slides and identify key success factors for the implementation. Identify what role IT will play and what role HR will play in implementing the approach.
    5. Following implementation, monitor the impact of the tactics on the number of women candidates and determine whether to add additional tactics.

    Different talent sources

    Benefits and success factors of using different talent sources

    Benefits

    Keys to Success

    Internal Mobility Program

    • Drives retention by providing opportunities to develop professionally
    • Provides a ready pipeline for rapid changes
    • Reduces time and cost of recruitment
    • Identify career pathing opportunities
    • Identify potential successors for succession planning
    • Build learning and development and mentorship

    Social Media Program

    • Access to candidates
    • Taps extended networks
    • Facilitates consistent communication with candidates and talent in pipelines
    • Personalizes the candidate experience
    • Identify platforms – common and niche
    • Talk to your top performers and IT network and identify which sites they use
    • Identify how people use that platform – nature of posts and engagement
    • Define what content to share and who from IT should be engaging
    • Be timely with participation and responses

    Employee Referral Program

    • Higher applicant-to-hire rate
    • Decreased time to fill positions
    • Decreased turner
    • Increased quality of hire
    • Expands your network – women in IT often know other qualified women in IT and in project delivery
    • Educate employees (particularly female employees) to participate
    • Send reminders, incorporate into onboarding, and ask leaders to share job openings
    • Make it easy to share jobs by providing templates and shortened URLs
    • Where possible, simplify the process by avoiding paper forms, reaching out quickly
    • Select metrics that will identify areas of strength and gaps in the referral program

    Alumni Program

    • A formalized way to maintain ongoing relationship with former employees
    • Positive branding as alumni are regarded as a credible source of information
    • Source of talent – boomerang employees are doubly as valuable as they understand the organization
    • Increased referral potential provides access to a larger network and alumni know what is required to be successful in the organization
    • Identify the purpose of the network and set clear goals
    • Identify what the network will do: Will the network be virtual or in person? Who will chair? Who should participate? etc.
    • Create a simple process for alumni to share information about vacancies and refer people
    • Measure progress

    Campus Recruiting Program

    • Increases employer brand awareness among talent entering the workforce
    • Provides the opportunity to interact with large groups of potential candidates at one time
    • Offers access to a highly diverse audience
    • Identify key competencies and select programs based on relevant curriculum for building those competencies
    • Select targeted schools keeping in mind programs and existing relationships
    • Work with HR to get involved

    Events & Non-Profit Affiliations

    • Create a strong talent pipeline for future positions
    • Build relationships based on shared values in a comfortable environment for participants
    • Ability to expand diversity by targeting different types of events or by leveraging women-focused, specifically women in technology, groups
    • Look for events that attract similar participants to the skills or roles you are looking to attract, e.g. Women Who Code if you’re looking for developers
    • Actively engage and participate in the event
    • Couple this with learning and development activities, and invite female top performers to participate

    Enhance your recruitment strategies

    Work with your HR department to influence the recruitment process by taking a data-driven approach to understand the root cause of applicant drop-off and success and take corrective actions.

    Secure top candidates

    Why does the candidate experience matter?

    Until recently it was an employer’s market, so recruiters and hiring managers were able to get good talent without courting top candidates. Today, that’s not the case. You need to treat your IT candidates like customers and be mindful that this is often one of the first experiences future staff will have with the organization. It will give them their first real sense of the culture of the organization and whether they want to work for the organization.

    What can IT leaders do if they have limited influence over the interview process?

    Work with your HR department to evaluate the existing recruitment process, share challenges you’ve experienced, and offer additional support in the process. Identify where you can influence the process and if there are opportunities to build service-level agreements around the candidate experience.

    Take a data-driven approach

    Understand opportunities to enhance the talent selection process.

    While your HR department likely owns the candidate experience and processes, if you have identified challenges in diversity we recommend partnering with your HR department or recruitment team to identify opportunities for improvement within the process. If you are attracting a good amount of candidates through your sell and search tactics but aren’t finding that this is translating into more women selected, it’s time to take a look at your selection processes.

    SIMPLIFIED CANDIDATE SELECTION PROCESS STEPS

    1. Application Received
    2. Candidate Selected for Interview
    3. Offer Extended
    4. Offer Accepted
    5. Onboarding of Staff

    To understand the challenges within your selection process, start by baselining your drop-off rates throughout selection and comparing the differences in male and female candidates. Use this to pin point the issues within the process and complete a root-cause analysis to identify where to improve.

    Step 1.3

    Secure – reduce bias in your interview process and create positive candidate experiences

    Activities

    1.3.1 Identify selection challenges

    1.3.1 Identify your selection challenges

    Review your candidate data.

    1. Hold a meeting with your HR partner to identify trends in your selection data. If you have an applicant tracking system, pull all relevant information for analysis.
    2. Start by identifying the total number of candidates that move forward in each stage of the process. Record the overall number of applicants for positions (should have this number from your sourcing analysis), overall number of candidates selected for interviews, overall number of offers extended, overall number of offers rejected, and overall number of employees still employed after one year.
    3. Identify the number of female and male candidates in each of those categories and as a percentage of the total number of applicants.
    4. Selection Process Step

      Total # of Candidates

      Male Candidates

      Female Candidates

      % Difference Male & Female

      #

      #

      % of total

      #

      % of total

      Applicants for Posted Position

      150

      115

      76.7%

      35

      23.3%

      70% fewer females

      Selected for Interview

      (Selected for Second Interview)

      (Selected for Final Interview)

      Offer Extended

      Offer Rejected

      Employees Retained for One Year

    5. Identify where there are differences in the percentages of male and female candidates and where there are significant drop-off rates between steps in the process.

    Note: For larger organizations, we highly recommend analyzing differences in specific teams/roles and/or at different seniority levels. If you have that data available, repeat the analysis, controlling for those factors.

    Root-cause analysis can be conducted in a variety of ways

    Align your root-cause analysis technique with the problem that needs to be solved and leverage the skills of the root-cause analysis team.

    Brainstorming/Process of Elimination

    After brainstorming, identify which possible causes are not the issue’s root cause by removing unlikely causes.

    The Five Whys

    Use reverse engineering to delve deeper into a recruitment issue to identify the root cause.

    Ishikawa/Fishbone Diagram

    Use an Ishikawa/fishbone diagram to identify and narrow down possible causes by categories.

    Process of elimination

    Leveraging root-cause analysis techniques.

    Using the process of elimination can be a powerful tool to determine root causes.

    • To use the process of elimination to determine root cause, gather the participants from within your hiring team together once you have identified where your issues are within the recruitment process and brainstorm a list of potential causes.
    • Like all brainstorming exercises, remember that the purpose is to gather the widest possible variety of perspectives, so be sure not to eliminate any suggested causes out of hand.
    • Once you have an exhaustive list of potential causes, you can begin the process of eliminating unlikely causes to arrive at a list of likely potential causes.

    Example

    Problem: Women candidates are rejecting job offers more consistently

    Potential Causes

    • The process took too long to complete
    • Lack of information about the team and culture
    • Candidates aren’t finding benefits/salary compelling
    • Lack of clarity on role expectations
    • Lack of fit between candidate and interviewers
    • Candidates offered other positions
    • Interview tactics were negatively perceived

    As you brainstorm, ensure that you are identifying differentiators between male and female candidate experiences and rationale. If you ask candidates their rationale for turning down roles, ensure that these are included in the discussion.

    The five whys

    Leveraging root-cause analysis techniques

    Repeatedly asking “why” might seem overly simplistic, but it has the potential to be useful.

    • It can be useful, when confronting a problem, to start with the end result and work backwards.
    • According to Olivier Serrat, a knowledge management specialist at the Asian Development Bank, there are three key components that define successful use of the five whys: “(i) accurate and complete statements of problems, (ii) complete honesty in answering the questions, and (iii) the determination to get to the bottom of problems and resolve them.”
    • As a group, develop a consensus around the problem statement. Go around the room and have each person suggest a potential reason for its occurrence. Repeat the process for each potential reason (ask “why?”) until there are no more potential causes to explore.
    • Note: The total number of “whys” may be more or less than five.

    Example

    The image contains an example of the five whys activity as described in the text above.

    Ishikawa/fishbone diagram

    Leveraging root-cause analysis techniques.

    Use this technique to sort potential causes by category and match them to the problem.

    • The first step in creating a fishbone diagram is agreeing on a problem statement and populating a box on the right side of a whiteboard or a piece of chart paper.
    • Draw a horizontal line left from the box and draw several ribs on either side that will represent the categories of causes you will explore.
    • Label each rib with relevant categories. In the recruitment context, consider cause categories like technology, interview, process, etc. Go around the room and ask, “What causes this problem to happen?” Every result produced should fit into one of the identified categories. Place it there, and continue to brainstorm sub-causes.

    The image contains a screenshot example of the Ishikawa/fishbone diagram.

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    Avoid naming individuals in the fishbone diagram. The goal of the root-cause exercise is not to lay blame or zero in on a guilty party but rather to identify how you can rectify any challenges.

    Leverage behavioral interviews

    Use Info-Tech’s Behavioral Interview Questions Library.

    Reduce bias in your interviews.

    In the past, companies were pushing the boundaries of the conventional interview, using unconventional questions to find top talent, e.g. “what color is your personality?” The logic was that the best people are the ones who don’t necessarily show perfectly on a resume, and they were intent on finding the best.

    However, many companies have stopped using these questions after extensive statistical analysis revealed there was no correlation between candidates’ ability to answer them and their future performance on the job. Hiring by intuition – or “gut” – is usually dependent on an interpersonal connection being developed over a very short period of time. This means that people who were naturally likeable would be given preferential treatment in hiring decisions whether they were capable of doing the job.

    Asking behavioral interview questions based on the competency needs of the role is the best way to uncover if the candidates will be able to execute on the job.

    For more information see Info-Tech’s Behavioral Interview Question Library.

    The image contains screenshots of Info-Tech's Behavioral Interview Questions Library.

    Improve the level of diversity in your organization by considering inclusive candidate selection practices

    Key action items to create inclusivity in your candidate selection practices:

    1. Managers must be aware of how bias can influence hiring. Encourage your HR department to provide diversity training for recruiters and hiring managers. Ensure those responsible for recruitment are using best practices, are aware of the impact of unconscious bias, and are making decisions in alignment with your DEI strategy.
    2. Use a variety of interviewers to leverage multiple/diverse perspectives. Hiring decisions made by a group can offer a more balanced perspective. Include interviewers from multiple levels in the organization and both men and women.
    3. Hire for distinguished excellence. Be careful not to simply choose the same kind of people over and over, in the name of cultural fit (Source: Recruiter.com, 2015).
    4. Broaden the notion of fit:

    • Hire for skill fit: you might still hire certain types for a specific job (e.g. analytical types for analysis positions), but these candidates can still be diverse.
    • Hire for fit with your organization’s DEI values, regardless of whether the candidate is from a diverse background or not.
    • It can be tempting for hiring managers to hire individuals who are similar to themselves. However, doing so limits the amount of diversity entering your organization, and as a result, limits your organization’s ability to innovate.
  • Deliberately hire for cognitive diversity. Diverse thought processes, perspectives, and problem-solving abilities are positively correlated with firm performance (Source: Journal of Diversity Management, 2014).
  • Leverage a third-party tool

    Ensure recruiting and onboarding programs are effective by surveying your new hires.

    For a deeper analysis of your new hire processes Info-Tech’s sister company, McLean & Company, is an HR research and advisory firm that offers powerful diagnostics to measure HR processes effectiveness. If you are finding diversity issues to be systemic within the organization, leveraging a diagnostic can greatly improve your processes.

    Use this diagnostic to get vital feedback on:

    • Recruiting efforts. Find out if your job marketing efforts are successful, which paths your candidates took to find you, and whether your company is maintaining an attractive profile.
    • Interviewing process. Ensure candidates experience an organized, professional, and ethical process that accurately sets their expectations for the job.
    • Onboarding process. Make sure your new hires are being trained and integrated into their team effectively.
    • Organizational culture. Is your culture welcoming and inclusive? You need to know if top talent enjoy the environment you have to offer.
    The image contains a screenshot of the New Hire Survey.

    For more information on the New Hire Survey click here. If you are interested in referring your HR partner please contact your account manager.

    Phase 2

    Enhance Your Retention Strategies

    Phase 1

    • 1.1 Sell
    • 1.2 Search
    • 1.3 Secure

    Phase 2

    • 2.1 Engagement
    • 2.2 Employee Experience
    • 2.3 Stay Interviews

    Actively engage female staff to retain them

    Employee engagement: the measurement of effective management practices that create a positive emotional connection between the employee and the organization.

    Engaged employees do what’s best for the organization: they come up with product/service improvements, provide exceptional service to customers, consistently exceed performance expectations, and make efficient use of their time and resources. The result is happy customers, better products/services, and saved costs.

    Today, what we find is that 54% of women in IT are not engaged,* but…

    …engaged employees are: 39% more likely to stay at an organization than employees who are not engaged.*

    Additionally, engaging your female staff also has the additional benefit of increasing willingness to innovate by 30% and performance by 28%. The good news is that increasing employee engagement is not difficult, it just requires dedication and an effective toolkit to monitor, analyze, and implement tactics.*

    * Info-Tech and McLean & Company Diagnostics; N=1,308 IT employees

    Don’t seek to satisfy; drive IT success through engagement

    The image contains a screenshot of a diagram that highlights the differences between satisfied and engaged employees.

    Engagement drivers that impact retention for men and women are different – tailor your strategy to your audience

    Ranked correlation of impact of engagement drivers on retention

    The image contains a screenshot that demonstrates the differences in retaining men and women in IT.

    * Recent data stays consistent, but the importance of compensation and recognition in retaining women in IT is increasing.

    Info-Tech Research Group Employee Engagement Diagnostic; N=1,856 IT employees.

    An analysis of the differences between men and women in IT’s drivers indicates that women in IT are significantly less likely than men in IT to agree with the following statements:

    Culture:

    • They identify well with the organization’s values.
    • The organization has a very friendly atmosphere.

    Employee Empowerment:

    • They are given the chance to fully leverage their talents through their job.

    Manager Relationships:

    • They can trust their manager.
    • Their manager cares about them as a person

    Working Environment:

    • They have not seen incidents of discrimination at their organization based on age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or ethnicity.

    Enhance your retention strategies

    Employee engagement is one of the greatest predictors of intention to stay. To retain you need to understand not only engagement but also your employee experience – the moments that matter – and actively work to create a positive experience.

    Improve employee engagement

    What differentiates an engaged employee?

    Engaged employees do what’s best for the organization: they come up with product/service improvements, provide exceptional service to customers, consistently exceed performance expectations, and make efficient use of their time and resources. The result is happy customers, better products/services, and saved costs.

    Why measure engagement when looking at retention?

    Engaged employees report 39%1 higher intention to stay at the organization than disengaged employees. The cost of losing an employee is estimated to be 150% to 200% of their annual salary.2 Can you afford to not engage your staff?

    Why should IT leadership be responsible for their staff engagement?

    Engagement happens every day, through every interaction, and needs to be tailored to individual team members to be successful. When engagement is owned by IT leadership, engagement initiatives are incorporated into daily experiences and personalized to their employees based on what is happening in real time. It is this active, dynamic leadership that inspires ongoing employee engagement and differentiates those who talk about engagement from those who succeed in engaging their teams.

    Sources: 1 - McLean & Company Employee Engagement Survey, 2 - Gallup, 2019

    Step 2.1

    Improve employee engagement

    Activities

    2.1.1 Review employee engagement results and trends

    2.1.2 Focus on areas that impact retention of women

    Take a data-driven approach

    Info-Tech’s employee engagement diagnostics are low-effort, high-impact programs that will give you detailed report cards on the organization’s engagement levels. Use these insights to understand your employees’ engagement levels by a variety of core demographics.

    FULL ENGAGEMENT DIAGNOSTIC

    EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE MONITOR

    The full engagement diagnostic provides a comprehensive view of your organization’s engagement levels, informing you of what motivates employees and providing a detailed view of what engagement drivers to focus on for optimal results.

    Info-Tech & McLean & Company’s Full Engagement Diagnostic Survey has 81 questions in total.

    The survey should be completed annually and typically takes 15-20 minutes to complete.

    The EXM Dashboard is designed to give organizations a real-time view of employee engagement while being minimally intrusive.

    This monthly one-question survey allows organizations to track the impact of events and initiatives on employee engagement as they happen, creating a culture of engagement.

    The survey takes less than 30 seconds to complete and is fully automated.

    For the purpose of improving retention of women in IT, we encourage you to leverage the EXM tool, which will allow you to track how this demographic group’s engagement changes as you implement new initiatives.

    Engagement survey

    For a detailed breakdown of staff overall engagement priorities.

    Overall Engagement Results

    • A clear breakdown of employee engagement results by demographic, gender, and team.
    • Detailed engagement breakdown and benchmarking.
    The image contains a screenshot of the overall engagement results.

    Priority Matrix and Driver Scores

    • A priority matrix specific to your organization.
    • A breakdown of question scores by priority matrix quadrant.
    • Know what not to focus your effort on – not all engagement drivers will have a high impact on engagement.
    The image contains a screenshot of the priority matrix and driver scores.

    EXM dashboard

    Reporting to track engagement in real time.

    EXM Dashboard

    • Leverage Info-Tech’s real-time Employee Experience Monitor dashboard to track your team’s engagement levels over time.
    • Track changes in the number of supporters and detractors and slice the data by roles, teams, and gender.
    The image contains a screenshot of the EXM dashboard.

    Time Series Trends

    • As you implement new initiatives to improve the engagement and retention of staff, track their impact and continuously course correct.
    • Empower your leaders to actively manage their team culture to drive innovation, retention, and productivity.
    The image contains a screenshot of the time series trends.

    Start your diagnostic now

    Leverage your Info-Tech membership to seamlessly launch your employee engagement survey.

    Info-Tech’s dedicated team of program managers will facilitate this diagnostic program remotely, providing you with a convenient, low-effort, high-impact experience.

    We will guide you through the process with your goals in mind to deliver deep insight into your successes and areas to improve.

    What You Need to Do:

    Info-Tech’s Program Manager Will:

    1. Contact Info-Tech to launch the program.
    2. Review the two survey options to select the right survey for your organization.
    3. Work with an Info-Tech analyst to set up your personal diagnostic.
    4. Identify who you would like to take the survey.
    5. Customize Info-Tech’s email templates.
    6. Participate in a one-hour results call with an Info-Tech executive advisor.
    1. Work with you to define your engagement strategy and goals.
    2. Launch, maintain, and support the diagnostic in the field.
    3. Provide you with response rates throughout the process.
    4. Explore your results in a one-hour call with an executive advisor to fully understand key insights from the data.
    5. Provide quarterly updates and training materials for your leadership team.

    Start Now

    2.1.1 Review employee engagement results

    Identify trends

    1. In a call with one of Info-Tech’s executive advisors, review the results of your employee engagement survey.
    2. Identify which departments are most and least engaged and brainstorm some high-level reasons.
    3. Review the demographic information and highlight any inconsistencies or areas with high levels of variance. Document which demographics have the most and least engaged, disengaged, and indifferent employees.
    4. With help from the Info-Tech executive advisor, identify and document any dramatic differences in the demographic data, particularly around gender.
    5. Identify if the majority of issues effecting engagement are at an organization or department level and which stakeholders you need to engage to support the process moving forward.
    6. Identify next steps.
    Input
    • Employee engagement results
    Participants
    • CIO
    • Info-Tech Advisor

    2.1.2 Focus on areas that impact retention of women

    Hold focus groups with IT staff and focus on the five areas with the greatest impact on women’s retention.

    1. Review the handout slides on the following pages to get a better understanding of the definition of each of the top five drivers impacting women’s retention. Depending on your team’s size, pick one to three drivers to focus on for your first focus group.
    2. Divide the participants into teams and on flip chart paper or using sticky notes have the teams brainstorm what you can stop/start/continue doing to help you improve on your assigned driver.
    • Continue: actions that work for the team related to this driver and should proceed.
    • Start: actions/initiatives that the team would like to begin.
    • Stop: actions/initiatives that the team would like to stop.
  • Prioritize the initiatives by considering: Is this initiative something you feel will make an impact on the engagement driver? Eliminate any initiatives that would not make an impact.
  • Have the groups present back and vote on two to three initiatives to implement to drive improvements within that area.
  • Culture

    Engagement driver handout

    Culture: The degree to which an employee identifies with the beliefs, values, and attitudes of the organization.

    Questions:

    • I identify well with the organization’s values.
    • This organization has a collaborative work environment.
    • This organization has a very friendly atmosphere.
    • I am a fit for the organizational culture.

    Ranked Correlation of Impact of Engagement Driver on Retention:

    • Women in IT: #1
    • Men in IT: #2

    Company Potential

    Engagement driver handout

    Company Potential: An employee’s understanding of and commitment to the organization’s mission, and the employee’s excitement about the organization’s mission and future.

    Questions:

    • This organization has a bright future.
    • I am impressed with the quality of people at this organization.
    • People in this organization are committed to doing high-quality work.
    • I believe in the organization’s overall business strategy.
    • This organization encourages innovation.

    Ranked Correlation of Impact of Engagement Driver on Retention:

    • Women in IT: #2
    • Men in IT: #1

    Employee Empowerment

    Engagement driver handout

    Employee Empowerment: The degree to which employees have accountability and control over their work within a supported environment.

    Questions:

    • I am not afraid of trying out new ideas in my job.
    • If I make a suggestion to improve something in my department I believe it will be taken seriously.
    • I am empowered to make decisions about how I do my work.
    • I clearly understand what is expected of me on the job.
    • I have all the tools I need to do a great job.
    • I am given the chance to fully leverage my talents through my job.

    Ranked Correlation of Impact of Engagement Driver on Retention:

    • Women in IT: #3
    • Men in IT: #6

    Learning and Development

    Engagement driver handout

    Learning and Development: A cooperative and continuous effort between an employee and the organization to enhance an employee’s skill set and expertise and meet an employee’s career objectives and the organization’s needs.

    Questions:

    • I can advance my career in this organization.
    • I am encouraged to pursue career development activities.
    • In the last year, I have received an adequate amount of training.
    • In the last year, the training I have received has helped me do my job better.

    Ranked Correlation of Impact of Engagement Driver on Retention:

    • Women in IT: #4
    • Men in IT: #5

    Manager Relationships

    Engagement driver handout

    Manager Relationships: The professional and personal relationship an employee has with their manager. Manager relationships depend on the trust that exists between these two individuals and the extent that a manager supports and develops the employee.

    Questions:

    • My manager inspires me to improve.
    • My manager provides me with high-quality feedback.
    • My manager helps me achieve better results.
    • I trust my manager.
    • My manager cares about me as a person.
    • My manager keeps me well informed about decisions that affect me.

    Ranked Correlation of Impact of Engagement Driver on Retention:

    • Women in IT: #5
    • Men in IT: #11

    Step 2.2

    Examine employee experience

    Activities

    2.2.1 Identify moments that matter

    Understand why and when employees plan to depart

    Leverage “psychology of quitting” expertise.

    Train your managers to provide them with the skills and expertise to recognize the warning signs of an employee’s departure and know how to re-engage and retain them.

    • The majority of resignations are not spur of the moment. They are the result of a compilation of events over a period of time. Normally, these instances are magnified by a stimulant. The final straw or the breaking point drives the employee to make a change. In fact, it has been estimated that a shock jumpstarts 65% of departures.*
      • These shocks could be a lack of promotion, loss of privilege or development opportunity, or a quarrel with a manager.
    • Employees rarely leave right away. Most wait until they have confirmed a new job opportunity before leaving. This creates a window in which you can reengage and retain them.
    • The majority of employees show signs that they are beginning to think of leaving. Whether that is leaving immediately, putting in the bare minimum of effort, or job searching online at work. Train your managers to know the signs and to keep an eye out for potentially dissatisfied and searching employees.*
    • It is easier and less costly to reengage an employee than to start the hiring process from the beginning.
    *Source: The Career Café, 2017

    Examine employee experience (EX)

    Look beyond engagement drivers to drive retention.

    Employee experience (EX) is the employee’s perception of their cumulative lived experiences with the organization. It is gauged by how well the employee’s expectations are met within the parameters of the workplace, especially by the “moments that matter” to them. Individual employee engagement is the outcome of a strong overall EX.

    The image contains a diagram as an example of examining employee experience.

    Drive a positive employee experience

    Identify moments that matter.

    Moments that matter are defining pieces or periods in an employee’s experience that create a critical turning point or memory that is of significant importance to them.

    These are moments that dramatically change the path of the emotional journey, influence the quality of the final outcome, or end the journey prematurely.

    To identify the moment that matters look for significant drops in the emotional journey that your organization needs to improve or significant bumps that your organization can capitalize on. Look for these drops or bumps in the journey and take stock of everything you have recorded at that point in the process. To improve the experience, analyze the hidden needs and how they are or aren’t being met.

    The image contains a screenshot of an example graph to demonstrate opportunities and issues to help drive a positive employee experience.

    Info-Tech Insight

    The moment that matters is key and it could be completely separate from organizational life, like the death of a family member. Leaders can more proactively address these moments that matter by identifying them and determining how to make the touchpoint at that moment more impactful.

    2.2.1 Identify moments that matter

    1. Review your Employee Experience Monitor weekly trends by logging into your dashboard and clicking on “Time Series Trends.”
    2. With your management team, identify any weekly trends where your Employee Experience Score has seen changes in the number of detractor, passive, or promoter responses.
    3. For each significant change identify:
    • Increase in promoters or decrease in detractors:
      • What can we do to duplicate positive moments that occurred this week?
      • What did I do as a leader to create positive employee experiences?
      • What happened in the organization that created a positive employee experience?
    • Increase in detractors or decrease in promoters:
      • What difficult change was delivered this week?
      • What about this change was negatively perceived?
      • During the difficult situation how did we as a leadership team support our staff?
      • Who did we engage and recognize during the difficult situation?
      • Was this situation a one-off issue or is this likely to occur again?
  • Consider your interactions with employees and identify how you made moments matter during those times related to four key engagement drivers impacting women in IT:
    • How did you promote a positive culture and friendly atmosphere?
    • How did you empower female staff to leverage their talents?
    • How did you interact with staff?
    • How did you promote a positive work environment? Where did you see bias in decisions?
  • Independently as manager, document three to five lessons learned from the changes in your detractors and promoters, and determine what action you will take.
  • Measured benefits of positive employee experience

    Positive employee experiences lead to engaged employees, and engaged employees are eight times more likely to recommend the organization (McLean & Company Employee Engagement Database, 2017; N=74,671).

    Retention

    Employees who indicate they are having a positive experience at work have a 52% higher level of intent to stay (Great Place To Work Institute, 2021)

    The bottom line

    Organizations that make employee experience a focus have: 23% higher profitability 10% higher customer loyalty (Achievers, 2021)

    Case Study

    INDUSTRY: Post-Secondary Education

    SOURCE: Adam Grant, “Impact and the Art of Motivation Maintenance: The Effects of Contact with Beneficiaries on Persistence Behavior”

    The future is here! Is your data architecture practice ready?

    Challenge

    A university call center, tasked with raising scholarship money from potential donors, had high employee turnover and low morale.

    Solution

    A study led by Grant arranged for a test group of employees to meet and interact with a scholarship recipient. In the five-minute meeting, employees learned what the student was studying.

    Results

    Demonstrating the purpose behind their work had significant returns. Employees who had met with the student demonstrated:

    More than two times longer “talk time” with potential donors.

    A productivity increase of 400%: the weekly average in donations went from $185.94 to $503.22 for test-group employees.

    Enhance your retention strategies

    Do not wait until employees leave to find out what they were unhappy with or why they liked the organization. Instead, perform stay interviews with top and core talent to create a holistic understanding of what they are perceiving and feeling.

    Conduct stay interviews

    What is a stay interview?

    A stay interview is a conversation with current employees. It should be performed on a yearly basis and is an informal discussion to generate deeper insight into the employee’s opinions, perspectives, concerns, and complaints. Stay interviews can have a multitude of uses. In this project they will be used to understand why top and core talent chose to stay with the organization to ensure that organizations understand and build upon their current strengths.

    When should you do stay interviews?

    We recommend completing stay interviews at least on an annual, if not quarterly, basis to truly understand how staff are feeling about the organization and their job, why they stay at the organization, and what would cause them to leave. Couple the outcomes of these interviews with employee engagement action planning to ensure that you are able to address talent needs.

    Step 2.3

    Conduct stay interviews and learn why employees stay

    Activities

    2.3.1 Conduct stay interviews

    Conduct regular “stay” or “retention” interviews

    Build stay interviews into the regular routine. By incorporating stay interviews into your schedule, they are more likely to stick. This regularity provides several advantages:

    1. Ensures that retention issues do not take you by surprise. With a finger on the pulse of the organization you will be aware of potential issues.
    2. Acts as a supplement to the engagement survey by providing additional information and context for the current level of emotion within the organization.
    3. Begins to build a wealth of information that can be analyzed to identify themes and trends. This can be used to track whether the reasons why individuals stay are consistent or if are they changing. This will ensure that the retention strategy remains up to date.

    Stay interview best practices:

    • Ideally is performed by managers, but can be performed by HR.
      • Ideally completed by managers as they are more familiar with their employees, have a greater reach, can hold meetings in a more informal setting, and will receive information first hand.
      • If conducted by managers, it’s a best practice to ensure that there is a central repository of themes so that you can identify if there are any trends in the responses, that consistent questions are asked, and that all of the information is in one place
    • Should be an informal conversation.
    • Should be conducted in a non-critical time in the business year.
    • Ask three types of questions:
      • What do you enjoy about working here?
      • What would you change about your working environment?
      • What would encourage or force you to leave the organization?
    • Interview a diverse employee base:
      • Demographics
      • Role
      • Performance level
      • Location
    Source: Talent Management & HT, 2013

    Leverage stay interviews

    Use Info-Tech’s Stay Interview Guide.

    Proactively identify opportunities to drive retention.

    The Stay Interview Guide helps managers conduct interviews with current employees, enabling the manager to understand:

    • The employee's current engagement level.
    • The employee's satisfaction with current role and responsibilities.
    • Suggestions for potential improvements.
    • An employee's intent to stay with the organization.

    Use this template to help you understand how you can best engage your employees and identify any challenges, in terms of moments that mattered, that negatively impacted their intention to stay at the organization.

    The image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech's Stay Interview Guide.

    2.3.1 Conduct stay interviews

    1. If you are using the Employee Experience Monitor, prepare for your stay interviews by reviewing your results and identifying if there have been any changes in the results over the previous six weeks. Identify which demographics have the highest and lowest engagement levels – and identify any changes in experience between different demographics.
    2. Identify a meeting schedule and cadence that seems appropriate for your stay interviews. For example, you likely will not do all staff at the same time and it may be beneficial to space out your meetings throughout the year. Select a candidate for your first stay interview and invite them for a one-on-one meeting. If it’s unusual for you to meet with this employee, we recommend providing some light context around the rationale, such as that you are looking for opportunities to strengthen the organizational culture and better understand how you can improve retention and engagement at the organization.
    3. Download the Stay Interview Template, review all of the questions beforehand, and identify the key questions that you want to ask in the meeting.
    • TIP: Even though this is called a “stay interview,” really it should be more of a conversation, and certainly not an interrogation. Know the questions you want to ask, and ask your staff member if it’s ok if you jot down some notes. It may even be beneficial to have the meeting outside of the office, over lunch, or out for coffee.
  • Hold your meeting with the employee and thank them for their time.
  • Following the meeting, send them a thank-you email to thank them for providing feedback, summarize your top three to five key takeaways from the meeting, verify with them that this aligns with their perspective, and see if they have anything else to add to the conversation. Identify any initiatives or changes that you will make as a result of the information – set a date for execution and follow-up.
  • If you are in the process of recruiting new employees to the organization, don’t forget to remind them of your referral program and ask if they might know of any candidates that would be a good fit for the organization.
  • Download the Stay Interview Guide

    Ten tips for best managing stay interviews

    Although stay interviews are meant to be informal, you should schedule them as you would any other meeting. Simply invite the employee for a chat.

    1. Step out of the office if possible. Opt for your local coffee shop, a casual lunch destination, or another public but informal location.
    2. Keep the conversation short, no more than 15 to 20 minutes. If there are any areas of concern that you think warrant action, ask the employee if they would like to discuss them another time. Suggest another meeting to delve deeper into specific issues.
    3. Be clear about the purpose of the conversation. Stay interviews are not performance reviews.
    4. Focus on what you can do for them. Ask about the employee’s preferences when it comes to feedback and communication (frequency, method, etc.) as well as development (preferences around methods, e.g. coaching or rotations, and personal goals).
    5. Be positive. Ask your employee what they like about their job and use positively framed questions.
    6. Ask about what they like doing. People enjoy talking about what they like to do. Ask employees about the talents and skills they would like to incorporate into their work duties.
    7. Show that you’re listening – paraphrase, ask for clarification, and use appropriate gestures.
    8. Refrain from taking notes during the meeting to preserve a conversational atmosphere.
    9. Pay attention to the employee’s body language and tone. If it appears that they are uncomfortable talking to you, stop the interview or pause to let them collect themselves.
    10. Be open to suggestions, but remember that you can’t control everything. If the employee brings up issues that are beyond your control, tell them that you will do all you can to improve the situation but can’t guarantee anything.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Recruit and Retain People of Color in IT

    • To stay competitive, IT leaders need to be more involved and commit to a plan to recruit and retain people of color in their departments and organizations. A diverse team is an answer to innovation that can differentiate your company.
    • Treat recruiting and retaining a diverse team as a business challenge that requires full engagement. Info-Tech offers a targeted solution that will help IT leaders build a plan to attract, recruit, engage, and retain people of color.

    Recruit Top IT Talent

    • Changing workforce dynamics and increased transparency have shifted the power from employers to job seekers, stiffening the competition for talent.
    • Candidate expectations match high consumer expectations and affect the employer brand, the consumer brand, and overall organizational reputation. Delivering a positive candidate experience (CX2) is no longer optional.

    Acquire the Right Hires with Effective Interviewing

    • Talk is cheap. Hiring isn’t.
    • Gain insight into and understand the need for a strong interview process.
    • Strategize and plan your interview process.
    • Understand various hiring scenarios and how an interview process may be modified to reflect your organization’s scenario.

    Bibliography

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    “89% of CIOs are concerned about Talent Retention: SOTD CIO.” 2016 Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey, CIO From IDG, 12 Aug. 2016. Web.

    Angier, Michelle, and Beth Axelrod. “Realizing the power of talented women.” McKinsey Insights, Sept. 2014. Web.

    Beansontoast23. “Not being trained on my first dev job.” Reddit, 29 July 2016. Web.

    Birt, Martin. “How to develop a successful mentorship program: 8 steps.” Financial Post, 5 Dec. 2014. Web.

    Bort, Julie. “The 25 Best Tech Employers For Women [Ranked].” Business Insider, 18 Nov. 2014. Web.

    Bradford, Laurence. “15 of the Most Powerful Women in Tech.” The Balance Careers, Updated 4 Feb. 2018. Web.

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    Cheng, Roger. “Women in Tech: The Numbers Don't Add Up.” CNET, 6 May 2015. Web.

    “CIO Survey 2020: Everything Changed. Or Did It?” Harvey Nash and KPMG, 2020. Accessed 24 Feb. 2022.

    Daley, Sam. “Women in Tech Statistics Show the Industry Has a Long Way to Go.” Built In, 5 May 2021. Accessed 1 March 2022.

    Dixon-Fyle, Sundiatu, et al. “Diversity wins: How inclusion matters.” McKinsey & Company, 19 May 2020. Accessed 24 Feb. 2022.

    Donovan, Julia. “How to Quantify the Benefits of Enhancing Your Employee Experience.” Achievers Solution Inc., 21 Sept. 2021. Web.

    “Engage Me! Employee Engagement Explored.” SoftSolutions, 12 Jan. 2016. Web.

    Erb, Marcus. Global Employee Engagement Benchmark Study. Great Place to Work Institute, 29 Nov. 2021. Accessed 15 Feb. 2022.

    Garner, Mandy. “How to attract and recruit a more gender diverse team.” Working Mums, 4 March 2016. Web.

    Gaur, Shubhra. “Women in IT: Their path to the top is like a maze.” Firstpost, 28 Aug. 2015. Web.

    “Girls Gone Wired Subreddit.” Reddit, n.d. Web.

    Glassdoor Team. “10 Ways to Remove Gender Bias from Job Descriptions.” Glassdoor for Employers Blog, 9 May 2017. Web.

    Grant, Adam. “Impact and the Art of Motivation Maintenance: The Effects of Contact with Beneficiaries on Persistence Behavior.” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, vol. 103, no. 1, 2007, pp. 53-67. Accessed on ScienceDirect.

    IBM Smarter Workforce Institute. The Employee Experience Index. IBM Corporation, 2016. Web.

    ISACA. “Tech Workforce 2020: The Age and Gender Perception Gap.” An ISACA Global Survey Report, 2019. Accessed 17 Feb. 2022.

    Johnson, Stephanie K., David R. Hekman, and Elsa T. Chan. “If There’s Only One Woman in Your Candidate Pool, There’s Statistically No Chance She’ll Be Hired.” Harvard Business Review, 26 April 2016. Web.

    Kessler, Sarah. “Tech's Big Gender Diversity Push One Year In.” Fast Company, 19 Nov. 2015. Web.

    Kosinski, M. “Why You Might Want to Focus a Little Less on Hiring for Cultural Fit.” Recruiter.com, 11 Aug. 2015. Web.

    Krome, M. A. “Knowledge Transformation: A Case for Workforce Diversity.” Journal of Diversity Management (JDM), vol. 9, no. 2, Nov. 2014, pp. 103-110.

    Ladimeij, Kazim. “Why Staff Resign; the Psychology of Quitting.” The Career Café, 31 March 2017. Updated 9 Jan. 2018. Web.

    Loehr, Anne. “Why You Need a New Strategy For Retaining Female Talent.” ReWork, 10 Aug. 2015. Web.

    Lucas, Suzanne. “How Much Employee Turnover Really Costs You.” Inc., 30 Aug. 2013. Web.

    Marttila, Paula. “5 Step Action Plan To Attract Women Join Tech Startups.” LinkedIn, 10 March 2016. Web.

    Mayor, Tracy. “Women in IT: How deep is the bench?” Computerworld, 19 Nov. 2012. Web.

    McCracken, Douglas M. “Winning the Talent War for Women: Sometimes It Takes a Revolution.” Harvard Business Review, Nov.-Dec. 2000. Web.

    McDonald’s Careers. McDonald’s, n.d. Web.

    McFeely, Shane, and Ben Wigert. “This Fixable Problem Costs U.S. Businesses $1 Trillion.” Gallup, Inc., 31 March 2019. Accessed 4 March 2022.

    Morgan, Jacob. The Employee Experience Advantage: How to Win the War for Talent by Giving Employees the Workspaces they Want, the Tools they Need, and a Culture They Can Celebrate. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2017. Print.

    Napolitano, Amy. “How to Build a Successful Mentoring Program.” Training Industry, 20 April 2015. Web.

    Peck, Emily. “The Stats On Women In Tech Are Actually Getting Worse.” Huffington Post. 27 March 2015. Updated 6 Dec. 2017. Web. 20

    Porter, Jane. “Why Are Women Leaving Science, Engineering, And Tech Jobs?” Fast Company, 15 Oct. 2014. Web.

    Pratt, Siofra. “Emma Watson: Your New Recruitment Guru - How to: Attract, Source and Recruit Women.” SocialTalent, 25 Sept. 2014. Web.

    “RBC Diversity Blueprint 2012-2015.” 2012-2015 Report Card, RBC, 2015. Web.

    Richter, Felix. “Infographic: Women’s Representation in Big Tech.” Statista Infographics, 1 July 2021. Web.

    Rogers, Rikki. “5 Ways Companies Can Attract More Women (Aside From Offering to Freeze Their Eggs).” The Muse, n.d. Web.

    Sazzoid. “HOWTO recruit and retain women in tech workplaces.” Geek Feminism Wiki, 10 Jan. 2012. Updated 18 Aug. 2016. Web.

    Seiter, Courtney. “Why We Removed the Word ‘Hacker’ From Buffer Job Descriptions.” Buffer Open blog, 13 March 2015. Updated 31 Aug. 2018. Web.

    Serebrin, Jacob. “With tech giants like Google going after female talent, how can startups compete?” The Globe and Mail, 18 Jan. 2016. Updated 16 May 2018. Web.

    Snyder, Kieran. “Why women leave tech: It's the culture, not because 'math is hard'.” Fortune, 2 Oct. 2014. Web.

    Stackpole, Beth. “5 ways to attract and retain female technologists.” Computerworld, 7 March 2016. Web.

    Sullivan, John. “4 Stay Interview Formats You Really Should Consider.” Talent Management & HT, 5 Dec. 2013. Web.

    Syed, Nurhuda. “IWD 2021: Why Are Women Underrepresented in the C-Suite?” HRD America, 5 March 2021. Web.

    Sylvester, Cheryl. “How to empower women in IT (and beyond) on #InternationalWomenDay.” ITBUSINESS.CA, 31 March 2016. Web.

    “The Power of Parity: Advancing Women’s Equality in the United States.” McKinsey Global Institute, April 2016. Web.

    White, Cindy. “How to Promote Gender Equality in the Workplace.” Chron, 8 Aug. 2018. Web.

    White, Sarah. “Women in Tech Statistics: The Hard Truths of an Uphill Battle.” CIO From IDG Communication, Inc., 8 March 2021. Accessed 24 Feb. 2022.

    Minimize the Damage of IT Cost Cuts

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    • Parent Category Name: Cost & Budget Management
    • Parent Category Link: /cost-and-budget-management
    • Average growth rates for Opex and Capex budgets are expected to continue to decline over the next fiscal year.
    • Common “quick-win” cost-cutting initiatives are not enough to satisfy the organization’s mandate.
    • Cost-cutting initiatives often take longer than expected, failing to provide cost savings before the organization’s deadline.
    • Cost-optimization projects often have unanticipated consequences that offset potential cost savings and result in business dissatisfaction.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • IT costs affect the entire business, not just IT. For this reason, IT must work with the business collaboratively to convey the full implications of IT cost cuts.
    • Avoid making all your cuts at once; phase your cuts by taking into account the magnitude and urgency of your cuts and avoid unintended consequences.
    • Don’t be afraid to completely cut a service if it should not be delivered in the first place.

    Impact and Result

    • Take a value-based approach to cost optimization.
    • Reduce IT spend while continuing to deliver the most important services.
    • Involve the business in the cost-cutting process.
    • Develop a plan for cost cutting that avoids unintended interruptions to the business.

    Minimize the Damage of IT Cost Cuts Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should take a value-based approach to cutting IT costs, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Understand the mandate and take immediate action

    Determine your approach for cutting costs.

    • Minimize the Damage of IT Cost Cuts – Phase 1: Understand the Mandate and Take Immediate Action
    • Cost-Cutting Plan
    • Cost-Cutting Planning Tool

    2. Select cost-cutting initiatives

    Identify the cost-cutting initiatives and design your roadmap.

    • Minimize the Damage of IT Cost Cuts – Phase 2: Select Cost-Cutting Initiatives

    3. Get approval for your cost-cutting plan and adopt change management best practices

    Communicate your roadmap to the business and attain approval.

    • Minimize the Damage of IT Cost Cuts – Phase 3: Get Approval for Your Cost-Cutting Plan and Adopt Change Management Best Practices
    • IT Personnel Engagement Plan
    • Stakeholder Communication Planning Tool
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Minimize the Damage of IT Cost Cuts

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

    1 Understand the Mandate and Take Immediate Action

    The Purpose

    Determine your cost-optimization stance.

    Build momentum with quick wins.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understand the internal and external drivers behind your cost-cutting mandate and the types of initiatives that align with it.

    Activities

    1.1 Develop SMART project metrics.

    1.2 Dissect the mandate.

    1.3 Identify your cost-cutting stance.

    1.4 Select and implement quick wins.

    1.5 Plan to report progress to Finance.

    Outputs

    Project metrics and mandate documentation

    List of quick-win initiatives

    2 Select Cost-Cutting Initiatives

    The Purpose

    Create the plan for your cost-cutting initiatives.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Choose the correct initiatives for your roadmap.

    Create a sensible and intelligent roadmap for the cost-cutting initiatives.

    Activities

    2.1 Identify cost-cutting initiatives.

    2.2 Select initiatives.

    2.3 Build a roadmap.

    Outputs

    High-level cost-cutting initiatives

    Cost-cutting roadmap

    3 Get Approval for Your Cost-Cutting Plan and Adopt Change Management Best Practices

    The Purpose

    Finalize the cost-cutting plan and present it to the business.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Attain engagement with key stakeholders.

    Activities

    3.1 Customize your cost-cutting plan.

    3.2 Create stakeholder engagement plans.

    3.3 Monitor cost savings.

    Outputs

    Cost-cutting plan

    Stakeholder engagement plan

    Cost-monitoring plan

    Tech Trend Update: If Contact Tracing Then Distributed Trust

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    • Parent Category Name: DR and Business Continuity
    • Parent Category Link: /business-continuity

    With COVID-19's rapid spread through populations, governments are looking for technology tools that can augment the efforts of manual contact tracing processes. How the system is designed is crucial to a positive outcome.

    • CIOs must understand how distributed trust principles achieve embedded privacy and help encourage user adoption.
    • CEOs must consider how society's waning trust in institutions affects the way they engage their customers.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Mobile contact tracing apps that use a decentralized design approach will be the most likely to be adopted by a wide swath of the population.

    Impact and Result

    There are some key considerations to realize from the way different governments are approaching contact tracing:

    1. If centralized, then seek to ensure privacy protections.
    2. If decentralized, then seek to enable collaboration.
    3. In either case, put in place data governance to create trust.

    Tech Trend Update: If Contact Tracing Then Distributed Trust Research & Tools

    Learn why distributed trust is becoming critical to technology systems design

    Understand the differences between mobile app architectures available to developers and how to achieve success in implementation based on your goals.

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

    • Tech Trend Update: If Contact Tracing Then Distributed Trust Storyboard
    [infographic]

    Build a Strategy for Big Data Platforms

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    • Parent Category Name: Big Data
    • Parent Category Link: /big-data
    • The immaturity of the big data market means that organizations lack examples and best practices to follow, and they are often left trailblazing their own paths.
    • Experienced and knowledgeable big data professionals are limited and without creative resourcing; IT might struggle to fill big data positions.
    • The term NoSQL has become a catch-all phrase for big data technologies; however, the technologies falling under the umbrella of NoSQL are disparate and often misunderstood. Organizations are at risk of adopting incorrect technologies if they don’t take the time to learn the jargon.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • NoSQL plays a key role in the emergence of the big data market, but it has not made relational databases outdated. Successful big data strategies can be conducted using SQL, NoSQL, or a combination of the two.
    • Assign a Data Architect to oversee your initiative. Hire or dedicate someone who has the ability to develop both a short-term and long-term vision and that has hands-on experience with data management, mining and modeling. You will still need someone (like a database administrator) who understands the database, the schemas, and the structure.
    • Understand your data before you attempt to use it. Take a master data management approach to ensure there are rules and standards for managing your enterprise’s data, and take extra caution when integrating external sources.

    Impact and Result

    • Assess whether SQL, NoSQL, or a combination of both technologies will provide you with the appropriate capabilities to achieve your business objectives and gain value from your data.
    • Form a Big Data Team to bring together IT and the business in order to leave a successful initiative.
    • Conduct ongoing training with your personnel to ensure up-to-date skills and end-user understanding.
    • Frequently scan the big data market space to identify new technologies and opportunities to help optimize your big data strategy.

    Build a Strategy for Big Data Platforms Research & Tools

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

    1. Develop a big data strategy

    Know where to start and where to focus attention in the implementation of a big data strategy.

    • Storyboard: Build a Strategy for Big Data Platforms

    2. Assess the appropriateness of big data technologies

    Decide the most correct tools to use in order to solve enterprise data management problems.

    • Big Data Diagnostic Tool

    3. Determine the TCO of a scale out implementation

    Compare the TCO of a SQL (scale up) with a NoSQL (scale out) deployment to determine whether NoSQL will save costs.

    • Scale Up vs. Scale Out TCO Tool
    [infographic]

    Modernize Your Applications

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    • member rating overall impact: 10.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve.
    • member rating average days saved: Read what our members are saying
    • Parent Category Name: Architecture & Strategy
    • Parent Category Link: /architecture-and-strategy
    • Application modernization is essential to stay competitive and productive in today’s digital environment. Your stakeholders have outlined their digital business goals that IT is expected to meet.
    • Your application portfolio cannot sufficiently support the flexibility and efficiency the business needs because of legacy challenges.
    • Your teams do not have a framework to illustrate, communicate, and justify the modernization effort and organizational changes in the language your stakeholders understand.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Build your digital applications around continuous modernization. End-user needs, technology, business direction, and regulations rapidly change in today’s competitive and fast-paced industry. This reality will quickly turn your modern applications into shelfware. Build continuous modernization at the center of your digital application vision to keep up with evolving business, end-user, and IT needs.
    • Application modernization is organizational change management. If you build and modernize it, they may not come. The crux of successful application modernization is centered on the strategic, well-informed, and onboarded adoption of changes in key business areas, capabilities, and processes. Organizational change management must be front and center so that applications are fit for purpose and are something that end users want and need to use.
    • Business-IT collaboration is not optional. Application modernization will not be successful if your lines of business (LOBs) and IT are not working together. IT must empathize how LOBs operate and proactively support the underlying operational systems. LOBs must be accountable for all products leveraging modern technologies and be able to rationalize the technical feasibility of their digital application vision.

    Impact and Result

    • Establish the digital application vision. Gain a grounded understanding of the digital application construct and prioritize these attributes against your digital business goals.
    • Define your modernization approach. Obtain a thorough view of your business and technical complexities, risks, and impacts. Employ the right modernization techniques based on your organization’s change tolerance.
    • Build your roadmap. Clarify the organizational changes needed to support modernization and adoption of your digital applications.

    Modernize Your Applications Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

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

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

    1. Set your vision

    Describe your application vision and set the right modernization expectations with your stakeholders.

    • Modernize Your Applications – Phase 1: Set Your Vision

    2. Identify your modernization opportunities

    Focus your modernization efforts on the business opportunities that your stakeholders care about.

    • Modernize Your Applications – Phase 2: Identify Your Modernization Opportunities

    3. Plan your modernization

    Describe your modernization initiatives and build your modernization tactical roadmap.

    • Modernize Your Applications – Phase 3: Plan Your Modernization
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Modernize Your Applications

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

    1 Set Your Vision

    The Purpose

    Discuss the goals of your application modernization initiatives

    Define your digital application vision and priorities

    List your modernization principles

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Clear application modernization objectives and high priority value items

    Your digital application vision and attributes

    Key principles that will guide your application modernization initiatives

    Activities

    1.1 State Your Objectives

    1.2 Characterize Your Digital Application

    1.3 Define Your Modernization Principles

    Outputs

    Application modernization objectives

    Digital application vision and attributes definitions

    List of application modernization principles and guidelines

    2 Identify Your Modernization Opportunities

    The Purpose

    Identify the value streams and business capabilities that will benefit the most from application modernization

    Conduct a change tolerance assessment

    Build your modernization strategic roadmap

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of the value delivery improvements modernization can bring

    Recognizing the flexibility and tolerance of your organization to adopt changes

    Select an approach that best fits your organization’s goals and capacity

    Activities

    2.1 Identify the Opportunities

    2.2 Define Your Modernization Approach

    Outputs

    Value streams and business capabilities that are ideal modernization opportunities

    Your modernization strategic roadmap based on your change tolerance and modernization approach

    3 Plan Your Modernization

    The Purpose

    Identify the most appropriate modernization technique and the scope of changes to implement your techniques

    Develop an actionable tactical roadmap to complete your modernization initiatives

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Clear understanding of what must be changed to the organization and application considering your change tolerance

    An achievable modernization plan

    Activities

    3.1 Shortlist Your Modernization Techniques

    3.2 Roadmap Your Modernization Initiatives

    Outputs

    Scope of your application modernization initiatives

    Your modernization tactical roadmap

    Negotiate SaaS Agreements That Are Built to Last

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    • Parent Category Name: Vendor Management
    • Parent Category Link: /vendor-management
    • Internal stakeholders usually have different – and often conflicting – needs and expectations that require careful facilitation and management.
    • SaaS solutions bring forth a unique form of “switching costs” that can make a decision to migrate solutions financially, technically, and politically painful.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Conservatively, it’s possible to save 5% of the overall IT budget through comprehensive software and SaaS contract review.
    • Focus on the terms and conditions, not just the price.
    • Learning to negotiate is crucial.

    Impact and Result

    • Take control of your SaaS contract negotiations from the beginning.
    • Look at your contract holistically to find cost savings.
    • Guide communication between vendors and your organization for the duration of contract negotiations.
    • Redline the terms and conditions of your SaaS contract.
    • Prioritize crucial terms and conditions to negotiate.

    Negotiate SaaS Agreements That Are Built to Last Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out how to redline and negotiate a SaaS agreement, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the different ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Gather requirements

    Build and manage the stakeholder team, and then document the business use case.

    • Negotiate SaaS Agreements That Are Built to Last – Phase 1: Gather Requirements
    • RASCI Chart
    • Vendor Communication Management Plan
    • Software Business Use Case Template
    • SaaS TCO Calculator

    2. Redline contract

    Redline the proposed SaaS contract.

    • Negotiate SaaS Agreements That Are Built to Last – Phase 2: Redline Contract
    • SaaS Terms and Conditions Evaluation Tool

    3. Negotiate contract

    Create a thorough negotiation plan.

    • Negotiate SaaS Agreements That Are Built to Last – Phase 3: Negotiate Contract
    • SaaS Contract Negotiation Terms Prioritization Checklist
    • Controlled Vendor Communications Letter
    • Key Vendor Fiscal Year End Calendar
    • Contract Negotiation Tactics Playbook
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Negotiate SaaS Agreements That Are Built to Last

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

    1 Collect and Review Data

    The Purpose

    Assemble documentation.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understand current position before going forward.

    Activities

    1.1 Assemble existing contracts.

    1.2 Document their strategic and tactical objectives.

    1.3 Identify current status of the vendor relationship and any historical context.

    1.4 Clarify goals for ideal future state.

    Outputs

    Business Use Case.

    2 Define the Business Use Case and Build a Stakeholder Team

    The Purpose

    Define the business use case and build a stakeholder team.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Create a business use case to document functional and non-functional requirements.

    Build an internal cross-functional stakeholder team to negotiate the contract.

    Activities

    2.1 Establish a negotiation team and define roles.

    2.2 Write a communication plan.

    2.3 Complete a business use case.

    Outputs

    RASCI Matrix

    Communications Plan

    SaaS TCO Calculator

    Business Use Case

    3 Redline the Contract

    The Purpose

    Examine terms and conditions and prioritize for negotiation.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Discover cost savings.

    Improve agreement terms.

    Prioritize terms for negotiation.

    Activities

    3.1 Review general terms and conditions.

    3.2 Review license and application specific terms and conditions.

    3.3 Match to business and technical requirements.

    3.4 Redline the agreement.

    Outputs

    SaaS Terms and Conditions Evaluation Tool

    SaaS Contract Negotiation Terms Prioritization Checklist

    4 Build a Negotiation Strategy

    The Purpose

    Create a negotiation strategy.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Controlled communication established.

    Negotiation tactics chosen.

    Negotiation timeline plotted.

    Activities

    4.1 Review vendor and application specific negotiation tactics.

    4.2 Build negotiation strategy.

    Outputs

    Contract Negotiation Tactics Playbook

    Controlled Vendor Communications Letter

    Key Vendor Fiscal Year End Calendar

    Start Making Data-Driven People Decisions

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    • Parent Category Name: Leadership Development Programs
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    • Ninety-one percent of IT leaders believe that analytics is important for talent management but 59% use no workforce analytics at all, although those who use analytics are much more effective than those who don't.
    • The higher the level of analytics used, the higher the level of effectiveness of the department as a whole.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • You don't need advanced metrics and analytics to see a return on people data. Begin by getting a strong foundation in place and showing the ROI on a pilot project.
    • Complex analyses will never make up for inadequate data quality. Spend the time up front to audit and improve data quality if necessary, no matter which stage of analytics proficiency you are at.
    • Ensure you collect and analyze only data that is essential to your decision making. More is not better, and excess data can detract from the overall impact of analytics.

    Impact and Result

    • Build a small-scale foundational pilot, which will allow you to demonstrate feasibility, refine your costs estimate, and show the ROI on people analytics for your budgeting meeting.
    • Drive organizational change incrementally by identifying and communicating with the stakeholders for your people analytics pilot.
    • Choose basic analytics suitable for organizations of all sizes and understand the building blocks of data quality to support more further analytics down the line.

    Start Making Data-Driven People Decisions Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should strategically apply people analytics to your IT talent management.

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

    1. Define the problem and apply the checklist

    From choosing the right data for the right problem to evaluating your progress toward data-driven people decisions, follow these steps to build your foundation to people analytics.

    • Start Making Data-Driven People Decisions – Phase 1: Define the Problem and Apply the Checklist
    • People Analytics Strategy Template
    • Talent Metrics Library
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    Risk management company

    Expert risk management consultancy firm

    Based on experience
    Implementable advice
    human-based and people-oriented

    Engage Tymans Group, expert risk management and consultancy company, to advise you on mitigating, preventing, and monitoring IT and information security risks within your business. We offer our extensive experience as a risk consulting company to provide your business with a custom roadmap and practical solutions to any risk management problems you may encounter.

    Security and risk management

    Our security and risk services

    Security strategy

    Security Strategy

    Embed security thinking through aligning your security strategy to business goals and values

    Read more

    Disaster Recovery Planning

    Disaster Recovery Planning

    Create a disaster recovey plan that is right for your company

    Read more

    Risk Management

    Risk Management

    Build your right-sized IT Risk Management Program

    Read more

    Check out all our services

    Setting up risk management within your company with our expert help

    Risk is unavoidable when doing business, but that does not mean you should just accept it and move on. Every company should try to manage and mitigate risk as much as possible, be it risks regarding data security or general corporate security. As such, it would be wise to engage an expert risk management and consultancy company, like Tymans Group. Our risk management consulting firm offers business practical solutions for setting up risk management programs and IT risk monitoring protocols as well as solutions for handling IT incidents. Thanks to our experience as a risk management consulting firm, you enjoy practical and proven solutions based on a people-oriented approach.

    Benefit from our expert advice on risk management

    If you engage our risk management consultancy company you get access to various guides and documents to help you set up risk management protocols within you company. Additionally, you can book a one-hour online talk with our risk management consulting firm’s CEO Gert Taeymans to discuss any problems you may be facing or request an on-site appointment in which our experts analyze your problems. The talk can discuss any topic, from IT risk control to external audits and even corporate security consultancy. If you have any questions about our risk management and consulting services for your company, we are happy to answer them. Just contact our risk management consulting firm through the online form and we will get in touch with as soon as possible.

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    Build Effective Enterprise Integration on the Back of Business Process

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    • Parent Category Name: Enterprise Integration
    • Parent Category Link: /enterprise-integration
    • Organizations undergoing growth, either organically or through M&A, tend to develop integration capabilities in a piecemeal and short-sighted fashion to preserve their view of agility.
    • Integration strategies that are focused solely on technological solutions are likely to complicate rather than simplify, as not enough consideration is given to how other systems and processes will be impacted.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Define a path for your EI strategy. Establish the more pressing goal of enterprise integration: improving operational integrity or adding business intelligence/predictive analytics capability.
    • Combine multiple views of integration for a comprehensive EI strategy. Assess business process, applications, and data in tandem to understand where enterprise integration will fit in your organization.
    • Don’t start by boiling the ocean and get bogged down in mapping out the entire organization. For the purposes of the strategy, narrow your focus to a set of related high-value processes to identify ways to improve integration.

    Impact and Result

    • Begin your enterprise strategy formation by identifying if your organization places emphasis on enabling operational excellence or predictive modeling/analytics.
    • Enterprise integration needs to bring together business process, applications, and data, in that order. Kick-start the process of identifying opportunities for improvement by creating business process maps that incorporate how applications and data are coordinated to support business activities.
    • Revisit the corporate drivers after integration mapping activities to identify the primary use cases for improvement.
    • Prepare for the next steps of carrying out the strategy by reviewing a variety of solution options.
    • Develop a compelling business case by consolidating the outputs of your mapping activities, establishing metrics for a specific process (or set of processes), and quantifying the benefits.

    Build Effective Enterprise Integration on the Back of Business Process Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should create an enterprise integration strategy; review Info-Tech’s methodology that encompasses business process, applications, and data; and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Position enterprise integration within the organization

    Begin strategy development by assigning roles and responsibilities for the team and establishing the initial direction for the strategy.

    • Build Effective Enterprise Integration on the Back of Business Process – Phase 1: Position Enterprise Integration Within Your Organization
    • Chief Enterprise Integration Officer
    • Enterprise Integration Strategy Drivers Assessment

    2. Explore the lenses of enterprise integration

    Create business process maps that incorporate how applications and data are coordinated to support business activities.

    • Build Effective Enterprise Integration on the Back of Business Process – Phase 2: Explore the Lenses of Enterprise Integration
    • Enterprise Integration Process Mapping Tool

    3. Develop the enterprise integration strategy

    Review your integration map to identify improvement opportunities, explore integration solutions, and consolidate activity outputs into a strategy presentation.

    • Build Effective Enterprise Integration on the Back of Business Process – Phase 3: Develop the Enterprise Integration Strategy
    • Enterprise Integration Strategy Presentation Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Build Effective Enterprise Integration on the Back of Business Process

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

    1 Position Enterprise Integration

    The Purpose

    Discuss the general approach for creating a holistic enterprise integration strategy.

    Define the initial direction and drivers.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Strategy development team with responsibilities identified.

    Clear initial direction for the strategy based on senior stakeholder input.

    Activities

    1.1 Define the driving statements for your EI strategy.

    1.2 Develop a RACI chart.

    1.3 Discuss the current state of enterprise integration.

    1.4 Establish the initial direction of your strategy by surveying senior stakeholders.

    Outputs

    Vision, mission, and values for enterprise integration

    RACI chart for strategy development

    Documentation of past integration projects

    Chief Enterprise Integration Officer job description template

    2 Explore the Lenses of Enterprise Integration

    The Purpose

    Build a comprehensive map of what integration looks like for your target business processes.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Clear documentation of the integration environment, encompassing process, data, and applications.

    Activities

    2.1 Develop level-0 and level-1 business capability diagrams.

    2.2 Identify the business processes of focus, based on relevance to overall corporate drivers.

    2.3 Complete process flow diagrams.

    2.4 Begin identifying the applications that are involved in each step of your process.

    2.5 Detail the connections/interactions between the applications in your business processes.

    2.6 Draw a current state diagram for application integration.

    2.7 Identify the data elements created, used, and stored throughout the processes, as well as systems of record.

    Outputs

    Business capability maps

    Business process flow diagrams

    Current state integration diagram

    Completed integration map

    3 Develop the Enterprise Integration Strategy

    The Purpose

    Review the outputs of the integration mapping activities.

    Educate strategy team on the potential integration solutions.

    Consolidate the findings of the activities into a compelling strategy presentation.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Integration improvement opportunities are identified.

    Direction and drivers for enterprise integration are finalized.

    Understanding of the benefits and limitations of some integration solutions.

    Activities

    3.1 Discuss the observations/challenges and opportunities for improvement.

    3.2 Refine the focus of the strategy by conducting a more detailed stakeholder survey.

    3.3 Review the most common integration solutions for process, applications, and data.

    3.4 Create a future state integration architecture diagram.

    3.5 Define the IT and business critical success factors for EI.

    3.6 Articulate the risks with pursuing (and not pursuing) an EI strategy.

    3.7 Quantify the monetary benefits of the EI strategy.

    3.8 Discuss best practices for presenting the strategy and organize the presentation content.

    Outputs

    Critical success factors and risks for enterprise integration

    Monetary benefits of enterprise integration

    Completed enterprise integration strategy presentation

    Application Maintenance

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    • Parent Category Name: Applications
    • Parent Category Link: /applications

    The challenge

    • If you work with application maintenance or operations teams that handle the "run" of your applications, you may find that the sheer volume and variety of requests create large backlogs.
    • Your business and product owners may want scrum or DevOps teams to work on new functionality rather than spend effort on lifecycle management.
    • Increasing complexity and increasing reliance on technology may create unrealistic expectations for your maintenance teams. Business applications must be available around the clock, and new feature roadmaps cannot be side-tracked by maintenance.

    Our advice

    Insight

    • Improving maintenance focus may mean doing less work but create more value. Your teams need to be realistic about what commitments they take—balance maintenance with business value and risk levels.
    • Treat maintenance the same as any other development practice. Use the same intake and prioritization practices. Uphold the same quality standards.

    Impact and results 

    • Justify the necessity of streamlined and regular maintenance. Understand each stakeholder's objectives and concerns, validate them against your staff's current state, processes, and technologies involved.
    • Maintenance and risk go hand in hand. And the business wants to move forward all the time as well. Strengthen your prioritization practice. Use a holistic view of the business and technical impacts, risks, urgencies across the maintenance needs and requests. That allows you to justify their respective positions in the overall development backlog. Identify opportunities to bring some requirements and features together.
    • Build a repeatable process with appropriate governance around it. Ensure that people know their roles and responsibilities and are held accountable.
    • Instill development best-practices into your maintenance processes.

    The roadmap

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

    Get started.

    Read our executive brief to understand everyday struggles regarding application maintenance, the root causes, and our methodology to overcome these. We show you how we can support you.

    Understand your maintenance priorities

    Identify your stakeholders and understand their drivers.

    • Streamline Application Maintenance – Phase 1: Assess the Current Maintenance Landscape (ppt)
    • Application Maintenance Operating Model Template (doc)
    • Application Maintenance Resource Capacity Assessment (xls)
    • Application Maintenance Maturity Assessment (xls)

    Define and employ maintenance governance

    Identify the right level of governance appropriate to your company and business context for your application maintenance. That ensures that people uphold standards across maintenance practices.

    • Streamline Application Maintenance – Phase 2: Develop a Maintenance Release Schedule (ppt)

    Enhance your prioritization practices

    Most companies cannot do everything for all applications and systems. Build your maintenance triage and prioritization rules to safeguard your company, maximize business value generation and IT risks and requirements.

    • Streamline Application Maintenance – Phase 3: Optimize Maintenance Capabilities (ppt)

    Streamline your maintenance delivery

    Define quality standards in maintenance practices. Enforce these in alignment with the governance you have set up. Show a high degree of transparency and open discussions on development challenges.

    • Streamline Application Maintenance – Phase 4: Streamline Maintenance Delivery (ppt)
    • Application Maintenance Business Case Presentation Document (ppt)

     

     

    Design Your Cloud Operations

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    • Parent Category Name: Operations Management
    • Parent Category Link: /i-and-o-process-management
    • Traditional IT capabilities, activities, organizational structures, and culture need to adjust to leverage the value of cloud, optimize spend, and manage risk.
    • Different stakeholders across previously separate teams rely on one another more than ever, but rules of engagement do not yet exist.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Define your target cloud operations state first, then plan how to get there. If you begin by trying to reconstruct on-prem operations in the cloud, you will build an operations model that is the worst of both worlds.

    Impact and Result

    • Assess your key workflows’ maturity for life in the cloud and evaluate your readiness and need for new ways of working
    • Identify the work that must be done to deliver value in cloud services
    • Design your cloud operations framework and communicate it clearly and succinctly to secure buy-in

    Design Your Cloud Operations Research & Tools

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

    1. Design Your Cloud Operations Deck – A step-by-step storyboard to help guide you through the activities and tools in this project.

    This storyboard will help you assess your cloud maturity, understand relevant ways of working, and create a meaningful design of your cloud operations that helps align team members and stakeholders.

    • Design Your Cloud Operations – Storyboard
    • Cloud Operations Design Sketchbook
    • Roadmap Tool

    2. Planning and design tools.

    Use these templates and tools to assess your current state, design the cloud operations organizing framework, and create a roadmap.

    • Cloud Maturity Assessment

    3. Communication tools.

    Use these templates and tools to plan how you will communicate changes to key stakeholders and communicate the new cloud operations organizing framework in an executive presentation.

    • Cloud Operations Communication Plan
    • Cloud Operations Organizing Framework: Executive Brief

    Infographic

    Workshop: Design Your Cloud Operations

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

    1 Day 1

    The Purpose

    Establish Context

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Alignment on target state

    Activities

    1.1 Assess current cloud maturity and areas in need of improvement

    1.2 Identify the drivers for organizational redesign

    1.3 Review cloud objectives and obstacles

    1.4 Develop organization design principles

    Outputs

    Cloud maturity assessment

    Project drivers

    Cloud challenges and objectives

    Organization design principles

    2 Day 2

    The Purpose

    Establish Context

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of cloud workstreams

    Activities

    2.1 Evaluate new ways of working

    2.2 Develop a workstream target statement

    2.3 Identify cloud work

    Outputs

    Workstream target statement

    Cloud operations workflow diagrams

    3 Day 3

    The Purpose

    Design the Organization

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Visualization of the cloud operations future state

    Activities

    3.1 Design a future-state cloud operations diagram

    3.2 Create a current-state cloud operations diagram

    3.3 Define success indicators

    Outputs

    Future-state cloud operations diagram

    Current-state cloud operations diagram

    Success indicators

    4 Day 4

    The Purpose

    Communicate the Changes

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Alignment and buy-in from stakeholders

    Activities

    4.1 Create a roadmap

    4.2 Create a communication plan

    Outputs

    Roadmap

    Communication plan

    Further reading

    It’s “day two” in the cloud. Now what?

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analysts’ Perspective

    The image contains a picture of Andrew Sharp.

    Andrew Sharp

    Research Director

    Infrastructure & Operations Practice

    It’s “day two” in the cloud. Now what?

    Just because you’re in the cloud doesn’t mean everyone is on the same page about how cloud operations work – or should work.

    You have an opportunity to implement new ways of working. But if people can’t see the bigger picture – the organizing framework of your cloud operations – it will be harder to get buy-in to realize value from your cloud services.

    Use Info-Tech’s methodology to build out and visualize a cloud operations organizing framework that defines cloud work and aligns it to the right areas.

    The image contains a picture of Nabeel Sherif.

    Nabeel Sherif

    Principal Research Director

    Infrastructure & Operations Practice

    The image contains a picture of Emily Sugerman.

    Emily Sugerman

    Research Analyst

    Infrastructure & Operations Practice

    Scott Young

    Principal Research Director

    Infrastructure & Operations Practice

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Common Obstacles

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    Widespread cloud adoption has created new opportunities and challenges:

    • Traditional IT capabilities, activities, organizational structures, and culture need to adjust to leverage the value of cloud, optimize spend, and manage risk.
    • Different stakeholders across previously separate teams rely on one another more than ever, but rules of engagement do not yet exist, leading to a lack of direction, employee frustration, missed work, inefficiency, and unacceptable risk.
    • Many organizations have bought their way into a SaaS portfolio. Now, as key applications leave their network, I&O leaders still have accountability for these apps, but little visibility and control over them.
    • Few organizations are, or will ever be, cloud only. Your operations will be both on-prem and in-cloud for the foreseeable future and you must be able to accommodate both.
    • Traditional infrastructure siloes no longer work for cloud operations, but key stakeholders are wary of significant change.

    Clearly communicate the need for operations changes:

    • Identify current challenges with cloud operations. Assess your readiness and fit for new ways of working involved in cloud operations: DevOps, SRE, Platform Engineering, and more.
    • Use Info-Tech’s templates to design a cloud operations organizing framework. Define cloud work, and align work to the right work areas.
    • Communicate the design. Gain buy-in from your key stakeholders for the considerable organizational change management required to achieve durable change.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Define your target cloud operations state first, then plan how to get there. If you begin by trying to reconstruct on-prem operations in the cloud, you will build an operations model that is the worst of both worlds.

    Your Challenge

    Traditional IT capabilities, activities, organizational structures, and culture need to adjust to leverage the value of cloud, optimize spend, and manage risk.

    • As key applications leave for the cloud, I&O teams are still expected to manage access, spend, and security but may have little or no visibility or control over the applications themselves.
    • The automation and self-service capabilities of cloud aren’t delivering the speed the business expected because teams don’t work together effectively.
    • Business leaders purchase their own cloud solutions because, from their point of view, IT’s processes are cumbersome and ineffective.
    • Accounting practices and governance mechanisms haven’t adjusted to enable new development practices and technologies.
    • Security and cost management requirements may not be accounted for by teams acquiring or developing solutions.
    • All of this contributes to frustration, missed work, wasteful spending, and unacceptable risk.

    Obstacles, by the numbers:

    85% of respondents reported security in the cloud was a serious concern.

    73% reported balancing responsibilities between a central cloud team and business units was a top concern.

    The average organization spent 13% more than they’d budgeted on cloud – even when budgets were expected to increase by 29% in the next year.

    32% of all cloud spend was estimated to be wasted spend.

    56% of operations professionals said their primary focus is cloud services.

    81% of security professionals thought it was difficult to get developers to prioritize bug fixes.

    42% of security professionals felt bugs were being caught too late in the development process.

    1. Flexera 2022 State of the Cloud Report. 2. GitLab DevSecOps 2021 Survey

    Cloud operations are different, but IT departments struggle to change

    • There’s no sense of urgency in the organization that change is needed, particularly from teams that aren’t directly involved in operations. It can be challenging to make the case that change is needed.
    • Beware “analysis paralysis”! With so many options, philosophies, approaches, and methodologies, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by choice and fail to make needed changes.
    • The solution to the problem requires organizational changes beyond the operations team, but you don’t have the authority to make those changes directly. Operations can influence the solution, but they likely can’t direct it.
    • Behavior, culture, and organizations take time and work to change. Progress is usually evolutionary – but this can also mean it feels like it’s happening too slowly.
    • It’s not just cloud, and it probably never will be. You’ll need to account for operating both on-premises and cloud technologies for the foreseeable future.

    Follow Info-Tech’s Methodology

    1. Ensure alignment with the risks and drivers of the business and understand your organization’s strengths and gaps for a cloud operations world.

    2. Understand the balance of different types of deliveries you’re responsible for in the cloud.

    3. Reduce risk by reinforcing the key operational pillars of cloud operations to your workstreams.

    4. Identify “work areas,” decide which area is responsible for what tasks and how work areas should interact in order to best facilitate desired business outcomes.

    The image contains a screenshot of a diagram demonstrating Info-Tech's Methodology, as described in the text above.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Start by designing operations around the main workflow you have for cloud services; i.e. If you mostly build or host in cloud, build the diagram to maximize value for that workflow.

    Operating Framework Elements

    Proper design of roles and responsibilities for each cloud workflow category will help reduce risk by reinforcing the key operational pillars of cloud operations.

    We base this on a composite of the well-architected frameworks established by the top global cloud providers today.

    Workflow Categories

    • Build
    • Host
    • Consume

    Key Pillars

    • Performance
    • Reliability
    • Cost Effectiveness
    • Security
    • Operational Excellence

    Risks to Mitigate

    • Changes to Support Model
    • Changes to Security & Governance
    • Changes to Skills & Roles
    • Replicating Old Habits
    • Misaligned Stakeholders

    Cloud Operations Design

    Info-Tech’s Methodology

    Assess Maturity and Ways of Working

    Define Cloud Work

    Design Cloud Operations

    Communicate and Secure Buy-in

    Assess your key workflows’ maturity for “life in the cloud,” related to Key Operational Pillars. Evaluate your readiness and need for new ways of working.

    Identify the work that must be done to deliver value in cloud services.

    Define key cloud work areas, the work they do, and how they should share information and interact.

    Outline the change you recommend to a range of stakeholders. Gain buy-in for the plan.

    Blueprint deliverables

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

    Cloud Maturity Assessment

    Assess the intensity and cloud maturity of your IT operations for each of the key cloud workstreams: Consume, Host, and Build

    The image contains screenshots of the Cloud Maturity Assessment.

    Communication Plan

    Identify stakeholders, what’s in it for them, what the impact will be, and how you will communicate over the course of the change.

    The image contains a screenshot of the Communcation Plan.

    Cloud Operations Design Sketchbook

    Capture the diagram as you build it.

    The image contains a screenshot of the Cloud Operations Design Sketchbook.

    Roadmap Tool

    Build a roadmap to put the design into action.

    The image contains a screenshot of the Roadmap Tool.

    Key deliverable:

    Cloud Operations Organizing Framework

    The Cloud Operations Organizing Framework is a communication tool that introduces the cloud operations diagram and establishes its context and justification.

    The image contains a screenshot of the Cloud Operations Organizing Framework.

    Project Outline

    Phase 1: Establish Context

    1.1: Identify challenges, opportunities, and cloud maturity

    1.2: Evaluate new ways of working

    1.3: Define cloud work

    Phase 2: Design the organization and communicate changes

    2.1: Design a draft cloud operations diagram

    2.2: Communicate changes

    Outputs

    Cloud Services Objectives and Obstacles

    Cloud Operations Workflow Diagrams

    Cloud Maturity Assessment

    Draft Cloud Operations Diagram

    Communication Plan

    Roadmap Tool

    Cloud Operations Organizing Framework

    Project benefits

    Benefits for IT

    Benefits for the business

    • Define the work required to effectively deliver cloud services to deliver business value.
    • Define key roles for operating cloud services.
    • Outline an operations diagram that visually communicates what key work areas do and how they interact.
    • Communicate needed changes to key stakeholders.
    • Receive more value from cloud services when the organization is structured to deliver value including:
      • Avoiding cost overruns
      • Securing services
      • Providing faster, more effective delivery
      • Increasing predictability
      • Reducing error rates

    Calculate the value of Info-Tech’s Methodology

    The value of the project is the delivery of organizational change that improves the way you manage cloud services

    Example Goal

    How this blueprint can help

    How you might measure success/value

    Streamline Responsibilities

    The operations team is spending too much time fighting applications fires, which is distracting it from needed platform improvements.

    • Identify shared and separate responsibilities for development and platform operations teams.
    • Focus the operations team on securing and automating cloud platform(s).
    • Reduce time wasted on back and forth between development and operations teams (20 hrs. per employee per year x 50 staff = 1000 hrs.).
    • Deliver automation features that reduces development lead time by one hour per sprint (40 devs x 20 sprints per yr. x 1 hr. = 800 hrs.).

    Improve Cost Visibility

    The teams responsible for cost management today don’t have the authority, visibility, or time to effectively find wasted spend.

    The teams responsible for cost management today don’t have the authority, visibility, or time to effectively find wasted spend.

    • Ensure operations contributes to visibility and execution of cost governance.
    • $1,000,000 annual spend on cloud services.
    • Of this, assume 32% is wasted spend ($320k).1
    • New cost management function has a target to cut waste by half next year saving ~$160k.
    • Cost visibility and capture metrics (e.g. accurate tagging metrics, right-sizing execution).
    1. Average wasted cloud spend across all organizations, from the 2022 Flexera State of the Cloud Report

    Understand your cloud vision and strategy before you redesign operations

    Guide your operations redesign with an overarching cloud vision and strategy that aligns to and enables the business’s goals.

    Cloud Vision

    The image contains a screenshot of the Define Your Cloud Vision.

    Cloud Strategy

    It is difficult to get or maintain buy-in for changes to operations without everyone on the same page about the basic value proposition cloud offers your organization.

    Do the workload and risk analysis to create a defensible cloud vision statement that boils down into a single statement: “This is how we want to use the cloud.”

    Once you have your basic cloud vision, take the next step by documenting a cloud strategy.

    Establish your steering committee with stakeholders from IT, business, and leadership to work through the essential decisions around vision and alignment, people, governance, and technology.

    Your cloud operations design should align to a cloud strategy document that provides guidelines on establishing a cloud council, preparing staff for changing skills, mitigating risks through proper governance, and setting a direction for migration, provisioning, and monitoring decisions.

    Key Insights

    Focus on the future, not the present

    Define your target cloud operations state first, then plan how to get there. If you begin by trying to reconstruct on-prem operations in the cloud, you will build an operations model that is the worst of both worlds.

    Responsibilities change in the cloud

    Understand what you mean by cloud work

    Focus where it matters

    Cloud is a different way of consuming IT resources and applications and it requires a different operational approach than traditional IT.

    In most cases, cloud operations involves less direct execution and more service validation and monitoring

    Work that is invisible to the customer can still be essential to delivering customer value. A lot of operations work is invisible to your organization’s customers but is required to deliver stability, security, efficiency, and more.

    Cloud work is not just applications that have been approved by IT. Consider how unsanctioned software purchased by the business will be integrated and managed.

    Start by designing operations around the main workflow you have for cloud services. If you mostly build or host in the cloud, build the diagram to maximize value for that workflow.

    Design principles will often change over time as the organization’s strategy evolves.

    Identify skills requirements and gaps as early as possible to avoid skills gaps later. Whether you plan to acquire skills via training or cross-training, hiring, contracting, or outsourcing, effectively building skills takes time.

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

    DIY Toolkit

    Guided Implementation

    Workshop

    Consulting

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Call #1: Scope requirements, objectives, and your specific challenges

    Calls #2&3: Assess cloud maturity and drivers for org. redesign

    Call #4: Review cloud objectives and obstacles

    Call #5: Evaluate new ways of working and identify cloud work

    Calls #6&7: Create your Cloud Operations diagram

    Call #8: Create your communication plan and build roadmap

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

    Workshop Overview

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

    Day 1

    Day 2

    Day 3

    Day 4

    Day 5

    Establish Context

    Design the Organization and Communicate Changes

    Next Steps and
    Wrap-Up (offsite)

    Activities

    1.1 Assess current cloud maturity and areas in need of improvement

    1.2 Identify the drivers for organizational redesign

    1.3 Review cloud objectives and obstacles

    1.4 Develop organization design principles

    2.1 Evaluate new ways of working

    2.2 Develop a workstream target statement

    2.3 Identify cloud work

    3.1 Design a future-state cloud operations diagram

    3.2 Create a current state cloud operations diagram

    3.3 Define success indicators

    4.1 Create a roadmap

    4.2 Create a communication plan

    5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days.

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

    Deliverables

    1. Cloud Maturity Assessment
    2. Cloud Challenges and Objectives
    1. Workstream target statement
    2. Cloud Operations Workflow Diagrams
    1. Future and current state cloud operations diagrams
    1. Roadmap
    2. Communication Plan

    Cloud Operations Organizing Framework.

    Phase 1:

    Establish context

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    1.1 Establish operating model design principals by identifying goals & challenges, workstreams, and cloud maturity

    1.2 Evaluate new ways of working

    1.3 Identify cloud work

    2.1 Draft an operating model

    2.2 Communicate proposed changes

    Phase Outcomes:

    Define current maturity and which workstreams are important to your organization.

    Understand new operating approaches and which apply to your workstream balance.

    Identify a new target state for IT operations.

    Before you get started

    Set yourself up for success with these three steps:

    • This methodology and the related slides are intended to be executed via intensive, collaborative working sessions using the rest of this slide deck.
    • Ensure the working sessions are successful by working through these steps before you start work on defining your cloud operations.

    1. Identify an operations design working group

    2. Review cloud vision and strategy

    3. Create a working folder

    This should be a group with insight into current cloud challenges, and with the authority to drive change. This group is the main audience for the activities in this blueprint.

    Review your established planning work and documentation.

    Create a repository to house your notes and any work in progress.

    Create a working folder

    15 minutes

    Create a central repository to support transparency and collaboration. It’s an obvious step, but one that’s often forgotten.

    1. Download all the documents associated with this blueprint to a shared repository accessible to all participants. Keep separate folders for templates and work-in-progress.
    2. Share the link to the repository with all attendees. Include links to the repository in any meeting invites you set up as working sessions for the project.
    3. Use the repository for all the work you do in the activities listed in this blueprint.

    Step 1.1: Identify goals and challenges, workstreams, and cloud maturity

    Participants

    • Operations Design Working Group, which may include:
      • Cloud owners
      • Platform/Applications Team leads
      • Infra & Ops managers

    Outcomes

    • Identify your current cloud maturity and areas in need of improvement.
    • Define the advantages you expect to realize from cloud services and any obstacles you have to overcome to meet those objectives.
    • Identify the reasons why redesigning cloud operations is necessary.
    • Develop organization design principles.

    “Start small: Begin with a couple services. Then, based on the feedback you receive from Operations and the business, modify your approach and keep increasing your footprint.” – Nenad Begovic

    Cloud changes operational activities, tactics, and goals

    As you adopt cloud services, the operations core mission remains . . .

    • IT operations are expected to deliver stable, efficient, and secure IT services.

    . . . but operational activities are evolving.

    • Core IT operational processes remain relevant, such as incident or capacity management, but opportunities to automate or outsource operations tasks will change how that work is done.
    • As you rely more on automation and outsourcing, the team may see less direct execution in its day-to-day work and more solution design and validation.
    • Outsourcing frees the team from operational toil but reduces the direct control over your end-to-end solution and increases your reliance on your vendor.
    • Pay-as-you-go pricing models present opportunities for streamlined delivery and cost rationalization but require you to rethink how you do cost and asset management.
    • It’s very easy for the business to buy a SaaS solution without consulting IT, which can lead to duplicated functionality, integration challenges, security threats, and more.

    Design a model for cloud operations that helps you achieve value from your cloud environment.

    “As operating models shift to the cloud, you still need the same people and processes. However, the shift is focused on a higher level of operations. If your people no longer focus on server uptime, then their success metrics will change. When security is no longer protected by the four walls of a datacenter, your threat profile changes.

    (Microsoft, “Understand Cloud Operating Models,” 2022)

    Operational responsibilities are shared with a range of stakeholders

    When using a vendor-operated public cloud, IT exists in a shared responsibility model with the cloud service provider, one that is further differentiated by the type of cloud service model in use: broadly, software-as a service (SaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), or infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS).

    Your IT operations organization may still reflect a structure where IT retains control over the entire infrastructure stack from facilities to application and defines their operational roles and processes accordingly.

    If the organization chooses a co-location facility, they outsource facility responsibility to a third-party provider, but much of the rest of the traditional IT operating model remains the same. The operations model that worked for an entirely premises-based environment is very different from one that is made up of, for instance, a portfolio of SaaS applications, where your control is limited to the top of the infrastructure stack at the application layer.

    Once an organization migrates workloads to the cloud, IT gives up an increasing amount of control to the vendor, and its traditional operational roles & responsibilities necessarily change.

    The image contains a screenshot that demonstrates what the cloud service models are.

    Align operations with customer value

    • Decisions about operational design should be made with customer value in mind. Remember that cloud adoption should be an enabler of adaptability in the face of changing business needs!
    • Think about how the operations team is indispensable to the value received by your customer. Think about the types of changes that can add to the value your customers receive.
    • A focus on value will help you establish and explain the rationale and urgency required to deliver on needed changes. If you can’t explain how the changes you propose will help deliver value, your proposal will come across as change for the sake of change.
    The image contains a screenshot of a diagram to demonstrate how operational design decisions need to be made with customer value in mind.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Work that is invisible to the customer can still be essential to delivering customer value. A lot of operations work is invisible to your organization’s customers but required to deliver stability, security, efficiency, and more.

    A new consumption model means a different mix of activities

    Evolving to cloud-optimal operations also means re-assessing and adapting your team’s approach to achieving cloud maturity, especially with respect to how automation and standardization can be leveraged to best achieve optimization in cloud.

    Traditional ITDesignExecuteValidateSupportMonitor
    CloudDesignExecuteValidateSupportMonitor

    Info-Tech Insight

    Cloud is a different way of consuming IT resources and applications and requires a different operational approach than traditional IT.

    In most cases, cloud operations involves less direct execution and more service validation and monitoring.

    The Service Models in cloud correspond to the way your organization delivers IT

    Service Model

    Example

    Function

    Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

    Salesforce.com

    Office 365

    Workday

    Consume

    Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)

    Azure Stack

    AWS SageMaker

    WordPress

    Build

    Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)

    Microsoft Azure

    Amazon EC2

    Google Cloud Platform

    Host

    Define how you plan to use cloud services

    Your cloud operations will include different tasks, teams, and workflows, depending on whether you consume cloud services, build them, or host on them.

    Function

    Business Need

    Service Model

    Example Tasks

    Consume

    “I need a commodity, off-the-shelf service that we can configure to our organization’s needs.

    Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

    Onboard and add users to a new SaaS offering. Vendor management of SaaS providers. Configure/integrate the SaaS offering to meet business needs.

    Build

    “I need to create significantly customized or net-new products and services.”

    Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) & Infrastructure as-a-Service (IaaS)

    Create custom applications. Build and maintain a container platform. Manage CI/CD pipelines and tools. Share infrastructure and applications patterns.

    Host

    “I need compute, storage, and networking components that reflect key cloud characteristics (on-demand self-service, metered usage, etc.).”

    Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)

    Stand up compute, networking, and storage resources to host a COTS application. Plan to increase storage capacity to support future demand.

    Align to the well-architected framework

    • Each cloud provider has defined a well-architected framework (WAF) that defines effective deployment and operations for their services.
    • WAFs embody a set of best practices and design principles to leverage the cloud in a more efficient, secure, and cost-effective manner.
    • While each vendor’s WAF has its own definitions and nuances, they collectively share a set of key principles, or “pillars,” that define the desired outcome of any cloud deployment.
    • These pillars address the key areas of risk when migrating to a public cloud platform.

    “In order to accelerate public cloud adoption, you need to focus on infrastructure-as-code and script everything you can. Unlike traditional operations, CloudOps focuses on creating scripts: a script for task A, a script for task B, etc.”

    – Nenad Begovic

    Pillars

    • Reliability
    • Security
    • Cost Optimization
    • Operational Excellence
    • Performance Efficiency

    General Best Practice Capability Areas

    • Host
    • Network
    • Data
    • Identity Management
    • Cost/Subscription Management

    Assess cloud maturity

    2 hours

    1. Download a copy of the Cloud Maturity Assessment Tool.
    2. As a group, work through:
      • The balance of your operations activities from a Host/Build/Consume perspective. What are you responsible for delivering now? How do you expect things will change in the future?
      • Which workstreams to focus on. Are there activity categories that are critical or non-critical or that don’t represent a significant portion of overall work? Conversely, are there workstreams that you feel are subject to particular risk when moving to cloud?
    3. Fill out the Maturity Quiz tab in the Cloud Maturity Assessment Tool for the workstreams you have chosen to focus on.
    InputOutput
    • Insight into and experience with your current cloud environment.
    • Maturity scoring for key workload streams as they align to the pillars of a general well-architected cloud framework
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip chart
    • Operating model template
    • Cloud platform SMEs

    Download theCloud Maturity Assessment Tool

    Identify the drivers for organizational redesign

    Whiteboard Activity

    An absolute must-have in any successful redesign is a shared understanding and commitment to changing the status quo.

    Without a clear and urgent call to action, the design changes will be seen as change for the sake of change and therefore entirely safe to ignore.

    Take up the following questions as a group:

    1. What kind of organizational change is needed?
    2. Why do we think the need for this change is urgent?
    3. What do we think will happen if no change occurs? What’s the worst-case scenario?

    Record your answers so you can reference and use them in the communication materials you’ll create in Phase 2.

    InputOutput
    • Cloud maturity assessment
    • Objectives and obstacles
    • Insight into existing challenges stemming from organizational design challenges
    • A list of reasons that form a compelling argument for organizational change
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip chart
    • Cloud Operations Design Working Group

    “We know, for example, that 70 percent of change programs fail to achieve their goals, largely due to employee resistance and lack of management support. We also know that when people are truly invested in change it is 30 percent more likely to stick.”

    – Ewenstein, Smith, Sologar

    McKinsey (2015)

    Consider the value of change from advantage and obstacle perspectives

    Consider what you intend to achieve and the obstacles to overcome to help identify the changes required to achieve your desired future state.

    Advantage Perspective

    Ideas for Change

    Obstacle Perspective

    What advantages do cloud services offer us as an organization?

    For example:

    • Enhance service features.
    • Enhance user experience.
    • Provide ubiquitous access.
    • Scalability to align with demand.
    • Automate or outsource routine tasks.

    What obstacles prevent us from realizing value in cloud services?

    For example:

    • Inadequate stability and reliability
    • Difficult to observe or monitor workloads
    • Challenges ensuring cloud security
    • Insufficient access to relevant skills

    Review risks and challenges

    Changes to Support Model

    • Have we identified who is on the cloud ops team?
    • Do we know where we are procuring skills (internal IT vs. third party) and for how long?
    • Do we know where we are in the migration process?

    Changes to security & governance

    • Have we identified how our attack surface changes in the cloud?
    • Do we have guardrails in place to govern self-provisioning users?
    • Are we managing cost overage risks?

    Replicating old habits

    • Have we made concrete plans to leverage cloud capabilities to standardize and automate outputs?
    • Are we simply reproducing existing systems in the cloud?

    Changes to Skills & Roles

    • Is our staff excited to learn new skills and technologies? Are our specialists prepared to acquire generalist skills to support cloud services?
    • Do we have training plans created and aligned to our technology roadmap?
    • Do we know what head count we need?

    Misaligned stakeholders

    • Have we identified our key stakeholders and teams? Have we considered what changes will impact them and how?
    • Are we meeting regularly and collaborating effectively with our peers, or are we siloed?

    Review cloud objectives and obstacles

    Whiteboard Activity

    1 hour

    1. With your working group, review why you’re using cloud in the first place. What advantages do you expect to realize by adopting cloud services? If we achieve what we’ve set out to do, what should that look and feel like to us, our organization, and our organization’s customers?
      • You should have identified cloud drivers and objectives in your cloud vision and strategy – leverage and validate what you already have!
    2. Next, identify obstacles that are preventing you from fully realizing the value of cloud services.
    3. Finally, brainstorm initial ideas for change. What could we start doing that could help us better use cloud in the future? Are there changes to how we need to organize ourselves to collaborate more effectively?
    InputOutput
    • Insight into and experience with your current cloud environment
    • Identified key business outcomes you expect to realize by adopting cloud services
    • Identified challenges and obstacles that are preventing you from realizing key outcomes
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip chart
    • Cloud operations design working group.

    Commonly cited advantages and obstacles

    Cloud Advantages/Objectives

    • Deliver faster on commitments to the business by removing infrastructure provisioning as a bottleneck.
    • Simplify capacity management on flexible cloud-based infrastructure.
    • Reduce capital spending on IT infrastructure.
    • Create sandboxes/innovation practices to experiment with and develop new functionality on cloud platforms.
    • Easily enable ubiquitous access to key corporate services.
    • Minimize the expense and effort required to maintain a data center – power & cooling, cabling, or physical hardware.
    • Leverage existing automation tools from cloud vendors to speed up integration and deployment.
    • Direct costs for specific services can improve transparency and cost allocation, allowing IT to directly “show-back” or charge-back cloud costs to specific cost centers.

    Obstacles

    Need to speed up provisioning of PaaS/IaaS/data resources to development and project teams.

    No time to develop and improve platform services and standards due to other responsibilities.

    We constantly run up unexpected cloud costs.

    Not enough time for continuous learning and development.

    The business will buy SaaS apps and only let us know after they’ve been purchased, leading to overlapping functionality; gaps in compliance, security, or data protection requirements; integration challenges; cost inefficiencies; and more.

    Role descriptions haven’t kept up with tech changes.

    Obvious opportunities to rationalize costs aren’t surfaced (e.g. failing to make use of existing volume licensing agreements).

    Skills needed to properly operate cloud solutions aren’t identified until breakdowns happen.

    Establish organization design principles

    You’ve established a need for organizational change. What will that change look like?

    Design principles are concise, direct statements that describe how you will design your organization to achieve key objectives and address key challenges.

    This is a critically important step for several reasons:

    • A set of clear, concise statements that describe what the design should achieve provides parameters that will help you create and evaluate different design options.
    • A focused, facilitated discussion to create those statements will help uncover conflicting assumptions between key stakeholders.
    • A comprehensive description of the various ways the organization should change makes it easier to identify misaligned or incompatible objectives.
    • A description of what your organization should look like in the future will help you identify where changes will be required .

    Examples of design principles:

    1. We will create a path to review and publish effective application/platform patterns.
    2. A single governing body should have oversight into all cloud costs.
    3. Development must happen only on approved cloud platforms.
    4. Application teams must address operational issues that derive from the applications they’ve created.
    5. Security practices should be embedded into approved cloud platforms and be automatically applied wherever possible.
    6. Focus is on improving developer experience on cloud platforms.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Design principles will often change as the organization’s strategy evolves.

    Align design principles to your objectives

    Developing design principles starts with your key objectives. What do we absolutely have to get right to deliver value through cloud services?

    Once you have your direction set, work through the points in the star model to establish how you will meet your objectives and deliver value. Each point in the star is an important element in your design – taken together, it paints a holistic picture of your future-state organization.

    The changes you choose to implement that affect capabilities, structure, processes, rewards, and people should be self-reinforcing. Each point in the star is connected to, and should support, the other points.

    “There is no one-size-fits-all organization design that all companies – regardless of their particular strategy needs – should subscribe to.”

    – Jay Galbraith, “The Star Model”

    The image contains a screenshot of a modified versio of Jay Galbraith's Star Model of Organizational Design.

    Establish design principles

    Track your findings in the table on the next slide.

    1. Review the cloud objectives and challenges from the previous activity. As a group, decide from that list: what are the key objectives you are trying to achieve? What are the things you absolutely must get right to get value from cloud services?
    2. Work through the following questions as a group:
      • What capabilities or technologies do we need to adopt or leverage differently?
      • How must our structure change? How will power shift in the new structure?
      • Will our new structure require changes to processes or information sharing?
      • How must we change how we motivate or reward employees?
      • What new skills or knowledge is required? How will we acquire those skills or knowledge?
    InputOutput
    • Cloud objectives and challenges
    • Different viewpoints into how your organization must change to realize objectives and overcome challenges
    • Organizational design principles for cloud operations
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip charts
    • Cloud operations design working group

    Design principles (example)

    What is our key objective?

    • Rapidly develop innovative cloud services aligned to business value.

    What capabilities or technologies do we need to adopt or leverage differently?

    • We will adopt more agile development techniques to make smaller changes, faster.
    • We will standardize and automate tasks that are routine and repeatable.

    How must our structure change? How will power shift in the new structure?

    • Embed development teams within business units to better align to business unit needs.
    • Create a focused cloud platform team to develop infrastructure services.

    Will our new structure require changes to processes or information sharing?

    • Development teams will take on responsibility for application support.
    • Platform teams will be deeply embedded with development teams on new projects to build new infrastructure functionality.

    How must we change how we motivate or reward employees?

    • We will highlight innovative work across the company.
    • We will encourage experimentation and risk-taking.

    What new skills or knowledge is required, and how will we acquire it?

    • We will focus on acquiring skills most closely aligned to our technology roadmap.
    • We will ensure budget is available for training employees who ask for it.
    • We will contract to find skills we cannot develop in-house and use engagements as an opportunity to learn internally.

    Step 1.2: Evaluate new ways of working

    Participants

    Cloud Operations Design Working Group

    Outcomes

    Shared understanding of the horizon of work possibilities:

    • Ways to work
    • Ways to govern and learn

    Consider the different approaches on the following slides, how they change operational work, and decide which approaches are the right fit for you.

    Evaluate new ways of working

    Cut through the hype

    • There are new approaches/ways of working that deal head on with the persistent breakdowns and headaches that come with operations management – work thrown over the wall from development, manual and repetitive work, siloed teams, and more.
    • Many of these approaches emphasize an operations-aware approach to solutions development and apply techniques traditionally associated with AppDev to Operations.
    • Cloud services present opportunities to outsource/automate away routine tasks.

    “DevOps is a set of practices, tools, and a cultural philosophy that automates and integrates the processes between software development and IT teams. It emphasizes team empowerment, cross-team communication and collaboration, and technology automation.”

    – Atlassian, “DevOps”

    “ITIL 4 brings ITIL up to date by…embracing new ways of working, such as Lean, Agile, and DevOps.”

    – ITIL Foundation: ITIL 4 Edition

    “Over time, left to their own devices, the SRE team should end up with very little operational load and almost entirely engage in development tasks, because the service basically runs and repairs itself.”

    – Ben Treynor Sloss, “Site Reliability Engineering”

    The more things change, the more they stay the same:

    • Core processes remain, but they may be done differently, and new technologies and services create new challenges.
    • Not all approaches are right for all organizations, and what’s right for you depends on how you use cloud services.
    • The best solution draws from these management ideas to build an approach to operations that is right for you.

    Leverage patterns to think about new ways of approaching operations work

    Patterns are strategies, approaches, and philosophies that can help you imagine new ways of working in your own organization.

    • The following slides provide an overview of organizing patterns that are applicable to cloud operations.
    • These are strategies that have been applied successfully elsewhere. Review what they can and cannot do and decide whether they are something you can use in your own organizational design.
    • Not every pattern will apply to every organization. For example, an organization which typically consumes SaaS applications will likely have very little need for SRE approaches and techniques.

    Ways to work

    • What work do we do? What skills do we need?
    • How do we create and support systems?

    Ways to govern and learn

    • How do we set and enforce rules?
    • How do we create and share knowledge?

    Explore Applicable Patterns

    Ways to work

    Ways to govern and learn

    1. DevOps

    2. Site Reliability Engineering

    3. Platform Engineering

    4. Cloud Centre of Excellence

    5. Cloud Community of Practice

    What is DevOps?

    “Look for obstacles constantly and treat them as opportunities to experiment and learn.” – Jez Humble, et al. Lean Enterprise: How High Performance Organizations Innovate at Scale

    What it is NOT

    What it IS

    Why Use It

    • Another word for automation or CI/CD tools.
    • A specific role.
    • A fix-all to address friction between existing siloed application and development teams.
    • An approach that will be successful without getting the basics right first.
    • The right fit for every IT organization or every team.

    An operational philosophy that seeks to:

    • Converge accountability for development and operations to align all teams to the goal of delivering customer value.
    • Improve the relationship between Development and Operations teams.
    • Increase the rate of deployment of valuable functionality into production.
    • “A cultural shift giving development teams more control over shipping code to production.” 1
    • You’re doing a lot of custom development.
    • There are opportunities for operations and development teams to work more closely.
    • You want to improve coding quality and throughput.
    • You want to shift the culture of the team to focus on customer value rather than exclusively uptime or new features.
    1 DevOps, SRE, and Platform Engineering

    What is Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)?

    “Hope is not a strategy” – Benjamin Treynor Sloss, Site Reliability Engineering: How Google Runs Production Systems

    What it is NOT

    What it IS

    Why Use It

    • Deeply focussed on a specific technical domain; SRE work “does not discriminate between infrastructure, software, networking, or platforms.” 2
    • A different name for a team of sysadmins.
    • A programming framework or a specific set of technologies.
    • A way to manage COTS software. SRE is less useful when you’re using applications out-of-the-box with minimal customization, integration, or development.
    • An application of skills and approaches from software engineering to improve system reliability.
    • A team responsible for “availability, latency, performance, efficiency, change management, monitoring, emergency response, and capacity planning.”3
    • A team responsible for building systems that become “a platform and workflow that encompasses monitoring, incident management, eliminating single points of failure, [and] failure mitigation.”1
    • You are building services and providing them at scale.
    • You want to improve reliability and reduce “the frequency and impact of failures that can impact the overall reliability of a cloud application.”1
    • You need to define related service metrics and SLOs.
    • To increase the use of automation in operations to avoid mistakes and minimize toil. 3
    1 SRE vs Platform Engineering
    2. Lakhani, Usman. “ISite Reliability Engineering: What Is It? Why Is It Important for Online Businesses?,” 2020.
    3. Sloss, “Introduction,” 2017

    What4 is Platform Engineering?

    “Platform engineers can act as a shield between developers and the infrastructure”

    – Carlos Schults, “What is Platform Engineering? The Concept Behind the Term”

    What it is NOT

    What it IS

    Why Use It

    • A team that manages every aspect of each application on a particular platform.
    • Focussed solely on platform reliability and availability.
    • A different name for a team of sysadmins.
    • Needed for all cloud service deployments. Platform engineers are most useful when you’re building extensively on a particular platform (e.g. AWS, Azure, or your internal cloud).
    • Platform engineers design, build, and manage the infrastructure that supports and hosts work done by developers.
    • The work done by platform engineering allows developers to avoid the repetitive work of setting everything up anew each time.
    • Requires engineers with a deep understanding of cloud services and other platform technologies (e.g. Kubernetes).
    • The big public cloud platforms are built for everyone. You need platform engineering when you need to extensively adapt or manage standard cloud services to support your own requirements.
    • Platform engineers are responsible for creating a secure, stable, maintainable environment that enables developers to do their work faster and without having to manage the underlying technology infrastructure.
    1 DevOps, SRE, and Platform Engineering

    What is a Cloud Center of Excellence?

    You need a strong core to grow a cloud culture.

    What it is NOT

    What it IS

    Why Use It

    • A project management office (PMO) for cloud services.
    • An easy, quick, or temporary fix to cloud governance problems. The CCoE requires champions who provide ongoing support to realize value over time.
    • An approach that’s only for enterprise-sized IT organizations.
    • A standing meeting – members of the CCoE may meet regularly to review progress on their mandate, but work and collaboration need to happen outside of meetings.
    • A cross-functional team responsible for oversight of all cloud initiatives, including architectural, technical, security, financial, contractual, and operational aspects of planned and deployed solutions.
    • The CCoE’s responsibilities typically include governance and continuous improvement; alignment between technical and accounting practices; documentation, training, best practices and standards development; and vendor management.
    • CCoE duties are often part of an existing role rather than a full-time responsibility.
    • You want to enable a core group of cloud experts to promote collaboration and accelerate adoption of cloud services, including members from infrastructure, applications, and security.
    • You need to manage cloud risks, set guidelines and policies, and govern costs across cloud environments.
    • There is an unmet need for training, knowledge sharing, and best practice development across the organization.

    What is a Cloud Community of Practice?

    “We have to stop optimizing for programmers and start optimizing for users”

    – Jeff Atwood

    What it is NOT

    What it IS

    Why Use It

    • A replacement for effective oversight and governance practices, though they may help users navigate and understand governance requirements.
    • A way to advertise cloud to potential new practitioners – engaged members of a CoP are typically already using a particular service.
    • Always exclusively composed of internal staff; in certain cases, a CoP could have external members as well.
    • A network of engaged users and experts who share knowledge and best practices for related technologies, crowdsource solutions to problems, and suggest improvements.
    • Often supported by communication and collaboration tools (e.g. chat channels, knowledge base, forums). May use a range of techniques (e.g. drop-ins, vendor-led training, lunch and learns).
    • Communities of practice may be deliberately created by the organization or develop organically.
    • Communities of practice are an effective way for practitioners to support one another and share ideas and solutions.
    • A CoP can help “shift left” work and help practitioners help themselves.
    • An engaged CoP can help IT to identify improvement opportunities and can also be a channel to communicate updates or changes to practitioners.

    Reinforce what we mean by patterns

    Patterns are . . .

    Ways of Working

    • Sets of habits, processes, and methodologies you want to adopt as part of your operational guidelines and commonly agreed upon definitions.

    Patterns are also . . .

    Ways to Govern and Learn

    • The formal and informal practices and groups that focus on enabling governance, risk management, and adoption.

    Review the implications of each pattern for organizational design

    Ways of Working

    DevOps

    Development teams take on operational work to support the services they create after they are launched to production.

    Some DevOps teams may be aligned around a particular function or product rather than a technology – there are individuals with skills on a number of technologies that are part of the same team.

    Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)

    In the beginning, you can start to adopt SRE practices within existing teams. As demand grows for SRE skills and services, you may decide to create focused SRE roles or teams.

    SRE teams may work across applications or be aligned to just infrastructure services or a particular application, or they may focus on tools that help developers manage reliability. SREs may also be embedded long-term with other teams or take on an internal consulting roles with multiple teams.1

    Platform Engineering

    Platform engineering will often, though not always, be the responsibility of a dedicated team. This team must work very closely with, and tuned into the needs of, its internal customers. There is a constant need to find ways to add value that aren’t already part and parcel of the platform – or its external roadmap.

    This team will take on responsibility for the platform, in terms of feature development, automation, availability and reliability, security, and more. They may also be internal consultants or advisors on the platform to developers.

    1. Gustavo Franco and Matt Brown, “How SRE teams are organized and how to get started.”

    Review the implications of each pattern for organizational design

    Ways to Govern and Learn

    Cloud Center of Excellence

    • A CCoE is a cross-functional group with technical experts from security, infrastructure, applications, and more.
    • There should, ideally, be someone focused on leading the CCoE full-time – often someone with an architecture background. Team members may work on the CCoE part-time alongside their main role, and dedicate more of their time to the CCoE as needed.
    • As the CCoE is a governance function, it will typically bridge and sit above teams working on cloud services, reporting to the CIO, CTO, or to an architecture function.

    Cloud Community of Practice

    • Participation in a community of practice is often above and beyond a core role – it’s a leadership activity taken on by technologically adept experts with a drive to help others.
    • Some organizations will create a role to foster community collaboration, run events, raise opportunities and issues identified by the community with product or technology teams, manage collaboration tools, and more.

    Evolve your organization to meet the needs of increased adoption

    Your operating model should evolve as you increase adoption of cloud services.

    Least Adoption Greatest Adoption

    Initial Adoption

    Early Centralization

    Scaling Up

    Full Steam Ahead

    • One or more small agile teams design, build, manage, and operate individual solutions on cloud resources. Solutions provide early value, and identify new opportunities using small, safe-to-fail experiments.
    • Governance is likely done locally to each team. Knowledge sharing, guidelines, and standards are likely informal.
    • Early experience with cloud services help the organization identify where to invest in cloud services to best meet business demands.
    • Accountability and governance over the platform are more clearly defined, possibly still separate from core IT governance processes. Best practices may be shared across teams through a Community of Practice.
    • Operations may be centralized, where valuable, to support monitoring and incident response.
    • Additional product/service-aligned development teams are created to keep up with demand.
    • There is a focused effort to consolidate best practices and platform knowledge, which can be supported through a culture of learning, effective automation, and appropriate tools.
    • The CCoE takes on additional roles in cloud governance, security, operations, and administration.
    • The organization has reached a relatively steady-state for cloud adoption. Innovation and new service development takes place on a stable platform.
    • A Cloud Center of Excellence is accountable for cloud governance across the organization.
    Adapted from Microsoft, “Get Started: Align your organization,” 2021

    Choose new ways of working that make sense for your team

    1 hour

    Consider if, and how, the approaches to management and governance you’ve just reviewed can offer value to your organization.

    1. List the organizing/managing ideas listed in the previous slides in the table below.
    2. Define why it’s for you. What benefits do you expect to realize? What challenges do you expect this will help you overcome? How does this align with your key benefits and drivers for moving to cloud?
    3. List risks or challenges to adoption. Why will it be hard to do? What could get in the way of adoption? Why might it not be a good fit?
    4. Identify next steps to adopt proposed practices.

    Why it’s for us (drivers)

    Risks or challenges to adoption

    Next steps to build/adopt it

    CCoE

    DevOps

    InputOutput
    • Related Info-Tech slides on new ways of working.
    • Opportunities and challenges in your own cloud deployment that may be addressed through new ways of working.
    • Identify new ways of working aligned to your goals.
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip chart
    • Cloud Operations Design Working Group

    Step 1.3: Identify cloud work

    Participants

    • Operations Design Working Group

    Outcomes

    • Identify core work required to deliver value in key cloud workstreams.

    “At first, for many people, the cloud seems vast. But what you actually do is carve out space.”

    –DevOps Manager

    Identify work

    Before you can identify roles and responsibilities, you have to confirm what work you do as an organization and how that work enables you to meet your goals.

    • A comprehensive approach that connects the work you do to your organizational goals will help you identify work that’s falling through the cracks.
    • Identifying work is an opportunity to look at the tasks you regularly execute and ensure they actually drive value.
    • Working through the exercise as a group will help you develop a common language around the work you do.
    • To make the evident obvious: you can’t decide who should be responsible for something if you don’t know about it in the first place.

    Defining work can be a lot of … work! We recommend you start by identifying work for the workstream you do most – Build, Consume, or Host – to focus your efforts. You can repeat the exercise as needed.

    Map work in workstream diagrams

    The image contains a screenshot of the map work in workstream diagrams.

    The five Well-Architected Framework pillars. These are principles/directions/guideposts that should inform all cloud work.

    The work being done to achieve the workstream target. These are roughly aligned with the three streams on the right.

    Workstream Target: A concise statement of the value you aim to achieve through this workstream. All work should help deliver value (directly or indirectly).

    Define the scope of the exercise

    Whiteboard Activity

    20 minutes

    Over the next few exercises, you’ll do a deep dive into the work you do in one specific workstream. In this exercise, we’ll decide on a workstream to focus on first.

    1. Are you primarily building, hosting on, or consuming cloud services? Start with the workstream where you’re doing the most work.
    2. If this isn’t sufficient to narrow your focus, look at the workstream that is most closely tied to mission critical applications, or that is most in need of review in terms of what work is done and who does it.
    3. You can narrow the scope further if there’s a very specific sub-area that differs from the rest (e.g. managing your O365 environment vs. managing all SaaS applications).
    InputOutput
    • Insight into and experience with your current cloud environment.
    • Your completed cloud maturity assessment.
    • Identify one workstream where you’ll define work first.
    MaterialsParticipants
    • None
    • Cloud Operations Design Working Group

    Create a workstream target statement

    Whiteboard Activity

    30 minutes

    In this activity, come up with a short sentence to describe what all this work you do is building toward. The target statement helps align participants on why work is being done and helps focus the activity on work that is most important to achieving the target statement.

    Start with this common workstream target statement:

    “Deliver valuable, secure, available, reliable, and efficient cloud services.”

    Now, review and adjust the target statement by working through the questions below:

    1. Return to the earlier exercises in Phase 1.1 where you reviewed your key objectives for cloud services. Does the target statement align with what you’d identified previously?
    2. Who is the customer for the work you do? Would they see the target differently than you’ve described it?
    3. Can you be more specific? Are there value drivers that are more specific to your industry, organization, business functions, or products that are key to the value your customers receive from this workstream?
    InputOutput
    • Previous exercises.
    • Workstream target statement.
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip chart
    • Cloud Operations Design Sketchbook
    • Cloud Operations Design Working Group

    Identify cloud work

    1-2 hours

    1. Use the workstream diagram template in the Cloud Operations Design Sketchbook, or draw the template out on a whiteboard and use sticky notes to identify work.
    2. Identify the workstream at the top of the slide. Update the template value statement on the right with the value statement you created in the previous exercise.
    3. Review one or more of the examples in the Cloud Operations Design Sketchbook to get a sense of the level of detail required for this exercise.

    Activity instructions continue on the next slide.

    Some notes to the facilitator:

    • Working directly from the Cloud Operations Design Sketchbook will save you time with transcription. Sharing the document with participants (e.g. via OneDrive) will allow you to collaborate and edit the document together in real-time.
    • Don’t worry about being too tidy for the moment, just get the information written down and you can clean up the diagram later.
    InputOutput
    • Previously identified design principles.
    • An understanding of the work done, and that needs to be done, in your cloud environment.
    • Identify the work that needs to be done to support your key cloud services workstream in the future.
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Cloud Operations Design Sketchbook
    • Whiteboard and sticky notes (optional)
    • Cloud Operations Design Working Group

    Identify cloud work (cont’d)

    4. Work together to identify work, documenting one work item per box. This should focus on future state, so record work whether it’s actually done today or not. Your space is limited on the sheet, so focus on work that is indispensable to delivering the value statement. Use the lists on the right as a reminder of key IT practice areas.

    5. As much as possible, align the work items to the appropriate row (Govern & Align, Design & Execute, or Validate, Support & Monitor). You can overlap boxes between rows if needed.

    Have you captured work related to:

    ITIL practices, such as:

    • Request management
    • Incident & problem management
    • Service catalog
    • Service level management
    • Configuration management

    Security-aligned practices, such as:

    • Identity & access management
    • Vulnerability management
    • Security incident management

    Financial practices, such as:

    • IT asset management
    • Cost management & budgeting
    • Vendor management
    • Portfolio management

    Data-aligned practices, such as:

    • Data integrations
    • Data governance

    Technology-specific tasks, such as:

    • Network, Server & Storage
    • Structured/unstructured DBs
    • Composite services
    • IDEs and compilers

    Other key practices:

    • Monitoring & observability
    • Continuous improvement
    • Testing & quality assurance
    • Training and knowledge management
    • Manage shadow IT

    Info-Tech Insight

    Cloud work is not just applications that have been approved by IT. Consider how unsanctioned software purchased by the business will be integrated and managed.

    Identify cloud work (cont’d)

    6. If you have decided to adopt any of the new ways of working outlined in Step 1.2 (e.g. DevOps, SRE, etc.) review the next slide for examples of the type of work that frequently needs to be done in each of those work models. Add any additional work items as needed.

    7. Consolidate boxes and clean up the diagram (e.g. remove duplicate work items, align boxes, clarify language).

    8. Do a final review. Is all the work in the diagram truly aligned with the value statement? Is the work identified aligned with the design principles from Step 1.1?

    If you used a whiteboard for this exercise, transcribe the output to a copy of the Cloud Operations Design Sketchbook, and repeat the exercise for other key workstreams. You will use this diagram in Phase 2.

    Examples of work

    Examples of work in the "Host" workstream:

    • Bulk patch servers
    • Add a server
    • Add capacity
    • Develop a new server template
    • Incident management

    Examples of work in the "Build" workstream:

    • Provision a production server
    • Provision a test environment
    • Test recovery procedures
    • Add capacity for a service
    • Publish a new pattern
    • Manage capacity/performance for a service
    • Identify wasted spend across services
    • Identify performance bottlenecks
    • Review and shut down idle/unneeded services

    Examples of work in the "Consume" workstream:

    • Conduct vendor risk assessments
    • Develop a standard evaluation matrix to compare solutions to existing or potential in-house offerings
    • Onboard a solution
    • Offboard a solution
    • Conduct a renewal
    • Review and negotiate a contract
    • Rationalize software titles

    Phase 2:

    Design the organization and communicate changes

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    1.1 Establish operating model design principals by identifying goals & challenges, workstreams, and cloud maturity

    1.2 Evaluate new ways of working

    1.3 Identify cloud work

    2.1 Draft an operating model

    2.2 Communicate proposed changes

    Phase Outcomes:

    Draft your cloud operations diagram, identify key messages and impacts to communicate to your stakeholders, and build out the Cloud Operations Organizing Framework communication deck.

    Step 2.1: Identify groups and responsibilities

    Participants

    • Operations Design Working Group

    Outcomes

    • Cloud Operations Diagram
    • Success Indicators
    • Roadmap

    “No-one ever solved a problem by restructuring.”

    – Anonymous

    Visualize your cloud operations

    Create a visual to help you abstract, analyze, and clarify your vision for the future state of your organization in order to align and instruct stakeholders.

    Create a visual, high-level view of your organization to help you answer questions such as:

    • “What work do we do? What are the roles and responsibilities of different teams?”
    • “How do we interact between work areas?”
    • “How has our organization changed already, and what additional changes may be needed?”
    • “How do we make technology decisions?”
    • “How do we provide services?”
    • “How might this change be received by people on the ground?”
    The image contains a screenshot of the Cloud Operations Diagram Example.

    Decide whether to centralize or decentralize

    Specialization & Focus: A group or work unit developing a focused concentration of skills, expertise, and activities aligned with an area of focus (such as the ones at right).

    Decentralization: Operational teams that report to a decentralized IT or business function, either directly or via a “dotted line” relationship.

    Decentralization and Specialization can:

    • Duplicate work.
    • Localize decision-making authority, which can increase agility and responsiveness.
    • Transfer authority and accountability to local and typically smaller teams, clarifying responsibilities and encouraging staff to take ownership for service delivery.
    • Enable the team to focus on complex and rapidly changing technologies or processes.
    • Create islands of expertise, which can get in the way of collaboration, innovation, and decision making across groups and work units and make oversight difficult.
    • Complicate the transfer of resources and knowledge between groups.

    Examples: Areas of Focus

    Business unit

    • Manufacturing
    • R&D
    • Sales & Marketing

    Region

    • Americas
    • EMEA
    • APAC

    Service

    • ERP
    • Commercial website

    Technology

    • On-premises servers/storage
    • Network
    • Cloud services

    Operational process focus

    • Capacity management & planning
    • Incident management
    • Problem management

    “The concept of organization design is simple in theory but highly complex in practice. Like any strategic decision, it involves making multiple trade-offs before choosing what is best suited to a business context.”

    – Nitin Razdan & Arvind Pandit

    Identify key work areas

    Balance specialization with effective collaboration

    • Much is said about breaking down organizational silos. But at some level, silos are inevitable – any company with more than one employee will have to divide work up somehow.
    • Dividing up work is a delicate balancing act – ensuring individuals and groups are able to do work that is related, meaningful, and that allows autonomy while allowing for effective collaboration between groups that need to work together to achieve business goals.

    Why “work areas”?

    Why don’t we just use teams, groups, squads, or departments, or some other more common term for groups of people working together?

    • We are not yet at the point of deciding who in the organization should be aligned to which areas in the design.
    • Describing work areas as teams can shift the conversation to the organizational chart – to who does the work, rather than what needs to be done.

    That’s not the goal of this exercise. If the conversation gets stuck on what you do today, it can get in the way of thinking about what you need to do in the future.

    Create a future-state cloud operations diagram

    1-3 hours

    1. Review the example cloud operations diagram example in your copy of the Cloud Operations Design Sketchbook.
    2. Identify key work areas (e.g. applications, infrastructure, platform engineering, DevOps, security). Add the name of each work area in one of the larger boxes.
      • Go back to your design principles. Did you define any work areas in your design principles that should be represented here?
      • If you have several groups or teams with similar responsibilities, consider lumping them together in one box (e.g. applications teams, 3x DevOps teams).
    3. Copy the tasks from any workstream diagrams you’ve created to the same slide as the organization design diagram. Keep the workstream diagram intact, as you’ll want to be able to refer back to it later.

    Activity instructions continue on the next slide.

    InputOutput
    • Insight into and experience with your current cloud environment.
    • Cloud Operations Diagram
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip charts
    • Cloud Operations
    • Cloud Operations Design Working Group

    Cloud operations diagram (cont’d)

    1-3 hours

    4. As a group, move the work boxes from the workstream diagram into the appropriate work area.

    • Don’t worry about being too tidy for the moment – clean up the diagram when the exercise is done.
    • Make adjustments to the wording of the work boxes if needed.

    5. Use the space between work areas to describe how work areas must interact to achieve organizational goals. For example:

    • What information should be shared between groups?
    • What information sharing channels may be used?
    • What processes will be handed-off between groups and how?
    • How often will teams interact?
    • Will interactions be formal or informal?

    Create a current-state operations diagram

    1 -2 hours

    This exercise can be done by one person, then reviewed with the working group at a later time.

    This current state diagram helps clarify the changes that may need to happen to get to your future state.

    1. Color code the work boxes for each work area. For example, if you have a “DevOps” work area, make all the work boxes assigned to “DevOps” the same color.
    2. On a separate slide, sketch your existing organization indicating your current teams.
    3. Copy the tasks from the future-state diagram to this current-state chart. Align the tasks to the appropriate groups.
    4. Review the chart with the working group. Discuss: are there teams that are doing work today that will also be done by different teams? Are there groups that may merge into one team? What types of changes may be required?
    InputOutput
    • Future-state cloud operations diagram
    • Current-state cloud operations diagram
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Cloud Operations Design Sketchbook
    • Projector/screen/virtual meeting
    • Project lead
    • Cloud Operations Design Working Group

    Check for biases to make better choices

    Use the strategies below to spot and address flaws in your team’s thinking about your future-state design.

    Biases

    What’s the risk?

    Mitigation strategies

    Is the team making mistakes due to self-interest, love of a single idea, or groupthink?

    Important information may be ignored or left unspoken.

    Rigorously check for the other biases, below. Tactfully seek dissenting opinions.

    Do recommendations use unreasonable analogies to other successes or failures?

    Opportunities or challenges in the current situation may not be sufficiently understood.

    Ask for other examples, and check whether the analogies are still valid.

    Is the team blinkered by the weight of past decisions?

    Doubling-down on bad decisions (sunk costs) or ignoring new opportunities.

    Ask yourself what you'd do if you were new to the position or organization.

    Does the data support the recommendations?

    Data used to make the case isn't a good fit for the challenge, is based on faulty assumptions, or is incomplete.

    If you had a year to make the decision, what data would you want? How much can you get?

    Are there realistic alternative recommendations?

    Alternatives don't exist or are "strawman" options.

    Ask for additional options.

    Is the recommendation too risk averse or cautious?

    Recommendations that may be too risky are ignored, leading to missed opportunities.

    Review options to accept, transfer, distribute, or mitigate the risk of the decision.

    Framework above adapted from Kahneman, Lovallo, and Sibony (2011)

    Be specific with metrics

    Thinking of ways you could measure success can help uncover what success actually means to you.

    Work collectively to generate success indicators for each key cloud initiative. Success indicators are metrics, with targets, aligned to goals, and if you are able to measure them accurately, they should help you report your progress toward your objectives.

    For example, if your driver is “faster access to resources” you might consider indicators like developer satisfaction, project completion time, average time to provision, etc.

    There are several reasons you may not publicize these metrics. They may be difficult to calculate or misconstrued as targets, warping behavior in unexpected ways. But managed properly, they have value in measuring operational success!

    Examples: Operations redesign project metrics

    Key stakeholder satisfaction scores

    IT staff engagement scores

    Support Delivery of New Functionality

    Double number of accepted releases per cycle

    80% of key cloud initiatives completed on time, on budget, and in scope

    Improve Operational Effectiveness

    <1% of servers have more than two major versions out of date

    No more than one capacity-related incident per Q

    Define success indicators

    Whiteboard Activity

    45 minutes

    1. On a whiteboard, draw a table with key objectives for the design across the top.
      • What cloud objectives should the redesign help you achieve? Refer back to the design principles from Phase 1.
      • Think about the redesign itself. How will you measure whether the project itself is proceeding according to plan? Consider metrics such as employee engagement scores and satisfaction scores from key stakeholders.
    2. Consider whether the metrics are feasible to track. Record your decisions in your copy of the Cloud Operations Organizing Framework deck.
    InputOutput
    • Key design goals
    • Success indicators for your design
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard
    • Markers
    • Cloud Operations Design Working Group

    Populate a roadmap

    Tool Activity

    45 minutes

    1. In the Roadmap Tool, populate the data entry tab with the initiatives you will take to support changes toward the new cloud operations organizing framework.
    2. Input each of the tasks in the data entry tab and provide a description and rationale behind the task (as needed).
    3. Assign an effort, priority, and cost level to each task (high, medium, low).
    4. Assign an owner to each task – someone who can take points and shepherd the task to completion.
    5. Identify the timeline for each task based on the priority, effort, and cost (short, medium, and long term).
    6. Highlight risk for each task if it will be deferred.
    7. Track the progress of each task with the status column.
    InputOutput
    • Cloud Operations Organizing Framework
    • Roadmap/ implementation plan
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Roadmap Tool
    • Cloud Operations Design Working Group

    Download the Roadmap Tool

    Step 2.2: Communicate changes

    Participants

    • Operations Design Working Group

    Outcomes

    • Build a communication plan for key stakeholders
    • Complete the communication deck Cloud Operations Organizing Framework
    • Build a roadmap

    “Words, words, words.”

    – Shakespeare

    Communicate changes

    Which stakeholders will be affected by the changes?

    Decision makers: Who do you ultimately need to convince to proceed with any changes you’ve outlined?

    Peers: How will managers of other areas be affected by the changes you’re proposing? If you are you suggesting changes to the way that they, or their teams, do their work, you will have to present a compelling case that there’s value in it for them.

    Staff: Are you dictating changes or looking for feedback on the path forward?

    The image contains a screenshot of the Five Elements of Change that is displayed in a cycle. The five elements are: What is the change? Why are we doing it? How are we going to go about it? How long will it take us? What is the role of each team and individual.

    Source: The Qualities of Leadership: Leading Change

    Follow these guidelines for good communication

    Be relevant

    • Talk about what matters to each stakeholder group.
    • Talk about what matters to the initiative.
    • IT thinks in processes but stakeholders only care about results: talk in terms of results.
    • IT wants to be “understood” but this does not matter to stakeholders; think “what’s in it for them?”
    • Communicate truthfully; do not make false promises or hide bad news.
    • If you expect objections, create a plan to handle them.

    Be clear

    • Lead with the point you’re trying to make.
    • Don’t use jargon.
    • Avoid idiomatic language and clichés.
    • Have a third party review draft communications and ask them to tell you the key messages in their own words. If they’re missing the main points, there’s a good chance the draft isn’t clear.

    Be consistent

    • Ensure the core message is consistent regardless of audience, channel, or medium.
    • Changing the core message from one group to another can be interpreted as incompetence or an attempt at deception. This will damage your credibility and can lead to a loss of trust.

    Be concise

    • Get to the point.
    • Minimize word count wherever possible.

    “We tend to use a lot of jargon in our discussions, and that is a sure fire way to turn people away. We realized the message wasn’t getting out because the audience wasn’t speaking the same language. You have to take it down to the next level and help them understand where the needs are.”

    – Jeremy Clement, Director of Finance, College of Charleston

    Create a communication plan

    1 hour

    Fill out the table below.

    Stakeholder group: Identify key stakeholders who may be impacted by changes to the operations team. This might include IT leadership, management, and staff.

    Benefits: What’s in it for them?

    Impact: What are we asking in return?

    How: What mechanisms or channels will you use to communicate?

    When: When (and how often) will you get the message out?

    Benefits

    Impact

    How

    When

    IT Mgrs.

    • Improve agility, stability
    • Deliver faster against business goals
    • Respond to identified needs
    • Improve confidence in IT
    • Must support the process
    • Change and engagement issues during restructuring may affect staff engagement and productivity
    • Training budget required
    • Present at leadership meeting
    • Kick-off email
    • Sept. leadership meeting
    • Weekly touchpoints
    • Informally throughout project

    Ops Staff

    • Clearer direction and clear priorities (Operations mission statement and RACI)
    • Higher-value work – address problems, contribute to plans
    • New skills and training
    • More personal accountability
    • Push toward process consistency
    • Must make time and plan for training during work hours
    • Present at operations team’s offsite meeting
    • AMA channel on Slack
    • 1:1 meetings
    • Add RACI, org. sketch to shared folder
    • Operations offsite
    • Sept. all-hands meeting
    • Ongoing coaching and informal conversations
    InputOutput
    • Discussion
    • Communication Plan
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Whiteboard/Flip Chart
    • Cloud Operations Design Working Group

    Download the Communication Plan Template

    Support the transition with a plan to acquire skills

    Identify the preferred way to acquire needed skill sets: contracting, outsourcing, training, or hiring.

    • Some cloud projects will change the demand for some skills in the organization, and not all skills should be cultivated internally. Uncertainty about future skills and jobs will cause anxiety for your team and can lead to employee exit.
    • Use Info-Tech’s research to conduct a demand analysis to identify which new and critical skills should be acquired via training or hiring (rather than outsourcing or contracting).
    • Create a roadmap to clarify when training needs to be completed, a budget plan that accounts for training costs, and role descriptions that paint a picture of future work.
    • Within the confines of a collective agreement, managers may be required to retrain staff into new roles before those staff are required to do work in their new jobs. Failing to plan can be more consequential.
    • Remember that in cloud, a wealth of automation opportunities present a great option for offloading tasks as well!

    Info-Tech Insight

    Identify skills requirements and gaps as early as possible to avoid skills gaps later. Whether you plan to acquire skills via training or cross-training, hiring, contracting, or outsourcing, effectively building skills takes time. Use Info-Tech’s methodology to address skills gaps in a prioritized and rational way.

    Involve HR for implementation

    Your HR team should help you work through:

    • Which staff and managers will move to which roles, and any headcount changes.
    • Job descriptions, performance metrics, career paths, compensation, and succession planning.
    • Organizational change management and implementation plans.

    When do you need to involve HR?

    Role changes will result in job description changes.

    • New or changed job descriptions need to be evaluated for impact on pay, title, exempt status, career pathing, and more.
    • This is especially true in more traditional or unionized organizations that require specific and granular job descriptions of responsibilities.
    • Changed jobs will likely require union review and approval.

    You anticipate changes to the reporting structure.

    • Work with HR to develop a transition plan including communications, training to new managers, and support to new teams.

    You anticipate redundancies.

    • Your HR department can prepare you for difficult discussions, help you navigate labor laws, and support the offboarding process.

    You anticipate new positions.

    • Recruitment and hiring takes time. Give HR advance notice to support recruitment, hiring, and onboarding to ensure you hire the right people, with the right skills, at the right time.

    Training and development budget is required.

    • If training is a critical part of the onboarding process, don’t just assume funding is available. Work with HR to build your case.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Define Your Cloud Vision

    Define your cloud vision before it defines you.

    Document Your Cloud Strategy

    Drive consensus by outlining how your organization will use the cloud.

    Map Technical Skills for a Changing Infrastructure & Operations Organization

    Be practical and proactive – identify needed technical skills for your future-state environment and the most efficient way to acquire them.

    Bibliography

    “2021 GitLab DevSecOps Survey.” Gitlab, 2021.
    “2022 State of the Cloud Report.” Flexera, 2022.
    “DevOps.” Atlassian, ND. Web. 21 July 2022.
    Atwood, Jeff. “The 2030 Self-Driving Car Bet.” Coding Horror, 4 Mar 2022. Web. 5 Aug 2022.
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    Research Contributors and Experts

    Nenad Begovic

    Executive Director, Head of IT Operations

    MUFG Investor Services

    Desmond Durham

    Manager, ICT Planning & Infrastructure

    Trinidad & Tobago Unit Trust Corporation

    Virginia Roberts

    Director, Enterprise IT

    Denver Water

    Denis Sharp

    IT/LEAN Consultant

    Three anonymous contributors

    Into the Metaverse

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}95|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: N/A
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    • Parent Category Name: Innovation
    • Parent Category Link: /innovation
    • Define the metaverse.
    • Understand where Meta and Microsoft are going and what their metaverse looks like today.
    • Learn about other solution providers implementing the enterprise metaverse.
    • Identify risks in deploying metaverse solutions and how to mitigate them.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • A metaverse experience must combine the three Ps: user presence is represented, the world is persistent, and data is portable.

    Impact and Result

    • Understand how Meta and Microsoft define the Metaverse and the coming challenges that enterprises will need to solve to harness this new digital capability.

    Into the Metaverse Research & Tools

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

    1. Into the Metaverse – A deck that examines how IT can prepare for the new digital world

    Push past the hype and understand what the metaverse really means for IT.

    • Into the Metaverse Storyboard

    Infographic

    Further reading

    Into the Metaverse

    How IT can prepare for the new digital world.

    Analyst Perspective

    The metaverse is still a vision of the future.

    Photo of Brian Jackson, Research Director, CIO, Info-Tech Research Group.

    On October 28, 2021, Mark Zuckerberg got up on stage and announced Facebook's rebranding to Meta and its intent to build out a new business line around the metaverse concept. Just a few days later, Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella put forward his own idea of the metaverse at Microsoft Ignite. Seeing two of Silicon Valley's most influential companies pitch a vision of avatar-driven virtual reality collaboration sparked our collective curiosity. At the heart of it lies the question, "What is the metaverse, anyway?“

    If you strip back the narrative of the companies selling you the solutions, the metaverse can be viewed as technological convergence. Years of development on mixed reality, AI, immersive digital environments, and real-time communication are culminating in a totally new user experience. The metaverse makes the digital as real as the physical. At least, that's the vision.

    It will be years yet before the metaverse visions pitched to us from Silicon Valley stages are realized. In the meantime, understanding the individual technologies contributing to that vision can help CIOs realize business value today. Join me as we delve into the metaverse.

    Brian Jackson
    Research Director, CIO
    Info-Tech Research Group

    From pop culture to Silicon Valley

    Sci-fi visionaries are directly involved in creating the metaverse concept

    The term “metaverse” was coined by author Neal Stephenson in the 1992 novel “Snow Crash.” In the novel, main character Hiro Protagonist interacts with others in a digitally defined space. Twenty-five years after its release, the cult classic is influential among Silicon Valley's elite. Stephenson has played some key roles in Silicon Valley firms. He became the first employee at Blue Origin, the space venture founded by Jeff Bezos, in 2006, and later became chief futurist at augmented reality firm Magic Leap in 2014. Stephenson also popularized the Hindu concept "avatar" in his writing, paving the way for people to embody digitally rendered models to participate in the metaverse (Vanity Fair, 2017).

    Even earlier concepts of the metaverse were examined in the 1980s, with William Gibson’s “Neuromancer” exploring the same idea as cyberspace. Gibson's novel was influenced by his time in Seattle, where friend and Microsoft executive Eileen Gunn took him to hacker bars where he'd eavesdrop on "the poetics of the technological subculture" (Medium, 2022). Other visions of a virtual reality mecca were brought to life in the movies, including the 1982 Disney release “Tron,” the 1999 flick “The Matrix,” and 2018’s “Ready Player One.”

    There's a common set of traits among these sci-fi narratives that help us understand what Silicon Valley tech firms are now set to commercialize: users interact with one another in a digitally rendered virtual world, with a sense of presence provided through the use of a head-mounted display.

    Cover of the book Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

    Image courtesy nealstephenson.com

    Meta’s view of the metaverse

    CEO Mark Zuckerberg rebranded Facebook to make his intent clear

    Mark Zuckerberg is all in on the metaverse, announcing October 28, 2021, that Facebook would be rebranded to Meta. The new brand took effect on December 1, and Facebook began trading under the new stock ticker MVRS on certain exchanges. On February 15, 2022, Zuckerberg announced at a company meeting that his employees will be known as Metamates. The company's new values are to live in the future, build awesome things, and focus on long-term impact. Its motto is simply "Meta, Metamates, me" (“Out With the Facebookers. In With the Metamates,” The New York Times, 2022).

    Meta's Reality Labs division will be responsible for developing its metaverse product, using Meta Quest, its virtual reality head-mounted displays. Meta's early metaverse environment, Horizon Worlds, rolled out to Quest users in the US and Canada in early December 2021. This drove a growth in its monthly user base by ten times, to 300,000 people. The product includes Horizon Venues, tailored to attending live events in VR, but not Horizon Workrooms, a VR conferencing experience that remains invite-only. Horizon Worlds provides users tools to construct their own 3D digital environments and had been used to create 10,000 separate worlds by mid-February 2022 (“Meta’s Social VR Platform Horizon Hits 300,000 Users,“ The Verge, 2022).

    In the future, Meta plans to amplify the building tools in its metaverse platform with generative AI. For example, users can give speech commands to create scenes and objects in VR. Project CAIRaoke brings a voice assistant to an augmented reality headset that can help users complete tasks like cooking a stew. Zuckerberg also announced Meta is working on a universal speech translator across all languages (Reuters, 2022).

    Investment in the metaverse:
    $10 billion in 2021

    Key People:
    CEO Mark Zuckerberg
    CTO Andrew Bosworth
    Chief Product Officer Chris Cox

    (Source: “Meta Spent $10 Billion on the Metaverse in 2021, Dragging Down Profit,” The New York Times, 2022)

    Microsoft’s view of the metaverse

    CEO Satya Nadella showcased a mixed reality metaverse at Microsoft Ignite

    In March 2021 Microsoft announced Mesh, an application that allows organizations to build out a metaverse environment. Mesh is being integrated into other Microsoft hardware and software, including its head-mounted display, the HoloLens, a mixed reality device. The Mesh for HoloLens experience allows users to collaborate around digital content projected into the real world. In November, Microsoft announced a Mesh integration with Microsoft Teams. This integration brings users into an immersive experience in a fully virtual world. This VR environment makes use of AltspaceVR, a VR application Microsoft first released in May 2015 (Microsoft Innovation Stories, 2021).

    Last Fall, Microsoft also announced it is rebranding its Dynamics 365 Connected Store solution to Dynamics 365 Connected Spaces, signaling its expansion from retail to all spaces. The solution uses cognitive vision to create a digital twin of an organization’s physical space and generate analytics about people’s behavior (Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog, 2021).

    In the future, Microsoft wants to make "holoportation" a part of its metaverse experience. Under development at Microsoft Research, the technology captures people and things in photorealistic 3D to be projected into mixed reality environments (Microsoft Research, 2022). It also has plans to offer developers AI-powered tools for avatars, session management, spatial rendering, and synchronization across multiple users. Open standards will allow Mesh to be accessed across a range of devices, from AR and VR headsets, smartphones, tablets, and PCs.

    Microsoft has been developing multi-user experiences in immersive 3D environments though its video game division for more than two decades. Its capabilities here will help advance its efforts to create metaverse environments for the enterprise.

    Investment in the metaverse:
    In January 2022, Microsoft agreed to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. In addition to acquiring several major gaming studios for its own gaming platforms, Microsoft said the acquisition will play a key role in the development of its metaverse.

    Key People:
    CEO Satya Nadella
    CEO of Microsoft Gaming Phil Spencer
    Microsoft Technical Research Fellow Alex Kipman

    Current state of metaverse applications from Meta and Microsoft

    Meta

    • Horizon Worlds (formerly Facebook Horizon). Requires an Oculus Rift S or Quest 2 headset to engage in an immersive 3D world complete with no-code building tools for users to construct their own environments. Users can either interact in the space designed by Meta or travel to other user-designed worlds through the plaza.
    • Horizon Workrooms (beta, invite only). An offshoot of Horizon Worlds but more tailored for business collaboration. Users can bring in their physical desks and keyboards and connect to PC screens from within the virtual setting. Integrates with Facebook’s Workplace solution.

    Microsoft

    • Dynamics 365 Connected Spaces (preview). Cognitive vision combined with surveillance cameras provide analytics on people's movement through a facility.
    • Mesh for Microsoft Teams (not released). Collaborate with your colleagues in a virtual reality space using personalized avatars. Use new 2D and 3D meeting experiences.
    • Mesh App for HoloLens (preview). Interact with colleagues virtually in a persistent digital environment that is overlaid on top of the real world.
    • AltspaceVR. A VR space accessible via headset or desktop computer that's been available since 2015. Interact through use of an avatar to participate in daily events

    Current providers of an “enterprise metaverse”

    Other providers designing mixed reality or digital twin tools may not have used the “metaverse” label but provide the same capabilities via platforms

    Logo for NVIDIA Omniverse. Logo for TeamViewer.
    NVIDIA Omniverse
    “The metaverse for engineers,” Omniverse is a developer toolset to allow organizations to build out their own unique metaverse visions.
    • Omniverse Nucleus is the platform database that allows clients to publish digital assets or subscribe to receive changes to them in real-time.
    • Omniverse Connectors are used to connect to Nucleus and publish or subscribe to individual assets and entire worlds.
    • NVIDIA’s core physics engine provides a scalable and physically accurate world simulation.
    TeamViewer’s Remote as a Service Platform
    Initially focusing on providing workers remote connectivity to work desktops, devices, and robotics, TeamViewer offers a range of software as a service products. Recent acquisitions to this platform see it connecting enterprise workflows to frontline workers using mixed reality headsets and adding more 3D visualization development tools to create digital twins. Clients include Coca-Cola and BMW.

    “The metaverse matters in the future. TeamViewer is already making the metaverse tangible in terms of the value that it brings.” (Dr. Hendrik Witt, Chief Product Officer, TeamViewer)

    The metaverse is a technological convergence

    The metaverse is a platform combining multiple technologies to enable social and economic activity in a digital world that is connected to the physical world.

    A Venn diagram with four circles intersecting and one circle unconnected on the side, 'Blockchain, Emerging'. The four circles, clock-wise from top, are 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Real-Time Communication', 'Immersive Digital Space', and 'Mixed Reality'. The two-circle crossover sections, clock-wise from top-right are AI + RTC: 'Smart Agent-Facilitated Communication', RTC + IDS: 'Avatar-Based Social Interaction', IDS + MR: 'Digital Immersive UX', and MR + AI: 'Perception AI'. There are only two three-circle crossover sections labelled, AI + RTC + MR: 'Generative Sensory Environments' and RTC + IDS + MR: 'Presence'. The main cross-section is 'METAVERSE'.

    Info-Tech Insight

    A metaverse experience must combine the three P’s: user presence is represented, the world is persistent, and data is portable.

    Mixed reality provides the user experience (UX) for the metaverse

    Both virtual and augmented reality will be part of the picture

    Mixed reality encompasses both virtual reality and augmented reality. Both involve allowing users to immerse themselves in digital content using a head-mounted device or with a smartphone for a less immersive effect. Virtual reality is a completely digital world that is constructed as separate from the physical world. VR headsets take up a user's entire field of vision and must also have a mechanism to allow the user to interact in their virtual environment. Augmented reality is a digital overlay mapped on top of the real world. These headsets are transparent, allowing the user to clearly see their real environment, and projects digital content on top of it. These headsets must have a way to map the surrounding environment in 3D in order to project digital content in the right place and at the right scale.

    Meta’s Plans

    Meta acquired virtual reality developer Oculus VR Inc. and its set of head-mounted displays in 2014. It continues to develop new hardware under the Oculus brand, most recently releasing the Oculus Quest 2. Oculus Quest hardware is required to access Meta's early metaverse platform, Horizon Worlds.

    Microsoft’s Plans

    Microsoft's HoloLens hardware is a mixed reality headset. Its visor that can project digital content into the main portion of the user's field of vision and speakers capable of spatial audio. The HoloLens has been deployed at enterprises around the world, particularly in scenarios where workers typically have their hands busy. For example, it can be used to view digital schematics of a machine while a worker is performing maintenance or to allow a remote expert to "see through the eyes" of a worker.

    Microsoft's Mesh metaverse platform, which allows for remote collaboration around digital content, was demonstrated on a HoloLens at Microsoft Ignite in November 2021. Mesh is also being integrated into AltspaceVR, an application that allows companies to hold meetings in VR with “enterprise-grade security features including secure sign-ins, session management and privacy compliance" (Microsoft Innovation Stories, 2021).

    Immersive digital environments provide context in the metaverse

    The interactive environment will be a mix of digital and physical worlds

    If you've played a video game in the past decade, you've experienced an immersive 3D environment, perhaps even in a multiplayer environment with many other users at the same time. The video game industry grew quickly during the pandemic, with users spending more time and money on video games. Massive multiplayer online games like Fortnite provide more than a gaming environment. Users socialize with their friends and attend concerts featuring famous performers. They also spend money on different appearances or gestures to express themselves in the environment. When they are not playing the game, they are often watching other players stream their experience in the game. In many ways, the consumer metaverse already exists on platforms like Fortnite. At the same time, gaming developers are improving the engines for these experiences and getting closer to approximating the real world both visually and in terms of physics.

    In the enterprise space, immersive 3D environments are also becoming more popular. Manufacturing firms are building digital twins to represent entire factories, modeling their real physical environments in digital space. For example, BMW’s “factory of the future” uses NVIDIA Omniverse to create a digital twin of its assembly system, simulated down to the detail of digital workers. BMW uses this simulation to plan reconfiguration of its factory to accommodate new car models and to train robots with synthetic data (“NVIDIA Omniverse,” NVIDIA, 2021).

    Meta’s Plans

    Horizon Workrooms is Meta's business-focused application of Horizon Worlds. It facilitates a VR workspace where colleagues can interact with others’ avatars, access their computer, use videoconferencing, and sketch out ideas on a whiteboard. With the Oculus Quest 2 headset, passthrough mode allows users to add their physical desk to the virtual environment (Oculus, 2022).

    Microsoft’s Plans

    AltspaceVR is Microsoft's early metaverse environment and it can be accessed with Oculus, HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality, or in desktop mode. Separately, Microsoft Studios has been developing digital 3D environments for its Xbox video game platform for yeas. In January 2022, Microsoft acquired games studio Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, saying the games studio would play a key role in the development of the metaverse.

    Real-time communications allow for synchronous collaboration

    Project your voice to a room full of avatars for a presentation or whisper in someone’s ear

    If the metaverse is going to be a good place to collaborate, then communication must feel as natural as it does in the real world. At the same time, it will need to have a few more controls at the users’ disposal so they can focus in on the conversation they choose. Audio will be a major part of the communication experience, augmented by expressive avatars and text.

    Mixed reality headsets come with integrated microphones and speakers to enable voice communications. Spatial audio will also be an important component of voice exchange in the metaverse. When you are in a videoconference conversation with 50 participants, every one of those people will sound as though they are sitting right next to you. In the metaverse, each person will sound louder or quieter based on how distant their avatar is from you. This will allow large groups of people to get together in one digital space and have multiple conversations happening simultaneously. In some situations, there will also be a need for groups to form a “party” as they navigate the metaverse, meaning they would stay linked through a live audio connection even if their avatars were not in the same digital space. Augmented reality headsets also allow remote users to “see through the eyes” of the person wearing the headset through a front-facing camera. This is useful for hands-on tasks where expert guidance is required.

    People will also need to communicate with people not in the metaverse. More conventional videoconference windows or chat boxes will be imported into these environments as 2D panels, allowing users to integrate them into the context of their digital space.

    Meta’s Plans

    Facebook Messenger is a text chat and video chat application that is already integrated into Facebook’s platform. Facebook also owns WhatsApp, a messaging platform that offers group chat and encrypted messaging.

    Microsoft’s Plans

    Microsoft Teams is Microsoft’s application that combines presence-based text chat and videoconferencing between individuals and groups. Dynamics 365 Remote Assist is its augmented reality application designed for HoloLens wearers or mobile device users to share their real-time view with experts.

    Generative AI will fill the metaverse with content at the command of the user

    No-code and low-code creation tools will be taken to the next level in the metaverse

    Metaverse platforms provide users with no-code and low-code options to build out their own environments. So far this looks like playing a game of Minecraft. Users in the digital environment use native tools to place geometric shapes and add textures. Other metaverse platforms allow users to design models or textures with tools outside the platform, often even programming behaviors for the objects, and then import them into the metaverse. These tools can be used effectively, but it can be a tedious way to create a customized digital space.

    Generative AI will address that by taking direction from users and quickly generating content to provide the desired metaverse setting. Generative AI can create content that’s meaningful based on natural inputs like language or visual information. For example, a user might give voice commands to a smart assistant and have a metaverse environment created or take photos of a real-world object from different angles to have its likeness digitally imported.

    Synthetic data will also play a role in the metaverse. Instead of relying only on people to create a lot of relevant data to train AI, metaverse platform providers will also use simulated data to provide context. NVIDIA’s Omniverse Replicator engine provides this capability and can be used to train self-driving cars and manipulator robots for a factory environment (NVIDIA Newsroom, 2021).

    Meta’s Plans

    Meta is planning to use generative AI to allow users to construct their VR environments. It will allow users to describe a world to a voice assistant and have it created for them. Users could also speak to each other in different languages with the aid of a universal translator. Separately, Project CAIRaoke combines cognitive vision with a voice assistant to help a user cook dinner. It keeps track of where the ingredients are in the kitchen and guides the user through the steps (Reuters, 2022).

    Microsoft’s Plans

    Microsoft Mesh includes AI resources to help create natural interactions through speech and vision learning models. HoloLens 2 already uses AI models to track users’ hands and eye movements as well as map content onto the physical world. This will be reinforced in the cloud through Microsoft Azure’s AI capabilities (Microsoft Innovation Stories, 2021).

    Blockchain will provide a way to manage digital identity and assets across metaverse platforms

    Users will want a way to own their metaverse identity and valued digital possessions

    Blockchain technology provides a decentralized digital ledger that immutably records transactions. A specific blockchain can either be permissioned, with one central party determining who gets access, or permissionless, in which anyone with the means can transact on the blockchain. The permissionless variety emerged in 2008 as the foundation of Bitcoin. It's been a disruptive force in the financial industry, with Bitcoin inspiring a long list of offshoot cryptocurrencies, and now even central banks are examining moving to a digital currency standard.

    In the past couple of years, blockchain has spurred a new economy around digital assets. Smart contracts can be used to create a token on a blockchain and bind it to a specific digital asset. These assets are called non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Owners of NFTs can prove their chain of ownership and sell their tokens to others on a variety of marketplaces.

    Blockchain could be useful in the metaverse to track digital identity, manage digital assets, and enable data portability. Users could register their own avatars as NFTs to prove they are the real person behind their digital representation. They may also want a way to verify they own a virtual plot of land or demonstrate the scarcity of the digital clothing they are wearing in the metaverse. If users want to leave a certain metaverse platform, they could export their avatar and digital assets to a digital wallet and transfer them to another platform that supports the same standards.

    In the past, centralized platforms that create economies in a virtual world were able to create digital currencies and sell specific assets to users without the need for blockchain. Second Life is a good example, with Linden Labs providing a virtual token called Linden Dollars that users can exchange to buy goods and services from each other within the virtual world. Second Life processes 345 million transactions a year for virtual goods and reports a GDP of $650 million, which would put it ahead of some countries (VentureBeat, 2022). However, the value is trapped within Second Life and can't be exported elsewhere.

    Meta’s Plans

    Meta ended its Diem project in early 2022, winding down its plan to offer a digital currency pegged to US dollars. Assets were sold to Silvergate Bank for $182 million. On February 24, blockchain developer Atmos announced it wanted to bring the project back to life. Composed of many of the original developers that created Diem while it was still a Facebook project, the firm plans to raise funds based on the pitch that the new iteration will be "Libra without Facebook“ (CoinDesk, 2022).

    Microsoft’s Plans

    Microsoft expanded its team of blockchain developers after its lead executive in this area stated the firm is closely watching cryptocurrencies and NFTs. Blockchain Director York Rhodes tweeted on November 8, 2021, that he was expanding his team and was interested to connect with candidates "obsessed with Turing complete, scarce programmable objects that you can own & transfer & link to the real world through a social contract.”

    The enterprise metaverse holds implications for IT across several functional areas

    Improve maturity in these four areas first

    • Infrastructure & Operations
      • Lay the foundation
    • Security & Risk
      • Mitigate the risks
    • Apps
      • Deploy the precursors
    • Data & BI
      • Prepare to integrate
    Info-Tech and COBIT5's IT Management & Governance Framework with processes arranged like a periodic table. Highlighted process groups are 'Infrastructure & Operations', 'Security & Risk', 'Apps', and 'Data & BI'.

    Infrastructure & Operations

    Make space for the metaverse

    Risks

    • Network congestion: Connecting more devices that will be delivering highly graphical content will put new pressures on networks. Access points will have more connections to maintain and transit pathways more bandwidth to accommodate.
    • Device fragmentation: Currently many different vendors are selling augmented reality headsets used in the enterprise, including Google, Epson, Vuzix, and RealWear. More may enter soon, creating various types of endpoints that have different capabilities and different points of failure.
    • New workflows: Enterprises will only be able to benefit from deploying mixed reality devices if they're able to make them very useful to workers. Serving up relevant information in the context of a hands-free interface will become a new competency for enterprises to master.

    Mitigations

    • Dedicated network: Some companies are avoiding the congestion issue by creating a separate network for IoT devices on different infrastructure. For example, they might complement the Wi-Fi network with a wireless network on 5G or LoRaWAN standards.
    • Partner with systems integrators: Solutions vendors bringing metaverse solutions to the enterprise are already working with systems integrator partners to overcome integration barriers. These vendors are solving the problems of delivering enterprise content to a variety of new mixed reality touchpoints and determining just the right information to expose to users, at the right time.

    Security & Risk

    Mitigate metaverse risks before they take root

    Risks

    • Broader attack surface: Adding new mixed reality devices to the enterprise network will create more potential points of ingress for a cyberattack. Previous enterprise experiences with IoT in the enterprise have seen them exploited as weak points and used to create botnets or further infiltrate company networks.
    • More data in transit: Enterprise data will be flowing between these new devices and sometimes outside the company firewall to remote connections. Data from industrial IoT could also be integrated into these solutions and exposed.
    • New fraud opportunities: When Web 1.0 was first rolling out, not every company was able to secure the rights to the URL address matching its brand. Those not quick enough on the draw saw "domain squatters" use their brand equity to negotiate for a big pay day or, worse yet, to commit fraud. With blockchain opening up similar new digital real estate in Web3, the same risk arises.

    Mitigations

    • Mobile device management (MDM): New mixed reality headsets can be secured using existing MDM solutions on the market.
    • Encryption: Encrypting data end to end as it flows between IoT devices ensures that even if it does leak, it's not likely to be useful to a hacker.
    • Stake your claim: Claiming your brand's name in new Web3 domains may seems tedious, but it is likely to be cheap and might save you a headache down the line.

    Apps

    Deploy to your existing touchpoints

    Risks

    • Learning curves: Using new metaverse applications to complete tasks and collaborate with colleagues won’t be a natural progression for everyone. New headsets, gesture-based controls, and learning how to navigate the metaverse will present hurdles for users to overcome before they can be productive.
    • Is there a dress code in the metaverse? Avatars in the metaverse won’t necessarily look like the people behind the controls. What new norms will be needed to ensure avatars are appropriate for a work setting?
    • Fragmentation: Metaverse experiences are already creating islands. Users of Horizon Worlds can’t connect with colleagues using AltspaceVR. Similar to the challenges around different videoconferencing software, users could find they are divided by applications.

    Mitigations

    • Introduce concepts over time: Ask users to experiment with meeting in a VR context in a small group before expanding to a companywide conference event. Or have them use a headset for a simple video chat before they use it to complete a task in the field.
    • Administrative controls: Ensure that employees have some boundaries when designing their avatars, enforced either through controls placed on the software or through policies from HR.
    • Explore but don’t commit: It’s early days for these metaverse applications. Explore opportunities that become available through free trials and new releases to existing software suites but maintain flexibility to pivot should the need arise.

    Data & BI

    Deploy to your existing touchpoints

    Risks

    • Interoperability: There is no established standard for digital objects or behaviors in the metaverse. Meta and Microsoft say they are committed to open standards that will ensure portability of data across platforms, but how that will be executed isn’t clear yet.
    • Privacy: Sending data to another platform carries risks that it will be exfiltrated and stored elsewhere, presenting some challenges for companies that need to be compliant with legislation such as GDPR.
    • High-fidelity models: 3D models with photorealistic textures will come with high CPU requirements to render properly. Some head-mounted displays will run into limitations.

    Mitigations

    • Adopt standard interfaces: Using open APIs will be the most common path to integrating enterprise systems to metaverse applications.
    • Maintain compliance: The current approach enterprises take to creating data lakes and presenting them to platforms will extend to the metaverse. Building good controls and anonymizing data that resides in these locations will enable firms to interact in new platforms and remain compliant.
    • Right-sized rendering: Providing enough data to a device to make it useful without overburdening the CPU will be an important consideration. For example, TeamViewer uses polygon reduction to display 3D models on lower-powered head-mounted displays.

    More Info-Tech research to explore

    CIO Priorities 2022
    Priorities to compete in the digital economy.

    Microsoft Teams Cookbook
    Recipes for best practices and use cases for Microsoft Teams.

    Run Better Meetings
    Hybrid, virtual, or in person – set meeting best practices that support your desired meeting norms.

    Double Your Organization’s Effectiveness With a Digital Twin
    Digital twin: A living, breathing reflection.

    Contributing experts

    Photo of Dr. Hendrik Witt, Chief Product Officer, TeamViewer

    Dr. Hendrik Witt
    Chief Product Officer,
    TeamViewer

    Photo of Kevin Tucker, Principal Research Director, Industry Practice, INFO-TECH RESEARCH GROUP

    Kevin Tucker
    Principal Research Director, Industry Practice,
    INFO-TECH RESEARCH GROUP

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    Culliford, Elizabeth. “Meta’s Zuckerberg Unveils AI Projects Aimed at Building Metaverse Future.” Reuters, 24 Feb. 2022. Web.

    Davies, Nahla. “Cybersecurity and the Metaverse: Pioneering Safely into a New Digital World.” GlobalSign Blog, 10 Dec. 2021. GlobalSign by GMO. Web.

    Doctorow, Cory. “Neuromancer Today.” Medium, 10 Feb. 2022. Web.

    Heath, Alex. “Meta’s Social VR Platform Horizon Hits 300,000 Users.” The Verge, 17 Feb. 2022. Web.

    “Holoportation™.” Microsoft Research, 22 Feb. 2022. Microsoft. Accessed 3 March 2022.

    Isaac, Mike. “Meta Spent $10 Billion on the Metaverse in 2021, Dragging down Profit.” The New York Times, 2 Feb. 2022. Web.

    Isaac, Mike, and Sheera Frenkel. “Out With the Facebookers. In With the Metamates.” The New York Times, 15 Feb. 2022. Web.

    Langston, Jennifer. “‘You Can Actually Feel like You’re in the Same Place’: Microsoft Mesh Powers Shared Experiences in Mixed Reality.” Microsoft Innovation Stories, 2 Mar. 2021. Microsoft. Web.

    “Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment and AWS Team Up to Transform Experiences for Canadian Sports Fans.” Amazon Press Center, 23 Feb. 2022. Amazon.com. Accessed 24 Feb. 2022. Web.

    Marquez, Reynaldo. “How Microsoft Will Move To The Web 3.0, Blockchain Division To Expand.” Bitcoinist.com, 8 Nov. 2021. Web.

    Metinko, Chris. “Securing The Metaverse—What’s Needed For The Next Chapter Of The Internet.” Crunchbase News, 6 Dec. 2021. Web.

    Metz, Rachel Metz. “Why You Can’t Have Legs in Virtual Reality (Yet).” CNN, 15 Feb. 2022. Accessed 16 Feb. 2022.

    “Microsoft to Acquire Activision Blizzard to Bring the Joy and Community of Gaming to Everyone, across Every Device.” Microsoft News Center, 18 Jan. 2022. Microsoft. Web.

    Nath, Ojasvi. “Big Tech Is Betting Big on Metaverse: Should Enterprises Follow Suit?” Toolbox, 15 Feb. 2022. Accessed 24 Feb. 2022.

    “NVIDIA Announces Omniverse Replicator Synthetic-Data-Generation Engine for Training AIs.” NVIDIA Newsroom, 9 Nov. 2021. NVIDIA. Accessed 9 Mar. 2022.

    “NVIDIA Omniverse - Designing, Optimizing and Operating the Factory of the Future. 2021. YouTube, uploaded by NVIDIA, 13 April 2021. Web.

    Peters, Jay. “Disney Has Appointed a Leader for Its Metaverse Strategy.” The Verge, 15 Feb. 2022. Web.

    Robinson, Joanna. The Sci-Fi Guru Who Predicted Google Earth Explains Silicon Valley’s Latest Obsession.” Vanity Fair, 23 June 2017. Accessed 13 Feb. 2022.

    Scoble, Robert. “New Startup Mixes Reality with Computer Vision and Sets the Stage for an Entire Industry.” Scobleizer, 17 Feb. 2022. Web.

    Seward, Zack. “Ex-Meta Coders Raising $200M to Bring Diem Blockchain to Life: Sources.” CoinDesk, 24 Feb. 2022. Web.

    Shrestha, Rakesh, et al. “A New Type of Blockchain for Secure Message Exchange in VANET.” Digital Communications and Networks, vol. 6, no. 2, May 2020, pp. 177-186. ScienceDirect. Web.

    Sood, Vishal. “Gain a New Perspective with Dynamics 365 Connected Spaces.” Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog, 2 Nov. 2021. Microsoft. Web.

    Takahashi, Dean. “Philip Rosedale’s High Fidelity Cuts Deal with Second Life Maker Linden Lab.” VentureBeat, 13 Jan. 2022 Web.

    “TeamViewer Capital Markets Day 2021.” TeamViewer, 10 Nov. 2021. Accessed 22 Feb. 2022.

    VR for Work. Oculus.com. Accessed 1 Mar. 2022.

    Wunderman Thompson Intelligence. “New Trend Report: Into the Metaverse.” Wunderman Thompson, 14 Sept. 2021. Accessed 16 Feb. 2022.

    Excel Through COVID-19 With a Focused Business Architecture

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    • Parent Category Name: Strategy & Operating Model
    • Parent Category Link: /strategy-and-operating-model
    • Business architecture, including value stream and business capability models, is the tool you need to reposition your organization for post-COVID-19 success.
    • Your business architecture model represents your strategic business components. It guides the development of all other architectures to enable new and improved business function.
    • Evaluating your current business architecture, or indeed rebuilding it, creates a foundation for facilitated discussions and target state alignment between IT and the senior C-suite.
    • New projects and initiatives during COVID-19 must evolve business architecture so that your front-line workers and your customers are supported through the resolution of the pandemic. Specifically, your projects and initiatives must be directly traced to evolving your architecture.
    • Business architecture anchors downstream architectural iterations and initiatives. Measure business capability enablement results directly from projects and initiatives using a business architecture model.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Focus on your most disruptive, game-changing innovations that have been on the backburner for some time. Here you will find the ingredients for post-pandemic success.

    Impact and Result

    • Craft your business architecture model, aligned to the current climate, to refocus on your highest priority goals and increase your chances of post-COVID-19 excellence.

    Excel Through COVID-19 With a Focused Business Architecture Research & Tools

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

    1. Create minimum viable business architecture

    Create your minimum viable business architecture.

    • Excel Through COVID-19 With a Focused Business Architecture Storyboard
    • Excel Through COVID-19 With a Focused Business Architecture – Healthcare
    • Excel Through COVID-19 With a Focused Business Architecture – Higher Education
    • Excel Through COVID-19 With a Focused Business Architecture – Manufacturing
    • Business Capability Modeling

    2. Identify COVID-19 critical capabilities for your industry

    If there are a handful of capabilities that your business needs to focus on right now, what are they?

    3. Brainstorm COVID-19 business opportunities

    Identify business opportunities.

    4. Enrich capability model with COVID-19 opportunities

    Enrich your capability model.

    [infographic]

    Leadership Workshop Overview

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    Leadership has evolved over time. The velocity of change has increased and leadership for the future looks different than the past.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Development of the leadership mind should never stop. This program will help IT leaders continue to craft their leadership competencies to navigate the ever-changing world in which we operate.

    Impact and Result

    • Embrace and lead change through active sharing, transparency, and partnerships.
    • Encourage growth mindset to enhance innovative ideas and go past what has always been done.
    • Actively delegate responsibilities and opportunities that engage and develop team members to build on current skills and prepare for the future.

    Leadership Workshop Overview Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Workshop Overview

    Read our concise Workshop Overview to find out how this program can support the development needs of your IT leadership teams.

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

    • Info-Tech Leadership Workshop Overview
    [infographic]

    Take a Realistic Approach to Disaster Recovery Testing

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    You have made significant investments in availability and disaster recovery – but your ability to recover hasn’t been tested in years. Testing will:

    • Improve your DR capabilities.
    • Identify required changes to planning documentation and procedures.
    • Validate DR capabilities for interested customers and auditors.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • If you treat testing as a pass/fail exercise, you aren’t meeting the end goal of improving organizational resilience.
    • Focus on identifying gaps and risks, and addressing them, before a real disaster hits.
    • Take a realistic, iterative approach to resilience testing that starts with small, low-risk tests and builds on lessons learned.

    Impact and Result

    • Identify testing scenarios and scope that can deliver value to your organization.
    • Create practical test plans with Info-Tech’s template.
    • Demonstrate value from testing to gain buy-in for additional tests.

    Take a Realistic Approach to Disaster Recovery Testing Research & Tools

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

    1. Take a Realistic Approach to Disaster Recovery Testing Storyboard – A guide to establishing a right-sized approach to DR testing that delivers durable value to your organization.

    Use this research to understand the different types of tests, prioritize and plan tests for your organization, review the results, and establish a cadence for testing.

    • Take a Realistic Approach to Disaster Recovery Testing Storyboard

    2. Disaster Recovery Test Plan Template – A template to document your organization's DR test plan.

    Use this template to document scope and goals, participants, key pre-test milestones, the test-day schedule, and your findings from the testing exercise.

    • Disaster Recovery Test Plan Template

    3. Disaster Recovery Testing Program Summary – A template to outline your organization's DR testing program.

    Identify the tests you will run over the next year and the expertise, governance, process, and funding required to support testing.

    • Disaster Recovery Testing Program Summary

    [infographic]

     

    Further reading

    Take a Realistic Approach to Disaster Recovery Testing

    Reduce costly downtime with a right-sized testing program that improves IT resilience.

    Analyst Perspective

    Reduce costly downtime with a right-sized testing program that improves IT resilience.

    Andrew Sharp

    Most businesses make significant investments in disaster recovery and technology resilience. Redundant sites and systems, monitoring, intrusion prevention, backups, training, documentation: it all costs time and money.

    But does this investment deliver expected value? Specifically, can you deliver service continuity in a way that meets business requirements?

    You can’t know the answer without regularly testing recovery processes and systems. And more than just validation, testing helps you deliver service continuity by finding and addressing gaps in your plans and training your staff on recovery procedures.

    Use the insights, tools, and templates in this research to create a streamlined and effective resilience testing program that helps validate recovery capabilities and enhance service reliability, availability, and continuity.

    Andrew Sharp

    Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    You have made significant investments in availability and disaster recovery (DR) – but your ability to recover hasn’t been tested in years. Testing will:

    • Improve your DR capabilities.
    • Identify required changes to planning documentation and procedures.
    • Validate DR capabilities for interested customers and auditors.

    Common Obstacles

    Despite the value testing can offer, actually executing on DR tests is difficult because:

    • Testing is often an IT-driven initiative, and it can be difficult to secure business buy-in to redirect resources away from other urgent projects or accept risks that come with testing.
    • Previous tests have been overly complex and challenging to coordinate and leave a hangover so bad that no one wants to do them again.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    Take a realistic approach to resilience testing by starting with small, low-risk tests, then iterating with the lessons you’ve learned:

    • Identify testing scenarios and scope that can deliver value to your organization.
    • Create practical test plans with Info-Tech’s template.
    • Get buy-in for regular DR testing from key stakeholders with a testing program summary.

    Info-Tech Insight

    If you treat testing as a pass/fail exercise, you aren’t meeting the end goal of improving organizational resilience. Focus on identifying gaps and risks so you can address them before a real disaster hits.

    Process and Outputs

    This research is accompanied by templates to help you achieve your goals faster.

    1 - Establish the business rationale for DR testing.
    2 - Review a range of options for testing.
    3 - Prioritize tests that are most valuable to your business.
    4 - Create a disaster recovery test plan.
    5 - Establish a Test Program to support a regular testing cycle.

    Outputs:

    DR Test Plan
    DR Testing Program Summary

    Example Orange Activity slide.
    Orange activity slides like the one on the left provide directions to help you make key decisions.

    Key Deliverable:

    Disaster Recovery Test Plan Template

    Build a plan for your first disaster recovery test.

    This document provides a complete example you can use to quickly build your own plan, including goals, milestones, participants, the test-day schedule, and findings from the after-action review.

    Why test?

    Testing helps you avoid costly downtime

    • In a disaster scenario, speed matters. Immediately after an outage, the impact on the organization is small, but impact increases rapidly the longer the outage continues.
    • A quick and reliable response and recovery can protect the organization from significant losses.
    • A DRP testing and maintenance program helps ensure you’re ready to recover when you need to, rather than figuring it out as you go.

    “Routine testing is vital to survive a disaster… that’s when muscle memory sets in. If you don’t test your DR plan it falls [in importance], and you never see how routine changes impact it.”

    – Jennifer Goshorn
    Chief Administrative Officer
    Gunderson Dettmer LLP

    Info-Tech members estimated even one day of system downtime could lead to significant revenue losses. Estimated loss of revenue over 24 hours. Core Infrastructure has the highest potential for lost revenue.

    Average estimated potential loss* in thousands of USD due to a 24-hour outage (N=41)

    *Data aggregated from 41 business impact analyses (BIAs) conducted with Info-Tech advisory assistance. BIAs evaluate potential revenue loss due to a full day of system downtime, at the worst possible time.

    Run tests to enhance disaster recovery plans

    Testing improves organizational resilience

    • Identify and address gaps in your plans before a real disaster strikes.
    • Cross-train staff on systems recovery.
    • Go beyond testing technology to test recovery processes.
    • Establish a culture that centers resilience in everyday decision-making.

    Testing keeps DR documentation ready for action

    • Update documentation ahead of tests to prepare for the testing exercise.
    • Update documentation after testing to incorporate any lessons learned.

    Testing validates that investments in resilience deliver value

    • Confirm your organization can meet defined recovery time objectives (RTOs) and recovery point objectives (RPOs).
    • Provide proof of testing for auditors, prospective customers, and insurance applications

    Overcome testing challenges

    Despite the value of effective recovery testing, most IT organizations struggle to test recovery plans

    Common challenges

    • Key resources don’t have time for testing exercises.
    • You don’t have the technology to support live recovery testing.
    • Tests are done ad hoc and lessons learned are lost.
    • A lack of business support for test exercises as the value isn’t understood.
    • Tests are always artificially simple because RTOs and RPOs must be met to satisfy customer or auditor inquiries

    Overcome challenges with a realistic approach:

    • Start small with tabletop and recovery tests for specific systems.
    • Include recovery tests in operational tasks (e.g. restore systems when you have a maintenance window).
    • Create testing plans for larger testing exercises.
    • Build on successful tests to streamline testing exercises in the future.
    • Don’t make testing a pass-fail exercise. Focus on identifying gaps and risks so you can address them before a real disaster hits.

    Go beyond traditional testing

    Different test techniques help validate recovery against different threats

    • There are many threats to service continuity, including ransomware, severe weather events, geopolitical conflict, legacy systems, staff turnover, and day-to-day outages caused by human error, software updates, hardware failures, or network outages.
    • At its core, disaster recovery planning is about recovery. A plan for service recovery will help you mitigate against many threats at once. The testing approaches on the right will help you validate different aspects of that recovery process.
    • This research will provide an overview of the approaches outlined on the right and help you prioritize tests that are most valuable to your organization.
    Different test techniques for disaster recover training: System Failover tests, tabletop exercises, ransomware recovery tests, etc.

    00 Identify a working group

    30 minutes

    Identify a group of participants who can fill the following roles and inform the discussions around testing in this research. A single person could fill multiple roles and some roles could be filled by multiple people. Many participants will be drawn from the larger DRP team.

    Roles and expectations for Disaster Recovery Planning. DRP sponsor, Testing coordinator, System testers, business liaisons, executive team.

    Input

    • Organizational context

    Output

    • A list of key participants for test planning and execution

    Participants

    • Typically, start by identifying the sponsor and coordinator and have them identify the other members of the working group.

    Start by updating your disaster recovery plan (DRP)

    Use Info-Tech’s Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan research to identify recovery objectives based on business impact and outline recovery processes. Both are tremendously valuable inputs to your test plans.

    Overall Business Continuity Plan

    IT Disaster Recovery Plan

    A plan to restore IT services (e.g. applications and infrastructure) following a disruption. A DRP:

    • Identifies critical applications and dependencies.
    • Defines appropriate recovery objectives based on a business impact analysis (BIA).
    • Creates a step-by-step incident response plan.

    BCP for Each Business Unit

    A set of plans to resume business processes for each business unit. A business continuity plan (BCP) is also sometimes called a continuity of operations plan (COOP).

    BCPs are created and owned by each business unit, and creating a BCP requires deep involvement from the leadership of each business unit.

    Info-Tech’s Develop a Business Continuity Plan blueprint provides a methodology for creating business unit BCPs as part of an overall BCP for the organization.

    Crisis Management Plan

    A plan to manage a wide range of crises, from health and safety incidents to business disruptions to reputational damage.

    Info-Tech’s Implement Crisis Management Best Practices blueprint provides a framework for planning a response to any crisis, from health and safety incidents to reputational damage.

    01 Confirm: why test at all?

    15-30 minutes

    Identify the value recovery testing for your organization. Use language appropriate for a nontechnical audience. Start with the list below and add, modify, or delete bullet points to reflect your own organization.

     

    Drivers for testing – Examples:

     

    • Improve service continuity.
    • Identify and address gaps in recovery plans before a real disaster strikes.
    • Cross-train staff on systems recovery to minimize single points of failure.
    • Identify how we coordinate across teams during a major systems outage.
    • Exercise both recovery processes and technology.
    • Support a culture that centers system resilience in everyday decision-making.
    • Keep recovery documentation up-to-date and ready for action.
    • Confirm that our stated recovery objectives can be met.
    • Provide proof of testing for auditors, prospective customers, and insurance applications.
    • We require proof of testing to pass audits and renew cybersecurity insurance.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Time-strapped technical staff will sometimes push back on planning and testing, objecting that the team will “figure it out” in a disaster. But the question isn’t whether recovery is possible – it’s whether the recovery aligns with business needs. If your plan is to “MacGyver” a solution on the fly, you can’t know if it’s the right solution for your organization.

    Input

    • Business drivers and context for testing

    Output

    • Specific goals that are driving testing

    Participants

    • DR sponsor
    • Test coordinator

    Think about what and how you test

    Different layers of the stack to test: Network, Authentication, compute and storage, visualization platforms, database services, middleware, app servers, web servers.

    Find gaps and risks with tabletop testing

    Tabletop planning had the greatest impact on meeting recovery objectives (RTOs/RPOs).

    In a tabletop planning exercise, the team walks through a disaster scenario to outline the recovery workflow, and risks or gaps that could disrupt that workflow.

    Tabletops are particularly effective because:

    • It enables you to play out a wider range of scenarios than technology-based testing (e.g. full-scale, parallel) due to cost and complexity factors.
    • It is non-intrusive, so it can be executed more easily than other testing methodologies.
    • The exercise translates into recovery documentation: you create a workflow as you go.
    • A major site or service recovery scenario will review all aspects of the recovery process and create the backbone of your recovery plan.

    02 Run a tabletop exercise

    2 hours

    Tabletop testing is part of our core DRP methodology, Create a Right-Sized Disaster Recovery Plan. This exercise can be run using cue cards, sticky notes, or on a whiteboard; many of our facilitators find building the workflow directly in flowchart software to be very effective.

    Use our Recovery Workflow Template as a starting point.

    Some tips for running your first tabletop exercise:

    Do

    • Review the complete workflow from notification all the way to user acceptance testing.
    • Keep focused; stay on task and on time.
    • Revisit each step and record gaps and risks (and known solutions, but don’t dwell on this).
    • Revise and improve the plan with task owners.

    Don't

    • Get weighed down by tools.
    • Try to find solutions to every gap/risk as you go. Save in-depth research/discussion for later.
    • Document the details right away – stick to the high-level plan for the first exercise.
    1. Ahead of the exercise, decide on a scenario, identify participants, and book a meeting time.
      • For your first walkthrough of a DR scenario, we often recommend a scenario that considers a site failure requiring failover to a DR site.
      • For the first exercise, focus on technical aspects of recovery before bringing in members of the business. The technical team may need space to discuss the appropriate steps in the recovery process before you bring in business liaisons to discuss user acceptance testing (UAT).
      • A complete failover considers all systems, the viability of your second site, and can help identify parts of the process that require additional exercises.
    2. Review the scenario with participants. Then, discuss and document the recovery process, starting with initial notification of an event.
      • Record steps in the process on white cards or boxes.
      • On yellow and red cards, document gaps and risks in people process and technology requirements.
    3. Once you’ve walked through the process, return to the start.
      • Record the time required to complete each step. Consider identifying who is responsible for key steps. Identify any additional gaps and risks.
    4. Clean up and record the results of the workflow. Save a copy with your DRP documentation.

    Input

    • Expert knowledge on systems recovery

    Output

    • Recovery workflow, including gaps and risks

    Participants

    • Test coordinator
    • Technical SMEs

    Move from tabletop testing to functional exercises

    See how your plans fare in the real world

    In live exercises, some portion of your recovery plans are executed in a way that mimics a real recovery scenario. Some advantages of live testing:

    • See how standby systems behave. A tabletop exercise can miss small issues that can make or break the recovery process. For example, connectivity or integration issues on a new subnet might be difficult to predict prior to actually running services in that environment.
    • Hands-on practice: Familiarize the team with the steps, commands, and interfaces of your recovery toolset.
    • Manage the pressure of the DR scenario: Nothing’s quite like the real thing, but a live exercise may be the closest your team can get to a disaster situation without experiencing it firsthand.

    Examples of live exercises

    Boot and smoke test Turn on a standby system and confirm it boots up correctly.
    Restore and validate data Restore data or servers from backup. Confirm data integrity.
    Parallel testing Send familiar transactions to production and standby systems. Confirm both systems produce the same result.
    Failover systems Shut down the production system and use the standby system in production.

    Run local tests ahead of releases

    Think small

    Most unacceptable downtime is caused by localized issues, such as hardware or software failures, rather than widespread destructive events. Regular local testing can help validate the recovery plan for local issues and improve overall service continuity.

    Make local testing a standard step in maintenance work and new deployments to embed resilience considerations in day-to-day activities. Run the same tests in both your primary and your DR environment.

    Some examples of localized tests:

    • Review backup logs and check for errors.
    • Restore files or whole systems from backup.
    • Run application-based tests as part of release management, including unit, regression, and performance tests.
      • Ensure application tests are run for both the primary and DR environment.
      • For a deep-dive on application testing, see Info-Tech’s research Automate Testing to Get More Done.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Local tests will vary between different services, and local test design is usually best left to the system SMEs. At the same time, centralize reporting to understand where tests are being done.

    Investigate whether your IT Service Management or ticketing system can create recurring tasks or work orders to schedule, document, and track test exercises. Tasks can be pre-populated with checklists and documentation to support the test and provide a record of completed tests to support oversight and reporting.

    Have the business validate recovery

    If your business doesn’t think a system’s recovered, it’s not recovered.

    User acceptance testing (UAT) after system recovery is a key step in the recovery process. Like any step in the process, there’s value in testing it before it actually needs to be done. Assign responsibility for building UATs to the person who will be responsible for executing them.

    An acceptance test script might look something like the checklist below.

    • Does the application open?
    • Does the interface look right?
    • Do you see any unusual notifications or warnings?
    • Can you conduct a key transaction with dummy data?
    • Can you run key reports?

    “I cannot stress how important it is to assign ownership of responsibilities in a test; this is the only way to truly mitigate against issues in a test.”

    – Robert Nardella
    IT Service Management
    Certified z/OS Mainframe Professional

    Info-Tech Insight

    Build test scripts and test transactions ahead of time to minimize the amount of new work required during a recovery scenario.

    Beyond the Basics: Full Failover Testing

    • A failover test – a full failover of your production environment to a secondary environment – is what many IT and businesspeople think about when they think of disaster recovery testing.
    • A full test can validate previous local or tabletop tests, identify additional gaps and risks, and provide hands-on training experience with recovery processes and technologies.
    • Setting a date for failover testing can also inject some urgency into otherwise low-priority (but high importance) disaster recovery planning and documentation exercises, which need to be completed prior to the test.
    • Despite these benefits, full failover tests carry significant risk and require a great deal of effort and cost. Typically, only businesses that already have an active-active environment capable of supporting in-scope production systems are able to run a full environment failover.
    • This is especially true the first time you test. While in theory a DR plan should be ready to go at any time, there will be documents to update, gaps to address, and risks to mitigate before you go ahead with the test.

    Full Failover Testing

    What you get:

    • Provide hands-on experience with recovery processes and technology.
    • Confirm that site failover works in practice as you assumed in tabletop or local testing exercises.
    • Identify critical gaps you might have missed without a full failover test.

    What you need:

    • An active-active secondary site, with sufficient standby equipment, data, and licensed standby software to support production.
    • A completed tabletop exercise and documented recovery workflow.
    • A documented test plan, backout plan, and formal sign-off.
    • An off-hours downtime window.
    • Time from technical SMEs and business resources, both for creating the plan and executing the test.

    Beyond the Basics: Site Reliability Engineering

    • Site reliability engineering (SRE) is an application of skills and approaches from software engineering to improve system resilience.
    • SRE is focused on “availability, latency, performance, efficiency, change management, monitoring, emergency response, and capacity planning” across a set portfolio of services (Sloss, 2017).
    • In many organizations, SRE is implemented as a team that supports separate applications teams.
    • Applications must have defined and granular resilience requirements, translated into service objectives. The SRE team and applications teams will work together to meet these objectives.
    • Site reliability engineers (the folks that do SRE, and often also abbreviated as SREs) are expected to build solutions and processes to ensure services remain stable and performant, not just respond when they fail. For example, Google allows their SREs to spend just half their time on incident response, with the rest of their time focused on development and automation tasks.

    Site Reliability Testing

    What you get:

    • Improved reliability and reduced frequency and impact of downtime.
    • Increased use of automation to address problems before they cause an incident.
    • Granular resilience objectives.

    What you need:

    • Systems running on software-defined infrastructure.
    • Specialized skills in programming, infrastructure-as-code.
    • Business & product owners able to define and fund acceptable and appropriate resilience objectives.
    • Technical experts able to translate product requirements into technical design requirements.

    Beyond the Basics: Chaos Engineering

    • Chaos engineering, a term and approach first popularized by the team at Netflix, aims to improve the resilience of particularly large and distributed systems by simulating system failures and evaluating performance against a baseline.
    • Experiments simulate a variety of real-world events that could cause outages (e.g. network slowdowns or server failures). Experiments run continuously, and the recommendation is to run them in production where feasible while minimizing the impact on customers.
    • Tools to help you run chaos testing exist, including open-source toolkits like Chaos Monkey or Mangle and paid software as a service (SaaS) solutions like Gremlin.
    • Deciding whether the long-term benefits of tests that can degrade production are worth the potential risk of system slowdowns or outages is a business or product decision. Technical considerations aside, if the business owner of a particular system doesn’t see the value of continuous testing outweighing the introduced risk, this approach to testing isn’t going to happen.

    Chaos Engineering

    What you get:

    • Confidence that systems can weather volatile and unpredictable conditions in a production environment.
    • An embedded resilience culture.

    What you need:

    • High-maturity IT incident, monitoring and event practices.
    • Standby/resilient systems to minimize downtime impact.
    • Business buy-in for introducing risk into the production environment.
    • Specialized skills to identify, develop, and run tests that degrade production performance in a controlled way.
    • Budget and time to act on issues identified through testing.

    Beyond the Basics: Security Event Simulations

    • Ransomware is driving demands for proof of recovery testing from customers, executives, auditors, and insurance companies. Systems recovery is part of ransomware recovery, but recovering from a breach includes detection, analysis, containment, and eradication of the attack vector before systems recovery can begin.
    • Beyond technical recovery, internal legal and communications teams will have a role, as will your insurance provider, consultants specialized in ransomware recovery, or professional ransom negotiators.
    • A tabletop exercise focused on ransomware incident response is a key first step. You can find Info-Tech’s methodology for a ransomware tabletop in Phase 3 of Build Resilience Against Ransomware Attacks.
    • Live testing approaches can offer hands-on experience and further insight into how your systems are vulnerable to malware. A variety of open source and proprietary tools can simulate ransomware and help you identify problems, though it’s important to understand the limitations of different simulators (Allon, 2022).
    • A “red team” exercise simulates an adversarial attack against your processes and systems. A specialized penetration tester will often take on the role of the red team and provide a report of identified gaps and risks after the engagement.

    Security Event Simulation

    What you get:

    • Hands-on experience managing and recovering from a ransomware attack in a controlled environment.
    • A better understanding of gaps in your response process.

    What you need:

    • A completed ransomware tabletop exercise and mature security incident response processes.
    • For Ransomware Simulators: An air-gapped sandbox environment hosting a copy of your production systems and security tools, and time from your technical SMEs.
    • For Red Team Exercises: A trusted provider, scope for your testing plans, and time from your security incident response team.

    Prioritize tests by asking these three questions

    1. Will the scope of this test deliver sufficient value?

    • Yes, these are critical systems with low tolerance for downtime or data loss.
    • Yes, major changes or new systems require validation of DR capabilities.
    • Yes, there’s high probability of an outage, or recent experience of an outage.
    • •Yes, we have audit requirements or customer demands for testing.

    2. Are we ready for this test?

    • Yes, recovery plans and recovery objectives are documented.
    • Yes, key technical and business resources have time to commit to testing exercises.
    • Yes, technology is currently able to support proposed tests.

    3. Is it easy to do?

    • Yes, effort required to complete the test is low (i.e. minimal work, few participants).
    • Yes, the risks related to testing are low.
    • Yes, it won’t cost much.

    Info-Tech Insight

    More complex, challenging, risky, or costly tests, such as full failover tests, can deliver value. But do the high-value, low-effort stuff first!

    03 Brainstorm and prioritize test ideas

    30-60 minutes

    Even if you have an idea of what you need to test and how you want to run those tests, this brainstorming exercise can generate useful ideas for testing that might otherwise have been missed.

      1. Review the slides above to develop ideas on how and what you want to test. These slides may be enough to kickstart a brainstorming process. Don’t debate or discount ideas at this point. Write down these ideas in a space where all participants can see them (e.g. whiteboard or shared screen).

    The next steps will help you prioritize the list – if needed – to tests that are highest value and lowest effort.

    1. Discuss where you have the greatest need to test. Assign a score of 0 – 3 for each test, with a score of 3 being high-need and a score of zero being low-need. Consider whether:
      • These applications have a low tolerance for downtime.
      • There’s a high chance of an outage, or recent experience with an outage.
      • There’s a need to train or cross-train staff on recovery for the system(s) in question.
      • Major changes require a review or validation of DR capabilities.
      • Audit requirements or customer/executive demands can be met via testing.
    2. Discuss which tests will require the least effort to complete – where readiness is high and tests are easier to do. Assign a score between 0 and 3 for each test, with a score of 3 being least effort and a score of 0 being high effort. Consider whether:
      • Recovery plans and recovery objectives are documented for these systems.
      • Technical experts are available to work on testing exercises.
      • For active testing, standby/sandbox systems are available and capable of supporting proposed tests.
      • The effort required to complete the test is low (e.g. minimal new work, few participants).
      • The risks related to testing are low.
      • You will need to secure additional funding.
    3. Sum together the assigned scores for each test. Higher scores should be the highest priority, but of course use your judgement to validate the results and select one or two tests to execute in the coming year.

    “There are different levels of testing and it is very progressive. I do not recommend my clients to do anything, unless they do it in a progressive fashion. Don’t try to do a live failover test with your users, right out of the box.”

    – Steve Tower
    Principal Consultant
    Prompta Consulting Group

    Input

    • Organizational and technical context

    Output

    • Prioritize list of DR testing ideas

    Participants

    • DR sponsor
    • Test coordinator

    04 Build a test plan

    3-5 days

    Building a test plan helps the test run smoothly and can uncover issues with the underlying DRP as you dig into the details.

    The test coordinator will own the plan document but will rely on the sponsor to confirm scope and goals, technical SMEs to develop system recovery plans, and business liaisons to create UAT scripts.

    Download Info-Tech’s Disaster Recovery Test Plan Template. Use the structure of the template to build your own document, deleting example data as you go. Consider saving a separate copy of this document as an example and working from a second copy.

    Key sections of the document include:

    • Goals, scenario, and scope of the test.
    • Assumptions, constraints, risks, and mitigation strategies.
    • Test participants.
    • Key pre-test milestones, and test-day schedule.
    • After-action review.

    Download the Disaster Recovery Test Plan Template

    Input

    • Scope
    • High-level goals

    Output

    • Test plan, including goals, scope, key milestones, risks and mitigations, and test-day schedule

    Participants

    • Test coordinator develops the plan with support from:
      • Technical SMEs
      • Business liaisons
      • DR sponsor

    05 Run an after-action review

    30-60 minutes

    Take time after test exercises – especially large-scale tests with many participants – to consider what went well, what didn’t, and where you can improve future testing exercises. Track lessons learned and next steps at the bottom of your test plan.

    1. Start with a short (5-10 minute) debrief of the test and allow participants to ask questions. Confirm:
      • Did we meet the goals we set for the exercise, including RTOs and RPOs?
      • What was done well? What issues, gaps, and risks were identified?
    2. Work through variations of the following questions:
      • Was the test plan effective, and was the test well organized?
      • Was the documentation effective? Where did we follow the plan as documented, and where did we deviate from the plan?
      • Was our communication/collaboration during the test effective?
      • Have gaps and issues found during the test been reported to the testing coordinator? Could some of the issues uncovered apply more broadly to other IT services as well?
      • What could we test next, based on what was discovered?
      • Are there other tools or approaches that could be useful?

    Input

    • Insights and experience from a recent testing exercise

    Output

    • Identified gaps and risks, and action items to address them
    • Ideas to improve future test exercises

    Participants

    • Test coordinator develops the plan with support from:
      • Test coordinator
      • Test participants

    Follow a testing cycle

    All tests are expected to drive actions to improve resilience, as appropriate. Experience from previous tests will be applied to future testing exercises.

    The testing cycle: 1. Plan a test, 2. Run test, 3. Take action.

    Use your experience to simplify testing

    The fifth testing exercise should be easier than the first

    Outputs and lessons learned from testing should help you run future tests.

    • With past experience under their belt, participants should have a better understanding of their role, and of their peers’ roles, and the goal of the exercise.
    • Facilitators will be more comfortable facilitating the exercise, and everyone should be more confident in the steps required to recover their systems.
    • Gather feedback from participants through after-action reviews to identify what worked and what didn’t.
    • Documentation from previous tests can provide a template for future tests.
    • Gaps identified in previous tests can provide ideas for future tests.

    Experience, lessons learned, improved process, new test targets, repeat.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Testing should get easier over time. But if you’re easily passing every test, it’s a sign that you’re ready to run more challenging tests.

    06 Create a test program summary

    2-4 hours

    Regular testing allows you to build on prior tests and helps keep plans current despite changes to your environment.

    Keeping a regular testing schedule requires expertise, a process to coordinate your efforts, and a level of governance to provide oversight and ensure testing continues to deliver value. Create a call to action using Info-Tech’s Disaster Recovery Testing Program Summary Template.

    The result is a summary document that:

    • Identifies key takeaways and testing goals
    • Presents key elements of the testing program
    • Outlines the testing cycle
    • Lists expected milestones for the next year
    • Identifies participants
    • Recommends next steps

    “It is extremely important in the early stages of development to concentrate the focus on actual recoverability and data protection, enhancing these capabilities over time into a fully matured program that can truly test the recovery, and not simply focusing on the testing process itself.”

    – Joe Starzyk
    Senior Business Development Executive
    IBM Global Services

    Research Contributors and Experts

    • Bernard A. Jones, Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Expert
    • Robert Nardella, IT Service Management, Certified z/OS Mainframe Professional
    • Larry Liss, Chief Technology Officer, Blank Rome LLP
    • Jennifer Goshorn, Chief Administrative and Chief Compliance Officer, Gunderson Dettmer LLP
    • Paul Kirvan, FBCI, CISA, Independent IT Consultant/Auditor, Paul Kirvan Associates
    • Steve Tower, Principal Consultant, Prompta Consulting Group
    • Joe Starzyk, Senior Business Development Executive, IBM Global Services
    • Thomas Bronack, Enterprise Resiliency and Corporate Certification Consultant, DCAG
    • Paul S. Randal, CEO & Owner, SQLskills.com
    • Tom Baumgartner, Disaster Recovery Analyst, Catholic Health

    Bibliography

    Alton, Yoni. “Ransomware simulators – reality or a bluff?” Palo Alto Blog, 2 May 2022. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
    https://www.paloaltonetworks.com/blog/security-operations/ransomware-simulators-reality-or-a-bluff/

    Brathwaite, Shimon. “How to Test your Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan,” Security Made Simple, 13 Nov 2022. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
    https://www.securitymadesimple.org/cybersecurity-blog/how-to-test-your-business-continuity-and-disaster-recovery-plan

    The Business Continuity Institute. Good Practice Guidelines: 2018 Edition. The Business Continuity Institute, 2017.

    Emigh, Jacqueline. “Disaster Recovery Testing: Ensuring Your DR Plan Works,” Enterprise Storage Forum, 28 May 2019. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
    Disaster Recovery Testing: Ensuring Your DR Plan Works | Enterprise Storage Forum

    Gardner, Dana. "Case Study: Strategic Approach to Disaster Recovery and Data Lifecycle Management Pays off for Australia's SAI Global." ZDNet. BriefingsDirect, 26 Apr 2012. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
    http://www.zdnet.com/article/case-study-strategic-approach-to-disaster-recovery-and-data-lifecycle-management-pays-off-for-australias-sai-global/.

    IBM. “Section 11. Testing the Disaster Recovery Plan.” IBM, 2 Aug 2021. Accessed 31 Jan 2023. Section 11. Testing the disaster recovery plan - IBM Documentation Lutkevich, Ben and Alexander Gillis. “Chaos Engineering”. TechTarget, Jun 2021. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
    https://www.techtarget.com/searchitoperations/definition/chaos-engineering

    Monperrus, Martin. “Principles of Antifragility.” Arxiv Forum, 7 June 2017. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
    https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1404/1404.3056.pdf

    “Principles of Chaos Engineering.” Principles of Chaos Engineering, 2019 March. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
    https://principlesofchaos.org/

    Sloss, Benjamin Treynor. “Introduction.” Site Reliability Engineering. Ed. Betsy Beyer. O’Reilly Media, 2017. Accessed 31 Jan 2023.
    https://sre.google/sre-book/introduction/

    The Rapid Application Selection Framework

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    • Parent Category Name: Selection & Implementation
    • Parent Category Link: /selection-and-implementation
    • Selection takes forever. Traditional software selection drags on for years, sometimes in perpetuity.
    • IT is viewed as a bottleneck and the business has taken control of software selection.
    • “Gut feel” decisions rule the day. Intuition, not hard data, guides selection, leading to poor outcomes.
    • Negotiations are a losing battle. Money is left on the table by inexperienced negotiators.
    • Overall: Poor selection processes lead to wasted time, wasted effort, and applications that continually disappoint.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Adopt a formal methodology to accelerate and improve software selection results.
    • Improve business satisfaction by including the right stakeholders and delivering new applications on a truly timely basis.
    • Kill the “sacred cow” requirements that only exist because “it’s how we’ve always done it.”
    • Forget about “RFP” overload and hone in on the features that matter to your organization.
    • Skip the guesswork and validate decisions with real data.
    • Take control of vendor “dog and pony shows” with single-day, high-value, low-effort, rapid-fire investigative interviews.
    • Master vendor negotiations and never leave money on the table.

    Impact and Result

    Improving software selection is a critical project that will deliver huge value.

    • Hit a home run with your business stakeholders: use a data-driven approach to select the right application vendor for their needs – fast.
    • Shatter stakeholder expectations with truly rapid application selections.
    • Boost collaboration and crush the broken telephone with concise and effective stakeholder meetings.
    • Lock in hard savings and do not pay list price by using data-driven tactics.

    The Rapid Application Selection Framework Research & Tools

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

    1. The Rapid Application Selection Framework

    • The Rapid Application Selection Framework Deck

    2. The Guide to Software Selection: A Business Stakeholder Manual

    • The Guide to Software Selection: A Business Stakeholder Manual

    3. The Software Selection Workbook

    • The Software Selection Workbook

    4. The Vendor Evaluation Workbook

    • The Vendor Evaluation Workbook
    [infographic]

    Switching Software Vendors Overwhelmingly Drives Increased Satisfaction

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    Organizations risk being locked in a circular trap of inertia from auto-renewing their software. With inertia comes complacency, leading to a decrease in overall satisfaction. Indeed, organizations are uniformly choosing to renew their software – even if they don’t like the vendor!

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Renewal is an opportunity cost. Switching poorly performing software substantially drives increased satisfaction, and it potentially lowers vendor costs in the process. To realize maximum gains, it’s essential to have a repeatable process in place.

    Impact and Result

    Realize the benefits of switching by using Info-Tech’s five action steps to optimize your vendor switching processes:

    1. Identify switch opportunities.
    2. Evaluate your software.
    3. Build the business case.
    4. Optimize selection method.
    5. Plan implementation.

    Switching Software Vendors Overwhelmingly Drives Increased Satisfaction Research & Tools

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

    1. Why you should consider switching software vendors

    Use this outline of key statistics to help make the business case for switching poorly performing software.

    • Switching Existing Software Vendors Overwhelmingly Drives Increased Satisfaction Storyboard

    2. How to optimize your software vendor switching process

    Optimize your software vendor switching processes with five action steps.

    [infographic]

    Drive Customer Convenience by Enabling Text-Based Customer Support

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    • Text messaging services and applications (such as SMS, iMessage, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger) have seen explosive growth over the last decade. They are an entrenched part of consumers’ daily lives. For many demographics, text messaging rather than audio calls is the preferred medium of communication via smartphone.
    • Despite the popularity of text messaging services and applications with consumers, organizations have been slow to adequately incorporate these channels into their customer service strategy.
    • The result is a major disconnect between the channel preferences of consumers and the customer service options being offered by businesses.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • IT must work with their counterparts in customer service to build a technology roadmap that incorporates text messaging services and apps as a core channel for customer interaction. Doing so will increase IT’s stature as an innovator in the eyes of the business, while allowing the broader organization to leapfrog competitors that have not yet added text-based support to their repertoire of service channels. Incorporating text messaging as a customer service channel will increase customer satisfaction, improve retention, and reduce cost-to-serve.
    • A prudent strategy for text-based customer service begins with defining the value proposition and creating objectives: is there a strong fit with the organization’s customers and service use cases? Next, organizations must create a technology enablement roadmap for text-based support that incorporates the right tools and applications to deliver it. Finally, the strategy must address best practices for text-based customer service workflows and appropriate resourcing.

    Impact and Result

    • Understand the value and use cases for text-based customer support.
    • Create a framework for enabling technologies that will support scalable text-based customer service.
    • Improve underlying business metrics such as customer satisfaction, retention, and time to resolution by having a plan for text-based support.
    • Better align IT with customer service and support needs.

    Drive Customer Convenience by Enabling Text-Based Customer Support Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should be leveraging text-based services for customer support, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Create the business case for text-based customer support

    Understand the use cases and benefits of using text-based services for customer support, and establish how they align to the organization’s current service strategy.

    • Drive Customer Convenience by Enabling Text-Based Customer Support – Phase 1: Create the Business Case for Text-Based Customer Support
    • Text-Based Customer Support Strategic Summary Template
    • Text-Based Customer Support Project Charter Template
    • Text-Based Customer Support Business Case Assessment

    2. Create a technology enablement framework for text-based customer support

    Identify the right applications that will be needed to adequately support a text-based support strategy.

    • Drive Customer Convenience by Enabling Text-Based Customer Support – Phase 2: Create a Technology Enablement Framework for Text-Based Customer Support
    • Text-Based Customer Support Requirements Traceability Matrix

    3. Create customer service workflows for text-based support

    Create repeatable workflows and escalation policies for text-centric support.

    • Drive Customer Convenience by Enabling Text-Based Customer Support – Phase 3: Create Customer Service Workflows for Text-Based Support
    • Text-Based Customer Support TCO Tool
    • Text-Based Customer Support Acceptable Use Policy
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Drive Customer Convenience by Enabling Text-Based Customer Support

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

    1 Create the Business Case for Text-Based Support

    The Purpose

    Create the business case for text-based support.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A clear direction on the drivers and value proposition of text-based customer support for your organization.

    Activities

    1.1 Identify customer personas.

    1.2 Define business and IT drivers.

    Outputs

    Identification of IT and business drivers.

    Project framework and guiding principles for the project.

    2 Create a Technology Enablement Framework for Text-Based Support

    The Purpose

    Create a technology enablement framework for text-based support.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Prioritized requirements for text-based support and a vetted shortlist of the technologies needed to enable it.

    Activities

    2.1 Determine the correct migration strategy based on the current version of Exchange.

    2.2 Plan the user groups for a gradual deployment.

    Outputs

    Exchange migration strategy.

    User group organization by priority of migration.

    3 Create Service Workflows for Text-Based Support

    The Purpose

    Create service workflows for text-based support.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Customer service workflows and escalation policies, as well as risk mitigation considerations.

    Present final deliverable to key stakeholders.

    Activities

    3.1 Review the text channel matrix.

    3.2 Build the inventory of customer service applications that are needed to support text-based service.

    Outputs

    Extract requirements for text-based customer support.

    4 Finalize Your Text Service Strategy

    The Purpose

    Finalize the text service strategy.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Resource and risk mitigation plan.

    Activities

    4.1 Build core customer service workflows for text-based support.

    4.2 Identify text-centric risks and create a mitigation plan.

    4.3 Identify metrics for text-based support.

    Outputs

    Business process models assigned to text-based support.

    Formulation of risk mitigation plan.

    Key metrics for text-based support.

    Business Process Controls and Internal Audit

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    Establish an Effective System of Internal IT Controls to Mitigate Risks.

    Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team

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    • You have identified that a change to your sourcing strategy is required, based on market and company factors.
    • You are ready to select a new sourcing partner to drive innovation, time to market, increased quality, and improved financial performance.
    • Taking on a new partner is a significant investment and risk, and you must get it right the first time.
    • You need to make a change now to prevent losing clients and falling further behind your performance targets and your market.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Selecting a sourcing partner is a function of matching complex factors to your own firm. It is not a simple RFP exercise; it requires significant introspection, proactive planning, and in-depth investigation of potential partners to choose the right fit.

    Impact and Result

    Choosing the right sourcing partner is a four-step process:

    1. Assess your companies' skills and processes in the key areas of risk to sourcing initiatives.
    2. Based on the current situation, define a profile for the matching sourcing partner.
    3. Seek matching partners from the market, either in terms of vendor partners or in terms of sourcing locations.
    4. Based on the choice of partner, build a plan to implement the partnership, define metrics to measure success, and a process to monitor.

    Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team Research & Tools

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

    1. Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team Storyboard – Use this presentation to select a partner to best fit your sourcing needs and deliver long-term value.

    This project helps select a partner for sourcing of your development team so that you can realize the benefits from changing your sourcing strategy.

    • Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team Storyboard

    2. Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team Presentation Template – Use this template to build a presentation to detail your decision on a sourcing partner for your development team.

    This presentation template is designed to capture the results from the exercises within the storyboard and allow users to build a presentation to leadership showing how selection was done.

    • Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team Presentation Template

    3. Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team Presentation Example – Use this as a completed example of the template.

    This presentation template portrays what the completed template looks like by showing sample data in all tables. It allows members to see how each exercise leads to the final selection of a partner.

    • Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team Example Template
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Application Development Team

    Choose the right partner to enable your firm to maximize the value realized from your sourcing strategy.

    Analyst Perspective

    Selecting the right partner for your sourcing needs is no longer a cost-based exercise. Driving long-term value comes from selecting the partner who best matches your firm on a wide swath of factors and fits your needs like a glove.

    Sourcing in the past dealt with a different kind of conversation involving two key questions:

    Where will the work be done?

    How much will it cost?

    How people think about sourcing has changed significantly. People are focused on gaining a partner, and not just a vendor to execute a single transaction. They will add skills your team lacks, and an ability to adapt to your changing needs, all while ensuring you operate within any constraints based on your business.

    Selecting a sourcing partner is a matching exercise that requires you to look deep into yourself, understand key factors about your firm, and then seek the partner who best meets your profile.

    The image contains a picture of Dr. Suneel Ghei.

    Dr. Suneel Ghei
    Principal Research Director, Application Development
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Common Obstacles

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    • You have identified that a change to your sourcing strategy is required based on market and company factors.
    • You are ready to select a new sourcing partner to drive innovation, time to market, increased quality, and improve financial performance.
    • Taking on a new partner is a significant investment and risk, and you must get it right the first time.
    • You need to make a change now to avoid falling further behind your performance targets and your market, and losing clients.

    Almost half of all sourcing initiatives do not realize the projected savings, and the biggest reason is the choice of partner.

    The market for Application Development partners has become more diverse, increasing choice and the risk of making a costly mistake by choosing the wrong partner.

    Firms struggle with how best to support the sourcing partner and allocate resources with the right skills to maximize success, increasing the cost and time to implement, and limiting benefits.

    Making the wrong choice means inferior products, and higher costs and losing both clients and reputation.

    • Choosing the right sourcing partner is a four-step process:
    1. Assess your company's skills and processes in the key areas of risk to sourcing initiatives.
    2. Based on the current situation, define a profile for the matching sourcing partner.
    3. Seek matching partners from the market, either in terms of vendor partners or in terms of sourcing locations.
    4. Based on your choice of partner, build a plan to implement the partnership, and define metrics to measure success and a process to monitor.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Successfully selecting a sourcing partner is not a simple RFP exercise to choose the lowest cost. It is a complex process of introspection, detailed examination of partners and locations, and matching the fit. It requires you to seek a partner that is the Yin to your Yang, and failure is not an option.

    You need a new source for development resources

    You are facing immediate challenges that require a new approach to development resourcing.

    • Your firm is under fire; you are facing pressures financially from clients and your competitors.
    • Your pace of innovation and talent sourcing is too slow and too limiting.
    • Your competition is moving faster and your clients are considering their options.
    • Revenues and costs of development are trending in the wrong direction.
    • You need to act now to avoid spiraling further.

    Given how critical our applications are to the business and our clients, there is no room for error in choosing our partner.

    A study of 121 firms outsourcing various processes found that 50% of those surveyed saw no gains from the outsourcing arrangement, so it is critical to make the right choice the first time.

    Source: Zhang et al

    Big challenges await you on the journey

    The road to improving sourcing has many potholes.

    • In a study of 121 firms who moved development offshore, almost 50% of all outsourcing and offshoring initiatives do not achieve the desired results.
    • In another study focused on large corporations, it was shown that 70% of respondents saw negative outcomes from offshoring development.
    • Globalization of IT Services and the ability to work from anywhere have contributed to a significant increase in the number of development firms to choose from.
    • Choosing and implementing a new partner is costly, and the cost of choosing the wrong partner and then trying to correct your course is significant in dollars and reputation:
      • Costs to find a new partner and transition
      • Lost revenue due to product issues
      • Loss of brand and reputation due to poor choice
    • The wrong choice can also cost you in terms of your own resources, increasing the risk of losing more knowledge and skills.

    A survey of 25 large corporate firms that outsourced development offshore found that 70% of them had negative outcomes.

    (Source: University of Oregon Applied Information Management, 2019)

    Info-Tech’s approach

    Selecting the right partner is a matching exercise.

    Selecting the right partner is a complex exercise with many factors

    1. Look inward. Assess your culture, your skills, and your needs.
    • Market
    • People
    • Culture
    • Technical aspects
  • Create a profile for the perfect partner to fit your firm.
    • Sourcing Strategy
    • Priorities
    • Profile
  • Find the partner that best fits your needs
    • Define RFx
    • Target Partners
    • Evaluate
  • Implement the partner and put in metrics and process to manage.
    • Contract Partner
    • Develop Goals
    • Create Process and Metrics

    The Info-Tech difference:

    1. Assess your own organization’s characteristics and capabilities in four key areas.
    2. Based on these characteristics and the sourcing strategy you are seeking to implement, build a profile for your perfect partner.
    3. Define an RFx and assessment matrix to survey the market and select the best partner.
    4. Implement the partner with process and controls to manage the relationship, built collaboratively and in place day 1.

    Insight summary

    Overarching insight

    Successfully selecting a sourcing partner is not a simple RFP exercise to choose the lowest cost. It is a complex process of introspection, detailed examination of partners and locations, and matching the fit. It requires you to seek a partner that is the Yin to your Yang, and failure is not an option.

    Phase 1 insight

    Fitting each of these pieces to the right partner is key to building a long-term relationship of value.

    Selecting a partner requires you to look at your firm in depth from a business, technical, and organizational culture perspective.

    Phase 2 insight

    The factors we have defined serve to build us a profile for the ideal partner to engage in sourcing our development team. This profile will lead us to be able to define our RFP / RFI and assess respondents.

    Phase 3/4 insight

    Implement the relationship the same way you want it to work, as one team. Work together on contract mechanism, shared goals, metrics, and performance measurement. By making this transparent you hasten the development of a joint team, which will lead to long-term success.

    Tactical insight

    Ensure you assess not just where you are but where you are going, in choosing a partner. For example, you must consider future markets you might enter when choosing the right sourcing, or outsourcing location to maintain compliance.

    Tactical insight

    Sourcing is not a replacement for your full team. Skills must be maintained in house as well, so the partner must be willing to work with the in-house team to share knowledge and collaborate on deliverables.

    Addressing the myth – Single country offshoring or outsourcing

    Research shows that a multi-country approach has a higher chance of success.

    • Research shows that firms trying their own captive development centers fail 20% of the time. ( Journal of Information Technology, 2008)
    • Further, the overall cost of ownership for an offshore center has shown to be significantly higher than the cost of outsourcing, as the offshore center requires more internal management and leadership.
    • Research shows that offshoring requires the offshore location to also house business team members to allow key relationships to be built and ensure more access to expertise. (Arxiv, 2021)
    • Given the specificity of employment laws, cultural differences, and leadership needs, it is very beneficial to have a Corporate HR presence in countries where an offshore center is being set up. (Arxiv, 2021)
    • Lastly, given the changing climate on security, geopolitical changes, and economic factors, our research with service providers and corporate clients shows a need to have more diversity in provider location than a single center can provide.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Long-term success of sourcing requires more than a development center. It requires a location that houses business and HR staff to enable the new development team to learn and succeed.

    Addressing the myth – Outsourcing is a simple RFP for skills and lowest cost

    Success in outsourcing is an exercise in finding a match based on complex factors.

    • In the past, outsourcing was a simple RFP exercise to find the cheapest country with the skills.
    • Our research shows this is no longer true; the decision is now more complex.
    • Competition has driven costs higher, while time business integration and security constraints have served to limit the markets available.
    • Company culture fit is key to the ability to work as one team, which research shows is a key element in delivery of long-term value. (University of Oregon, 2019).
    • These are some of the many factors that need to be considered as you choose your outsourcing partner.
    • The right decision is to find the vendor that best matches the current state of your culture, meets your market constraints, and will allow for best integration to your team – it's not about cheapest or pure skills. (IEEE Access, 2020)

    Info-Tech Insight

    Finding the right outsourcing vendor is an exercise in knowing yourself and then finding the best match to align with your key traits. It's not just costs and skills, but the partner who best matches with your ability to mitigate the risks of outsourcing.

    Phase 1

    Look inward to gain insight on key factors

    Introspection

    1.1 Assess your market factors

    1.2 Determine your people factors

    1.3 Review your current culture

    1.4 Document your technical factors

    Profiling

    2.1 Recall your sourcing strategy

    2.2 Prioritize your company factors

    2.3 Create target profile

    Partner selection

    3.1 Review your RFx

    3.2 Identify target vendors

    3.3 Evaluate vendor

    responses

    Implementation

    4.1 Engage partner to choose contract mechanism

    4.2 Engage partner team to define goals

    4.3 Choose your success

    metrics

    This phase will walk you through assessing and documenting the key driving factors about your firm and the current situation.

    By defining these factors, you will be able to apply this information in the matching process to select the best fit in a partner.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    Line of Business leaders

    Technology leaders

    Key criteria to assess your firm

    Research shows firms must assess themselves in different areas.

    Market factors

    • Who are your clients and your competitors, and what legal constraints do you face?

    People / Process factors

    • What employee skills are you seeking, what is your maturity in product management and stakeholder engagement, and what languages are spoken most predominantly?

    Cultural factors

    • What is your culture around communications, collaboration, change management, and conflict resolution?

    Technical factors

    • What is your current / future technical platform, and what is the maturity of your applications?

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    When assessing these areas, consider where you are today and where you want to go tomorrow, as choosing a partner is a long-term endeavor.

    Step 1.1

    Assess your market factors

    Activities

    1.1.1 Review your client list and future projections to determine your market factors.

    1.1.2 Review your competitive analysis to determine your competitive factors

    This step involves the following participants:

    Business leaders

    Product Owners

    Technology leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    Details of key market factors that will drive the selection of the right partner.

    Market factors

    The Market has a lot to say about the best match for your application development partner.

    Research in the space has defined key market-based factors that are critical when selecting a partner.

    1. Market sectors you service or plan to service – This is critical, as many market sectors have constraints on where their data can be accessed or stored. These restrictions also change over time, so they must be consistently reviewed.
    • E.g. Canadian government data must be stored and only accessed in Canada.
    • E.g. US Government contracts require service providers to avoid certain countries.
  • Your competitors – Your competitors can often seize on differences and turn them to differentiators; for example, offshoring to certain countries can be played up as a risk by a competitor who does all their work in a particular country.
  • Your clients – Research shows that clients can have very distinct views on services being performed in certain countries due to perceived risk, culture, and geopolitical factors. Understanding the views of major clients on globalization of services is a key factor in maintaining client satisfaction.
  • Info-Tech Insight

    Understanding your current and future market factors ensure that your business can not only be successful with the chosen partner today, but also in the future.

    1.1.1 Assess your market factors

    30 min

    Market factors

    1. Group your current client list into three categories:
      1. Those that have no restrictions on data security, privacy or location.
      2. Those that ask for assurances on data security, privacy and location.
      3. Those clients who have compliance restrictions related to data security, privacy, and location.
    2. Categorize future markets into the same three categories.
    3. Based on revenue projections, estimate the revenue from each category as a percentage of your total revenue.

    Download the Select a Sourcing Partner Presentation Template

    Input Output
    • Current client list
    • Future market plans
    • Competitive analysis
    • Completion of the Market Factors chart in the Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team template
    Materials Participants
    • Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team Presentation template
    • Technology leaders
    • Product owners
    • Line of business leaders
    • Finance leaders

    Assess your market factors

    Market and sector

    Market share and constraints

    Market category

    Sector – Public, private or both

    Market share of category

    Key areas of concern

    Not constrained by data privacy, security or location

    Private

    50%

    Require assurances on data security, privacy or location

    Public

    45%

    Data access

    Have constraints that preclude choices related to data security, privacy and location

    Public

    5%

    Data residency

    1.1.2 Review your competitive factors

    30 min

    Competitive factors

    1. List your largest competitors.
    2. Document their sourcing strategies for their development team – are they all onshore or nearshore? Do they outsource?
    3. Based on this, identify competitive threats based on changing sourcing strategies.

    Download the Select a Sourcing Partner Presentation Template

    Input Output
    • Current client list
    • Future market plans
    • Competitive analysis
    • Completion of the Market Factors chart in the Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team template
    Materials Participants
    • Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team Presentation template
    • Technology leaders
    • Product owners
    • Line of business leaders
    • Finance leaders

    Review your competitive factors

    Competitors

    Competitor sourcing strategy

    Competitive threats

    Competitor

    Where is the market?

    Is this onshore / near shore / offshore?

    Data residency

    How could competitors take advantage of a change in our sourcing strategy?

    Competitor X

    Canada / US

    All work done in house and onshore

    Kept in Canada / US

    If we source offshore, we will face a Made in Canada / US threat

    Step 1.2

    Consider your people-related factors

    Activities

    1.2.1 Define your people factors

    1.2.2 Assess your process factors

    This step involves the following participants:

    Technical leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    Details of key people factors that will drive the selection of the right partner.

    People / process factors

    People and process have a large hand in the success or failure of a partner relationship.

    • Alignment of people and process are critical to the success of the partner relationship over the long term.
    • In research on outsourcing / offshoring, Rahman et al identified ten factors that directly impact success or failure in offshoring or outsourcing of development.
    • Key among them are the following:
      • Employee skills
      • Project management
      • Maturity of process concerning product and client management
      • Language barrier

    Info-Tech Insight

    People are a critical resource in any sourcing strategy. Making sure the people and the processes will mesh seamlessly is how to ensure success.

    1.2.1 Define your people factors

    30 min

    Skills Inventory

    1. List skills needed in the development team to service current needs.
    2. Based on future innovation and product direction, add skills you foresee needing in the next 12-24 months. Where do you see a new technology platform (e.g. move from .NET to Java) or innovation (addition of Mobile)?
    3. List current skills present in the team.
    4. Identify skills gaps.

    Download the Select a Sourcing Partner Presentation Template

    InputOutput
    • Product plans for current and future products
    • Technology platform plans for current products
    • Future innovation plans
    • People- and process-related factors that influence sourcing decisions
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team Presentation template
    • Technology leaders
    • Product owners
    • Solution architects

    Assess your people - Skills inventory

    Skills required

    Strategic value

    Skills present

    Skill you are seeking

    Required today or in the future

    Rate the skill level required in this area

    Is this a strategic focus for the firm for future targets?

    Is this skill present in the team today?

    Rate current skill level (H/M/L)

    Java Development

    Future

    High

    Yes

    No

    Low

    .Net Development

    Today

    Med

    No

    Yes

    High

    1.2.2 Assess your process factors

    30 min

    Process factors

    1. Do you have a defined product ownership practice?
    2. How mature is the product ownership for the product you are seeking to change sourcing for (H/M/L)?
    3. Do you have project management principles and governance in place for software releases?
    4. What is the relative maturity / skill in the areas you are seeking sourcing for (H/M/L)?

    Download the Select a Sourcing Partner Presentation Template

    InputOutput
    • Product plans for current and future products
    • Technology platform plans for current products
    • Future innovation plans
    • People- and process-related factors that influence sourcing decisions
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team Presentation template
    • Technology leaders
    • Product owners
    • Solution architects

    Assess your process factors

    Product ownership

    Project management

    Product where sourcing is being changed

    Product ownership in place?

    Skills / maturity rating (H/M/L)

    Project management / governance in place for software releases

    Rate current maturity / skill level (H/M/L)

    ABC

    Yes

    High

    Yes

    High

    SQW

    No

    Low

    Yes

    High

    Step 1.3

    Review your current culture

    Activities

    1.3.1 Assess your communications factors

    1.3.2 Assess your conflict resolution factors

    This step involves the following participants:

    Technical leaders

    Product owners

    Project managers

    Outcomes of this step

    Details of key culture factors that will drive the selection of the right partner.

    Cultural factors

    Organization culture fit is a driver of collaboration between the teams, which drives success.

    • In their study of country attractiveness for sourcing development, Kotlarsky and Oshri point to the ability of the client and their sourcing partner to work as one team as a key to success.
    • This requires synergies in many cultural factors to avoid costly miscommunications and misinterpretations that damage collaboration.
    • Key factors in achieving this are:
      • Communications methodology and frequency; managing and communicating to the teams as one team vs two, and communicating at all levels, vs top down.
      • Managing the team as one integrated team, with collaboration enabled between all resources, rather than the more adversarial client vs partner approach.
      • Conflict resolution strategies must align so all members of the extended team work together to resolve conflict vs the traditional “Blame the Contractors”.
      • Strong change management is required to keep all team members aligned.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Synergy of culture is what enables a good partner selection to become a long-term relationship of value.

    1.3.1 Assess your communications factors

    30 min

    1. List all the methods you use to communicate with your development team – face to face, email, conference call, written.
    2. For each form of communication confirm frequency, medium, and audience (team vs one-on-one)
    3. Confirm if these communications take into account External vs Internal resources and different time zones, languages, and cultures.
    4. Is your development team broken up into teams by function, by location, by skill, etc., or do you operate as one team?

    Download the Select a Sourcing Partner Presentation Template

    Input Output
    • Communication process with existing development team
    • Examples of how external staff have been integrated into the process
    • Examples of conflicts and how they were resolved
    • Documentation of key cultural characteristics that need to be part of provider profiling
    Materials Participants
    • Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team Presentation template
    • Technology leaders
    • Product owners
    • Project managers

    Assess your communications strategy

    Communications

    Type

    Frequency

    Audience

    One communication or one per audience?

    Level of two-way dialogue

    Face-to-face team meetings

    Weekly

    All developers

    One

    High

    Daily standup

    Daily

    Per team

    One per audience

    Low

    1.3.2 Assess your conflict resolution factors

    30 min

    1. How does your organization handle the following types of conflict? Rate from 1-5, with 1 being hierarchical and 5 being openly collaborative.
      1. Developers on a team disagree.
      2. Development team disagrees with manager.
      3. Development team disagrees with product owner.
      4. Development team disagrees with line of business.
    2. Rate each conflict resolution strategy based on effectiveness.
    3. Confirm if this type of strategy is used for internal and external resources, or internal only.

    Download the Select a Sourcing Partner Presentation Template

    InputOutput
    • Communication process with existing development team
    • Examples of how external staff have been integrated into the process
    • Examples of conflicts and how they were resolved
    • Documentation of key cultural characteristics that need to be part of provider profiling
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team Presentation template
    • Technology leaders
    • Product owners
    • Project managers

    Assess your conflict resolution strategy

    Conflict

    Resolution strategy

    Effectiveness

    Audience

    Conflict type

    Rate the resolution strategy from hierarchical to collaborative (1-5)

    How effective is this method of resolution from 1-5?

    Is this strategy used for external parties as well as internal?

    Developer to product owner

    44

    Yes

    Developer to manager

    12

    Yes

    Step 1.4

    Document your technical factors

    Activities

    1.4.1 Document your product / platform factors

    1.4.2 Document your environment details

    This step involves the following participants:

    Technical leaders

    Product owners

    Outcomes of this step

    Details of key technical factors that will drive the selection of the right partner.

    Technical factors

    Technical factors are still the foundation for a Development sourcing relationship.

    • While there are many organizational factors to consider, the matching of technological factors is still the root on which the sourcing relationship is built; the end goal is to build better software.
    • Key technical Items that need to be aligned based on the research are:
      • Technical infrastructure
      • Development environments
      • Development methodology and tools
      • Deployment methodology and tools
      • Lack of/poor-quality technical documentation
    • Most RFPs focus purely on skills, but without alignment on the above items, work becomes impossible to move forward quickly, limiting the chances of success.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Technical factors are the glue that enables teams to function together. Ensuring that they are fully integrated is what enables team integration; seams in that integration represent failure points.

    1.4.1 Document your product / platform factors

    30 mins

    1. How many environments does each software release go through from the start of development through release to production?
    2. What is the infrastructure and development platform?

    Download the Select a Sourcing Partner Presentation Template

    InputOutput
    • Development process
    • Deployment process
    • Operations process
    • IT security policies
    • Documentation of key technical characteristics that need to be part of provider profiling
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team Presentation template
    • Development leaders
    • Deployment team leaders
    • Infrastructure leaders
    • IT operations leaders
    • Product owners
    • Project managers

    Document your product / platform

    Product / Platform

    Product you are seeking a sourcing solution for

    What is the current infrastructure platform?

    How many environments does the product pass through?

    What is the current development toolset?

    ABC

    Windows

    Dev – QA – Preprod - Prod

    .Net / Visual Studio

    1.4.2 Document your environment details

    30 min

    For each environment detail the following:

    1. Environment on premises or in cloud
    2. Access allowed to external parties
    3. Production data present and unmasked
    4. Deployment process: automated or manual
    5. Tools used for automated deployment
    6. Can the environment be restored to last known state automatically?
    7. Does documentation exist on the environment, processes and procedures?

    Download the Select a Sourcing Partner Presentation Template

    InputOutput
    • Development process
    • Deployment process
    • Operations process
    • IT security policies
    • Documentation of key technical characteristics that need to be part of provider profiling
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team Presentation template
    • Development leaders
    • Deployment team leaders
    • Infrastructure leaders
    • IT operations leaders
    • Product owners
    • Project managers

    Document Your Environment Details

    Environment

    Location

    Access

    Deployment

    Data

    Name of Environment

    Is the environment on premises or in the cloud (which cloud)?

    Is external access allowed?

    Is deployment automated or manual?

    Tool used for deployment

    Is reset automated?

    Does the environment contain unmasked production data?

    Dev

    Cloud

    Yes

    Automated

    Azure DevOps

    Yes

    No

    QA

    Cloud

    Yes

    Automated

    Azure DevOps

    Yes

    No

    Preprod

    On Premises

    No

    Manual

    N/A

    No

    Yes

    Phase 2

    Introspection

    1.1 Assess your market factors

    1.2 Determine your people factors

    1.3 Review your current culture

    1.4 Document your technical factors

    Profiling

    2.1 Recall your sourcing strategy

    2.2 Prioritize your company factors

    2.3 Create target profile

    Partner selection

    3.1 Review your RFx

    3.2 Identify target vendors

    3.3 Evaluate vendor

    responses

    Implementation

    4.1 Engage partner to choose contract mechanism

    4.2 Engage partner team to define goals

    4.3 Choose your success

    metrics

    This phase will help you to build a profile of the partner you should target in your search for a sourcing partner.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    Technology leaders

    Procurement leaders

    Product owners

    Project managers

    Build a profile for the right partner

    • Finding the perfect partner is a puzzle to solve, an exercise between the firm and the partners.
    • It is necessary to be able to prioritize and to identify opportunities where you can adapt to create a fit.
    • You must also bring forward the sourcing model you are seeking and prioritize factors based on that; for example, if you are seeking a nearshore partner, language may be less of a factor.

    Review factors based on sourcing choice

    Different factors are more important depending on whether you are insourcing or outsourcing.

    Key risks for insourcing

    • Alignment on communication strategy and method
    • Ability to align culturally
    • Need for face-to-face relationship building
    • Need for coaching skills

    Key risks for outsourcing

    • Giving control to the vendor
    • Legal and regulatory issues
    • Lack of knowledge at the vendor
    • Language and cultural fit

    Assessing your firm's position

    • The model you derived from the Sourcing Strategy research will inform the prioritization of factors for matching partners.

    Info-Tech Insight

    To find the best location for insourcing, or the best vendor for outsourcing, you need to identify your firm's positions on key risk areas.

    Step 2.1

    Recall your sourcing strategy

    Activities

    2.1.1 Define the key factors in your sourcing strategy

    This step involves the following participants:

    Technology Leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    Documentation of the Sourcing Strategy you arrived at in the Define a Sourcing Strategy exercises

    Choosing the right model

    The image contains a screenshot of the legend that will be used down below. The legend contains circles, from the left there is a empty circle, a one quarter filled circle, half filled circle, three-quarter filled circle , and a fully filled in circle.

    Determinant

    Key Questions to Ask

    Onshore

    Nearshore

    Offshore

    Outsource role(s)

    Outsource team

    Outsource product(s)

    Business dependence

    How much do you rely on business resources during the development cycle?

    The image contains a screenshot of the filled in whole circle to demonstrate high. The image contains a screenshot of the three-quarter filled circle to demonstrate medium high. The image contains a screenshot of the one-quarter filled circle to demonstrate medium low. The image contains a screenshot of the half filled circle to demonstrate medium. The image contains a screenshot of the one-quarter filled circle to demonstrate medium low. The image contains a screenshot of the empty circle to demonstrate low.

    Absorptive capacity

    How successful has the organization been at bringing outside knowledge back into the firm?

    The image contains a screenshot of the empty circle to demonstrate low. The image contains a screenshot of the one-quarter filled circle to demonstrate medium low. The image contains a screenshot of the one-quarter filled circle to demonstrate medium low. The image contains a screenshot of the half filled circle to demonstrate medium. The image contains a screenshot of the one-quarter filled circle to demonstrate medium low. The image contains a screenshot of the filled in whole circle to demonstrate high.

    Integration complexity

    How many integrations are required for the product to function – fewer than 5, 5-10, or more than 10?

    The image contains a screenshot of the filled in whole circle to demonstrate high. The image contains a screenshot of the three-quarter filled circle to demonstrate medium high. The image contains a screenshot of the three-quarter filled circle to demonstrate medium high. The image contains a screenshot of the half filled circle to demonstrate medium. The image contains a screenshot of the one-quarter filled circle to demonstrate medium low. The image contains a screenshot of the empty circle to demonstrate low.

    Product ownership

    Do you have full-time product owners in place for the products? Do product owners have control of their roadmaps?

    The image contains a screenshot of the one-quarter filled circle to demonstrate medium low. The image contains a screenshot of the half filled circle to demonstrate medium. The image contains a screenshot of the three-quarter filled circle to demonstrate medium high. The image contains a screenshot of the half filled circle to demonstrate medium. The image contains a screenshot of the filled in whole circle to demonstrate high. The image contains a screenshot of the filled in whole circle to demonstrate high.

    Organization culture fit

    What are your organization’s communication and conflict resolution strategies? Is your organization geographically dispersed?

    The image contains a screenshot of the one-quarter filled circle to demonstrate medium low. The image contains a screenshot of the one-quarter filled circle to demonstrate medium low. The image contains a screenshot of the three-quarter filled circle to demonstrate medium high. The image contains a screenshot of the one-quarter filled circle to demonstrate medium low. The image contains a screenshot of the three-quarter filled circle to demonstrate medium high. The image contains a screenshot of the filled in whole circle to demonstrate high.

    Vendor mgmt skills

    What is your skill level in vendor management? How old are your longest-standing vendor relationships?

    The image contains a screenshot of the empty circle to demonstrate low. The image contains a screenshot of the one-quarter filled circle to demonstrate medium low. The image contains a screenshot of the one-quarter filled circle to demonstrate medium low. The image contains a screenshot of the half filled circle to demonstrate medium. The image contains a screenshot of the three-quarter filled circle to demonstrate medium high. The image contains a screenshot of the filled in whole circle to demonstrate high.

    2.1.1 Define the key factors in your sourcing strategy

    30 min

    For each product you are seeking a sourcing strategy for, document the following:

    1. Product or team name.
    2. Sourcing strategy based on Define a Sourcing Strategy.
    3. The primary drivers that led to this selection – Business Dependence, Absorptive Capacity, Integration Complexity, Product Ownership, Culture or Vendor Management.
    4. The reasoning for the selection based on that factor – e.g. we chose nearshoring based on high business dependence by our development team.

    Download the Select a Sourcing Partner Presentation Template

    Input Output
    • Sourcing Strategy from Define a Sourcing Strategy for your Development Team
    • Reasoning that drove the sourcing strategy selection
    Materials Participants
    • Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team Presentation template
    • Technology leadership

    Define sourcing strategy factors

    Sourcing strategy

    Factors that led to selection

    Product you are seeking a sourcing solution for

    Strategy defined

    Key factors that led to that choice

    Reasoning

    ABC

    Outsourcing - Offshore

    • Product ownership
    • Business integration
    • Product maturity
    • Technical environment

    Mature product ownership and low requirement for direct business involvement.

    Mature product with lower environments in cloud.

    Step 2.2

    Prioritize your company factors

    Activities

    2.2.1 Prioritize the factors from your sourcing strategy and confirm if mitigation or adaptation are possible.

    This step involves the following participants:

    IT Leadership team

    Outcomes of this step

    Prioritized list of key factors

    2.2.1 Prioritize your sourcing strategy factors

    30 min

    1. For each of the factors listed in exercise 2.1, prioritize them by importance to the firm.
    2. For each factor, please confirm if there is room to drive change internally to overcome the lack of a match – for example, if the culture being changed in language and conflict resolution is an option, then say Yes for that factor.

    Download the Select a Sourcing Partner Presentation Template

    InputOutput
    • Sourcing Strategy factors from 2.1
    • Prioritized list of sourcing strategy factors
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team Presentation template
    • Technology leaders

    Sourcing strategy factors and priority

    Sourcing strategy

    Factors that led to selection

    Priority of factor in decision

    Change possible

    Product you are seeking a sourcing solution for

    Strategy defined

    Key factors that led to your choice

    Reasoning

    Priority of factor 1-x

    Is there an opportunity to adapt this factor to a partner?

    ABC

    Outsourcing - offshore

    • Product ownership
    • Business integration
    • Product maturity
    • Technical environment

    Mature product ownership

    Low requirement for direct business involvement

    Mature product with lower environments in cloud

    2

    1

    3

    N

    N

    Y

    Step 2.3

    Create target profile

    Activities

    2.3.1 Profile your best fit

    This step involves the following participants:

    IT Leadership team

    Outcomes of this step

    Profile of the target partner

    Profiling your best fit

    Creating a target profile will help you determine which partners should be included in the process.

    Given the complexity of all the factors and trying to find the best fit from a multitude of partners, Info-Tech recommends forming a target profile for your best fit of partner.

    This profile provides a detailed assessment matrix to use to review potential partners.

    Profile should be created based on priority; "must haves" are high priority, while properties that have mitigation opportunities are optional or lower priority.

    Criteria

    Priority

    Some US Govt contracts – data and staff in NATO

    1

    Windows environment – Azure DEVOPS

    2

    Clients in FS

    3

    Agile SDLC

    4

    Collaborative communication and conflict resolution

    5

    Mature product management

    6

    Languages English and Spanish

    7

    Partner Profile

    • Teams in NATO and non-NATO countries
    • Windows skills with Azure
    • Financial Services experience
    • Utilize Agile and willing to plug into our teams
    • Used to collaborating with clients in one team environment
    • One centre in Latin / South America

    Info-Tech Insight

    The factors we have defined serve to build us a profile for the ideal partner to engage in sourcing our development team. This profile will lead us to be able to define our RFP / RFI and assess respondents.

    Case study: Cognizant is partnering with clients on product development

    INDUSTRY: Technology Services

    SOURCE: Interview with Jay MacIsaac, Cognizant

    Cognizant is driving quality solutions for clients

    • Strives to be primarily an industry-aligned organization that delivers multiple service lines in multiple geographies.
    • Seeks to carefully consider client culture to create one team.
    • Value proposition is a consultative approach bringing thought leadership and mutually adding value to the relationship vs the more traditional order taker development partner
    • Wants to share in solution development to facilitate shared successes. Geographic alignment drives knowledge of the client and their challenges, not just about time zone and supportability.
    • Offers one of the largest offshore capabilities in the world, supported by local and nearshore resources to drive local knowledge.
    • Realizes today’s clients don’t typically want a black box, they are sophisticated and want transparency around the process and solution, to have a partner.
    • Understands that clients do want to know where the work is being delivered from and how it's being delivered, and want to help manage expectations and overall risk.

    Synergy with Info-Tech’s approach

    • Best relationship comes when teams operate as one.
    • Clients are seeking value, not a development black box.
    • Clients want to have a partner they can engage with, not just an order taker.
    • Goal is a one-team culture with shared goals and delivering business value.
    • Ideal is a partner that will add to their thinking, not echo it.

    Results of this approach

    • Cognizant is continuing to deliver double-digit growth and continues to strive for top quartile performance.
    • Growth in the client base has seen the company grow to over 340,000 associates worldwide.

    Case study: Cabot Technology Solutions uses industry knowledge to drive successful partnerships

    INDUSTRY: Technology Services

    SOURCE: Interview with Shibu Basheer, Cabot Technology Solutions

    Cabot Technology Solutions findings

    • Cabot Technology Solutions looks to partner with clients and deliver expertise and value, not just application development.
      • Focus on building deep knowledge in their chosen vertical, Healthcare.
      • Focus on partnering with clients in this space who are seeking a partner to provide industry knowledge and use this to propel them forward.
      • Look to work with clients seeking a one team philosophy.
      • Avoid clients looking for a cheap provider.
    • Recognizing the initial apprehension to India as a location, they have built a practice in Ontario that serves as a bridge for their offshore team.
    • Cabot overcame initial views and built trust, while integrating the India team in parallel.

    Synergy with Info-Tech approach

    • Preference is partners, not a client/vendor relationship.
    • Single country model is set aside in favor of mix of near and offshore.
    • Culture is a one team approach, not the more adversarial order-taker approach.
    • Goal is to build long-term relationships of value, not task management.

    Results of this approach

    • Cabot is a recognized as a top software development company in many markets across the USA.
    • Cabot continues to drive growth and build referenceable client relationships across North America.

    2.3.1 Profile your best fit

    30 min

    1. Document the list of skills you are seeking from the People Factors – Skills Inventory in Section 1.2 – these represent the skills you are seeking in a partner.
    2. Document the culture you are looking for in a partner with respect to communications and conflict resolution in the culture section of the requirements – this comes from Section 1.3.
    3. Confirm the type of partner you are seeking – nearshore, offshore, or outsourcing based on the sourcing strategy priorities in Section 2.2.
    4. Confirm constraints that the partner must work under based on constraints from your market and competitor factors in Section 1.1.
    5. Confirm your technical requirements in terms of environments, tools, and processes that the vendor must align to from Section 1.4.

    Download the Select a Sourcing Partner Presentation Template

    Input Output

    All exercises done in Steps 11-1.4 and 2.1-2.2

    Profile of a target partner to drive the RFx Criteria

    Materials Participants

    Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team Presentation template

    Development leaders

    Deployment team leaders

    Infrastructure leaders

    IT operations leaders

    Product owners

    Project managers

    RFP skills requirement

    People skills required

    Product ownership

    Project management

    Skill

    Skill level required

    Tools / platform requirement

    Details of product management methodology and skills

    Details of firm's project management methodology

    .NET

    Medium

    Windows

    Highly mature, high skill

    Highly mature, high skill

    Java

    High

    Windows

    Low

    High

    RFx cultural characteristics

    Communication strategy

    Conflict resolution

    Organization / management

    Communication mediums supported

    Frequency of meetings expected

    Conflict resolutions strategies used at the firm

    Management methodology

    Face to face

    Weekly

    Collaborative

    Online

    Daily

    Hierarchical with manager

    Hierarchical

    RFx market constraints

    Constraints

    Partner proposal

    Constraint type

    Restrictions

    Market size required for

    Reasoning

    Data residency

    Data must stay in Canada for Canadian Gov't clients

    5% Canada public sector

    Competitive

    Offshoring dev means competition can take advantage

    95% Clients

    Need strategy to show data and leadership in NA, but delivering more innovation at lower cost by going offshore

    RFx technical requirements

    Technical environments

    Infrastructure

    Alignment of SDLC

    Tools required for development team

    Access control software required

    Infrastructure location

    Number of environments from development to production

    .Net Visual Studio

    Microsoft

    Azure

    4

    RFx scope of services

    Work being sourced

    Team sizing

    Work being sourced

    Skill level required

    Average size of release

    Releases per year

    Java development of new product

    High

    3-month development

    6

    .NET staff augmentation

    Medium

    ½-month development

    12

    Phase 3

    Choose the partner that will best enable you to move forward as one integrated team.

    Introspection

    1.1 Assess your market factors

    1.2 Determine your people factors

    1.3 Review your current culture

    1.4 Document your technical factors

    Profiling

    2.1 Recall your sourcing strategy

    2.2 Prioritize your company factors

    2.3 Create target profile

    Partner selection

    3.1 Review your RFx

    3.2 Identify target vendors

    3.3 Evaluate vendor

    responses

    Implementation

    4.1 Engage partner to choose contract mechanism

    4.2 Engage partner team to define goals

    4.3 Choose your success

    metrics

    For more details on Partner Selection, please refer to our research blueprint entitled Select an ERP Partner

    This phase will help you define your RFx for your provider search

    This phase involves the following participants:

    Vendor Management Team

    IT Leadership

    Finance Team

    Finding the right fit should always come before rates to determine value

    The right fit

    Determined in previous activities

    Negotiating will eventually bring the two together

    Value

    Rates

    Determined by skill and location

    Statement of Work (SOW) quality

    A quality SOW is the result of a quality RFI/RFP (RFx).

    The process up to now has been gathering the materials needed to build a quality RFx. Take this opportunity to review the outputs of the preceding activities to ensure that:

    • All the right stake holders have been engaged.
    • The requirements are complete.

    Info-Tech’s RFP Review as a Service looks for key items to ensure your RFx will generate quality responses and SOWs.

    • Is it well-structured with a consistent use of fonts and bullets?
    • Is it laid out in sections that are easily identifiable and progress from high-level to more detailed information?
    • Can a vendor quickly identify the ten (or fewer) things that are most important to you?

    The image contains a screenshot of the Request for Proposal Review as a Service.

    Step 3.1

    Review your RFx

    Activities

    3.1.1 Select your RFx template

    3.1.2 Finalize your RFx

    3.1.3 Weight each evaluation criteria

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Project team
    • Evaluation team
    • Vendor management team
    • CIO

    Outcomes of this step

    • Completed RFx

    Info-Tech’s RFI/RFP process

    Info-Tech has well-established vendor management templates and practices

    • Identify Need
    • Define Business Requirements
    • Gain Business Authorization
    • Perform RFI/RFP
    • Negotiate Agreement
    • Purchase Goods and Services
    • Assess and Measure Performance

    Info-Tech Best Practice

    You’ll want to customize templates for your organization, but we strongly suggest that you take whatever you feel best meets your needs from both the long- and short-form RFPs presented in this blueprint.

    The secret to managing an RFP is to make it manageable. And the secret to making an RFP manageable is to treat it like any other aspect of business – by developing a process. With a process in place, you are better able to handle whatever comes your way, because you know the steps you need to follow to produce a top-notch RFP.

    Your RFP process should be tailored to fit the needs and specifics of your organization and IT.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Create a better RFP process using Info-Tech’s well-established templates and methodology.

    Create a Better RFP Process

    In a hurry? Consider an enhanced RFI instead of an RFP.

    While many organizations rarely use RFIs, they can be an effective tool in the vendor manager’s toolbox when used at the right time in the right way. RFIs can be deployed in competitive targeted negotiations. An enhanced RFI (ERFI) is a two-stage strategy that speeds up the typical RFP process. The first stage is like an RFI on steroids, and the second stage is targeted competitive negotiation.

    Stage 1:

    Create an RFI with all the customary components. Next, add a few additional RFP-like requirements (e.g. operational and technical requirements). Make sure you include a request for budgetary pricing and provide any significant features and functionality requirements so that the vendors have enough information to propose solutions. In addition, allow the vendors to ask questions through your single point of coordination and share answers with all the vendors. Finally, notify the vendors that you will not be doing an RFP – this is it!

    Stage 2:

    Review the vendors’ proposals and select the best two. Negotiate with both vendors and then make your decision.

    The ERFI shortens the typical RFP process, maintains leverage for your organization, and works great with low- to medium-spend items (however your organization defines them). You’ll get clarification on vendors’ competencies and capabilities, obtain a fair market price, and meet your internal clients’ aggressive timelines while still taking steps to protect your organization.

    RFI Template

    The image contains a screenshot of the RFI Template.

    Use this template to create your RFI baseline template. Be sure to modify and configure the template to your organization’s specifications.

    Request for Information Template

    Long-Form RFP Template

    Configure Info-Tech’s Long-Form RFP Template for major initiatives

    The image contains a screenshot of the long-form RFP Template.

    A long-form or major RFP is an excellent tool for more complex and complicated requirements. This example is for a baseline RFP.

    It starts with best-in-class RFP terms and conditions that are essential to maintaining your control throughout the RFP process. The specific requirements for the business, functional, technical, and pricing areas should be included in the exhibits at the end of the template. That makes it easier to tailor the RFP for each deal, since you and your team can quickly identify specific areas that need modification. Grouping the exhibits together also makes it convenient for both your team to review, and the vendors to respond.

    You can use this sample RFP as the basis for your template RFP, taking it all as is or picking and choosing the sections that best meet the mission and objectives of the RFP and your organization.

    Source: Info-Tech’s The Art of Creating a Quality RFP

    Short-Form RFP Template

    Configure Info-Tech’s Short-Form RFP Template for minor or smaller initiatives

    The image contains a screenshot of the Short-Form RFP Template.

    This example is for a less complex RFP that has relatively basic requirements and perhaps a small window in which the vendors can respond. As with the long-form RFP, exhibits are placed at the end of the RFP, an arrangement that saves time for both your team and the vendors. Of course, the short-form RFP contains fewer specific instructions, guidelines, and rules for vendors’ proposal submissions.

    We find that short-form RFPs are a good choice when you need to use something more than a request for quote (RFQ) but less than an RFP running 20 or more pages. It’s ideal, for example, when you want to send an RFP to only one vendor or to acquire items such as office supplies, contingent labor, or commodity items that require significant vendor's risk assessment.

    Source: The Art of Creating a Quality RFP

    3.1.1 Select your RFx template

    1-3 hours

    1. As a group, download the RFx templates from the previous three slides.
    2. Review your RFx process as a group. Be sure to include the vendor management team.
    3. Be sure to consider organization-specific procurement guidelines. These can be included. The objective here is to find the template that is the best fit. We will finalize the template in the next activity.
    4. Determine the best template for this project.
    Input Output
    • RFx templates
    • The RFx template that will be used for this project
    Materials Participants
    • Info-Tech’s Enhanced RFI Template, Long-Form RFP Template, and Short-Form RFP Template
    • Vendor management team
    • Project team
    • Project manager

    Finalize your RFx

    Key insights

    Leverage the power of the RFP

    • Too often RFPs fail to achieve their intended purposes, and your organization feels the effects of a poorly created RFP for many years.
    • If you are faced with a single source vendor, you can perform an RFP to one to create the competitive leverage.

    Make the response and evaluation process easier

    • Being strategic in your wording and formatting makes it easier on both parties – easier for the vendors to submit meaningful proposals, and easier for customer teams to evaluate.
    • Create a level playing field to encourage competition. Without multiple proposals, your options are limited and your chances for a successful project plummet.

    Maximize the competition

    • Leverage a pre-proposal conference to resolve vendor questions and to ensure all vendors receive the same answers to all questions. No vendor should have an information advantage.

    Do’s

    • Leverage your team’s knowledge.
    • Document and explain your RFP process to stakeholders and vendors.
    • Include contract terms in your RFP.
    • Measure and manage performance after contract award.
    • Seek feedback from the RFP team on your process and improve it as necessary.

    Don'ts

    • Reveal your budget.
    • Do an RFP in a vacuum.
    • Send an RFP to a vendor your team is not willing to award the business to.
    • Hold separate conversations with candidate vendors during your RFP process.
    • Skimp on the requirements definition to speed the process.
    • Tell the vendor they are selected before negotiating.

    3.1.2 Finalize your RFx

    1-3 hours

    1. As a group, review the selected RFI or RFP template.
    2. This is YOUR document. Modify it to suit the needs of the organization and even add sections from the other RFP templates that are relevant to your project.
    3. Use the Supplementary RFx Material as a guide.
    4. Add the content created in Steps 1 and 2.
    5. Add any organization-specific clauses or requirements.
    6. Have the project team review and comment on the RFP.
    7. Optional: Use Info-Tech’s RFP Review Concierge Service.

    Download the RFx Vendor Evaluation Tool

    Download the Supplementary RFx Material

    InputOutput
    • RFx template
    • Organizational specific guidelines
    • Materials from Steps 1 and 2
    • Supplementary RFx Material
    • Finalized RFx
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Electronic RFP document for editing
    • Vendor management team
    • Project team
    • Project manager

    3.1.2 Bring it all together

    Supplementary RFx Material

    The image contains a screenshot of Supplementary RFx Material.

    Review the sample content to get a feel for how to incorporate the results of the activities you have worked through into the RFx template.

    RFx Templates

    Use one of our templates to build a ready-for-distribution implementation partner RFx tailored to the unique success factors of your implementation.

    Exercises in Steps 1 and 2

    The image contains a screenshot of Exercises in Steps 1 and 2

    Use the material gathered during each activity to inform and populate the implementation partner requirements that are specific for your organization and project.

    The image contains a screenshot of the Long Form RFx template.The image contains a screenshot of the Short Form RFx template.

    3.1.3 Weight each evaluation criteria

    1-3 hours

    1. As a group, review the selected RFI or RFP template.
    2. This is your document. Modify it to suit the needs of the organization and even add sections from the other RFP templates that are relevant to your project.
    3. Use the Supplementary RFx Material as a guide.
    4. Utilize the content defined in Steps 1 and 2.
    5. Add any organization-specific clauses or requirements.
    6. Have the project team review and comment on the RFP.
    7. Optional: Use Info-Tech’s RFP Review Concierge Service.

    Download the Supplementary RFx Material

    InputOutput

    RFx Vendor Evaluation Tool

    Exercises from Steps 1 and 2

    • Weighted scoring tool to evaluate responses
    MaterialsParticipants
    • RFx Vendor Evaluation Tool
    • Supplementary RFx Material
    • Vendor management team
    • Project team
    • Project manager

    3.1.3 Apply weight to each evaluation criteria

    Use this tool to weight each critical success factor based on results of the activities within the vendor selection workbook for later scoring results.

    The image contains a screenshot of the RFx Vendor Evaluation Tool.

    Download the RFx Vendor Evaluation Tool

    Step 3.2

    Identify target vendors

    Activities

    3.2.1 Identify target vendors

    3.2.2 Define your RFx timeline

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Project team
    • Vendor management team

    Outcomes of this step

    • Targeted vendor list
    • Initial RFx timeline

    3.2.1 Identify target vendors

    1-3 hours

    1. Based on the profile defined in Step 2.3, research potential partners that fit the profile, starting with those you may have used in the past. From this, build your initial list of vendors to target with your RFx.
    2. Break into smaller groups (or continue as a single group if it is already small) and review each shortlisted vendor to see if they will likely respond to the RFx.
    Input Output
    • Websites
    • Peers
    • Advisory groups
    • A shortlist of vendors to target with your RFx
    Materials Participants
    • RFx Vendor Evaluation Tool
    • CIO
    • Vendor management team
    • Project team
    • Evaluation team

    Download the RFx Vendor Evaluation Tool

    Define your RFx timeline

    Provider RFx timelines need to be clearly defined to keep the project and participants on track. These projects and processes can be long. Set yourself up for success by identifying the time frames clearly and communicating them to participants.

    1. Current
    • Concurrent ERP product selection
    • RFx preparation
    • Release of RFX
  • Near-term
    • Responses received
    • Scoring responses
    • Shortlisting providers
    • Provider interviews
    • Provider selection
    • Provider contract negotiations
    • Contract with provider
  • Future
    • Initiation of knowledge transfer
    • Joint development period
    • Cutover to provider team

    89% of roadmap views have at least some representation of time. (Roadmunk, n.d.)

    Info-Tech Insight

    The true value of time horizons is in dividing your timeline and applying different standards and rules, which allows you to speak to different audiences and achieve different communication objectives.

    3.2.2 Define your RFx timeline

    1-3 hours

    1. As a group identify an appropriate timeline for your RFP process. Info-Tech recommends no less than three months from RFx release to contract signing.

      Keep in mind that you need to allow for time to engage the team and perform some level of knowledge transfer, and to seed the team with internal resources for the initial period.
    2. Leave enough time for vendor responses, interviews, and reference checks.
    3. Once the timeline is finalized, document it and communicate it to the organization.

    Download the RFx Vendor Evaluation Tool

    Input Output
    • RFx template
    • Provider RFx timeline
    Materials Participants
    • RFx Vendor Evaluation Tool
    • Vendor management team
    • Project team
    • Project manager

    Define your RFx timeline

    The image contains a screenshot of an example of an RFx timeline.

    Step 3.3

    Evaluate vendor responses

    Activities

    3.3.1 Evaluate responses

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Evaluation team

    Outcomes of this step

    • Vendor submission scores

    3.3.1 Evaluate responses

    1-3 hours

    1. Use the RFx Vendor Evaluation Tool to collect and record the evaluation team's scores for each vendor's response to your RFx.
    2. Then record and compare each team member's scores to rank the vendors' responses.
    3. The higher the score, the closer the fit.

    Download the RFx Vendor Evaluation Tool

    InputOutput
    • Vendor responses
    • Vendor presentations
    • Vendor scores
    MaterialsParticipants
    • RFx Vendor Evaluation Tool
    • Evaluation team

    3.3.1 Score vendor results

    Use the RFx Vendor Evaluation Tool to score the vendors' responses to your RFx using the weighted scale from Activity 3.1.3.

    The image contains a screenshot of the RFx Vendor Evaluation Tool.

    Download the RFx Vendor Evaluation Tool

    Phase 4

    Measuring the new relationship

    Introspection

    1.1 Assess your market factors

    1.2 Determine your people factors

    1.3 Review your current culture

    1.4 Document your technical factors

    Profiling

    2.1 Recall your sourcing strategy

    2.2 Prioritize your company factors

    2.3 Create target profile

    Partner selection

    3.1 Review your RFx

    3.2 Identify target vendors

    3.3 Evaluate vendor

    responses

    Implementation

    4.1 Engage partner to choose contract mechanism

    4.2 Engage partner team to define goals

    4.3 Choose your success

    metrics

    This phase will allow you to define the relationship with your newly chosen partner, including choosing the right contract mechanism, defining shared goals for the relationship, and selecting the metrics and processes to measure performance.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    IT leadership

    Procurement team

    Product owners

    Project managers

    Implementing the Partner

    Implementing the new partner is an exercise in collaboration

    • Successfully implementing your new partner is an exercise in working together
    1. Define a contract mechanism that is appropriate for the relationship, but is not meant as punitive, contract-based management – this sets you up for failure.
    2. Engage with your team and your partner as one team to build shared, measurable goals
    3. Work with the team to define the metrics and processes by which progress against these goals will be measured
  • Goals, metrics and process should be transparent to the team so all can see how their performance ties to success
  • Make sure to take time to celebrate successes with the whole team as one
  • Info-Tech Insight

    Implement the relationship the same way you want it to work: as one team. Work together on contract mechanism, shared goals, metrics, and performance measurement. This transparency and collaboration will build a one team view, leading to long-term success.

    Step 4.1

    Engage partner to choose contract mechanism

    Activities

    4.1.1 Confirm your contract mechanism

    This step involves the following participants:

    IT leadership

    Procurement team

    Vendor team

    Outcomes of this step

    Contract between the vendor and the firm for the services

    Negotiate agreement

    Evaluate your RFP responses to see if they are complete and if the vendor followed your instructions.

    Then:

    Plan negotiation(s) with one or more vendors based on your questions and opportunities identified during evaluation.

    Select finalist(s).

    Apply selection criteria.

    Resolve vendors' exceptions.

    Negotiate before you select your vendor:

    Negotiating with two or more vendors will maintain your competitive leverage while decreasing the time it takes to negotiate the deal.

    Perform legal reviews as necessary.

    Use sound competitive negotiations principles.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Be certain to include any commitments made in the RFP, presentations, and proposals in the agreement, as the standard for an underperforming vendor.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Providing contract terms in an RFP can dramatically reduce time for this step by understanding the vendor’s initial contractual position for negotiation.

    Leverage ITRG's negotiation process research for additional information

    For more details on this process please see our research Drive Successful Sourcing Outcomes with a Robust RFP Process

    4.1.1 Confirm your contract mechanism

    30 min

    1. Does the firm have prior experience with this type of sourcing arrangement?
    2. Does the firm have an existing services agreement with the selected partner?
    3. What contract mechanisms have been used in the past for these types of arrangements?
    4. What mechanism was proposed by the partner in their RFP response?

    Download the Select a Sourcing Partner Presentation Template

    Input Output
    • Past sourcing agreements from Procurement
    • Proposed agreement from partner
    • Agreed upon contract mechanism
    Materials Participants
    • Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team Presentation template
    • Technology leaders
    • Vendor management group
    • Partner leaders

    Choose the appropriate contract method

    Work being sourced

    Partner proposal

    Agreed-upon mechanism

    Work being sourced

    Vendor management experience with type

    Partner proposed contract method

    Agreed-upon contract method

    Java development team to build new product

    Similar work done with fixed price with another vendor

    Time and materials per scrum team

    Time and materials per scrum team to avoid vendor conflicts inherent in fixed price which limit innovation

    Step 4.2

    Engage partner team to define shared goals

    Activities

    4.2.1 Define your shared goals

    This step involves the following participants:

    IT leadership

    Vendor leadership

    Outcomes of this step

    Shared goals for the team

    Define success and shared goals

    Work together to define how you will measure yourselves.

    One team

    • Treating the new center and the existing team as one team is critical to long-term success.
    • Having a plan that allows for teams to meet frequently face-to-face "get to know you" and "stay connected" sessions will help the team gel.

    Shared goals

    • New group must share common goals and measurements.

    Common understanding

    • New team must have a common understanding and culture on key facets such as:
      • Measurement of quality
      • Openness to feedback and knowledge sharing
      • Culture of collaboration
      • Issue and Risk Management

    4.2.1 Define your shared goals

    30 min

    1. List each item in the scope of work for the sourcing arrangement – e.g. development of product XXX.
    2. For each scope item, detail the benefit expected by the firm – e.g. development cost expected to drop by 10% per year, or customer satisfaction improvement.
    3. For each benefit define how you will measure success – e.g. track cost of development for the development team assigned, or track Customer Satisfaction Survey results.
    4. For each measure, define a target for this year – e.g. 10% decrease over last year's cost, or customer satisfaction improvement from 6 to 7.

    Download the Select a Sourcing Partner Presentation Template

    InputOutput
    • Services being procured from RFx
    • Benefits expected from the sourcing strategy
    • Baseline scores for measurements
    • Shared goals agreed upon between team and partner
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team Presentation template
    • Technology leaders
    • Partner leaders

    Define goals collaboratively

    Role and benefit

    Goals and objectives

    Role / work being sourced

    Benefit expected

    Measure of success

    Year over year targets

    Java development team to build new product

    New product to replace aging legacy

    Launch of new product

    Agree on launch schedule and MVP for each release / roadmap

    Step 4.3

    Choose your success metrics

    Activities

    4,3.1 Define metrics and process to monitor

    This step involves the following participants:

    IT leadership

    Product owners

    Project managers

    Vendor leaders

    Outcomes of this step

    Metrics and process to measure performance

    4.3.1 Define metrics and process to monitor

    30 min

    1. For each goal defined and measure of success, break down the measure into quantifiable, measurable factors – e.g. Development cost is defined as all the costs tracked to the project including development, deployment, project management, etc.
    2. For each factor choose the metric that can be reported on – e.g. project actuals.
    3. For each metric define the report and reporting frequency – e.g. monthly project actuals from project manager.

    Download the Select a Sourcing Partner Presentation Template

    InputOutput
    • Development process
    • Deployment process
    • Operations process
    • IT Security policies
    • Documentation of key technical characteristics that need to be part of provider profiling
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Select a Sourcing Partner for Your Development Team Presentation template
    • Development leaders
    • Deployment team leaders
    • Infrastructure leaders
    • IT operations leaders
    • Product owners
    • Project managers

    Agreed-upon metrics

    Goal

    Metrics and process

    Agreed-upon goal

    Year 1 target

    Metric to measure success

    Measurement mechanism

    Deliver roadmap of releases

    3 releases – MVP in roadmap

    Features and stories delivered

    Measure delivery of stories from Jira

    Research Contributor

    The image contains a picture of Alaisdar Graham.

    Alaisdar Graham

    Executive Counsellor

    Info-Tech Research Group

    During Alaisdar’s 35-year career in information and operational technology, Alaisdar has been CIO for public sector organizations and private sector companies. He has been an entrepreneur with his own consultancy and a founder or business advisor with four cyber-security start-ups, Alaisdar has developed experience across a broad range of industries within a number of different countries and become known for his ability to drive business benefits and improvements through the use of technology.

    Alaisdar has worked with CXO-level executives across different businesses. Whether undertaking a digital transformation, building and improving IT functions across your span of control, or helping you create and execute an integrated technology strategy, Alaisdar can provide insight while introducing you to Info-Tech Research Group’s experts. Alaisdar’s experience with organizational turn- around, governance, project, program and portfolio management, change management, risk and security will support your organization’s success.

    Research Contributor

    The image contains a picture of Richard Nachazel.

    Richard Nachazel

    Executive Counsellor

    Info-Tech Research Group

    • Richard has more than 40 years working in various Fortune 500 organizations. His specialties are collaborating with business and IT executives and senior stakeholders to define strategic goals and transform operational protocols, standards, and methodologies. He has established a reputation at multiple large companies for taking charge of critical, high-profile enterprise projects in jeopardy of failure and turning them around. Colleagues and peers recognize his ability to organize enterprise efforts, build, develop, and motivate teams, and deliver outstanding outcomes.
    • Richard has worked as a Global CISO & Head of IT Governance for a Swiss Insurance company, Richard developed and led a comprehensive Cyber-Security Framework that provided leadership and oversight of the cyber-security program. Additionally, he was responsible for their IT Governance Risk & Compliance Operation and the information data security compliance in a complex global environment. Richard’s experience with organizational turn around, governance, risk, and controls, and security supports technology delivery integration with business success. Richard’s ability to engage executive and senior management decision makers and champion vision will prove beneficial to your organization.

    Research Contributor

    The image contains a picture of Craig Broussard.

    Craig Broussard

    Executive Counsellor

    Info-Tech Research Group

    • Craig has over 35 years of IT experience including software development, enterprise system management, infrastructure, and cyber security operations. Over the last 20 years, his focus has been on infrastructure and security along with IT service management. He’s been an accomplished speaker and panelist at industry trade events over the past decade.
    • Craig has served as Global Infrastructure Director for NCH Corporation, VP of Information Technology at ATOS, and earlier in his career as the Global Head of Data Center Services at Nokia Siemens Networks. Craig also worked for MicroSolutions (a Mark Cuban Company). Additionally, Craig received formal consulting training while working for IBM Global Services.
    • Craig’s deep experience across many aspects of IT from Governance through Delivery makes him an ideal partner for Info-Tech members.

    Bibliography

    Offshore, Onshore or Hybrid–Choosing the Best IT Outsourcing Model. (n.d.).
    Offshore Dedicated Development Team – A Compelling Hiring Guide. (n.d.).
    The Three Non-Negotiables Of IT Offshoring. (n.d.). Forbes.
    Top Ten Countries For Offshoring. Forbes, 2004.
    Nearshoring in Europe: Choose the Best Country for IT Outsourcing - The World Financial Review. (n.d.).
    Select an Offshore Jurisdiction. The Best Countries for Business in 2021-2022! | InternationalWealth.info. (n.d.).
    How to Find the Best Country to Set Up an Offshore Company. (n.d.). biz30.
    Akbar, M. A., Alsanad, A., Mahmood, S., & Alothaim, A. (2021). Prioritization-based taxonomy of global software development challenges: A FAHP based analysis. IEEE Access, 9, 37961–37974
    Ali, S. (2018). Practices in Software Outsourcing Partnership: Systematic Literature Review Protocol with Analysis. Journal of Computers, (February), 839–861
    Baird Georgia, A. (2007). MISQ Research Curation on Health Information Technology 2. Progression of Health IT Research in MIS Quarterly. MIS Quarterly, 2007(June), 1–14.
    Akbar, M. A., Alsanad, A., Mahmood, S., & Alothaim, A. (2021). Prioritization-based taxonomy of global software development challenges: A FAHP based analysis. IEEE Access, 9, 37961–37974
    Ali, S. (2018). Practices in Software Outsourcing Partnership: Systematic Literature Review Protocol with Analysis. Journal of Computers, (February), 839–861
    Baird Georgia, A. (2007). MISQ Research Curation on Health Information Technology 2. Progression of Health IT Research in MIS Quarterly. MIS Quarterly, 2007(June), 1–14.
    Carmel, E., & Abbott, P. (2006). Configurations of global software development: offshore versus nearshore. … on Global Software Development for the Practitioner, 3–7.
    Hanafizadeh, P., & Zare Ravasan, A. (2018). A model for selecting IT outsourcing strategy: the case of e-banking channels. Journal of Global Information Technology Management, 21(2), 111–138.
    Ishizaka, A., Bhattacharya, A., Gunasekaran, A., Dekkers, R., & Pereira, V. (2019). Outsourcing and offshoring decision making. International Journal of Production Research, 57(13), 4187–4193.
    Jeong, J. J. (2021). Success in IT offshoring: Does it depend on the location or the company? Arxiv.
    Joanna Minkiewicz, J. E. (2009). Deakin Research Online Online. 2007, Interrelationships between Innovation and Market Orientation in SMEs, Management Research News, Vol. 30, No. 12, Pp. 878-891., 30(12), 878–891.

    Bibliography

    King, W. R., & Torkzadeh, G. (2016). Special Issue Information Systems Offshoring : Research Status and Issues. MIS Quarterly, 32(2), 205–225.
    Kotlarsky, J., & Oshri, I. (2008). Country attractiveness for offshoring and offshore outsourcing: Additional considerations. Journal of Information Technology, 23(4), 228–231.
    Lehdonvirta, V., Kässi, O., Hjorth, I., Barnard, H., & Graham, M. (2019). The Global Platform Economy: A New Offshoring Institution Enabling Emerging-Economy Microproviders. Journal of Management, 45(2), 567–599.
    Mahajan, A. (2018). Risks and Benefits of Using Single Supplier in Software Development. Oulu University of Applied Sciences. Retrieved from
    Murberg, D. (2019). IT Offshore Outsourcing: Best Practices for U.S.-Based Companies. University of Oregon Applied Information Management, 1277(800), 824–2714.
    Nassimbeni, G., Sartor, M., & Dus, D. (2012). Security risks in service offshoring and outsourcing. Industrial Management and Data Systems, 112(3), 405–440.
    Olson, G. M., & Olson, J. S. (2000). Distance matters. Human-Computer Interaction, 15(2–3), 139–178.
    Pilkova, A., & Holienka, M. (2018). Home-Based Business in Visegrad Countries: Gem Perspective. Innovation Management, Entrepreneurship and Sustainability 2018 Proceedings of the 6th International Conference.
    Rahman, H. U., Raza, M., Afsar, P., Alharbi, A., Ahmad, S., & Alyami, H. (2021). Multi-criteria decision making model for application maintenance offshoring using analytic hierarchy process. Applied Sciences (Switzerland), 11(18).
    Rahman, H. U., Raza, M., Afsar, P., Khan, H. U., & Nazir, S. (2020). Analyzing factors that influence offshore outsourcing decision of application maintenance. IEEE Access, 8, 183913–183926.
    Roadmunk. What is a product roadmap? Roadmunk, n.d. Accessed 12 Oct. 2021.
    Rottman, J. W., & Lacity, M. C. (2006). Proven practices for effectively offshoring IT work. MIT Sloan Management Review.
    Smite, D., Moe, N. B., Krekling, T., & Stray, V. (2019). Offshore Outsourcing Costs: Known or Still Hidden? Proceedings - 2019 ACM/IEEE 14th International Conference on Global Software Engineering, ICGSE 2019, 40–47.
    Welsum, D. Van, & Reif, X. (2005). Potential Offshoring: Evidence from Selected OECD Countries. Brookings Trade Forum, 2005(1), 165–194.
    Zhang, Y., Liu, S., Tan, J., Jiang, G., & Zhu, Q. (2018). Effects of risks on the performance of business process outsourcing projects: The moderating roles of knowledge management capabilities. International Journal of Project Management, 36(4), 627–639.

    AI Trends 2023

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    • Parent Category Name: Business Intelligence Strategy
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    As AI technologies are constantly evolving, organizations are looking for AI trends and research developments to understand the future applications of AI in their industries.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Understanding trends and the focus of current and future AI research helps to define how AI will drive an organization’s new strategic opportunities.
    • Understanding the potential application of AI and its promise can help plan the future investments in AI-powered technologies and systems.

    Impact and Result

    Understanding AI trends and developments enables an organization’s competitive advantage.

    AI Trends 2023 Research & Tools

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

    1. AI Trends 2023 – An overview of trends that will continue to drive AI innovation.

    • AI Trends Report 2023
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    AI Trends Report 2023

    The eight trends:

    1. Design for AI
    2. Event-Based Insights
    3. Synthetic Data
    4. Edge AI
    5. AI in Science and Engineering
    6. AI Reasoning
    7. Digital Twin
    8. Combinatorial Optimization
    Challenges that slowed the adoption of AI

    To overcome the challenges, enterprises adopted different strategies

    Data Readiness

    • Lack of unified systems and unified data
    • Data quality issues
    • Lack of the right data required for machine learning
    • Improve data management capabilities, including data governance and data initiatives
    • Create data catalogs
    • Document data and information architecture
    • Solve data-related problems including data quality, privacy, and ethics

    ML Operations Capabilities

    • Lack of tools, technologies, and methodologies to operationalize models created by data scientists
    • Increase availability of cloud platforms, tools, and capabilities
    • Develop and grow machine learning operations (MLOps) tools, platforms, and methodologies to enable model operationalizing and monitoring in production

    Understanding of AI Role and Its Business Value

    • Lack of understanding of AI use cases – how AI/ML can be applied to solve specific business problems
    • Lack of understanding how to define the business value of AI investments
    • Identify AI C-suite toolkits (for example, Empowering AI Leadership from the World Economic Forum, 2022)
    • Document industry use cases
    • Use frameworks and tools to define business value for AI investments

    Design for AI

    Sustainable AI system design needs to consider several aspects: the business application of the system, data, software and hardware, governance, privacy, and security.

    It is important to define from the beginning how AI will be used by and for the application to clearly articulate business value, manage expectations, and set goals for the implementation.

    Design for AI will change how we store and manage data and how we approach the use of data for development and operation of AI systems.

    An AI system design approach should cover all stages of AI lifecycle, from design to maintenance. It should also support and enable iterative development of an AI system.

    To take advantage of different tools and technologies for AI system development, deployment, and monitoring, the design of an AI system should consider software and hardware needs and design for seamless and efficient integrations of all components of the system and with other existing systems within the enterprise.

    AI in Science and Engineering

    AI helps sequence genomes to identify variants in a person’s DNA that indicate genetic disorders. It allows researchers to model and calculate complicated physics processes, to forecast the genesis of the universe’s structure, and to understand planet ecosystem to help advance the climate research. AI drives advances in drug discovery and can assist with molecule synthesis and molecular property identification.

    AI finds application in all areas of science and engineering. The role of AI in science will grow and allow scientists to innovate faster.

    AI will further contribute to scientific understanding by assisting scientists in deriving new insights, generating new ideas and connections, generalizing scientific concepts, and transferring them between areas of scientific research.

    Using synthetic data and combining physical and machine learning models and other advances of AI/ML – such as graphs, use of unstructured data (language models), and computer vision – will accelerate the use of AI in science and engineering.

    Event- and Scenario-Driven AI

    AI-driven signal-gathering systems analyze a continuous stream of data to generate insights and predictions that enable strategic decision modeling and scenario planning by providing understanding of how and what areas of business might be impacted by certain events.

    AI enables the scenario-based approach to drive insights through pattern identification in addition to familiar pattern recognition, helping to understand how events are related.

    A system with anticipatory capabilities requires an event-driven architecture that enables gathering and analyzing different types of data (text, video, images) across multiple channels (social media, transactional systems, news feeds, etc.) for event-driven and event-sequencing modeling.

    ML simulation-based training of the model using advanced techniques under the umbrella of Reinforcement Learning in conjunction with statistically robust Bayesian probabilistic framework will aid in setting up future trends in AI.

    AI Reasoning

    Most of the applications of machine learning and AI today is about predicting future behaviors based on historical data and past behaviors. We can predict what product the customer would most likely buy or the price of a house when it goes on sale.

    Most of the current algorithms use the correlation between different parameters to make a prediction, for example, the correlation between the event and the outcome can look like “When X occurs, we can predict that Y will occur.” This, however, does not translate into “Y occurred because of X.”

    The development of a causal AI that uses causal inference to reason and identify the root cause and the causal relationships between variables without mistaking correlation and causation is still in its early stages but rapidly evolving.

    Some of the algorithms that the researchers are working with are casual graph models and algorithms that are at the intersection of causal inference with decision making and reinforcement learning (Causal Artificial Intelligence Lab, 2022).

    Synthetic Data

    Synthetic data is artificially generated data that mimics the structure of real-life data. It should also have the same mathematical and statistical properties as the real-world data that it is created to replicate.

    Synthetic data is used to train machine learning models when there is not enough real data or the existing data does not meet specific needs. It allows users to remove contextual bias from data sets containing personal data, prevent privacy concerns, and ensure compliance with privacy laws and regulations.

    Another application of synthetic data is solving data-sharing challenges.

    Researchers learned that quite often synthetic data sets outperform real-world data. Recently, a team of researchers at MIT built a synthetic data set of 150,000 video clips capturing human actions and used that data set to train the model. The researchers found that “the synthetically trained models performed even better than models trained on real data for videos that have fewer background objects” (MIT News Office, 2022).

    Today, synthetic data is used in language systems, in training self-driving cars, in improving fraud detection, and in clinical research, just to name a few examples.

    Synthetic data opens the doors for innovation across all industries and applications of AI by enabling access to data for any scenario and technology and business needs.

    Digital Twins

    Digital twins (DT) are virtual replicas of physical objects, devices, people, places, processes, and systems. In Manufacturing, almost every product and manufacturing process can have a complete digital replica of itself thanks to IoT, streaming data, and cheap cloud storage.

    All this data has allowed for complex simulations of, for example, how a piece of equipment will perform over time to predict future failures before they happen, reducing costly maintenance and extending equipment lifetime.

    In addition to predictive maintenance, DT and AI technologies have enabled organizations to design and digitally test complex equipment such as aircraft engines, trains, offshore oil platforms, and wind turbines before physically manufacturing them. This helps to improve product and process quality, manufacturing efficiency, and costs. DT technology also finds applications in architecture, construction, energy, infrastructure industries, and even retail.

    Digital twins combined with the metaverse provide a collaborative and interactive environment with immersive experience and real-time physics capabilities (as an example, Siemens presented an Immersive Digital Twin of a Plant at the Collision 2022 conference).

    Future trends include enabling autonomous behavior of a DT. An advanced DT can replicate itself as it moves into several devices, hence requiring the autonomous property. Such autonomous behavior of the DT will in turn influence the growth and further advancement of AI.

    Edge AI

    A simple definition for edge AI: A combination of edge computing and artificial intelligence, it enables the deployment of AI applications in devices of the physical world, in the field, where the data is located, such as IoT devices, devices on the manufacturing floor, healthcare devices, or a self-driving car.

    Edge AI integrates AI into edge computing devices for quicker and improved data processing and smart automation.

    The main benefits of edge AI include:

    • Real-time data processing capabilities to reduce latency and enable near real-time analytics and insights.
    • Reduced cost and bandwidth requirements as there is no need to transfer data to the cloud for computing.
    • Increased data security as the data is processed locally, on the device, reducing the risk of loss of sensitive data.
    • Improved automation by training machines to perform automated tasks.

    Edge AI is already used in a variety of applications and use cases including computer vision, geospatial intelligence, object detection, drones, and health monitoring devices.

    Combinatorial Optimization

    “Combinatorial optimization is a subfield of mathematical optimization that consists of finding an optimal object from a finite set of objects” (Wikipedia, retrieved December 2022).

    Applications of combinatorial optimization include:

    • Supply chain optimization
    • Scheduling and logistics, for example, vehicle routing where the trucks are making stops for pickup and deliveries
    • Operations optimization

    Classical combinatorial optimization (CO) techniques were widely used in operations research and played a major role in earlier developments of AI.

    The introduction of deep learning algorithms in recent years allowed researchers to combine neural network and conventional optimization algorithms; for example, incorporating neural combinatorial optimization algorithms in the conventional optimization framework. Researchers confirmed that certain combinations of these frameworks and algorithms can provide significant performance improvements.

    The research in this space continues and we look forward to learning how machine learning and AI (backtracking algorithms, reinforcement learning, deep learning, graph attention networks, and others) will be used for solving challenging combinatorial and decision-making problems.

    References

    “AI Can Power Scenario Planning for Real-Time Strategic Insights.” The Wall Street Journal, CFO Journal, content by Deloitte, 7 June 2021. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.
    Ali Fdal, Omar. “Synthetic Data: 4 Use Cases in Modern Enterprises.” DATAVERSITY, 5 May 2022. Accessed
    11 Dec. 2022.
    Andrews, Gerard. “What Is Synthetic Data?” NVIDIA, 8 June 2021. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.
    Bareinboim, Elias. “Causal Reinforcement Learning.” Causal AI, 2020. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.
    Bengio, Yoshua, Andrea Lodi, and Antoine Prouvost. “Machine learning for combinatorial optimization: A methodological tour d’horizon.” European Journal of Operational Research, vol. 290, no. 2, 2021, pp. 405-421, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2020.07.063. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.
    Benjamins, Richard. “Four design principles for developing sustainable AI applications.” Telefónica S.A., 10 Sept. 2018. Accessed on 11 Dec. 2022.
    Blades, Robin. “AI Generates Hypotheses Human Scientists Have Not Thought Of.” Scientific American, 28 October 2021. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.
    “Combinatorial Optimization.” Wikipedia article, Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.
    Cronholm, Stefan, and Hannes Göbel. “Design Principles for Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence.” University of Borås, Sweden, 11 Aug. 2022. Accessed on 11 Dec. 2022
    Devaux, Elise. “Types of synthetic data and 4 real-life examples.” Statice, 29 May 2022. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.
    Emmental, Russell. “A Guide to Causal AI.” ITBriefcase, 30 March 2022. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.
    “Empowering AI Leadership: AI C-Suite Toolkit.” World Economic Forum, 12 Jan. 2022. Accessed 11 Dec 2022.
    Falk, Dan. “How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Science.” Quanta Magazine, 11 March 2019. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.
    Fritschle, Matthew J. “The Principles of Designing AI for Humans.” Aumcore, 17 Aug. 2018. Accessed 8 Dec. 2022.
    Garmendia, Andoni I., et al. Neural Combinatorial Optimization: a New Player in the Field.” IEEE, arXiv:2205.01356v1, 3 May 2022. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.
    Gülen, Kerem. “AI Is Revolutionizing Every Field and Science is no Exception.” Dataconomy Media GmbH, 9 Nov. 9, 2022. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022
    Krenn, Mario, et al. “On scientific understanding with artificial intelligence.” Nature Reviews Physics, vol. 4, 11 Oct. 2022, pp. 761–769. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-022-00518-3. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.
    Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems. “The real promise of synthetic data.” MIT News, 16 Oct. 2020. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.
    Lecca, Paola. “Machine Learning for Causal Inference in Biological Networks: Perspectives of This Challenge.” Frontiers, 22 Sept. 2021. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022. Mirabella, Lucia. “Digital Twin x Metaverse: real and virtual made easy.” Siemens presentation at Collision 2022 conference, Toronto, Ontario. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022. Mitchum, Rob, and Louise Lerner. “How AI could change science.” University of Chicago News, 1 Oct. 2019. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.
    Okeke, Franklin. “The benefits of edge AI.” TechRepublic, 22 Sept. 2022, Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.
    Perlmutter, Nathan. “Machine Learning and Combinatorial Optimization Problems.” Crater Labs, 31 July 31, 2019. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.
    Sampson, Ovetta. “Design Principles for a New AI World.” UX Magazine, 6 Jan. 2022. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.
    Sgaier, Sema K., Vincent Huang, and Grace Charles. “The Case for Causal AI.” Stanford Social Innovation Review, Summer 2020. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.
    “Synthetic Data.” Wikipedia article, Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.
    Take, Marius, et al. “Software Design Patterns for AI-Systems.” EMISA Workshop 2021, CEUR-WS.org, Proceedings 30. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.
    Toews, Rob. “Synthetic Data Is About To Transform Artificial Intelligence.” Forbes, 12 June 2022. Accessed
    11 Dec. 2022.
    Zewe, Adam. “In machine learning, synthetic data can offer real performance improvements.” MIT News Office, 3 Nov. 2022. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.
    Zhang, Junzhe, and Elias Bareinboim. “Can Humans Be out of the Loop?” Technical Report, Department of Computer Science, Columbia University, NY, June 2022. Accessed 11 Dec. 2022.

    Contributors

    Irina Sedenko Anu Ganesh Amir Feizpour David Glazer Delina Ivanova

    Irina Sedenko

    Advisory Director

    Info-Tech

    Anu Ganesh

    Technical Counselor

    Info-Tech

    Amir Feizpour

    Co-Founder & CEO

    Aggregate Intellect Inc.

    David Glazer

    VP of Analytics

    Kroll

    Delina Ivanova

    Associate Director, Data & Analytics

    HelloFresh

    Usman Lakhani

    DevOps

    WeCloudData

    Drive Digital Transformation With Platform Strategies

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    • Parent Category Name: IT Strategy
    • Parent Category Link: /it-strategy
    • Enterprise is grappling with the challenges of existing business models and strategies not leading to desired outcomes.
    • Enterprise is struggling to remain competitive.
    • Enterprise wants to understand how to leverage platform strategies and a digital platform.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    To remain competitive enterprises must renew and refresh their business model strategies and design/develop digital platforms – this requires enterprises to:

    • Understand how digital-native enterprises are using platform business models and associated strategies.
    • Understand their core assets and strengths and how these can be leveraged for transformation.
    • Understand the core characteristics and components of a digital platform so that they can design digital platform(s) for their enterprise.
    • Ask if the client’s digital transformation (DX) strategy is aligned with a digital platform enablement strategy.
    • Ask if the enterprise has paid attention to the structure, culture, principles, and practices of platform teams.

    Impact and Result

    Organizations that implement this project will gain benefits in five ways:

    • Awareness and understanding of various platform strategies.
    • Application of specific platform strategies within the context of the enterprise.
    • Awareness of their existing business mode, core assets, value proposition, and strengths.
    • Alignment between DX themes and platform enablement themes so enterprises can develop roadmaps that gauge successful DX.
    • Design of a digital platform, including characteristics, components, and team characteristics, culture, principles, and practices.

    Drive Digital Transformation With Platform Strategies Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should consider the platform business model and a digital platform to remain competitive.

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

    1. Set goals for your platform business model

    Understand the platform business model and strategies and then set your platform business model goals.

    • Drive Digital Transformation With Platform Strategies – Phase 1: Set Goals for Your Platform Business Model
    • Business Platform Playbook

    2. Configure digital platform

    Define design goals for your digital platform. Align your DX strategy with digital platform capabilities and understand key components of the digital platform.

    • Drive Digital Transformation With Platform Strategies – Phase 2: Configure Your Digital Platform
    • Digital Platform Playbook
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Drive Digital Transformation With Platform Strategies

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

    1 Understand Platform Business Model and Strategies

    The Purpose

    Understand existing business model, value proposition, and key assets.

    Understand platform business model and strategies.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding the current assets helps with knowing what can be leveraged in the new business model/transformation.

    Understanding the platform strategies can help the enterprise renew/refresh their business model.

    Activities

    1.1 Document the current business model along with value proposition and key assets (that provide competitive advantage).

    1.2 Transformation narrative.

    1.3 Platform model canvas.

    1.4 Document the platform strategies in the context of the enterprise.

    Outputs

    Documentation of current business model along with value proposition and key assets (that provide competitive advantage).

    Documentation of the selected platform strategies.

    2 Planning for Platform Business Model

    The Purpose

    Understand transformation approaches.

    Understand various layers of platforms.

    Ask fundamental and evolutionary questions about the platform.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of the transformational model so that the enterprise can realize the differences.

    Understanding of the organization’s strengths and weaknesses for a DX.

    Extraction of strategic themes to plan and develop a digital platform roadmap.

    Activities

    2.1 Discuss and document decision about DX approach and next steps.

    2.2 Discuss and document high-level strategic themes for platform business model and associated roadmap.

    Outputs

    Documented decision about DX approach and next steps.

    Documented high-level strategic themes for platform business model and associated roadmap.

    3 Digital Platform Strategy

    The Purpose

    Understand the design goals for the digital platform.

    Understand gaps between the platform’s capabilities and the DX strategy.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Design goals set for the digital platform that are visible to all stakeholders.

    Gap analysis performed between enterprise’s digital strategy and platform capabilities; this helps understand the current situation and thus informs strategies and roadmaps.

    Activities

    3.1 Discuss and document design goals for digital platform.

    3.2 Discuss DX themes and platform capabilities – document the gaps.

    3.3 Discuss gaps and strategies along with timelines.

    Outputs

    Documented design goals for digital platform.

    Documented DX themes and platform capabilities.

    DX themes and platform capabilities map.

    4 Digital Platform Design: Key Components

    The Purpose

    Understanding of key components of a digital platform, including technology and teams.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of the key components of a digital platform and designing the platform.

    Understanding of the team structure, culture, and practices needed for successful platform engineering teams.

    Activities

    4.1 Confirmation and discussion on existing UX/UI and API strategies.

    4.2 Understanding of microservices architecture and filling of microservices canvas.

    4.3 Real-time stream processing data pipeline and tool map.

    4.4 High-level architectural view.

    4.5 Discussion on platform engineering teams, including culture, structure, principles, and practices.

    Outputs

    Filled microservices canvas.

    Documented real-time stream processing data pipeline and tool map.

    Documented high-level architectural view.

    Recruit IT Talent

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    • Parent Category Name: Attract & Select
    • Parent Category Link: /attract-and-select
    • Changing workforce dynamics and increased transparency have shifted the power from employers to job seekers, stiffening the competition for talent.
    • Candidate expectations match high consumer expectations and affect the employer brand, the consumer brand, and overall organizational reputation. Delivering a positive candidate experience (CX2) is no longer optional.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Think about your candidates as consumers. Truly understanding their needs will attract great talent and build positive brand perceptions.
    • The CX2 starts sooner than you think. It encompasses all candidate interactions with an organization and begins before the formal application process.
    • Don’t try to emulate competitors. By differentiating your CX2, you build a competitive advantage.

    Impact and Result

    • Design a candidate-centric talent acquisition process that addresses candidate feedback from both unsuccessful and successful candidates.
    • Use design-thinking principles to focus your redesign on moments that matter to candidates to reduce unnecessary work or ad-hoc initiatives that don’t matter to candidates.

    Recruit IT Talent Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should redesign your CX2, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Establish your current process and set redesign goals

    Map the organization’s current state for CX2 and set high-level objectives and metrics.

    • Win the War for Talent With a Killer Candidate Experience – Phase 1: Establish Your Current Process and Set Redesign Goals
    • Candidate Experience Project Charter
    • Talent Metrics Library
    • Candidate Experience Process Mapping Template
    • Candidate Experience Assessment Tool

    2. Use design thinking to assess the candidate experience

    Strengthen the candidate lifecycle by improving upon pain points through design thinking methods and assessing the competitive landscape.

    • Win the War for Talent With a Killer Candidate Experience – Phase 2: Use Design Thinking to Assess the Candidate Experience
    • Design Thinking Primer
    • Empathy Map Template
    • Journey Map Guide

    3. Redesign the candidate experience

    Create action, communications, and training plans to establish the redesigned CX2 with hiring process stakeholders.

    • Win the War for Talent With a Killer Candidate Experience – Phase 3: Redesign the Candidate Experience
    • Candidate Experience Best Practices Action Guide
    • Candidate Experience Action and Communication Plan
    • Candidate Experience Service Level Agreement Template

    4. Appendix

    Leverage data collection and workshop activities.

    • Win the War for Talent With a Killer Candidate Experience – Appendix: Data Collection and Workshop Activities
    • Candidate Experience Phase One Data Collection Guide
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Recruit IT Talent

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

    1 Establish Your Current Process and Set Redesign Goals

    The Purpose

    Assess the organization’s current state for CX2.

    Set baseline metrics for comparison with new initiatives.

    Establish goals to strengthen the CX2.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Gained understanding of where the organization is currently.

    Established where the organization would like to be and goals to achieve the new state.

    Activities

    1.1 Review process map of current candidate lifecycle.

    1.2 Analyze qualitative and quantitative data gathered.

    1.3 Set organizational objectives and project goals.

    1.4 Set metrics to measure progress on high-level goals.

    Outputs

    Process map

    CX2 data analyzed

    Candidate Experience Project Charter

    2 Use Design Thinking to Assess the Candidate Experience

    The Purpose

    Apply design thinking methods to identify pain points in your candidate lifecycle.

    Assess the competition and analyze results.

    Empathize with candidates and their journey.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Segments with pain points have been identified.

    Competitor offering and differentiation has been analyzed.

    Candidate thoughts and feelings have been synthesized.

    Activities

    2.1 Identify extreme users.

    2.2 Conduct an immersive empathy session or go through the process as if you were a target candidate.

    2.3 Identify talent competitors.

    2.4 Analyze competitive landscape.

    2.5 Synthesize research findings and create empathy map.

    2.6 Journey map the CX2.

    Outputs

    Extreme users identified

    Known and unknown talent competitor’s CX2 analyzed

    Empathy map created

    Journey map created

    3 Redesign the Candidate Experience

    The Purpose

    Create a communications and action plan and set metrics to measure success.

    Set expectations with hiring managers and talent acquisition specialists through a service level agreement.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Action plan created.

    Metrics set to track progress and assess improvement.

    Service level agreement completed and expectations collaboratively set.

    Activities

    3.1 Assess each stage of the lifecycle.

    3.2 Set success metrics for priority lifecycle stages.

    3.3 Select actions from the Candidate Experience Best Practices Action Guide.

    3.4 Brainstorm other potential (organization-specific) solutions.

    3.5 Set action timeline and assign accountabilities.

    3.6 Customize service level agreement guidelines.

    Outputs

    CX2 lifecycle stages prioritized

    Metrics to measure progress set

    CX2 best practices selected

    Candidate Experience Assessment Tool

    Candidate Experience Action and Communication Plan

    Service level agreement guidelines.

    Enter Into Mobile Development Without Confusion and Frustration

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    • Parent Category Name: Mobile Development
    • Parent Category Link: /mobile-development
    • IT managers don’t know where to start when initiating a mobile program.
    • IT has tried mobile development in the past but didn't achieve success.
    • IT must initiate a mobile program quickly based on business priorities and needs a roadmap based on best practices.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Form factors and mobile devices won't drive success – business alignment and user experience will. Don't get caught up with the latest features in mobile devices.
    • Software emulation testing is not true testing. Get on the device and run your tests.
    • Cross form-factor testing cannot be optimized to run in parallel. Therefore, anticipate longer testing cycles for cross form-factor testing.

    Impact and Result

    • Prepare your development, testing, and deployment teams for mobile development.
    • Get a realistic assessment of ROI for the launch of a mobile program.

    Enter Into Mobile Development Without Confusion and Frustration Research & Tools

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

    1. Make the Case for a Mobile Program

    Understand the current mobile ecosystem. Use this toolkit to help you initiate a mobile development program.

    • Storyboard: Enter Into Mobile Development Without Confusion and Frustration

    2. Assess Your Dev Process for Readiness

    Review and evaluate your current application development process.

    3. Prepare to Execute Your Mobile Program

    Prioritize your mobile program based on your organization’s prioritization profile.

    • Mobile Program Tool

    4. Communicate with Stakeholders

    Summarize the execution of the mobile program.

    • Project Status Communication Worksheet
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Enter Into Mobile Development Without Confusion and Frustration

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

    1 Build your Future Mobile Development State

    The Purpose

    Understand the alignment of stakeholder objectives and priorities to mobile dev IT drivers.

    Assess readiness of your organization for mobile dev.

    Understand how to build your ideal mobile dev process.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Identify and address the gaps in your existing app dev process.

    Build your future mobile dev state.

    Activities

    1.1 Getting started

    1.2 Assess your current state

    1.3 Establish your future state

    Outputs

    List of key stakeholders

    Stakeholder and IT driver mapping and assessment of current app dev process

    List of practices to accommodate mobile dev

    2 Prepare and Execute your Mobile Program

    The Purpose

    Assess the impact of mobile dev on your existing app dev process.

    Prioritize your mobile program.

    Understand the dev practice metrics to gauge success.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Properly prepare for the execution of your mobile program.

    Calculate the ROI of your mobile program.

    Prioritize your mobile program with dependencies in mind.

    Build a communication plan with stakeholders.

    Activities

    2.1 Conduct an impact analysis

    2.2 Prepare to execute

    2.3 Communicate with stakeholders

    Outputs

    Impact analysis of your mobile program and expected ROI

    Mobile program order of execution and project dependencies mapping

    List of dev practice metrics

    Take Control of Cloud Costs on AWS

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    • Parent Category Name: Cloud Strategy
    • Parent Category Link: /cloud-strategy
    • Traditional IT budgeting and procurement processes don't work for public cloud services.
    • The self-service nature of the cloud means that often the people provisioning cloud resources aren't accountable for the cost of those resources.
    • Without centralized control or oversight, organizations can quickly end up with massive AWS bills that exceed their IT salary cost.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Most engineers care more about speed of feature delivery and reliability of the system than they do about cost.
    • Often there are no consequences for over architecting or overspending on AWS.
    • Many organizations lack sufficient visibility into their AWS spend, making it impossible to establish accountability and controls.

    Impact and Result

    • Define roles and responsibilities.
    • Establish visibility.
    • Develop processes, procedures, and policies.

    Take Control of Cloud Costs on AWS Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should take control of cloud costs, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Build cost accountability framework

    Assess your current state, define your cost allocation model, and define roles and responsibilities.

    • Cloud Cost Management Worksheet
    • Cloud Cost Management Capability Assessment
    • Cloud Cost Management Policy
    • Cloud Cost Glossary of Terms

    2. Establish visibility

    Define dashboards and reports, and document account structure and tagging requirements.

    • Service Cost Cheat Sheet

    3. Define processes and procedures

    Establish governance for tagging and cost control, define processes for right-sizing, and define processes for purchasing commitment discounts.

    • Right-Sizing Workflow (Visio)
    • Right-Sizing Workflow (PDF)
    • Commitment Purchasing Workflow (Visio)
    • Commitment Purchasing Workflow (PDF)

    4. Build implementation plan

    Document process interactions, establish program KPIs, and build implementation roadmap and communication plan.

    • Cloud Cost Management Task List

    Infographic

    Workshop: Take Control of Cloud Costs on AWS

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

    1 Build Cost Accountability Framework

    The Purpose

    Establish clear lines of accountability and document roles and responsibilities to effectively manage cloud costs.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Chargeback/showback model to provide clear accountability for costs.

    Understanding of key areas to focus on to improve cloud cost management capabilities.

    Activities

    1.1 Assess current state

    1.2 Determine cloud cost model

    1.3 Define roles and responsibilities

    Outputs

    Cloud cost management capability assessment

    Cloud cost model

    Roles and responsibilities

    2 Establish Visibility

    The Purpose

    Establish visibility into cloud costs and drivers of those costs.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Better understanding of what is driving costs and how to keep them in check.

    Activities

    2.1 Develop architectural patterns

    2.2 Define dashboards and reports

    2.3 Define account structure

    2.4 Document tagging requirements

    Outputs

    Architectural patterns; service cost cheat sheet

    Dashboards and reports

    Account structure

    Tagging scheme

    3 Define Processes and Procedures

    The Purpose

    Develop processes, procedures, and policies to control cloud costs.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Improved capability of reducing costs.

    Documented processes and procedures for continuous improvement.

    Activities

    3.1 Establish governance for tagging

    3.2 Establish governance for costs

    3.3 Define right-sizing process

    3.4 Define purchasing process

    3.5 Define notification and alerts

    Outputs

    Tagging policy

    Cost control policy

    Right-sizing process

    Commitment purchasing process

    Notifications and Alerts

    4 Build Implementation Plan

    The Purpose

    Document next steps to implement and improve cloud cost management program.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Concrete roadmap to stand up and/or improve the cloud cost management program.

    Activities

    4.1 Document process interaction changes

    4.2 Define cloud cost program KPIs

    4.3 Build implementation roadmap

    4.4 Build communication plan

    Outputs

    Changes to process interactions

    Cloud cost program KPIs

    Implementation roadmap

    Communication plan

    Plan Your Digital Transformation on a Page

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    • Parent Category Name: IT Strategy
    • Parent Category Link: /it-strategy
    • Digital investments often under deliver on expectations of return, and there is no cohesive approach to managing the flow of capital into digital.
    • The focus of the business has historically been to survive technological disruption rather than to thrive in it.
    • Strategy is based mostly on opinion rather than an objective analysis of the outcomes customers want from the organization.
    • Digital is considered a buzzword – nobody has a clear understanding of what it is and what it means in the organization’s context.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • The purpose of going digital is getting one step closer to the customer. The mark of a digital organization lies in how they answer the question, “How does what we’re doing contribute to what the customer wants from us?”
    • The goal of digital strategy is digital enablement. An organization that is digitally enabled no longer needs a digital strategy, it’s just “the strategy.”

    Impact and Result

    • Focus strategy making on delivering the digital outcomes that customers want.
      • Leverage the talent, expertise, and perspectives within the organization to build a customer-centric digital strategy.
    • Design a balanced digital strategy that creates value across the five digital value pools:
      • Digital marketing, digital channels, digital products, digital supporting capabilities, and business model innovation.
    • Ask how disruption can be leveraged, or even become the disruptor.
      • Manage disruption through quick-win approaches and empowering staff to innovate.
    • Use a Digital Strategy-on-a-Page to spark the digital transformation.
      • Drive awareness and alignment on the digital vision and spark your organization’s imagination around digital.

    Plan Your Digital Transformation on a Page Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to understand how digital disruption is driving the need for transformation, and how Info-Tech’s methodology can help.

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

    1. Scope the digital transformation

    Learn how to apply the Digital Value Pools thought model and scope strategy around them.

    • Plan Your Digital Transformation on a Page – Phase 1: Scope the Digital Transformation

    2. Design the digital future state vision

    Identify business imperatives, define digital outcomes, and define the strategy’s guiding principles.

    • Plan Your Digital Transformation on a Page – Phase 2: Design the Digital Future State Vision
    • Digital Strategy on a Page

    3. Define the digital roadmap

    Define, prioritize, and roadmap digital initiatives and plan contingencies.

    • Plan Your Digital Transformation on a Page – Phase 3: Define the Digital Roadmap

    4. Sustain digital transformation

    Create, polish, and socialize the Digital Strategy-on-a-Page.

    • Plan Your Digital Transformation on a Page – Phase 4: Sustain Digital Transformation
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Plan Your Digital Transformation on a Page

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

    1 Scope the Digital Transformation

    The Purpose

    Identify the need for and use of digital strategy and determine a realistic scope for the digital strategy.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    The digital strategy project is planned and scoped around a subset of the five digital value pools.

    Activities

    1.1 Introduction to digital strategy.

    1.2 Establish motivation for digital.

    1.3 Discuss in-flight digital investments.

    1.4 Define the scope of digital.

    1.5 Identify stakeholders.

    1.6 Perform discovery interviews.

    1.7 Select two value pools to focus day 2, 3, and 4 activities.

    Outputs

    Business model canvas

    Stakeholder power map

    Discovery interview results

    Two value pools for focus throughout the workshop

    2 Design the Digital Future State Vision

    The Purpose

    Create guiding principles to help define future digital initiatives. Generate the target state with the help of strategic goals.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Establish the basis for planning out the initiatives needed to achieve the target state from the current state.

    Activities

    2.1 Identify digital imperatives.

    2.2 Define key digital outcomes.

    2.3 Create a digital investment thesis.

    2.4 Define digital guiding principles.

    Outputs

    Corporate strategy analysis, PESTLE analysis, documented operational pain points (value streams)

    Customer needs assessment (journey maps)

    Digital investment thesis

    Digital guiding principles

    3 Define the Digital Roadmap

    The Purpose

    Understand the gap between the current and target state. Create transition options and assessment against qualitative and quantitative metrics to generate a list of initiatives the organization will pursue to reach the target state. Build a roadmap to plan out when each transition initiative will be implemented.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Finalize the initiatives the organization will use to achieve the target digital state. Create a roadmap to plan out the timing of each initiative and generate an easy-to-present document for digital strategy approval.

    Activities

    3.1 Identify initiatives to achieve digital outcomes.

    3.2 Align in-flight initiatives to digital initiatives.

    3.3 Prioritize digital initiatives.

    3.4 Document architecturally significant requirements for high-priority initiatives.

    Outputs

    Digital outcomes and KPIs

    Investment/value pool matrix

    Digital initiative prioritization

    Architecturally significant requirements for high-priority initiatives

    4 Define the Digital Roadmap

    The Purpose

    Plan your approach to socializing the digital strategy to help facilitate the cultural changes necessary for digital transformation.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Plant the seed of digital and innovation to start making digital a part of the organization’s DNA.

    Activities

    4.1 Review and refine Digital Strategy on a Page.

    4.2 Assess company culture.

    4.3 Define high-level cultural changes needed for successful transformation.

    4.4 Define the role of the digital transformation team.

    4.5 Establish digital transformation team membership and desired outcomes.

    Outputs

    Digital Strategy on a Page

    Strategyzer Culture Map

    Digital transformation team charter

    Application Development Quality

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

    Modernize Your Corporate Website to Drive Business Value

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    • Parent Category Name: Marketing Solutions
    • Parent Category Link: /marketing-solutions
    • Users are demanding more valuable web functionalities and improved access to your website services. They are expecting development teams to keep up with their changing needs.
    • The criteria of user acceptance and satisfaction involves more than an aesthetically pleasing user interface (UI). It also includes how emotionally attached the user is to the website and how it accommodates user behaviors.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Complication

    • Organizations are focusing too much on the UI when they optimize the user experience of their websites. The UI is only one of many components involved in successful websites with good user experience.
    • User experience (UX) is often an afterthought in development, risking late and costly fixes to improve end-user reception after deployment.

    Insights

    • Organizations often misinterpret UX as UI. In fact, UX incorporates both the functional and emotional needs of the user, going beyond the website’s UI.
    • Human behaviors and tendencies are commonly left out of the define and design phases of website development, putting user satisfaction and adoption at risk.

    Impact and Result

    • Gain a deep understanding of user needs and behaviors. Become familiar with the human behaviors, emotions, and pain points of your users in order to shortlist the design elements and website functions that will receive the highest user satisfaction.
    • Perform a comprehensive website review. Leverage satisfaction surveys, user feedback, and user monitoring tools (e.g. heat maps) to reveal high-level UX issues. Use these insights to drill down into the execution and composition of your website to identify the root causes of issues.
    • Incorporate modern UX trends in your design. New web technologies are continuously emerging in the industry to enhance user experience. Stay updated on today’s UX trends and validate their fit for the specific needs of your target audience.

    Modernize Your Corporate Website to Drive Business Value Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

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

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

    1. Define UX requirements

    Reveal the opportunities to heighten the user experience of your website through a deep understanding of the behaviors, emotions, and needs of your end users in order to design a receptive and valuable website.

    • Modernize Your Corporate Website to Drive Business Value – Phase 1: Define UX Requirements
    • Website Design Document Template

    2. Design UX-driven website

    Design a satisfying and receptive website by leveraging industry best practices and modern UX trends and ensuring the website is supported with reliable and scalable data and infrastructure.

    • Modernize Your Corporate Website to Drive Business Value – Phase 2: Design UX-Driven Website
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Modernize Your Corporate Website to Drive Business Value

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

    1 Define Your UX Requirements

    The Purpose

    List the business objectives of your website.

    Describe your user personas, use cases, and user workflow.

    Identify current UX issues through simulations, website design, and system reviews.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Strong understanding of the business goals of your website.

    Knowledge of the behaviors and needs of your website’s users.

    Realization of the root causes behind the UX issues of your website.

    Activities

    1.1 Define the business objectives for the website you want to optimize

    1.2 Define your end-user personas and map them to use cases

    1.3 Build your website user workflow

    1.4 Conduct a SWOT analysis of your website to drive out UX issues

    1.5 Gauge the UX competencies of your web development team

    1.6 Simulate your user workflow to identify the steps driving down UX

    1.7 Assess the composition and construction of your website

    1.8 Understand the execution of your website with a system architecture

    1.9 Pinpoint the technical reason behind your UX issues

    1.10 Clarify and prioritize your UX issues

    Outputs

    Business objectives

    End-user personas and use cases

    User workflows

    Website SWOT analysis

    UX competency assessment

    User workflow simulation

    Website design assessment

    Current state of web system architecture

    Gap analysis of web system architecture

    Prioritized UX issues

    2 Design Your UX-Driven Website

    The Purpose

    Design wireframes and storyboards to be aligned to high priority use cases.

    Design a web system architecture that can sufficiently support the website.

    Identify UX metrics to gauge the success of the website.

    Establish a website design process flow.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Implementation of key design elements and website functions that users will find stimulating and valuable.

    Optimized web system architecture to better support the website.

    Website design process aligned to your current context.

    Rollout plan for your UX optimization initiatives.

    Activities

    2.1 Define the roles of your UX development team

    2.2 Build your wireframes and user storyboards

    2.3 Design the target state of your web environment

    2.4 List your UX metrics

    2.5 Draw your website design process flow

    2.6 Define your UX optimization roadmap

    2.7 Identify and engage your stakeholders

    Outputs

    Roles of UX development team

    Wireframes and user storyboards

    Target state of web system architecture

    List of UX metrics

    List of your suppliers, inputs, processes, outputs, and customers

    Website design process flow

    UX optimization rollout roadmap

    Automate Work Faster and More Easily With Robotic Process Automation

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    • Parent Category Name: Optimization
    • Parent Category Link: /optimization
    • Your organization has many business processes that rely on repetitive, routine manual data collection and processing work, and there is high stakeholder interest in automating them.
    • You’re investigating whether robotic process automation (RPA) is a suitable technological enabler for automating such processes.
    • Being a trending technology, especially with its association with artificial intelligence (AI), there is much marketing fluff, hype, and misunderstanding about RPA.
    • Estimating the potential impact of RPA on business is difficult, as the relevant industry statistics often conflict each other and you aren’t sure how applicable it is to your business.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • There are no physical robots in RPA. RPA is about software “bots” that interact with applications as if they were human users to perform routine, repetitive work in your place. It’s for any business in any industry, not just for manufacturing.
    • RPA is lightweight IT; it reduces the cost of entry, maintenance, and teardown of automation as well as the technological requirement of resources that maintain it, as it complements existing automation solutions in your toolkit.
    • RPA is rules-based. While AI promises to relax the rigidity of rules, it adds business risks that are poorly understood by both businesses and subject-matter experts. Rules-based “RPA 1.0” is mature and may pose a stronger business case than AI-enabled RPA.
    • RPA’s sweet spot is “swivel chair automation”: processes that require human workers to act as a conduit between several systems, moving between applications, manually keying, re-keying, copying, and pasting information. A bot can take their place.

    Impact and Result

    • Discover RPA and how it differentiates from other automation solutions.
    • Understand the benefits and risks of complementing RPA with AI.
    • Identify existing business processes best suited for automation with RPA.
    • Communicate RPA’s potential business benefits to stakeholders.

    Automate Work Faster and More Easily With Robotic Process Automation Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should use RPA to automate routine, repetitive data collection and processing work, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the ways we can support you.

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

    1. Discover robotic process automation

    Learn about RPA, including how it compares to IT-led automation rooted in business process management practices and the role of AI.

    • Automate Work Faster and More Easily With Robotic Process Automation – Phase 1: Discover Robotic Process Automation
    • Robotic Process Automation Communication Template

    2. Identify processes best suited for robotic process automation

    Identify and prioritize candidate processes for RPA.

    • Automate Work Faster and More Easily With Robotic Process Automation – Phase 2: Identify Processes Best Suited for Robotic Process Automation
    • Process Evaluation Tool for Robotic Process Automation
    • Minimum Viable Business Case Document
    [infographic]

    Secure Operations in High-Risk Jurisdictions

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    • Parent Category Name: Security Strategy & Budgeting
    • Parent Category Link: /security-strategy-and-budgeting

    Business operations in high-risk areas of the world contend with complex threat environments and risk scenarios that often require a unique response. But traditional approaches to security strategy often miss these jurisdictional risks, leaving organizations vulnerable to threats that range from cybercrime and data breaches to fines and penalties.

    Security leaders need to identify high-risk jurisdictions, inventory critical assets, identify vulnerabilities, assess risks, and identify security controls necessary to mitigate those risks.

    Secure operations and protect critical assets in high-risk regions

    Across risks that include insider threats and commercial surveillance, the two greatest vulnerabilities that organizations face in high-risk parts of the world are travel and compliance. Organizations can make small adjustments to their security program to address these risks:

    1. Support high-risk travel: Put measures and guidelines in place to protect personnel, data, and devices before, during, and after employee travel.
    2. Mitigate compliance risk: Consider data residency requirements, data breach notification, cross-border data transfer, and third-party risks to support business growth.

    Using these two prevalent risk scenarios in high-risk jurisdictions as examples, this research walks you through the steps to analyze the threat landscape, assess security risks, and execute a response to mitigate them.

    Secure Operations in High-Risk Jurisdictions Research & Tools

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

    1. Secure Operations in High-Risk Jurisdictions – A step-by-step approach to mitigating jurisdictional security and privacy risks.

    Traditional approaches to security strategy often miss jurisdictional risks. Use this storyboard to make small adjustments to your security program to mitigate security risks in high-risk jurisdictions.

    • Secure Operations in High-Risk Jurisdictions – Phases 1-3

    2. Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heat Map Tool – A tool to inventory, assess, and treat jurisdictional risks.

    Use this tool to track jurisdictional risks, assess the exposure of critical assets, and identify mitigation controls. Use the geographic heatmap to communicate inherent jurisdictional risk with key stakeholders.

    • Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heat Map Tool

    3. Guidelines for Key Jurisdictional Risk Scenarios – Two structured templates to help you develop guidelines for two key jurisdictional risk scenarios: high-risk travel and compliance risk

    Use these two templates to develop help you develop your own guidelines for key jurisdictional risk scenarios. The guidelines address high-risk travel and compliance risk.

    • Digital Safety Guidelines for International Travel
    • Guidelines for Compliance With Local Security and Privacy Laws Template

    Infographic

    Workshop: Secure Operations in High-Risk Jurisdictions

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

    1 Identify Context for Risk Assessment

    The Purpose

    Assess business requirements and evaluate security pressures to set the context for the security risk assessment.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understand the goals of the organization in high-risk jurisdictions.

    Assess the threats to critical assets in these jurisdictions and capture stakeholder expectations for information security.

    Activities

    1.1 Determine assessment scope.

    1.2 Determine business goals.

    1.3 Determine compliance obligations.

    1.4 Determine risk appetite.

    1.5 Conduct pressure analysis.

    Outputs

    Business requirements

    Security pressure analysis

    2 Analyze Key Risk Scenarios for High-Risk Jurisdictions

    The Purpose

    Build key risk scenarios for high-risk jurisdictions.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Identify critical assets in high-risk jurisdictions, their vulnerabilities to relevant threats, and the adverse impact should malicious agents exploit them.

    Assess risk exposure of critical assets in high-risk jurisdictions.

    Activities

    2.1 Identify critical assets.

    2.2 Identify threats.

    2.3 Assess risk likelihood.

    2.4 Assess risk impact.

    Outputs

    Key risk scenarios

    Jurisdictional risk exposure

    Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heat Map

    3 Build Risk Treatment Roadmap

    The Purpose

    Prioritize and treat jurisdictional risks to critical assets.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Build an initiative roadmap to reduce residual risks in high-risk jurisdictions.

    Activities

    3.1 Identify and assess risk response.

    3.2 Assess residual risks.

    3.3 Identify security controls.

    3.4 Build initiative roadmap.

    Outputs

    Action plan to mitigate key risk scenarios

    Further reading

    Secure Operations in High-Risk Jurisdictions

    Assessments often omit jurisdictional risks. Are your assets exposed?

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    Operations in high-risk jurisdictions face unique security scenarios.

    The image contains a picture of Michel Hebert.

    Michel Hébert

    Research Director

    Security and Privacy

    Info-Tech Research Group


    The image contains a picture of Alan Tang.

    Alan Tang

    Principal Research Director

    Security and Privacy

    Info-Tech Research Group


    Traditional approaches to security strategies may miss key risk scenarios that critical assets face in high-risk jurisdictions. These include high-risk travel, heightened insider threats, advanced persistent threats, and complex compliance environments. Most organizations have security strategies and risk management practices in place, but securing global operations requires its own effort. Assess the security risk that global operations pose to critical assets. Consider the unique assets, threats, and vulnerabilities that come with operations in high-risk jurisdictions. Focus on the business activities you support and integrate your insights with existing risk management practices to ensure the controls you propose get the visibility they need. Your goal is to build a plan that mitigates the unique security risks that global operations pose and secures critical assets in high-risk areas. Don’t leave security to chance.

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    • Security leaders who support operations in many countries struggle to mitigate security risks to critical assets. Operations in high-risk jurisdictions contend with complex threat environments and security risk scenarios that often require a unique response.
    • Security leaders need to identify critical assets, assess vulnerabilities, catalog threats, and identify the security controls necessary to mitigate related operational risks.

    Common Obstacles

    • Securing operations in high-risk jurisdictions requires additional due diligence. Each jurisdiction involves a different risk context, which complicates efforts to identify, assess, and mitigate security risks to critical assets.
    • Security leaders need to engage the organization with the right questions and identify high-risk vulnerabilities and security risk scenarios to help stakeholders make an informed decision about how to assess and treat the security risks they face in high-risk jurisdictions.

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    Info-Tech has developed an effective approach to protecting critical assets in high-risk jurisdictions.

    This approach includes tools for:

    • Evaluating the security context of your organization’s high-risk jurisdictions.
    • Identifying security risk scenarios unique to high-risk jurisdictions and assessing the exposure of critical assets.
    • Planning and executing a response.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Organizations with global operations must contend with a more diverse set of assets, threats, and vulnerabilities when they operate in high-risk jurisdictions. Security leaders need to take additional steps to secure operations and protect critical assets.

    Business operations in high-risk jurisdictions face a more complex security landscape

    Information security risks to business operations vary widely by region.

    The 2022 Allianz Risk Barometer surveyed 2,650 business risk specialists in 89 countries to identify the most important risks to operations. The report identified cybercrime, IT failures, outages, data breaches, fines, and penalties as the most important global business risks in 2022, but their results varied widely by region. The standout finding of the 2022 Allianz Risk Barometer is the return of security risks as the most important threat to business operations. Security risks will continue to be acute beyond 2022, especially in Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region, where they will dwarf risks of supply chain interruptions, natural catastrophe, and climate change.

    Global operations in high-risk jurisdictions contend with more diverse threats. These security risk scenarios are not captured in traditional security strategies.

    The image contains a picture of the world map that has certain areas of the map highlighted in various shades of blue based on higher security-related business risks.

    Figures represent the number of cybersecurity risks business risk specialists selected as a percentage of all business risks (Allianz, 2022). Higher scores indicate jurisdictions with higher security-related business risks. Jurisdictions without data are in grey.

    Different jurisdictions’ commitment to cybersecurity also varies widely, which increases security risks further

    The Global Cybersecurity Index (GCI) provides insight into the commitment of different countries to cybersecurity.

    The index assesses a country’s legal framework to identify basic requirements that public and private stakeholders must uphold and the legal instruments prohibiting harmful actions.

    The 2020 GCI results show overall improvement and strengthening of the cybersecurity agenda globally, but significant regional gaps persist. Of the 194 countries surveyed:

    • 33% had no data protection legislation.
    • 47% had no breach notification measures in place.
    • 50% had no legislation on the theft of personal information.
    • 19% still had no legislation on illegal access.

    Not every jurisdiction has the same commitment to cybersecurity. Protecting critical assets in high-risk jurisdictions requires additional due diligence.

    The image contains a picture of the world map that has certain areas of the map highlighted in various shades of blue based on scores in relation to the Global Security Index.

    The diagram sets out the score and rank for each country that took part in the Global Cybersecurity Index (ITU, 2021)

    Higher scores show jurisdictions with a lower rank on the CGI, which implies greater risk. Jurisdictions without data are in grey.

    Securing critical assets in high-risk jurisdictions requires additional effort

    Traditional approaches to security strategy may miss these key risk scenarios.

    As a result, security leaders who support operations in many countries need to take additional steps to mitigate security risks to critical assets.

    Guide stakeholders to make informed decisions about how to assess and treat the security risks and secure operations.

    • Engage the organization with the right questions.
    • Identify critical assets and assess vulnerabilities.
    • Catalogue threats and build risk scenarios.
    • Identify the security controls necessary to mitigate risks.

    Work with your organization to analyze the threat landscape, assess security risks unique to high-risk jurisdictions, and execute a response to mitigate them.

    This project blueprint works through this process using the two most prevalent risk scenarios in high-risk jurisdictions: high-risk travel and compliance risk.

    Key Risk Scenarios

    • High-Risk Travel
    • Compliance Risk
    • Insider Threat
    • Advanced Persistent Threat
    • Commercial Surveillance
    The image contains a screenshot of an Info-Tech thought model regarding secure global operations in high-risk jurisdictions.

    Travel risk is the first scenario we use as an example throughout the blueprint

    • This project blueprint outlines a process to identify, assess, and mitigate key risk scenarios in high-risk jurisdictions. We use two common key risk scenarios as examples throughout the deck to illustrate how you create and assess your own scenarios.
    • Supporting high-risk travel is the first scenario we will study in-depth as an example. Business growth, service delivery, and mergers and acquisitions can lead end users to travel to high-risk jurisdictions where staff, devices, and data are at risk.
    • Compromised or stolen devices can provide threat actors with access to data that could compromise the organization’s strategic, economic, or competitive advantage or expose the organization to regulatory risk.

    The project blueprint includes template guidance in Phase 3 to help you build and deploy your own travel guidelines to protect critical assets and support end users before they leave, during their trip, and when they return.

    Before you leave

    • Identify high-risk countries.
    • Enable controls.
    • Limit what you pack.

    During your trip

    • Assume you are monitored.
    • Limit access to systems.
    • Prevent theft.

    When you return

    • Change your password.
    • Restore your devices.

    Compliance risk is the second scenario we use as an example

    • Mitigating compliance risk is the second scenario we will study as an example in this blueprint. The legal and regulatory landscape is evolving rapidly to keep step with the pace of technological change. Security and privacy leaders are expected to mitigate the risk of noncompliance as the organization expands to new jurisdictions.
    • Later sections will show how to think through at least four compliance risks, including:
      • Cross-border data transfer
      • Third-party risk management
      • Data breach notification
      • Data residency

    The project blueprint includes template guidance in Phase 3 to help you deploy your own compliance governance controls as a risk mitigation measure.

    Secure Operations in High-Risk Jurisdictions: Info-Tech’s methodology

    1. Identify Context

    2. Assess Risks

    3. Execute Response

    Phase Steps

    1. Assess business requirements
    2. Evaluate security pressures
    1. Identify risks
    2. Assess risk exposure
    1. Treat security risks
    2. Build initiative roadmap

    Phase Outcomes

    • Internal security pressures that capture the governance, policies, practices, and risk tolerance of the organization
    • External security pressures that capture the expectations of customers, regulators, legislators, and business partners
    • A heatmap that captures not only the global exposure of your critical assets but also the business processes they support
    • A security risk register to allow for the easy transfer of critical assets’ global security risk data to your organization’s enterprise risk management practice
    • A roadmap of prioritized initiatives to apply relevant controls and secure global assets
    • A set of key risk indicators to monitor and report your progress

    Blueprint deliverables

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

    Business Security Requirements

    Identify the context for the global security risk assessment, including risk appetite and risk tolerance.

    Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap

    Identify critical global assets and the threats they face in high-risk jurisdictions and assess exposure.

    Mitigation Plan

    Roadmap of initiatives and security controls to mitigate global risks to critical assets. Tools and templates to address key security risk scenarios.

    Key deliverable:

    Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap

    Use the Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool to capture information security risks to critical assets in high-risk jurisdictions. The tool generates a world chart that illustrates the risks global operations face to help you engage the business and execute a response.

    Blueprint benefits

    Protect critical assets in high-risk jurisdictions

    IT Benefits

    Assess and remediate information security risk to critical assets in high-risk jurisdictions.

    Easily integrate your risk assessment with enterprise risk assessments to improve communication with the business.

    Illustrate key information security risk scenarios to make the case for action in terms the business understands.

    Business Benefits

    Develop mitigation plans to protect staff, devices, and data in high-risk jurisdictions.

    Support business growth in high-risk jurisdictions without compromising critical assets.

    Mitigate compliance risk to protect your organization’s reputation, avoid fines, and ensure business continuity.

    Quantify the impact of securing global operations

    The tool included with this blueprint can help you measure the impact of implementing the research

    • Use the Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool to describe the key risk scenarios you face, assess their likelihood and impact, and estimate the cost of mitigating measures. Working through the project in this way will help you quantify the impact of securing global operations.
    The image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech's Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool. The image contains a screenshot of the High-Risk Travel Jurisdiction.

    Establish Baseline Metrics

    • Review existing information security and risk management metrics and the output of the tools included with the blueprint.
    • Identify metrics to measure the impact of your risk management efforts. Focus specifically on high-risk jurisdictions.
    • Compare your results with those in your overall security and risk management program.

    ID

    Metric

    Why is this metric valuable?

    How do I calculate it?

    1.

    Overall Exposure – High-Risk Jurisdictions

    Illustrates the overall exposure of critical assets in high-risk jurisdictions.

    Use the Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool. Calculate the impact times the probability rating for each risk. Take the average.

    2.

    # Risks Identified – High-Risk Jurisdictions

    Informs risk tolerance assessments.

    Use the Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool.

    3.

    # Risks Treated – High-Risk Jurisdictions

    Informs residual risk assessments.

    Use the Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool.

    4.

    Mitigation Cost – High-Risk Jurisdictions

    Informs cost-benefit analysis to determine program effectiveness.

    Use the Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool.

    5.

    # Security Incidents – High-Risk Jurisdictions

    Informs incident trend calculations to determine program effectiveness.

    Draw the information from your service desk or IT service management tool.

    6.

    Incident Remediation Cost – High-Risk Jurisdictions

    Informs cost-benefit analysis to determine program effectiveness.

    Estimate based on cost and effort, including direct and indirect cost such as business disruptions, administrative finds, reputational damage, etc.

    7.

    TRENDS: Program Effectiveness – High-Risk Jurisdictions

    # of security incidents over time. Remediation : Mitigation costs over time

    Calculate based on metrics 5 to 7.

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

    DIY Toolkit

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

    Guided Implementation

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

    Workshop

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

    Consulting

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks are used throughout all four options.

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Phase 1

    Call #1: Scope project requirements, determine assessment scope, and discuss challenges.

    Phase 2

    Call #2: Conduct initial risk assessment and determine risk tolerance.

    Call #3: Evaluate security pressures in high-risk jurisdictions.

    Call #4: Identify risks in high-risk jurisdictions.

    Call #5: Assess risk exposure.

    Phase 3

    Call #6: Treat security risks in high-risk jurisdictions.

    A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with an Info-Tech analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization. A typical GI is between 8 to 12 calls over the course of 4 to 6 months.

    Workshop Overview

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

    Days 1

    Days 2-3

    Day 4

    Day 5

    Identify Context

    Key Risk Scenarios

    Build Roadmap

    Next Steps and Wrap-Up (offsite)

    Activities

    1.1.1 Determine assessment scope.

    1.1.2 Determine business goals.

    1.1.3 Identify compliance obligations.

    1.2.1 Determine risk appetite.

    1.2.2 Conduct pressure analysis.

    2.1.1 Identify assets.

    2.1.2 Identify threats.

    2.2.1 Assess risk likelihood.

    2.2.2 Assess risk impact.

    3.1.1 Identify and assess risk response.

    3.1.2 Assess residual risks.

    3.2.1 Identify security controls.

    3.2.2 Build initiative roadmap.

    5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days.

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

    Deliverables

    1. Business requirements for security risk assessment
    2. Identification of high-risk jurisdictions
    3. Security threat landscape for high-risk jurisdictions
    1. Inventory of relevant threats, critical assets, and their vulnerabilities
    2. Assessment of adverse effects should threat agents exploit vulnerabilities
    3. Risk register with key risk scenarios and heatmap of high-risk jurisdictions
    1. Action plan to mitigate key risk scenarios
    2. Investment and implementation roadmap
    1. Completed information security risk assessment for two key risk scenarios
    2. Risk mitigation roadmap

    No safe jurisdictions

    Stakeholders sometimes ask information security and privacy leaders to produce a list of safe jurisdictions from which to operate. We need to help them see that there are no safe jurisdictions, only relatively risky ones. As you build your security program, deepen the scope of your risk assessments to include risk scenarios critical assets face in different jurisdictions. These risks do not need to rule out operations, but they may require additional mitigation measures to keep staff, data, and devices safe and reduce potential reputational harms.

    Traditional approaches to security strategy often omit jurisdictional risks.

    Global operations must contend with a more complex security landscape. Secure critical assets in high-risk jurisdictions with a targeted risk assessment.

    The two greatest risks are high-risk travel and compliance risk.

    You can mitigate them with small adjustments to your security program.

    Support High-Risk Travel

    When securing travel to high-risk jurisdictions, you must consider personnel safety as well as data and device security. Put measures and guidelines in place to protect them before, during, and after travel.

    Mitigate Compliance Risk

    Think through data residency requirements, data breach notification, cross-border data transfer, and third-party risks to support business growth and mitigate compliance risks in high-risk jurisdictions to protect your organization’s reputation and avoid hefty fines or business disruptions.

    Phase 1

    Identify Context

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Assess business requirements to understand the goals of the organization’s global operations, as well as its risk governance, policies, and practices.
    • Evaluate jurisdictional security pressures to understand threats to critical assets and capture the expectations of external stakeholders, including customers, regulators, legislators, and business partners, and assess risk tolerance.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Business stakeholders
    • IT leadership
    • Security team
    • Risk and Compliance

    Step 1.1

    Assess Business Requirements

    Activities

    1.1.1 Determine assessment scope

    1.1.2 Identify enterprise goals in high-risk jurisdictions

    1.1.3 Identify compliance obligations

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Business stakeholders
    • IT leadership
    • Security team
    • Risk and Compliance

    Outcomes of this step

    • Assess business requirements to understand the goals of the organization’s global operations, as well as its risk governance, policies, and practices.

    Focus the risk assessment on high-risk jurisdictions

    Traditional approaches to information security strategy often miss threats to global operations

    • Successful security strategies are typically sensitive to risks to different IT systems and lines of business.
    • However, securing global operations requires additional focus on high-risk jurisdictions, considering what makes them unique.
    • This first phase of the project will help you evaluate the business context of operations in high-risk jurisdictions, including:
      • Enterprise and security goals.
      • Lines of business, physical locations, and IT systems that need additional oversight.
      • Unique compliance obligations.
      • Unique risks and security pressures.
      • Organizational risk tolerance in high-risk jurisdictions.

    Focus your risk assessment on the business activities security supports in high-risk jurisdictions and the unique threats they face to bridge gaps in your security strategy.

    Identify jurisdictions with higher inherent risks

    Your security strategy may not describe jurisdictional risk adequately.

    • Security strategies list lines of business, physical locations, and IT systems the organization needs to secure and those whose security will depend on a third-party. You can find additional guidance on fixing the scope and boundaries of a security strategy in Phase 1 of Build an Information Security Strategy.
    • However, security risks vary widely from one jurisdiction to another according to:
      • Active cyber threats.
      • Legal and regulatory frameworks.
      • Regional security and preparedness capabilities.
    • Your first task is to identify high-risk jurisdictions to target for additional oversight.

    Work closely with your enterprise risk management function.

    Enterprise risk management functions are often tasked with developing risk assessments from composite sources. Work closely with them to complete your own assessment.

    Countries at heightened risk of money laundering and terrorism financing are examples of high-risk jurisdictions. The Financial Action Task Force and the U.S. Treasury publish reports three times a year that identify Non-Cooperative Countries or Territories.

    Develop a robust jurisdictional assessment

    Design an intelligence collection strategy to inform your assessment

    Strategic Intelligence

    White papers, briefings, reports. Audience: C-Suite, board members

    Tactical Intelligence

    Internal reports, vendor reports. Audience: Security leaders

    Operational intelligence

    Indicators of compromise. Audience: IT Operations

    Operational intelligence focuses on machine-readable data used to block attacks, triage and validate alerts, and eliminate threats from the network. It becomes outdated in a matter of hours and is less useful for this exercise.

    Determine travel risks to bolster your assessments

    Not all locations and journeys will require the same security measures.

    • Travel risks vary significantly according to destination, the nature of the trip, and traveler profile.
    • Access to an up-to-date country risk rating system enables your organization and individual staff to quickly determine the overall level of risk in a specific country or location.
    • Based on this risk rating, you can specify what security measures are required prior to travel and what level of travel authorization is appropriate, in line with the organization's security policy or travel security procedures.
    • While some larger organizations can maintain their own country risk ratings, this requires significant capacity, particularly to obtain the necessary information to keep these regularly updated.
    • It may be more effective for your organization to make use of the travel risk ratings provided by an external security information provider, such as a company linked to your travel insurance or travel booking service, if available.
    • Alternatively, various open-source travel risk ratings are available via embassy travel sites or other website providers.

    Without a flexible system to account for the risk exposures of different jurisdictions, staff may perceive measures as a hindrance to operations.

    Develop a tiered risk rating

    The example below outlines potential risk indicators for high-risk travel.

    Rating

    Description

    Low

    Generally secure with adequate physical security. Low violent crime rates. Some civil unrest during significant events. Acts of terrorism rare. Risks associated with natural disasters limited and health threats mainly preventable.

    Moderate

    Periodic civil unrest. Antigovernment, insurgent, or extremist groups active with sporadic acts of terrorism. Staff at risk from common and violent crime. Transport and communications services are unreliable and safety records are poor. Jurisdiction prone to natural disasters or disease epidemics.

    High

    Regular periods of civil unrest, which may target foreigners. Antigovernment, insurgent, or extremist groups very active and threaten political or economic stability. Violent crime rates high, often targeting foreigners. Infrastructure and emergency services poor. May be regular disruption to transportation or communications services. Certain areas off-limits to foreigners. Jurisdictions experiencing natural disasters or epidemics are considered high risk.

    Extreme

    Undergoing active conflict or persistent civil unrest. Risk of being caught up in a violent incident or attack is very high. Authorities may have lost control of significant portions of the country. Lines between criminality and political and insurgent violence are blurred. Foreigners are likely to be denied access to parts of the country. Transportation and communication services are severely degraded or nonexistent. Violence presents a direct threat to staff security.

    Ratings are formulated by assessing several types of risk, including conflict, political/civil unrest, terrorism, crime, and health and infrastructure risks.

    1.1.1 Determine assessment scope

    1 – 2 hours

    1. As a group, brainstorm a list of high-risk jurisdictions to target for additional assessment. Write down as many items as possible to include in:
    • Lines of business
    • Physical locations
    • IT systems

    Pay close attention to elements of the assessment that are not in scope.

  • Discuss the response and the rationale for targeting each of them for additional risk assessments. Identify security-related concerns for different lines of business, locations, user groups, IT systems, and data.
  • Record your responses and your comments in the Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool.
  • Input

    Output

    • Corporate strategy
    • IT strategy
    • Security strategy
    • Relevant threat intelligence
    • A list of high-risk jurisdictions to focus your risk assessment

    Materials

    Participants

    • Laptop
    • Projector
    • Security team
    • IT leadership
    • Business stakeholders
    • Enterprise Risk Management
    • Compliance
    • Legal

    Download the Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool

    Position your efforts in a business context

    Securing critical assets in high-risk jurisdictions is a business imperative

    • Many companies relegate their information security strategies to their IT department. Aside from the strain the choice places on a department that already performs many different functions, it wrongly implies that mitigating information security risk is simply an IT problem.
    • Managing information security risks is a business problem. It requires that organizations identify their risk appetite, prioritize relevant threats, and define risk mitigation initiatives. Business leaders can only do these activities effectively in a context that recognizes the business and financial benefits of implementing protections.
    • This is notably true of businesses with operations in many different countries. Each jurisdiction has its own set of security risks the organization must account for, as well as unique local laws and regulations that affect business operations.
    • In high-risk jurisdictions, your efforts must consider the unique operational challenges your organization may not face in its home country. Your efforts to secure critical assets will be most successful if you describe key risk scenarios in terms of their impact on business goals.
    • You can find additional guidance on assessing the business context of a security strategy in Phase 1 of Build an Information Security Strategy.

    Do you understand the unique business context of operations in high-risk jurisdictions?

    1.1.2 Identify business goals

    Estimated Time: 1-2 hours

    1. As a group, brainstorm the primary and secondary business goals of the organization. Focus your assessment on operations in high-risk jurisdictions you identified in Exercise 1.1.1. Review:
    • Relevant corporate and IT strategies.
    • The business goal definitions and indicator metrics in tab 2, “Goals Definition,” of the Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool.
  • Limit business goals to no more than two primary goals and three secondary goals. This limitation will help you prioritize security initiatives at the end of the project.
  • For each business goal, identify up to two security alignment goals that will support business goals in high-risk jurisdictions.
  • Input

    Output

    • Corporate strategy
    • IT strategy
    • Security strategy
    • Your goals for the security risk assessment for high-risk jurisdictions

    Materials

    Participants

    • Laptop
    • Projector
    • Security team
    • IT leadership
    • Business stakeholders
    • Risk Management
    • Compliance
    • Legal

    Download the Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool

    Record business goals

    Capture the results in the Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool

    1. Record the primary and secondary business goals you identified in tab 3, “Goals Cascade,” of the Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool.
    2. Next, record the two security alignment goals you selected for each business goal based on the tool’s recommendations.
    3. Finally, review the graphic diagram that illustrates your goals on tab 6, “Results,” of the Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool.
    4. Revisit this exercise whenever operations expands to a new jurisdiction to capture how they contribute to the organization’s mission and vision and how the security program can support them.
    The image contains a screenshot of Tab 3, Goals Cascade.

    Tab 3, Goals Cascade

    The image contains a screenshot of Tab 6, Results.

    Tab 6, Results

    Analyze business goals

    Assess how operating in multiple jurisdictions adds nuance to your business goals

    • Security leaders need to understand the direction of the business to propose relevant security initiatives that support business goals in high-risk jurisdictions.
    • Operating in different jurisdictions carries its own degree of risk. The organization is subject not only to the information security risks and legal frameworks of its country of origin but also to those associated with international jurisdictions.
    • You need to understand where your organization operates and how these different jurisdictions contribute to your business goals to support their performance and protect the firm’s reputation.
    • This exercise will make an explicit link between security and privacy concerns in high-risk jurisdictions, what the business cares about, and what security is trying to accomplish.

    If the organization is considering a merger and acquisition project that will expand operations in jurisdictions with different travel risk profiles, the security organization needs to revise the security strategy to ensure the organization can support high-risk travel and mitigate risks to critical assets.

    Identify compliance obligations

    Data compliance obligations loom large in high-risk jurisdictions

    The image contains four hexagons, each with their own words. SOX, PCI DSS, HIPAA, HITECH.

    Security leaders are familiar with most conventional regulatory obligations that govern financial, personal, and healthcare data in North America and Europe.

    The image contains four hexagons, each with their own words. Residency, Cross-Border Transfer, Breach Notification, Third-Party Risk Mgmt.

    Data privacy concerns, nationalism, and the economic value of data are all driving jurisdictions to adopt data residency and data localization and to shut down the cross-border transfer of data.

    The next step requires you to consider the compliance obligations the organization needs to meet to support the business as it expands to other jurisdictions through natural growth, mergers, and acquisitions.

    1.1.3 Identify compliance obligations

    Estimated Time: 1-2 hours

    1. As a group, brainstorm compliance obligations in target jurisdictions. Focus your assessment on operations in high-risk jurisdictions.
    2. Include:

    • Laws
    • Governing regulations
    • Industry standards
    • Contractual agreements
  • Record your compliance obligations and comments on tab 4, “Compliance Obligations,” of the Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool.
  • If you need to take full stock of the laws and regulations in place in the jurisdictions where you operate that you are not familiar with, consider seeking local legal counsel to help you navigate this exercise.
  • Input

    Output

    • Legal and compliance frameworks in target jurisdictions
    • Mandatory and voluntary compliance obligations for target jurisdictions

    Materials

    Participants

    • Laptop
    • Projector
    • Security team
    • IT leadership
    • Business stakeholders
    • Risk Management
    • Compliance
    • Legal

    Download the Information Security Requirements Gathering Tool

    Step 1.2

    Evaluate Security Pressures

    Activities

    1.2.1 Conduct initial risk assessment

    1.2.2 Conduct pressure analysis

    1.2.3 Determine risk tolerance

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Security team
    • Risk and Compliance
    • IT leadership (optional)

    Outcomes of this step

    Identify threats to global assets and capture the security expectations of external stakeholders, including customers, regulators, legislators, and business partners, and determine risk tolerance.

    Evaluate security pressures to set the risk context

    Perform an initial assessment of high-risk jurisdictions to set the context.

    Assess:

    • The threat landscape.
    • The security pressures from key stakeholders.
    • The risk tolerance of your organization.

    You should be able to find the information in your existing security strategy. If you don’t have the information, work through the next three steps of the project blueprint.

    The image contains a diagram to demonstrate evaluating security pressures, as described in the text above.

    Some jurisdictions carry inherent risks

    • Jurisdictional risks stem from legal, regulatory, or political factors that exist in different countries or regions. They can also stem from unexpected legal changes in regions where critical assets have exposure. Understanding jurisdictional risks is critical because they can require additional security controls.
    • Jurisdictional risk tends to be higher in jurisdictions:
      • Where the organization:
        • Conducts high-value or high-volume financial transactions.
        • Supports and manages critical infrastructure.
        • Has high-cost data or data whose compromise could undermine competitive advantage.
        • Has a high percentage of part-time employees and contractors.
        • Experiences a high rate of employee turnover.
      • Where state actors:
        • Have a low commitment to cybersecurity, financial, and privacy legislation and regulation.
        • Support cybercrime organizations within their borders.

    Jurisdictional risk is often reduced to countries where money laundering and terrorist activities are high. In this blueprint, the term refers to the broader set of information security risks that arise when operating in a foreign country or jurisdiction.

    Five key risk scenarios are most prevalent

    Key Risk Scenarios

    • High-Risk Travel
    • Compliance Risk
    • Insider Threat
    • Advanced Persistent Threat
    • Commercial Surveillance

    Security leaders who support operations in many countries need to take additional steps to mitigate security risks to critical assets. The goal of the next two exercises is to analyze the threat landscape and security pressures unique to high-risk jurisdictions, which will inform the construction of key scenarios in Phase 2. These five scenarios are most prevalent in high-risk jurisdictions. Keep them in mind as you go through the exercises in this section.

    1.2.1 Assess jurisdictional risk

    1-3 hours

    1. As a group, review the questions on tab 2, “Risk Assessment,” of the Information Security Pressure Analysis Tool.
    2. Gather the required information from subject matter experts on the following risk elements with a focus on high-risk jurisdictions:
    3. Review each question in tab 2 of the Information Security Pressure Analysis Tool and select the most appropriate response.

    Input

    Output

    • Existing security strategy
    • List of organizational assets
    • Historical data on information security incidents
    • Completed risk assessment

    Materials

    Participants

    • Information Security Pressure Analysis Tool
    • Security team
    • IT leadership
    • Risk Management

    For more information on how to complete the risk assessment questionnaire, see Step 1.2.1 of Build an Information Security Strategy.

    1.2.2 Conduct pressure analysis

    1-3 hours

    1. As a group, review the questions on tab 3, “Pressure Analysis,” of the Information Security Pressure Analysis Tool.
    2. Gather the required information from subject matter experts on the following pressure elements with a focus on high-risk jurisdictions:
    • Compliance and oversight
    • Customer expectations
    • Business expectations
    • IT expectations
  • Review each question in the questionnaire and provide the most appropriate response using the drop-down list. It may be helpful to consult with the appropriate departments to obtain their perspectives.
  • For more information on how to complete the pressure analysis questionnaire, see Step 1.3 of Build an Information Security Strategy.

    Input

    Output

    • Information on various pressure elements within the organization
    • Existing security strategy
    • Completed pressure analysis

    Materials

    Participants

    • Information Security Pressure Analysis Tool
    • Security team
    • IT leadership
    • Business leaders
    • Compliance

    A low security pressure means that your stakeholders do not assign high importance to information security. You may need to engage stakeholders with the right key risk scenarios to illustrate jurisdictional risk and generate support for new security controls.

    Download the Information Security Pressure Analysis Tool

    Assess risk tolerance

    • Risk tolerance expresses the types and amount of risk the organization is willing to accept in pursuit of its goals.
    • These expectations can help you identify, manage, and report on key risk scenarios in high-risk jurisdictions.
    • For instance, an organization with a low risk tolerance will require a stronger information security program to minimize operational security risks.
    • It’s up to business leaders to determine the risks they are willing to accept. They may need guidance to understand how system-level risks affect the organization’s ability to pursue its goals.

    A formalized risk tolerance statement can help:

    • Support risk-based security decisions that align with business goals.
    • Provide a meaningful rationale for security initiatives.
    • Improve the transparency of investments in the organization’s security program.
    • Provide guidance for monitoring inherent risk and residual risk exposure.

    The role of security professionals is to identify and analyze key risk scenarios that may prevent the organization from reaching its goals.

    1.2.3 Determine risk tolerance

    1-3 hours

    1. As a group, review the questions on tab 4, “Risk Tolerance,” of the Information Security Pressure Analysis Tool.
    2. Gather the required information from subject matter experts on the following risk tolerance elements:
    • Recent IT problems, especially downtime and data recovery issues
    • Historical security incidents
  • Review any relevant documentation, including:
    • Existing security strategy
    • Business impact assessments
    • Service-level agreements

    For more information on how to complete the risk tolerance questionnaire, see Step 1.4 of Build an Information Security Strategy.

    Input

    Output

    • Existing security strategy
    • Data on recent IT problems and incidents
    • Business impact assessments
    • Completed risk tolerance statement

    Materials

    Participants

    • Information Security Pressure Analysis Tool
    • Security team
    • IT leadership
    • Risk Management

    Download the Information Security Pressure Analysis Tool

    Review the output of the results tab

    • The organizational risk assessment provides a high-level assessment of inherent risks in high-risk jurisdictions. Use the results to build and assess key risk scenarios in Phase 2.
    • Use the security pressure analysis to inform stakeholder management efforts. A low security pressure indicates that stakeholders do not yet grasp the impact of information security on organizational goals. You may need to communicate its importance before you discuss additional security controls.
    • Jurisdictions in which organizations have a low risk tolerance will require stronger information security controls to minimize operational risks.
    The image contains a screenshot of the organizational risk assessment. The image contains a screenshot of the security pressure analysis. The image contains a screenshot of the risk tolerance curve.

    Phase 2

    Assess Security Risks to Critical Assets

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Identify critical assets, their vulnerabilities to relevant threats, and the adverse impact a successful threat event would have on the organization.
    • Assess risk exposure of critical assets in high-risk jurisdictions for each risk scenario through an analysis of its likelihood and impact.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Security team
    • Risk and Compliance
    • IT leadership (optional)

    Step 2.1

    Identify Risks

    Activities

    2.1.1 Identify assets

    2.1.2 Identify threats

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Security team
    • Risk and Compliance
    • IT leadership (optional)

    Outcomes of this step

    • Define risk scenarios that identify critical assets, their vulnerabilities to relevant threats, and the adverse impact a successful threat event would have on the organization.

    This blueprint focuses on mitigating jurisdictional risks

    The image contains a screenshot of the IT Risk Management Framework. The framework includes: Risk Identification, Risk Assessment, Risk Response, and Risk Governance.

    For a deeper dive into building a risk management program, see Info-Tech’s core project blueprints on risk management:

    Build an IT Risk Management Program

    Combine Security Risk Management Components Into One Program

    Draft key risk scenarios to illustrate adverse events

    Risk scenarios help decision-makers understand how adverse events affect business goals.

    • Risk-scenario building is the process of identifying the critical factors that contribute to an adverse event and crafting a narrative that describes the circumstances and consequences if it were to happen.
    • Risk scenarios set up the risk analysis stage of the risk assessment process. They are narratives that describe in detail:
      • The asset at risk.
      • The threat that can act against the asset.
      • Their intent or motivation.
      • The circumstances and threat actor model associated with the threat event.
      • The potential effect on the organization.
      • When or how often the event might occur.

    Risk scenarios are further distilled into a single sentence or risk statement that communicates the essential elements from the scenario.

    Well-crafted risk scenarios have four components

    The second phase of the project will help you craft meaningful risk scenarios

    Threat

    Exploits an

    Asset

    Using a

    Method

    Creating an

    Effect

    An actor capable of harming an asset

    Anything of value that can be affected and results in loss

    Technique an actor uses to affect an asset

    How loss materializes

    Examples: Malicious or untrained employees, cybercriminal groups, malicious state actors

    Examples: Systems, regulated data, intellectual property, people

    Examples: Credential compromise, privilege escalation, data exfiltration

    Examples: Loss of data confidentiality, integrity, or availability; impact on staff health & safety

    Risk scenarios are concise, four to six sentence narratives that describe the core elements of forecasted adverse events. Use them to engage stakeholders with the right questions and guide them to make informed decisions about how to address and treat security risks in high-risk jurisdictions.

    The next slides review five key risk scenarios prevalent in high-risk jurisdictions. Use them as examples to develop your own.

    Travel to high-risk jurisdictions requires special measures to protect staff, devices, and data

    Governmental, academic, and commercial advisors compile lists of jurisdictions that pose greater travel risks annually.

    For instance, in the US, these lists might include countries that are:

    • Subjects of travel warnings by the US Department of State.
    • Identified as high risk by other US government sources such as:
      • The Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
      • The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
      • The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).
    • Compiled from academic and commercial sources, such as Control Risks.

    When securing travel to high-risk jurisdictions, you must consider personnel safety as well as data and device security.

    The image contains a diagram to present high-risk jurisdictions.

    The diagram presents high-risk jurisdictions based on US governmental sources (2021) listed on this slide.

    High-risk travel

    Likelihood: Medium

    Impact: Medium

    Key Risk Scenario #1

    Malicious state actors, cybercriminals, and competitors can threaten staff, devices, and data during travel to high-risk jurisdictions. Device theft or compromise may occur while traveling through airports, accessing hotel computer and phone networks, or in internet cafés or other public areas. Threat actors can exploit data from compromised or stolen devices to undermine the organization’s strategic, economic, or competitive advantage. They can also infect compromised devices with malware that delivers malicious payloads once they reconnect with home networks.

    Threat Actor:

    • Malicious state actors
    • Cybercriminals
    • Competitors

    Assets:

    • Staff
    • IT systems
    • Sensitive data

    Effect:

    • Compromised staff health and safety
    • Loss of data
    • Lost of system integrity

    Methods:

    • Identify, steal, or target mobile devices.
    • Compromise network, wireless, or Bluetooth connections.
    • Leverage stolen devices as a means of infecting other networks.
    • Access devices to track user location.
    • Activate microphones on devices to collect information.
    • Intercept electronic communications users send from high-risk jurisdictions.

    The data compliance landscape is a jigsaw puzzle of data protection and data residency requirements

    Since the EU passed the GDPR in 2016, jurisdictions have turned to data regulations to protect citizen data

    Data privacy concerns, nationalism, and the economic value of data are all driving jurisdictions to adopt data residency, breach notification, and cross-border data transfer regulations. As 2021 wound down to a close, nearly all the world’s 30 largest economies had some form of data regulation in place. The regulatory landscape is shifting rapidly, which complicates operations as organizations grow into new markets or engage in merger and acquisition activities.

    Global operations require special attention to data-residency requirements, data breach notification requirements, and cross-border data transfer regulations to mitigate compliance risk.

    The image contains a diagram to demonstrate the data regulations placed in various places around the world.

    Compliance risk

    Likelihood: Medium

    Impact: High

    Key Risk Scenario #2

    Rapid changes in the privacy and security regulatory landscape threaten organizations’ ability to meet their compliance obligations from local legal and regulatory frameworks. Organizations risk reputational damage, administrative fines, criminal charges, and loss of market share. In extreme cases, organizations may lose their license to operate in high-risk jurisdictions. Shifts in the regulatory landscape can involve additional requirements for data residency, cross-border data transfer, data breach notification, and third-party risk management.

    Threat Actor:

    • Local, regional, and national state actors

    Asset:

    • Reputation, market share
    • License to operate

    Effect:

    • Administrative fines
    • Loss of reputation, brand trust, and consumer loyalty
    • Loss of market share
    • Suspension of business operations
    • Lawsuits due to collective actions and claims
    • Criminal charges

    Methods:

    • Shifts in the privacy and security regulatory landscape, including requirements for:
      • Data residency.
      • Cross-border data transfer.
      • Data breach notification.
      • Third-party security and privacy risk management.

    The incidence of insider threats varies widely by jurisdiction in unexpected ways

    On average, companies in North America, the Middle East, and Africa had the most insider incidents in 2021, while those in the Asia-Pacific region had the least.

    The Ponemon Institute set out to understand the financial consequences that result from insider threats and gain insight into how well organizations are mitigating these risks.

    In the context of this research, insider threat is defined as:

    • Employee or contractor negligence.
    • Criminal or malicious insider activities.
    • Credential theft (imposter risk).

    On average, the total cost to remediate insider threats in 2021 was US$15.4 million per incident.

    In all regions, employee or contractor negligence occurred most frequently. Organizations in North America and in the Middle East and Africa were most likely to experience insider threat incidents in 2021.

    the image contains a diagram of the world, with various places coloured in different shades of blue.

    The diagram represents the average number of insider incidents reported per organization in 2021. The results are analyzed in four regions (Ponemon Institute, 2022)

    Insider threat

    Likelihood: Low to Medium

    Impact: High

    Key Risk Scenario #3

    Malicious insiders, negligent employees, and credential thieves can exploit inside access to information systems to commit fraud, steal confidential or commercially valuable information, or sabotage computer systems. Insider threats are difficult to identify, especially when security is geared toward external threats. They are often familiar with the organization’s data and intellectual property as well as the methods in place to protect them. An insider may steal information for personal gain or install malicious software on information systems. They may also be legitimate users who make errors and disregard policies, which places the organization at risk.

    Threat Actor:

    • Malicious insiders
    • Negligent employees
    • Infiltrators

    Asset:

    • Sensitive data
    • Employee credentials
    • IT systems

    Effects:

    • Loss of system integrity
    • Loss of data confidentiality
    • Financial loss

    Methods:

    • Infiltrators may compromise credentials.
    • Malicious or negligent insiders may use corporate email to steal or share sensitive data, including:
      • Regulated data.
      • Intellectual property.
      • Critical business information.
    • Malicious agents may facilitate data exfiltration, as well as open-port and vulnerability scans.

    The risk of advanced persistent threats is more prevalent in Central and South America and the Asia-Pacific region

    Attacks from advanced persistent threat (APT) actors are more sophisticated than traditional ones.

    • More countries will use legal indictments as part of their cyber strategy. Exposing toolsets of APT groups carried out at the governmental level will drive more states to do the same.
    • Expect APTs to increasingly target network appliances like VPN gateways as organizations continue to sustain hybrid workforces.
    • The line between APTs and state-sanctioned ransomware groups is blurring. Expect cybercriminals to wield better tools, mount more targeted attacks, and use double-extortion tactics.
    • Expect more disruption and collateral damage from direct attacks on critical infrastructure.

    Top 10 Significant Threat Actors:

    • Lazarus
    • DeathStalker
    • CactusPete
    • IAmTheKing
    • TransparentTribe
    • StrongPity
    • Sofacy
    • CoughingDown
    • MuddyWater
    • SixLittleMonkeys

    Top 10 Targets:

    • Government
    • Banks
    • Financial Institutions
    • Diplomatic
    • Telecommunications
    • Educational
    • Defense
    • Energy
    • Military
    • IT Companies
    The image contains a world map coloured in various shades of blue.
    Top 12 countries targeted by APTs (Kaspersky, 2020)

    Track notable APTs to revise your list of high-risk jurisdictions and review the latest tactics and techniques

    Governmental advisors track notable APT actors that pose greater risks.

    The CISA Shields Up site, SANS Storm Center site, and MITRE ATT&CK group site provide helpful and timely information to understand APT risks in different jurisdictions.

    The following threat actors are currently associated with cyberattacks affiliated with the Russian government.

    Activity Group

    Risks

    APT28 (GRU)

    Known as Fancy Bear, this threat group has been tied to espionage since 2004. They compromised the Hillary Clinton campaign, amid other major events.

    APT29 (SVT)

    Tied to espionage since 2008. Reportedly compromised the Democratic National Committee in 2015. Cited in the 2021 SolarWinds compromise.

    Buhtrap/RTM Group

    Group focused on financial targets since 2014. Currently known to target Russian and Ukrainian banks.

    Gamaredon

    Operating in Crimea. Aligned with Russian interests. Has previously targeted Ukrainian government officials and organizations.

    DEV-0586

    Carried out wiper malware attacks on Ukrainian targets in January 2022.

    UNC1151

    Active since 2016. Linked to information operation campaigns and the distribution of anti-NATO material.

    Conti

    Most successful ransomware gang of 2021, with US$188M revenue. Supported Russian invasion of Ukraine, threatening attacks on allied critical infrastructure.

    Sources: MITRE ATT&CK; Security Boulevard, 2022; Reuters, 2022; The Verge, 2022

    Advanced persistent threat

    Likelihood: Low to Medium

    Impact: High

    Key Risk Scenario #4

    Advanced persistent threats are state actors or state-sponsored affiliates with the means to avoid detection by anti-malware software and intrusion detection systems. These highly-skilled and persistent malicious agents have significant resources with which to bypass traditional security controls, establish a foothold in the information technology infrastructure, and exfiltrate data undetected. APTs have the resources to adapt to a defender’s efforts to resist them over time. The loss of system integrity and data confidentiality over time can lead to financial losses, business continuity disruptions, and the destruction of critical infrastructure.

    Threat Actor:

    • State actors
    • State-sponsored affiliates

    Asset:

    • Sensitive data
    • IT systems
    • Critical infrastructure

    Effects:

    • Loss of system integrity
    • Loss of data confidentiality
    • Financial loss
    • Business continuity disruptions
    • Infrastructure destruction

    Methods:

    • Persistent, consistent attacks using the most advanced threats and tactics to bypass security defenses.
    • The goal of APTs is to maintain access to networks for prolonged periods without being detected.
    • The median dwell time differs widely between regions. FireEye reported the mean dwell time for 2018:
      • Americas: 71 days
      • Europe, Middle East, and Africa: 177 days
      • Asia-Pacific: 204 days
    Sources: Symantec, 2011; FireEye, 2019

    Threat agents have deployed invasive technology for commercial surveillance in at least 76 countries since 2015

    State actors and their affiliates purchased and used invasive spyware from companies in Europe, Israel, and the US.

    • “Customers are predominantly repressive regimes looking for new ways to control the flow of information and stifle dissent. Less than 10% of suspected customers are considered full democracies by the Economist Intelligence Unit.” (Top10VPN, 2021)
    • Companies based in economically developed and largely democratic states are profiting off the technology.
    • The findings demonstrate the need to consider geopolitical realities when assessing high-risk jurisdictions and to take meaningful action to increase layered defenses against invasive malware.
    • Spyware is having an increasingly well-known impact on civil society. For instance, since 2016, over 50,000 individual phone numbers have been identified as potential targets by NSO Group, the Israeli manufacturers of the notorious Pegasus Spyware. The target list contained the phone numbers of politicians, journalists, activists, doctors, and academics across the world.
    • The true number of those affected by spyware is almost impossible to determine given that many fall victim to the technology and do not notice.
    The image contains a map of the world with various countries highlighted in shades of blue.

    Countries where commercial surveillance tools have been deployed (“Global Spyware Market Index,” Top10VPN, 2021)

    The risks and effects of spyware vary greatly

    Spyware can steal mundane information, track a user’s every move, and everything in between.

    Adware

    Software applications that display advertisements while the program is running.

    Keyboard Loggers

    Applications that monitor and record keystrokes. Malicious agents use them to steal credentials and sensitive enterprise data.

    Trojans

    Applications that appear harmless but inflict damage or data loss to a system.

    Mobile Spyware

    Surveillance applications that infect mobile devices via SMS or MMS channels, though the most advanced can infect devices without user input.

    State actors and their affiliates use system monitors to track browsing habits, application usage, and keystrokes and capture information from devices’ GPS location data, microphone, and camera. The most advanced system monitor spyware, such as NSO Group’s Pegasus, can infect devices without user input and record conversations from end-to-end encrypted messaging systems.

    Commercial surveillance

    Likelihood: Low to Medium

    Impact: Medium

    Key Risk Scenario #5

    Malicious agents can deploy malware on end-user devices with commercial tools available off the shelf to secretly monitor the digital activity of users. Attacks exploit widespread vulnerabilities in telecommunications protocols. They occur through email and text phishing campaigns, malware embedded in untested applications, and sophisticated zero-click attacks that deliver payloads without requiring user interactions. Attacks target sensitive as well as mundane information. They can be used to track employee activities, investigate criminal activity, or steal credentials, credit card numbers, or other personally identifiable information.

    Threat Actor:

    • State actors
    • State-sponsored affiliates

    Asset:

    • Sensitive data
    • Staff health and safety
    • IT systems

    Effects:

    • Data breaches
    • Loss of data confidentiality
    • Increased risk to staff health and safety
    • Misuse of private data
    • Financial loss

    Methods:

    • Email and text phishing attacks that delivery malware payloads
    • Sideloading untested applications from a third-party source rather than an official retailer
    • Sophisticated zero-click attacks that deliver payloads without requiring user interaction

    Use the Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool

    The tool included with this blueprint can help you draft risk scenarios and risk statements in this section.

    The risk register will capture a list of critical assets and their vulnerabilities, the threats that endanger them, and the adverse effect your organization may face.

    The image includes two screenshots of the jurisdictional risk register and heatmap tool. The image contains a screenshot of the High-Risk Travel Jurisdiction.

    Download the Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool

    2.1.1 Identify assets

    1 – 2 hours

    1. As a group, consider critical or mission-essential functions in high-risk jurisdictions and the systems on which they depend. Brainstorm a list of the organization’s mission-supporting assets in high-risk jurisdictions. Consider:
    • Staff
    • Critical IT systems
    • Sensitive data
    • Critical operational processes
  • On a whiteboard, brainstorm the potential adverse effect of malicious agents in high-risk jurisdictions compromising critical assets. Consider the impact on:
    • Information systems.
    • Sensitive or regulated data.
    • Staff health and safety.
    • Critical operations and objectives.
    • Organizational finances.
    • Reputation and brand loyalty

    Threat

    Exploits an

    Asset

    Using a

    Method

    Creating an

    Effect

    Inputs for risk scenario identification

    Input

    Output

    • Corporate strategy
    • IT strategy
    • Security strategy
    • Business impact analyses
    • A list of the organization’s mission-supporting assets

    Materials

    Participants

    • Laptop
    • Projector
    • Whiteboard
    • Security team
    • IT leadership
    • System owner
    • Enterprise Risk Management

    Threat

    Exploits an

    Asset

    Using a

    Method

    Creating an

    Effect

    Inputs for risk scenario identification

    The image contains an example of the activity mentioned in the text above.

    Model threats to narrow the range of scenarios

    Motives and capabilities to perform attacks on critical assets vary across different threat actors.

    Category

    Actions

    Motivation

    Sophistication

    Nation-states

    Cyberespionage, cyberattacks

    Geopolitical

    High. Dedicated resources and personnel, extensive planning and coordination.

    Proxy organizations

    Espionage, destructive attacks

    Geopolitical, Ideological, Profit

    Moderate. Some planning and support functions and technical expertise.

    Cybercrime

    Theft, fraud, extortion

    Profit

    Moderate. Some planning and support functions and technical expertise.

    Hacktivists

    Disrupt operations, attack brands, release sensitive data

    Ideological

    Low. Rely on widely available tools that require little skill to deploy.

    Insiders

    Destruction or release of sensitive data, theft, exposure through negligence

    Incompetence, Discontent

    Internal access. Acting on their own or in concert with any of the above.

    • Criminals, hacktivists, and insiders vary in sophistication. Some criminal groups demonstrate a high degree of sophistication; however, a large cyber event that damages critical infrastructure does not align with their incentives to make money at minimal risk.
    • Proxy actors conduct offensive cyber operations on behalf of a beneficiary. They may be acting on behalf of a competitor, national government, or group of individuals.
    • Nation-states engage in long-term espionage and offensive cyber operations that support geopolitical and strategic policy objectives.

    2.1.2 Identify threats

    1 – 2 hours

    1. Review the outputs from activity 1.1.1 and activity 2.1.1.
    2. Identify threat agents that could undermine the security of critical assets in high-risk jurisdictions. Include internal and external actors.
    3. Assess their motives, means, and opportunities.
    • Which critical assets are most attractive? Why?
    • What paths and vulnerabilities can threat agents exploit to reach critical assets without going through a control?
    • How could they defeat existing controls? Draw on the MITRE framework to inform your analysis.
    • Once agents defeat a control, what further attack can they launch?

    Threat

    Exploits an

    Asset

    Using a

    Method

    Creating an

    Effect

    Inputs for risk scenario identification

    Input

    Output

    • Jurisdictional assessment from activity 1.1.1
    • Critical assets from activity 2.1.1
    • Potential vulnerabilities from:
      • Security control gap analysis
      • Security risk register
    • Threat intelligence
    • MITRE framework
    • A list of critical assets, threat agents, vulnerabilities, and potential attack vectors.

    Materials

    Participants

    • Laptop
    • Projector
    • Whiteboard
    • Security team
    • Infrastructure & Operations team
    • Enterprise Risk Management

    2.1.2 Identify threats (continued)

    1 – 2 hours

    1. On a whiteboard, brainstorm how threat agents will exploit vulnerabilities in critical assets to reach their goal. Redefine attack vectors to capture what could result from a successful initial attack.

    For example:

    • State actors and cybercriminals may steal or compromise end-user devices during travel to high-risk jurisdictions using malware they embed in airport charging stations, internet café networks, or hotel business centers.
    • Compromised devices may infect corporate networks and threaten sensitive data once they reconnect to them.

    Threat

    Exploits an

    Asset

    Using a

    Method

    Creating an

    Effect

    The image contains a screenshot of activity 2.1.2 as described in the text above.

    Bring together the critical risk elements into a single risk scenario

    Summarize the scenario further into a single risk statement

    Risk Scenario: High-Risk Travel

    State actors and cybercriminals can threaten staff, devices, and data during travel to high-risk jurisdictions. Device theft or compromise may occur while traveling through airports, accessing hotel computer and phone networks, or in internet cafés or other public areas. Threat actors can exploit data from compromised or stolen devices to undermine the organization’s strategic, economic, or competitive advantage. They can also infect compromised devices with malware that delivers malicious payloads once they reconnect with home networks.

    Risk Statement

    Cybercriminals compromise end-user devices during travel to high-risk jurisdictions, jeopardizing staff safety and leading to loss of sensitive data.

    Risk Scenario: Compliance Risk

    Rapid changes in the privacy and security regulatory landscape threaten an organization’s ability to meet its compliance obligations from local legal and regulatory frameworks. Organizations that fail to do so risk reputational damage, administrative fines, criminal charges, and loss of market share. In extreme cases, organizations may lose their license to operate in high-risk jurisdictions. Shifts in the regulatory landscape can involve additional requirements for data residency, cross-border data transfer, data breach notification, and third-party risk management.

    Risk Statement

    Rapid changes in the privacy and security regulations landscape threaten our ability to remain compliant, leading to reputational and financial loss.

    Fill out the Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool

    The tool is populated with data from two key risk scenarios: high-risk travel and compliance risk.

    The image includes two screenshots of the Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool.

    1. Label the risk in Tab 3, Column B.
    2. Record your risk scenario in Tab 3, Column C.
    3. Record your risk statement in Tab 3, Column D.
    4. Identify the applicable jurisdictions in Tab 3, Column E.
    5. You can further categorize the scenario as:
      • an enterprise risk (Column G).
      • an IT risk (Column H).

    Download the Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool

    Step 2.2

    Assess Risk Exposure

    Activities

    2.2.1 Identify existing controls

    2.2.2 Assess likelihood and impact

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Security team
    • Risk and Compliance
    • IT leadership (optional)

    Outcomes of this step

    • Assess risk exposure for each risk scenario through an analysis of its likelihood and impact.

    Brush up on risk assessment essentials

    The next step will help you prioritize IT risks based on severity.

    Likelihood of Occurrence X Likelihood of Impact = Risk Severity

    Likelihood of occurrence: How likely the risk is to occur.

    Likelihood of impact: The likely impact of a risk event.

    Risk severity: The significance of the risk.

    Evaluate risk severity against the risk tolerance thresholds and the cost of risk response.

    Identify existing controls before you proceed

    Existing controls will reduce the inherent likelihood and impact of the risk scenario you face.

    Existing controls were put in place to avoid, mitigate, or transfer key risks your organization faced in the past. Without considering existing controls, you run the risk of overestimating the likelihood and impact of the risk scenarios your organization faces in high-risk jurisdictions.

    For instance, the ability to remote-wipe corporate-owned devices will reduce the potential impact of a device lost or compromised during travel to high-risk jurisdictions.

    As you complete the risk assessment for each scenario, document existing controls that reduce their inherent likelihood and impact.

    2.2.1 Document existing controls

    6-10 hours

    1. Document the Risk Category and Existing Controls in the Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool.
      • Tactical controls apply to individual risks only. For instance, the ability to remote-wipe devices mitigates the impact of a device lost in a high-risk jurisdiction.
      • Strategic controls apply to multiple risks. For instance, deploying MFA for critical applications mitigates the likelihood that malicious actors can compromise a lost device and impedes their access in devices they do compromise.

    Input

    Output

    • Risk scenarios
    • Existing controls for risk scenarios

    Materials

    Participants

    • Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool
    • Laptop
    • Projector
    • Security team
    • IT leadership
    • Business stakeholders
    • Enterprise Risk Management

    Download the Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool.

    Assess the risk scenarios you identified in Phase 1

    The risk register is the central repository for risks in high-risk jurisdictions.

    • Use the second tab of the Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool to create likelihood, impact, and risk tolerance assessment scales to evaluate every risk event effectively.
    • Severity-level assessment is a “first pass” of your risk scenarios that will reveal your organization’s most severe risks in high-risk jurisdictions.
    • You can incorporate expected cost calculations into your evaluation to assess scenarios in greater detail.
    • Expected cost represents how much you would expect to pay in an average year for each risk event. Expected cost calculations can help compare IT risks to non-IT risks that may not use the same scales and communicate system-level risk to the business in a language they will understand.

    Expected cost calculations may not be practical. Determining robust likelihood and impact values to produce cost estimates can be challenging and time consuming. Use severity-level assessments as a first pass to make the case for risk mitigation measures and take your lead from stakeholders.

    The image contains two screenshots of the Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool.

    Use the Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool to capture and analyze your data.

    2.2.2 Assess likelihood and impact

    6-10 hours

    1. Assign each risk scenario a likelihood of occurrence and a likely impact level that represents the impact of the scenario on the whole organization considering existing controls. Record your results in Tab 3, column R and S, respectively.
    2. You can further dissect likelihood and impact into component parameters but focus first on total likelihood and impact to keep the task manageable.
    3. As you input the first few likelihood and impact values, compare them to one another to ensure consistency and accuracy. For instance, is a device lost in a high-risk jurisdiction truly more impactful than a device compromised with commercial surveillance software?
    4. The tool will calculate the probability of risk exposure based on the likelihood and consequence associated with the scenario. The results are published in Tab 3, Column T.

    Input

    Output

    • Risk scenarios
    • Assessed the likelihood of occurrence and impact for all identified risk events

    Materials

    Participants

    • Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool
    • Laptop
    • Projector
    • Security team
    • IT leadership
    • Business stakeholders
    • Enterprise Risk Management

    Download the Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool.

    Refine your risk assessment to justify your estimates

    Document the rationale behind each value and the level of consensus in group discussions.

    Stakeholders will likely ask you to explain some of the numbers you assigned to likelihood and impact assessments. Pointing to an assessment methodology will give your estimates greater credibility.

    • Assign one individual to take notes during the assessment exercise.
    • Have them document the main rationale behind each value and the level of consensus.

    The goal is to develop robust intersubjective estimates of the likelihood and impact of a risk scenario.

    We assigned a 50% likelihood rating to a risk scenario. Were we correct?

    Assess the truth of the following statements to test likelihood assessments. In this case, do these two statements seem true?

    • The risk event will likely occur once in the next two years, all things being equal.
    • In two nearly identical organizations, one out of two will experience the risk event this year.
    The image includes a screenshot of the High-Risk Travel Jurisdictions.

    Phase 3

    Execute Response

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Prioritize and treat global risks to critical assets based on their value and exposure.
    • Build an initiative roadmap that identifies and applies relevant controls to protect critical assets. Identify key risk indicators to monitor progress.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Security team
    • Risk and Compliance
    • IT leadership (optional)

    Step 3.1

    Treat Security Risks

    Activities

    3.1.1 Identify and assess risk response

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Security team
    • Risk and Compliance
    • IT leadership (optional)

    Outcomes of this step

    • Prioritize and treat global risks to critical assets based on their value and exposure.

    Analyze and select risk responses

    The next step will help you treat the risk scenarios you built in Phase 2.

    Identify

    Identify risk responses.

    Predict

    Predict the effectiveness of the risk response, if implemented, by estimating the residual likelihood and impact of the risk.

    Calculate

    The tool will calculate the residual severity of the risk after applying the risk response.

    The first part of the phase outlines project activities. The second part elaborates on high-risk travel and compliance risk, the two key risk scenarios we are following throughout the project. Use the Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool to capture your work.

    Analyze likelihood and impact to identify response

    The image contains a diagram of he risk response analysis. Risk Transfer and Risk Avoidance has the most likelihood, and Risk Acceptance and Risk Mitigation have the most impact. Risk Avoidance has the most likelihood and most impact in regards to risk response.

    3.1.1 Identify and assess risk response

    Complete the following steps for each risk scenario.

    1. Identify a risk response action that will help reduce the likelihood of occurrence or the impact if the scenario were to occur. Indicate the type of risk response (avoidance, mitigation, transfer, acceptance, or no risk exists).
    2. Assign each risk response action a residual likelihood level and a residual impact level. This is the same step you performed in Activity 2.2.2, but you are now are estimating the likelihood and impact of the risk event after you implemented the risk response action successfully. The Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool will generate a residual risk severity level for each risk event.
    3. Identify the potential Risk Action Owner (Project Manager) if the response is selected and turned into an IT project, and document this in the Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool .
    4. For each risk event, document risk response actions, residual likelihood and impact levels, and residual risk severity level.

    Input

    Output

    • Risk scenarios from Phase 2
    • Risk scenario mitigation plan

    Materials

    Participants

    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool
    • Security team
    • Risk and Compliance
    • IT leadership (optional)

    Download the Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool

    Step 3.2

    Mitigate Travel Risk

    Activities

    3.2.1 Develop a travel policy

    3.2.2 Develop travel procedures

    3.2.3 Design high-risk travel guidelines

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Security team
    • Risk and Compliance
    • IT leadership (optional)

    Outcomes of this step

    • Prioritize and treat global risks to critical assets based on their value and exposure.

    Identify controls to mitigate jurisdictional risk

    This section provides guidance on the most prevalent risk scenarios identified in Phase 2 and provides a more in-depth examination of the two most prevalent ones, high-risk travel and compliance risk. Determine the appropriate response to each risk scenario to keep global risks to critical assets aligned with the organization’s risk tolerance.

    Key Risk Scenarios

    • High-Risk Travel
    • Compliance Risk
    • Insider Threat
    • Advanced Persistent Threat
    • Commercial Surveillance

    Travel risk is a common concern in organizations with global operations

    • The security of staff, devices, and data is one of the biggest challenges facing organizations with a global footprint. Working and traveling in unpredictable environments will aways carry a degree of risk, but organizations can do much to develop a safer and more secure working environment.
    • Compromised or stolen devices can provide threat actors with access to data that could compromise the organization’s strategic, economic, or competitive advantage or expose the organization to regulatory risk.
    • For many organizations, security risk assessments, security plans, travel security procedures, security training, and incident reporting systems are a key part of their operating language.
    • The following section provides a simple structure to help organizations demystify travel in high-risk jurisdictions.

    The image contains a diagram to present high-risk jurisdictions.

    Before you leave

    • Identify high-risk countries.
    • Enable controls.
    • Limit what you pack.

    During your trip

    • Assume you are monitored.
    • Limit access to systems.
    • Prevent theft.

    When you return

    • Change your password.
    • Restore your devices.

    Case study

    Higher Education: Camosun College

    Interview: Evan Garland

    Frame additional security controls as a value-added service.

    Situation

    The director of the international department at Camosun College reached out to IT security for additional support. Department staff often traveled to hostile environments. They were concerned malicious agents would either steal end-user devices or compromise them and access sensitive data. The director asked IT security for options that would better protect traveling staff, their devices, and the information they contain.

    Challenges

    First, controls would need to admit both work and personal use of corporate devices. Staff relied exclusively on work devices for travel to mitigate the risk of personal device theft. Personal use of corporate devices during travel was common. Second, controls needed to strike the right balance between friction and effortless access. Traveling staff had only intermittent access to IT support. Restrictive controls could prevent them from accessing their devices and data altogether.

    Solution

    IT consulted staff to discuss light-touch solutions that would secure devices without introducing too much complexity or compromising functionality. They then planned security controls that involved user interaction and others that did not and identified training requirements.

    Results

    Controls with user interaction

    Controls without user interaction

    • Multifactor authentication for college systems and collaboration platforms
    • Password manager for both work and personal use for staff for stronger passwords and practices
    • Security awareness training to help traveling staff identify potential threats while traveling through airports or accessing public Wi-Fi.
    • Drive encryption and always-on VPN to protect data at rest and in transit
    • Increased setting for phishing and spam filtering for traveling staff email
    • Enhanced anti-malware/endpoint detection and response (EDR) solution for traveling laptops

    Build a program to mitigate travel risks

    There is no one-size-fits-all solution.

    The most effective solution will take advantage of existing risk management policies, processes, and procedures at your organization.

    • Develop a framework. Outline the organization’s approach to high-risk travel, including the policies, procedures, and mechanisms put in place to ensure safe travel to high-risk jurisdictions.
    • Draft a policy. Outline the organization’s risk attitude and key security principles and define roles and responsibilities. Include security responsibilities and obligations in job descriptions of staff members and senior managers.
    • Provide flexible options. Inherent travel risk will vary from one jurisdiction to another. You will likely not find an approach that works for every case. Establish locally relevant measures and plans in different security contexts and risk environments.
    • Look for quick wins. Identify measures or requirements that you can establish quickly but that can have a positive effect on the security of staff, data, and devices.
    • Monitor and review. Undertake periodic reviews of the organization’s security approach and management framework, as well as their implementation, to ensure the framework remains effective.

    3.2.1 Develop a travel policy

    1. Work with your business leaders to build a travel policy for high-risk jurisdictions. The policy should be a short and accessible document structured around four key sections:
      • A statement on the importance of staff security and safety, the scope of the policy, and who it applies to (staff, consultants, contractors, volunteers, visitors, accompanying dependants, etc.).
      • A principles section explaining the organization’s security culture, risk attitude, and the key principles that shape the organization’s approach to staff security and safety.
      • A responsibilities section setting out the organization’s security risk management structure and the roles and actions allocated to specific positions.
      • A minimal security requirements section establishing the specific security requirements that must be in place in all locations and specific locations.
    2. Common security principles include:
    • Shared responsibility – Managing risks to staff is a shared organizational responsibility.
    • Acknowledgment of risk – Managing security will not remove all risks. Staff need to appreciate, as part of their informed consent, that they are still exposed to risk.
    • Primacy of life – Staff safety is of the highest importance. Staff should never place themselves at excessive risk to meet program objectives or protect property.
    • Proportionate risk – Risks must be assessed to ensure they are proportionate to the benefits organizational activities provide and the ability to manage those risks.
    • Right to withdraw – Staff have the right to withdraw from or refuse to take up work in a particular area due to security concerns.
    • No right to remain – The organization has the right to suspend activities that it considers too dangerous.
  • Cross-reference the organization’s other governing policies that outline requirements related to security risk management, such as the health and safety policy, access control policy, and acceptable use of security assets.
  • Input

    Output

    • List of high-risk jurisdictions
    • Risk scenarios from Phase 2
    • Data inventory and data flows
    • Travel policy for high-risk jurisdictions

    Materials

    Participants

    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool
    • Security team
    • Legal team
    • IT leadership
    • Risk Management

    Develop security plans for high-risk travel

    Security plans advise staff on how to manage the risk identified in assessments.

    Security plans are key country documents that outline the security measures and procedures in place and the responsibilities and resources required to implement them. Security plans should be established in high-risk jurisdictions where your organization has a regular, significant presence. Security plans must remain relevant and accessible documents that address the specific risks that exist in that location, and, if appropriate, are specific about where the measures apply and who they apply to. Plans should be updated regularly, especially following significant incidents or changes in the operating environment or activities.

    Key Components

    Critical information – One-page summary of pertinent information for easy access and quick reference (e.g. curfew times, no-go areas, important contacts).

    Overview – Purpose and scope of the document, responsibilities for security plan, organization’s risk attitude, date of completion and review date, and a summary of the security strategy and policy.

    Current Context – Summary of current operating context and overall security situation; main risks to staff, assets, and operations; and existing threats and risk rating.

    Procedures – Simple security procedures that staff should adhere to in order to prevent incidents and how to respond should problems arise. Standard operating procedures (SOPs) should address key risks identified in the assessment.

    Security levels – The organization's security levels/phases, with situational indicators that reflect increasing risks to staff in that context and location and specific actions/measures required in response to increasing insecurity.

    Incident reporting – The procedures and responsibilities for reporting security-related incidents; for example, the type of incidents to be reported, the reporting structure, and the format for incident reporting.

    Determine travel risk

    Tailor your risk response to the security risk assessment you conducted in earlier stages of this project.

    Ratings are formulated by assessing several types of risk, including conflict, political/civil unrest, terrorism, crime, and health and infrastructure risks.

    Rating

    Description (Examples)

    Recommended Action

    Low

    Generally secure with adequate physical security. Low violent crime rates. Some civil unrest during significant events. Acts of terrorism rare. Risks associated with natural disasters limited and health threats mainly preventable.

    Basic personal security, travel, and health precautions required.

    Moderate

    Periodic civil unrest. Antigovernment, insurgent, or extremist groups active with sporadic acts of terrorism. Staff at risk from common and violent crime. Transport and communications services are unreliable and safety records are poor. Jurisdiction prone to natural disasters or disease epidemics.

    Increased vigilance and routine security procedures required.

    High

    Regular periods of civil unrest, which may target foreigners. Antigovernment, insurgent, or extremist groups very active and threaten political or economic stability. Violent crime rates high and targeting of foreigners is common. Infrastructure and emergency services poor. May be regular disruption to transportation or communications services. Certain areas off-limits to foreigners. Jurisdictions experiencing a natural disaster or a disease epidemic are considered high risk.

    High level of vigilance and effective, context-specific security precautions required.

    Extreme

    Undergoing active conflict or persistent civil unrest. Risk of being caught up in a violent incident or attack is very high. Civil authorities may have lost control of significant portions of the country. Lines between criminality and political and insurgent violence are blurred. Foreigners are likely to be denied access to significant parts of the country. Transportation and communication services are severely degraded or non-existent. Violence presents a direct threat to staff security.

    Stringent security precautions essential and may not be sufficient to prevent serious incidents.

    Program activities may be suspended and staff withdrawn at very short notice.

    3.2.2 Develop travel procedures

    1. Work with your business leaders to build travel procedures for high-risk jurisdictions. The procedures should be tailored to the risk assessment and address the risk scenarios identified in Phase 2.
    2. Use the categories outlined in the next two slides to structure the procedure. Address all types of travel, detail security measures, and outline what the organization expects of travelers before, during, and after their trip.
    3. Consider the implementation of special measures to limit the impact of a potential security event, including:
      • Information end-user device loaner programs.
      • Temporary travel service email accounts.
    4. Specify what happens when staff add personal travel to their work trip to cover issues such as insurance, check-in, actual travel times, etc.
    5. Discuss the rationale for each procedure. Ensure the components align with the policy statements outlined in the high-risk travel policy developed in the previous step.

    Input

    Output

    • List of high-risk jurisdictions
    • Risk scenarios from Phase 2
    • High-risk travel policy
    • Travel procedures for high-risk jurisdictions

    Materials

    Participants

    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool
    • Security team
    • Legal team
    • IT leadership
    • Risk Management

    Draft procedures to mitigate travel risks

    Address all types of travel, detail security measures, and outline what the organization expects of travelers before, during, and after their trip

    Introduction

    Clarifies who the procedures apply to. Highlights any differences in travel security requirements or support provided to staff, consultants, partners, and official visitors.

    Travel risk ratings

    Explains the travel or country risk rating system, how staff access the information, the different categories and indicators, and their implications.

    Roles and responsibilities

    Clarifies the responsibilities of travelers, their line managers or contact points, and senior management regarding travel security and how this changes for destinations with higher risk ratings.

    Travel authorization

    Stipulates who in the organization authorizes travel, the various compliance measures required, and how this changes for destinations with higher risk ratings.

    Travel risk assessment

    Explains when travel risk assessments are required, the template that should be used, and who approves the completed assessments.

    Travel security procedures should specify what happens when staff add personal travel to their work trip to cover issues such as insurance, check-in, actual travel times, etc.

    Pre-travel briefings

    Outlines the information that must be provided to travelers prior to departure, the type of briefing required and who provides it, and how these requirements change as risk ratings increase.

    Security training

    Explain security training required prior to travel. This may vary depending on the country’s risk rating. Includes information on training waiver system, including justifications and authorization.

    Traveler profile forms

    Travelers should complete a profile form, which includes personal details, emergency contacts, medical details, social media footprint, and proof-of-life questions (in contexts where there are abduction risks).

    Check-in protocol

    Specifies who travelers must maintain contact with while traveling and how often, as well as the escalation process in case of loss of contact. The frequency of check-ins should reflect the increase in the risk rating for the destination.

    Emergency procedures

    Outlines the organization's emergency procedures for security and medical emergencies.

    3.2.3 Design high-risk travel guidelines

    • Supplement the high-risk travel policies and procedures with guidelines to help international travelers stay safe.
    • The document is intended for an end-user audience and should reflect your organization’s policies and procedures for the use of information and information systems during international travel.
    • Use the Digital Safety Guidelines for International Travel template in concert with this blueprint to provide guidance on what end users can do to stay safe before they leave, during their trip, and when they return.
    • Consider integrating the guidelines into specialized security awareness training sessions that target end users who travel to high-risk jurisdictions.
    • The guidelines should supplement and align with existing technical controls.

    Input

    Output

    • List of high-risk jurisdictions
    • Risk scenarios from Phase 2
    • High-risk travel policy
    • High-risk travel procedure
    • Travel guidelines for high-risk jurisdictions

    Materials

    Participants

    • Whiteboard/flip charts
    • Jurisdictional Risk Register and Heatmap Tool
    • Security team
    • Legal team
    • IT leadership
    • Risk Management

    Download the Digital Safety Guidelines for International Travel template

    Step 3.3

    Mitigate Compliance Risk

    Activities

    3.3.1 Identify data localization obligations

    3.3.2 Integrate obligations into IT system design

    3.3.3 Document data processing activities

    3.3.4 Choose the right mechanism

    3.3.5 Implement the appropriate controls

    3.3.6 Identify data breach notification obligations

    3.3.7 Integrate data breach notification into incident response

    3.3.8 Identify vendor security and data protection requirements

    3.3.9 Build due diligence questionnaire

    3.3.10 Build appropriate data processing agreement

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Security team
    • Risk and Compliance
    • IT leadership (optional)

    Outcomes of this step

    • Prioritize and treat global risks to critical assets based on their value and exposure.

    Compliance risk is a prevalent risk in organizations with a global footprint

    • The legal and regulatory landscape is evolving rapidly to keep step with the pace of technological change. Security and privacy leaders are expected to mitigate the risk of noncompliance as the organization expands to new jurisdictions.
    • Organizations with a global footprint must stay abreast of local regulations and provide risk management guidance to business leaders to support global operations.
    • This sections describes four compliance risks in this context:
      • Cross-border data transfer
      • Third-party risk management
      • Data breach notification
      • Data residency

    Compliance with local obligations

    Likelihood: Medium to High

    Impact: High

    Data Residency

    Gap Controls

    • Identify and document the data localization obligations for the jurisdictions that the organization is operating in.
    • Design and implement IT systems that satisfy the data localization requirements.
    • Comply with data localization obligations within each jurisdiction.

    Heatmap of Global Data Residency Regulations

    The image contains a screenshot of a picture of a world map with various shades of blue to demonstrate the heatmap of global data residency regulations.
    Source: InCountry, 2021

    Examples of Data Residency Requirements

    Country

    Data Type

    Local Storage Requirements

    Australia

    Personal data – heath record

    My Health Records Act 2012

    China

    Personal information — critical information infrastructure operators

    Cybersecurity law

    Government cloud data

    Opinions of the Office of the Central Leading Group for Cyberspace Affairs on Strengthening Cybersecurity Administration of Cloud Computing Services for Communist Party and Government Agencies

    India

    Government email data

    The Public Records Act of 1993

    Indonesia

    Data held by electronic system operator for the public service

    Regulation 82 concerning “Electronic System and Transaction Operation”

    Germany

    Government cloud service data

    Criteria for the procurement and use of cloud services by the federal German administration

    Russia

    Personal data

    The amendments of Data Protection Act No. 152 FZ

    Vietnam

    Data held by internet service providers

    The Decree on Management, Provision, and Use of Internet Services and Information Content Online (Decree 72)

    US

    Government cloud service data

    Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement: Network Penetration Reporting and Contracting for Cloud Services (DFARS Case 2013-D018)

    3.3.1 Identify data localization obligations

    1-2 hours

    1. Work with your business leaders to identify and document the jurisdictions where your organization is operating in or providing services and products to consumers within.
    2. Work with your legal team to identify and document all relevant data localization obligations for the data your organization generates, collects, and processes in order to operate your business.
    3. Record your data localization obligations in the table below.

    Jurisdiction

    Relevant Regulations

    Local Storage Requirements

    Date Type

    Input

    Output

    • List of jurisdictions your organization is operating in
    • Relevant security and data protection regulations
    • Data inventory and data flows
    • Completed list of data localization obligations

    Materials

    Participants

    • Guidelines for Compliance With Local Security and Privacy Laws Template
    • Privacy team
    • Security team
    • Legal team
    • IT leadership
    • Risk Management

    Download the Guidelines for Compliance With Local Security and Privacy Laws Template

    3.3.2 Integrate obligations into your IT system design

    1-2 hours

    1. Work with your IT department to design the IT architecture and systems to satisfy the data localization requirements.
    2. The table below provides a checklist for integrating privacy considerations into your IT systems.

    Item

    Consideration

    Answer

    Supporting Document

    1

    Have you identified business services that process data that will be subject to localization requirements?

    2

    Have you identified IT systems associated with the business services mentioned above?

    3

    Have you established a data inventory (i.e. data types, business purposes) for the IT systems mentioned above?

    4

    Have you established a data flow diagram for the data identified above?

    5

    Have you identified the types of data that should be stored locally?

    6

    Have you confirmed whether a copy of the data locally stored will satisfy the obligations?

    7

    Have you confirmed whether an IT redesign is needed or whether modifications (e.g. adding a server) to the IT systems would satisfy the obligations?

    8

    Have you confirmed whether access from another jurisdiction is allowed?

    9

    Have you identified how long the data should be stored?

    Input

    Output

    • Data localization obligations
    • Business services that process data that will be subject to localization requirements
    • IT systems associated with business services
    • Data inventory and data flows
    • Completed checklist of localization obligations for IT system design

    Materials

    Participants

    • Guidelines for Compliance With Local Security and Privacy Laws Template
    • Privacy team
    • Security team
    • Legal team
    • IT leadership
    • Risk Management

    Download the Guidelines for Compliance With Local Security and Privacy Laws Template

    Compliance with local obligations

    Likelihood: Medium to High

    Impact: High

    Cross-Border Transfer

    Gap Controls

    • Know where you transfer your data.
    • Identify jurisdictions that your organization is operating in and that impose different requirements for the cross-border transfer of personal data.
    • Adopt and implement a proper cross-border data transfer mechanism in accordance with applicable privacy laws and regulations.
    • Re-evaluate at appropriate intervals.

    Which cross-border transfer mechanism should I choose?

    Transfer Mechanism

    Advantages

    Disadvantages

    Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC)

    • Easy to implement
    • No DPA (data processing agreement) approval
    • Not suitable for complex data transfers
    • Do not meet business agility
    • Needs legal solution

    Binding Corporate Rules (BCRs)

    • Meets business agility needs
    • Raises trust in the organization
    • Doubles as solution for art. 24/25 of the GDPR
    • Sets high compliance maturity level
    • Takes time to draft/implement
    • Requires DPA approval (scrutiny)
    • Requires culture of compliance
    • Approved by one "lead" authority and two other "co-lead“ authorities
    • Takes usually between six and nine months for the approval process only

    Code of Conduct

    • Raises trust in the sector
    • Self-regulation instead of law
    • No code of conduct approved yet
    • Takes time to draft/implement
    • Requires DPA approval and culture of compliance
    • Needs of organization may not be met

    Certification

    • Raises trust in the organization
    • No certification schemes available yet
    • Risk of compliance at minimum necessary
    • Requires audits

    Consent

    • Legal certainty
    • Transparent
    • Administrative burden
    • Some data subjects are incapable of consenting all or nothing

    3.3.3 Document data processing activities

    1-2 hours

    1. Identify and document the following information:
      • Name of business process
      • Purposes of processing
      • Lawful basis
      • Categories of data subjects and personal data
      • Data subject categories
      • Which system the data resides in
      • Recipient categories
      • Third country/international organization
      • Documents for appropriate safeguards for international transfer (adequacy, SCCs, BCRs, etc.)
      • Description of mitigating measures

    Input

    Output

    • Name of business process
    • Categories of personal data
    • Which system the data resides
    • Third country/international organization
    • Documents for appropriate safeguards for international transfer
    • Completed list of data processing activities

    Materials

    Participants

    • Guidelines for Compliance With Local Security and Privacy Laws Template
    • Privacy team
    • Security team
    • Legal team
    • IT leadership
    • Risk Management

    Download the Guidelines for Compliance With Local Security and Privacy Laws Template

    3.3.4 Choose the right mechanism

    1-2 hours

    1. Identify jurisdictions that your organization is operating in and that impose different requirements for the cross-border transfer of personal data. For example, the EU’s GDPR and China’s Personal Information Protection Law require proper cross-border transfer mechanisms before the data transfers. Your organization should decide which cross-border transfer mechanism is the best fit for your cross-border data transfer scenarios.
    2. Use the following table to identify and document the pros and cons of each data transfer mechanism and the final decision.

    Data Transfer Mechanism

    Pros

    Cons

    Final Decision

    SCC

    BCR

    Code of Conduct

    Certification

    Consent

    Input

    Output

    • List of relevant data transfer mechanisms
    • Assessment of the pros and cons of each mechanism
    • Final decision regarding which data transfer mechanism is the best fit for your organization

    Materials

    Participants

    • Guidelines for Compliance With Local Security and Privacy Laws Template
    • Privacy team
    • Security team
    • Legal team
    • IT leadership
    • Risk Management

    Download the Guidelines for Compliance With Local Security and Privacy Laws Template

    3.3.5 Implement the appropriate controls

    1-3 hours

    • One of the most common mechanisms is standard contractual clauses (SCCs).
    • Use Info-Tech’s Standard Contractual Clauses Template to facilitate your cross-border transfer activities.
    • Identify and check whether the following core components are covered in your SCC and record the results in the table below.
    # Core Components Status Note
    1 Purpose and scope
    2 Effect and invariability of the Clauses
    3 Description of the transfer(s)
    4 Data protection safeguards
    5 Purpose limitation
    6 Transparency
    7 Accuracy and data minimization
    8 Duration of processing and erasure or return of data
    9 Storage limitation
    10 Security of processing
    11 Sensitive data
    12 Onward transfers
    13 Processing under the authority of the data importer
    14 Documentation and compliance
    15 Use of subprocessors
    16 Data subject rights
    17 Redress
    18 Liability
    19 Local laws and practices affecting compliance with the Clauses
    20 Noncompliance with the Clauses and termination
    21 Description of data processing activities, such as list of parties, description of transfer, etc.
    22 Technical and organizational measures
    InputOutput
    • Description of the transfer(s)
    • Duration of processing and erasure or return of data
    • Onward transfers
    • Use of subprocessors
    • Etc.
    • Draft of the standard contractual clauses (SCC)
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Guidelines for Compliance With Local Security and Privacy Laws Template
    • Legal team
    • Privacy team
    • Security team
    • IT leadership
    • Risk Management

    Download the Guidelines for Compliance With Local Security and Privacy Laws Template

    Compliance with local obligations

    Likelihood: High

    Impact: Medium to High

    Data Breach

    Gap Controls

    • Identify jurisdictions that your organization is operating in and that impose different obligations for data breach reporting.
    • Document the notification obligations for various business scenarios, such as controller to DPA, controller to data subject, and processor to controller.
    • Integrate breach notification obligations into security incident response process.

    Examples of Data Breach Notification Obligations

    Location

    Regulation/ Standard

    Reporting Obligation

    EU

    GDPR

    72 hours

    China

    PIPL

    Immediately

    US

    HIPAA

    No later than 60 days

    Canada

    PIPEDA

    As soon as feasible

    Global

    PCI DSS

    • Visa – immediately after breach discovered
    • Mastercard – within 24 hours of discovering breach
    • American Express – immediately after breach discovered

    Summary of US State Data Breach Notification Statutes

    The image contains a graph to show the summary of the US State Data Breach Notification Statutes.

    Source: Davis Wright Tremaine

    3.3.6 Identify data breach notification obligations

    1-2 hours

    1. Identify jurisdictions that your organization is operating in and that impose different obligations for data breach reporting.
    2. Document the notification obligations for various business scenarios, such as controller to DPA, controller to data subject, and processor to controller.
    3. Record your data breach obligations in the table below.
    Region Regulation/Standard Reporting Obligation

    Input

    Output

    • List of regions and jurisdictions your business is operating in
    • List of relevant regulations and standards
    • Documentation of data breach reporting obligations in applicable jurisdictions

    Materials

    Participants

    • Guidelines for Compliance With Local Security and Privacy Laws Template
    • Legal team
    • Privacy team
    • Security team
    • IT leadership
    • Risk Management

    Download the Guidelines for Compliance With Local Security and Privacy Laws Template

    3.3.7 Integrate data breach notification into incident response

    1-2 hours

    • Integrate breach notification obligations into the security incident response process. Understand the security incident management framework.
    • All incident runbooks follow the same process: detection, analysis, containment, eradication, recovery, and post-incident activity.
    • The table below provides a basic checklist for you to consider when implementing your data breach and incident handling process.
    # Phase Considerations Status Notes
    1 Prepare Ensure the appropriate resources are available to best handle an incident.
    2 Detect Leverage monitoring controls to actively detect threats.
    3 Analyze Distill real events from false positives.
    4 Contain Isolate the threat before it can cause additional damage.
    5 Eradicate Eliminate the threat from your operating environment.
    6 Recover Restore impacted systems to a normal state of operations.
    7 Report Report data breaches to relevant regulators and data subjects if required.
    8 Post-Incident Activities Conduct a lessons-learned post-mortem analysis.
    InputOutput
    • Security and data protection incident response steps
    • Key considerations for integrating data breach notifications into incident response
    • Data breach notifications integrated into the incident response process
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Guidelines for Compliance With Local Security and Privacy Laws Template
    • Security team
    • Privacy team
    • Legal team
    • IT leadership
    • Risk Management

    Download the Guidelines for Compliance With Local Security and Privacy Laws Template

    Compliance with local obligations

    Likelihood: High

    Impact: Medium to High

    Third-Party Risk

    Gap Controls

    • Build an end-to-end third-party security and privacy risk management process.
    • Perform internal due diligence prior to selecting a service provider.
    • Stipulate the security and privacy protection obligations of the third party in a legally binding document such as contract or data processing agreement, etc.

    End-to-End Third-Party Security and Privacy Risk Management

    1. Pre-Contract
    • Due diligence check
  • Signing of Contract
    • Data processing agreement
  • Post-Contract
    • Continuous monitoring
    • Regular check or audit
  • Termination of Contract
    • Data deletion
    • Access deprovisioning

    Examples of Vendor Security Management Requirements

    Region

    Law/Standard

    Section

    EU

    General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

    Article 28 (1)

    Article 46 (1)

    US

    Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)

    §164.308(b)(1)

    US

    New York Department of Financial Services Cybersecurity Requirements

    500.11(a)

    Global

    ISO 27002:2013

    15.1.1

    15.1.2

    15.1.3

    15.2.1

    15.2.2

    US

    NIST 800-53

    SA-12

    SA-12 (2)

    US

    NIST Cybersecurity Framework

    ID-SC-1

    ID-SC-2

    ID-SC-3

    ID-SC-4

    Canada

    OSFI Cybersecurity Guidelines

    4.25

    4.26

    3.3.8 Identify vendor security and data protection requirements

    1-2 hours

    • Effective vendor security risk management is an end-to-end process that includes assessment, risk mitigation, and periodic reassessments.
    • An efficient and effective assessment process can only be achieved when all stakeholders are participating.
    • Identify and document your vendor security and data protection requirements in the table below.
    Region Law/Standard Section Requirements

    Input

    Output

    • List of regions and jurisdictions your business is operating in
    • List of relevant regulations and standards
    • Documentation of vendor security and data protection obligations in applicable jurisdictions

    Materials

    Participants

    • Guidelines for Compliance With Local Security and Privacy Laws Template
    • Legal team
    • Privacy team
    • Security team
    • IT leadership
    • Risk Management

    Download the Guidelines for Compliance With Local Security and Privacy Laws Template

    3.3.9 Build due diligence questionnaire

    1-2 hours

    Perform internal due diligence prior to selecting a service provider.

    1. Build and right-size your vendor security questionnaire by leveraging Info-Tech’s Vendor Security Questionnaire template.
    2. Document your vendor security questionnaire in the table below.
    # Question Vendor Request Vendor Comments
    1 Document Requests
    2 Asset Management
    3 Governance
    4 Supply Chain Risk Management
    5 Identify Management, Authentication, and Access Control
    InputOutput
    • List of regions and jurisdictions your business is operating in
    • List of relevant regulations and standards
    • Business security and data protection requirements and expectations
    • Draft of due diligence questionnaire
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Guidelines for Compliance With Local Security and Privacy Laws Template
    • Legal team
    • Privacy team
    • Security team
    • IT leadership
    • Risk Management

    Download the Guidelines for Compliance With Local Security and Privacy Laws Template

    3.3.10 Build appropriate data processing agreement

    1-2 hours

    1. Stipulate the security and privacy protection obligations of the third party in a legally binding document such as contract or data processing agreement, etc.
    2. Leverage Info-Tech’s Data Processing Agreement Template to put the language into your legally binding document.
    3. Use the table below to check whether core components of a typical DPA are covered in your document.
    # Core Components Status Note
    1 Processing of personal data
    2 Scope of application and responsibilities
    3 Processor's obligations
    4

    Controller's obligations

    5 Data subject requests
    6 Right to audit and inspection
    7 Subprocessing
    8 Data breach management
    9 Security controls
    10 Transfer of personal data
    11 Duty of confidentiality
    12 Compliance with applicable laws
    13 Service termination
    14 Liability and damages
    InputOutput
    • Processing of personal data
    • Processor’s obligations
    • Controller’s obligations
    • Subprocessing
    • Etc.
    • Draft of data processing agreement (DPA)
    MaterialsParticipants
    • Guidelines for Compliance With Local Security and Privacy Laws Template
    • Legal team
    • Privacy team
    • Security team
    • IT leadership
    • Risk Management

    Download the Guidelines for Compliance With Local Security and Privacy Laws Template

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Problem Solved

    By following Info-Tech’s methodology for securing global operations, you have:

    • Evaluated the security context of your organization’s global operations.
    • Identified security risks scenarios unique to high-risk jurisdictions and assessed the exposure of critical assets.
    • Planned and executed a response.

    You have gone through a deeper analysis of two key risk scenarios that affect global operations:

    • Travel to high-risk jurisdictions.
    • Compliance risk.

    If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through an Info-Tech workshop or Guided Implementation.

    Contact your account representative for more information.

    workshop@infotech.com

    1-888-670-8889

    Additional Support

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

    The image contains a picture of Michel Hebert.

    Contact your account representative for more information.

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

    To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team. Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.

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

    The image contains a screenshot of High-Risk Travel Jurisdictions.

    Identify High-Risk Jurisdictions

    Develop requirements to identify high-risk jurisdictions.

    The image contains a screenshot of Build Risk Scenarios.

    Build Risk Scenarios

    Build risk scenarios to capture assets, vulnerabilities, threats, and the potential effect of a compromise.

    External Research Contributors

    Ken Muir

    CISO

    LMC Security

    Premchand Kurup

    CEO

    Paramount Computer Systems

    Preeti Dhawan

    Manager, Security Governance

    Payments Canada

    Scott Wiggins

    Information Risk and Governance

    CDPHP

    Fritz Y. Jean Louis

    CISO

    Globe and Mail

    Eric Gervais

    CIO

    Ovivo Water

    David Morrish

    CEO

    MBS Techservices

    Evan Garland

    Manager, IT Security

    Camosun College

    Jacopo Fumagalli

    CISO

    Axpo

    Dennis Leon

    Governance and Security Manager

    CPA Canada

    Tero Lehtinen

    CIO

    Planmeca Oy

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Build an IT Risk Management Program

    • Build a program to identify, evaluate, assess, and treat IT risks.
    • Monitor and communicate risks effectively to support business decision making.

    Combine Security Risk Management Components Into One Program

    • Develop a program focused on assessing and managing information system risks.
    • Build a governance structure that integrates security risks within the organization’s broader approach to risk management.

    Build an Information Security Strategy

    • Build a holistic, risk-aware strategy that aligns to business goals.
    • Develop a roadmap of prioritized initiatives to implement the strategy over 18 to 36 months.

    Bibliography

    2022 Cost of Insider Threats Global Report.” Ponemon Institute, NOVIPRO, 9 Feb. 2022. Accessed 25 May 22.

    “Allianz Risk Barometer 2022.” Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, Jan. 2022. Accessed 25 May 22.

    Bickley, Shaun. “Security Risk Management: a basic guide for smaller NGOs”. European Interagency Security Forum (EISF), 2017. Web.

    “Biden Administration Warns against spyware targeting dissidents.” New York Times, 7 Jan 22. Accessed 20 Jan 2022.

    Boehm, Jim, et al. “The risk-based approach to cybersecurity.” McKinsey & Company, October 2019. Web.

    “Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021.” IBM Security, July 2021. Web.

    “Cyber Risk in Asia-Pacific: The Case for Greater Transparency.” Marsh & McLennan Companies, 2017. Web.

    “Cyber Risk Index.” NordVPN, 2020. Accessed 25 May 22

    Dawson, Maurice. “Applying a holistic cybersecurity framework for global IT organizations.” Business Information Review, vol. 35, no. 2, 2018, pp. 60-67.

    “Framework for improving critical infrastructure cybersecurity.” National Institute of Standards and Technology, 16 Apr 2018. Web.

    “Global Cybersecurity Index 2020.” International Telecommunication Union (ITU), 2021. Accessed 25 May 22.

    “Global Risk Survey 2022.” Control Risks, 2022. Accessed 25 May 22.

    “International Travel Guidance for Government Mobile Devices.” Federal Mobility Group (FMG), Aug. 2021. Accessed 18 Nov 2021.

    Kaffenberger, Lincoln, and Emanuel Kopp. “Cyber Risk Scenarios, the Financial System, and Systemic Risk Assessment.” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, September 2019. Accessed 11 Jan 2022.

    Koehler, Thomas R. Understanding Cyber Risk. Routledge, 2018.

    Owens, Brian. “Cybersecurity for the travelling scientist.” Nature, vol. 548, 3 Aug 2017. Accessed 19 Jan. 2022.

    Parsons, Fintan J., et al. “Cybersecurity risks and recommendations for international travellers.” Journal of Travel Medicine, vol. 1, no. 4, 2021. Accessed 19 Jan 2022.

    Quinn, Stephen, et al. “Identifying and estimating cybersecurity risk for enterprise risk management.” National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Interagency or Internal Report (IR) 8286A, Nov. 2021.

    Quinn, Stephen, et al. “Prioritizing cybersecurity risk for enterprise risk management.” NIST, IR 8286B, Sept. 2021.

    “Remaining cyber safe while travelling security recommendations.” Government of Canada, 27 April 2022. Accessed 31 Jan 2022.

    Stine, Kevin, et al. “Integrating cybersecurity and enterprise risk management.” NIST, IR 8286, Oct. 2020.

    Tammineedi, Rama. “Integrating KRIs and KPIs for effective technology risk management.” ISACA Journal, vol. 4, 1 July 2018.

    Tikk, Eneken, and Mika Kerttunen, editors. Routledge Handbook of International Cybersecurity. Routledge, 2020.

    Voo, Julia, et al. “National Cyber Power Index 2020.” Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School, Sept. 2020. Web.

    Zhang, Fang. “Navigating cybersecurity risks in international trade.” Harvard Business Review, Dec 2021. Accessed 31 Jan 22.

    Appendix

    Insider Threat

    Key Risk Scenario

    Likelihood: Medium to High

    Impact: High

    Gap Controls

    The image contains a picture of the Gap Controls. The controls include: Policy and Awareness, Identification, Monitoring and Visibility, which leads to Cooperation.

    • Identification: Effective and efficient management of insider threats begins with a threat and risk assessment to establish which assets and which employees to consider, especially in jurisdictions associated with sensitive or critical data. You need to pay extra attention to employees who are working in satellite offices in jurisdictions with loose security and privacy laws.
    • Monitoring and Visibility: Organizations should monitor critical assets and groups with privileged access to defend against malicious behavior. Implement an insider threat management platform that provides your organization with the visibility and context into data movement, especially cross-border transfers that might cause security and privacy breaches.
    • Policy and Awareness Training: Insider threats will persist without appropriate action and culture change. Training and consistent communication of best practices will mitigate vulnerabilities to accidental or negligent attacks. Customized training materials using local languages and role-based case studies might be needed for employees in high-risk jurisdictions.
    • Cooperation: An effective insider threat management program should be built with cross-team functions such as Security, IT, Compliance and Legal, etc.

    For more holistic approach, you can leverage our Reduce and Manage Your Organization’s Insider Threat Risk blueprint.

    Info-Tech Insight

    You can’t just throw tools at a human problem. While organizations should monitor critical assets and groups with privileged access to defend against malicious behavior, good management and supervision can help detect attacks and prevent them from happening in the first place.

    Insider threats are not industry specific, but malicious insiders are

    Industry

    Actors

    Risks

    Tactics

    Motives

    State and Local Government

    • Full-time employees
    • Current employees
    • Privileged access to personally identifiable information, financial assets, and physical property
    • Abuse of privileged access
    • Received or transferred fraudulent funds
    • Financial gain
    • Recognition
    • Benefiting foreign entity

    Information Technology

    • Equal mix of former and current employees
    • Privileged access to networks or systems as well as data
    • Highly technical attacks
    • Received or transferred fraudulent funds
    • Revenge
    • Financial gain

    Healthcare

    • Majority were full-time and current employees
    • Privileged access to customer data with personally identifiable information, financial assets
    • Abuse of privileged access
    • Received or transferred fraudulent funds
    • Financial gain
    • Entitlement

    Finance and Insurance

    • Majority were full-time and current employees
    • Authorized users
    • Electronic financial assets
    • Privileged access to customer data
    • Created or used fraudulent accounts
    • Fraudulent purchases
    • Identity theft
    • Financial gain
    • Gambling addiction
    • Family pressures
    • Multiple motivations

    Source: Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute, 2019

    Advanced Persistent Threat

    Key Risk Scenario #4

    Likelihood: Medium to High

    Impact: High

    Gap Controls

    The image contains a screenshot of the Gap Controls listed: Prevent, Detect, Analyze, Respond.

    Prevent: Defense in depth is the best approach to protect against unknown and unpredictable attacks. Effective anti-malware, diligent patching and vulnerability management, and strong human-centric security are essential.

    Detect: There are two types of companies – those who have been breached and know it, and those who have been breached and don’t know it. Ensure that monitoring, logging, and event detection tools are in place and appropriate to your organizational needs.

    Analyze: Raw data without interpretation cannot improve security and is a waste of time, money, and effort. Establish a tiered operational process that not only enriches data but also provides visibility into your threat landscape.

    Respond: Organizations can’t rely on ad hoc response anymore – don’t wait until a state of panic. Formalize your response processes in a detailed incident runbook to reduce incident remediation time and effort.

    Best practices moving forward

    Defense in Depth

    Lock down your organization. Among other tactics, control administrative privileges, leverage threat intelligence, use IP whitelisting, adopt endpoint protection and two-factor authentication, and formalize incident response measures.

    Block Indicators

    Information alone is not actionable. A successful threat intelligence program contextualizes threat data, aligns intelligence with business objectives, and then builds processes to satisfy those objectives. Actively block indicators and act upon gathered intelligence.

    Drive Adoption

    Create organizational situational awareness around security initiatives to drive adoption of foundational security measures: network hardening, threat intelligence, red-teaming exercises, and zero-day mitigation, policies, and procedures.

    Supply Chain Security

    Security extends beyond your organization. Ensure your organization has a comprehensive view of your organizational threat landscape and a clear understanding of the security posture of any managed service providers in your supply chain.

    Awareness and Training

    Conduct security awareness and training. Teach end users how to recognize current cyberattacks before they fall victim – this is a mandatory first line of defense.

    Additional Resources

    Follow only official sources of information to help you assess risk

    The image contains an image highlighting a few additional resources.

    As misinformation is a major attack vector for malicious actors, follow only reliable sources for cyberalerts and actionable intelligence. Aggregate information from these reliable sources.

    Federal Cyber Agency Alerts

    Informational Resources

    Info-Tech Insight

    The CISA Shields Up site provides the latest cyber risk updates on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and should provide the most value in staying informed.

    Automate Testing to Get More Done

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    • Parent Category Name: Testing, Deployment & QA
    • Parent Category Link: /testing-deployment-and-qa
    • Today’s rapidly changing software products and operational processes create mounting pressure on software delivery teams to release new features and changes quickly while meeting high and demanding quality standards.
    • Most organizations see automated testing as a solution to meet this demand alongside their continuous delivery pipeline. However, they often lack the critical foundations, skills, and practices that are imperative for success.
    • The technology is available to enable automated testing for many scenarios and systems, but industry noise and an expansive tooling marketplace create confusion for those interested in adopting this technology.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Good automated testing improves development throughput. No matter how quickly you put changes into production, end users will not accept them if they do not meet quality standards. Escaped defects, refactoring, and technical debt can significantly hinder your team’s ability to deliver software on time and on budget. In fact, 65% of organizations saw a reduction of test cycle time and 62% saw reductions in test costs with automated testing (Sogeti, World Quality Report 2020–21).
    • Start automation with unit and functional tests. Automated testing has a sharp learning curve, due to either the technical skills to implement and operate it or the test cases you are asked to automate. Unit tests and functional tests are ideal starting points in your automation journey because of the available tools and knowledge in the industry, the contained nature of the tests you are asked to execute, and the repeated use of the artifacts in more complicated tests (such as performance and integration tests). After all, you want to make sure the application works before stressing it.
    • Automated testing is a cross-functional practice, not a silo. A core component of successful software delivery throughput is recognizing and addressing defects, bugs, and other system issues early and throughout the software development lifecycle (SDLC). This involves having all software delivery roles collaborate on and participate in automated test case design, configure and orchestrate testing tools with other delivery tools, and proactively prepare the necessary test data and environments for test types.

    Impact and Result

    • Bring the right people to the table. Automated testing involves significant people, process and technology changes across multiple software delivery roles. These roles will help guide how automated testing will compliment and enhance their responsibilities.
    • Build a foundation. Review your current circumstances to understand the challenges blocking automated testing. Establish a strong base of good practices to support the gradually adoption of automated testing across all test types.
    • Start with one application. Verify and validate the automated testing practices used in one application and their fit for other applications and systems. Develop a reference guide to assist new teams.

    Automate Testing to Get More Done Research & Tools

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

    1. Start here – read the Executive Brief

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

    2. Adopt good automated testing practices

    Develop and implement practices that mature your automated testing capabilities.

    • Automated Testing Quick Reference Template

    Infographic

    Workshop: Automate Testing to Get More Done

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

    1 Adopt Good Automated Testing Practices

    The Purpose

    Understand the goals of and your vision for your automated testing practice.

    Develop your automated testing foundational practices.

    Adopt good practices for each test type.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Level set automated testing expectations and objectives.

    Learn the key practices needed to mature and streamline your automated testing across all test types.

    Activities

    1.1 Build a foundation.

    1.2 Automate your test types.

    Outputs

    Automated testing vision, expectations, and metrics

    Current state of your automated testing practice

    Ownership of the implementation and execution of automated testing foundations

    List of practices to introduce automation to for each test type

    Secure Your Hybrid Workforce

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    • Parent Category Name: Secure Cloud & Network Architecture
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    • Many IT and security leaders struggle to cope with the challenges associated with an hybrid workforce and how best to secure it.
    • Understanding the main principles of zero trust: never trust, always verify, assume breach, and verify explicitly.
    • How to go about achieving a zero trust framework.
    • Understanding the premise of SASE as it pertains to a hybrid workforce.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Securing your hybrid workforce should be an opportunity to get started on the zero trust journey. Realizing the core features needed to achieve this will assist you determine which of the options is a good fit for your organization.

    Impact and Result

    Every organization's strategy to secure their hybrid workforce should include introducing zero trust principles in certain areas. Our unique approach:

    • Assess the suitability of SASE/SSE and zero trust.
    • Present capabilities and feature benefits.
    • Procure SASE product and/or build a zero trust roadmap.

    Secure Your Hybrid Workforce Research & Tools

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

    1. Secure Your Hybrid Workforce Deck – The purpose of the storyboard is to provide a detailed description of the steps involved in securing your hybrid workforce with zero trust.

    The storyboard contains two easy-to-follow steps on securing your hybrid workforce with zero trust, from assessing the suitability of SASE/SSE to taking a step in building a zero trust roadmap.

    • Secure Your Hybrid Workforce – Phases 1-2

    2. Suitability Assessment Tool – A tool to identify whether SASE/SSE or a zero trust roadmap is a better fit for your organization.

    Use this tool to identify your next line of action in securing your hybrid workforce by assessing key components that conforms to the ideals and principles of Zero Trust.

    • Zero Trust - SASE Suitability Assessment Tool

    3. RFP Template – A document to guide you through requesting proposals from vendors.

    Use this document to request proposals from select vendors.

    • Request for Proposal (RFP) Template
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Secure Your Hybrid Workforce

    SASE as a driver to zero trust.

    Analyst Perspective

    Consolidate your security and network.

    Remote connections like VPNs were not designed to be security tools or to have the capacity to handle a large hybrid workforce; hence, organizations are burdened with implementing controls that are perceived to be "security solutions." The COVID-19 pandemic forced a wave of remote work for employees that were not taken into consideration for most VPN implementations, and as a result, the understanding of the traditional network perimeter as we always knew it has shifted to include devices, applications, edges, and the internet. Additionally, remote work is here to stay as recruiting talent in the current market means you must make yourself attractive to potential hires.

    The shift in the network perimeter increases the risks associated with traditional VPN solutions as well as exposing the limitations of the solution. This is where zero trust as a principle introduces a more security-focused strategy that not only mitigates most (if not all) of the risks, but also eliminates limitations, which would enhance the business and improve customer/employee experience.

    There are several ways of achieving zero trust maturity, and one of those is SASE, which consolidates security and networking to better secure your hybrid workforce as implied trust is thrown out of the window and verification of everything becomes the new normal to defend the business.

    This is a picture of Victor Okorie

    Victor Okorie
    Senior Research Analyst, Security and Privacy
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    CISOs are looking to zero trust to fill the gaps associated with their traditional remote setup as well as to build an adaptable security strategy. Some challenges faced include:

    • Understanding the main principles of zero trust: never trust, always verify, assume breach, and verify explicitly.
    • Understanding how to achieve a zero trust framework.
    • Understanding the premise of SASE as it pertains to a hybrid workforce.

    Common Obstacles

    The zero trust journey may seem tedious because of a few obstacles like:

    • Knowing what the principle is all about and the components that align with it.
    • Knowing where to start. Due to the lack of a standardized path for the zero trust journey, going about the journey can be confusing.
    • Not having a uniform definition of what makes up a SASE solution as it is heavily dependent on vendors.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    Info-Tech provides a three-service approach to helping organizations better secure their hybrid workforce.

    • Understand your current, existing technological capabilities and challenges with your hybrid infrastructure, and prioritize those challenges.
    • Gain insight into zero trust and SASE as a mitigation/control/tool to those challenges.
    • Identify the SASE features that are relevant to your needs and a source guide for a SASE vendor.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Securing your hybrid workforce should be an opportunity to get started on the zero trust journey. Realizing the core features needed to achieve this will assist you in determining which of the options is a good fit for your organization.

    Turn your challenges into opportunities

    Hybrid workforce is the new normal

    The pandemic has shown there is no going back to full on-prem work, and as such, security should be looked at differently with various considerations in mind.

    Understand that current hybrid solutions are susceptible to various forms of attack as the threat attack surface area has now expanded with users, devices, applications, locations, and data. The traditional perimeter as we know it has expanded beyond just the corporate network, and as such, it needs a more mature security strategy.

    Onboarding and offboarding have been done remotely, and with some growth recorded, the size of companies has also increased, leading to a scaling issue.

    Employees are now demanding remote work capabilities as part of contract negotiation before accepting a job.

    Attacks have increased far more quickly during the pandemic, and all indications point to them increasing even more.

    Scarce available security personnel in the job market for hire.

    Reality Today

    This image is a circle graph and 67% of it is coloured with the number 67% in the middle of the graph

    The number of breach incidents by identity theft.
    Source: Security Magazine, 2022.

    This image is a circle graph and 78% of it is coloured with the number 78% in the middle of the graph

    IT security teams want to adopt zero trust.
    Source: Cybersecurity Insiders, 2019.

    Reduce the risks of remote work by using zero trust

    $1.07m

    $1.76m

    235

    Increase in breaches related to remote work

    Cost difference in a breach where zero trust is deployed

    Days to identify a breach

    The average cost of a data breach where remote work was a factor rose by $1.07 million in 2021. COVID-19 brought about rapid changes in organizations, and digital transformation changes curbed some of its excesses. Organizations that did not make any digital transformation changes reported a $750,000 higher costs compared to global average.

    The average cost of a breach in an organization with no zero trust deployed was $5.04 million in 2021 compared to the average cost of a breach in an organization with zero trust deployed of $3.28 million. With a difference of $1.76 million, zero trust makes a significant difference.

    Organizations with a remote work adoption rate of 50% took 235 days to identify a breach and 81 days to contain that breach – this is in comparison to the average of 212 days to identify a breach and 75 days to contain that breach.

    Source: IBM, 2021.

    Network + Security = SASE

    What exactly is a SASE product?

    The convergence and consolidation of security and network brought about the formation of secure access service edge (SASE – pronounced like "sassy"). Digital transformation, hybrid workforce, high demand of availability, uninterrupted access for employees, and a host of other factors influenced the need for this convergence that is delivered as a cloud service.

    The capabilities of a SASE solution being delivered are based on certain criteria, such as the identity of the entity (users, devices, applications, data, services, location), real-time context, continuous assessment and verification of risk and "trust" throughout the lifetime of a session, and the security and compliance policies of the organization.

    SASE continuously identifies users and devices, applies security based on policy, and provides secure access to the appropriate and requested application or data regardless of location.

    image contains a list of the SASE Network Features and Security Features. the network Features are: WAN optimization; SD WAN; CDN; Network-as-a-service. The Security Features are: CASB; IDPS; ZTNA/VPN; FWaaS; Browser isolation; DLP; UEBA; Secure web gateway; Sandboxing

    Current Approach

    The traditional perimeter security using the castle and moat approach is depicted in the image here. The security shields valuable resources from external attack; however, it isn't foolproof for all kinds of external attacks. Furthermore, it does not protect those valuable resources from insider threat.

    This security perimeter also allows for lateral movement when it has been breached. Access to these resources is now considered "trusted" solely because it is now behind the wall/perimeter.

    This approach is no longer feasible in our world today where both external and internal threats pose continuous risk and need to be contained.

    Determine the suitability of SASE and zero trust

    The Challenge:

    Complications facing traditional infrastructure

    • Increased hybrid workforce
    • Regulatory compliance
    • Limited Infosec personnel
    • Poor threat detection
    • Increased attack surface

    Common vulnerabilities in traditional infrastructure

    • MITM attack
    • XSS attack
    • Session hijacking
    • Trust-based model
    • IP spoofing
    • Brute force attack
    • Distributed denial of service
    • DNS hijacking
    • Latency issues
    • Lateral movement once connection is established

    TRADITIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE

    NETWORK

    SECURITY

    AUTHENTICATION

    IDENTITY

    ACCESS

    • MPLS
    • Corporate Network
    • Antivirus installed
    • Traditional Firewall
    • Intrusion Detection and Prevention System
    • Allow and Deny rules
    • Businesses must respond to consumer requests to:
    • LDAP
    • AAA
    • Immature password complexity
    • Trusted device with improperly managed endpoint protection.
    • Little or no DNS security
    • Web portal (captive)
    • VPN client

    Candidate Solutions

    Proposed benefits of SASE

    • Access is only granted to the requested resource
    • Consolidated network and security as a service
    • Micro-segmentation on application and gateway
    • Adopts a zero trust security posture for all access
    • Managed detection and response
    • Uniform enforcement of policy
    • Distributed denial of service shield

    SASE

    NETWORK

    SECURITY

    AUTHENTICATION

    IDENTITY

    ACCESS

    • Software defined – WAN
    • Content delivery network
    • WAN optimization
    • Network-as-a-service
    • Firewall-as-a-service/NGFW
    • Zero trust network access
    • Endpoint detection & response
    • Secure web gateway
    • Cloud access security broker
    • Data loss prevention
    • Remote browser isolation
    • Multifactor authentication
    • Context-based security policy for authentication
    • Authorization managed with situational awareness and real-time risk analytics
    • Continuous verification throughout an access request lifecycle
    • Zero trust identity on users, devices, applications, and data.
    • Strong password complexity enforced
    • Privilege access management
    • Secure internet access
    • SASE client

    ZERO TRUST

    TENETS OF ZERO TRUST

    ZERO TRUST PILLARS

    • Continuous, dynamic authentication and verification
    • Principle of least privilege
    • Always assume a breach
    • Implement the tenets of zero trust across the following domains of your environment:
      • IDENTITY
      • APPLICATION
      • NETWORK
      • DEVICES
      • DATA

    Proposed benefits of zero trust

    • Identify and protect critical and non-critical resources in accordance with business objectives.
    • Produce initiatives that conform to the ideals of zero trust and are aligned with the corresponding pillars above.
    • Formulate policies to protect resources and aid segmentation.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Securing your hybrid workforce should be an opportunity to get started on the zero trust journey. Realizing the core features needed to achieve this will help you determine which of the options is a good fit for your organization.

    Measure the value of using Info-Tech's approach

    IT and business value

    PHASE 1

    PHASE 2

    Assess the benefits of adopting SASE or zero trust

    Vendors will try to control the narrative in terms of what they can do for you, but it's time for you to control the narrative and identify pain points to IT and the business, and with that, to understand and define what the vendor solution can do for you.

    PHASE 2

    Assess the benefits of adopting SASE or zero trust

    Vendors will try to control the narrative in terms of what they can do for you, but it's time for you to control the narrative and identify pain points to IT and the business, and with that, to understand and define what the vendor solution can do for you.

    Short-term benefits

    • Gain awareness of your zero trust readiness.
    • Embed a zero trust mindset across your architecture.
    • Control the narrative of what SASE brings to your organization.

    Long-term benefits

    • Identified controls to mitigate risks with current architecture while on a zero trust journey.
    • Improved security posture that reduces risk by increasing visibility into threats and user connections.
    • Reduced CapEx and OpEx due to the scalability, low staffing requirements, and improved time to respond to threats using a SASE or SSE solution.

    Determine SASE cost factors

    IT and business value

    Info-Tech Insight

    IT leaders need to examine different areas of their budget and determine how the adoption of a SASE solution could influence several areas of their budget breakdown.

    Determining the SASE cost factors early could accelerate the justification the business needs to move forward in making an informed decision.

    01- Infrastructure

    • Physical security
    • Cabling
    • Power supply and HVAC
    • Hosting

    02- Administration

    • Human hours to analyze logs and threats
    • Human hours to secure infrastructure
    • Fees associated with maintenance

    03- Inbound

    • DPI
    • DDoS
    • Web application firewall
    • VPN concentrators

    04- Outbound

    • IDPS
    • DLP on-prem
    • QoS
    • Sandbox & URL filtering

    04- Data Protection

    • Real-time URL
      insights
    • Threat hunting
    • Data loss prevention

    06- Monitoring

    • Log storage
    • Logging engine
    • Dashboards
    • Managed detection
      and response

    Info-Tech's methodology for securing your hybrid workforce

    1. Current state and future mitigation

    2. Assess the benefits of moving to SASE/zero trust

    Phase Steps

    1.1 Limitations of legacy infrastructure

    1.2 Zero trust principle as a control

    1.3 SASE as a driver of zero trust

    2.1 Sourcing out a SASE/SSE vendor

    2.2 Build a zero trust roadmap

    Phase Outcomes

    Identify and prioritize risks of current infrastructure and several ways to mitigate them.

    RFP template and build a zero trust roadmap.

    Consider several factors needed to protect your growing hybrid workforce and assess your current resource capabilities, solutions, and desire for a more mature security program. The outcome should either address a quick pain point or a long-term roadmap.

    The internet is the new corporate network

    The internet is the new corporate network, which opens the organization up to more risks not protected by the current security stack. Using Info-Tech's methodology of zero trust adoption is a sure way to reduce the attack surface, and SASE is one useful tool to take you on the zero trust journey.

    Current-state risks and future mitigation

    Securing your hybrid workforce via zero trust will inevitably include (but is not limited to) technological products/solutions.

    SASE and SSE features sit as an overlay here as technological solutions that will help on the zero trust journey by aggregating all the disparate solutions required for you to meet zero trust requirements into a single interface. The knowledge and implementation of this helps put things into perspective of where and what our target state is.

    The right solution for the right problem

    It is critical to choose a solution that addresses the security problems you are actually trying to solve.

    Don't allow the solution provider to tell you what you need – rather, start by understanding your capability gaps and then go to market to find the right partner.

    Take advantage of the RFP template to source a SASE or SSE vendor. Additionally, build a zero trust roadmap to develop and strategize initiatives and tasks.

    Blueprint deliverables

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

    Zero Trust and SASE Suitability Tool
    Identify critical and vulnerable DAAS elements to protect and align them to business goals.

    Zero Trust Program Gap Analysis Tool
    Perform a gap analysis between current and target states to build a zero trust roadmap.

    Key deliverable:

    Secure Your Hybrid Workforce With Zero Trust Communication deck
    Present your zero trust strategy in a prepopulated document that summarizes the work you have completed as a part of this blueprint.

    Phase 1

    Current state and future mitigation

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    1.1 Limitations of legacy infrastructure

    1.2 Zero trust principle as a control

    1.3 SASE as a driver of zero trust

    2.1 Sourcing out a SASE/SSE vendor

    2.2 Build a zero trust roadmap

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Introduction to the tool, how to use the input tabs to identify current challenges, technologies being used, and to prioritize the challenges. The prioritized list will highlight existing gaps and eventually be mapped to recommended mitigations in the following phase.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • CISO
    • CSO
    • IT security team
    • IT network team

    Secure Your Hybrid Workforce

    1.1 Limitations of legacy infrastructure

    Traditional security & remote access solutions must be modernized

    Info-Tech Insight
    Traditional security is architected with a perimeter in mind and is poorly suited to the threats in hybrid or distributed environments.

    Ensure you minimize or eliminate weak points on all layers.

    • SECURITY
      • DDoS
      • DNS hijacking
      • Weak VPN protocols
    • IDENTITY
      • One-time verification allowing lateral movement
    • NETWORK
      • Risk perimeter stops at corporate network edge
      • Split tunneling
    • AUTHENTICATION
      • Weak authentication
      • Weak passwords
    • ACCESS
      • Man-in-the-middle attack
      • Cross-site scripting
      • Session hijacking

    1.1.1 For example: traditional VPNs are poorly suited to a hybrid workforce

    There are many limitations that make it difficult for traditional VPNs to adapt to an ever-growing hybrid workforce.

    The listed limitations are tied to associated risks of legacy infrastructure as well as security components that are almost non-existent in a VPN implementation today.

    Scaling

    VPNs were designed for small-scale remote access to corporate network. An increase in the remote workforce will require expensive hardware investment.

    Visibility

    Users and attackers are not restricted to specific network resources, and with an absence of activity logs, they can go undetected.

    Managed detection & response

    Due to the reduction in or lack of visibility, threat detections are poorly managed, and responses are already too late.

    Hardware

    Limited number of locations for VPN hardware to be situated as it can be expensive.

    Hybrid workforce

    The increase in the hybrid workforce requires the risk perimeter to be expanded from the corporate network to devices and applications. VPNs are built for privacy, not security.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Hybrid workforces are here to stay, and adopting a strategy that is adaptable, flexible, simple, and cost-effective is a recommended road to take on the journey to bettering your security and network.

    1.1 Identify risk from legacy infrastructure

    Estimated Time: 1-2 hours

    1. Ensure all vulnerabilities described on slide 17 are removed.
    2. Note any forecasted challenge you think you might have down the line with your current hybrid setup.
    3. Identify any trend that may be of interest to you with regards to your hybrid setup.

    This is a screenshot of the organizational profile table found in the Zero Trust - SASE Suitability Assessment Tool

    Download the Zero Trust - SASE Suitability Assessment Tool

    Input

    • List of key pain points and challenges
    • List of forecasted challenges and trends of interest

    Output

    • Prioritized list of pain points and/or challenges

    Materials

    • Excel tool
    • Whiteboard

    Participants

    • CISO
    • InfoSec team
    • IT manager
    • CIO
    • Infrastructure team

    1.2 Zero trust principle as a control

    A zero trust implementation comes with benefits/initiatives that mitigate the challenges identified in earlier activities.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Zero trust/"always verify" is applied to identity, workloads, devices, networks, and data to provide a greater control for risks associated with traditional network architecture.

    Improve IAM maturity

    Zero trust identity and access will lead to a mature IAM process in an organization with the removal of implicit trust.

    Secure your remote access

    With a zero trust network architecture (ZTNA), both the remote and on-prem network access are more secure than the traditional network deployment. The software-defined parameter ensures security on each network access.

    Reduce threat surface area

    With zero trust principle applied on identity, workload, devices, network, and data, the threat surface area which births some of the risks identified earlier will be significantly reduced.

    Improve hybrid workforce

    Scaling, visibility, network throughput, secure connection from anywhere, micro-segmentation, and a host of other benefits to improve your hybrid workforce.

    1.2 SASE as an overlay to zero trust

    Security and network initiatives of a zero trust roadmap converged into a single pane of glass.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Security and network converged into a single pane of glass giving you some of the benefits and initiatives of a zero trust implemented architecture in one package.

    Improve IAM maturity

    The identity-centric nature of SASE solutions helps to improve your IAM maturity as it applies the principle of least privilege. The removal of implicit trust and continuous verification helps foster this more.

    Secure your remote access

    With ZTNA, both the remote and on-prem network access are more secure than the traditional network deployment. The software defined parameter ensures security on each network access.

    Reduce threat surface area

    Secure web gateway, cloud access security broker, domain name system, next-generation firewall, data loss prevention, and ZTNA protect against data leaks, prevent lateral movement, and prevent malicious actors from coming in.

    Improve hybrid workforce

    Reduced costs and complexity of IT, faster user experience, and reduced risk as a result of the scalability, visibility, ease of IT administration, network throughput, secure connection from anywhere, micro-segmentation, and a host of other benefits will surely improve your hybrid workforce.

    Align SASE features to zero trust core capabilities

    Verify Identity

    • Authentication & verification are enforced for each app request or session.
    • Use of multifactor authentication.
    • RBAC/ABAC and principle of least privilege are applied on the identity regardless of user, device, or location.

    Verify Device

    • Device health is checked to ensure device is not compromised or vulnerable.
    • No admin permissions on user devices.
    • Device-based risk assessment is enforced as part of UEBA.

    Verify Access

    • Micro-segmentation built around network, user, device, location and roles.
    • Use of context and content-based policy enforced to the user, application, and device identity.
    • Network access only granted to specified application request and not to the entire network.

    Verify Services

    • Applications and services are checked before access is granted.
    • Connections to the application and services are inspected with the security controls built into the SASE solution.

    Info-Tech Insight

    These features of SASE and zero trust mitigate the risks associated with a traditional VPN and reduce the threat surface area. With security at the core, network optimization is not compromised.

    Security components of SASE

    Otherwise known as security service edge (SSE)

    Security service edge is the convergence of all security services typically found in SASE. At its core, SSE consists of three services which include:

    • Secure web gateway – secure access to the internet and web.
    • Cloud access security broker – secure access to SaaS and cloud applications.
    • Zero trust network access – secure remote access to private applications.

    SSE components are also mitigations or initiatives that make up a zero trust roadmap as they comply with the zero trust principle, and as a result, they sit up there with SASE as an overlay/driver of a zero trust implementation. SSE's benefits are identical to SASE's in that it provides zero trust access, risk reduction, low costs and complexity, and a better user experience. The difference is SSE's sole focus on security services and not the network component.

    SASE

    NETWORK FEATURES

    SECURITY FEATURES

    • WAN optimization
    • SD WAN
    • CDN
    • Network-as-a-service
    • CASB
    • IDPS
    • ZTNA/VPN
    • FWaaS
    • Browser isolation
    • DLP
    • UEBA
    • Secure web gateway
    • Sandboxing

    1.3 Pros & cons of zero trust and SASE

    Zero Trust

    SASE

    Pros

    Cons

    Pros

    Cons

    • Robust IAM process and technologies with role-based access control.
    • Strong and continuous verification of identity of user accounts, devices, data, location, and principle of least privilege applied.
    • Micro-segmentation applied around users, network, devices, roles, and applications to prevent lateral movement.
    • Threat attack surface eliminated, which reduces organizational risks.
    • Protection of data strengthened based on sensitivity and micro-segmentation.
    • Difficult to identify the scope of the zero trust initiative.
    • Requires continuous and ongoing update of access controls.
    • Zero trust journey/process could take years and is prone to being abandoned without commitment from executives.
    • Legacy systems can be hard to replace, which would require all stakeholders to prioritize resource allocation.
    • Can be expensive to implement.
    • Adopts a zero trust security posture for all access requests.
    • Converged and consolidated network and security delivered as a cloud service to the user rather than a single point of enforcement.
    • Centralized visibility of devices, data in transit and at rest, user activities, and threats.
    • Cheaper than a zero trust roadmap implementation.
    • Managed detection and response.
    • The limited knowledge of SASE.
    • No universally agreed upon SASE definition.
    • SASE products are still being developed and are open to vendors' interpretation.
    • Existing vendor relationships could be a hinderance to deployment.
    • Hard to manage MSSPs.

    Understand SASE and zero trust suitability for your needs

    Estimated Time: 1 hour

    Use the dashboard to understand the value assessment of adopting a SASE product or building a zero trust roadmap.

    This is an image of the SASE Suitability Assessment

    This is the image of the Zero Trust Suitability Assessment

    Info-Tech Insight

    This tool will help steer you on a path to take as a form of mitigation/control to some or all the identified challenges.

    Phase 2

    Make a decision and next steps

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    1.1 Limitations of legacy infrastructure

    1.2 Zero trust principle as a control

    1.3 SASE as a driver of zero trust

    2.1 Sourcing out a SASE/SSE vendor

    2.2 Build a zero trust roadmap

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Introduction to the tool activity, how to use the input tabs and considerations to generate an output that could help understand the current state of your hybrid infrastructure and what direction is to be followed next to improve.

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • CIO
    • CISO
    • CSO
    • IT security
    • IT network team

    Secure Your Hybrid Workforce

    Step 2.1

    Sourcing out a SASE/SSE vendor

    Activities

    2.1.1 Use the RFP template to request proposal from vendors

    2.1.2 Use SoftwareReviews to compare vendors

    This step involves the following participants:

    • CIO, CISO, IT manager, Infosec team, executives.

    Outcomes of this step

    • Zero Trust Roadmap

    2.1.1 Use the RFP template to request proposal from vendors

    Estimated Time: 1-3 hours

    1. As a group, use the RFP Template to include technical capabilities of your desired SASE product and to request proposals from vendors.
    2. The features that are most important to your organization generated from phase one should be highlighted in the RFP.

    Input

    • List of SASE features
    • Technical capabilities

    Output

    • RFP

    Materials

    • RFP Template

    Participants

    • Security team
    • IT leadership

    Download the RFP Template

    2.1.2 Use SoftwareReviews to compare vendors

    SoftwareReviews

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

    Step 2.2

    Zero trust readiness and roadmap

    Activities

    2.2.1 Assess the maturity of your current zero trust implementation

    2.2.2 Understand business needs and current security projects

    2.2.3 Set target maturity state with timeframe

    This step involves the following participants:

    CIO, CISO, IT manager, Infosec team, executives.

    Outcomes of this step

    Zero Trust Roadmap

    2.2.1 Assess the maturity of your current zero trust implementation

    Estimated Time: 1-3 hours

    • Realizing that zero trust is a journey helps create a better roadmap and implementation. Identify the current controls or solutions in your organization that align with the principle of zero trust.
    • Break down these controls or solutions into different silos (e.g. identity, security, network, data, device, applications, etc.).
    • Determine your zero trust readiness.

    Input

    • List of zero trust controls/solutions
    • Siloed list of zero trust controls/solutions
    • Current state of zero trust maturity

    Output

    • Zero trust readiness and current maturity state

    Materials

    • Zero Trust Security Benefit Assessment tool

    Participants

    • Security team
    • IT leadership

    Download the Zero Trust Security Benefit Assessment tool

    2.2.2 Understand business needs and current security projects

    Estimated Time: 1-3 hours

    1. Identify the business and IT executives, application owners, and board members whose vision aligns with the zero trust journey.
    2. Identify existing projects within security, IT, and the business and highlight interdependencies or how they fit with the zero trust journey.
    3. Build a rough sketch of the roadmap that fits the business needs, current projects and the zero trust journey.

    Input

    • Meetings with stakeholders
    • List of current and future projects

    Output

    • Sketch of zero trust roadmap

    Materials

    • Whiteboard activity

    Participants

    • Security team
    • IT leadership
    • IT ops team
    • Business executives
    • Board members

    Download Zero Trust Protect Surface Mapping Tool

    2.2.3 Set target maturity state with a given timeframe

    Estimated Time: 1-3 hours

    1. With the zero trust readiness, current business, IT and security projects, current maturity state, and sketch of the roadmap, setting a target maturity state within some timeframe is at the top of the list. The target maturity state will include a list of initiatives that could be siloed and confined to a timeframe.
    2. A Gantt chart or graph could be used to complete this task.

    Input

    • Results from previous activity slides

    Output

    • Current state and target state assessment for gap analysis
    • List of initiatives and timeframe

    Materials

    • Zero Trust Program Gap Analysis Tool

    Participants

    • Security team
    • IT leadership
    • IT ops team
    • Business executives
    • Board members

    Download the Zero Trust Program Gap Analysis Tool

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Insights Gained

    • Difference between zero trust as a principle and SASE as a framework
    • Difference between SASE and SSE platforms.
    • Assessment of which path to take in securing your hybrid workforce

    Deliverables Completed

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

    Contact your account representative for more information

    workshops@infotech.com

    1-888-670-8889

    Additional Support

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

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

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

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

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

    This is a screenshot from the Zero Trust - SASE Suitability Assessment Tool

    Zero Trust - SASE Suitability Assessment Tool

    Assess current security capabilities and build a roadmap of tasks and initiatives that close maturity gaps.

    Research Contributors

    • Aaron Shum, Vice President, Security & Privacy
    • Cameron Smith, Research Lead, Security & Privacy
    • Brad Mateski, Zones, Solutions Architect for CyberSecurity
    • Bob Smock, Info-Tech Research Group, Vice President of Consulting
    • Dr. Chase Cunningham, Ericom Software, Chief Strategy Officer
    • John Kindervag, ON2IT Cybersecurity, Senior Vice President, Cybersecurity Strategy and ON2IT Group Fellow
    • John Zhao, Fonterra, Enterprise Security Architect
    • Rongxing Lu, University of New Brunswick, Associate Professor
    • Sumanta Sarkar, University of Warwick, Assistant Professor
    • Tim Malone, J.B. Hunt Transport, Senior Director Information Security
    • Vana Matte, J.B. Hunt Transport, Senior Vice President of Technology Services

    Related Info-Tech Research

    This is a screenshot from Info-Tech's Security Strategy Model

    Build an Information Security Strategy

    Info-Tech has developed a highly effective approach to building an information security strategy – an approach that has been successfully tested and refined for over seven years with hundreds of organizations. This unique approach includes tools for ensuring alignment with business objectives, assessing organizational risk and stakeholder expectations, enabling a comprehensive current state assessment, prioritizing initiatives, and building out a security roadmap.

    This is a screenshot from Info-Tech's research: Determine Your Zero Trust Readiness

    Determine Your Zero Trust Readiness

    IT security was typified by perimeter security. However, the way the world does business has mandated a change to IT security. In response, zero trust is a set of principles that can add flexibility to planning your IT security strategy.

    Use this blueprint to determine your zero trust readiness and understand how zero trust can benefit both security and the business.

    This is a screenshot from Info-Tech's research: Mature Your Identity and Access Management Program

    Mature Your Identity and Access Management Program

    Many organizations are looking to improve their identity and access management (IAM) practices but struggle with where to start and whether all areas of IAM have been considered. This blueprint will help you improve the organization's IAM practices by following our three-phase methodology:

    • Assess identity and access requirements.
    • Identify initiatives using the identity lifecycle.
    • Prioritize initiatives and build a roadmap.

    Bibliography

    "2021 Data Breach Investigations Report." Verizon, 2021. Web.
    "Fortinet Brings Networking and Security to the Cloud" Fortinet, 2 Mar. 2021. Web.
    "A Zero Trust Strategy Has 3 Needs – Identify, Authenticate, and Monitor Users and Devices on and off the Network." Fortinet, 15 July 2021. Web.
    "Applying Zero Trust Principles to Enterprise Mobility." CISA, Mar. 2022. Web.
    "CISA Zero Trust Maturity Model." CISA, Cybersecurity Division, June 2021. Web.
    "Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation Program Overview." CISA, Jan. 2022. Web.
    "Cost of a Data Breach Report 2021 | IBM." IBM, July 2021. Web.
    English, Melanie. "5 Stats That Show The Cost Saving Effect of Zero Trust." Teramind, 29 Sept. 2021. Web.
    Hunter, Steve. "The Five Business Benefits of a Zero Trust Approach to Security." Security Brief - Australia, 19 Aug. 2020. Web.
    "Improve Application Access and Security With Fortinet Zero Trust Network Access." Fortinet, 2 Mar. 2021. Web.
    "Incorporating zero trust Strategies for Secure Network and Application Access." Fortinet, 21 Jul. 2021. Web.
    Jakkal, Vasu. "Zero Trust Adoption Report: How Does Your Organization Compare?" Microsoft, 28 July 2021. Web.
    "Jericho Forum™ Commandments." The Open Group, Jericho Forum, May 2007. Web.
    Schulze, Holger. "2019 Zero Trust Adoption Report." Cybersecurity Insiders, 2019. Web.
    "67% of Organizations Had Identity-Related Data Breaches Last Year." Security Magazine, 22 Aug. 2022. Web.
    United States, Executive Office of the President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. "Executive Order on Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity." The White House, 12 May 2021. Web.

    Ransomware Cyber Attack. The real Disaster Recovery Scenario

    Cyber-ransomware criminals need to make sure that you cannot simply recover your encrypted data via your backups. They must make it look like paying is your only option. And if you do not have a strategy that takes this into account, unfortunately, you may be up the creek without a paddle. because how do they make their case? Bylooking for ways to infect your backups, way before you find out you have been compromised. 

    That means your standard disaster recovery scenarios provide insufficient protection against this type of event. You need to think beyond DRP and give consideration to what John Beattie and Michael Shandrowski call "Cyber Incident Recovery Risk management" (CIR-RM).  

    incident, incident management, cybersecurity, cyber, disaster recovery, drp, business continuity, bcm, recovery

    Register to read more …

    The governance around resilience

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    You want to become resilient to cyberattacks, human errors, power outages, and many other causes of service interruptions. Where do you start?

    You could ask your IT team and your Operations leaders to take the required measures to ensure "reliability." Do you think that will work without any oversight and guidelines? I can tell you right off the bat: No, And you will have given the same answer in your head already. Moreover, your company's department heads will have the same answer: no. And why? Exactly because they do not know how you want to put the "law" into effect in your company.

    Your next question is, of course: "what law?." If you are in Europe, you will have heard about the many laws of the EU, like NIS2, MIFID II, DORA, EMIR, and so many more. You will be subject to other laws if you are in Asia, the US, the Middle East, Africa, or Oceania. And if you deliver services to EU companies governed by the first set, you may be subject to those European laws as well. 

    So far, about the laws, let's look at what this gives you.

    If you're like me, you want your client to be able to use your services, almost no matter what. That means you must ensure your services are available to your clients under most circumstances. Ok, if WWIII breaks out with nuclear missiles flying all over, all bets are off.  Let's ignore that occurrence. (your contracts include "acts of God" exclusions, right? (if not, let's talk.) That is the real reason you must ensure your services to our clients are resilient. Resilient systems and processes ensure your income, revenue, the livelihood of your employees, the ROI for your shareholders, and your reputation.

     As I said, there are 4 stages. Let's begin with stage 1: governance.

    What is governance but telling your staff what you want them to do? Nothing! So, Let's tell them what to do and how to achieve their Key Performance Indicators. That way, you get what you want, being in control, and they get what they want: their bonus.

    Resilience governance needs to start at the top of the organization. And for that, you need to know WHY it is being introduced.

    1. To mitigate risks posed by growing vulnerabilities introduced by increased interconnectivity
    2. To address the shift in your risk profile as you adopt increasing digital adoption
    3. To acknowledge that third-party suppliers underpin your ability to supply services to your clients
    4. To adopt a single, consistent approach to operational resilience across markets

    Obviously, this is a holistic view of the markets across the US, EU, Oceania, and Africa. Each of these markets has its own interpretations and nuances.
    The point, however, stays the same: have a sound company oversight and management view via clear governance rules like ownership, policies, procedures, guidelines, and operational task lists.

    In the end, it is all about the ability to build, ensure, and review operational resilience from a technological and business perspective.

     

     

     

    Explore the Secrets of SAP Digital Access Licensing

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    • SAP’s licensing rules surrounding use and indirect access are vague, making it extremely difficult to purchase with confidence and remain compliant.
    • SAP has released nine document-type licenses that can be used in digital access licensing scenarios, but this model has its own challenges.
    • Whether you decide to remain “as is” or proactively change licensing over to the document model, either option can be costly and confusing.
    • Indirect static read can be a cause of noncompliance when data is exported but the processing capability of SAP ERP is used in real time.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Examine all indirect access possibilities. Understanding how in-house or third-party applications may be accessing and utilizing the SAP digital core is critical to be able to correctly address issues.
    • Know what’s in your contract. Each customer agreement is different, and older agreements may provide both benefits and challenges when evaluating your SAP license position.
    • Understand the intricacies of document licensing. While it may seem digital access licensing will solve compliance concerns, there are still questions to address and challenges SAP must resolve.

    Impact and Result

    • Conduct an internal analysis to examine where digital access licensing may be needed to mitigate risk, as SAP will be speaking with all customers in due course. Indirect access can be a costly audit settlement.
    • Conduct an analysis to remove inactive and duplicate users, as multiple logins may exist and could end up costing the organization license fees when audited.
    • Adopt a cyclical approach to reviewing your SAP licensing and create a reference document to track your software needs, planned licensing, and purchase negotiation points.
    • Learn the SAP way of conducting business, which includes a best-in-class sales structure and unique contracts and license use policies, combined with a hyper-aggressive compliance function. Conducting business with SAP is not a typical vendor experience, and you will need different tools to emerge successfully from a commercial transaction.

    Explore the Secrets of SAP Digital Access Licensing Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you need to understand and document your SAP digital access licensing strategy, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Understand, assess, and decide on digital access licensing

    Begin your SAP digital access licensing journey by evaluating licensing changes and options, and then make contractual changes to ensure compliance.

    • Explore the Secrets of SAP Digital Access Licensing – Phase 1: Understand, Assess, and Decide on Digital Access Licensing
    • SAP License Summary and Analysis Tool
    • SAP Digital Access Licensing Pricing Tool
    [infographic]

    Master the Secrets of VMware Licensing to Maximize Your Investment

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}138|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: N/A
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    • Parent Category Name: Licensing
    • Parent Category Link: /licensing
    • A lack of understanding around VMware’s licensing models, bundles, and negotiation tactics makes it difficult to negotiate from a position of strength.
    • Unfriendly commercial practices combined with hyperlink-ridden agreements have left organizations vulnerable to audits and large shortfall payments.
    • Enterprise license agreements (ELAs) come in several purchasing models and do not contain the EULA or various VMware product guide documentation that governs license usage rules and can change monthly.
    • Without a detailed understanding of VMware’s various purchasing models, shelfware often occurs.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Contracts are typically overweighted with a discount at the expense of contractual T&Cs that can restrict license usage and expose you to unpleasant financial surprises and compliance risk.
    • VMware customers almost always have incomplete price information from which to effectively negotiate a “best in class” ELA.
    • VMware has a large lead in being first to market and it realizes that running dual virtualization stacks is complex, unwieldy, and expensive. To further complicate the issues, most skill sets in the industry are skewed towards VMware.

    Impact and Result

    • Negotiate desired terms and conditions at the start of the agreement, and prioritize which use rights may be more important than an additional discount percentage.
    • Gather data points and speak with licensing partners to determine if the deal being offered is in fact as great as VMware says it is.
    • Beware of out-year pricing and ELA optimization reviews that may provide undesirable surprises and more spend than was planned.

    Master the Secrets of VMware Licensing to Maximize Your Investment Research & Tools

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

    1. Manage Your VMware Agreements – Use the Info-Tech tools capture your existing licenses and prepare for your renewal bids.

    Use Info-Tech’s licensing best practices to avoid shelfware with VMware licensing and remain compliant in case of an audit.

    • Master the Secrets of VMware Licensing to Maximize Your Investment Storyboard

    2. Manage your VMware agreements

    Use Info-Tech’s licensing best practices to avoid shelfware with VMware licensing and remain compliant in case of an audit.

    • VMware Business as Usual – Install Base SnS Renewal Only Tool
    • VMware ELA RFQ Template

    3. Transition to the VMWare Cloud – Use these tools to evaluate your ELA and vShpere requirements and make an informed choice.

    Manage your renewals and transition to the cloud subscription model.

    • VPP Transactional Purchase Tool
    • VMware ELA Analysis Tool
    • vSphere Edition 7 Features List

    Infographic

    Further reading

    Master the Secrets of VMware Licensing to Maximize Your Investment

    Learn the essential steps to avoid overspending and to maximize negotiation leverage with VMware.

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    Master the Secrets of VMware Licensing to Maximize Your Investment.

    The image contains a picture of Scott Bickley.

    The mechanics of negotiating a deal with VMware may seem simple at first as the vendor is willing to provide a heavy discount on an enterprise license agreement (ELA). However, come renewal time, when a reduction in spend or shelfware is needed, or to exit the ELA altogether, the process can be exceedingly frustrating as VMware holds the balance of power in the negotiation.

    Negotiating a complete agreement with VMware from the start can save you from an immense headache and unforeseen expenditures. Many VMware customers do not realize that the terms and conditions in the Volume Purchasing Program (VPP) and Enterprise Purchasing Program (EPP) agreements limit how and where they are able to use their licenses.

    Furthermore, after the renewal is complete, organizations must still worry about the management of various license types, accurate discovery of what has been deployed, visibility into license key assignments, and over and under use of licenses.

    Preventive and proactive measures enclosed within this blueprint will help VMware clients mitigate this minefield of challenges.

    Scott Bickley
    Practice Lead, Vendor Management
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Common Obstacles

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    VMware's dominant position in the virtualization space can create uncertainty to your options in the long term as well as the need to understand:

    • The hybrid cloud model.
    • Hybrid VM security and management.
    • New subscription license model and how it affects renewals.

    Make an informed decision with your VMware investments to allow for continued ROI.

    There are several hurdles that are presented when considering a VMware ELA:

    • Evolving licensing and purchasing models
    • Understanding potential ROI in the cloud landscape
    • Evolving door of corporate ownership

    Overcoming these and other obstacles are key to long-term satisfaction with your VMware infrastructure.

    Info-Tech has a two-phase approach:

    • Manage your VMware agreements.
    • Plan a transition to the cloud.

    A tactical roadmap approach to VMware ELA and the cloud will ensure long-term success and savings.

    Info-Tech Insight

    VMware customers almost always have incomplete price information from which to effectively negotiate a “best in class” ELA.

    Your challenge

    VMware's dominant position in the virtualization space can create uncertainty to your options in the long term driven by:

    • VMware’s dominant market position and ownership of the virtualization market, which is forcing customers to focus on managing capacity demand to ensure a positive ROI on every license.
    • The trend toward a hybrid cloud for many organizations, especially those considering using VMware in public clouds, resulting in confusion regarding licensing and compliance scenarios.

    ELAs and EPPs are generally the only way to get a deep discount from VMware.

    The image contains a pie chart to demonstrate that 85% have answered yes to being audited by VMware for software license compliance.

    Common obstacles

    There are several hurdles that are presented when considering a VMware ELA.

    • A lack of understanding around VMware’s licensing models, bundles, and negotiation tactics makes it difficult to negotiate from a position of strength.
    • Unfriendly commercial practices combined with hyperlink-ridden agreements have left organizations vulnerable to audits and large shortfall payments.
    • ELAs come in several purchasing models and do not contain the EULA or various VMware product guide documentation that govern license usage rules and can change monthly.

    Competition is a key driver of price

    The image contains a screenshot of a bar graph to demonstrate virtualization market share % 2022.

    Source: Datanyze

    Master the Secrets of VMware Licensing to Maximize your Investment

    The image contains a screenshot of the Thought model on Master the secrets of VMware Licensing to Maximize your Investment.

    Info-Tech’s methodology for Master the Secrets of VMware Licensing to Maximize Your Investment

    1. Manage Your VMware Agreements

    2. Transition to the VMware Cloud

    Phase Steps

    1.1 Establish licensing requirements

    1.2 Evaluate licensing options

    1.3 Evaluate agreement options

    1.4 Purchase and manage licenses

    1.5 Understand SnS renewal management

    2.1 Understand the VMware subscription model

    2.2 Migrate workloads and licenses

    2.3 Manage SnS and cloud subscriptions

    Phase Outcomes

    Understanding of your licensing requirements and what agreement option best fits your needs for now and the future.

    Knowledge of VMware’s sales model and how to negotiate the best deal.

    Knowledge of the evolving cloud subscription model and how to plan your cloud migration and transition to the new licensing.

    Insight summary

    Overarching insight

    With the introduction of the subscription licensing model, VMware licensing and renewals are becoming more complex and require a deeper understanding of the license program options to best manage renewals and cloud deployments as well as to maximize legacy ROI.

    Phase 1 insight

    Contracts are typically overweighted with a discount at the expense of contractual T&Cs that can restrict license usage and expose you to unpleasant financial surprises and compliance risk.

    Phase 1 insight

    VMware has a large lead in being first to market and it realizes running dual virtualization stacks is complex, unwieldy, and expensive. To further complicate the issues, most skill sets in the industry are skewed toward VMware.

    Phase 2 insight

    VMware has purposefully reduced a focus on the actual license terms and conditions; most customers focus on the transactional purchase or the ELA document, but the rules governing usage are on a website and can be changed by VMware regularly.

    Tactical insight

    Beware of out-year pricing and ELA optimization reviews that may provide undesirable surprises and more spend than was planned.

    Tactical insight

    Negotiate desired terms and conditions at the start of the agreement, and prioritize which use rights may be more important than an additional discount percentage.

    Blueprint deliverables

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

    VMware ELA Analysis Tool

    VMware ELA RFQ Template Tool

    VPP Transaction Purchase Tool

    VMware ELA Analysis Tool

    Use this tool as a template for an RFQ with VMware ELA contracts.

    Use this tool to analyze cost breakdown and discount based on your volume purchasing program (VPP) level.

    The image contains screenshots of the VMware ELA Analysis Tool. The image contains a screenshot of the VMware ELA RFQ template tool. The image contains a screenshot of the VPP Transaction Purchase Tool.

    Key deliverable:

    VMware Business as Usual SnS Renewal Only Tool

    Use this tool to analyze discounts from a multi-year agreement vs. prepay. See how you can get the best discount.

    The image contains screenshots of the VMware Business as Usual SnS Renewal Only Tool.

    Blueprint Objectives

    The aim of this blueprint is to provide a foundational understanding of VMware’s licensing agreement and best practices to manage them.

    Why VMware

    What to Know

    The Future

    VMware is the leader in OS virtualization, however, this is a saturated market, which is being pressured by public and hybrid cloud as a competitive force taking market share.

    There are few viable alternatives to VMware for virtualization due to vendor lock-in of existing IT infrastructure footprint. It is too difficult and cost prohibitive to make a shift away from VMware even when alternative solutions are available.

    ELAs are the preferred method of contracting as it sets the stage for a land-and-expand product strategy; once locked into the ELA model, customers must examine VMware alternatives with preference or risk having Support and Subscription Services (SnS) re-priced at retail.

    VMware does not provide a great deal of publicly available information regarding its enterprise license agreement (ELA) options, leaving a knowledge gap that allows the sales team to steer the customer.

    VMware is taking countermeasures against increasing competition.

    Recent contract terms changed to eliminate perpetual caps on SnS renewals; they are now tied to a single year of discounted SnS, then they go to list price.

    Migration of list pricing to a website versus contract, where pricing can now be changed, reducing discount percentage effectiveness.

    Increased audits of customers, especially those electing to not renew an ELA.


    Examining VMware’s vendor profile

    Turbonomics conducted a vendor profile on major vendors, focusing on licensing and compliance. It illustrated the following results:

    The image contains a pie graph to demonstrate that the majority of companies say yes to using license enterprise software from VMware.

    The image contains a bar graph to demonstrate what license products organizations use of VMware products.

    Source: Turbonomics
    N-sample size

    Case Study

    The image contains a logo for ADP.

    INDUSTRY: Finance

    SOURCE: VMware.com

    “We’ll have network engineers, storage engineers, computer engineers, database engineers, and systems engineers all working together as one intact team developing and delivering goals on specific outcomes.” – Vipul Nagrath, CIO, ADP

    Improving developer capital management

    Constant innovation helped ADP keep ahead of customer needs in the human resources space, but it also brought constant changes to the IT environment. Internally, the company found it was spending too long working on delivering the required infrastructure and system updates. IT staff wanted to improve velocity for refreshes to better match the needs of ADP developers and encourage continued development innovation.

    Business needs

    • Improve turnaround time on infrastructure refreshes to better meet developer roadmaps.
    • Establish an IT culture that works at the global scale of ADP and empowers individual team members.
    • Streamline approach toward infrastructure resource delivery to reduce need for manual management.

    Impact

    • Infrastructure resource delivery reduced from 100+ days to minutes, improving ADP developer efficiency.
    • VMware Cloud™ on AWS establishes seamless private and public cloud workflows, fostering agility and innovation.
    • Automating IT management redirects resources to R&D, boosting time to market for new services.

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

    DIY Toolkit

    Guided Implementation

    Workshop

    Consulting

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

    Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

    Call #1: Discuss scope requirements, objectives, and your specific challenges.

    Call #2: Assess the current state.

    Determine licensing position.

    Call #3: Complete a deployment count, needs analysis, and internal audit.

    Call #4: Review findings with analyst:

    • Review licensing options.
    • Review licensing rules.
    • Review contract option types.

    Call #5: Select licensing option. Document forecasted costs and benefits.

    Call #6: Review final contract:

    • Discuss negotiation points.
    • Plan a roadmap for SAM.

    Call #7: Negotiate final contract. Evaluate and develop a roadmap for SAM.

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

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

    Phase # 1

    Manage Your VMware Agreements

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    1.1 Establish licensing requirements

    1.2 Evaluate licensing options

    1.3 Evaluate agreement options

    1.4 Purchase and manage licenses

    2.1 Understand the VMware subscription model

    2.2 Migrate workloads and licenses

    2.3 Discuss the VMware sales approach

    2.4 Manage SnS and cloud subscriptions

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Understanding the VMware licensing model
    • Understanding the license agreement options
    • Understanding the VMware sales approach

    This phase will take you thorough:

    • The new VMware subscription movement to the cloud
    • How to prepare and migrate
    • Manage your subscriptions efficiently

    1.1 Establish licensing requirements

    VMware has greatly improved the features of vSphere over time.

    vSphere Main Editions Overview

    • vSphere Standard – Provides the basic features for server consolidation. A support and subscription contract (SnS) is mandatory when purchasing the vSphere Standard.
    • vSphere Enterprise Plus – Provides the full range of vSphere features. A support and subscription contract (SnS) is mandatory when purchasing the Enterprise Plus editions.
    • vSphere Essentials kit – The Essentials kit is an all-in-one solution for small environments with up to three hosts (2 CPUs on each host). Support is optional when purchasing the Essentials kit and is available on a per-incident basis.
    • vSphere Essentials Plus kit – This is similar to the Essentials kit and provides additional features such as vSphere vMotion, vSphere HA, and vSphere replication. A support and subscription contract (SnS) is sold separately, and a minimum of one year of SnS is required.

    Review vSphere Edition Features

    The image contains a screenshot to review the vSphere Edition Features.

    Download the vSphere Edition 7 Features List

    1.2 Evaluate licensing options

    VMware agreement types

    Review purchase options to align with your requirements.

    Transactional VPP EPP ELA

    Transactional

    Entry-level volume license purchasing program

    Mid-level purchasing program

    Highest-level purchasing program

    • Purchasing in this model is not recommended for business purposes unless very infrequent and low quantities.
    • 250 points minimum
    • Four tiers of discounts
    • Rolling eight-quarter points accumulation period
    • Discounts on license only

    Deal size of initial purchase typically is:

    • US$250K MSRP License + SnS (2,500 tokens)
    • Exceptions do exist with purchase volume

    Minimum deal size of top-up purchase:

    • US$50K MSRP License + SnS (500 tokens)
    • Initial purchase determines token level
    • Three-year term

    Minimum deal size of initial purchase:

    • US$150K-$250K
    • Discounted licenses and SnS through term of contract
    • Single volume license key
    • No final true-up
    • Global deployment rights and consolidation of multiple agreements

    1.2.1 The Volume Purchasing Program (VPP)

    This is the entry-level purchasing program aimed at small/mid-sized organizations.

    How the program works

    • The threshold to be able to purchase from the VPP program is 250 points minimum, equivalent to $25,000.
    • Discounts attained can only be applied to license purchases. They do not apply to service and support/renewals. Discounts range from 4% to 12%.
    • For the large majority of products 1 VPP point = ~$100.
      • Point values will be the same globally.
      • Point ratios may vary over time as SKUs are changed.
      • Points are valid for two years.

    Benefits

    • Budget predictability for two years.
    • Simple license purchase process.
    • Receive points on qualifying purchases that accumulate over a rolling eight-quarter period.
    • Online portal for tracking purchases and eligible discounts.
    • Global program where affiliates can purchase from existing contract.

    VPP Point & Discount Table

    Level

    Point Range

    Discount

    1

    250-599

    4%

    2

    600-999

    6%

    3

    1,000-1,749

    9%

    4

    1,750+

    12%

    Source: VMware Volume Purchasing Program

    1.2.2 Activity VPP Transactional Purchase Tool

    1-3 hours

    Instructions:

    1. Use the tool to analyze the cost breakdown and discount based on your Volume Purchasing Program level.
    2. On tab 1, Enter SnS install base renewal units and or new license details.
    3. Review tab 2 for Purchase summary.

    The image contains a screenshot of the VPP Transactional Purchase Tool.

    Input Output
    • SnS renewal details
    • New license requirements and pricing
    • Transaction purchase summary
    • Estimated VPP purchase level
    Materials Participants
    • Current VMware purchase orders
    • Any SnS renewal requirements
    • Transaction Purchase Tool
    • Procurement
    • Vendor Management
    • Licensing Admin

    Download the VPP Transactional Purchase Tool

    1.3 Evaluate agreement options

    Introduction to EPP and ELA

    What to know when using a token/credit-based agreement.

    Token/credit-based agreements carry high risk as customers are purchasing a set number of tokens/credits to be redeemed during the ELA term for licenses.

    • Tokens/credits that are not used during the ELA term expire and become worthless.
    • By default in most agreements (negotiation dependent), tokens/credits are tied to pricing maintained by VMware on its website that is subject to change (increase usually), resulting in a reduced value for the tokens/credits.
      • Therefore, it is necessary to negotiate to have current list prices for all products/versions included in the ELA to prevent price increases while in the current ELA term.
    • Token-based agreements may come with a lower overall discount level as VMware is granting more flexibility in terms of the wider product selection offered, vendor cost of overhead to manage the redemption program, currency exchange risks, and more complex revenue recognition headaches.

    1.3.1 The Enterprise Purchasing Program (EPP)

    This is aimed at mid-tier customers looking for flexibility with deeper discounting.

    How the program works

    • Token-based program in which tokens are redeemed for licenses and/or SnS.
      • Tokens can be added at any time to active fund.
      • Token usage is automatically tracked and reported.
    • Minimum order of 2,500 tokens, equivalent to $250,000 (1 token=$100).
      • Exceptions have been made, allowing for lower minimum spends.
    • Restricted to specific regions, not a global agreement.
    • Self-service portal for access to license keys and support entitlements.
    • Deeper discounting than the VMware Volume Purchase Program.
    • EPP initial purchase gets VPP L4 for four years.

    Benefits

    • Able to mix and match VMware products, manage licenses, and adjust deployment strategy.
    • Prices are protected for term of the EPP agreement.
    • Number of tokens needed to obtain a product or SnS are negotiated at the start of the contract and fixed for the term.
    • SnS is co-termed to the EPP term.
    • Ability to purchase new products that become available at a future date and are listed on the EPP Eligibility Matrix.

    EPP Level & Point Table

    Level

    Point Range

    7

    2,500-3,499

    8

    3,500-4,499

    9

    4,500-5,999

    10

    6,000+

    Source: VMware Volume Purchasing Program

    1.3.2 The ELA is aimed at large global organizations, offering the deepest discounts with operational benefits and flexibility

    What is an ELA?

    • The ELA agreement provides the best vehicle for global enterprises to obtain maximum discounts and price-hold protection for a set period of time. Discounts and price holds are removed once an ELA has expired.
    • The ELA minimum spend previously was $500,000. Purchase volume now generally starts at $250K total spend with exceptions and, depending on VMware, it may be possible to attain for $150K in net-new license spend.

    Key things to know

    • Customers pay up front for license and SnS rights, but depending on the deployment plans, the value of the licenses is not realized and/or recognized for up to two years after point of purchase.
    • License and SnS is paid up front for a three-year period in most ELAs, although a one- or two-year term can be negotiated.
    • Licenses not deployed in year one should be discounted in value and drive a re-evaluation of the ELA ROI, as even heavily discounted licenses that are not used until year three may not be such a great deal in retrospect.
      • Use a time value of money calculation to arrive at a realistic ROI.
      • Partner with Finance and Accounting to ensure the ROI also clears any Internal Hurdle Rate (IHR).
      • Share and strategically position your IHR with VMware and resellers to ensure they understand the minimum value an ELA deal must bring to the table.
    • Organizational changes, such as merger, acquisition, and divestiture (MAD) activities, may result in the customer paying for license rights that can no longer be used and/or require a renegotiated ELA.

    Info-Tech Insight

    If a legacy ELA exists that has “deploy or lose” language, engage VMware to recapture any lost license rights as VMware has changed this language effective with 2016 agreements and there is an “appeals” process for affected customers.

    1.3.3 Select the best ELA variant to match your specific demand profile and financial needs

    The advantages of an ELA are:

    • Maximum discount level + price protection
    • SnS discounted at % of net license fee
    • Sole option for global use territory rights

    General disadvantages are:

    • Term lock-in with SnS for three years
    • Pay up front and if defer usage, ROI drops
    • Territory rights priced at a premium versus domestic use rights

    Type of ELAs

    ELA Type

    Description

    Pros and Cons

    Capped (max quantities)

    Used to purchase a specific quantity and type of license.

    Pro – Clarity on what will be purchased

    Pro – Lower risk of over licensing

    Con – Requires accurate forecasting

    All you can eat or unlimited

    Used to purchase access to specified products that can be deployed in unlimited quantities during the ELA term.

    Pro – Acquire large quantity of licenses

    Pro – Accurate forecasting not critical

    Con – Deployment can easily exceed forecast, leading to high renewal costs

    Burn-down

    A form of capped ELA purchase that uses prepaid tokens that can be used more flexibly to acquire a variety of licenses or services. This can include the hybrid purchasing program (HPP) credits. However, the percentage redeemable for VMware subscription services may be limited to 10% of the MSRP value of the HPP credit.

    Pro – Accurate demand forecast not critical

    Pro – Can be used for products and services

    Con – Unused tokens or credits are forfeited

    True-up

    Allows for additional purchases during the ELA term on a determined schedule based on the established ELA pricing.

    Pro – Consumption payments matched after initial purchase

    Pro – Accurate demand forecast not critical

    Con – Potentially requires transaction throughout term

    1.4 Purchase and manage licenses

    Negotiating ELA terms and conditions

    Editable copies of VMware’s license and governance documentation are a requirement to initiate the dialogue and negotiation process over T&Cs.

    VMware’s licensing is complex and although documentation is publicly available, it is often hidden on VMware’s website.

    Many VMware customers often overlook reviewing the license T&Cs, leaving them open to compliance risks.

    It is imperative for customers to understand:

    • Product definition for licensing of each acquired product
    • Products included by bundle
    • Use restrictions:
      • The VMware Product Guide, which includes information about:
        • ELA Order Forms, Amendments, Exhibits, EULA, Support T&Cs, and other policies that add dozens of pages to a contractual agreement.
        • All of these documents are web based and can change monthly; URL links in the contract do not take the user to the actual document but a landing page from which customers must find the applicable documents.
      • Obtain copies of ALL current documents at the time of your order and keep as a reference in the CLM and SAM systems.

    Build in time to obtain, review, and negotiate these documents (easily weeks to months).

    1.4.1 Negotiating ELA terms and conditions specifics

    License and Deployment

    • Review perpetual use rights for all licenses purchased under the ELA (exception being subscription services).
    • Carefully scrutinize contract language for clearly defined deployment rights.
      • Some agreements contain language that terminates the use rights for licenses not deployed by the end of the ELA term.
    • While older contracts would frequently contain clearly defined token values and product prices for the ELA term, VMware has moved away from this process and now refers to URL links for current MSRP pricing.

    Use Rights

    • The customer’s legal entities and territories listed in the contract are hard limits on the license usage via the VMware Product Guide definitions. Global use rights are not a standard license grant with VMware license agreement by default. Global rights are usually tied to an ELA.
    • VMware audits most aggressively against violations of territory use rights and will use the non-compliance events to resolve the issue via a commercial transaction.
      • Negotiate for assignment rights with no strings attached in terms of fees or multi-party consent by future affiliates or successors to a surviving entity.
    • Extraordinary Corporate Transaction clause: VMware’s standard language prevents customers from using licenses within the ELA for any third party that becomes part of customer’s business by way of acquisition, merger, consolidation, change of control, reorganization, or other similar transaction.
      • Request VMware to drop this language.
    • Include any required language pertaining to MAD events as default language will not allow for transfer or assignment of license rights.

    Checklist of necessary information to negotiate the best deal

    Product details that go beyond the sales pitch

    • Product family
    • Unique product SKU for license renewal
    • Part description
    • Current regional or global price list
    • One and three-year proposal for SnS renewals including new license and SnS detail
    • SnS term dates
    • Discount or offered prices for all line items (global pricing is generally ~20% higher than US pricing)

    Different support levels (e.g. basic, enterprise, per incident)

    • Standard pricing:
      • Basic Support = 21% of current list price (12x5)
      • Production Support = 25% of current list price (24x7 for severity 1 issues) – defined in VMware Support and Subscription Services T&Cs; non-severity 1 issues are 12x5

    Details to ensure the product being purchased matches the business needs

    • Realizing after the fact the product is insufficient with respect to functional requirements or that extra spend is required can be frustrating and extend expected timelines

    SnS renewals pricing is based on the (1) year SnS list price

    • This can be bundled for a multi-year discounted SnS rate (can result in 12%+ under VPP)

    Governing agreements, VPP program details

    • Have a printed copy of documents that are URL links, which VMware can change, allowing for surprises or unexpected changes in rules

    1.4.2 Activity VMware ELA Analysis Tool

    2-4 hours

    Instructions:

    1. As a group, review the various RFQ responses. Identify top three proposals and start to enter proposal details into the VPP Prepay or ELA tabs of the analysis tool.
    2. Review savings in the ELA Offer Analysis tab.

    The image contains screenshots of the VMware ELA Analysis Tool.

    Input Output
    • RFQ requirements data
    • RFQ response data
    • Analysis of ELA proposals
    • ELA savings analysis
    Materials Participants
    • RFQ response documents
    • ELA Analysis Tool
    • IT Leadership
    • Procurement
    • Vendor Management

    Download the VMware ELA Analysis Tool

    1.4.3 Negotiating ELA terms and conditions specifics: pricing, renewal, and exit

    VMware does not offer price protection on future license consumption by default.

    Securing “out years” pricing for SnS or the cost of SnS is critical or it will default to a set percentage (25%) of MSRP, removing the ELA discount.

    Typically, the out year is one year; maximum is two years.

    Negotiate the “go forward” SnS pricing post-ELA term as part of the ELA negotiations when you have some leverage.

    Default after (1) out year is to rise to 25% of current MSRP versus as low as 20% of net license price within the ELA.

    Carefully incorporate the desired installed-base licenses that were acquired pre-ELA into the agreement, but ensure unwanted licenses are removed.

    Ancillary but binding support policies, online terms and conditions, and other hyperlinked documentation should be negotiated and incorporated as part of the agreement whenever possible.

    1.4.4 Find the best reseller partner

    Seek out a qualified VMware partner that will work with you and with your interest as a priority:

    1. Resellers, at minimum, should have achieved an enterprise-level rating, as these partners can offer the deepest discounts and have more clout with VMware.
    2. Select your reseller prior to engaging in any RFX acquisition steps. Verify they are enterprise level or higher AND secure their written commitment to maximum pass-through of the discounting provided to them by VMware.
    3. Document and prioritize key T&Cs for your ELA and submit to your sales team along with a requirement and timeline for their formal response. Essentially, this escalates outside of the VMware process and disrupts the status quo. Ideally this will occur in advance of being presented a contract by VMware and be pre-emptive in nature.
    4. If applicable and of benefit or a high priority, seek out a reseller that is willing to finance the VMware upfront payment cost at a low or no interest rate.
    5. It will be important to have ELA-level deals escalated to higher levels of authority to obtain “best in class” discount levels, above and beyond those prescribed in the VMware sales playbook.
    6. VMware’s standard process is to “route” customers through a pre-defined channel and “deal desk” process. Preferred pricing of up to an additional 10% discount is reserved for the first reseller that registers the deal with VMware, with larger discounts reserved for the Enterprise and Premium partners. Additional discounts can be earned if the deal closes within specified time periods (First Deal Registration).

    1.4.5 Activity VMware ELA RFQ Template

    1-3 hours

    Use this tool for as a template for an RFQ with VMware ELA contracts.

    1. For SnS renewals that contain no new licenses, state that the requirement for award consideration is the provisioning of all details for each itemized SnS renewal product code corresponding to all the licenses of your installed base. The details for the renewals are to be placed in Section 1 of the template.
    2. SnS Renewal Options: Info-Tech recommends that you ask for one- and three-year SnS renewal proposals, assuming these terms are realistic for your business requirements. Then compare your SnS BAU costs for these two options against ELA offers to determine the best choice for your renewal.

    The image contains a screenshot of the VMware ELA RFQ Template.

    Input Output
    • Renewing SnS data
    • Agreement type options
    • Detailed list of required licenses
    • Summary list of SnS requirements
    Materials Participants
    • RFQ Template
    • SnS renewal summary
    • New license/subscription details
    • IT Leadership
    • Vendor Management
    • Procurement

    Download the VMware ELA RFQ Template

    1.4.6 Consider your path forward

    Consider your route forward as contract commitments, license compliance, and terms and conditions differ in structure to perpetual models previously used.

    • Are you able to accurately discover VMware licensing within your environment?
    • Is licensing managed for compliance? Are internal audits conducted so you have accurate results?
    • Have the product use rights been examined for terms and conditions such as geographic rights? Some T&Cs may change over time due to hyperlinked references within commercial documents.
    • How are Oracle and SQL being used within your VMware environment? This may affect license compliance with Oracle and Microsoft in virtualized environments.
    • Prepare for the Subscription model; it’s here now and will be the lead discussion with all VMware reps going forward.

    Shift to Subscription

    1. With the $64bn takeover by Broadcom, there will be a significant shift and pressure to the subscription model.
    2. Broadcom has significant growth targets for its VMware acquisition that can only be achieved through a strong press to a SaaS model.

    Info-Tech Insight

    VMware has a license cost calculator and additional licensing documents that can be used to help determine what spend should be.

    Phase # 2

    Transition to the VMware Cloud

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    1.1 Establish licensing requirements

    1.2 Evaluate licensing options

    1.3 Evaluate agreement options

    1.4 Purchase and manage licenses

    2.1 Understand the VMware subscription model

    2.2 Migrate workloads and licenses

    2.3 Discuss the VMware sales approach

    2.4 Manage SnS and cloud subscriptions

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Understand the VMware licensing model
    • Understand the license agreement options
    • Understand the VMware sales approach

    This phase will take you thorough:

    • The new VMware subscription movement to the cloud
    • How to prepare and migrate
    • Manage your subscriptions efficiently

    2.1 Understand the VMware subscription model

    VMware Cloud Universal

    • VMware Cloud Universal unifies compute, network, and storage capabilities across infrastructures, management, and applications.
    • Take advantage of financial and cloud management flexibility by combining on-premises and SaaS capabilities for automation, operations, log analytics, and network visibility across your infrastructure.
    • Capitalize on VMware knowledge by integrating proven migration methods and plans across your transformation journey such as consumption strategies, business outcome workshops, and more.
    • Determine your eligibility to earn a one-time discount with this exclusive benefit designed to offset the value of your current unamortized VMware on-premises license investments and then reallocate toward your multi-cloud initiatives.

    2.2 Migrate workloads and licenses to the cloud

    There are several cloud migration options and solutions to consider.

    • VMware Cloud offers solutions that can provide a low-cost path to the cloud that will help accelerate modernization.
    • There are also many third-party solution providers who can be engaged to migrate workloads and other infrastructure to VMware Cloud and into other public cloud providers.
    • VMware Cloud can be deployed on many IaaS providers such as AWS, Azure, Google, Dell, and IBM.

    VMware Cloud Assist

    1. Leverage all available transition funding opportunities and any IaaS migration incentives from VMware.
    2. Learn and understand the value and capabilities of VMware vRealize Cloud Universal to help you transition and manage hybrid infrastructure.

    2.2.1 Manage your VMware cloud subscriptions

    Use VMware vRealize to manage private, public, and local environments.

    Combine SaaS and on-premises capabilities for automation, operations, log analytics, network visibility, security, and compliance into one license.

    The image contains a screenshot of a diagram to demonstrate VMware cloud subscriptions.

    2.3 The VMware sales approach

    Understand the pitch before entering the discussion

    1. VMware will present a PowerPoint presentation proposal comparing a Business-as-Usual (BAU) scenario versus the ELA model.
    2. Critical factors to consider if considering the proposed ELA are growth rate projections, deployment schedule, cost of non-ELA products/options, shelf-ware, and non-ELA discounts (e.g. VPP, multi-year, or pre-paid).
    3. Involving VMware’s direct account team along with your reseller in the negotiations can be beneficial. Keep in mind that VMware ultimately decides on the final price in terms of the discount that is passed through. Ensure you have a clear line of sight into how pricing is determined.
    4. Explore reseller incentives and promotional programs that may provide for deeper than normal discount opportunities.

    INFO-TECH TIP: Create your own assumptions as inputs into the BAU model and then evaluate the ELA value proposition instead of depending on VMware’s model.

    2.4 Manage SnS and cloud subscriptions

    The new subscription model is making SnS renewal more complex.

    • Start renewal planning four to six months prior to anniversary.
    • Work closely with your reseller on your SnS renewal options.
    • Request “as is” versus subscription renewal proposal from reseller or VMware with a “savings” component.
    • Consider and review multi-year versus annual renewal; savings will differ.
    • For the Subscription transition renewal model, ensure that credits for legacy licensing is provided.
    • Negotiate cloud transition investments and incentives from VMware.

    What information to collect and how to analyze it

    • Negotiating toward preferred terms on SnS is critical, more so than when new license purchases are made, as approximately 75-80% of server virtualization are at x86 workloads, where maintenance revenue is a larger source of revenue for VMware than new license sales.
    • All relevant license and SnS details must be obtained from VMware to include Product Family, Part Description, Product Code (SKU), Regional/Global List Price, SnS Term Dates, and Discount Price for all new licenses.
    • VMware has all costs tied to the US dollar; you must calculate currency conversion into ROI models as VMware does not adjust token values of products across geographies or currency of purchase. The token to dollar value by product SKU is locked for the three-year term. This translates into a variable cost model depending on how local currency fluctuates against the US dollar; time the initial purchase to take this into consideration, if applicable.
    • Products purchased based on MSRP price with each token contains a value of US$100. Under the Hybrid Purchasing Program (HPP) credit values and associated buying power will fluctuate over the term as VMware reserves the right to adjust current list prices. Consider locking in a set product list and pricing versus HPP.
    • Take a structured approach to discover true discounts via the use of a tailored RFQ template and options model to compare and contrast VMware ELA proposals.

    Use Info-Tech Research Group’s customized RFQ template to discover true discount levels and model various purchase options for VMware ELA proposals.

    The image contains a screenshot of the VMware RFQ Template Tool.

    Summary of accomplishment

    Knowledge Gained

    • The key pieces of licensing information that should be gathered about the current state of your own organization.
    • An in-depth understanding of the required licenses across all of your products.
    • Clear methodology for selecting the most effective contract type.
    • Development of measurable, relevant metrics to help track future project success and identify areas of strength and weakness within your licensing program.

    Processes Optimized

    • Senior leaders in IT now have a clear understanding of the importance of licensing in relation to business objectives.
    • Understanding of the various licensing considerations that need to be made.
    • Contract negotiation.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Prepare for Negotiations More Effectively

    • IT budgets are increasing, but many CIOs feel their budgets are inadequate to accomplish what is being asked of them.
    • Eighty percent of organizations don’t have a mature, repeatable, scalable negotiation process.
    • Training dollars on negotiations are often wasted or ineffective.

    Price Benchmarking & Negotiation

    You need to achieve an objective assessment of vendor pricing in your IT contracts, but you have limited knowledge about:

    • Current price benchmarking on the vendor.
    • Pricing and negotiation intelligence.
    • How to secure a market-competitive price.
    • Vendor pricing tiers, models, and negotiation tactics.

    VMware vRealize Cloud Management

    VMware vCloud Suite is an integrated offering that brings together VMware’s industry-leading vSphere hypervisor and VMware vRealize Suite multi-vendor hybrid cloud management platform. VMware’s new portable licensing units allow vCloud Suite to build and manage both vSphere-based private clouds and multi-vendor hybrid clouds.

    Bibliography

    Barrett, Alex. “vSphere and vCenter licensing and pricing explained -- a VMware license guide.” TechTarget, July 2010. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Bateman, Kayleigh. “VMware licensing, pricing and features mini guide.” Computer Weekly, May 2011. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Blaisdell, Rick. “What Are The Common Business Challenges The VMware Sector Faces At This Point In Time?” CIO Review, n.d. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    COMPAREX. “VMware Licensing Program.” COMPAREX, n.d. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Couesbot, Erwann. “Using VMware? Oracle customers hate this licensing pitfall.” UpperEdge, 17 October 2016. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Crayon. “VMware Licensing Programs.” Crayon, n.d. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Datanyze." Virtualization Software Market Share.” Datanyze, n.d. Web.
    Demers, Tom. “Top 18 Tips & Quotes on the Challenges & Future of VMware Licensing.” ProfitBricks, 1 September 2015. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Fenech, J. “A quick look at VMware vSphere Editions and Licensing.” VMware Hub by Altaro, 17 May 2017. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Flexera. “Challenges of VMware Licensing.” Flexera, n.d. Accessed 5 February 2018.
    Fraser, Paris. “A Guide for VMware Licensing.” Sovereign, 11 October 2016. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Haag, Michael. “IDC Data Shows vSAN is the Largest Share of Total HCI Spending.” VMware Blogs, 1 December 2017. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Kealy, Victoria. “VMware Licensing Quick Guide 2015.” The ITAM Review, 17 December 2015. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Kirsch, Brian. “A VMware licensing guide to expanding your environment.” TechTarget, August 2017. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Kirupananthan, Arun. “5 reasons to get VMware licensing right.” Softchoice, 16 April 2018. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Knorr, Eric. “VMware on AWS: A one-way ticket to the cloud.” InfoWorld, 17 October 2016. Accessed 7 May 2018
    Leipzig. “Help, an audit! License audits by VMware. Are you ready?” COMPAREX Group, 2 May 2016. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Mackie, Kurt. “VMware Rips Microsoft for Azure “Bare Metal” Migration Solution.” Redmond Magazine, 27 November 2017. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Micromail. “VMware vSphere Software Licensing.” Micromail, n.d. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Microsoft Corportation. “Migrating VMware to Microsoft Azure” Microsoft Azure, November 2017. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Peter. “Server Virtualization and OS Trends.” Spiceworks, 30 August 2016. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Rich. “VMware running on Azure.” The ITAM Review, 28 November 2017. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Robb, Drew. “Everything you need to know about VMware’s licensing shake up.” Softchoice, 4 March 2016. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Rose, Brendan. “How to determine which VMware licensing option is best.” Softchoice, 28 July 2015. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Scholten, Eric. “New VMware licensing explained.” VMGuru, 12 July 2011. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Sharwood, Simon. “Microsoft to run VMware on Azure, on bare metal. Repeat. Microsoft to run VMware on Azure.” The Register, 22 November 2017. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Siebert, Eric. “Top 7 VMware Management Challenges.” Veeam, n.d. Web.
    Smith, Greg. “Will The Real HCI Market Leader Please Stand Up?” Nutanix, 29 September 2017. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    Spithoven, Richard. “Licensing Oracle software in VMware vCenter 6.0.” LinkedIn, 2 May 2016. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    VMTurbo, Inc. “Licensing, Compliance & Audits in the Cloud Era.” Turbonomics, November 2015. Web.
    VMware. “Aug 1st – Dec 31st 2016 Solution Provider Program Requirements & Incentives & Rewards.” VMware, n.d. Web.
    VMware. “Global Support and Subscription Services “SnS” Renewals Policy.” VMware, n.d. Web.
    VMware. “Support Policies.” VMware, n.d. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    VMware. “VMware Cloud Community.” VMware Cloud, n.d. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    VMware. “VMware Cloud on AWS” VMware Cloud, n.d. Accessed 7 May 2018.
    VMware. “VMware Enterprise Purchasing Program.” VMware, 2013. Web.
    VMware. “VMware Product Guide.” VMware, May 2018. Web.
    VMware. “VMware Volume Purchasing Program.” VMware, April 2019. Web.
    VMware. "VMware Case Studies." VMware, n.d. Web.
    Wiens, Rob. “VMware Enterprise Licensing – What You Need To Know. House of Brick, 14 April 2017. Accessed 7 May 2018

    Enhance PPM Dashboards and Reports

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    • Parent Category Name: Portfolio Management
    • Parent Category Link: /portfolio-management
    • Your organization has introduced project portfolio management (PPM) processes that require new levels of visibility into the project portfolio that were not required before.
    • Key PPM decision makers are requesting new or improved dashboards and reports to help support making difficult decisions.
    • Often PPM dashboards and reports provide too much information and are difficult to navigate, resulting in information overload and end-user disengagement.
    • PPM dashboards and reports are laborious to maintain; ineffective dashboards end up wasting scarce resources, delay decisions, and negatively impact the perceived value of the PMO.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Well-designed dashboards and reports help actively engage stakeholders in effective management of the project portfolio by communicating information and providing support to key PPM decision makers. This tends to improve PPM performance, making resource investments into reporting worthwhile.
    • Observations and insights gleaned from behavioral studies and cognitive sciences (largely ignored in PPM literature) can help PMOs design dashboards and reports that avoid information overload and that provide targeted decision support to key PPM decision makers.

    Impact and Result

    • Enhance your PPM dashboards and reports by carrying out a carefully designed enhancement project. Start by clarifying the purpose of PPM dashboards and reports. Establish a focused understanding of PPM decision-support needs, and design dashboards and reports to address these in a targeted way.
    • Conduct a thorough review of all existing dashboards and reports, evaluating the need, effort, usage, and satisfaction of each report to eliminate any unnecessary or ineffective dashboards and design improved dashboards and reports that will address these gaps.
    • Design effective and targeted dashboards and reports to improve the engagement of senior leaders in PPM and help improve PPM performance.

    Enhance PPM Dashboards and Reports Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

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

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

    1. Establish a PPM dashboard and reporting enhancement project plan

    Identify gaps, establish a list of dashboards and reports to enhance, and set out a roadmap for your dashboard and reporting enhancement project.

    • Enhance PPM Dashboards and Reports – Phase 1: Establish a PPM Dashboard and Reporting Enhancement Project Plan
    • PPM Decision Support Review Workbook
    • PPM Dashboard and Reporting Audit Workbook
    • PPM Dashboard and Reporting Audit Worksheets – Exisiting
    • PPM Dashboard and Reporting Audit Worksheets – Proposed
    • PPM Metrics Menu
    • PPM Dashboard and Report Enhancement Project Charter Template

    2. Design and build enhanced PPM dashboards and reporting

    Gain an understanding of how to design effective dashboards and reports.

    • Enhance PPM Dashboards and Reports – Phase 2: Design and Build New or Improved PPM Dashboards and Reporting
    • PPM Dashboard and Report Requirements Workbook
    • PPM Executive Dashboard Template
    • PPM Dashboard and Report Visuals Template
    • PPM Capacity Dashboard Operating Manual

    3. Implement and maintain effective PPM dashboards and reporting

    Officially close and evaluate the PPM dashboard and reporting enhancement project and transition to an ongoing and sustainable PPM dashboard and reporting program.

    • Enhance PPM Dashboards and Reports – Phase 3: Implement and Maintain Effective PPM Dashboards and Reporting
    • PPM Dashboard and Reporting Program Manual
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Enhance PPM Dashboards and Reports

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

    1 Establish a PPM Dashboard and Reporting Enhancement

    The Purpose

    PPM dashboards and reports will only be effective and valuable if they are designed to meet your organization’s specific needs and priorities.

    Conduct a decision-support review and a thorough dashboard and report audit to identify the gaps your project will address.

    Take advantage of the planning stage to secure sponsor and stakeholder buy-in.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Current-state assessment of satisfaction with PPM decision-making support.

    Current-state assessment of all existing dashboards and reports: effort, usage, and satisfaction.

    A shortlist of dashboards and reports to improve that is informed by actual needs and priorities.

    A shortlist of dashboards and reports to create that is informed by actual needs and priorities.

    The foundation for a purposeful and focused PPM dashboard and reporting program that is sustainable in the long term.

    Activities

    1.1 Engage in PPM decision-making review.

    1.2 Perform a PPM dashboard and reporting audit and gap analysis.

    1.3 Identify dashboards and/or reports needed.

    1.4 Plan the PPM dashboard and reporting project.

    Outputs

    PPM Decision-Making Review

    PPM Dashboard and Reporting Audit

    Prioritized list of dashboards and reports to be improved and created

    Roadmap for the PPM dashboard and reporting project

    2 Design New or Improved PPM Dashboards and Reporting

    The Purpose

    Once the purpose of each PPM dashboard and report has been identified (based on needs and priorities) it is important to establish what exactly will be required to produce the desired outputs.

    Gathering stakeholder and technical requirements will ensure that the proposed and finalized designs are realistic and sustainable in the long term.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Dashboard and report designs that are informed by a thorough analysis of stakeholder and technical requirements.

    Dashboard and report designs that are realistically sustainable in the long term.

    Activities

    2.1 Review the best practices and science behind effective dashboards and reporting.

    2.2 Gather stakeholder requirements.

    2.3 Gather technical requirements.

    2.4 Build wireframe options for each dashboard or report.

    2.5 Review options: requirements, feasibility, and usability.

    2.6 Finalize initial designs.

    2.7 Design and record the input, production, and consumption workflows and processes.

    Outputs

    List of stakeholder requirements for dashboards and reports

    Wireframe design options

    Record of the assessment of each wireframe design: requirements, feasibility, and usability

    A set of finalized initial designs for dashboards and reports.

    Process workflows for each initial design

    3 Plan to Roll Out Enhanced PPM Dashboards and Reports

    The Purpose

    Ensure that enhanced dashboards and reports are actually adopted in the long term by carefully planning their roll-out to inputters, producers, and consumers.

    Plan to train all stakeholders, including report consumers, to ensure that the reports generate the decision support and PPM value they were designed to.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    An informed, focused, and scheduled plan for rolling out dashboards and reports and for training the various stakeholders involved.

    Activities

    3.1 Plan for external resourcing (if necessary): vendors, consultants, contractors, etc.

    3.2 Conduct impact analysis: risks and opportunities.

    3.3 Create an implementation and training plan.

    3.4 Determine PPM dashboard and reporting project success metrics.

    Outputs

    External resourcing plan

    Impact analysis and risk mitigation plan

    Record of the PPM dashboard and reporting project success metrics

    Secrets of SAP S-4HANA Licensing

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    • member rating overall impact: 9.0/10 Overall Impact
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    • Parent Category Name: Vendor Management
    • Parent Category Link: /vendor-management
    • With the relatively slow uptake of the S/4HANA platform, the pressure is immense for SAP to maintain revenue growth.
    • SAP’s definitions and licensing rules are complex and vague, making it extremely difficult to purchase with confidence while remaining compliant.
    • Aggressive audit tactics may be used to speed up the move to HANA.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Mapping SAP products to HANA can be highly complex, leading to overspending and an inability to reduce future spend.
    • The deployment model chosen will directly impact commercial pathways forward.
    • Beware of digital (indirect) access licensing and compliance concerns.
    • Without having a holistic negotiation strategy, it is easy to hit a common obstacle and land into SAP’s playbook, requiring further spend.

    Impact and Result

    • Build a business case to evaluate S/4HANA.
    • Understand the S/4HANA roadmap and map current functionality to ensure compatibility.
    • Understand negotiating pricing and commercial terms.
    • Learn the “SAP way” of conducting business, which includes a best-in-class sales structure, unique contracts, and license use policies combined with a hyper-aggressive compliance function.

    Secrets of SAP S/4HANA Licensing Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should explore the secrets of SAP S/4HANA licensing, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Establish requirements

    Determining SAP’s fit within your organization is critical. Start off by building a business case to assess overarching drivers and justification for change, any net new business benefits and long-term sustainability. Oftentimes the ROI is negative, but the investment sets the stage for long-term growth.

    2. Evaluate licensing options

    Your deployment model is more important than you think. Selecting a deployment model will dictate your licensing options followed by your contractual pathways forward.

    • SAP License Summary and Analysis Tool
    • SAP Digital Access Licensing Pricing Tool

    3. Negotiation and license management

    Know what’s in the contract. Each customer agreement is different and there may be existing terms that are beneficial. Depending on how much is spent, anything can be up for negation.

    • SAP S/4HANA Terms and Conditions Evaluator
    [infographic]

    IT Strategy

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    • member rating overall impact: 9.3/10
    • member rating average dollars saved: $105,465
    • member rating average days saved: 35
    • Parent Category Name: Strategy and Governance
    • Parent Category Link: strategy-and-governance
    Success depends on IT initiatives clearly aligned to business goals.

    Mergers & Acquisitions: The Sell Blueprint

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    • Parent Category Name: IT Strategy
    • Parent Category Link: /it-strategy

    There are four key scenarios or entry points for IT as the selling/divesting organization in M&As:

    • IT can suggest a divestiture to meet the business objectives of the organization.
    • IT is brought in to strategy plan the sale/divestiture from both the business’ and IT’s perspectives.
    • IT participates in due diligence activities and complies with the purchasing organization’s asks.
    • IT needs to reactively prepare its environment to enable the separation.

    Consider the ideal scenario for your IT organization.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Divestitures are inevitable in modern business, and IT’s involvement in the process should be too. This progression is inspired by:

    • The growing trend for organizations to increase, decrease, or evolve through these types of transactions.
    • A maturing business perspective of IT, preventing the difficulty that IT is faced with when invited into the transaction process late.
    • Transactions that are driven by digital motivations, requiring IT’s expertise.
    • There never being such a thing as a true merger, making the majority of M&A activity either acquisitions or divestitures.

    Impact and Result

    Prepare for a sale/divestiture transaction by:

    • Recognizing the trend for organizations to engage in M&A activity and the increased likelihood that, as an IT leader, you will be involved in a transaction in your career.
    • Creating a standard strategy that will enable strong program management.
    • Properly considering all the critical components of the transaction and integration by prioritizing tasks that will reduce risk, deliver value, and meet stakeholder expectations.

    Mergers & Acquisitions: The Sell Blueprint Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out how your organization can excel its reduction strategy by engaging in M&A transactions. Review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Proactive Phase

    Be an innovative IT leader by suggesting how and why the business should engage in an acquisition or divestiture.

    • One-Pager: M&A Proactive
    • Case Study: M&A Proactive
    • Information Asset Audit Tool
    • Data Valuation Tool
    • Enterprise Integration Process Mapping Tool
    • Risk Register Tool
    • Security M&A Due Diligence Tool
    • Service Catalog Internal Service Level Agreement Template

    2. Discovery & Strategy

    Create a standardized approach for how your IT organization should address divestitures or sales.

    • One-Pager: M&A Discovery & Strategy – Sell
    • Case Study: M&A Discovery & Strategy – Sell

    3. Due Diligence & Preparation

    Comply with due diligence, prepare the IT environment for carve-out possibilities, and establish the separation project plan.

    • One-Pager: M&A Due Diligence & Preparation – Sell
    • Case Study: M&A Due Diligence & Preparation – Sell
    • IT Due Diligence Charter
    • IT Culture Diagnostic
    • M&A Separation Project Management Tool (SharePoint)
    • SharePoint Template: Step-by-Step Deployment Guide
    • M&A Separation Project Management Tool (Excel)

    4. Execution & Value Realization

    Deliver on the separation project plan successfully and communicate IT’s transaction value to the business.

    • One-Pager: M&A Execution & Value Realization – Sell
    • Case Study: M&A Execution & Value Realization – Sell

    Infographic

    Workshop: Mergers & Acquisitions: The Sell Blueprint

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

    1 Pre-Transaction Discovery & Strategy

    The Purpose

    Establish the transaction foundation.

    Discover the motivation for divesting or selling.

    Formalize the program plan.

    Create the valuation framework.

    Strategize the transaction and finalize the M&A strategy and approach.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    All major stakeholders are on the same page.

    Set up crucial elements to facilitate the success of the transaction.

    Have a repeatable transaction strategy that can be reused for multiple organizations.

    Activities

    1.1 Conduct the CIO Business Vision and CEO-CIO Alignment diagnostics.

    1.2 Identify key stakeholders and outline their relationship to the M&A process.

    1.3 Understand the rationale for the company's decision to pursue a divestiture or sale.

    1.4 Assess the IT/digital strategy.

    1.5 Identify pain points and opportunities tied to the divestiture/sale.

    1.6 Create the IT vision statement and mission statement and identify IT guiding principles and the transition team.

    1.7 Document the M&A governance.

    1.8 Establish program metrics.

    1.9 Create the valuation framework.

    1.10 Establish the separation strategy.

    1.11 Conduct a RACI.

    1.12 Create the communication plan.

    1.13 Prepare to assess target organizations.

    Outputs

    Business perspectives of IT

    Stakeholder network map for M&A transactions

    Business context implications for IT

    IT’s divestiture/sale strategic direction

    Governance structure

    M&A program metrics

    IT valuation framework

    Separation strategy

    RACI

    Communication plan

    Prepared to assess target organization(s)

    2 Mid-Transaction Due Diligence & Preparation

    The Purpose

    Establish the foundation.

    Discover the motivation for separation.

    Identify expectations and create the carve-out roadmap.

    Prepare and manage employees.

    Plan the separation roadmap.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    All major stakeholders are on the same page.

    Methodology identified to enable compliance during due diligence.

    Employees are set up for a smooth and successful transition.

    Separation activities are planned and assigned.

    Activities

    2.1 Gather and evaluate the stakeholders involved, M&A strategy, future-state operating model, and governance.

    2.2 Review the business rationale for the divestiture/sale.

    2.3 Establish the separation strategy.

    2.4 Create the due diligence charter.

    2.5 Create a list of IT artifacts to be reviewed in the data room.

    2.6 Create a carve-out roadmap.

    2.7 Create a service/technical transaction agreement.

    2.8 Measure staff engagement.

    2.9 Assess the current culture and identify the goal culture.

    2.10 Create employee transition and functional workplans.

    2.11 Establish the separation roadmap.

    2.12 Establish and align project metrics with identified tasks.

    2.13 Estimate integration costs.

    Outputs

    Stakeholder map

    IT strategy assessed

    IT operating model and IT governance structure defined

    Business context implications for IT

    Separation strategy

    Due diligence charter

    Data room artifacts

    Carve-out roadmap

    Service/technical transaction agreement

    Engagement assessment

    Culture assessment

    Employee transition and functional workplans

    Integration roadmap and associated resourcing

    3 Post-Transaction Execution & Value Realization

    The Purpose

    Establish the transaction foundation.

    Discover the motivation for separation.

    Plan the separation roadmap.

    Prepare employees for the transition.

    Engage in separation.

    Assess the transaction outcomes.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    All major stakeholders are on the same page.

    Separation activities are planned and assigned.

    Employees are set up for a smooth and successful transition.

    Separation strategy and roadmap are executed to benefit the organization.

    Review what went well and identify improvements to be made in future transactions.

    Activities

    3.1 Identify key stakeholders and outline their relationship to the M&A process.

    3.2 Gather and evaluate the M&A strategy, future-state operating model, and governance.

    3.3 Review the business rationale for the divestiture/sale.

    3.4 Establish the separation strategy.

    3.5 Prioritize separation tasks.

    3.6 Establish the separation roadmap.

    3.7 Establish and align project metrics with identified tasks.

    3.8 Estimate separation costs.

    3.9 Measure staff engagement.

    3.10 Assess the current culture and identify the goal culture.

    3.11 Create employee transition and functional workplans.

    3.12 Complete the separation by regularly updating the project plan.

    3.13 Assess the service/technical transaction agreement.

    3.14 Confirm separation costs.

    3.15 Review IT’s transaction value.

    3.16 Conduct a transaction and separation SWOT.

    3.17 Review the playbook and prepare for future transactions.

    Outputs

    M&A transaction team

    Stakeholder map

    IT strategy assessed

    IT operating model and IT governance structure defined

    Business context implications for IT

    Separation strategy

    Separation roadmap and associated resourcing

    Engagement assessment

    Culture assessment

    Employee transition and functional workplans

    Updated separation project plan

    Evaluated service/technical transaction agreement

    SWOT of transaction

    M&A Sell Playbook refined for future transactions

    Further reading

    Mergers & Acquisitions: The Sell Blueprint

    For IT leaders who want to have a role in the transaction process when their business is engaging in an M&A sale or divestiture.

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    Don’t wait to be invited to the M&A table, make it.

    Photo of Brittany Lutes, Research Analyst, CIO Practice, Info-Tech Research Group.
    Brittany Lutes
    Research Analyst,
    CIO Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Photo of Ibrahim Abdel-Kader, Research Analyst, CIO Practice, Info-Tech Research Group.
    Ibrahim Abdel-Kader
    Research Analyst,
    CIO Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group

    IT has always been an afterthought in the M&A process, often brought in last minute once the deal is nearly, if not completely, solidified. This is a mistake. When IT is brought into the process late, the business misses opportunities to generate value related to the transaction and has less awareness of critical risks or inaccuracies.

    To prevent this mistake, IT leadership needs to develop strong business relationships and gain respect for their innovative suggestions. In fact, when it comes to modern M&A activity, IT should be the ones suggesting potential transactions to meet business needs, specifically when it comes to modernizing the business or adopting digital capabilities.

    IT needs to stop waiting to be invited to the acquisition or divestiture table. IT needs to suggest that the table be constructed and actively work toward achieving the strategic objectives of the business.

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    There are four key scenarios or entry points for IT as the selling/divesting organization in M&As:

    • IT can suggest a divestiture to meet the business objectives of the organization.
    • IT is brought in to strategy plan the sale/divestiture from both the business’ and IT’s perspectives.
    • IT participates in due diligence activities and complies with the purchasing organization’s asks.
    • IT needs to reactively prepare its environment to enable the separation.

    Consider the ideal scenario for your IT organization.

    Common Obstacles

    Some of the obstacles IT faces include:

    • IT is often told about the transaction once the deal has already been solidified and is now forced to meet unrealistic business demands.
    • The business does not trust IT and therefore does not approach IT to define value or reduce risks to the transaction process.
    • The people and culture element is forgotten or not given adequate priority.

    These obstacles often arise when IT waits to be invited into the transaction process and misses critical opportunities.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    Prepare for a sale/divestiture transaction by:

    • Recognizing the trend for organizations to engage in M&A activity and the increased likelihood that, as an IT leader, you will be involved in a transaction in your career.
    • Creating a standard strategy that will enable strong program management.
    • Properly considering all the critical components of the transaction and integration by prioritizing tasks that will reduce risk, deliver value, and meet stakeholder expectations.

    Info-Tech Insight

    As the number of merger, acquisition, and divestiture transactions continues to increase, so too does IT’s opportunity to leverage the growing digital nature of these transactions and get involved at the onset.

    The changing M&A landscape

    Businesses will embrace more digital M&A transactions in the post-pandemic world

    • When the pandemic occurred, businesses reacted by either pausing (61%) or completely cancelling (46%) deals that were in the mid-transaction state (Deloitte, 2020). The uncertainty made many organizations consider whether the risks would be worth the potential benefits.
    • However, many organizations quickly realized the pandemic is not a hindrance to M&A transactions but an opportunity. Over 16,000 American companies were involved in M&A transactions in the first six months of 2021 (The Economist). For reference, this had been averaging around 10,000 per six months from 2016 to 2020.
    • In addition to this transaction growth, organizations have increasingly been embracing digital. These trends increase the likelihood that, as an IT leader, you will engage in an M&A transaction. However, it is up to you when you get involved in the transactions.

    The total value of transactions in the year after the pandemic started was $1.3 billion – a 93% increase in value compared to before the pandemic. (Nasdaq)

    71% of technology companies anticipate that divestitures will take place as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. (EY, 2020)

    Your challenge

    IT is often not involved in the M&A transaction process. When it is, it’s often too late.

    • The most important driver of an acquisition is the ability to access new technology (DLA Piper), and yet 50% of the time, IT isn’t involved in the M&A transaction at all (IMAA Institute, 2017).
    • Additionally, IT’s lack of involvement in the process negatively impacts the business:
      • Most organizations (60%) do not have a standardized approach to integration (Steeves and Associates), let alone separation.
      • Two-thirds of the time, the divesting organization and acquiring organization will either fail together or succeed together (McKinsey, 2015).
      • Less than half (47%) of organizations actually experience the positive results sought by the M&A transaction (Steeves and Associates).
    • Organizations pursuing M&A and not involving IT are setting themselves up for failure.

    Only half of M&A deals involve IT (Source: IMAA Institute, 2017)

    Common Obstacles

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

    • IT is rarely afforded the opportunity to participate in the transaction deal. When IT is invited, this often happens later in the process where separation will be critical to business continuity.
    • IT has not had the opportunity to demonstrate that it is a valuable business partner in other business initiatives.
    • One of the most critical elements that IT often doesn’t take the time or doesn’t have the time to focus on is the people and leadership component.
    • IT waits to be invited to the process rather then actively involving themselves and suggesting how value can be added to the process.

    In hindsight, it’s clear to see: Involving IT is just good business.

    47% of senior leaders wish they would have spent more time on IT due diligence to prevent value erosion. (Source: IMAA Institute, 2017)

    “Solutions exist that can save well above 50 percent on divestiture costs, while ensuring on-time delivery.” (Source: SNP)

    Info-Tech's approach

    Acquisitions & Divestitures Framework

    Acquisitions and divestitures are inevitable in modern business, and IT’s involvement in the process should be too. This progression is inspired by:

    1. The growing trend for organizations to increase, decrease, or evolve through these types of transactions.
    2. Transactions that are driven by digital motivations, requiring IT’s expertise.
    3. A maturing business perspective of IT, preventing the difficulty that IT is faced with when invited into the transaction process late.
    4. There never being such a thing as a true merger, making the majority of M&A activity either acquisitions or divestitures.
    A diagram highlighting the 'IT Executives' Role in Acquisitions and Divestitures' when they are integrated at different points in the 'Core Business Timeline'. There are four main entry points 'Proactive', 'Discovery and Strategy', 'Due Diligence and Preparation', and 'Execution and Value Realized'. It is highlighted that IT can and should start at 'Proactive', but most organizations start at 'Execution and Value Realized'. 'Proactive': suggest opportunities to evolve the organization; prove IT's value and engage in growth opportunities early. Innovators start here. Steps of the business timeline in 'Proactive' are 'Organization strategies are defined' and 'M and A is considered to enable strategy'. After a buy or sell transaction is initiated is 'Discovery and Strategy': pre-transaction state. If it is a Buy transaction, 'Establish IT's involvement and approach'. If it is a Sell transaction, 'Prepare to engage in negotiations'. Business Partners start here. Steps of the business timeline in 'Discovery and Strategy' are 'Searching criteria is set', 'Potential candidates are considered', and 'LOI is sent/received'. 'Due Diligence and Preparation': mid-transaction state. If it is a Buy transaction, 'Identify potential transaction benefits and risks'. If it is a Sell transaction, 'Comply, communicate, and collaborate in transaction'. Trusted Operators start here. Steps of the business timeline in 'Due Diligence and Preparation' are 'Due diligence engagement occurs', 'Final agreement is reached', and 'Preparation for transaction execution occurs'. 'Execution and Value Realization': post-transaction state. If it is a Buy transaction, 'Integrate the IT environments and achieve business value'. If it is a Sell transaction, 'Separate the IT environment and deliver on transaction terms'. Firefighters start here. Steps of the business timeline in 'Execution and Value Realization' are 'Staff and operations are addressed appropriately', 'Day 1 of implementation and integration activities occurs', '1st 100 days of new entity state occur' and 'Ongoing risk mitigating and value creating activities occur'.

    The business’ view of IT will impact how soon IT can get involved

    There are four key entry points for IT

    A colorful visualization of the four key entry points for IT and a fifth not-so-key entry point. Starting from the top: 'Innovator', Information and Technology as a Competitive Advantage, 90% Satisfaction; 'Business Partner', Effective Delivery of Strategic Business Projects, 80% Satisfaction; 'Trusted Operator', Enablement of Business Through Application and Work Orders, 70% Satisfaction; 'Firefighter', Reliable Infrastructure and IT Service Desk, 60% Satisfaction; and then 'Unstable', Inability to Consistently Deliver Basic Services, <60% Satisfaction.
    1. Innovator: IT suggests a sale or divestiture to meet the business objectives of the organization.
    2. Business Partner: IT is brought in to strategy plan the sale/divestiture from both the business’ and IT’s perspective.
    3. Trusted Operator: IT participates in due diligence activities and complies with the purchasing organization’s asks.
    4. Firefighter: IT needs to reactively prepare its environment in order to enable the separation.

    Merger, acquisition, and divestiture defined

    Merger

    A merger looks at the equal combination of two entities or organizations. Mergers are rare in the M&A space, as the organizations will combine assets and services in a completely equal 50/50 split. Two organizations may also choose to divest business entities and merge as a new company.

    Acquisition

    The most common transaction in the M&A space, where an organization will acquire or purchase another organization or entities of another organization. This type of transaction has a clear owner who will be able to make legal decisions regarding the acquired organization.

    Divestiture

    An organization may decide to sell partial elements of a business to an acquiring organization. They will separate this business entity from the rest of the organization and continue to operate the other components of the business.

    Info-Tech Insight

    A true merger does not exist, as there is always someone initiating the discussion. As a result, most M&A activity falls into acquisition or divestiture categories.

    Selling vs. buying

    The M&A process approach differs depending on whether you are the selling or buying organization

    This blueprint is only focused on the sell side:

    • Examples of sell-related scenarios include:
      • Your organization is selling to another organization with the intent of keeping its regular staff, operations, and location. This could mean minimal separation is required.
      • Your organization is selling to another organization with the intent of separating to be a part of the purchasing organization.
      • Your organization is engaging in a divestiture with the intent of:
        • Separating components to be part of the purchasing organization permanently.
        • Separating components to be part of a spinoff and establish a unit as a standalone new company.
    • As the selling organization, you could proactively seek out suitors to purchase all or components of your organization, or you could be approached by an organization.

    The buy side is focused on:

    • More than two organizations could be involved in a transaction.
    • Examples of buy-related scenarios include:
      • Your organization is buying another organization with the intent of having the purchased organization keep its regular staff, operations, and location. This could mean minimal integration is required.
      • Your organization is buying another organization in its entirety with the intent of integrating it into your original company.
      • Your organization is buying components of another organization with the intent of integrating them into your original company.
    • As the purchasing organization, you will probably be initiating the purchase and thus will be valuating the selling organization during due diligence and leading the execution plan.

    For more information on acquisitions or purchases, check out Info-Tech’s Mergers & Acquisitions: The Buy Blueprint.

    Core business timeline

    For IT to be valuable in M&As, you need to align your deliverables and your support to the key activities the business and investors are working on.

    Info-Tech’s methodology for Selling Organizations in Mergers, Acquisitions, or Divestitures

    1. Proactive

    2. Discovery & Strategy

    3. Due Diligence & Preparation

    4. Execution & Value Realization

    Phase Steps

    1. Identify Stakeholders and Their Perspective of IT
    2. Assess IT’s Current Value and Future State
    3. Drive Innovation and Suggest Growth Opportunities
    1. Establish the M&A Program Plan
    2. Prepare IT to Engage in the Separation or Sale
    1. Engage in Due Diligence and Prepare Staff
    2. Prepare to Separate
    1. Execute the Transaction
    2. Reflection and Value Realization

    Phase Outcomes

    Be an innovative IT leader by suggesting how and why the business should engage in an acquisition or divestiture.

    Create a standardized approach for how your IT organization should address divestitures or sales.

    Comply with due diligence, prepare the IT environment for carve-out possibilities, and establish the separation project plan.

    Deliver on the separation project plan successfully and communicate IT’s transaction value to the business.

    Metrics for each phase

    1. Proactive

    2. Discovery & Strategy

    3. Valuation & Due Diligence

    4. Execution & Value Realization

    • % Share of business innovation spend from overall IT budget
    • % Critical processes with approved performance goals and metrics
    • % IT initiatives that meet or exceed value expectation defined in business case
    • % IT initiatives aligned with organizational strategic direction
    • % Satisfaction with IT's strategic decision-making abilities
    • $ Estimated business value added through IT-enabled innovation
    • % Overall stakeholder satisfaction with IT
    • % Percent of business leaders that view IT as an Innovator
    • % IT budget as a percent of revenue
    • % Assets that are not allocated
    • % Unallocated software licenses
    • # Obsolete assets
    • % IT spend that can be attributed to the business (chargeback or showback)
    • % Share of CapEx of overall IT budget
    • % Prospective organizations that meet the search criteria
    • $ Total IT cost of ownership (before and after M&A, before and after rationalization)
    • % Business leaders that view IT as a Business Partner
    • % Defects discovered in production
    • $ Cost per user for enterprise applications
    • % In-house-built applications vs. enterprise applications
    • % Owners identified for all data domains
    • # IT staff asked to participate in due diligence
    • Change to due diligence
    • IT budget variance
    • Synergy target
    • % Satisfaction with the effectiveness of IT capabilities
    • % Overall end-customer satisfaction
    • $ Impact of vendor SLA breaches
    • $ Savings through cost-optimization efforts
    • $ Savings through application rationalization and technology standardization
    • # Key positions empty
    • % Frequency of staff turnover
    • % Emergency changes
    • # Hours of unplanned downtime
    • % Releases that cause downtime
    • % Incidents with identified problem record
    • % Problems with identified root cause
    • # Days from problem identification to root cause fix
    • % Projects that consider IT risk
    • % Incidents due to issues not addressed in the security plan
    • # Average vulnerability remediation time
    • % Application budget spent on new build/buy vs. maintenance (deferred feature implementation, enhancements, bug fixes)
    • # Time (days) to value realization
    • % Projects that realized planned benefits
    • $ IT operational savings and cost reductions that are related to synergies/divestitures
    • % IT staff–related expenses/redundancies
    • # Days spent on IT separation
    • $ Accurate IT budget estimates
    • % Revenue growth directly tied to IT delivery
    • % Profit margin growth

    IT's role in the selling transaction

    And IT leaders have a greater likelihood than ever of needing to support a merger, acquisition, or divestiture.

    1. Reduced Risk

      IT can identify risks that may go unnoticed when IT is not involved.
    2. Increased Accuracy

      The business can make accurate predictions around the costs, timelines, and needs of IT.
    3. Faster Integration

      Faster integration means faster value realization for the business.
    4. Informed Decision Making

      IT leaders hold critical information that can support the business in moving the transaction forward.
    5. Innovation

      IT can suggest new opportunities to generate revenue, optimize processes, or reduce inefficiencies.

    The IT executive’s critical role is demonstrated by:

    • Reduced Risk

      47% of senior leaders wish they would have spent more time on IT due diligence to prevent value erosion (IMAA Institute, 2017).
    • Increased Accuracy

      Sellers often only provide 15 to 30 days for the acquiring organization to decide (Forbes, 2018), increasing the necessity of accurate pricing.
    • Faster Integration

      36% of CIOs have visibility into only business unit data, making the divestment a challenge (EY, 2021).
    • Informed Decision Making

      Only 38% of corporate and 22% of private equity firms include IT as a significant aspect in their transaction approach (IMAA Institute, 2017).
    • Innovation

      Successful CIOs involved in M&As can spend 70% of their time on aspects outside of IT and 30% of their time on technology and delivery (CIO).

    Playbook benefits

    IT Benefits

    • IT will be seen as an innovative partner to the business, and its suggestions and involvement in the organization will lead to benefits, not hindrances.
    • Develop a streamlined method to prepare the IT environment for potential carve-out and separations, ensuring risk management concerns are brought to the business’ attention immediately.
    • Create a comprehensive list of items that IT needs to do during the separation that can be prioritized and actioned.

    Business Benefits

    • The business will get accurate and relevant information about its IT environment in order to sell or divest the company to the highest bidder for a true price.
    • Fewer business interruptions will happen, because IT can accurately plan for and execute the high-priority separation tasks.
    • The business can obtain a high-value offer for the components of IT being sold and can measure the ongoing value the sale will bring.

    Insight summary

    Overarching Insight

    IT controls if and when it gets invited to support the business through a purchasing growth transaction. Take control of the process, demonstrate the value of IT, and ensure that separation of IT environments does not lead to unnecessary and costly decisions.

    Proactive Insight

    CIOs on the forefront of digital transformation need to actively look for and suggest opportunities to acquire or partner on new digital capabilities to respond to rapidly changing business needs.

    Discovery & Strategy Insight

    IT organizations that have an effective M&A program plan are more prepared for the transaction, enabling a successful outcome. A structured strategy is particularly necessary for organizations expected to deliver M&As rapidly and frequently.

    Due Diligence & Preparation Insight

    IT often faces unnecessary separation challenges because of a lack of preparation. Secure the IT environment and establish how IT will retain employees early in the transaction process.

    Execution & Value Realization Insight

    IT needs to demonstrate value and cost savings within 100 days of the transaction. The most successful transactions are when IT continuously realizes synergies a year after the transaction and beyond.

    Blueprint deliverables

    Key Deliverable: M&A Sell Playbook

    The M&A Sell Playbook should be a reusable document that enables your IT organization to successfully deliver on any divestiture transaction.

    Screenshots of the 'M and A Sell Playbook' deliverable.

    M&A Sell One-Pager

    See a one-page overview of each phase of the transaction.

    Screenshots of the 'M and A Sell One-Pagers' deliverable.

    M&A Sell Case Studies

    Read a one-page case study for each phase of the transaction.

    Screenshots of the 'M and A Sell Case Studies' deliverable.

    M&A Separation Project Management Tool (SharePoint)

    Manage the separation process of the divestiture/sale using this SharePoint template.

    Screenshots of the 'M and A Separation Project Management Tool (SharePoint)' deliverable.

    M&A Separation Project Management Tool (Excel)

    Manage the separation process of the divestiture/sale using this Excel tool if you can’t or don’t want to use SharePoint.

    Screenshots of the 'M and A Separation Project Management Tool (Excel)' deliverable.

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

    DIY Toolkit

    Guided Implementation

    Workshop

    Consulting

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Guided Implementation

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

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

    A typical GI is between 6 to 10 calls over the course of 2 to 4 months.

      Proactive Phase

    • Call #1: Scope requirements, objectives, and your specific challenges.
    • Discovery & Strategy Phase

    • Call #2: Determine stakeholders and business perspectives on IT.
    • Call #3: Identify how M&A could support business strategy and how to communicate.
    • Due Diligence & Preparation Phase

    • Call #4: Establish a transaction team and divestiture/sale strategic direction.
    • Call #5: Create program metrics and identify a standard separation strategy.
    • Call #6: Prepare to carve out the IT environment.
    • Call #7: Identify the separation program plan.
    • Execution & Value Realization Phase

    • Call #8: Establish employee transitions to retain key staff.
    • Call #9: Assess IT’s ability to deliver on the divestiture/sale transaction.

    The Sell Blueprint

    Phase 1

    Proactive

    Phase 1

    Phase 2 Phase 3 Phase 4
    • 1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Their Perspective of IT
    • 1.2 Assess IT’s Current Value and Future State
    • 1.3 Drive Innovation and Suggest Reduction Opportunities
    • 2.1 Establish the M&A Program Plan
    • 2.2 Prepare IT to Engage in the Separation or Sale
    • 3.1 Engage in Due Diligence and Prepare Staff
    • 3.2 Prepare to Separate
    • 4.1 Execute the Transaction
    • 4.2 Reflection and Value Realization

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Conduct the CEO-CIO Alignment diagnostic
    • Conduct the CIO Business Vision diagnostic
    • Visualize relationships among stakeholders to identify key influencers
    • Group stakeholders into categories
    • Prioritize your stakeholders
    • Plan to communicate
    • Valuate IT
    • Assess the IT/digital strategy
    • Determine pain points and opportunities
    • Align goals to opportunities
    • Recommend reduction opportunities

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT and business leadership

    What is the Proactive phase?

    Embracing the digital drivers

    As the number of merger, acquisition, or divestiture transactions driven by digital means continues to increase, IT has an opportunity to not just be involved in a transaction but actively seek out potential deals.

    In the Proactive phase, the business is not currently considering a transaction. However, the business could consider one to reach its strategic goals. IT organizations that have developed respected relationships with the business leaders can suggest these potential transactions.

    Understand the business’ perspective of IT, determine who the critical M&A stakeholders are, valuate the IT environment, and examine how it supports the business goals in order to suggest an M&A transaction.

    In doing so, IT isn’t waiting to be invited to the transaction table – it’s creating it.

    Goal: To support the organization in reaching its strategic goals by suggesting M&A activities that will enable the organization to reach its objectives faster and with greater-value outcomes.

    Proactive Prerequisite Checklist

    Before coming into the Proactive phase, you should have addressed the following:

    • Understand what mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures are.
    • Understand what mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures mean for the business.
    • Understand what mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures mean for IT.

    Review the Executive Brief for more information on mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures for selling organizations.

    Proactive

    Step 1.1

    Identify M&A Stakeholders and Their Perspective of IT

    Activities

    • 1.1.1 Conduct the CEO-CIO Alignment diagnostic
    • 1.1.2 Conduct the CIO Business Vision diagnostic
    • 1.1.3 Visualize relationships among stakeholders to identify key influencers
    • 1.1.4 Group stakeholders into categories
    • 1.1.5 Prioritize your stakeholders
    • 1.16 Plan to communicate

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT executive leader
    • IT leadership
    • Critical M&A stakeholders

    Outcomes of Step

    Understand how the business perceives IT and establish strong relationships with critical M&A stakeholders.

    Business executives' perspectives of IT

    Leverage diagnostics and gain alignment on IT’s role in the organization

    • To suggest or get involved with a merger, acquisition, or divestiture, the IT executive leader needs to be well respected by other members of the executive leadership team and the business.
    • Specifically, the Proactive phase relies on the IT organization being viewed as an Innovator within the business.
    • Identify how the CEO/business executive currently views IT and where they would like IT to move within the Maturity Ladder.
    • Additionally, understand how other critical department leaders view IT and how they view the partnership with IT.
    A colorful visualization titled 'Maturity Ladder' detailing levels of IT function that a business may choose from based on the business executives' perspectives of IT. Starting from the bottom: 'Struggle', Does not embarrass, Does not crash; 'Support', Keeps business happy, Keeps costs low; 'Optimize', Increases efficiency, Decreases costs; 'Expand', Extends into new business, Generates revenue; 'Transform', Creates new industry.

    Misalignment in target state requires further communication between the CIO and CEO to ensure IT is striving toward an agreed-upon direction.

    Info-Tech’s CIO Business Vision (CIO BV) diagnostic measures a variety of high-value metrics to provide a well-rounded understanding of stakeholder satisfaction with IT.

    Sample of Info-Tech's CIO Business Vision diagnostic measuring percentages of high-value metrics like 'IT Satisfaction' and 'IT Value' regarding business leader satisfaction. A note for these two reads 'Evaluate business leader satisfaction with IT this year and last year'. A section titled 'Relationship' has metrics such as 'Understands Needs' and 'Trains Effectively'. A note for this section reads 'Examine relationship indicators between IT and the business'. A section titled 'Security Friction' has metrics such as 'Regulatory Compliance-Driven' and 'Office/Desktop Security'.

    Business Satisfaction and Importance for Core Services

    The core services of IT are important when determining what IT should focus on. The most important services with the lowest satisfaction offer the largest area of improvement for IT to drive business value.

    Sample of Info-Tech's CIO Business Vision diagnostic specifically comparing the business satisfaction of 12 core services with their importance. Services listed include 'Service Desk', 'IT Security', 'Requirements Gathering', 'Business Apps', 'Data Quality', and more. There is a short description of the services, a percentage for the business satisfaction with the service, a percentage comparing it to last year, and a numbered ranking of importance for each service. A note reads 'Assess satisfaction and importance across 12 core IT capabilities'.

    1.1.1 Conduct the CEO-CIO Alignment diagnostic

    2 weeks

    Input: IT organization expertise and the CEO-CIO Alignment diagnostic

    Output: An understanding of an executive business stakeholder’s perception of IT

    Materials: M&A Sell Playbook, CEO-CIO Alignment diagnostic

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, Business executive/CEO

    1. The CEO-CIO Alignment diagnostic can be a powerful input. Speak with your Info-Tech account representative to conduct the diagnostic. Use the results to inform current IT capabilities.
    2. You may choose to debrief the results of your diagnostic with an Info-Tech analyst. We recommend this to help your team understand how to interpret and draw conclusions from the results.
    3. Examine the results of the survey and note where there might be specific capabilities that could be improved.
    4. Determine whether there are any areas of significant disagreement between the you and the CEO. Mark down those areas for further conversations. Additionally, take note of areas that could be leveraged to support transactions or support your rationale in recommending transactions.

    Download the sample report.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    1.1.2 Conduct the CIO Business Vision diagnostic

    2 weeks

    Input: IT organization expertise, CIO BV diagnostic

    Output: An understanding of business stakeholder perception of certain IT capabilities and services

    Materials: M&A Buy Playbook, CIO Business Vision diagnostic

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, Senior business leaders

    1. The CIO Business Vision (CIO BV) diagnostic can be a powerful tool for identifying IT capability focus areas. Speak with your account representative to conduct the CIO BV diagnostic. Use the results to inform current IT capabilities.
    2. You may choose to debrief the results of your diagnostic with an Info-Tech analyst. We recommend this to help your team understand how to interpret the results and draw conclusions from the diagnostic.
    3. Examine the results of the survey and take note of any IT services that have low scores.
    4. Read through the diagnostic comments and note any common themes. Especially note which stakeholders identified they have a favorable relationship with IT and which stakeholders identified they have an unfavorable relationship. For those who have an unfavorable relationship, identify if they will have a critical role in a growth transaction.

    Download the sample report.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Create a stakeholder network map for M&A transactions

    Follow the trail of breadcrumbs from your direct stakeholders to their influencers to uncover hidden stakeholders.

    Example:

    Diagram of stakeholders and their relationships with other stakeholders, such as 'Board Members', 'CFO/Finance', 'Compliance', etc. with 'CIO/IT Leader' highlighted in the middle. There are unidirectional black arrows and bi-directional green arrows indicating each connection.

      Legend
    • Black arrows indicate the direction of professional influence
    • Dashed green arrows indicate bidirectional, informal influence relationships

    Info-Tech Insight

    Your stakeholder map defines the influence landscape that the M&A transaction will occur within. This will identify who holds various levels of accountability and decision-making authority when a transaction does take place.

    Use connectors to determine who may be influencing your direct stakeholders. They may not have any formal authority within the organization, but they may have informal yet substantial relationships with your stakeholders.

    1.1.3 Visualize relationships among stakeholders to identify key influencers

    1-3 hours

    Input: List of M&A stakeholders

    Output: Relationships among M&A stakeholders and influencers

    Materials: Flip charts, Markers, Sticky notes, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive leadership

    1. The purpose of this activity is to list all the stakeholders within your organization that will have a direct or indirect impact on the M&A transaction.
    2. Determine the critical stakeholders, and then determine the stakeholders of your stakeholders and consider adding each of them to the stakeholder list.
    3. Assess who has either formal or informal influence over your stakeholders; add these influencers to your stakeholder list.
    4. Construct a diagram linking stakeholders and their influencers together.
      • Use black arrows to indicate the direction of professional influence.
      • Use dashed green arrows to indicate bidirectional, informal influence relationships.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Categorize your stakeholders with a prioritization map

    A stakeholder prioritization map helps IT leaders categorize their stakeholders by their level of influence and ownership in the merger, acquisition, or divestiture process.

    A prioritization map of stakeholder categories split into four quadrants. The vertical axis is 'Influence', from low on the bottom to high on top. The horizontal axis is 'Ownership/Interest', from low on the left to high on the right. 'Spectators' are low influence, low ownership/interest. 'Mediators' are high influence, low ownership/interest. 'Noisemakers' are low influence, high ownership/interest. 'Players' are high influence, high ownership/interest.

    There are four areas in the map, and the stakeholders within each area should be treated differently.

    Players – players have a high interest in the initiative and the influence to effect change over the initiative. Their support is critical, and a lack of support can cause significant impediment to the objectives.

    Mediators – mediators have a low interest but significant influence over the initiative. They can help to provide balance and objective opinions to issues that arise.

    Noisemakers – noisemakers have low influence but high interest. They tend to be very vocal and engaged, either positively or negatively, but have little ability to enact their wishes.

    Spectators – generally, spectators are apathetic and have little influence over or interest in the initiative.

    1.1.4 Group stakeholders into categories

    30 minutes

    Input: Stakeholder map, Stakeholder list

    Output: Categorization of stakeholders and influencers

    Materials: Flip charts, Markers, Sticky notes, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive leadership, Stakeholders

    1. Identify your stakeholders’ interest in and influence on the M&A process as high, medium, or low by rating the attributes below.
    2. Map your results to the model to the right to determine each stakeholder’s category.

    Same prioritization map of stakeholder categories as before. This one has specific stakeholders mapped onto it. 'CFO' is mapped as low interest and middling influence, between 'Mediator' and 'Spectator'. 'CIO' is mapped as higher than average interest and high influence, a 'Player'. 'Board Member' is mapped as high interest and high influence, a 'Player'.

    Level of Influence
    • Power: Ability of a stakeholder to effect change.
    • Urgency: Degree of immediacy demanded.
    • Legitimacy: Perceived validity of stakeholder’s claim.
    • Volume: How loud their “voice” is or could become.
    • Contribution: What they have that is of value to you.
    Level of Interest

    How much are the stakeholder’s individual performance and goals directly tied to the success or failure of the product?

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Prioritize your stakeholders

    There may be too many stakeholders to be able to manage them all. Focus your attention on the stakeholders that matter most.

    Level of Support

    Supporter

    Evangelist

    Neutral

    Blocker

    Stakeholder Category Player Critical High High Critical
    Mediator Medium Low Low Medium
    Noisemaker High Medium Medium High
    Spectator Low Irrelevant Irrelevant Low

    Consider the three dimensions for stakeholder prioritization: influence, interest, and support. Support can be determined by answering the following question: How significant is that stakeholder to the M&A or divestiture process?

    These parameters are used to prioritize which stakeholders are most important and should receive your focused attention.

    1.1.5 Prioritize your stakeholders

    30 minutes

    Input: Stakeholder matrix

    Output: Stakeholder and influencer prioritization

    Materials: Flip charts, Markers, Sticky notes, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive leadership, M&A/divestiture stakeholders

    1. Identify the level of support of each stakeholder by answering the following question: How significant is that stakeholder to the M&A transaction process?
    2. Prioritize your stakeholders using the prioritization scheme on the previous slide.

    Stakeholder

    Category

    Level of Support

    Prioritization

    CMO Spectator Neutral Irrelevant
    CIO Player Supporter Critical

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Define strategies for engaging stakeholders by type

    A revisit to the map of stakeholder categories, but with strategies listed for each one, and arrows on the side instead of an axis. The vertical arrow is 'Authority', which increases upward, and the horizontal axis is Ownership/Interest which increases as it moves to the right. The strategy for 'Players' is 'Engage', for 'Mediators' is 'Satisfy', for 'Noisemakers' is 'Inform', and for 'Spectators' is 'Monitor'.

    Type

    Quadrant

    Actions

    Players High influence, high interest – actively engage Keep them updated on the progress of the project. Continuously involve Players in the process and maintain their engagement and interest by demonstrating their value to its success.
    Mediators High influence, low interest – keep satisfied They can be the game changers in groups of stakeholders. Turn them into supporters by gaining their confidence and trust and including them in important decision-making steps. In turn, they can help you influence other stakeholders.
    Noisemakers Low influence, high interest – keep informed Try to increase their influence (or decrease it if they are detractors) by providing them with key information, supporting them in meetings, and using Mediators to help them.
    Spectators Low influence, low interest – monitor They are followers. Keep them in the loop by providing clarity on objectives and status updates.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Each group of stakeholders draws attention and resources away from critical tasks. By properly identifying stakeholder groups, the IT executive leader can develop corresponding actions to manage stakeholders in each group. This can dramatically reduce wasted effort trying to satisfy Spectators and Noisemakers while ensuring the needs of Mediators and Players are met.

    1.1.6 Plan to communicate

    30 minutes

    Input: Stakeholder priority, Stakeholder categorization, Stakeholder influence

    Output: Stakeholder communication plan

    Materials: Flip charts, Markers, Sticky notes, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive leadership, M&A/divestiture stakeholders

    The purpose of this activity is to make a communication plan for each of the stakeholders identified in the previous activities, especially those who will have a critical role in the M&A transaction process.

    1. In the M&A Sell Playbook, input the type of influence each stakeholder has on IT, how they would be categorized in the M&A process, and their level of priority. Use this information to create a communication plan.
    2. Determine the methods and frequency of communication to keep the necessary stakeholder satisfied and maintain or enhance IT’s profile within the organization.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Proactive

    Step 1.2

    Assess IT’s Current Value and Method to Achieve a Future State

    Activities

    • 1.2.1 Valuate IT
    • 1.2.2 Assess the IT/digital strategy

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT executive leader
    • IT leadership
    • Critical stakeholders to M&A

    Outcomes of Step

    Identify critical opportunities to optimize IT and meet strategic business goals through a merger, acquisition, or divestiture.

    How to valuate your IT environment

    And why it matters so much

    • Valuating your current organization’s IT environment is a critical step that all IT organizations should take, whether involved in an M&A or not, to fully understand what it might be worth.
    • The business investments in IT can be directly translated into a value amount. For every $1 invested in IT, the business might be gaining $100 in value back or possibly even loosing $100.
    • Determining, documenting, and communicating this information ensures that the business takes IT’s suggestions seriously and recognizes why investing in IT is so critical.
    • There are three ways a business or asset can be valuated:
      • Cost Approach: Look at the costs associated with building, purchasing, replacing, and maintaining a given aspect of the business.
      • Market Approach: Look at the relative value of a particular aspect of the business. Relative value can fluctuate and depends on what the markets and consequently society believe that particular element is worth.
      • Discounted Cash Flow Approach: Focus on what the potential value of the business could be or the intrinsic value anticipated due to future profitability.
    • (Source: “Valuation Methods,” Corporate Finance Institute)

    Four ways to create value through digital

    1. Reduced costs
    2. Improved customer experience
    3. New revenue sources
    4. Better decision making
    5. (Source: McKinsey & Company)

    1.2.1 Valuate IT

    1 day

    Input: Valuation of data, Valuation of applications, Valuation of infrastructure and operations, Valuation of security and risk

    Output: Valuation of IT

    Materials: Relevant templates/tools listed on the following slides, Capital budget, Operating budget, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership

    The purpose of this activity is to demonstrate that IT is not simply an operational functional area that diminishes business resources. Rather, IT contributes significant value to the business.

    1. Review each of the following slides to valuate IT’s data, applications, infrastructure and operations, and security and risk. These valuations consider several tangible and intangible factors and result in a final dollar amount.
    2. Input the financial amounts identified for each critical area into a summary slide. Use this information to determine where IT is delivering value to the organization.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Consistency is key when valuating your IT organization as well as other IT organizations throughout the transaction process.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Data valuation

    Data valuation identifies how you monetize the information that your organization owns.

    Create a data value chain for your organization

    When valuating the information and data that exists in an organization, there are many things to consider.

    Info-Tech has two tools that can support this process:

    1. Information Asset Audit Tool: Use this tool first to take inventory of the different information assets that exist in your organization.
    2. Data Valuation Tool: Once information assets have been accounted for, valuate the data that exists within those information assets.

    Data Collection

    Insight Creation

    Value Creation

    Data Valuation

    01 Data Source
    02 Data Collection Method
    03 Data
    04 Data Analysis
    05 Insight
    06 Insight Delivery
    07 Consumer
    08 Value in Data
    09 Value Dimension
    10 Value Metrics Group
    11 Value Metrics
    Screenshots of Tab 2 of Info-Tech's Data Valuation Tool.

    Instructions

    1. Using the Data Valuation Tool, start gathering information based on the eight steps above to understand your organization’s journey from data to value.
    2. Identify the data value spectrum. (For example: customer sales service, citizen licensing service, etc.)
    3. Fill out the columns for data sources, data collection, and data first.
    4. Capture data analysis and related information.
    5. Then capture the value in data.
    6. Add value dimensions such as usage, quality, and economic dimensions.
      • Remember that economic value is not the only dimension, and usage/quality has a significant impact on economic value.
    7. Collect evidence to justify your data valuation calculator (market research, internal metrics, etc.).
    8. Finally, calculate the value that has a direct correlation with underlying value metrics.

    Application valuation

    Calculate the value of your IT applications

    When valuating the applications and their users in an organization, consider using a business process map. This shows how business is transacted in the company by identifying which IT applications support these processes and which business groups have access to them. Info-Tech has a business process mapping tool that can support this process:

    • Enterprise Integration Process Mapping Tool: Complete this tool first to map the different business processes to the supporting applications in your organization.

    Instructions

    1. Start by calculating user costs. This is the multiplication of: (# of users) × (% of time spent using IT) × (fully burdened salary).
    2. Identify the revenue per employee and divide that by the average cost per employee to calculate the derived productivity ratio (DPR).
    3. Once you have calculated the user costs and DPR, multiply those total values together to get the application value.
    4. User Costs

      Total User Costs

      Derived Productivity Ratio (DPR)

      Total DPR

      Application Value

      # of users % time spent using IT Fully burdened salary Multiply values from the 3 user costs columns Revenue per employee Average cost per employee (Revenue P.E) ÷ (Average cost P.E) (User costs) X (DPR)

    5. Once the total application value is established, calculate the combined IT and business costs of delivering that value. IT and business costs include inflexibility (application maintenance), unavailability (downtime costs, including disaster exposure), IT costs (common costs statistically allocated to applications), and fully loaded cost of active (full-time equivalent [FTE]) users.
    6. Calculate the net value of applications by subtracting the total IT and business costs from the total application value calculated in step 3.
    7. IT and Business Costs

      Total IT and Business Costs

      Net Value of Applications

      Application maintenance Downtime costs (include disaster exposure) Common costs allocated to applications Fully loaded costs of active (FTE) users Sum of values from the four IT and business costs columns (Application value) – (IT and business costs)

    (Source: CSO)

    Infrastructure valuation

    Assess the foundational elements of the business’ information technology

    The purpose of this exercise is to provide a high-level infrastructure valuation that will contribute to valuating your IT environment.

    Calculating the value of the infrastructure will require different methods depending on the environment. For example, a fully cloud-hosted organization will have different costs than a fully on-premises IT environment.

    Instructions:

    1. Start by listing all of the infrastructure-related items that are relevant to your organization.
    2. Once you have finalized your items column, identify the total costs/value of each item.
      • For example, total software costs would include servers and storage.
    3. Calculate the total cost/value of your IT infrastructure by adding all of values in the right column.

    Item

    Costs/Value

    Hardware Assets Total Value +$3.2 million
    Hardware Leased/Service Agreement -$
    Software Purchased +$
    Software Leased/Service Agreement -$
    Operational Tools
    Network
    Disaster Recovery
    Antivirus
    Data Centers
    Service Desk
    Other Licenses
    Total:

    For additional support, download the M&A Runbook for Infrastructure and Operations.

    Risk and security

    Assess risk responses and calculate residual risk

    The purpose of this exercise is to provide a high-level risk assessment that will contribute to valuating your IT environment. For a more in-depth risk assessment, please refer to the Info-Tech tools below:

    1. Risk Register Tool
    2. Security M&A Due Diligence Tool

    Instructions

    1. Review the probability and impact scales below and ensure you have the appropriate criteria that align to your organization before you conduct a risk assessment.
    2. Identify the probability of occurrence and estimated financial impact for each risk category detail and fill out the table on the right. Customize the table as needed so it aligns to your organization.
    3. Probability of Risk Occurrence

      Occurrence Criteria
      (Classification; Probability of Risk Event Within One Year)

      Negligible Very Unlikely; ‹20%
      Very Low Unlikely; 20 to 40%
      Low Possible; 40 to 60%
      Moderately Low Likely; 60 to 80%
      Moderate Almost Certain; ›80%

    Note: If needed, you can customize this scale with the severity designations that you prefer. However, make sure you are always consistent with it when conducting a risk assessment.

    Financial & Reputational Impact

    Budgetary and Reputational Implications
    (Financial Impact; Reputational Impact)

    Negligible (‹$10,000; Internal IT stakeholders aware of risk event occurrence)
    Very Low ($10,000 to $25,000; Business customers aware of risk event occurrence)
    Low ($25,000 to $50,000; Board of directors aware of risk event occurrence)
    Moderately Low ($50,000 to $100,000; External customers aware of risk event occurrence)
    Moderate (›$100,000; Media coverage or regulatory body aware of risk event occurrence)

    Risk Category Details

    Probability of Occurrence

    Estimated Financial Impact

    Estimated Severity (Probability X Impact)

    Capacity Planning
    Enterprise Architecture
    Externally Originated Attack
    Hardware Configuration Errors
    Hardware Performance
    Internally Originated Attack
    IT Staffing
    Project Scoping
    Software Implementation Errors
    Technology Evaluation and Selection
    Physical Threats
    Resource Threats
    Personnel Threats
    Technical Threats
    Total:

    1.2.2 Assess the IT/digital strategy

    4 hours

    Input: IT strategy, Digital strategy, Business strategy

    Output: An understanding of an executive business stakeholder’s perception of IT, Alignment of IT/digital strategy and overall organization strategy

    Materials: Computer, Whiteboard and markers, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, Business executive/CEO

    The purpose of this activity is to review the business and IT strategies that exist to determine if there are critical capabilities that are not being supported.

    Ideally, the IT and digital strategies would have been created following development of the business strategy. However, sometimes the business strategy does not directly call out the capabilities it requires IT to support.

    1. On the left half of the corresponding slide in the M&A Sell Playbook, document the business goals, initiatives, and capabilities. Input this information from the business or digital strategies. (If more space for goals, initiatives, or capabilities is needed, duplicate the slide).
    2. On the other half of the slide, document the IT goals, initiatives, and capabilities. Input this information from the IT strategy and digital strategy.

    For additional support, see Build a Business-Aligned IT Strategy.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Proactive

    Step 1.3

    Drive Innovation and Suggest Growth Opportunities

    Activities

    • 1.3.1 Determine pain points and opportunities
    • 1.3.2 Align goals with opportunities
    • 1.3.3 Recommend reduction opportunities

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT executive leader
    • IT leadership
    • Critical M&A stakeholders

    Outcomes of Step

    Establish strong relationships with critical M&A stakeholders and position IT as an innovative business partner that can suggest reduction opportunities.

    1.3.1 Determine pain points and opportunities

    1-2 hours

    Input: CEO-CIO Alignment diagnostic, CIO Business Vision diagnostic, Valuation of IT environment, IT-business goals cascade

    Output: List of pain points or opportunities that IT can address

    Materials: Computer, Whiteboard and markers, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Business stakeholders

    The purpose of this activity is to determine the pain points and opportunities that exist for the organization. These can be external or internal to the organization.

    1. Identify what opportunities exist for your organization. Opportunities are the potential positives that the organization would want to leverage.
    2. Next, identify pain points, which are the potential negatives that the organization would want to alleviate.
    3. Spend time considering all the options that might exist, and keep in mind what has been identified previously.

    Opportunities and pain points can be trends, other departments’ initiatives, business perspectives of IT, etc.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    1.3.2 Align goals with opportunities

    1-2 hours

    Input: CEO-CIO Alignment diagnostic, CIO Business Vision diagnostic, Valuation of IT environment, IT-business goals cascade, List of pain points and opportunities

    Output: An understanding of an executive business stakeholder’s perception of IT, Foundations for reduction strategy

    Materials: Computer, Whiteboard and markers, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Business stakeholders

    The purpose of this activity is to determine whether a growth or separation strategy might be a good suggestion to the business in order to meet its business objectives.

    1. For the top three to five business goals, consider:
      1. Underlying drivers
      2. Digital opportunities
      3. Whether a growth or reduction strategy is the solution
    2. Just because a growth or reduction strategy is a solution for a business goal does not necessarily indicate M&A is the way to go. However, it is important to consider before you pursue suggesting M&A.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    1.3.3 Recommend reduction opportunities

    1-2 hours

    Input: Growth or separation strategy opportunities to support business goals, Stakeholder communication plan, Rationale for the suggestion

    Output: M&A transaction opportunities suggested

    Materials: M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, Business executive/CEO

    The purpose of this activity is to recommend a merger, acquisition, or divestiture to the business.

    1. Identify which of the business goals the transaction would help solve and why IT is the one to suggest such a goal.
    2. Leverage the stakeholder communication plan identified previously to give insight into stakeholders who would have a significant level of interest, influence, or support in the process.

    Info-Tech Insight

    With technology and digital driving many transactions, leverage your organizations’ IT environment as an asset and reason why the divestiture or sale should happen, suggesting the opportunity yourself.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    By the end of this Proactive phase, you should:

    Be prepared to suggest M&A opportunities to support your company’s goals through sale or divestiture transactions

    Key outcome from the Proactive phase

    Develop progressive relationships and strong communication with key stakeholders to suggest or be aware of transformational opportunities that can be achieved through sale or divestiture strategies.

    Key deliverables from the Proactive phase
    • Business perspective of IT examined
    • Key stakeholders identified and relationship to the M&A process outlined
    • Ability to valuate the IT environment and communicate IT’s value to the business
    • Assessment of the business, digital, and IT strategies and how M&As could support those strategies
    • Pain points and opportunities that could be alleviated or supported through an M&A transaction
    • Sale or divestiture recommendations

    The Sell Blueprint

    Phase 2

    Discovery & Strategy

    Phase 1

    Phase 2

    Phase 3Phase 4
    • 1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Their Perspective of IT
    • 1.2 Assess IT’s Current Value and Future State
    • 1.3 Drive Innovation and Suggest Reduction Opportunities
    • 2.1 Establish the M&A Program Plan
    • 2.2 Prepare IT to Engage in the Separation or Sale
    • 3.1 Engage in Due Diligence and Prepare Staff
    • 3.2 Prepare to Separate
    • 4.1 Execute the Transaction
    • 4.2 Reflection and Value Realization

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Create the mission and vision
    • Identify the guiding principles
    • Create the future-state operating model
    • Determine the transition team
    • Document the M&A governance
    • Create program metrics
    • Establish the separation strategy
    • Conduct a RACI
    • Create the communication plan
    • Assess the potential organization(s)

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT executive/CIO
    • IT senior leadership
    • Company M&A team

    Workshop Overview

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

    Pre-Work

    Day 1

    Day 2

    Day 3

    Day 4

    Day 5

    Establish the Transaction FoundationDiscover the Motivation for Divesting or SellingFormalize the Program PlanCreate the Valuation FrameworkStrategize the TransactionNext Steps and Wrap-Up (offsite)

    Activities

    • 0.1 Conduct the CIO Business Vision and CEO-CIO Alignment diagnostics
    • 0.2 Identify key stakeholders and outline their relationship to the M&A process
    • 0.3 Identify the rationale for the company's decision to pursue a divestiture or sale
    • 1.1 Review the business rationale for the divestiture/sale
    • 1.2 Assess the IT/digital strategy
    • 1.3 Identify pain points and opportunities tied to the divestiture/sale
    • 1.4 Create the IT vision statement, create the IT mission statement, and identify IT guiding principles
    • 2.1 Create the future-state operating model
    • 2.2 Determine the transition team
    • 2.3 Document the M&A governance
    • 2.4 Establish program metrics
    • 3.1 Valuate your data
    • 3.2 Valuate your applications
    • 3.3 Valuate your infrastructure
    • 3.4 Valuate your risk and security
    • 3.5 Combine individual valuations to make a single framework
    • 4.1 Establish the separation strategy
    • 4.2 Conduct a RACI
    • 4.3 Review best practices for assessing target organizations
    • 4.4 Create the communication plan
    • 5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days
    • 5.2 Set up review time for workshop deliverables and to discuss next steps

    Deliverables

    1. Business perspectives of IT
    2. Stakeholder network map for M&A transactions
    1. Business context implications for IT
    2. IT’s divestiture/sale strategic direction
    1. Operating model for future state
    2. Transition team
    3. Governance structure
    4. M&A program metrics
    1. IT valuation framework
    1. Separation strategy
    2. RACI
    3. Communication plan
    1. Completed M&A program plan and strategy
    2. Prepared to assess target organization(s)

    What is the Discovery & Strategy phase?

    Pre-transaction state

    The Discovery & Strategy phase during a sale or divestiture is a unique opportunity for many IT organizations. IT organizations that can participate in the transaction at this stage are likely considered a strategic partner of the business.

    For one-off sales/divestitures, IT being invited during this stage of the process is rare. However, for organizations that are preparing to engage in many divestitures over the coming years, this type of strategy will greatly benefit from IT involvement. Again, the likelihood of participating in an M&A transaction is increasing, making it a smart IT leadership decision to, at the very least, loosely prepare a program plan that can act as a strategic pillar throughout the transaction.

    During this phase of the pre-transaction state, IT may be asked to participate in ensuring that the IT environment is able to quickly and easily carve out components/business lines and deliver on service-level agreements (SLAs).

    Goal: To identify a repeatable program plan that IT can leverage when selling or divesting all or parts of the current IT environment, ensuring customer satisfaction and business continuity

    Discovery & Strategy Prerequisite Checklist

    Before coming into the Discovery & Strategy phase, you should have addressed the following:

    • Understand the business perspective of IT.
    • Know the key stakeholders and have outlined their relationship to the M&A process.
    • Be able to valuate the IT environment and communicate IT's value to the business.
    • Understand the rationale for the company's decision to pursue a sale or divestiture and the opportunities or pain points the sale should address.

    Discovery & Strategy

    Step 2.1

    Establish the M&A Program Plan

    Activities

    • 2.1.1 Create the mission and vision
    • 2.1.2 Identify the guiding principles
    • 2.1.3 Create the future-state operating model
    • 2.1.4 Determine the transition team
    • 2.1.5 Document the M&A governance
    • 2.1.6 Create program metrics

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT executive/CIO
    • IT senior leadership
    • Company M&A team

    Outcomes of Step

    Establish an M&A program plan that can be repeated across sales/divestitures.

    The vision and mission statements clearly articulate IT’s aspirations and purpose

    The IT vision statement communicates a desired future state of the IT organization, whereas the IT mission statement portrays the organization’s reason for being. While each serves its own purpose, they should both be derived from the business context implications for IT.

    Vision Statements

    Mission Statements

    Characteristics

    • Describe a desired future
    • Focus on ends, not means
    • Concise
    • Aspirational
    • Memorable
    • Articulate a reason for existence
    • Focus on how to achieve the vision
    • Concise
    • Easy to grasp
    • Sharply focused
    • Inspirational

    Samples

    To be a trusted advisor and partner in enabling business innovation and growth through an engaged IT workforce. (Source: Business News Daily) IT is a cohesive, proactive, and disciplined team that delivers innovative technology solutions while demonstrating a strong customer-oriented mindset. (Source: Forbes, 2013)

    2.1.1 Create the mission and vision statements

    2 hours

    Input: Business objectives, IT capabilities, Rationale for the transaction

    Output: IT’s mission and vision statements for reduction strategies tied to mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures

    Materials: Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to create mission and vision statements that reflect IT’s intent and method to support the organization as it pursues a reduction strategy.

    1. Review the definitions and characteristics of mission and vision statements.
    2. Brainstorm different versions of the mission and vision statements.
    3. Edit the statements until you get to a single version of each that accurately reflects IT’s role in the reduction process.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Guiding principles provide a sense of direction

    IT guiding principles are shared, long-lasting beliefs that guide the use of IT in constructing, transforming, and operating the enterprise by informing and restricting IT investment portfolio management, solution development, and procurement decisions.

    A diagram illustrating the place of 'IT guiding principles' in the process of making 'Decisions on the use of IT'. There are four main items, connecting lines naming the type of process in getting from one step to the next, and a line underneath clarifying the questions asked at each step. On the far left, over the question 'What decisions should be made?', is 'Business context and IT implications'. This flows forward to 'IT guiding principles', and they are connected by 'Influence'. Next, over the question 'How should decisions be made?', is the main highlighted section. 'IT guiding principles' flows forward to 'Decisions on the use of IT', and they are connected by 'Guide and inform'. On the far right, over the question 'Who has the accountability and authority to make decisions?', is 'IT policies'. This flows back to 'Decisions on the use of IT', and they are connected by 'Direct and control'.

    IT principles must be carefully constructed to make sure they are adhered to and relevant

    Info-Tech has identified a set of characteristics that IT principles should possess. These characteristics ensure the IT principles are relevant and followed in the organization.

    Approach focused. IT principles should be focused on the approach – how the organization is built, transformed, and operated – as opposed to what needs to be built, which is defined by both functional and non-functional requirements.

    Business relevant. Create IT principles that are specific to the organization. Tie IT principles to the organization’s priorities and strategic aspirations.

    Long lasting. Build IT principles that will withstand the test of time.

    Prescriptive. Inform and direct decision making with actionable IT principles. Avoid truisms, general statements, and observations.

    Verifiable. If compliance can’t be verified, people are less likely to follow the principle.

    Easily Digestible. IT principles must be clearly understood by everyone in IT and by business stakeholders. IT principles aren’t a secret manuscript of the IT team. IT principles should be succinct; wordy principles are hard to understand and remember.

    Followed. Successful IT principles represent a collection of beliefs shared among enterprise stakeholders. IT principles must be continuously communicated to all stakeholders to achieve and maintain buy-in.

    In organizations where formal policy enforcement works well, IT principles should be enforced through appropriate governance processes.

    Consider the example principles below

    IT Principle Name

    IT Principle Statement

    1. Risk Management We will ensure that the organization’s IT Risk Management Register is properly updated to reflect all potential risks and that a plan of action against those risks has been identified.
    2. Transparent Communication We will ensure employees are spoken to with respect and transparency throughout the transaction process.
    3. Separation for Success We will create a carve-out strategy that enables the organization and clearly communicates the resources required to succeed.
    4. Managed Data We will handle data creation, modification, separation, and use across the enterprise in compliance with our data governance policy.
    5.Deliver Better Customer Service We will reduce the number of products offered by IT, enabling a stronger focus on specific products or elements to increase customer service delivery.
    6. Compliance With Laws and Regulations We will operate in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations for both our organization and the potentially purchasing organization.
    7. Defined Value We will create a plan of action that aligns with the organization’s defined value expectations.
    8. Network Readiness We will ensure that employees and customers have immediate access to the network with minimal or no outages.
    9. Value Generator We will leverage the current IT people, processes, and technology to turn the IT organization into a value generator by developing and selling our services to purchasing organizations.

    2.1.2 Identify the guiding principles

    2 hours

    Input: Business objectives, IT capabilities, Rationale for the transaction, Mission and vision statements

    Output: IT’s guiding principles for reduction strategies tied to mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures

    Materials: Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to create the guiding principles that will direct the IT organization throughout the reduction strategy process.

    1. Review the role of guiding principles and the examples of guiding principles that organizations have used.
    2. Brainstorm different versions of the guiding principles. Each guiding principle should start with the phrase “We will…”
    3. Edit and consolidate the statements until you have a list of approximately eight to ten statements that accurately reflect IT’s role in the reduction process.
    4. Review the guiding principles every six months to ensure they continue to support the delivery of the business’ reduction strategy goals.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Create two IT teams to support the transaction

    IT M&A Transaction Team

    • The IT M&A Transaction Team should consist of the strongest members of the IT team who can be expected to deliver on unusual or additional tasks not asked of them in normal day-to-day operations.
    • The roles selected for this team will have very specific skills sets or deliver on critical separation capabilities, making their involvement in the combination of two or more IT environments paramount.
    • These individuals need to have a history of proving themselves very trustworthy, as they will likely be required to sign an NDA as well.
    • Expect to have to certain duplicate capabilities or roles across the M&A Team and Operational Team.

    IT Operational Team

    • This group is responsible for ensuring the business operations continue.
    • These employees might be those who are newer to the organization but can be counted on to deliver consistent IT services and products.
    • The roles of this team should ensure that end users or external customers remain satisfied.

    Key capabilities to support M&A

    Consider the following capabilities when looking at who should be a part of the IT Transaction Team.

    Employees who have a significant role in ensuring that these capabilities are being delivered will be a top priority.

    Infrastructure & Operations

    • System Separation
    • Data Management
    • Helpdesk/Desktop Support
    • Cloud/Server Management

    Business Focus

    • Service-Level Management
    • Enterprise Architecture
    • Stakeholder Management
    • Project Management

    Risk & Security

    • Privacy Management
    • Security Management
    • Risk & Compliance Management

    Build a lasting and scalable operating model

    An operating model is an abstract visualization, used like an architect’s blueprint, that depicts how structures and resources are aligned and integrated to deliver on the organization’s strategy.

    It ensures consistency of all elements in the organizational structure through a clear and coherent blueprint before embarking on detailed organizational design.

    The visual should highlight which capabilities are critical to attaining strategic goals and clearly show the flow of work so that key stakeholders can understand where inputs flow in and outputs flow out of the IT organization.

    As you assess the current operating model, consider the following:

    • Does the operating model contain all the necessary capabilities your IT organization requires to be successful?
    • What capabilities should be duplicated?
    • Are there individuals with the skill set to support those roles? If not, is there a plan to acquire or develop those skills?
    • A dedicated project team strictly focused on M&A is great. However, is it feasible for your organization? If not, what blockers exist?
    A diagram with 'Initiatives' and 'Solutions' on the left and right of an area chart, 'Customer' at the top, the area between them labelled 'Functional Area n', and six horizontal bars labelled 'IT Capability' stacked on top of each other. The 'IT Capability' bars are slightly skewed to the 'Solutions' side of the chart.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Investing time up-front getting the operating model right is critical. This will give you a framework to rationalize future organizational changes, allowing you to be more iterative and allowing your model to change as the business changes.

    2.1.3 Create the future-state operating model

    4 hours

    Input: Current operating model, IT strategy, IT capabilities, M&A-specific IT capabilities, Business objectives, Rationale for the transaction, Mission and vision statements

    Output: Future-state operating model for divesting organizations

    Materials: Operating model, Capability overlay, Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to establish what the future-state operating model will be if your organization needs to adjust to support a divestiture transaction. If your organization plans to sell in its entirety, you may choose to skip this activity.

    1. Ensuring that all the IT capabilities are identified by the business and IT strategy, document your organization’s current operating model.
    2. Identify what core capabilities would be critical to the divesting transaction process and separation. Highlight and make copies of those capabilities in the M&A Sell Playbook. As a result of divesting, there may also be capabilities that will become irrelevant in your future state.
    3. Ensure the capabilities that will be decentralized are clearly identified. Decentralized capabilities do not exist within the central IT organization but rather in specific lines of businesses, products, or locations to better understand needs and deliver on the capability.

    An example operating model is included in the M&A Sell Playbook. This process benefits from strong reference architecture and capability mapping ahead of time.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    2.1.4 Determine the transition team

    3 hours

    Input: IT capabilities, Future-state operating model, M&A-specific IT capabilities, Business objectives, Rationale for the transaction, Mission and vision statements

    Output: Transition team

    Materials: Reference architecture, Organizational structure, Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to create a team that will support your IT organization throughout the transaction. Determining which capabilities and therefore which roles will be required ensures that the business will continue to get the operational support it needs.

    1. Based on the outcome of activity 2.1.3, review the capabilities that your organization will require on the transition team. Group capabilities into functional groups containing capabilities that are aligned well with one another because they have similar responsibilities and functionalities.
    2. Replace the capabilities with roles. For example, stakeholder management, requirements gathering, and project management might be one functional group. Project management and stakeholder management might combine to create a project manager role.
    3. Review the examples in the M&A Sell Playbook and identify which roles will be a part of the transition team.

    For more information, see Redesign Your Organizational Structure

    What is governance?

    And why does it matter so much to IT and the M&A process?

    • Governance is the method in which decisions get made, specifically as they impact various resources (time, money, and people).
    • Because M&A is such a highly governed transaction, it is important to document the governance bodies that exist in your organization.
    • This will give insight into what types of governing bodies there are, what decisions they make, and how that will impact IT.
    • For example, funds to support separation need to be discussed, approved, and supplied to IT from a governing body overseeing the acquisition.
    • A highly mature IT organization will have automated governance, while a seemingly non-existent governance process will be considered ad hoc.
    A pyramid with four levels representing the types of governing bodies that are available with differing levels of IT maturity. An arrow beside the pyramid points upward. The bottom of the arrow is labelled 'Traditional (People and document centric)' and the top is labelled 'Adaptive (Data centric)'. Starting at the bottom of the pyramid is level 1 'Ad Hoc Governance', 'Governance that is not well defined or understood within the organization. It occurs out of necessity but often not by the right people'. Level 2 is 'Controlled Governance', 'Governance focused on compliance and decisions driven by hierarchical authority. Levels of authority are defined and often driven by regulatory'. Level 3 is 'Agile Governance', 'Governance that is flexible to support different needs and quick response in the organization. Driven by principles and delegated throughout the company'. At the top of the pyramid is level 4 'Automated Governance', 'Governance that is entrenched and automated into organizational processes and product/service design. Empowered and fully delegated governance to maintain fit and drive organizational success and survival'.

    2.1.5 Document M&A governance

    1-2 hours

    Input: List of governing bodies, Governing body committee profiles, Governance structure

    Output: Documented method on how decisions are made as it relates to the M&A transaction

    Materials: Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to determine the method in which decisions are made throughout the M&A transaction as it relates to IT. This will require understanding both governing bodies internal to IT and those external to IT.

    1. First, determine the other governance structures within the organization that will impact the decisions made about M&A. List out these bodies or committees.
    2. Create a profile for each committee that looks at the membership, purpose of the committee, decision areas (authority), and the process of inputs and outputs. Ensure IT committees that will have a role in this process are also documented. Consider the benefits realized, risks, and resources required for each.
    3. Organize the committees into a structure, identifying the committees that have a role in defining the strategy, designing and building, and running.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Current-state structure map – definitions of tiers

    Strategy: These groups will focus on decisions that directly connect to the strategic direction of the organization.

    Design & Build: The second tier of groups will oversee prioritization of a certain area of governance as well as design and build decisions that feed into strategic decisions.

    Run: The lowest level of governance will be oversight of more-specific initiatives and capabilities within IT.

    Expect tier overlap. Some committees will operate in areas that cover two or three of these governance tiers.

    Measure the IT program’s success in terms of its ability to support the business’ M&A goals

    Upper management will measure IT’s success based on your ability to support the underlying reasons for the M&A. Using business metrics will help assure business stakeholders that IT understands their needs and is working with the business to achieve them.

    Business-Specific Metrics

    • Revenue Growth: Increase in the top line as seen by market expansion, product expansion, etc. by percentage/time.
    • Synergy Extraction: Reduction in costs as determined by the ability to identify and eliminate redundancies over time.
    • Profit Margin Growth: Increase in the bottom line as a result of increased revenue growth and/or decreased costs over time.

    IT-Specific Metrics

    • IT operational savings and cost reductions due to synergies: Operating expenses, capital expenditures, licenses, contracts, applications, infrastructure over time.
    • Reduction in IT staff expense and headcount: Decreased budget allocated to IT staff, and ability to identify and remove redundancies in staff.
    • Meeting or improving on IT budget estimates: Delivering successful IT separation on a budget that is the same or lower than the budget estimated during due diligence.
    • Meeting or improving on IT time-to-separation estimates: Delivering successful IT carve-out on a timeline that is the same or shorter than the timeline estimated during due diligence.
    • Business capability support: Delivering the end state of IT that supports the expected business capabilities and growth.

    Establish your own metrics to gauge the success of IT

    Establish SMART M&A Success Metrics

    S pecific Make sure the objective is clear and detailed.
    M easurable Objectives are measurable if there are specific metrics assigned to measure success. Metrics should be objective.
    A ctionable Objectives become actionable when specific initiatives designed to achieve the objective are identified.
    R ealistic Objectives must be achievable given your current resources or known available resources.
    T ime-Bound An objective without a timeline can be put off indefinitely. Furthermore, measuring success is challenging without a timeline.
    • What should IT consider when looking to identify potential additions, deletions, or modifications that will either add value to the organization or reduce costs/risks?
    • Provide a definition of synergies.
    • IT operational savings and cost reductions due to synergies: Operating expenses, capital expenditures, licenses, contracts, applications, infrastructure.
    • Reduction in IT staff expense and headcount: Decreased budget allocated to IT staff, and ability to identify and remove redundancies in staff.
    • Meeting or improving on IT budget estimates: Delivering successful IT separation on a budget that is the same or lower than the budget estimated during due diligence.
    • Meeting or improving on IT time-to-separation estimates: Delivering successful IT carve-out on a timeline that is the same or shorter than the timeline estimated during due diligence.
    • Revenue growth: Increase in the top line as a result, as seen by market expansion, product expansion, etc., as a result of divesting lines of the business and selling service-level agreements to the purchasing organization.
    • Synergy extraction: Reduction in costs, as determined by the ability to identify and eliminate redundancies.
    • Profit margin growth: Increase in the bottom line as a result of increased revenue growth and/or decreased costs.

    Metrics for each phase

    1. Proactive

    2. Discovery & Strategy

    3. Valuation & Due Diligence

    4. Execution & Value Realization

    • % Share of business innovation spend from overall IT budget
    • % Critical processes with approved performance goals and metrics
    • % IT initiatives that meet or exceed value expectation defined in business case
    • % IT initiatives aligned with organizational strategic direction
    • % Satisfaction with IT's strategic decision-making abilities
    • $ Estimated business value added through IT-enabled innovation
    • % Overall stakeholder satisfaction with IT
    • % Percent of business leaders that view IT as an Innovator
    • % IT budget as a percent of revenue
    • % Assets that are not allocated
    • % Unallocated software licenses
    • # Obsolete assets
    • % IT spend that can be attributed to the business (chargeback or showback)
    • % Share of CapEx of overall IT budget
    • % Prospective organizations that meet the search criteria
    • $ Total IT cost of ownership (before and after M&A, before and after rationalization)
    • % Business leaders that view IT as a Business Partner
    • % Defects discovered in production
    • $ Cost per user for enterprise applications
    • % In-house-built applications vs. enterprise applications
    • % Owners identified for all data domains
    • # IT staff asked to participate in due diligence
    • Change to due diligence
    • IT budget variance
    • Synergy target
    • % Satisfaction with the effectiveness of IT capabilities
    • % Overall end-customer satisfaction
    • $ Impact of vendor SLA breaches
    • $ Savings through cost-optimization efforts
    • $ Savings through application rationalization and technology standardization
    • # Key positions empty
    • % Frequency of staff turnover
    • % Emergency changes
    • # Hours of unplanned downtime
    • % Releases that cause downtime
    • % Incidents with identified problem record
    • % Problems with identified root cause
    • # Days from problem identification to root cause fix
    • % Projects that consider IT risk
    • % Incidents due to issues not addressed in the security plan
    • # Average vulnerability remediation time
    • % Application budget spent on new build/buy vs. maintenance (deferred feature implementation, enhancements, bug fixes)
    • # Time (days) to value realization
    • % Projects that realized planned benefits
    • $ IT operational savings and cost reductions that are related to synergies/divestitures
    • % IT staff–related expenses/redundancies
    • # Days spent on IT separation
    • $ Accurate IT budget estimates
    • % Revenue growth directly tied to IT delivery
    • % Profit margin growth

    2.1.6 Create program metrics

    1-2 hours

    Input: IT capabilities, Mission, vision, and guiding principles, Rationale for the acquisition

    Output: Program metrics to support IT throughout the M&A process

    Materials: Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to determine how IT’s success throughout a growth transaction will be measured and determined.

    1. Document a list of appropriate metrics on the whiteboard. Remember to include metrics that demonstrate the business impact. You can use the sample metrics listed on the previous slide as a starting point.
    2. Set a target and deadline for each metric. This will help the group determine when it is time to evaluate progression.
    3. Establish a baseline for each metric based on information collected within your organization.
    4. Assign an owner for tracking each metric as well as someone to be accountable for performance.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Discovery & Strategy

    Step 2.2

    Prepare IT to Engage in the Separation or Sale

    Activities

    • 2.2.1 Establish the separation strategy
    • 2.2.2 Conduct a RACI
    • 2.2.3 Create the communication plan
    • 2.2.4 Assess the potential organization(s)

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT executive/CIO
    • IT senior leadership
    • Company M&A team

    Outcomes of Step

    Identify IT’s plan of action when it comes to the separation/sale and align IT’s separation/sale strategy with the business’ M&A strategy.

    Separation strategies

    There are several IT separation strategies that will let you achieve your target technology environment.

    IT Separation Strategies
    • Divest. Carve out elements of the IT organization and sell them to a purchasing organization with or without a service-level agreement.
    • Sell. Sell the entire IT environment to a purchasing organization. The purchasing organization takes full responsibility in delivering and running the IT environment.
    • Spin-Off Joint Venture. Carve out elements of the IT organization and combine them with elements of a new or purchasing organization to create a new entity.

    The approach IT takes will depend on the business objectives for the M&A.

    • Generally speaking, the separation strategy is well understood and influenced by the frequency of and rationale for selling.
    • Based on the initiatives generated by each business process owner, you need to determine the IT separation strategy that will best support the desired target technology environment, especially if you are still operating or servicing elements of that IT environment.

    Key considerations when choosing an IT separation strategy include:

    • What are the main business objectives of the M&A?
    • What are the key synergies expected from the transaction?
    • What IT separation strategy best helps obtain these benefits?
    • What opportunities exist to position the business for sustainable and long-term growth?

    Separation strategies in detail

    Review highlights and drawbacks of different separation strategies

    Divest
      Highlights
    • Recommended for businesses striving to reduce costs and potentially even generate revenue for the business through the delivery of SLAs.
    • Opportunity to reduce or scale back on lines of business or products that are not driving profits.
      Drawbacks
    • May be forced to give up critical staff that have been known to deliver high value.
    • The IT department is left to deliver services to the purchasing organization with little support or consideration from the business.
    • There can be increased risk and security concerns that need to be addressed.
    Sell
      Highlights
    • Recommended for businesses looking to gain capital to exit the market profitably or to enter a new market with a large sum of capital.
    • The business will no longer exist, and as a result all operational costs, including IT, will become redundant.
      Drawbacks
    • IT is no longer needed as an operating or capital service for the organization.
    • Lost resources, including highly trained and critical staff.
    • May require packaging employees off and using the profit or capital generated to cover any closing costs.
    Spin-Off or Joint Venture
      Highlights
    • Recommended for businesses looking to expand their market presence or acquire new products. Essentially aligning the two organizations in the same market.
    • Each side has a unique offering but complementing capabilities.
      Drawbacks
    • As much as the organization is going through a separation from the original company, it will be going through an integration with the new company.
    • There could be differences in culture.
    • This could require a large amount of investment without a guarantee of profit or success.

    2.2.1 Establish the separation strategy

    1-2 hours

    Input: Business separation strategy, Guiding principles, M&A governance

    Output: IT’s separation strategy

    Materials: Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to determine IT’s approach to separating or selling. This approach might differ slightly from transaction to transaction. However, the businesses approach to transactions should give insight into the general separation strategy IT should adopt.

    1. Make sure you have clearly articulated the business objectives for the M&A, the technology end state for IT, and the magnitude of the overall separation.
    2. Review and discuss the highlights and drawbacks of each type of separation.
    3. Use Info-Tech’s Separation Posture Selection Framework on the next slide to select the separation posture that will appropriately enable the business. Consider these questions during your discussion:
      1. What are the main business objectives of the M&A? What key IT capabilities will need to support business objectives?
      2. What key synergies are expected from the transaction? What opportunities exist to position the business for sustainable growth?
      3. What IT separation best helps obtain these benefits?

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Separation Posture Selection Framework

    Business M&A Strategy

    Resultant Technology Strategy

    M&A Magnitude (% of Seller Assets, Income, or Market Value)

    IT Separation Posture

    A. Horizontal Adopt One Model ‹100% Divest
    ›99% Sell
    B. Vertical Create Links Between Critical Systems Any Divest
    C. Conglomerate Independent Model Any Joint Venture
    Divest
    D. Hybrid: Horizontal & Conglomerate Create Links Between Critical Systems Any Divest
    Joint Venture

    M&A separation strategy

    Business M&A Strategy Resultant Technology Strategy M&A Magnitude (% of Seller Assets, Income, or Market Value) IT Separation Posture

    You may need a hybrid separation posture to achieve the technology end state.

    M&A objectives may not affect all IT domains and business functions in the same way. Therefore, the separation requirements for each business function may differ. Organizations will often choose to select and implement a hybrid separation posture to realize the technology end state.

    Each business division may have specific IT domain and capability needs that require an alternative separation strategy.

    • Example: Even when conducting a joint venture by forming a new organization, some partners might view themselves as the dominant partner and want to influence the IT environment to a greater degree.
    • Example: Some purchasing organizations will expect service-level agreements to be available for a significant period of time following the divestiture, while others will be immediately independent.

    2.2.2 Conduct a RACI

    1-2 hours

    Input: IT capabilities, Transition team, Separation strategy

    Output: Completed RACI for Transition team

    Materials: Reference architecture, Organizational structure, Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to identify the core accountabilities and responsibilities for the roles identified as critical to your transition team. While there might be slight variation from transaction to transaction, ideally each role should be performing certain tasks.

    1. First, identify a list of critical tasks that need to be completed to support the sale or separation. For example:
      • Communicate with the company M&A team.
      • Identify the key IT solutions that can and cannot be carved out.
      • Gather data room artifacts and provide them to acquiring organization.
    2. Next, identify at the activity level which role is accountable or responsible for each activity. Enter an A for accountable, R for responsible, or A/R for both.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Communication and change

    Prepare key stakeholders for the potential changes

    • Anytime you are starting a project or program that will depend on users and stakeholders to give up their old way of doing things, change will force people to become novices again, leading to lost productivity and added stress.
    • Change management can improve outcomes for any project where you need people to adopt new tools and procedures, comply with new policies, learn new skills and behaviors, or understand and support new processes.
    • M&As move very quickly, and it can be very difficult to keep track of which stakeholders you need to be communicating with and what you should be communicating.
    • Not all organizations embrace or resist change in the same ways. Base your change communications on your organization’s cultural appetite for change in general.
      • Organizations with a low appetite for change will require more direct, assertive communications.
      • Organizations with a high appetite for change are more suited to more open, participatory approaches.

    Three key dimensions determine the appetite for cultural change:

    • Power Distance. Refers to the acceptance that power is distributed unequally throughout the organization.
      In organizations with a high power distance, the unequal power distribution is accepted by the less powerful employees.
    • Individualism. Organizations that score high in individualism have employees who are more independent. Those who score low in individualism fall into the collectivism side, where employees are strongly tied to one another or their groups.
    • Uncertainty Avoidance. Describes the level of acceptance that an organization has toward uncertainty. Those who score high in this area find that their employees do not favor uncertain situations, while those that score low in this area find that their employees are comfortable with change and uncertainty.

    2.2.3 Create the communication plan

    1-2 hours

    Input: IT’s M&A mission, vision, and guiding principles, M&A transition team, IT separation strategy, RACI

    Output: IT’s M&A communication plan

    Materials: Flip charts/whiteboard, Markers, RACI, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to create a communication plan that IT can leverage throughout the initiative.

    1. Create a structured communication plan that allows for continuous communication with the integration management office, senior management, and the business functional heads.
    2. Outline key topics of communication, with stakeholders, inputs, and outputs for each topic.
    3. Review Info-Tech’s example communication plan in the M&A Sell Playbook and update it with relevant information.
    4. Does this communication plan make sense for your organization? What doesn’t make sense? Adjust the communication guide to suit your organization.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Assessing potential organizations

    As soon as you have identified organizations to consider, it’s imperative to assess critical risks. Most IT leaders can attest that they will receive little to no notice when the business is pursuing a sale and IT has to assess the IT organization. As a result, having a standardized template to quickly assess the potential acquiring organization is important.

    Ways to Assess

    1. News: Assess what sort of news has been announced in relation to the organization. Have they had any risk incidents? Has a critical vendor announced working with them?
    2. LinkedIn: Scan through the LinkedIn profiles of employees. This will give you a sense of what platforms they have based on employees. It will also give insight into positive or negative employee experiences that could impact retention.
    3. Trends: Some industries will have specific solutions that are relevant and popular. Assess what the key players are (if you don’t already know) to determine the solution.
    4. Business Architecture: While this assessment won’t perfect, try to understand the business’ value streams and the critical business and IT capabilities that would be needed to support them. Will your organization or employee skills be required to support these long term?

    Info-Tech Insight

    Assessing potential organizations is not just for the purchaser. The seller should also know what the purchasing organization’s history with M&As is and what potential risks could occur if remaining connected through ongoing SLAs.

    2.2.4 Assess the potential organization(s)

    1-2 hours

    Input: Publicized historical risk events, Solutions and vendor contracts likely in the works, Trends

    Output: IT’s valuation of the potential organization(s) for selling or divesting

    Materials: M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO

    The purpose of this activity is to assess the organization(s) that your organization is considering selling or divesting to.

    1. Complete the Historical Valuation Worksheet in the M&A Sell Playbook to understand the type of IT organization that your company may support.
      • The business likely isn’t looking for in-depth details at this time. However, as the IT leader, it is your responsibility to ensure critical risks are identified and communicated to the business.
    2. Use the information identified to help the business narrow down which organizations could be the right organizations to sell or divest to.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    By the end of this pre-transaction phase you should:

    Have a program plan for M&As and a repeatable M&A strategy for IT when engaging in reduction transactions

    Key outcomes from the Discovery & Strategy phase
    • Prepare the IT environment to support the potential sale or divestiture by identifying critical program plan elements and establishing a separation or carve-out strategy that will enable the business to reach its goals.
    • Create a M&A strategy that accounts for all the necessary elements of a transaction and ensures sufficient governance, capabilities, and metrics exist.
    Key deliverables from the Discovery & Strategy phase
    • Create vision and mission statements
    • Establish guiding principles
    • Create a future-state operating model
    • Identify the key roles for the transaction team
    • Identify and communicate the M&A governance
    • Determine target metrics
    • Identify the M&A operating model
    • Select the separation strategy framework
    • Conduct a RACI for key transaction tasks for the transaction team
    • Document the communication plan

    M&A Sell Blueprint

    Phase 3

    Due Diligence & Preparation

    Phase 1Phase 2

    Phase 3

    Phase 4
    • 1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Their Perspective of IT
    • 1.2 Assess IT’s Current Value and Future State
    • 1.3 Drive Innovation and Suggest Reduction Opportunities
    • 2.1 Establish the M&A Program Plan
    • 2.2 Prepare IT to Engage in the Separation or Sale
    • 3.1 Engage in Due Diligence and Prepare Staff
    • 3.2 Prepare to Separate
    • 4.1 Execute the Transaction
    • 4.2 Reflection and Value Realization

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Drive value with a due diligence charter
    • Gather data room artifacts
    • Measure staff engagement
    • Assess culture
    • Create a carve-out roadmap
    • Prioritize separation tasks
    • Establish the separation roadmap
    • Identify the buyer’s IT expectations
    • Create a service/transaction agreement
    • Estimate separation costs
    • Create an employee transition plan
    • Create functional workplans for employees
    • Align project metrics with identified tasks

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT executive/CIO
    • IT senior leadership
    • Company M&A team
    • Business leaders
    • Purchasing organization
    • Transition team

    Workshop Overview

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

    Pre-Work

    Day 1

    Day 2

    Day 3

    Day 4

    Day 5

    Establish the Transaction FoundationDiscover the Motivation for SeparationIdentify Expectations and Create the Carve-Out RoadmapPrepare and Manage EmployeesPlan the Separation RoadmapNext Steps and Wrap-Up (offsite)

    Activities

    • 0.1 Identify the rationale for the company's decision to pursue a divestiture/sale.
    • 0.2 Identify key stakeholders and determine the IT transaction team.
    • 0.3 Gather and evaluate the M&A strategy, future-state operating model, and governance.
    • 1.1 Review the business rationale for the divestiture/sale.
    • 1.2 Identify pain points and opportunities tied to the divestiture/sale.
    • 1.3 Establish the separation strategy.
    • 1.4 Create the due diligence charter.
    • 2.1 Identify the buyer’s IT expectations.
    • 2.2 Create a list of IT artifacts to be reviewed in the data room.
    • 2.3 Create a carve-out roadmap.
    • 2.4 Create a service/technical transaction agreement.
    • 3.1 Measure staff engagement.
    • 3.2 Assess the current culture and identify the goal culture.
    • 3.3 Create an employee transition plan.
    • 3.4 Create functional workplans for employees.
    • 4.1 Prioritize separation tasks.
    • 4.2 Establish the separation roadmap.
    • 4.3 Establish and align project metrics with identified tasks.
    • 4.4 Estimate separation costs.
    • 5.1 Complete in-progress deliverables from previous four days.
    • 5.2 Set up review time for workshop deliverables and to discuss next steps.

    Deliverables

    1. IT strategy
    2. IT operating model
    3. IT governance structure
    4. M&A transaction team
    1. Business context implications for IT
    2. Separation strategy
    3. Due diligence charter
    1. Data room artifacts identified
    2. Carve-out roadmap
    3. Service/technical transaction agreement
    1. Engagement assessment
    2. Culture assessment
    3. Employee transition plans and workplans
    1. Separation roadmap and associated resourcing
    1. Divestiture separation strategy for IT

    What is the Due Diligence & Preparation phase?

    Mid-transaction state

    The Due Diligence & Preparation phase during a sale or divestiture is a critical time for IT. If IT fails to proactively participate in this phase, IT will have to merely react to separation expectations set by the business.

    If your organization is being sold in its entirety, staff will have major concerns about their future in the new organization. Making this transition as smooth as possible and being transparent could go a long way in ensuring their success in the new organization.

    In a divestiture, this is the time to determine where it’s possible for the organization to divide or separate from itself. A lack of IT involvement in these conversations could lead to an overcommitment by the business and under-delivery by IT.

    Goal: To ensure that, as the selling or divesting organization, you comply with regulations, prepare staff for potential changes, and identify a separation strategy if necessary

    Due Diligence Prerequisite Checklist

    Before coming into the Due Diligence & Preparation phase, you must have addressed the following:

    • Understand the rationale for the company's decision to pursue a sale or divestiture and what opportunities or pain points the sale should alleviate.
    • Identify the key roles for the transaction team.
    • Identify the M&A governance.
    • Determine target metrics.
    • Select a separation strategy framework.
    • Conduct a RACI for key transaction tasks for the transaction team.

    Before coming into the Due Diligence & Preparation phase, we recommend addressing the following:

    • Create vision and mission statements.
    • Establish guiding principles.
    • Create a future-state operating model.
    • Identify the M&A operating model.
    • Document the communication plan.
    • Examine the business perspective of IT.
    • Identify key stakeholders and outline their relationship to the M&A process.
    • Be able to valuate the IT environment and communicate IT’s value to the business.

    The Technology Value Trinity

    Delivery of Business Value & Strategic Needs

    • Digital & Technology Strategy
      The identification of objectives and initiatives necessary to achieve business goals.
    • IT Operating Model
      The model for how IT is organized to deliver on business needs and strategies.
    • Information & Technology Governance
      The governance to ensure the organization and its customers get maximum value from the use of information and technology.

    All three elements of the Technology Value Trinity work in harmony to deliver business value and achieve strategic needs. As one changes, the others need to change as well.

    • Digital and IT Strategy tells you what you need to achieve to be successful.
    • IT Operating Model and Organizational Design is the alignment of resources to deliver on your strategy and priorities.
    • Information & Technology Governance is the confirmation of IT’s goals and strategy, which ensures the alignment of IT and business strategy. It’s the mechanism by which you continuously prioritize work to ensure that what is delivered is in line with the strategy. This oversight evaluates, directs, and monitors the delivery of outcomes to ensure that the use of resources results in the achieving the organization’s goals.

    Too often strategy, operating model and organizational design, and governance are considered separate practices. As a result, “strategic documents” end up being wish lists, and projects continue to be prioritized based on who shouts the loudest – not based on what is in the best interest of the organization.

    Due Diligence & Preparation

    Step 3.1

    Engage in Due Diligence and Prepare Staff

    Activities

    • 3.1.1 Drive value with a due diligence charter
    • 3.1.2 Gather data room artifacts
    • 3.1.3 Measure staff engagement
    • 3.1.4 Assess culture

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT executive/CIO
    • IT senior leadership
    • Company M&A team
    • Business leaders
    • Prospective IT organization
    • Transition team

    Outcomes of Step

    This step of the process is when IT should prepare and support the business in due diligence and gather the necessary information about staff changes.

    3.1.1 Drive value with a due diligence charter

    1-2 hours

    Input: Key roles for the transaction team, M&A governance, Target metrics, Selected separation strategy framework, RACI of key transaction tasks for the transaction team

    Output: IT Due Diligence Charter

    Materials: M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to create a charter leveraging the items completed in the previous phase, as listed on the Due Diligence Prerequisite Checklist slide, to gain executive sign-off.

    1. In the IT Due Diligence Charter in the M&A Sell Playbook, complete the aspects of the charter that are relevant for you and your organization.
    2. We recommend including these items in the charter:
      • Communication plan
      • Transition team roles
      • Goals and metrics for the transaction
      • Separation strategy
      • Sale/divestiture RACI
    3. Once the charter has been completed, ensure that business executives agree to the charter and sign off on the plan of action.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    3.1.2 Gather data room artifacts

    4 hours

    Input: Future-state operating model, M&A governance, Target metrics, Selected separation strategy framework, RACI of key transaction tasks for the transaction team

    Output: List of items to acquire and verify can be provided to the purchasing organization while in the data room

    Materials: Critical domain lists on following slides, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team, Transition team, Legal team, Compliance/privacy officers

    The purpose of this activity is to create a list of the key artifacts that you could be asked for during the due diligence process.

    1. Review the lists on the following pages as a starting point. Identify which domains, stakeholders, artifacts, and information should be requested for the data room.
    2. IT leadership may or may not be asked to enter the data room directly. The short notice for having to find these artifacts for the purchasing organization can leave your IT organization scrambling. Identify the critical items worth obtaining ahead of time.
    3. Once you have identified the artifacts, provide the list to the legal team or compliance/privacy officers and ensure they also agree those items can be provided. If changes to the documents need to be made, take the time to do so.
    4. Store all items in a safe and secure file or provide to the M&A team ahead of due diligence.

    **Note that if your organization is not leading/initiating the data room, then you can ignore this activity.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Critical domains

    Understand the key stakeholders and outputs for each domain

    Domain

    Stakeholders

    Key Artifacts

    Key Information to request

    Business
    • Enterprise Architecture
    • Business Relationship Manager
    • Business Process Owners
    • Business capability map
    • Capability map (the M&A team should be taking care of this, but make sure it exists)
    • Business satisfaction with various IT systems and services
    Leadership/IT Executive
    • CIO
    • CTO
    • CISO
    • IT budgets
    • IT capital and operating budgets (from current year and previous year)
    Data & Analytics
    • Chief Data Officer
    • Data Architect
    • Enterprise Architect
    • Master data domains, system of record for each
    • Unstructured data retention requirements
    • Data architecture
    • Master data domains, sources, and storage
    • Data retention requirements
    Applications
    • Applications Manager
    • Application Portfolio Manager
    • Application Architect
    • Applications map
    • Applications inventory
    • Applications architecture
    • Copy of all software license agreements
    • Copy of all software maintenance agreements
    Infrastructure
    • Head of Infrastructure
    • Enterprise Architect
    • Infrastructure Architect
    • Infrastructure Manager
    • Infrastructure map
    • Infrastructure inventory
    • Network architecture (including which data centers host which infrastructure and applications)
    • Inventory (including separation capabilities of vendors, versions, switches, and routers)
    • Copy of all hardware lease or purchase agreements
    • Copy of all hardware maintenance agreements
    • Copy of all outsourcing/external service provider agreements
    • Copy of all service-level agreements for centrally provided, shared services and systems
    Products and Services
    • Product Manager
    • Head of Customer Interactions
    • Product lifecycle
    • Product inventory
    • Customer market strategy

    Critical domains (continued)

    Understand the key stakeholders and outputs for each domain

    Domain

    Stakeholders

    Key Artifacts

    Key Information to request

    Operations
    • Head of Operations
    • Service catalog
    • Service overview
    • Service owners
    • Access policies and procedures
    • Availability and service levels
    • Support policies and procedures
    • Costs and approvals (internal and customer costs)
    IT Processes
    • CIO
    • IT Management
    • VP of IT Governance
    • VP of IT Strategy
    • IT process flow diagram
    • Processes in place and productivity levels (capacity)
    • Critical processes/processes the organization feels they do particularly well
    IT People
    • CIO
    • VP of Human Resources
    • IT organizational chart
    • Competency & capacity assessment
    • IT organizational structure (including resources from external service providers such as contractors) with appropriate job descriptions or roles and responsibilities
    • IT headcount and location
    Security
    • CISO
    • Security Architect
    • Security posture
    • Information security staff
    • Information security service providers
    • Information security tools
    • In-flight information security projects
    Projects
    • Head of Projects
    • Project portfolio
    • List of all future, ongoing, and recently completed projects
    Vendors
    • Head of Vendor Management
    • License inventory
    • Inventory (including what will and will not be transitioning, vendors, versions, number of licenses)

    Retain top talent throughout the transition

    Focus on retention and engagement

    • People are such a critical component of this process, especially in the selling organization.
    • Retaining employees, especially the critical employees who hold specific skills or knowledge, will ensure the success and longevity of the divesting organization, purchasing organization, or the new company.
    • Giving employees a role in the organization and ensuring they do not see their capabilities as redundant will be critical to the process.
    • It is okay if employees need to change what they were doing temporarily or even long-term. However, being transparent about these changes and highlighting their value to the process and organization(s) will help.
    • The first step to moving forward with retention is to look at the baseline engagement and culture of employees and the organization. This will help determine where to focus and allow you to identify changes in engagement that resulted from the transaction.
    • Job engagement drivers are levers that influence the engagement of employees in their day-to-day roles.
    • Organizational engagement drivers are levers that influence an employee’s engagement with the broader organization.
    • Retention drivers are employment needs. They don’t necessarily drive engagement, but they must be met for engagement to be possible.

    3.1.3 Measure staff engagement

    3-4 hours

    Input: Engagement survey

    Output: Baseline engagement scores

    Materials: Build an IT Employee Engagement Program

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, IT employees of current organization

    The purpose of this activity is to measure current staff engagement to have a baseline to measure against in the future state. This is a good activity to complete if you will be divesting or selling in entirety.

    The results from the survey should act as a baseline to determine what the organization is doing well in terms of employee engagement and what drivers could be improved upon.

    1. Review Info-Tech’s Build an IT Employee Engagement Program research and select a survey that will best meet your needs.
    2. Conduct the survey and note which drivers employees are currently satisfied with. Likewise, note where there are opportunities.
    3. Document actions that should be taken to mitigate the negative engagement drivers throughout the transaction and enhance or maintain the positive engagement drivers.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Assess culture as a part of engagement

    Culture should not be overlooked, especially as it relates to the separation of IT environments

    • There are three types of culture that need to be considered.
    • Most importantly, this transition is an opportunity to change the culture that might exist in your organization’s IT environment.
    • Make a decision on which type of culture you’d like IT to have post transition.

    Target Organization's Culture. The culture that the target organization is currently embracing. Their established and undefined governance practices will lend insight into this.

    Your Organization’s Culture. The culture that your organization is currently embracing. Examine people’s attitudes and behaviors within IT toward their jobs and the organization.

    Ideal Culture. What will the future culture of the IT organization be once separation is complete? Are there aspects that your current organization and the target organization embrace that are worth considering?

    Culture categories

    Map the results of the IT Culture Diagnostic to an existing framework

    Competitive
    • Autonomy
    • Confront conflict directly
    • Decisive
    • Competitive
    • Achievement oriented
    • Results oriented
    • High performance expectations
    • Aggressive
    • High pay for good performance
    • Working long hours
    • Having a good reputation
    • Being distinctive/different
    Innovative
    • Adaptable
    • Innovative
    • Quick to take advantage of opportunities
    • Risk taking
    • Opportunities for professional growth
    • Not constrained by rules
    • Tolerant
    • Informal
    • Enthusiastic
    Traditional
    • Stability
    • Reflective
    • Rule oriented
    • Analytical
    • High attention to detail
    • Organized
    • Clear guiding philosophy
    • Security of employment
    • Emphasis on quality
    • Focus on safety
    Cooperative
    • Team oriented
    • Fair
    • Praise for good performance
    • Supportive
    • Calm
    • Developing friends at work
    • Socially responsible

    Culture Considerations

    • What culture category was dominant for each IT organization?
    • Do you share the same dominant category?
    • Is your current dominant culture category the most ideal to have post-separation?

    3.1.4 Assess Culture

    3-4 hours

    Input: Cultural assessments for current IT organization, Cultural assessment for target IT organization

    Output: Goal for IT culture

    Materials: IT Culture Diagnostic

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, IT employees of current organization, IT employees of target organization, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to assess the different cultures that might exist within the IT environments of the organizations involved. By understanding the culture that exists in the purchasing organization, you can identify the fit and prepare impacted staff for potential changes.

    1. Complete this activity by leveraging the blueprint Fix Your IT Culture, specifically the IT Culture Diagnostic.
    2. Fill out the diagnostic for the IT department in your organization:
      1. Answer the 16 questions in tab 2, Diagnostic.
      2. Find out your dominant culture and review recommendations in tab 3, Results.
    3. Document the results from tab 3, Results, in the M&A Sell Playbook if you are trying to record all artifacts related to the transaction in one place.
    4. Repeat the activity for the purchasing organization.
    5. Leverage the information to determine what the goal for the culture of IT will be post-separation if it will differ from the current culture.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Due Diligence & Preparation

    Step 3.2

    Prepare to Separate

    Activities

    • 3.2.1 Create a carve-out roadmap
    • 3.2.2 Prioritize separation tasks
    • 3.2.3 Establish the separation roadmap
    • 3.2.4 Identify the buyer’s IT expectations
    • 3.2.5 Create a service/transaction agreement
    • 3.2.6 Estimate separation costs
    • 3.2.7 Create an employee transition plan
    • 3.2.8 Create functional workplans for employees
    • 3.2.9 Align project metrics with identified tasks

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT executive/CIO
    • IT senior leadership
    • Transition team
    • Company M&A team
    • Purchasing organization

    Outcomes of Step

    Have an established plan of action toward separation across all domains and a strategy toward resources.

    Don’t underestimate the importance of separation preparation

    Separation involves taking the IT organization and dividing it into two or more separate entities.

    Testing the carve capabilities of the IT organization often takes 3 months. (Source: Cognizant, 2014)

    Daimler-Benz lost nearly $19 billion following its purchase of Chrysler by failing to recognize the cultural differences that existed between the two car companies. (Source: Deal Room)

    Info-Tech Insight

    Separating the IT organization requires more time and effort than business leaders will know. Frequently communicate challenges and lost opportunities when carving the IT environment out.

    Separation needs

    Identify the business objectives of the sale to determine the IT strategy

    Set up a meeting with your IT due diligence team to:

    • Ensure there will be no gaps in the delivery of products and services in the future state.
    • Discuss the people and processes necessary to achieve the target technology environment and support M&A business objectives.

    Use this opportunity to:

    • Identify data and application complexities between the involved organizations.
    • Identify the IT people and process gaps, initiatives, and levels of support expected.
    • Determine your infrastructure needs to ensure effectiveness and delivery of services:
      • Does IT have the infrastructure to support the applications and business capabilities?
      • Identify any gaps between the current infrastructure in both organizations and the infrastructure required.
      • Identify any redundancies/gaps.
      • Determine the appropriate IT separation strategies.
    • Document your gaps, redundancies, initiatives, and assumptions to help you track and justify the initiatives that must be undertaken and help estimate the cost of separation.

    Separation strategies

    There are several IT separation strategies that will let you achieve your target technology environment.

    IT Separation Strategies
    • Divest. Carve out elements of the IT organization and sell them to a purchasing organization with or without a service-level agreement.
    • Sell. Sell the entire IT environment to a purchasing organization. The purchasing organization takes full responsibility in delivering and running the IT environment.
    • Spin-Off Joint Venture. Carve out elements of the IT organization and combine them with elements of a new or purchasing organization to create a new entity.

    The approach IT takes will depend on the business objectives for the M&A.

    • Generally speaking, the separation strategy is well understood and influenced by the frequency of and rationale for selling.
    • Based on the initiatives generated by each business process owner, you need to determine the IT separation strategy that will best support the desired target technology environment, especially if you are still operating or servicing elements of that IT environment.

    Key considerations when choosing an IT separation strategy include:

    • What are the main business objectives of the M&A?
    • What are the key synergies expected from the transaction?
    • What IT separation strategy best helps obtain these benefits?
    • What opportunities exist to position the business for sustainable and long-term growth?

    Separation strategies in detail

    Review highlights and drawbacks of different separation strategies

    Divest
      Highlights
    • Recommended for businesses striving to reduce costs and potentially even generate revenue for the business through the delivery of SLAs.
    • Opportunity to reduce or scale back on lines of business or products that are not driving profits.
      Drawbacks
    • May be forced to give up critical staff that have been known to deliver high value.
    • The IT department is left to deliver services to the purchasing organization with little support or consideration from the business.
    • There can be increased risk and security concerns that need to be addressed.
    Sell
      Highlights
    • Recommended for businesses looking to gain capital to exit the market profitably or to enter a new market with a large sum of capital.
    • The business will no longer exist, and as a result all operational costs, including IT, will become redundant.
      Drawbacks
    • IT is no longer needed as an operating or capital service for the organization.
    • Lost resources, including highly trained and critical staff.
    • May require packaging employees off and using the profit or capital generated to cover any closing costs.
    Spin-Off or Joint Venture
      Highlights
    • Recommended for businesses looking to expand their market presence or acquire new products. Essentially aligning the two organizations in the same market.
    • Each side has a unique offering but complementing capabilities.
      Drawbacks
    • As much as the organization is going through a separation from the original company, it will be going through an integration with the new company.
    • There could be differences in culture.
    • This could require a large amount of investment without a guarantee of profit or success.

    Preparing the carve-out roadmap

    And why it matters so much

    • When carving out the IT environment in preparation for a divestiture, it’s important to understand the infrastructure, application, and data connections that might exist.
    • Much to the business’ surprise, carving out the IT environment is not easy, especially when considering the services and products that might depend on access to certain applications or data sets.
    • Once the business has indicated which elements they anticipate divesting, be prepared for testing the functionality and ability of this carve-out, either through automation or manually. There are benefits and drawbacks to both methods:
      • Automated requires a solution and a developer to code the tests.
      • Manual requires time to find the errors, possibly more time than automated testing.
    • Identify if there are dependencies that will make the carve-out difficult.
      • For example, the business is trying to divest Product X, but that product is integrated with Product Y, which is not being sold.
      • Consider all the processes and products that specific data might support as well.
      • Moreover, the data migration tool will need to enter the ERP system and identify not just the data but all supporting and historical elements that underlie the data.

    Critical components to consider:

    • Selecting manual or automated testing
    • Determining data dependencies
    • Data migration capabilities
    • Auditing approval
    • People and skills that support specific elements being carved out

    3.2.1 Create a carve-out roadmap

    6 hours

    Input: Items included in the carve-out, Dependencies, Whether testing is completed, If the carve-out will pass audit, If the carve-out item is prepared to be separated

    Output: Carve-out roadmap

    Materials: Business’ divestiture plan, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Business leaders, Transition team

    The purpose of this activity is to prepare the IT environment by identifying a carve-out roadmap, specifically looking at data, infrastructure, and applications. Feel free to expand the roadmap to include other categories as your organization sees fit.

    1. In the Carve-Out Roadmap in the M&A Sell Playbook, identify the key elements of the carve-out in the first column.
    2. Note any dependencies the items might have. For example:
      • The business is selling Product X, which is linked to Data X and Data Y. The organization does not want to sell Data Y. Data X would be considered dependent on Data Y.
    3. Once the dependencies have been confirmed, begin automated or manual testing to examine the possibility of separating the data sets (or other dependencies) from one another.
    4. After identifying an acceptable method of separation, inform the auditing individual or body and confirm that there would be no repercussions for the planned process.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    3.2.2 Prioritize separation tasks

    2 hours

    Input: Separation tasks, Transition team, M&A RACI

    Output: Prioritized separation list

    Materials: Separation task checklist, Separation roadmap

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to prioritize the different separation tasks that your organization has identified as necessary to this transaction. Some tasks might not be relevant for this particular transaction, and others might be critical.

    1. Begin by downloading the SharePoint or Excel version of the M&A Separation Project Management Tool.
    2. Identify which separation tasks you want to have as part of your project plan. Alter or remove any tasks that are irrelevant to your organization. Add in tasks you think are missing.
    3. When deciding criticality of the task, consider the effect on stakeholders, those who are impacted or influenced in the process of the task, and dependencies (e.g. data strategy needs to be addressed first before you can tackle its dependencies, like data quality).
    4. Feel free to edit the way you measure criticality. The standard tool leverages a three-point scale. At the end, you should have a list of tasks in priority order based on criticality.

    Record the updates in the M&A Separation Project Management Tool (SharePoint).

    Record the updates in the M&A Separation Project Management Tool (Excel).

    Separation checklists

    Prerequisite Checklist
    • Build the project plan for separation and prioritize activities
      • Plan first day
      • Plan first 30/100 days
      • Plan first year
    • Create an organization-aligned IT strategy
    • Identify critical stakeholders
    • Create a communication strategy
    • Understand the rationale for the sale or divestiture
    • Develop IT's sale/divestiture strategy
      • Determine goal opportunities
      • Create the mission and vision statements
      • Create the guiding principles
      • Create program metrics
    • Consolidate reports from due diligence/data room
    • Conduct culture assessment
    • Create a transaction team
    • Establish a service/technical transaction agreement
    • Plan and communicate culture changes
    • Create an employee transition plan
    • Assess baseline engagement
    Business
    • Design an enterprise architecture
    • Document your business architecture
    • Meet compliance and regulatory standards
    • Identify and assess all of IT's risks
    Applications
    • Prioritize and address critical applications
      • CRM
      • HRIS
      • Financial
      • Sales
      • Risk
      • Security
      • ERP
      • Email
    • Develop method of separating applications
    • Model critical applications that have dependencies on one another
    • Identify the infrastructure capacity required to support critical applications
    • Prioritize and address critical applications
    Leadership/IT Executive
    • Build an IT budget
    • Structure operating budget
    • Structure capital budget
    • Identify the workforce demand vs. capacity
    • Establish and monitor key metrics
    • Communicate value realized/cost savings
    Data
    • Confirm data strategy
    • Confirm data governance
    • Build a data architecture roadmap
    • Analyze data sources and domains
    • Evaluate data storage (on-premises vs. cloud)
    • Develop an enterprise content management strategy and roadmap
    • Ensure cleanliness/usability of data sets
    • Identify data sets that can remain operational if reduced/separated
    • Develop reporting and analytics capabilities
    • Confirm data strategy
    Operations
    • Manage sales access to customer data
    • Determine locations and hours of operation
    • Separate/terminate phone lists and extensions
    • Split email address books
    • Communicate helpdesk/service desk information

    Separation checklists (continued)

    Infrastructure
    • Manage organization domains
    • Consolidate data centers
    • Compile inventory of vendors, versions, switches, and routers
    • Review hardware lease or purchase agreements
    • Review outsourcing/service provider agreements
    • Review service-level agreements
    • Assess connectivity linkages between locations
    • Plan to migrate to a single email system if necessary
    • Determine network access concerns
    Vendors
    • Establish a sustainable vendor management office
    • Review vendor landscape
    • Identify warranty options
    • Identify the licensing grant
    • Rationalize vendor services and solutions
    People
    • Design an IT operating model
    • Design your future IT organizational structure
    • Conduct a RACI for prioritized activities
    • Conduct a culture assessment and identify goal IT culture
    • Build an IT employee engagement program
    • Determine critical roles and systems/process/products they support
    • Define new job descriptions with meaningful roles and responsibilities
    • Create employee transition plans
    • Create functional workplans
    Projects
    • Identify projects to be on hold
    • Communicate project intake process
    • Reprioritize projects
    Products & Services
    • Redefine service catalog
    • Ensure customer interaction requirements are met
    • Select a solution for product lifecycle management
    • Plan service-level agreements
    Security
    • Conduct a security assessment
    • Develop accessibility prioritization and schedule
    • Establish an information security strategy
    • Develop a security awareness and training program
    • Develop and manage security governance, risk, and compliance
    • Identify security budget
    • Build a data privacy and classification program
    IT Processes
    • Evaluate current process models
    • Determine productivity/capacity levels of processes
    • Identify processes to be changed/terminated
    • Establish a communication plan
    • Develop a change management process
    • Establish/review IT policies
    • Evaluate current process models

    3.2.2 Establish the separation roadmap

    2 hours

    Input: Prioritized separation tasks, Carve-out roadmap, Employee transition plan, Separation RACI, Costs for activities, Activity owners

    Output: Separation roadmap

    Materials: M&A Separation Project Plan Tool (SharePoint), M&A Separation Project Plan Tool (Excel), SharePoint Template: Step-by-Step Deployment Guide

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Transition team, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to create a roadmap to support IT throughout the separation process. Using the information gathered in previous activities, you can create a roadmap that will ensure a smooth separation.

    1. Use our Separation Project Management Tool to help track critical elements in relation to the separation project. There are a few options available:
      1. Follow the instructions on the next slide if you are looking to upload our SharePoint project template. Additional instructions are available in the SharePoint Template Step-by-Step Deployment Guide.
      2. If you cannot or do not want to use SharePoint as your project management solution, download our Excel version of the tool.
        **Remember that this your tool, so customize to your liking.
    2. Identify who will own or be accountable for each of the separation tasks and establish the time frame for when each project should begin and end. This will confirm which tasks should be prioritized.

    Record the updates in the M&A Separation Project Management Tool (SharePoint).

    Record the updates in the M&A Separation Project Management Tool (Excel).

    Separation Project Management Tool (SharePoint Template)

    Follow these instructions to upload our template to your SharePoint environment

    1. Create or use an existing SP site.
    2. Download the M&A Separation Project Management Tool (SharePoint) .wsp file from the Mergers & Acquisitions: The Sell Blueprint landing page.
    3. To import a template into your SharePoint environment, do the following:
      1. Open PowerShell.
      2. Connect-SPO Service (need to install PowerShell module).
      3. Enter in your tenant admin URL.
      4. Enter in your admin credentials.
      5. Set-SPO Site https://YourDomain.sharepoint.com/sites/YourSiteHe... -DenyAddAndCustomizePages 0
      OR
      1. Turn on both custom script features to allow users to run custom
    4. Screenshot of the 'Custom Script' option for importing a template into your SharePoint environment. Feature description reads 'Control whether users can run custom script on personal sites and self-service created sites. Note: changes to this setting might take up to 24 hours to take effect. For more information, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkIn=397546'. There are options to prevent or allow users from running custom script on personal/self-service created sites.
    5. Enable the SharePoint Server feature.
    6. Upload the .wsp file in Solutions Gallery.
    7. Deploy by creating a subsite and select from custom options.
      • Allow or prevent custom script
      • Security considerations of allowing custom script
      • Save, download, and upload a SharePoint site as a template
    8. Refer to Microsoft documentation to understand security considerations and what is and isn’t supported:

    For more information, check out the SharePoint Template: Step-by-Step Deployment Guide.

    Supporting the transition and establishing service-level agreements

    The purpose of this part of the transition is to ensure both buyer and seller have a full understanding of expectations for after the transaction.

    • Once the organizations have decided to move forward with a deal, all parties need a clear level of agreement.
    • IT, since it is often seen as an operational division of an organization, is often expected to deliver certain services or products once the transaction has officially closed.
    • The purchasing organization or the new company might depend on IT to deliver these services until they are able to provide those services on their own.
    • Having a clear understanding of what the buyer’s expectations are and what your company, as the selling organization, can provide is important.
    • Have a conversation with the buyer and document those expectations in a signed service agreement.

    3.2.4 Identify the buyer's IT expectations

    3-4 hours

    Input: Carve-out roadmap, Separation roadmap, Up-to-date version of the agreement

    Output: Buyer’s IT expectations

    Materials: Questions for meeting

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team, Purchasing company M&A team, Purchasing company IT leadership

    The purpose of this activity is to determine if the buyer has specific service expectations for your IT organization. By identifying, documenting, and agreeing on what services your IT organization will be responsible for, you can obtain a final agreement to protect you as the selling organization.

    1. Buyers should not assume certain services will be provided. Organize a meeting with IT leaders and the company M&A teams to determine what services will be provided.
    2. The next slide has a series of questions that you can start from. Ensure you get detailed information about each of the services.
    3. Once you fully understand the buyer’s IT expectations, create an SLA in the next activity and obtain sign-off from both organizations.

    Questions to ask the buyer

    1. What services would you like my IT organization to provide?
    2. How long do you anticipate those services will be provided to you?
    3. How do you expect your staff/employees to communicate requests or questions to my staff/employees?
    4. Are there certain days or times that you expect these services to be delivered?
    5. How many staff do you expect should be available to support you?
    6. What should be the acceptable response time on given service requests?
    7. When it comes to the services you require, what level of support should we provide?
    8. If a service requires escalation to Level 2 or Level 3 support, are we still expected to support this service? Or are we only Level 1 support?
    9. What preventative security methods does your organization have to protect our environment during this agreement period?

    3.2.5 Create a service/ transaction agreement

    6 hours

    Input: Buyer's expectations, Separation roadmap

    Output: SLA for the purchasing organization

    Materials: Service Catalog Internal Service Level Agreement Template, M&A Separation Project Plan Tool (SharePoint), M&A Separation Project Plan Tool (Excel)

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team, Purchasing company M&A team, Purchasing company IT leadership

    The purpose of this activity is to determine if the buyer has specific service expectations for your IT organization post-transaction that your IT organization is agreeing to provide.

    1. Document the expected services and the related details in a service-level agreement.
    2. Provide the SLA to the purchasing organization.
    3. Obtain sign-off from both organizations on the level of service that is expected of IT.
    4. Update the M&A Separation Project Management Tool Excel or SharePoint document to reflect any additional items that the purchasing organization identified.

    *For organizations being purchased in their entirety, this activity may not be relevant.

    Modify the Service Catalog Internal Service Level Agreement with the agreed-upon terms of the SLA.

    Importance of estimating separation costs

    Change is the key driver of separation costs

    Separation costs are dependent on the following:
    • Meeting synergy targets – whether that be cost saving or growth related.
      • Employee-related costs, licensing, and reconfiguration fees play a huge part in meeting synergy targets.
    • Adjustments related to compliance or regulations – especially if there are changes to legal entities, reporting requirements, or risk mitigation standards.
    • Governance or third party–related support required to ensure timelines are met and the separation is a success.
    Separation costs vary by industry type.
    • Certain industries may have separation costs made up of mostly one type, differing from other industries, due to the complexity and demands of the transaction. For example:
      • Healthcare separation costs are mostly driven by regulatory, safety, and quality standards, as well as consolidation of the research and development function.
      • Energy and Utilities tend to have the lowest separation costs due to most transactions occurring within the same sector rather than as cross-sector investments. For example, oil and gas transactions tend to be for oil fields and rigs (strategic fixed assets), which can easily be added to the buyer’s portfolio.

    Separation costs are more related to the degree of change required than the size of the transaction.

    3.2.6 Estimate separation costs

    3-4 hours

    Input: Separation tasks, Transition team, Valuation of current IT environment, Valuation of target IT environment, Outputs from data room, Technical debt, Employees

    Output: List of anticipated costs required to support IT separation

    Materials: Separation task checklist, Separation roadmap, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team, Transition team

    The purpose of this activity is to estimate the costs that will be associated with the separation. Identify and communicate a realistic figure to the larger M&A team within your company as early in the process as possible. This ensures that the funding required for the transaction is secured and budgeted for in the overarching transaction.

    1. On the associated slide in the M&A Sell Playbook, input:
      • Task
      • Domain
      • Cost type
      • Total cost amount
      • Level of certainty around the cost
    2. Provide a copy of the estimated costs to the company’s M&A team. Also provide any additional information identified earlier to help them understand the importance of those costs.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Employee transition planning

    Considering employee impact will be a huge component to ensure successful separation

    • Meet With Leadership
    • Plan Individual and Department Redeployment
    • Plan Individual and Department Layoffs
    • Monitor and Manage Departmental Effectiveness
    • For employees, the transition could mean:
      • Changing from their current role to a new role to meet requirements and expectations throughout the transition.
      • Being laid off because the role they are currently occupying has been made redundant.
    • It is important to plan for what the M&A separation needs will be and what the IT operational needs will be.
    • A lack of foresight into this long-term plan could lead to undue costs and headaches trying to retain critical staff, rehiring positions that were already let go, and keeping redundant employees longer then necessary.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Being transparent throughout the process is critical. Do not hesitate to tell employees the likelihood that their job may be made redundant. This will ensure a high level of trust and credibility for those who remain with the organization after the transaction.

    3.2.7 Create an employee transition plan

    3-4 hours

    Input: IT strategy, IT organizational design

    Output: Employee transition plans

    Materials: M&A Sell Playbook, Whiteboard, Sticky notes, Markers

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company M&A team, Transition team

    The purpose of this activity is to create a transition plan for employees.

    1. Transition planning can be done at specific individual levels or more broadly to reflect a single role. Consider these four items in the transition plan:
      • Understand the direction of the employee transitions.
      • Identify employees that will be involved in the transition (moved or laid off).
      • Prepare to meet with employees.
      • Meet with employees.
    2. For each employee that will be facing some sort of change in their regular role, permanent or temporary, create a transition plan.
    3. For additional information on transitioning employees, review the blueprint Streamline Your Workforce During a Pandemic.

    **Note that if someone’s future role is a layoff, then there is no need to record anything for skills needed or method for skill development.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    3.2.8 Create functional workplans for employees

    3-4 hours

    Input: Prioritized separation tasks, Employee transition plan, Separation RACI, Costs for activities, Activity owners

    Output: Employee functional workplans

    Materials: M&A Sell Playbook, Learning and development tools

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, IT management team, Company M&A team, Transition team

    The purpose of this activity is to create a functional workplan for the different employees so that they know what their key role and responsibilities are once the transaction occurs.

    1. First complete the transition plan from the previous activity (3.2.7) and the separation roadmap. Have these documents ready to review throughout this process.
    2. Identify the employees who will be transitioning to a new role permanently or temporarily. Creating a functional workplan is especially important for these employees.
    3. Identify the skills these employees need to have to support the separation. Record this in the corresponding slide in the M&A Sell Playbook.
    4. For each employee, identify someone who will be a point of contact for them throughout the transition.

    It is recommended that each employee have a functional workplan. Leverage the IT managers to support this task.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Metrics for separation

    Valuation & Due Diligence

    • % Defects discovered in production
    • $ Cost per user for enterprise applications
    • % In-house-built applications vs. enterprise applications
    • % Owners identified for all data domains
    • # IT staff asked to participate in due diligence
    • Change to due diligence
    • IT budget variance
    • Synergy target

    Execution & Value Realization

    • % Satisfaction with the effectiveness of IT capabilities
    • % Overall end-customer satisfaction
    • $ Impact of vendor SLA breaches
    • $ Savings through cost-optimization efforts
    • $ Savings through application rationalization and technology standardization
    • # Key positions empty
    • % Frequency of staff turnover
    • % Emergency changes
    • # Hours of unplanned downtime
    • % Releases that cause downtime
    • % Incidents with identified problem record
    • % Problems with identified root cause
    • # Days from problem identification to root cause fix
    • % Projects that consider IT risk
    • % Incidents due to issues not addressed in the security plan
    • # Average vulnerability remediation time
    • % Application budget spent on new build/buy vs. maintenance (deferred feature implementation, enhancements, bug fixes)
    • # Time (days) to value realization
    • % Projects that realized planned benefits
    • $ IT operational savings and cost reductions that are related to synergies/divestitures
    • % IT staff–related expenses/redundancies
    • # Days spent on IT separation
    • $ Accurate IT budget estimates
    • % Revenue growth directly tied to IT delivery
    • % Profit margin growth

    3.2.9 Align project metrics with identified tasks

    3-4 hours

    Input: Prioritized separation tasks, Employee transition plan, Separation RACI, Costs for activities, Activity owners, M&A goals

    Output: Separation-specific metrics to measure success

    Materials: Separation roadmap, M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Transition team

    The purpose of this activity is to understand how to measure the success of the separation project by aligning metrics to each identified task.

    1. Review the M&A goals identified by the business. Your metrics will need to tie back to those business goals.
    2. Identify metrics that align to identified tasks and measure achievement of those goals. For each metric you consider, ask the following questions:
      • What is the main goal or objective that this metric is trying to solve?
      • What does success look like?
      • Does the metric promote the right behavior?
      • Is the metric actionable? What is the story you are trying to tell with this metric?
      • How often will this get measured?
      • Are there any metrics it supports or is supported by?

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    By the end of this mid-transaction phase you should:

    Have successfully evaluated your IT people, processes, and technology to determine a roadmap forward for separating or selling.

    Key outcomes from the Due Diligence & Preparation phase
    • Participate in due diligence activities to comply with regulatory and auditing standards and prepare employees for the transition.
    • Create a separation roadmap that considers the tasks that will need to be completed and the resources required to support separation.
    Key deliverables from the Due Diligence & Preparation phase
    • Drive value with a due diligence charter
    • Gather data room artifacts
    • Measure staff engagement
    • Assess culture
    • Create a carve-out roadmap
    • Prioritize separation tasks
    • Establish the separation roadmap
    • Identify the buyer’s IT expectations
    • Create a service/transaction agreement
    • Estimate separation costs
    • Create an employee transition plan
    • Create functional workplans for employees
    • Align project metrics with identified tasks

    M&A Sell Blueprint

    Phase 4

    Execution & Value Realization

    Phase 1Phase 2Phase 3

    Phase 4

    • 1.1 Identify Stakeholders and Their Perspective of IT
    • 1.2 Assess IT’s Current Value and Future State
    • 1.3 Drive Innovation and Suggest Reduction Opportunities
    • 2.1 Establish the M&A Program Plan
    • 2.2 Prepare IT to Engage in the Separation or Sale
    • 3.1 Engage in Due Diligence and Prepare Staff
    • 3.2 Prepare to Separate
    • 4.1 Execute the Transaction
    • 4.2 Reflection and Value Realization

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • Monitor service agreements
    • Continually update the project plan
    • Confirm separation costs
    • Review IT’s transaction value
    • Conduct a transaction and separation SWOT
    • Review the playbook and prepare for future transactions

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • IT executive/CIO
    • IT senior leadership
    • Vendor management team
    • IT transaction team
    • Company M&A team

    Workshop Overview

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

    Pre-Work

    Day 1

    Day 2

    Day 3

    Engage in Separation

    Day 4

    Establish the Transaction FoundationDiscover the Motivation for IntegrationPlan the Separation RoadmapPrepare Employees for the TransitionEngage in SeparationAssess the Transaction Outcomes (Must be within 30 days of transaction date)

    Activities

    • 0.1 Identify the rationale for the company's decision to pursue a divestiture/sale.
    • 0.2 Identify key stakeholders and determine the IT transaction team.
    • 0.3 Gather and evaluate the M&A strategy, future-state operating model, and governance.
    • 1.1 Review the business rationale for the divestiture/sale.
    • 1.2 Identify pain points and opportunities tied to the divestiture/sale.
    • 1.3 Establish the separation strategy.
    • 1.4 Create the due diligence charter.
    • 2.1 Prioritize separation tasks.
    • 2.2 Establish the separation roadmap.
    • 2.3 Establish and align project metrics with identified tasks.
    • 2.4 Estimate separation costs.
    • 3.1 Measure staff engagement
    • 3.2 Assess the current culture and identify the goal culture.
    • 3.3 Create an employee transition plan.
    • 3.4 Create functional workplans for employees.
    • S.1 Complete the separation by regularly updating the project plan.
    • S.2 Assess the service/technical transaction agreement.
    • 4.1 Confirm separation costs.
    • 4.2 Review IT’s transaction value.
    • 4.3 Conduct a transaction and separation SWOT.
    • 4.4 Review the playbook and prepare for future transactions.

    Deliverables

    1. IT strategy
    2. IT operating model
    3. IT governance structure
    4. M&A transaction team
    1. Business context implications for IT
    2. Separation strategy
    3. Due diligence charter
    1. Separation roadmap and associated resourcing
    1. Engagement assessment
    2. Culture assessment
    3. Employee transition plans and workplans
    1. Evaluate service/technical transaction agreement
    2. Updated separation project plan
    1. SWOT of transaction
    2. M&A Sell Playbook refined for future transactions

    What is the Execution & Value Realization phase?

    Post-transaction state

    Once the transaction comes to a close, it’s time for IT to deliver on the critical separation tasks. As the selling organization in this transaction, you need to ensure you have a roadmap that properly enables the ongoing delivery of your IT environment while simultaneously delivering the necessary services to the purchasing organization.

    Throughout the separation transaction, some of the most common obstacles IT should prepare for include difficulty separating the IT environment, loss of key personnel, disengaged employees, and security/compliance issues.

    Post-transaction, the business needs to understands the value they received by engaging in the transaction and the ongoing revenue they might obtain as a result of the sale. You also need to ensure that the IT environment is functioning and mitigating any high-risk outcomes.

    Goal: To carry out the planned separation activities and deliver the intended value to the business.

    Execution Prerequisite Checklist

    Before coming into the Execution & Value Realization phase, you must have addressed the following:

    • Understand the rationale for the company's decisions to pursue a sale or divestiture and what opportunities or pain points the sale should alleviate.
    • Identify the key roles for the transaction team.
    • Identify the M&A governance.
    • Determine target metrics.
    • Select a separation strategy framework.
    • Conduct a RACI for key transaction tasks for the transaction team.
    • Create a carve-out roadmap.
    • Prioritize separation tasks.
    • Establish the separation roadmap.
    • Create employee transition plans.

    Before coming into the Execution & Value Realization phase, we recommend addressing the following:

    • Create vision and mission statements.
    • Establish guiding principles.
    • Create a future-state operating model.
    • Identify the M&A operating model.
    • Document the communication plan.
    • Examine the business perspective of IT.
    • Identify key stakeholders and outline their relationship to the M&A process.
    • Establish a due diligence charter.
    • Be able to valuate the IT environment and communicate IT’s value to the business.
    • Gather and present due diligence data room artifacts.
    • Measure staff engagement.
    • Assess and plan for culture.
    • Estimate separation costs.
    • Create functional workplans for employees.
    • Identify the buyer’s IT expectations.
    • Create a service/ transaction agreement.

    Separation checklists

    Prerequisite Checklist
    • Build the project plan for separation and prioritize activities
      • Plan first day
      • Plan first 30/100 days
      • Plan first year
    • Create an organization-aligned IT strategy
    • Identify critical stakeholders
    • Create a communication strategy
    • Understand the rationale for the sale or divestiture
    • Develop IT's sale/divestiture strategy
      • Determine goal opportunities
      • Create the mission and vision statements
      • Create the guiding principles
      • Create program metrics
    • Consolidate reports from due diligence/data room
    • Conduct culture assessment
    • Create a transaction team
    • Establish a service/technical transaction agreement
    • Plan and communicate culture changes
    • Create an employee transition plan
    • Assess baseline engagement
    Business
    • Design an enterprise architecture
    • Document your business architecture
    • Meet compliance and regulatory standards
    • Identify and assess all of IT's risks
    Applications
    • Prioritize and address critical applications
      • CRM
      • HRIS
      • Financial
      • Sales
      • Risk
      • Security
      • ERP
      • Email
    • Develop method of separating applications
    • Model critical applications that have dependencies on one another
    • Identify the infrastructure capacity required to support critical applications
    • Prioritize and address critical applications
    Leadership/IT Executive
    • Build an IT budget
    • Structure operating budget
    • Structure capital budget
    • Identify the workforce demand vs. capacity
    • Establish and monitor key metrics
    • Communicate value realized/cost savings
    Data
    • Confirm data strategy
    • Confirm data governance
    • Build a data architecture roadmap
    • Analyze data sources and domains
    • Evaluate data storage (on-premises vs. cloud)
    • Develop an enterprise content management strategy and roadmap
    • Ensure cleanliness/usability of data sets
    • Identify data sets that can remain operational if reduced/separated
    • Develop reporting and analytics capabilities
    • Confirm data strategy
    Operations
    • Manage sales access to customer data
    • Determine locations and hours of operation
    • Separate/terminate phone lists and extensions
    • Split email address books
    • Communicate helpdesk/service desk information

    Separation checklists (continued)

    Infrastructure
    • Manage organization domains
    • Consolidate data centers
    • Compile inventory of vendors, versions, switches, and routers
    • Review hardware lease or purchase agreements
    • Review outsourcing/service provider agreements
    • Review service-level agreements
    • Assess connectivity linkages between locations
    • Plan to migrate to a single email system if necessary
    • Determine network access concerns
    Vendors
    • Establish a sustainable vendor management office
    • Review vendor landscape
    • Identify warranty options
    • Identify the licensing grant
    • Rationalize vendor services and solutions
    People
    • Design an IT operating model
    • Design your future IT organizational structure
    • Conduct a RACI for prioritized activities
    • Conduct a culture assessment and identify goal IT culture
    • Build an IT employee engagement program
    • Determine critical roles and systems/process/products they support
    • Define new job descriptions with meaningful roles and responsibilities
    • Create employee transition plans
    • Create functional workplans
    Projects
    • Identify projects to be on hold
    • Communicate project intake process
    • Reprioritize projects
    Products & Services
    • Redefine service catalog
    • Ensure customer interaction requirements are met
    • Select a solution for product lifecycle management
    • Plan service-level agreements
    Security
    • Conduct a security assessment
    • Develop accessibility prioritization and schedule
    • Establish an information security strategy
    • Develop a security awareness and training program
    • Develop and manage security governance, risk, and compliance
    • Identify security budget
    • Build a data privacy and classification program
    IT Processes
    • Evaluate current process models
    • Determine productivity/capacity levels of processes
    • Identify processes to be changed/terminated
    • Establish a communication plan
    • Develop a change management process
    • Establish/review IT policies
    • Evaluate current process models

    Execution & Value Realization

    Step 4.1

    Execute the Transaction

    Activities

    • 4.1.1 Monitor service agreements
    • 4.1.2 Continually update the project plan

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    • Monitor service agreements
    • Continually update the project plan

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT executive/CIO
    • IT senior leadership
    • Vendor management team
    • IT transaction team
    • Company M&A team

    Outcomes of Step

    Successfully execute the separation of the IT environments and update the project plan, strategizing against any roadblocks as they come.

    Key concerns to monitor during separation

    If you are entering the transaction at this point, consider and monitor the following three items above all else.

    Your IT environment, reputation as an IT leader, and impact on key staff will depend on monitoring these aspects.

    • Risk & Security. Make sure that the channels of communication between the purchasing organization and your IT environment are properly determined and protected. This might include updating or removing employees’ access to certain programs.
    • Retaining Employees. Employees who do not see a path forward in the organization or who feel that their skills are being underused will be quick to move on. Make sure they are engaged before, during, and after the transaction to avoid losing employees.
    • IT Environment Dependencies. Testing the IT environment several times and obtaining sign-off from auditors that this has been completed correctly should be completed well before the transaction occurs. Have a strong architecture outlining technical dependencies.

    For more information, review:

    • Reduce and Manage Your Organization’s Insider Threat Risk
    • Map Technical Skills for a Changing Infrastructure Operations Organization
    • Build a Data Architecture Roadmap

    4.1.1 Monitor service agreements

    3-6 months

    Input: Original service agreement, Risk register

    Output: Service agreement confirmed

    Materials: Original service agreement

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, External organization IT senior leadership

    The purpose of this activity is to monitor the established service agreements on an ongoing basis. Your organization is most at risk during the initial months following the transaction.

    1. Ensure the right controls exist to prevent the organization from unnecessarily opening itself up to risks.
    2. Meet with the purchasing organization/subsidiary three months after the transaction to ensure that everyone is satisfied with the level of services provided.
    3. This is not a quick and completed activity, but one that requires ongoing monitoring. Repeatedly identify potential risks worth mitigating.

    For additional information and support for this activity, see the blueprint Build an IT Risk Management Program.

    4.1.2 Continually update the project plan

    Reoccurring basis following transition

    Input: Prioritized separation tasks, Separation RACI, Activity owners

    Output: Updated separation project plan

    Materials: M&A Separation Project Plan Tool (SharePoint), M&A Separation Project Plan Tool (Excel)

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, IT transaction team, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to ensure that the project plan is continuously updated as your transaction team continues to execute on the various components outlined in the project plan.

    1. Set a regular cadence for the transaction team to meet, update the project plan, review the status of the various separation task items, and strategize how to overcome any roadblocks.
    2. Employ governance best practices in these meetings to ensure decisions can be made effectively and resources allocated strategically.

    Record the updates in the M&A Separation Project Management Tool (SharePoint).

    Record the updates in the M&A Separation Project Management Tool (Excel).

    Execution & Value Realization

    Step 4.2

    Reflection and Value Realization

    Activities

    • 4.2.1 Confirm separation costs
    • 4.2.2 Review IT’s transaction value
    • 4.2.3 Conduct a transaction and separation SWOT
    • 4.2.4 Review the playbook and prepare for future transactions

    This step involves the following participants:

    • IT executive/CIO
    • IT senior leadership
    • Transition team
    • Company M&A team

    Outcomes of Step

    Review the value that IT was able to generate around the transaction and strategize about how to improve future selling or separating transactions.

    4.2.1 Confirm separation costs

    3-4 hours

    Input: Separation tasks, Carve-out roadmap, Transition team, Previous RACI, Estimated separation costs

    Output: Actual separation costs

    Materials: M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Transaction team, Company M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to confirm the associated costs around separation. While the separation costs would have been estimated previously, it’s important to confirm the costs that were associated with the separation in order to provide an accurate and up-to-date report to the company’s M&A team.

    1. Taking all the original items identified previously in activity 3.2.6, identify if there were changes in the estimated costs. This can be an increase or a decrease.
    2. Ensure that each cost has a justification for why the cost changed from the original estimation.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    Track cost savings and revenue generation

    Throughout the transaction, the business would have communicated its goals, rationales, and expectations for the transaction. Sometimes this is done explicitly, and other times the information is implicit. Either way, IT needs to ensure that metrics have been defined and are measuring the intended value that the business expects. Ensure that the benefits realized to the organization are being communicated regularly and frequently.

    1. Define Metrics: Select metrics to track synergies through the separation.
      1. You can track value by looking at percentages of improvement in process-level metrics depending on the savings or revenue being pursued.
      2. For example, if the value being pursued is decreasing costs, metrics could range from capacity to output, highlighting that the output remains high despite smaller IT environments.
    2. Prioritize Value-Driving Initiatives: Estimate the cost and benefit of each initiative's implementation to compare the amount of business value to the cost. The benefits and costs should be illustrated at a high level. Estimating the exact dollar value of fulfilling a synergy can be difficult and misleading.
        Steps
      • Determine the benefits that each initiative is expected to deliver.
      • Determine the high-level costs of implementation (capacity, time, resources, effort).
    3. Track Cost Savings and Revenue Generation: Develop a detailed workplan to resource the roadmap and track where costs are saved and revenue is generated as the initiatives are undertaken.

    4.2.2 Review IT’s transaction value

    3-4 hours

    Input: Prioritized separation tasks, Separation RACI, Activity owners, M&A company goals

    Output: Transaction value

    Materials: M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Company's M&A team

    The purpose of this activity is to track how your IT organization performed against the originally identified metrics.

    1. If your organization did not have the opportunity to identify metrics, determine from the company M&A what those metrics might be. Review activity 3.2.9 for more information on metrics.
    2. Identify whether the metric (which should support a goal) was at, below, or above the original target metric. This is a very critical task for IT to complete because it allows IT to confirm that they were successful in the transaction and that the business can count on them in future transactions.
    3. Be sure to record accurate and relevant information on why the outcomes (good or bad) are supporting the M&A goals set out by the business.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    4.2.3 Conduct a transaction and separation SWOT

    2 hours

    Input: Separation costs, Retention rates, Value that IT contributed to the transaction

    Output: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

    Materials: Flip charts, Markers, Sticky notes

    Participants: IT executive/CIO, IT senior leadership, Business transaction team

    The purpose of this activity is to assess the positive and negative elements of the transaction.

    1. Consider the internal and external elements that could have impacted the outcome of the transaction.
      • Strengths. Internal characteristics that are favorable as they relate to your development environment.
      • Weaknesses Internal characteristics that are unfavorable or need improvement.
      • Opportunities External characteristics that you may use to your advantage.
      • Threats External characteristics that may be potential sources of failure or risk.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    M&A Sell Playbook review

    With an acquisition complete, your IT organization is now more prepared then ever to support the business through future M&As

    • Now that the transaction is more than 80% complete, take the opportunity to review the key elements that worked well and the opportunities for improvement.
    • Critically examine the M&A Sell Playbook your IT organization created and identify what worked well to help the transaction and where your organization could adjust to do better in future transactions.
    • If your organization were to engage in another sale or divestiture under your IT leadership, how would you go about the transaction to make sure the company meets its goals?

    4.2.4 Review the playbook and prepare for future transactions

    4 hours

    Input: Transaction and separation SWOT

    Output: Refined M&A playbook

    Materials: M&A Sell Playbook

    Participants: IT executive/CIO

    The purpose of this activity is to revise the playbook and ensure it is ready to go for future transactions.

    1. Using the outputs from the previous activity, 4.2.3, determine what strengths and opportunities there were that should be leveraged in the next transaction.
    2. Likewise, determine which threats and weaknesses could be avoided in the future transactions.
      Remember, this is your M&A Sell Playbook, and it should reflect the most successful outcome for you in your organization.

    Record the results in the M&A Sell Playbook.

    By the end of this post-transaction phase you should:

    Have completed the separation post-transaction and be fluidly delivering the critical value that the business expected of IT.

    Key outcomes from the Execution & Value Realization phase
    • Ensure the separation tasks are being completed and that any blockers related to the transaction are being removed.
    • Determine where IT was able to realize value for the business and demonstrate IT’s involvement in meeting target goals.
    Key deliverables from the Execution & Value Realization phase
    • Monitor service agreements
    • Continually update the project plan
    • Confirm separation costs
    • Review IT’s transaction value
    • Conduct a transaction and separation SWOT
    • Review the playbook and prepare for future transactions

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Problem Solved

    Congratulations, you have completed the M&A Sell Blueprint!

    Rather than reacting to a transaction, you have been proactive in tackling this initiative. You now have a process to fall back on in which you can be an innovative IT leader by suggesting how and why the business should engage in a separation or sale transaction. You have:

    • Created a standardized approach for how your IT organization should address divestitures or sales.
    • Retained critical staff and complied with any regulations throughout the transaction.
    • Delivered on the separation project plan successfully and communicated IT’s transaction value to the business.

    Now that you have done all of this, reflect on what went well and what can be improved if you were to engage in a similar divestiture or sale again.

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

    Contact your account representative for more information
    workshops@infotech.com 1-888-670-8899

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Ibrahim Abdel-Kader
    Research Analyst | CIO
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Brittany Lutes
    Senior Research Analyst | CIO
    Info-Tech Research Group
    John Annand
    Principal Research Director | Infrastructure
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Scott Bickley
    Principal Research Director | Vendor Management
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Cole Cioran
    Practice Lead | Applications
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Dana Daher
    Research Analyst | Strategy & Innovation
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Eric Dolinar
    Manager | M&A Consulting
    Deloitte Canada
    Christoph Egel
    Director, Solution Design & Deliver
    Cooper Tire & Rubber Company
    Nora Fisher
    Vice President | Executive Services Advisory
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Larry Fretz
    Vice President | Industry
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Research Contributors and Experts

    David Glazer
    Vice President of Analytics
    Kroll
    Jack Hakimian
    Senior Vice President | Workshops and Delivery
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Gord Harrison
    Senior Vice President | Research & Advisory
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Valence Howden
    Principal Research Director | CIO
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Jennifer Jones
    Research Director | Industry
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Nancy McCuaig
    Senior Vice President | Chief Technology and Data Office
    IGM Financial Inc.
    Carlene McCubbin
    Practice Lead | CIO
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Kenneth McGee
    Research Fellow | Strategy & Innovation
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Nayma Naser
    Associate
    Deloitte
    Andy Neill
    Practice Lead | Data & Analytics, Enterprise Architecture
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Rick Pittman
    Vice President | Research
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Rocco Rao
    Research Director | Industry
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Mark Rosa
    Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer
    Mohegan Gaming and Entertainment
    Tracy-Lynn Reid
    Research Lead | People & Leadership
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Jim Robson
    Senior Vice President | Shared Enterprise Services (retired)
    Great-West Life
    Steven Schmidt
    Senior Managing Partner Advisory | Executive Services
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Nikki Seventikidis
    Senior Manager | Finance Initiative & Continuous Improvement
    CST Consultants Inc.
    Allison Straker
    Research Director | CIO
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Justin Waelz
    Senior Network & Systems Administrator
    Info-Tech Research Group
    Sallie Wright
    Executive Counselor
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Bibliography

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    Barbaglia, Pamela, and Joshua Franklin. “Global M&A sets Q1 record as dealmakers shape post-COVID world.” Nasdaq, 1 April 2021. Web.

    Boyce, Paul. “Mergers and Acquisitions Definition: Types, Advantages, and Disadvantages.” BoyceWire, 8 Oct. 2020. Web.

    Bradt, George. “83% Of Mergers Fail -- Leverage A 100-Day Action Plan For Success Instead.” Forbes, 27 Jan. 2015. Web.

    Capgemini. “Mergers and Acquisitions: Get CIOs, IT Leaders Involved Early.” Channel e2e, 19 June 2020. Web.

    Chandra, Sumit, et al. “Make Or Break: The Critical Role Of IT In Post-Merger Integration.” IMAA Institute, 2016. Web.

    Deloitte. “How to Calculate Technical Debt.” The Wall Street Journal, 21 Jan. 2015. Web.

    Ernst & Young. “IT As A Driver Of M&A Success.” IMAA Institute, 2017. Web.

    Fernandes, Nuno. “M&As In 2021: How To Improve The Odds Of A Successful Deal.” Forbes, 23 March 2021. Web.

    “Five steps to a better 'technology fit' in mergers and acquisitions.” BCS, 7 Nov. 2019. Web.

    Fricke, Pierre. “The Biggest Opportunity You’re Missing During an M&Aamp; IT Integration.” Rackspace, 4 Nov. 2020. Web.

    Garrison, David W. “Most Mergers Fail Because People Aren't Boxes.” Forbes, 24 June 2019. Web.

    Harroch, Richard. “What You Need To Know About Mergers & Acquisitions: 12 Key Considerations When Selling Your Company.” Forbes, 27 Aug. 2018. Web.

    Hope, Michele. “M&A Integration: New Ways To Contain The IT Cost Of Mergers, Acquisitions And Migrations.” Iron Mountain, n.d. Web.

    “How Agile Project Management Principles Can Modernize M&A.” Business.com, 13 April 2020. Web.

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    Kanter, Rosabeth Moss. “What We Can Learn About Unity from Hostile Takeovers.” Harvard Business Review, 12 Nov. 2020. Web.

    Koller, Tim, et al. “Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, 7th edition.” McKinsey & Company, 2020. Web.

    Labate, John. “M&A Alternatives Take Center Stage: Survey.” The Wall Street Journal, 30 Oct. 2020. Web.

    Lerner, Maya Ber. “How to Calculate ROI on Infrastructure Automation.” DevOps.com, 1 July 2020. Web.

    Loten, Angus. “Companies Without a Tech Plan in M&A Deals Face Higher IT Costs.” The Wall Street Journal, 18 June 2019. Web.

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    Lucas, Suzanne. “5 Reasons Turnover Should Scare You.” Inc. 22 March 2013. Web.

    “M&A Trends Survey: The future of M&A. Deal trends in a changing world.” Deloitte, Oct. 2020. Web.

    Maheshwari, Adi, and Manish Dabas. “Six strategies tech companies are using for successful divesting.” EY, 1 Aug. 2020. Web.

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    O'Connell, Sean, et al. “Divestitures: How to Invest for Success.” McKinsey, 1 Aug. 2015. Web

    Paszti, Laila. “Canada: Emerging Trends In Information Technology (IT) Mergers And Acquisitions.” Mondaq, 24 Oct. 2019. Web.

    Patel, Kiison. “The 8 Biggest M&A Failures of All Time” Deal Room, 9 Sept. 2021. Web.

    Peek, Sean, and Paula Fernandes. “What Is a Vision Statement?” Business News Daily, 7 May 2020. Web.

    Ravid, Barak. “How divestments can re-energize the technology growth story.” EY, 14 July 2021. Web.

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    Weller, Joe. “The Ultimate Guide to the M&A Process for Buyers and Sellers.” Smartsheet, 16 May 2019. Web.

    Prepare and Defend Against a Software Audit

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    • Parent Category Name: Licensing
    • Parent Category Link: /licensing
    • Audit defense starts long before you get audited. Negotiating your vendors’ audit rights and maintaining a documented consolidated licensing position ensure that you are not blindsided by a sudden audit request.
    • Notification of an impending audit can cause panic. Don't panic. While the notification will be full of strong language, your best chance of success is to take control of the situation. Prepare a measured response that buys you enough time to get your house in order before you let the vendor in.
    • If a free software asset review sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. If a vendor or one of its partners offers up a free software asset management engagement, they aren’t doing so out of the goodness of their heart — they expect to recoup their costs (and then some) from identified license discrepancies.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • The amount of business disruption depends on the scope of the audit, and the size and complexity of the organization coupled with the contractual audit clause in the contract.
    • These highly visible failures can be prevented through effective software asset management practices.
    • As complexity of licensing increases, so do penalties. If the environment is highly complex, prioritize effort by likelihood of audit and spend.
    • Ensure electronic records exist for license documentation to provide fast access for audit and information requests
    • Verify accuracy of discovered data. Ensure all devices on the network are being audited. Without a complete discovery process, data will always be inaccurate.

    Impact and Result

    • Being able to respond quickly with accurate data is critical. When deadlines are tight, and internal resources don’t exist, hire a third party as their experience will allow a faster response.
    • Negotiate terms of the audit such as deadlines, proof of license entitlement, and who will complete the audit.
    • Create a methodology to quickly and efficiently respond to audit requests.
    • Conduct annual internal audits.
    • Have a designated cross-functional IT audit team.
    • Prepare documentation in advance.
    • Manage audit logistics to minimize business disruption.
    • Dispute unwarranted findings.

    Prepare and Defend Against a Software Audit Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should be prepared and ready to defend against a software audit, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Prevent an audit

    Begin your proactive audit management journey and leverage value from your software asset management program.

    • Prepare and Defend Against a Software Audit – Phase 1: Prevent an Audit
    • Audit Defense Maturity Assessment Tool
    • Effective Licensing Position Tool
    • Audit Defence RACI Template

    2. Prepare for an audit

    Prepare for an audit by effectively scoping and consolidating organizational response.

    • Prepare and Defend Against a Software Audit – Phase 2: Prepare for an Audit
    • Software Audit Scoping Email Template
    • Audit Defense Readiness Assessment

    3. Conduct the audit

    Execute the audit in a way that preserves valuable relationships while accounting for vendor specific criteria.

    • Prepare and Defend Against a Software Audit – Phase 3: Conduct an Audit
    • Software Audit Launch Email Template

    4. Manage post-audit activities

    Conduct negotiations, settle on remuneration, and close out the audit.

    • Prepare and Defend Against a Software Audit - Phase 4: Manage Post-Audit Activities
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Prepare and Defend Against a Software Audit

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

    1 Prevent an Audit

    The Purpose

    Kick off the project

    Identify challenges and red flags

    Determine maturity and outline internal audit

    Clarify stakeholder responsibilities

    Build and structure audit team

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Leverage value from your audit management program

    Begin your proactive audit management journey

    A documented consolidated licensing position, which ensures that you are not blindsided by a sudden audit request

    Activities

    1.1 Perform a maturity assessment of the current environment

    1.2 Classify licensing contracts/vendors

    1.3 Conduct a software inventory

    1.4 Meter application usage

    1.5 Manual checks

    1.6 Gather software licensing data

    1.7 Reconcile licenses

    1.8 Create your audit team and assign accountability

    Outputs

    Maturity assessment

    Effective license position/license reconciliation

    Audit team RACI chart

    2 Prepare for an Audit

    The Purpose

    Create a strategy for audit response

    Know the types of requests

    Scope the engagement

    Understand scheduling challenges

    Know roles and responsibilities

    Understand common audit pitfalls

    Define audit goals

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Take control of the situation and prepare a measured response

    A dedicated team responsible for all audit-related activities

    A formalized audit plan containing team responsibilities and audit conduct policies

    Activities

    2.1 Use Info-Tech’s readiness assessment template

    2.2 Define the scope of the audit

    Outputs

    Readiness assessment

    Audit scoping email template

    3 Conduct the Audit

    The Purpose

    Overview of process conducted

    Kick-off and self-assessment

    Identify documentation requirements

    Prepare required documentation

    Data validation process

    Provide resources to enable the auditor

    Tailor audit management to vendor compliance position

    Enforce best-practice audit behaviors

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A successful audit with minimal impact on IT resources

    Reduced severity of audit findings

    Activities

    3.1 Communicate audit commencement to staff

    Outputs

    Audit launch email template

    4 Manage Post-Audit Activities

    The Purpose

    Clarify auditor findings and recommendations

    Access severity of audit findings

    Develop a plan for refuting unwarranted findings

    Disclose findings to management

    Analyze opportunities for remediation

    Provide remediation options and present potential solutions

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Ensure your audit was productive and beneficial

    Improve your ability to manage audits

    Come to a consensus on which findings truly necessitate organizational change

    Activities

    4.1 Don't accept the penalties; negotiate with vendors

    4.2 Close the audit and assess the financial impact

    Outputs

    A consensus on which findings truly necessitate organizational change

    IT Management and Policies

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    • InfoTech Academy Title: IT management and policies videos
    • InfoTech Academy Excerpt: More videos are available once you join. Contact us for more information.
    • Teaser Video: Visit Website
    • Teaser Video Title: Policies Academy Overview
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    • Parent Category Name: Strategy and Governance
    • InfotechAcademy-Executivebrief: Visit Website
    • Parent Category Link: /strategy-and-governance
    Create policies that matter most to your organization.

    Management, policy, policies

    IT Asset Management (ITAM) Market Overview

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    • Parent Category Name: Asset Management
    • Parent Category Link: /asset-management
    • Data management is challenging at the best of times but managing assets that change on a daily basis are difficult without automation and a good asset tool.
    • For organizations moving beyond basic hardware inventory, knowing what to look for to prepare for future processes seems impossible.
    • Using price as the leading criteria or just as an add-on to your ITSM solution may frustrate your efforts, especially if managing complex licensing is part of your mandate.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • If the purchase is happening independent of process design or review, it’s easy to end up with a solution that doesn’t fit your environment.
    • The complexity of your environment should be a significant factor in choosing an IT asset management solution.
    • Imagining the possibilities and understanding the differences between IT asset tools will drive you to the right solution for long term gain in managing dynamic assets.

    Impact and Result

    • Regardless of whether your IT environment is on-premises, in the cloud, or a complex hybrid of the two, knowing where your asset funds are allocated is key to right-sizing costs and reducing risks of non-compliance or lost assets.
    • Choosing the right tools for the job will be key to your success.

    IT Asset Management (ITAM) Market Overview Research & Tools

    Start here: Read the Market Overview

    Read the Market Overview to understand what features and capabilities are available in ITAM tools. The right features match is key to making a data heavy and challenging process easier for your team.

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

    • IT Asset Management Market Overview

    1. Prepare your project plan and selection process

    Use the Info-Tech templates to identify and document your requirements, plan your project, and prepare to engage with vendors.

    • ITAM Project Charter Template
    • ITAM Demonstration Script Template
    • Proof of Concept Template
    • ITAM Vendor Evaluation Workbook
    [infographic]

    Availability and Capacity Management

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    • Parent Category Name: Resilient IT Operations
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    Develop your availability and capacity management plant and align it with exactly what the business expects.

    Proactively Identify and Mitigate Vendor Risk

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    • IT priorities are focused on daily tasks, pushing risk management to secondary importance and diverging from a proactive environment.
    • IT leaders are relying on an increasing number of third-party technology vendors and outsourcing key functions to meet the rapid pace of change within IT.
    • Risk levels can fluctuate over the course of the partnership, requiring manual process checks and/or automated solutions.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Every IT vendor carries risks that have business implications. These legal, financial, security, and operational risks could inhibit business continuity and IT can’t wait until an issue arises to act.
    • Making intelligent decisions about risks without knowing what their financial impact will be is difficult. Risk impact must be quantified.
    • You don’t know what you don’t know, and what you don’t know, can hurt you. To find hidden risks, you must use a structured risk identification method.

    Impact and Result

    • A thorough risk assessment in the selection phase is your first line of defense. If you follow the principles of vendor risk management, you can mitigate collateral losses following an adverse event.
    • Make a conscious decision whether to accept the risk based on time, priority, and impact. Spend the required time to correctly identify and enact defined vendor management processes that determine spend categories and appropriately evaluate potential and preferred suppliers. Ensure you accurately assess the partnership potential.
    • Take a proactive stance against IT threats and vulnerabilities by identifying and assessing IT’s most significant risks before they happen.

    Proactively Identify and Mitigate Vendor Risk Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out how to create a vendor risk management program that minimizes your organization’s vulnerability and mitigates adverse scenarios.

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

    1. Review vendor risk fundamentals and establish governance

    Review IT vendor risk fundamentals and establish a risk governance framework.

    • Proactively Identify and Mitigate Vendor Risk – Phase 1: Review Vendor Risk Fundamentals and Establish Governance
    • Vendor Risk Management Maturity Assessment Tool
    • Vendor Risk Management Program Manual
    • Risk Event Action Plan

    2. Assess vendor risk and define your response strategy

    Categorize, prioritize, and assess your vendor risks. Follow up with creating effective response strategies.

    • Proactively Identify and Mitigate Vendor Risk – Phase 2: Assess Vendor Risk and Define Your Response Strategy
    • Vendor Classification Model Tool
    • Vendor Risk Profile and Assessment Tool
    • Risk Costing Tool
    • Risk Register Tool

    3. Monitor, communicate, and improve IT vendor risk process

    Assign accountability and responsibilities to formalize ongoing risk monitoring. Communicate your findings to management and share the plan moving forward.

    • Proactively Identify and Mitigate Vendor Risk – Phase 3: Monitor, Communicate, and Improve IT Vendor Risk Process
    • Risk Report
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Proactively Identify and Mitigate Vendor Risk

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

    1 Prepare for the Workshop

    The Purpose

    To prepare the team for the workshop.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Avoids delays and interruptions once the workshop is in progress.

    Activities

    1.1 Send workshop agenda to all participants.

    1.2 Prepare list of vendors and review any contracts provided by them.

    1.3 Review current risk management process.

    Outputs

    All necessary participants assembled

    List of vendors and vendor contracts

    Understanding of current risk management process

    2 Review Vendor Risk Fundamentals and Establish Governance

    The Purpose

    Review IT vendor risk fundamentals.

    Assess current maturity and set risk management program goals.

    Engage stakeholders and establish a risk governance framework.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understanding of organizational risk culture and the corresponding risk threshold.

    Obstacles to effective IT risk management identified.

    Attainable goals to increase maturity established.

    Understanding of the gap to achieve vendor risk readiness.

    Activities

    2.1 Brainstorm vendor-related risks.

    2.2 Assess current program maturity.

    2.3 Identify obstacles and pain points.

    2.4 Develop risk management goals.

    2.5 Develop key risk indicators (KRIs) and escalation protocols.

    2.6 Gain stakeholders’ perspective.

    Outputs

    Vendor risk management maturity assessment

    Goals for vendor risk management

    Stakeholders’ opinions

    3 Assess Vendor Risk and Define Your Response Strategy

    The Purpose

    Categorize vendors.

    Prioritize assessed risks.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Risk events prioritized according to risk severity – as defined by the business.

    Activities

    3.1 Categorize vendors.

    3.2 Map vendor infrastructure.

    3.3 Prioritize vendors.

    3.4 Identify risk contributing factors.

    3.5 Assess risk exposure.

    3.6 Calculate expected cost.

    3.7 Identify risk events.

    3.8 Input risks into the Risk Register Tool.

    Outputs

    Vendors classified and prioritized

    Vendor risk exposure

    Expected cost calculation

    4 Assess Vendor Risk and Define Your Response Strategy (continued)

    The Purpose

    Determine risk threshold and contract clause relating to risk prevention.

    Identify and assess risk response actions.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Thorough analysis has been conducted on the value and effectiveness of risk responses for high-severity risk events.

    Risk response strategies have been identified for all key risks.

    Authoritative risk response recommendations can be made to senior leadership.

    Activities

    4.1 Determine the threshold for (un)acceptable risk.

    4.2 Match elements of the contract to related vendor risks.

    4.3 Identify and assess risk responses.

    Outputs

    Thresholds for (un)acceptable risk

    Risk responses

    5 Monitor, Communicate, and Improve IT Vendor Risk Process

    The Purpose

    Communicate top risks to management.

    Assign accountabilities and responsibilities for risk management process.

    Establish monitoring schedule.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Risk monitoring responsibilities are established.

    Transparent accountabilities and established ongoing improvement of the vendor risk management program.

    Activities

    5.1 Create a stakeholder map.

    5.2 Complete RACI chart.

    5.3 Establish the reporting schedule.

    5.4 Finalize the vendor risk management program.

    Outputs

    Stakeholder map

    Assigned accountability for risk management

    Established monitoring schedule

    Risk report

    Vendor Risk Management Program Manual

    Maintain an Organized Portfolio

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    • Parent Category Name: Portfolio Management
    • Parent Category Link: /portfolio-management
    • All too often, the portfolio of programs and projects looks more like a random heap than a strategically organized and balanced collection of investments that will drive the business forward.
    • Portfolio managers know that with the right kind of information and the right level of process maturity they can get better results through the portfolio; however, organizations often assume (falsely) that the required level of maturity is out of reach from their current state and perpetually delay improvements.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • The information needed to define clear and usable criteria for organizing the portfolio of programs and projects already exists. Portfolio managers only need to identify the sources of that information and institute processes for regularly reviewing that information in order to define those criteria.
    • Once a portfolio manager has a clear idea of the goals and constraints that shape what ought to be included (or removed) from the portfolio and once these have been translated into clear and usable portfolio criteria, basic portfolio management processes can be instituted to ensure that these criteria are used consistently throughout the various stages of the project lifecycle.
    • Portfolio management frameworks and processes do not need to be built from scratch. Well-known frameworks – such as the one outlined in COBIT 5 APO05 – can be instituted in a way that will allow even low-maturity organizations to start organizing their portfolio.
    • Organizations do not need to grow into portfolio management frameworks to get the benefits of an organized portfolio; instead, they can grow within such frameworks.

    Impact and Result

    • An organized portfolio will ensure that the projects and programs included in it are strategically aligned and can actually be executed within the finite constraints of budgetary and human resource capacity.
    • Portfolio managers are better empowered to make decisions about which projects should be included in the portfolio (and when) and are better empowered to make the very tough decisions about which projects should be removed from the portfolio (i.e. cancelled).
    • Building and maturing a portfolio management framework will more fully integrate the PMO into the broader IT management and governance frameworks, making it a more integral part of strategic decisions and a better business partner in the long run.

    Maintain an Organized Portfolio Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should maintain an organized portfolio of programs and projects, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Assess the current state of the portfolio and PPM processes

    Analyze the current mix of programs and projects in your portfolio and assess the maturity of your current PPM processes.

    • Maintain an Organized Portfolio – Phase 1: Assess the Current State of the Portfolio and PPM Processes
    • Project Portfolio Organizer
    • COBIT APO05 (Manage Portfolio) Alignment Workbook

    2. Enhance portfolio organization through improved PPM criteria and processes

    Enhance and optimize your portfolio management processes to ensure portfolio criteria are clearly defined and consistently applied across the project lifecycle when making decisions about which projects to include or remove from the portfolio.

    • Maintain an Organized Portfolio – Phase 2: Enhance Portfolio Organization Through Improved PPM Criteria and Processes
    • Portfolio Management Standard Operating Procedures

    3. Implement improved portfolio management practices

    Implement your portfolio management improvement initiatives to ensure long-term sustainable adoption of new PPM practices.

    • Maintain an Organized Portfolio – Phase 3: Implement Improved Portfolio Management Practices
    • Portfolio Management Improvement Roadmap Tool
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Maintain an Organized Portfolio

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

    1 Assess Portfolio Mix and Portfolio Process Current State

    The Purpose

    Analyze the current mix of the portfolio to determine how to better organize it according to organizational goals and constraints.

    Assess which PPM processes need to be enhanced to better organize the portfolio.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    An analysis of the existing portfolio of projects (highlighting areas of concern).

    An analysis of the maturity of current PPM processes and their ability to support the maintenance of an organized portfolio.

    Activities

    1.1 Pre-work: Prepare a complete project list.

    1.2 Define existing portfolio categories, criteria, and targets.

    1.3 Analyze the current portfolio mix.

    1.4 Identify areas of concern with current portfolio mix.

    1.5 Review the six COBIT sub-processes for portfolio management (APO05.01-06).

    1.6 Assess the degree to which these sub-processes have been currently achieved at the organization.

    1.7 Assess the degree to which portfolio-supporting IT governance and management processes exist.

    1.8 Perform a gap analysis.

    Outputs

    Analysis of the current portfolio mix

    Assessment of COBIT alignment and gap analysis.

    2 Define Portfolio Target Mix, Criteria, and Roadmap

    The Purpose

    Define clear and usable portfolio criteria.

    Record/design portfolio management processes that will support the consistent use of portfolio criteria at all stages of the project lifecycle.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Clearly defined and usable portfolio criteria.

    A portfolio management framework that supports the consistent use of the portfolio criteria across all stages of the project lifecycle.

    Activities

    2.1 Identify determinants of the portfolio mix, criteria, and constraints.

    2.2 Define the target mix, portfolio criteria, and portfolio metrics.

    2.3 Identify sources of funding and resourcing.

    2.4 Review and record the portfolio criteria based upon the goals and constraints.

    2.5 Create a PPM improvement roadmap.

    Outputs

    Portfolio criteria

    Portfolio metrics for intake, monitoring, closure, termination, reprioritization, and benefits tracking

    Portfolio Management Improvement Roadmap

    3 Design Improved Portfolio Sub-Processes

    The Purpose

    Ensure that the portfolio criteria are used to guide decision making at each stage of the project lifecycle when making decisions about which projects to include or remove from the portfolio.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Processes that support decision making based upon the portfolio criteria.

    Processes that ensure the portfolio remains consistently organized according to the portfolio criteria.

    Activities

    3.1 Ensure that the metrics used for each sub-process are based upon the standard portfolio criteria.

    3.2 Establish the roles, accountabilities, and responsibilities for each sub-process needing improvement.

    3.3 Outline the workflow for each sub-process needing improvement.

    Outputs

    A RACI chart for each sub-process

    A workflow for each sub-process

    4 Change Impact Analysis and Stakeholder Engagement Plan

    The Purpose

    Ensure that the portfolio management improvement initiatives are sustainably adopted in the long term.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Stakeholder engagement.

    Sustainable long-term adoption of the improved portfolio management practices.

    Activities

    4.1 Conduct a change impact analysis.

    4.2 Create a stakeholder engagement plan.

    Outputs

    Change Impact Analysis

    Stakeholder Engagement Plan

    Completed Portfolio Management SOP

    Analyze Your Service Desk Ticket Data

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    • Parent Category Name: Service Desk
    • Parent Category Link: /service-desk
    • Leverage your service desk ticket data to gain insights for your service desk strategy.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

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

    Impact and Result

    • Create an iterative framework for tracking metrics, keeping data clean, and actioning your data on day-to-day and month-to-month timelines.

    Analyze Your Service Desk Ticket Data Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should analyze your service desk ticket data, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Import your ticket data

    Enter your data into our tool. Compare your own ITSM ticket fields to improve ticket data moving forward.

    • Service Desk Ticket Analysis Tool

    2. Analyze your ticket data

    Use the ticket analysis tool as a guide to build your own operational dashboards to measure metrics over time. Gain actionable insights from your data.

    • Ticket Analysis Report

    3. Action your ticket data

    Use the data to communicate your findings to the business and leadership using the Ticket Analysis Report.

    [infographic]

    Further reading

    INFO-TECH RESEARCH GROUP

    Analyze Your Service Desk Ticket Data

    Take a data-driven approach to service desk optimization.

    EXECUTIVE BRIEF

    Analyst Perspective

    Photo of Benedict Chang, Research Analyst, Infrastructure & Operations, Info-Tech Research Group

    Benedict Chang
    Research Analyst, Infrastructure & Operations
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Photo of Ken Weston ITIL MP, PMP, Cert.APM, SMC, Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations, Info-Tech Research Group

    Ken Weston ITIL MP, PMP, Cert.APM, SMC
    Research Director, Infrastructure & Operations
    Info-Tech Research Group

    The perfect time to start analyzing your ticket data is now

    Service desks improve their services by leveraging ticket data to inform their actions. However, many organizations don’t know where to start. It’s tempting to wait for perfect data, but there’s a lot of value in analyzing your ticket data as it exists today.

    Start small. Track key tension metrics based on the out-of-the-box functionality in your tool. Review the metrics regularly to stay on track.

    By reviewing your ticket data, you’re going to get better organically. You’re going to learn about the state of your environment, the health of your processes, and the quality of your services. Regularly analyze your data to drive improvements.

    Make ticket analysis a weekly habit. Every week, you should be evaluating how the past week went. Every month, you should be looking for patterns and trends.

    Executive Summary

    Your Situation

    Leverage your service desk ticket data to gain insights for improving your operations:

    1. Use a data-based approach to allocate service desk resources.
    2. Design appropriate SLOs and SLAs to better service end users.
    3. Gain efficiencies for your shift-left strategy.
    4. Communicate the current and future value of the service desk to the business.

    Common Obstacles

    Properly analyzing ticket data is challenging for the following reasons:

    • Poor ticket hygiene and unclear ticket handling guidelines can lead to untrustworthy results.
    • Undocumented tickets from various intake channels prevents you from seeing the whole picture.
    • Service desk personnel are not sure where to start with analysis and are too busy to find time.
    • Too many metrics are tracked to parse actionable insights from the noise.

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    Info-Tech’s approach to improvement:

    • To reduce the noise, standardize your ticket data in a format that will ease analysis.
    • Start with common analyses using the cleaned data set.
    • Identify action items based on your ticket data.

    Analyze your ticket data to help continually improve your service desk.

    Slow down. Give yourself time.

    Give yourself time to observe the new metrics and draw enough insights to make recommendations for improvement. Then, execute on those recommendations. Slow and steady improvement of the service desk only adds business value and will have a positive impact on customer satisfaction.

    Your challenge

    This research is designed to help service desk managers analyze their ticket data

    Analyzing ticket data involves:

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

    36% of organizations are prioritizing ticket handling in IT for 2021 (Source: SDI, 2021)

    12% of organizations are focusing directly on service desk improvement (Source: SDI, 2021)

    Common obstacles

    Many organizations face these barriers to analyzing their ticket data:

    • Finding time to properly analyze ticket data is a challenge. Not knowing where to start can lead to not analyzing the proper data. Service desks end up either tracking too much data or not tracking the proper metrics.
    • Data, even if clean, can be housed in various tools and databases. It’s difficult to aggregate data if the data is stored throughout various tools. Comparisons may also be difficult if the data sets aren’t consistent.
    • Shifting left to move tickets toward self-service is difficult when there is no visibility into which tickets should be shifted left.

    What your peers are saying about why they can’t start analyzing their ticket data:

    • “My technicians do not consistently update and close tickets.”
    • “My ITSM doesn’t have the capabilities I need to make informed decisions on shifting tickets left.”
    • “My tickets are always missing data”
    • “I’m constantly firefighting. I have no time for ticket data analysis.”
    • “I have no idea where to start with the amount of data I have.”
    (Source: Info-Tech survey, 2021; N=20.)

    Common obstacles that prevent effective ticket analysis

    We asked IT service desk managers and teams about their biggest hurdles

    Missing or Inaccurate Information
    • Lack of information in the ticket
    • Categories are too general/specific to draw insights
    • Poor ticket hygiene
    Missing Updates
    • Tickets aren’t updated while being resolved
    Correlating Tickets to Identify Trends
    • Not sure where to start with all the data at hand
    No Time
    • No time to figure out the tool or analyze the data properly
    Ineffective Categorization Schemes
    • Reduces the power of ticket data
    Tool Limitations
    • Can’t be easily customized
    • Too customized to be effective
    • Desired dashboards unavailable
    (Source: Info-Tech survey, 2021; N=20)

    Info-Tech’s approach

    Repeat this analysis every business cycle:

    • Gather Your Data
      Collect your ticket data OR start measuring the right metrics.
    • Extract & Analyze
      Organize and visualize your data to extract insights
    • Action the Results
      Implement low-effort improvements and celebrate quick successes.
    • Implement Larger Changes
      Reference your ticket data while implementing process, tooling, and other changes.
    • Communicate the Results
      Use your data to show the value of your effort.

    Measure the value of this blueprint

    Track these metrics as you improve

    Use the data to tell you which aspects of IT need to be shifted left and which need to be automated

    Your data will show you where you can improve.

    As you act on your data, you should see:

    • Lower costs per ticket
    • Decreased average time to resolve
    • Increased end-user satisfaction
    • Fewer tickets escalated beyond Tier 1

    An illustration of the 'Shift Left Strategy' using three line graphs arranged in a table with the same axes but representing different metrics. The header row is 'Metrics,' then values of the x-axes are 'Auto-Fix,' 'User,' 'Tier 1,' 'Tier2/Tier3,' and 'Vendor.' Under 'Metrics' we see 'Cost,' 'Time,' and 'Satisfaction.' The 'Cost' graph begins 'Low' at 'Auto-Fix' and gradually moves to 'High' at 'Vendor.' The 'Time' graph begins 'Low' at 'Auto-Fix' and gradually moves to 'High' at 'Vendor.' The 'Satisfaction' graph begins 'High' at 'Auto-Fix' and gradually moves to 'Low' at 'Vendor.' Below is an arrow directing us away from the 'Vendor' option and toward the 'Auto-Fix' option, 'Shift Ticket Resolution Left.'

    See Info-Tech’s blueprint Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy.

    Info-Tech’s methodology for analyzing service desk tickets

    1. Import Your Ticket Data 2. Analyze Your Ticket Data 3. Communicate Your Insights
    Phase Steps
    1. Import Your Ticket Data
    1. Analyze High-Level Ticket Data
    2. Analyze Incidents, Service Requests, and Ticket Categories
    1. Build Recommendations
    2. Action and Communicate Your Ticket Data
    Phase Outcomes Enter your data into our tool. Compare your own ITSM ticket fields to improve ticket data moving forward. Use the Service Desk Ticket Analysis Tool as a guide to build your own operational dashboards to measure metrics over time. Gain actionable insights from your data. Use the data to communicate your findings to the business and leadership using the Ticket Analysis Report.

    Insight summary

    Slow down. Give yourself time.

    Give yourself time to observe the new metrics and draw enough insights to make recommendations for improvement. Then, execute on those recommendations. Slow and steady improvement of the service desk only adds business value and will have a positive impact on customer satisfaction.

    Iterate on what to track rather than trying to get it right the first time.

    Tracking the right data in your ticket can be challenging if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Start with standardized fields and iterate on your data analysis to figure out your gaps and needs.

    If you don’t know where to go, ticket data can point you in the right direction.

    If you have service desk challenges, you will need to allocate time to process improvement. However, prioritizing your initiatives is easier if you have the ticket data to point you in the right direction.

    Start with data from one business cycle.

    Service desks don’t need three years’ worth of data. Focus on gathering data for one business cycle (e.g. three months). That will give you enough information to start generating value.

    Let the data do the talking.

    Leverage the data to drive organizational and process change in your organization by tracking meaningful metrics. Choose those metrics using business-aligned goals.

    Paint the whole picture.

    Single metrics in isolation, even if measured over time, may not tell the whole story. Make sure you design tension metrics where necessary to get a holistic view of your service desk.

    Blueprint deliverables

    This blueprint’s key deliverable is a ticket analysis tool. Many of the activities throughout this blueprint will direct you to complete and interpret this tool. The other main deliverable is a stakeholder presentation template to help you document the outcomes of the project.
    Service Desk Ticket Analysis Tool Ticket Analysis Report
    Use this tool to identify trends and patterns in your ticket data to action improvement initiatives.

    Sample of the Service Desk Ticket Analysis Tool blueprint deliverable.

    Use this template to document the justification for addressing service desk improvement, the results of your analysis, and your next steps.

    Sample of the Ticket Analysis Report blueprint deliverable.

    Blueprint benefits

    IT Benefits

    • Discover and implement the proper metrics to improve your service desk
    • Use a data-based approach to improve your customer service and operational goals
    • Increase visibility with the business and other IT departments using a structured presentation

    Business Benefits

    • Quicker resolutions to incidents and service requests
    • Better expectations for the service desk and IT
    • Better visibility into the current state, challenges, and goals of the service desk
    • More effective support when contacting the service desk

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

    DIY Toolkit

    Guided Implementation

    Workshop

    Consulting

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

    Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

    Guided Implementation

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

    A typical GI is 3-4 calls over the course of 2-3 months.

    What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

      Phase 1

    • Call #1: Scope requirements, objectives, and your specific challenges. Enter your data into the tool.
    • Phase 2

    • Call #2: Assess the current state across the different dashboards.
    • Phase 3

    • Call #3: Identify improvements and insights to include in the communication report.
    • Call #4: Review the service desk ticket analysis report.

    PHASE 1

    Import Your Ticket Data

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • 1.1.1 Define your objectives for analyzing ticket data
    • 1.1.2 Identify success metrics
    • 1.1.3 Import your ticket data into the tool
    • 1.1.4 Update your ticket fields for future analysis

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Service Desk Manager
    • ITSM Manager
    • Service Desk Technician

    1.1.1 Define your objectives for analyzing ticket data

    Input: Understanding of current service desk process and ticket routing

    Output: Defined objectives for the project

    Materials: Whiteboard/flip charts, Ticket Analysis Report

    Participants: Service Desk Staff, Service Desk Manager, IT Director, CIO

    Use the discussion questions below as a guide
    1. Identify your main objective for analyzing ticket data. Use these three sample objectives as a starting point:
      • Demonstrate value to the business by improving customer service.
      • Improve service desk operations.
      • Reduce the number of recurring incidents.
    2. Answer the following questions as a group:
      • What challenges do you have getting accurate data for this objective?
      • What data is missing for supporting this objective?
      • What kind of issues must be solved for us to make progress on achieving this objective?
      • What decisions are held up from a lack of data?
      • How can better ticket data help us to more effectively manage our services and operations?

    Document in the Ticket Analysis Report.

    1.1.2 Identify success metrics

    Select metrics that will track your progress on meeting the objective identified in Activity 1.1.1.

    Input: Understanding of current service desk process and ticket routing

    Output: Defined objectives for the project

    Materials: Whiteboard/flip charts, Ticket Analysis Report

    Participants: Service Desk Manager, IT Director, CIO

    Use these sample metrics as a starting point:
    Demonstrate value to the business by improving customer service
    Ticket trends by category by month # tickets by business department % SLAs met by IT teams
    Average customer satisfaction rating % incident tickets closed in one day Service request SLAs met by % Annual IT satisfaction survey result
    Improve service desk operations
    Incident tickets assigned, sorted by age and priority Scheduled requests for today and tomorrow Knowledgebase articles due for renewal this month Top 5-10 tickets for the quarter
    Unassigned tickets by age # incident tickets assigned by tech Open tickets by category Backlog summary by age
    Reducing the number of recurring incidents
    # incidents by category and resolution code Number of problem tickets opened and resolved Correlation of ticket volume trends to events Reduction of volume of recurring tickets
    Use of knowledgebase by users Use of self-service for ticket creation Use of service catalog Use of automated features (e.g. password resets)
    Average call hold time % calls abandoned Average resolution time Number of tickets reopened

    Document in the Ticket Analysis Report.

    Inefficient ticket-handling processes lead to SLA breaches and unplanned downtime

    Analyze the ticket data to catch mismanaged or lost tickets that lead to unnecessary escalations and impact business profitability

    • Ticket Category – Are your tickets categorized by type of asset? By service?
    • Average Ticket Times – How long does it take to resolve or fulfill tickets?
    • Ticket Priority – What is the impact and urgency of the ticket?
    • SLA/OLA Violations – Did we meet our SLA objectives? If not, why?
    • Ticket Channel – How was the issue reported or ticket received?
    • Response and Fulfillment – Did we complete first contact resolution? How many times was it transferred?
    • Associated Tasks and Tickets – Is this incident associated with any other tasks like change tickets or problem tickets?

    Encourage proper ticket-handling procedures to enable data quality

    Ensure everyone understands the expectations and the value created from having ticket data that follows these expectations

    • Create and update tickets, but not at the expense of good customer service. Agents can start the ticket but shouldn’t spend five minutes creating the ticket when they should be troubleshooting the problem.
    • Update the ticket when the issue is resolved or needs to be escalated. If agents are escalating, they should make sure all relevant information is passed along within the ticket to the next technician.
    • Update user of ETA if issue cannot be resolved quickly.
    • Ticket templates for common incidents can lead to fast creation, data input, and categorizations. Templates can reduce the time it takes to create tickets from two minutes to 30 seconds.
    • Update categories to reflect the actual issue and resolution.
    • Reference or link to the knowledgebase article as the documented steps taken to resolve the incident.
    • Validate with the client that the incident is resolved; automate this process with ticket closure after a certain time.
    • Close or resolve the ticket on time.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Ticket handling ensures clean handovers, whether it is to higher tiers or back to the customer. When filling the ticket out with information intended for another party, ensure the information is written for their benefit and from their point of view.

    Service Desk Ticket Analysis Tool overview

    The Service Desk Ticket Analysis Tool will help you standardize your ticket data in a meaningful format that will allow you to apply common analyses to identify the actions you need to take to improve service desk operations

    TABS 1 & 2
    INSTRUCTIONS & DATA ENTRY
    TAB 3 : TICKET SUMMARY
    TICKET SUMMARY DASHBOARDS
    TABS 4 to 8: DASHBOARDS
    INCIDENT SERVICE REQUEST CATEGORY
    Sample of the Service Desk Ticket Analysis Tool, tabs 1 & 2.
    Input at least three months of your exported ticket data into the corresponding columns in the tool to feed into the common analysis graphs in the other tabs.
    Sample of the Service Desk Ticket Analysis Tool, tab 3.
    This tab contains multiple dashboards analyzing how tickets come in, who requests them, who resolves them, and how long it takes to resolve them.
    Sample of the Service Desk Ticket Analysis Tool, tabs 4 to 8.
    These tabs each have dashboards outlining analysis on incidents and service requests. The category tab will allow you to dive deeper on commonly reported issues.

    1.1.3 Import your data into our Service Desk Ticket Analysis Tool

    You can still leverage your current data, but use this opportunity to improve your service desk ticket fields down the line

    Input: ITSM data log

    Output: Populated Service Desk Ticket Data Analysis Tool

    Materials: Whiteboard/flip charts, Service Desk Ticket Analysis Tool

    Participants: Service Desk Manager, Service Desk Technicians

    Start here:

    • Extract your ticket data from your ITSM tool in an Excel or text format.
    • Look at the fields on the data entry tab of the Service Desk Ticket Analysis Tool.
    • Fill the fields with your ticket data by copying and pasting relevant sections. It is okay if you don’t have all the fields, but take note of the fields you are missing.
    • With the list of the fields you are missing, run through the following activity to decide if you will need to adopt or add fields to your own service desk ticket tool.
    Fields Captured
    Ticket Number Open Date
    Open Time Closed Date
    Closed Time Intake Channel
    Time to Resolve Site Location
    First Contact Resolution Resolution Code
    Category (I, II, III) Ticket Type (Request or Incident)
    Status of Ticket Resolved by Tier
    Ticket Priority Requestor/Department
    SLA Fulfilled Subject
    Technician

    When entering your data, pay close attention to the following fields:

    • Time to Resolve: This is automatically calculated using data in the Open Date, Open Time, Close Date, and Close Time fields. You have three options for entering your data in these fields:
      1. Enter your data as the fields describe. Ensure your data contain only the field description (e.g. Open Date separated from Open Time). If your data contain Open Date AND Open Time, Excel will not show both.
      2. Enter your data only in Open Date and Close Date. If your ITSM does not separate date and time, you can keep the data in a single cell and enter it in the column. The formula in Time to Resolve will still be accurate.
      3. If your ITSM outputs Time to Resolve, overwrite the formula in the Time to Resolve column.
    • SLA: If your ITSM outputs SLA fulfilled: Y/N, enter that directly into the SLA Fulfilled column.
    • Blank Columns: If you do not have data for all the columns, that is okay. Continue with the following activity. Note that some stock dashboards will be empty if that is the case.
    • Incidents vs. Service Requests: If you separate incidents and service requests, be sure to capture that in the SR/Incident for Tabs 4 and 5. If you do not separate the two, then you will only need to analyze Tab 3.
    Fields Captured
    Ticket Number Open Date
    Open Time Closed Date
    Closed Time Intake Channel
    Time to Resolve Site Location
    First Contact Resolution Resolution Code
    Category (I, II, III) Ticket Type (Request or Incident)
    Status of Ticket Resolved by Tier
    Ticket Priority Requestor/Department
    SLA Fulfilled Subject
    Technician

    Use Info-Tech’s tool instead of building your own. Download the Service Desk Ticket Analysis Tool.

    1.1.4 Update your ticket fields for future analysis

    Input: Populated Service Desk Ticket Data Analysis Tool

    Output: New ticket fields to track

    Materials: Whiteboard/flip charts, Service Desk Ticket Analysis Tool

    Participants: Service Desk Manager, Service Desk Technicians

    As a group, pay attention to the ticket fields populated in the tool as well as the ticket fields that you were not able to populate. Use the example “Fields Captured” table to the right, which lists all fields present in the ticket analysis tool.

    Discuss the following questions:

    1. Consider the fields not captured. Would it be valuable to start capturing that data for future analysis?
    2. If so, does your ITSM support that field?
    3. Can you make the change in-house or do you have to bring in an external ITSM administrator to make the change?
    4. Capture the results in the Ticket Analysis Report.
    Example: Fields Captured - Fields Not Captured
    Ticket Number Open Date
    Open Time Closed Date
    Closed Time Intake Channel
    Time to Resolve Site Location
    First Contact Resolution Resolution Code
    Category (I, II, III) Ticket Type (Request or Incident)
    Status of Ticket Resolved by Tier
    Ticket Priority Requestor/Department
    SLA Fulfilled Subject
    Technician

    Document in the Ticket Analysis Report.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Don’t wait for your ticket quality to be perfect. You can still draw actions from your ticket data. They will likely be process improvements initially, but the exercise of pulling the data is a necessary first step.

    Common ticket fields tracked by your peers

    Which of these metrics do you track and action?

    • Remember you don’t have to track every metric. Only track metrics that are actionable.

    For each metric that you end up tracking:

    • Look for trends over time.
    • Brainstorm reasons why the metric could rise or fall.

    Associate a metric with each improvement you execute.

    • Performing this step will allow you to better see the value from your team’s efforts.
    • It will also give you a quicker response than waiting for spikes in your data.

    A bar chart of 'Metrics tracked by other organizations' with the x-axis populated by different metrics and the y-axis as '% organizations who track the metric'. The highest percentage of businesses track 'Ticket volume', then 'Ticket trends by category', then 'Tickets by business units'. The lowest three shown are 'Reopened tickets', 'Cost per ticket', and 'Other'.(Source: Info-Tech survey, 2021; N=20)

    PHASE 2

    Analyze Your Ticket Data

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • 2.1.1 Review high-level ticket dashboards
    • 2.2.1 Review incident, service request, and ticket category dashboards

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Service Desk Manager
    • Service Desk Technicians
    • IT Managers

    Visualize your ticket data as a first step to analysis

    Identifying trends is easier when looking at diagrams, graphs, and figures

    Start your analysis with common visuals employed by other service desk professionals

    • Phase 2 will walk you through visualizing your data to get a better understanding of your ticket intake, incident management, and service request management.
    • Each step will walk you through:
      • Common visualizations used by service desks
      • Patterns to look for in your visualizations
      • Actions to take to address negative patterns and to continue positive trends
    • Share diagrams that underscore both the value being provided by the service desk as well as the scope of the pain points. Use Info-Tech’s Ticket Analysis Report template as a starting point.

    “Being able to tell stories with data is a skill that’s becoming ever more important in our world of increasing data and desire for data-driven decision making. An effective data visualization can mean the difference between success and failure when it comes to communicating the findings of your study, raising money for your nonprofit, presenting to your board, or simply getting your point across to your audience.” - Cole Knaflic, Founder and CEO, Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals

    Use the detailed dashboards to determine the next steps for improvement

    A single number doesn’t tell the whole picture

    Analyze trends over time:

    • Analyze trends by day, by week, by month, and by year to determine:
      • When are the busy periods? (E.g. Do tickets tend to spike every morning, every Monday, or every September?)
      • When are the slow periods? (E.g. Do tickets drop at the end of the day, at midday, on Fridays, or over the summer?)
    • Are spikes or drops in volume consistent trends or one-time anomalies?

    Then build a plan to address them:

    • How will you handle volume spikes, if they’re consistent?
    • What can your resources work on during slow times, if they are consistent?
    • If you assume no shrinkage, can you handle the peaks in volume if you make all FTEs available to work on tickets at a certain time of day?

    Sample of a bar chart comparing tickets that were 'Backlog versus Closed by Month Opened'.

    Look for seasonal trends. In this example, we see high ticket volumes in May and January, with lower ticket volumes in June and July when many staff are taking holidays. However, also be careful to look at the big picture of how you pulled the data. August through October sees a high volume of open tickets because the data set is pulled in November, not because there’s a seasonal spike on tickets not closing at the end of the fiscal year.

    Track ticket data over time

    Make low-effort adjustments before major changes

    Don’t rush to a decision based off the first numbers you see

    Review ticket summary dashboard

    Ideally, you should track ticket patterns over an entire year to get a full sense of trends within each month of the year. At minimum, track for 30 days, then 60, then 90, and see if anything changes. The longer you can track ticket patterns, the more accurate your picture will be.

    Review additional dashboards

    If you separate incidents and service requests, and you have accurate ticket categories, then you can use these dashboards to further break down the data to identify ticket trends.

    The output of the ticket analysis will only be as accurate as its input.
    To get the most accurate results, first ensure your data is accurate, then analyze it over as much time as possible. Aggregating with accurate data will give you a better picture of the trends in demand that your service desk sees.

    Not separating incidents and service requests? Need to fix your ticket categories? Visit Standardize the Service Desk to get started.

    Analyze incidents and requests separately

    Each type has its own set of customer experiences and expectations

    • Different ticket types are associated with radically different prioritization, routing, and service levels. For instance, most incidents are resolved within a business day, but requests take longer to implement.
    • If you fail to distinguish between ticket types, your metrics will obscure service desk performance.
    • From a ticket analysis standpoint, separating ticket types prior to analysis or, better yet, at intake allows for cleaner data. In turn, this means more structured analyses, better insights, and more meaningful actions. Not separating ticket types may still get you to the same conclusions, but it will be much more difficult to sift through the data.

    Incident

    An unanticipated interruption of a service.
    The goal of incident management is to restore the service as soon as possible, even if the resolution involves a workaround.

    Request

    A generic description for a small change or service access.
    Requests are small, frequent, and low risk. They are best handled by a process distinct from incident, change, and project management.

    Not separating incidents and service requests? Need to fix your ticket categories? Visit Standardize the Service Desk to get started.

    Step 2.1

    Analyze Your High-Level Ticket Data

    Dashboards
    • Ticket Volume
    • Ticket Intake
    • Ticket Handling and Resolution
    • Ticket Categorization

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    Visualize the current state of your service desk.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Service Desk Manager
    • Service Desk Technicians
    • IT Managers

    Outcomes of this step

    Build your metrics baseline to compare with future metric results.

    Dashboards: Ticket Volume

    Example of a dashboard for ticket volume with two bar charts, one breaking down volume by month, and the other marking certain days or weeks in each month.

    Analyze your data for insights

    • Analyze volume trends by day, by week, by month, and by year to determine:
      • When are the busy periods? (E.g. Do tickets tend to spike every morning, every Monday, or every September?)
      • When are slow periods? (E.g. Do tickets drop at the end of the day, at midday, on Fridays, or over the summer?)
    • Are spikes or drops in volume consistent trends or one-time anomalies?
    • What can your resources be working on during slow times? Are you able to address ticket backlog?

    Dashboards: Ticket Intake

    Example of a dashboard for ticket intake with three bar charts, one breaking it down by 'Intake Channel', one by 'Requestor/Department', and one by 'Location'.

    Analyze your data for insights

    • Determine how to drive intake to the most appropriate solution for your organization:
      • A web portal is the most efficient intake method, but it must be user friendly to increase its adoption.
      • The phone should be available for urgent requests or incidents. Encourage those who call with a request to submit a ticket through the portal.
      • Discourage use of email if it is unstructured, as users don’t provide enough detail, and often two or three transactions are required for triage.
      • If walk-ups are encouraged, structure and formalize the support so it can be resourced and managed rather than interrupt-driven.

    Dashboard: Ticket Handling and Resolution

    Example of a dashboard for ticket handling and resolution with three bar charts, one breaking down 'Tickets Resolved by Technician', one by 'Tier', and one by 'Average Time to Resolve (Hours)'.

    Analyze your data for insights

    • Look at your ticket load by technician and by tier. This is an essential step to set your baseline to measure your shift-left initiatives. If you are focusing on self-service or Tier 1 training, the ticket load from higher tiers should decrease over time.
    • If Tiers 2 and 3 are handling the majority of the tickets, this could be a red flag indicating tickets are inappropriately escalated or Tier 1 could use more training and support.
    • For average time to resolve and average time to resolve by tier, are you meeting your SLAs? If not, are your SLAs too aggressive? Are tickets left open and not properly closed?

    Dashboard: Ticket Categorization

    Analyze your data for insights

    • Ticket categorization is critical to clean data. Having a categorization scheme with categories that are miscellaneous, too specific, or too general easily leads to inaccurate reporting or confusing workflows for technicians.
    • When looking at your ticket categories, first look for duplicate categories that could be collapsed into one.
    • Also look at your top five to seven categories and see if they make sense. Are these good candidates in your organization for automation or shift-left?
    • Compare your Tier 1 categories. The level of specificity for these categories should be comparable to easily run reports. If they are not, assess the need for a category redesign.

    Example of a dashboard for ticket categorization with one horizontal bar chart, 'Incident Ticket Volume by Level 1 Category'.

    Step 2.2

    Analyze Incidents, Service Requests, and Ticket Categories

    Dashboards
    • Incidents
    • Service Requests
    • Volume by Ticket Category
    • Resolution Times by Priority and/or Category
    • Tabs for More Granular Investigation and Reporting

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    Visualize your incident and service request ticket load and analyze trends. Use this information and cross reference data sets to gain a holistic view of how the service desk interacts with IT and the business.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Service Desk Manager
    • Service Desk Technicians
    • IT Managers

    Outcomes of this step

    Gain actionable, data-driven improvements based on your incident and service request data. Show the value of the service desk and highlight improvements needed.

    Incident and Service Requests Dashboard: Priority and SLA

    Example of an Incident and Service Requests dashboard for priority and SLA with three charts, one breaking down 'Incident Priority', one 'Average time to resolve (in hours) by priority', and one '% of SLA met'.

    Analyze your data for insights

    • Your ticket priority distribution for overall load and time to resolve (TTR) should look something like above with low-priority tickets having higher load and TTR and high/critical-priority tickets having a lower load and lower TTR. If it is reversed, that is a good indication that the service desk is too reactive or isn’t properly prioritizing its work.
    • If your SLA has a high failure rate, consider reassessing your targets with SLOs that you can meet before publishing them as achievable SLAs.

    Incident and Service Requests Dashboard: Priority and SLA

    Example of an Incident and Service Requests dashboard for resolution and close with three bar charts, one breaking down 'Incident Volume by Resolution Code', one 'Incidents Resolved by Tier', and one 'Average time to resolve (in hours) by Resolution Code'.

    Analyze your data for insights

    • Examine your ticket handling by looking at ticket status and resolution codes.
      • If you have a lot of blanks, then tickets are not properly handled. Consider reinforcing your standards for close codes and statuses.
      • Alternatively, if tickets are left open, you may have to build follow-ups on stale tickets into your process or introduce proper auto-close processes.

    Category, Resolution Time, and Resolution Code Dashboards

    These PivotCharts allow you to dig deeper

    Investigate whether there are trends in ticket volume and resolution times within specific categories and subcategories

    Tab 6, Category Dashboard; tab 7, Resolution Time Dashboard; and tab 8, Resolution Code Dashboard are PivotCharts. Use these tabs to investigate whether there are trends in ticket volume, resolution times, and resolution codes within specific categories and subcategories.

    Start with the charts that are available. The +/- buttons will allow you to show more granular information. By default, this granularity will be into the levels of the ticket categorization scheme.

    For most categorization schemes, there will be too many categories to properly graph. You can apply a filter to investigate specific categories by clicking on the drop-down buttons.

    Example of dashboards featured on next slide

    Use these tabs for more granular investigation and reporting

    TAB 6
    CATEGORY DASHBOARD
    TAB 7
    RESOLUTION TIME DASHBOARD
    TAB 8
    RESOLUTION TIME DASHBOARD
    Sample of the 'Ticket Volume by Second, Third Level Category' dashboard tab.
    Investigate ticket distributions in first, second, and third levels. Are certain categories overcrowded, suggesting they can be split? Are certain categories not being used?
    Sample of the 'Average Resolution Times' dashboard tab.
    Do average resolution times match your service level agreements? Do certain categories have significantly different resolution times? Are there areas that can benefit from shift-left?
    Sample of the 'Volume of Resolution Codes' dashboard tab.
    Are resolution codes being accurately used? Are there trends in resolution codes? Are these codes providing sufficient information for problem management?

    PHASE 3

    Communicate Your Insights

    This phase will walk you through the following activities:

    • 3.1.1 Review common recommendations
    • 3.2.1 Review ticket reports daily
    • 3.2.2 Incorporate ticket data into retrospectives and team updates
    • 3.2.3 Regularly review trends with business leaders
    • 3.2.4 Tell a story with your data

    This phase involves the following participants:

    • Service Desk Manager
    • Service Desk Technicians
    • IT Managers

    Step 3.1

    Build Recommendations Based on Your Ticket Data

    Activities
    • 3.1.1 Review common recommendations

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    Review common recommendations as a first step to extracting insights from your own data.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Service Desk Manager
    • Service Desk Technicians

    Outcomes of this step

    You will gain an understanding of the common challenges with service desks and ticket analysis in general. See which ones apply to you to inform your ticket data analysis moving forward.

    Review these common recommendations

    1. Fix your ticket categories
      Organize your ticket categorization scheme for proper routing and reporting.
    2. Focus more on self-service
      Self-service is essential to enable shift-left strategies. Focus on knowledgebase processes and portal ease of use.
    3. Update your service catalog
      Improve your service catalog, if necessary, to make it easy for end users to request services and for the service desk to provide those services.
    4. Direct volume toward other channels
      Walk-ups make it more difficult to properly log tickets and assign service desk resources. Drive volume to other channels to improve your ticket quality.
    5. Crosstrain Tier 1 on certain topics
      Tier 1 breadth of knowledge is essential to drive up first contact resolution.
    6. Build more automation
      Identify bottlenecks and challenges with your ticket data to streamline ticket handling and resolution.
    7. Revisit service level agreements
      Update your SLAs and/or SLOs to prioritize expectation management for your end users.
    8. Improve your data quality
      You can only analyze data that exists. Revisit your ticket-handling guidelines and more regularly check tickets to ensure they comply with those standards.

    Optimize your processes and look for opportunities for automation

    Leverage Info-Tech research to improve service desk processes

    Review your service desk processes and tools for optimization opportunities:

    • Clearly establish ticket-handling guidelines.
    • Use ticket templates to reduce time spent entering tickets.
    • Document incident management and service request fulfillment workflows and eliminate any unnecessary steps.
    • Automate manual tasks wherever possible.
    • Build or improve a self-service portal with a knowledgebase to allow users to resolve their own issues, reducing incoming ticket volume to the service desk.
    • Optimize your internal knowledgebase to reduce time spent troubleshooting recurring issues.
    • Leverage AI capabilities to speed up ticket processing and resolution.

    Standardize the Service Desk

    This project will help you build and improve essential service desk processes, including incident management, request fulfillment, and knowledge management.

    Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy

    This project will help you build a strategy to shift service support left to optimize your service desk operations and increase end-user satisfaction.

    Step 3.2

    Action and Communicate Your Ticket Data

    Activities
    • 3.2.1 Review your ticket queues daily
    • 3.2.2 Incorporate ticket data into retrospectives and team status updates
    • 3.2.3 Regularly review trends with business leaders
    • 3.2.4 Tell a story with your data

    This step will walk you through the following activities:

    Organize your scrums to report on the metrics that will inform daily and monthly operations.

    This step involves the following participants:

    • Service Desk Manager
    • Service Desk Technicians
    • IT Managers

    Outcomes of this step

    Use the dashboards and data to inform your daily and monthly scrums.

    3.2.1 Review your ticket queues daily

    Clean data is still useless if not used properly

    • The metrics you’ve chosen to measure and visualize in the previous step are useful for informing your day-to-day, week-to-week, and month-to-month strategies for the service desk and IT. Conduct scrums daily to action your dashboard data to help clear ticket queues.
    • Reference your dashboards daily with each IT team.
    • You need to have a dashboard of open tickets assigned to each team.

    Review Daily

    • Ticket volume over the last day (look for spikes)
    • SLA breach risks/SLA breaches
    • Recurring incidents
    • Tickets open
    • Tickets handed over (confirmation of handover)

    3.2.2 Incorporate ticket data into retrospectives and team status updates

    Explain your metric spikes and trends

    • Hold weekly or monthly meetings to review the ticket trends selected during Phases 1 and 2 of this blueprint.
    • Review ticket spikes, identify seasonal trends, and discuss root causes (e.g. projects/changes going live, onboarding blitz).
    • Discuss any actions associated with spikes and seasonal trends (e.g. resource allocation, hiring, training).
    • You can incorporate other IT leaders or departments in this meeting as needed to discuss action items for improvement, quality assurance concerns, customer service concerns, and/or operating level agreement concerns.

    Review Weekly/Monthly

    • Ticket volume
    • Ticket category by priority level over time
    • Tickets from different business groups, VIP groups, and different vertical levels
    • Tickets escalated, tickets that didn’t need to be escalated, tickets that were incorrectly escalated
    • Ticket priority levels over time
    • Most requested services
    • Tickets resolved by which group over time
    • Ability to meet SLAs and OLAs over time by different groups

    3.2.3 Regularly review trends with business leaders

    Use your data to help improve business relationships

    Review the following with business leaders:

    • Volume of work done this past time cycle for the leader’s group
    • Trends and spikes in the data and possible explanations for them (note: get their input on the potential causes of trends)
    • Improvements you plan to execute within the service desk
    • Action items you need from the business leader

    Use your data to show the value you provide to the group. Schedule quarterly meetings with the heads of different business groups to discuss the work that the service desk does for each group.

    Show trends in incidents and service requests: “I see you have a spike in CRM tickets. I’ve been working with the CRM team to address this issue.”

    3.2.4 Tell a story with your data

    Effectively communicate with the business and leadership

    • With your visualized metrics, organize your story into a presentation for different stakeholder groups. You can use the Ticket Analysis Report as a starting point to provide data about:
      • Value provided by the service desk
      • Successes
      • Opportunities for Improvements
      • Current state of KPIs
    • Include information about the causes of data trends and actions you will take in response to the data.
    • For each of these themes, look at the metrics you’ve chosen to track and see which ones fit to tell the story. Let the data do the talking.
    • Consider supplementing the ticket data with data from other systems. For example, you can include data on transactional customer satisfaction surveys, knowledgebase utilization, and self-service utilization.

    Sample of the Ticket Analysis Report.

    Download the Ticket Analysis Report.

    Ticket Analysis Report

    Include the following information as you build your ticket analysis report:

    • Value Provided by the Service Desk
      Start with the value provided by the service desk to different areas of the business. Include information about first contact resolution, average resolution times, ticket volume (e.g. by category, priority, location, requestor).
    • Successes
      Successes is a general field that can include how process improvements have impacted the service desk or how initiatives have enhanced shift-left opportunities. Highlight any positive trends over time.
    • Opportunities for Improvement
      Let the data guide the conversation to where improvements can be made. Day-to-day ops, self-service tools, shifting work left from Tier 2, Tier 3, standardizing a non-standard service, and staffing adjustments are possibilities for this section.
    • Current State of KPIs
      Mean time to resolve, FCR, ticket volume, and end-user satisfaction are great KPIs to include as a starting point.

    Sample of the Ticket Analysis Report.

    Download the Ticket Analysis Report.

    Summary of Accomplishment

    Problem Solved

    You now have a better understanding of how to action your service desk ticket data, including improvements to your current ticket templates for incidents and service requests.

    You also have the data to craft a story to different stakeholder groups to celebrate the successes of the service desk and highlight possible improvements. Continue this exercise iteratively to continue improving the service desk.

    Remember, ticket analysis is not a single event but an ongoing initiative. As you track, analyze, and action more data, you will find more improvements.

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

    Contact your account representative for more information.

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

    Additional Support

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

    Photo of Benedict Chang.

    Contact your account representative for more information.

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

    To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team. Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.

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

    Sample of dashboards we saw earlier. Sample of the 'Ticket Analysis Report'.
    Analyze your dashboards
    An analyst will walk through the ticket data and dashboards with you and your team to help interpret the data and tailor improvements
    Populate your ticket data report
    Given the action items from this solution set, an analyst will help you craft a report to celebrate the successes and highlight needed improvements in the service desk.

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Optimize the Service Desk With a Shift-Left Strategy

    The best type of service desk ticket is the one that doesn’t exist.

    Incident & Problem Management

    Don’t let persistent problems govern your department.

    Design & Build a User-Facing Service Catalog

    Improve user satisfaction with IT with a convenient menu-like catalog.

    Bibliography

    Bayes, Scarlett. “ITSM: 2021 & Beyond.” Service Desk Institute, 2021. Web.

    “Benchmarking Report v.9.” Service Desk Institute, 17 Jan. 2020. Web.

    Bennett, Micah. “The 9 Help Desk Metrics That Should Guide Your Customer Support.” Zapier, 3 Dec. 2015. Web.

    “Global State of Customer Service: The transformation of customer service from 2015 to present day.” Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft, 2020. Web.

    Goodey, Ben. “How to Manually Analyze Support Tickets.” SentiSum, 26 July 2021. Web.

    Jadhav, Megha. “Four Metrics to Analyze When Using Ticketing Software.” Vision Helpdesk Blog, 21 Mar. 2016. Web.

    Knaflic, Cole Nussbaumer. Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals. Wiley, 2015.

    Li, Ta Hsin, et al. “Incident Ticket Analytics for IT Application Management Services.” 2014 IEEE International Conference on Services Computing, 2014. Web.

    Olson, Sarah. “10 Help Desk Metrics for Service Desks and Internal Help Desks.” Zendesk Blog, Sept. 2021. Web.

    Paramesh, S.P., et al. “Classifying the Unstructured IT Service Desk Tickets Using Ensemble of Classifiers.” 2018 3rd International Conference on Computational Systems and Information Technology for Sustainable Solutions (CSITSS), 2018. Web.

    Volini, Erica, et al. “2021 Global Human Capital Trends: Special Report.” Deloitte Insights, 21 July 2021. Web.

    “What Kind of Analysis You Can Perform on a Ticket Management System.” Commence, 3 Dec. 2019. Web.

    INFO-TECH RESEARCH GROUP

    Staff the Service Desk to Meet Demand

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}490|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 10.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $1,900 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 2 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Service Desk
    • Parent Category Link: /service-desk
    • With increasing complexity of support and demand on service desks, staff are often left feeling overwhelmed and struggling to keep up with ticket volume, resulting in long resolution times and frustrated end users.
    • However, it’s not as simple as hiring more staff to keep up with ticket volume. IT managers must have the data to support their case for increasing resources or even maintaining their current resources in an environment where many executives are looking to reduce headcount.
    • Without changing resources to match demand, IT managers will need to determine how to maximize the use of their resources to deliver better service.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • IT managers are stuck with the difficult task of determining the right number of service desk resources to meet demand to executives who perceive the service desk to be already effective.
    • Service desk managers often don’t have accurate historical data and metrics to justify their headcount, or don’t know where to start to find the data they need.
    • They often then fall prey to the common misperception that there is an industry standard ratio of the ideal number of service desk analysts to users. IT leaders who rely on staffing ratios or industry benchmarks fail to take into account the complexity of their own organization and may make inaccurate resourcing decisions.

    Impact and Result

    • There’s no magic, one-size-fits-all ratio to tell you how many service desk staff you need based on your user base alone. There are many factors that come into play, including the complexity of your environment, user profiles, ticket volume and trends, and maturity and efficiency of your processes.
    • If you don’t have historical data to help inform resourcing needs, start tracking ticket volume trends now so that you can forecast future needs.
    • If your data suggests you don’t need more staff, look to other ways to maximize your time and resources to deliver more efficient service.

    Staff the Service Desk to Meet Demand Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should optimize service desk staffing, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Determine environment and operating model

    Define your business and IT environment, service desk operating model, and existing challenges to inform objectives.

    • Service Desk Staffing Stakeholder Presentation

    2. Determine staffing needs

    Understand why service desk staffing estimates should be based on your unique workload, then complete the Staffing Calculator to estimate your needs.

    • Service Desk Staffing Calculator

    3. Interpret data to plan approach

    Review workload over time to analyze trends and better inform your overall resourcing needs, then plan your next steps to optimize staffing.

    [infographic]

    Prepare Your Organization to Successfully Embrace the “New Normal”

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    • Parent Category Name: DR and Business Continuity
    • Parent Category Link: /business-continuity
    • The COVID-19 pandemic is creating significant challenges across every sector, but even the deepest crisis will eventually pass. However, many of the changes it has brought to how organizations function are here to stay.
    • As an IT leader, it can be challenging to envision what this future state will look like and how to position IT as a trusted partner to the business to help steer the ship as the crisis abates.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Organizations need to cast their gaze into the “New Normal” and determine an appropriate strategy to stabilize their operations, mitigate ongoing challenges, and seize new opportunities that will be presented in a post-COVID-19 world.
    • IT needs to understand the key trends and permanent changes that will exist following the crisis and develop a proactive roadmap for rapidly adapting their technology stack, processes, and resourcing to adjust to the new normal.

    Impact and Result

    • Info-Tech recommends a three-step approach for adapting to the new normal: begin by surveying crucial changes that will occur as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, assess their relevance to your organization’s unique situation, and create an initiatives roadmap to support the new normal.
    • This mini-blueprint will examine five key themes: changing paradigms for remote work, new product delivery models, more self-service options for customers, greater decentralization and agility for organizational decision making, and a renewed emphasis on security architecture.

    Prepare Your Organization to Successfully Embrace the “New Normal” Research & Tools

    Read the Research

    Understand the five key trends that will persist after the pandemic has passed and create a roadmap of initiatives to help your organization adapt to the "New Normal."

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

    • Prepare Your Organization to Successfully Embrace the “New Normal” Storyboard
    [infographic]

    Microsoft Dynamics 365: Understand the Transition to the Cloud

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    • Parent Category Name: Licensing
    • Parent Category Link: /licensing
    • Your on-premises Dynamics CRM or AX needs updating or replacing, and you’re not sure whether to upgrade or transition to the cloud with the new Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform. You’re also uncertain about what the cost might be or if there are savings to be had with a transition to the cloud for your enterprise resource planning system.
    • The new license model, Apps vs. Plans and Dual Use Rights in the cloud, includes confusing terminology and licensing rules that don’t seem to make sense. This makes it difficult to purchase proper licensing that aligns with your current on-premises setup and to maximize your choices in transition licenses.
    • There are different licensing programs for Dynamics 365 in the cloud. You need to decide on the most cost effective program for your company, for now and for the future.
    • Microsoft is constantly pressuring you to move to the cloud, but you don’t understand the why. You're uncertain if there's real value in such a strategic move right now, or if should you wait awhile.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Focus on what’s best for you. Do a thorough current state assessment of your hardware and software needs and consider what will be required in the near future (one to four years).
    • Educate yourself. You should have a good understanding of your options from staying on-premises vs. an interim hybrid model vs. a lift and shift to the cloud.
    • Consider the overall picture. There might not be hard cost savings to be realized in the near term, given the potential increase in licensing costs over a CapEx to OpEx savings.

    Impact and Result

    • Understanding the best time to transition, from a licensing perspective, could save you significant dollars over the next one to four years.
    • Planning and effectively mapping your current licenses to the new cloud user model will maximize your current investment into the cloud and fully leverage all available Microsoft incentives in the process.
    • Gaining the knowledge required to make the most informed transition decision, based on best timing, most appropriate licensing program, and maximized cost savings in the near term.
    • Engaging effectively with Microsoft and a competent Dynamics partner for deployment or licensing needs.

    Microsoft Dynamics 365: Understand the Transition to the Cloud Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should learn about Microsoft Dynamics 365 user-based cloud licensing, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Timing

    Review to confirm if you are eligible for Microsoft cloud transition discounts and what is your best time to move to the cloud.

    • Microsoft Dynamics 365: Understand the Transition to the Cloud – Phase 1: Timing
    • Microsoft License Agreement Summary Tool
    • Existing CRM-AX License Summary Worksheet

    2. Licensing

    Begin with a review to understand user-based cloud licensing, then move to mapping your existing licenses to the cloud users and plans.

    • Microsoft Dynamics 365: Understand the Transition to the Cloud – Phase 2: Licensing
    • Microsoft Dynamics 365 On-Premises License Transition Mapping Tool
    • Microsoft Dynamics 365 User License Assignment Tool
    • Microsoft Licensing Programs Brief Overview

    3. Cost review

    Use your cloud mapping activity as well your eligible discounts to estimate your cloud transition licensing costs.

    • Microsoft Dynamics 365: Understand the Transition to the Cloud – Phase 3: Cost Review
    • Microsoft Dynamics 365 Cost Estimator

    4. Analyze and decide

    Start by summarizing your choice license program, decide on the ideal time, then move on to total cost review.

    • Microsoft Dynamics 365: Understand the Transition to the Cloud – Phase 4: Analyze and Decide
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Microsoft Dynamics 365: Understand the Transition to the Cloud

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

    1 Understand What You Own and What You Can Transition to the Cloud

    The Purpose

    Understand what you own and what you can transition to the cloud.

    Learn which new cloud user licenses to transition.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    All your licenses in one summary.

    Eligible transition discounts.

    Mapping of on-premises to cloud users.

    Activities

    1.1 Validate your discount availability.

    1.2 Summarize agreements.

    1.3 Itemize your current license ownership.

    1.4 Review your timing options.

    1.5 Map your on-premises licenses to the cloud-based, user-based model.

    Outputs

    Current agreement summary

    On-premises to cloud user mapping summary

    Understanding of cloud app and plan features

    2 Transition License Cost Estimate and Additional Costs

    The Purpose

    Estimate cloud license costs and other associated expenses.

    Summarize and decide on the best timing, users, and program.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Good cost estimate of equivalent cloud user-based licenses.

    Understanding of when and how to move your on-premises licensing to the new Dynamics 365 cloud model.

    Activities

    2.1 Estimate cloud user license costs.

    2.2 Calculate additional costs related to license transitions.

    2.3 Review all activities.

    2.4 Summarize and analyze your decision.

    Outputs

    Cloud user licensing cost modeling

    Summary of total costs

    Validation of costs and transition choices

    An informed decision on your Dyn365 timing, licensing, and costs

    It wasn't me

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    • Parent Category Name: Security and Risk
    • Parent Category Link: /security-and-risk

    You heard the message before, and yet....  and yet it does not sink in.

    In july 2019 already, according to retruster:

    • The average financial cost of a data breach is $3.86m (IBM)
    • Phishing accounts for 90% of data breaches
    • 15% of people successfully phished will be targeted at least one more time within the year
    • BEC scams accounted for over $12 billion in losses (FBI)
    • Phishing attempts have grown 65% in the last year
    • Around 1.5m new phishing sites are created each month (Webroot)
    • 76% of businesses reported being a victim of a phishing attack in the last year
    • 30% of phishing messages get opened by targeted users (Verizon)

    This is ... this means we, as risk professionals may be delivering our messsage the wrong way. So, I really enjoyed my colleague Nick Felix (who got it from Alison Francis) sending me the URL of this video: Enjoy, but mostly: learn, because we want our children to enjoy the fruits of our work.

    Register to read more …

    Drive Efficiency and Agility with a Fit-for-Purpose Quality Management Program

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    • Parent Category Name: Performance Measurement
    • Parent Category Link: /performance-measurement
    • According to Info-Tech research, 74% of our clients feel that IT quality management is an important process, however, only 15% said they actually had effective quality management.
    • IT is required to deliver high quality projects and services, but if CIOs are ineffective at quality management, how can IT deliver?
    • Rather than disturb the status quo with holistic quality initiatives, heads of IT leave quality in the hands of process owners, functional areas, and other segmented facets of the department.
    • CIOs are facing greater pressures to be innovative, agile, and cost-effective, but cannot do so without stable operations, an accountable staff base, and business support; all of which are achieved by high IT quality.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Quality management needs more attention that it’s typically getting. It’s not going to happen randomly; you must take action to see results.
    • Quality must be holistic. Centralized accountability will align inconsistencies in quality and refocus IT towards a common goal.
    • Accountability is the key to quality. Clearly defined roles and responsibilities will put your staff on the hook for quality outcomes.

    Impact and Result

    • Shift your mindset to the positive implications of high quality. Info-Tech’s quality management methodology will promote innovation, agility, lower costs, and improved operations.
    • We will help you develop a fully functional quality management program in four easy steps:
      • Position your program as a group to encourage buy-in and unite IT around a common quality vision. Enact a center of excellence to build, support, and monitor the program.
      • Build flexible program requirements that will be adapted for a fit-to-purpose solution.
      • Implement the program using change management techniques to alleviate challenges and improve adoption.
      • Operate the program with a focus on continual improvement to ensure that your IT department continues to deliver high quality projects and services as stakeholder needs change.

    Drive Efficiency and Agility with a Fit-for-Purpose Quality Management Program Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Understand why Info-Tech’s unique approach to quality management can fix a variety of IT issues and understand the four ways we can support you in building a quality management program designed just for you.

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

    1. Position the program

    Hold a positioning working session to focus the program around business needs, create solid targets, and create quality champions to get the job done.

    • Drive Efficiency and Agility with a Fit-for-Purpose Quality Management Program – Phase 1: Position the Quality Program
    • Quality Management Program Charter
    • Quality Management Capability Assessment and Planning Tool
    • Quality Management Roadmap

    2. Build the program

    Build program requirements and design standard templates that will unite IT quality.

    • Drive Efficiency and Agility with a Fit-for-Purpose Quality Management Program – Phase 2: Build a Quality Program
    • Quality Management Quality Plan Template
    • Quality Management Review Template
    • Quality Management Dashboard Template

    3. Implement the program

    Evaluate the readiness of the department for change and launch the program at the right time and in the right way to transform IT quality.

    • Drive Efficiency and Agility with a Fit-for-Purpose Quality Management Program – Phase 3: Implement the Quality Program
    • Quality Management Communication Plan Template
    • Quality Management Readiness Assessment Template

    4. Operate the program

    Facilitate the success of key IT practice areas by operating the Center of Excellence to support the key IT practice areas’ quality initiatives.

    • Drive Efficiency and Agility with a Fit-for-Purpose Quality Management Program – Phase 4: Operate the Quality Program
    • Quality Management User Satisfaction Survey
    • Quality Management Practice Area Assessment and Planning Tool
    • Quality Management Capability Improvement Plan
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Drive Efficiency and Agility with a Fit-for-Purpose Quality Management Program

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

    1 Position Your Program

    The Purpose

    Create a quality center of excellence to lead and support quality initiatives.

    Position your quality program to meet the needs of your business.

    Develop clear targets and create a roadmap to achieve your vision. 

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Defined Center of Excellence roles & responsibilities.

    A firm vision for your program with clearly outlined targets.

    A plan for improvements to show dedication to the program and create accountability. 

    Activities

    1.1 Identify current quality maturity.

    1.2 Craft vision and mission.

    1.3 Define scope.

    1.4 Determine goals and objectives.

    1.5 Specify metrics and critical success factors.

    1.6 Develop quality principles.

    1.7 Create action plan.

    Outputs

    Completed Maturity Assessment

    Completed Project Charter

    Completed Quality Roadmap

    2 Build Your Program

    The Purpose

    Build the requirements for the quality program, including outputs for quality planning, quality assurance, quality control, and quality improvement.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Defined standards for the quality program.

    General templates to be used to unify quality throughout IT. 

    Activities

    2.1 Define quality policy, procedures, and guidelines.

    2.2 Define your standard Quality Plan.

    2.3 Define your standard Quality Review Document.

    2.4 Develop your Standard Quality Management Dashboard.

    Outputs

    Quality Policy

    Standard Quality Plan Template

    Standard Quality Review Template

    Standard Quality Dashboard

    3 Implement Your Program

    The Purpose

    Launch the program and begin quality improvement.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Perform a readiness assessment to ensure your organization is ready to launch its quality program.

    Create a communication plan to ensure constant and consistent communication throughout implementation. 

    Activities

    3.1 Assess organizational readiness.

    3.2 Create a communication plan.

    Outputs

    Completed Readiness Assessment

    Completed Communication Plan

    4 Operate Your Program

    The Purpose

    Have the Center of Excellence facilitate the roll-out of the quality program in your key practice areas.

    Initiate ongoing monitoring and reporting processes to enable continuous improvement.  

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Quality plans for each practice area aligned with the overall quality program.

    Periodic quality reviews to ensure plans are being acted upon.

    Methodology for implementing corrective measures to ensure quality expectations are met.

    Activities

    4.1 Perform a quality management satisfaction survey.

    4.2 Complete a practice area assessment.

    4.3 Facilitate the creation of practice area quality plans.

    4.4 Populate quality dashboards.

    4.5 Perform quality review(s).

    4.6 Address issues with corrective and preventative measures.

    4.7 Devise a plan for improvement.

    4.8 Report on quality outcomes.

    Outputs

    Completed Satisfaction Surveys

    Practice Area Assessments

    Quality Plans (for each practice area)

    Quality Reviews (for each practice area)

    Quality Improvement Plan

    Formalize Your Digital Business Strategy

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    • Parent Category Name: Innovation
    • Parent Category Link: /innovation

    Your organization already has a digital strategy, but there is a lack of understanding of what digital means across the enterprise. Digital investments have been made in the past but failed to yield or demonstrate business value. Given the pace of change, the current digital strategy is outdated, and new digital opportunities need to be identified to inform the technology innovation roadmap.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Turn your digital strategy into a compelling change story that will create a unified vision of how you want to transform your business.

    Impact and Result

    • Identify new digitally enabled growth opportunities.
    • Understand which digital ideas yield the biggest return and the value they generate for the organization.
    • Understand the impact of opportunities on your business capabilities.
    • Map a customer journey to identify opportunities to transform stakeholder experiences.

    Formalize Your Digital Business Strategy Research & Tools

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

    1. Formalize Your Digital Business Strategy – a document that walks you through a series of activities to help brainstorm and ideate on possible new digital opportunities as an input into building your business case for a new IT innovation roadmap.

    Knowing which digital opportunities create the greatest business value requires a structured approach to ideate, prioritize, and understand the value they create for the business to help inform the creation of your business case for investment approval.

    • Formalize Your Digital Strategy Storyboard

    Infographic

    Further reading

    Formalize Your Digital Business Strategy

    Stay relevant in an evolving digital economy

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    Common Obstacles

    Solution

    • Since 2020, the environment has been volatile, leading many CIOs to rethink their priorities and strategies.
    • The organization already has a digital strategy, but there is a lack of understanding of what digital means across the enterprise.
    • Digital investments have been made but fail to demonstrate the business value.
    • The current digital strategy was developed in isolation and failed to garner consensus on a common understanding of the digital vision from across the business.
    • CIOs struggle to understand what existing capabilities need to transform or what new digital capabilities are needed to support the digital ambitions.
    • The existing Digital Strategy is synonymous with the IT Strategy.
    • Identify new digitally enabled growth opportunities.
    • Understand which digital ideas yield the biggest return and the value they generate for the organization.
    • Understand the impact of opportunities on your business capabilities.
    • Map the customer journey to identify opportunities to transform the stakeholder experience.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Turn your existing digital strategy into a compelling change story that will create a unified vision of how you want to transform your business.

    Info-Tech’s Digital Transformation Journey

    Your journey: An IT roadmap for your Digital Business Strategy

    The image contains a screenshot of Info-Tech's Digital Transformation Journey.

    By now, you understand your current business context and capabilities

    The image contains a screenshot of the IT roadmap for your Digital Business Strategy.

    By this point you have leveraged industry roundtables to better understand the art of the possible, exploring global trends, shifts in market forces, customer needs, emerging technologies, and economic forecasts to establish your business objectives and innovation goals.

    Now you need to formalize digital business strategy.

    Phase 1: Industry Trends Report

    The image contains a screenshot of phase 1 industry trends report.

    Phase 2: Digital Maturity Assessment

    The image contains a screenshot of phase 2 digital maturity assessment.

    Phase 3: Zero-In on Business Objectives

    The image contains a screenshot of phase 3 Zero-in on business objectives.

    Business and innovation goals are established through stakeholder interviews and a heatmap of your current capabilities for transformation.

    Since 2020, market dynamics have forced organizations to reassess their strategies

    The unprecedented pace of global disruptions has become both a curse and a silver lining for many CIOs. The ability to maximize the value of digital will be vital to remain relevant in the new digital economy.

    The image contains a screenshot of an image that demonstrates how market dynamics force organizations to reassess their strategies.

    Formalize your digital strategy to address industry trends and market dynamics

    The goal of this phase is to ensure the scope of the current digital strategy reflects the right opportunities to allocate capital to resources, assets, and capabilities to drive strategic growth and operational efficiency.

    There are three key activities outlined in this deck that that can be undertaken by industry members to help evolve their current digital business strategy.

    1. Identify New Digitally Enabled Growth Opportunities
      • Host an ideation session to identify new leapfrog ideas
      • Discuss assumptions, value drivers, and risks
      • Translate ideas into opportunities and consolidate
    2. Evaluate New Digital Opportunities and Business Capabilities
      • Build an opportunity profile
      • Identify business capabilities for transformation
    3. Transform Stakeholder Journeys
      • Understand the impact of opportunities on value-chains
      • Identify stakeholder personas
      • Build a stakeholder journey map
      • Compile your new list of digital opportunities
    The image contains a screenshot of Formalize your digital business strategy.

    Info-Tech’s approach

    1. Identify New Digital Opportunities
      • Conduct an ideation session
      • Identify leapfrog ideas from trends
      • Evaluate each leapfrog idea to define opportunity
    2. Evaluate Opportunities and Business Capabilities
      • Build Opportunity Profile
      • Understand the impact of opportunities on business capabilities
    3. Transform Stakeholder Journeys
      • Analyze value chains
      • Map your Stakeholder Journey
      • Breakdown opportunities into initiatives

    Overview of Key Activities

    Formalize your digital business strategy

    Methodology

    Members Engaged

    • CIO
    • Business Executives

    Info-Tech

    • Industry Analyst
    • Executive Advisor

    Phase 1: New Digital Opportunities

    Phase 2: Evaluate Opportunities and Business Capabilities

    Phase 3: Transform Stakeholder Journeys

    Content Leveraged

    • Digital Business Strategy blueprint
    • Client’s Business Architecture
    1. Hold an ideation session with business executives.
      • Review relevant reports on industry trends, market shifts, and emerging technologies.
      • Establish guiding principles for digital transformation.
      • Leverage a trend-analysis approach to determine the most impactful and relevant trends.
      • From tends, elicit leapfrog ideas for growth opportunities.
      • For each idea, engage in discussion on assumptions, value drivers, benefits, and risks.
    1. Create opportunity profiles.
      • Evaluate each opportunity to determine if it is important to turn into initiatives
    2. Evaluate the impact of opportunities on your business capabilities.
      • Leverage a value-chain analysis to assess the impact of the opportunity across value chains in order to understand the impact across your business capabilities.
    1. Map stakeholder journey:
      • Identify stakeholder personas
      • Identify one journey scenario
      • Map stakeholder journey
      • Consolidate opportunities
    2. Breakdown opportunities into actional initiatives
      • Brainstorm priority initiatives against opportunities.

    Deliverable:

    Client’s Digital Business Strategy

    Phase 1: Deliverable

    1. Compiled list of leapfrog ideas for new growth opportunities

    Phase 2: Deliverables

    1. Opportunity Profile
    2. Business Capability Impact

    Phase 3: Deliverables

    1. Opportunity Profile
    2. Business Capability Impact

    Glossary of Terms

    LEAPFROG IDEAS

    The concept was originally developed in the area of industrial organizations and economic growth. Leapfrogging is the notion that organizations can identify opportunities to skip one or several stages ahead of their competitors.

    DIGITAL OPPORTUNITIES

    Opening of new possibilities to transform or change your business model and create operational efficiencies and customer experiences through the adoption of digital platforms, solutions, and capabilities.

    INITIATIVES

    Breakdown of opportunities into actionable initiatives that creates value for organizations through new or changes to business models, operational efficiencies, and customer experiences.

    1. LEAPFROG IDEAS:
      • Precision medicine
    2. DIGITAL OPPORTUNITY:
      • Machine Learning to sniff out pre-cancer cells
    3. INITIATIVES:
      1. Define genomic analytics capabilities and recruit
      2. Data quality and cleansing review
      3. Implement Machine Learning SW

    Identify Digitally Enabled Opportunities

    Host an ideation session to turn trends into growth opportunities with new leapfrog ideas.

    Phase 1Phase 2Phase 3

    Identify New Digitally Enabled Opportunities

    Evaluate Opportunities and Business Capabilities

    Transform Stakeholder Journeys

    Phase 1

    Host an Ideation Session to Identify New Digital Opportunities

    1.1

    IDENTIFY AND ASSEMBLE YOUR KEY STAKEHOLDERS

    Build support and eliminate blind spots

    It is important to make sure the right stakeholders participate in this working group. Designing a digital strategy will require debate, insights, and business decisions from a broad perspective across the enterprise. The focus is on the value to be generated from digital.

    Consider:

    • Who are the decision makers and key influencers?
    • Who will impact the business?
    • Who has a vested interest in the success or failure of the practice? Who has the skills and competencies necessary to help you be successful?

    Avoid:

    • Don’t focus on the organizational structure and hierarchy. Often stakeholder groups don’t fit the traditional structure.
    • Don’t ignore subject matter experts on either the business or IT side. You will need to consider both.
    1.2

    ESTABLISH GUIDING PRINCIPLES

    Define the guardrails to focus your ideas

    All ideas are great until you need one that works. Establish guiding principles that will help you establish the perimeters for turning big ideas into opportunities.

    Consider:

    • Focus on the breadth and alignment to support business objectives
    • This should help narrow conceptual ideas into actionable initiatives

    Avoid:

    • Don’t recreate the corporate guiding principles
    • Focus on what will help define strategic growth opportunities and operational efficiencies
    1.3

    LEVERAGE STRATEGIC FORESIGHT TO IDENTIFY LEAPFROG IDEAS

    Create space to elicit “big ideas”

    Leverage industry roundtables and trend reports imagining how digital solutions can help drive strategic growth and operational efficiency. Brainstorm new opportunities and discuss their viability to create value and better experiences for your stakeholders.

    Consider:

    • Accelerate this exercise by leveraging stakeholder insights from:
      • Your corporate strategy and financial plan
      • Outputs from stakeholder interviews
      • Market research

    Avoid:

    • Don’t simply go with the existing documented strategic objectives for the business. Ensure they are up to date and interview the decision makers to validate their perspectives if needed.

    Host an Ideation Session

    Identify digitally enabled opportunities

    Industry Roundtables and Trend Reports

    Industry Trends Report

    The image contains a screenshot of phase 1 industry trends report.

    Business Documents

    The image contains a screenshot of Business Documents.

    Digital Maturity Assessment

    The image contains a screenshot of phase 2 digital maturity assessment.

    Activity: 2-4 hours

    Members Engaged

    • CIO
    • Business Executives

    Info-Tech

    • Industry Analyst
    • Executive Advisor

    Hold a visioning session with key business executives (e.g., CIO, CEO, CFO, CCO, and COO) and others as needed. Here is a proposed agenda of activities for the ideation session:

    1. Leverage current trend reports and relevant emerging trend reports, market analysis, and customer research to envision future possibilities.
    2. Establish guiding principles for defining your digital strategy and scope.
    3. Leverage insights from trend reports and market analysis to generate leapfrog ideas that can be turned into opportunities.
    4. For each leapfrog idea, engage in a discussion on assumptions, value drivers, benefits, and risks.

    Content Leveraged

    • Digital Trends Report
    • Industry roundtables and trend reports
    • Digital Maturity Assessment
    • Digital Business Strategy v1.0

    Deliverable:

    1. Guiding principles
    2. Strategic growth opportunities

    1.1 Executive Stakeholder Engagement

    Assemble Executive Stakeholders

    Set yourself up for success with these three steps.

    CIOs tasked with designing digital strategies must add value to the business. Given the goal of digital is to transform the business, CIOs will need to ensure they have both the mandate and support from the business executives.

    Designing the digital strategy is more than just writing up a document. It is an integrated set of business decisions to create a competitive advantage and financial returns. Establishing a forum for debates, decisions, and dialogue will increase the likelihood of success and support during execution.

    1. Confirm your role

    2. Identify Stakeholders

    3. Diverse Perspective

    The digital strategy aims to transform the business. Given the scope, validate your role and mandate to lead this work. Identify a business executive to co-sponsor.

    Identify key decision-makers and influencers who can help make rapid decisions as well as garner support across the enterprise.

    Don’t be afraid to include contrarians or naysayers. They will help reduce any blind spots but can also become the greatest allies through participation.

    1.2 Guiding Principles

    Set the Guiding Principles

    Guiding principles help define the parameters of your digital strategy. They act as priori decisions that establish the guardrails to limit the scope of opportunities from the perspective of people, assets, capabilities, and budgets that are aligned with the business objectives. Consider these components when brainstorming guiding principles:

    Consider these three components when brainstorming

    Breadth

    Digital strategy should span people, culture, organizational structure, governance, capabilities, assets, and technology. The guiding principle should cover a 3600 view across the entire organization.

    Planning Horizon

    Timing should anchor stakeholders to look to the long-term with an eye on the foreseeable future i.e., business value realization in one, two, and three years.

    Depth

    Needs to encompass more than the enterprise view of lofty opportunities but establish boundaries to help define actionable initiatives (i.e., individual projects).

    1.2 Guiding Principles

    Examples of Guiding Principles

    IT Principle NameIT Principle Statement
    1.Enterprise value focusWe aim to provide maximum long-term benefits to the enterprise as a whole while optimizing total costs of ownership and risks.
    2.Fit for purposeWe maintain capability levels and create solutions that are fit for purpose without over engineering them.
    3.SimplicityWe choose the simplest solutions and aim to reduce operational complexity of the enterprise.
    4.Reuse > buy > buildWe maximize reuse of existing assets. If we can’t reuse, we procure externally. As a last resort, we build custom solutions.
    5.Managed dataWe handle data creation and modification and use it enterprise-wide in compliance with our data governance policy.
    6.Controlled technical diversityWe control the variety of what technology platforms we use.
    7.Managed securityWe manage security enterprise-wide in compliance with our security governance policy.
    8.Compliance to laws and regulationsWe operate in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.
    9.InnovationWe seek innovative ways to use technology for business advantage.
    10.Customer centricityWe deliver best experiences to our customers with our services and products.
    11.Digital by default We always put digital solutions at the core of our plans for all viable solutions across the organization.
    12.Customer-centricity by designWe design new products and services with the goal to drive greater engagement and experiences with our customers.

    1.3 Trend-Analysis

    Leverage strategic foresight to identify growth opportunities

    What is Strategic Foresight?

    In times of increasing uncertainty, rapid change, market volatility, and complexity, the development of strategies can be difficult. Strategic foresight offers a solution.
    Strategic foresight refers to an approach that uses a range of methodologies, such as scanning the horizon for emerging changes and signals, analyzing megatrends, and developing multiple scenarios to identify opportunities (source: OECD, 2022). However, it cannot predict the future and is distinct from:

    • Forecasting tools
    • Strategic planning
    • Scenario planning (only)
    • Predictive analyses of the future

    Why is Strategic Foresight useful?

    • Reduce uncertainties about the future
    • Better anticipate changes
    • Future-proof to stress test proposed strategies
    • Explore innovation to reveal new products, services, and approaches

    Explore Info-Tech’s Strategic Foresight Process Tool

    “When situations lack analogies to the past, it’s hard to envision the future.”

    - J. Peter Scoblic, HBR, 2020

    1.3 Trend-Analysis

    Leverage industry roundtables and trend reports to understand the art of the possible

    Uncover important business and industry trends that can inform possibilities for technology innovation.

    Explore trends in areas such as:

    • Machine Learning
    • Citizen Dev 2.0
    • Venture Architecture
    • Autonomous Organizations
    • Self-Sovereign Cloud
    • Digital Sustainability

    Market research is critical in identifying factors external to your organization and identifying technology innovation that will provide a competitive edge. It’s important to evaluate the impact each trend or opportunity will have in your organization and market.

    Visit Info-Tech’s Trends & Priorities Research Center

    Visit Info-Tech’s Industry Coverage Research to get started.

    The image contains screenshots from Info-Tech blueprints.

    Images are from Info-Tech’s Rethinking Higher Education Report and 2023 Tech Trends Report

    1.3 Trend-Analysis

    Scan the Horizon

    Understand how the environment is evolving in your industry

    Scan the horizon to detect early signs of future changes or threats.

    Horizon scanning involves scanning, analyzing, and communicating changes in an organization’s environment to prepare for potential threats and opportunities. Much of what we know about the future is based around the interactions and trajectory of macro trends, trends, and drivers. These form the foundations for future intelligence.

    Macro Trends

    A macro trend captures a large-scale transformative trend on a global scale that could impact your addressable market

    Industry Trend

    An industry trend captures specific use cases of the macro trend in relation to your market and industry. Consider this in terms of shifts in your market dynamics i.e., competitors, size, transaction, international trade, supply/demand, etc.

    Driver(s)

    A driver is an underlying force causing the trend to occur. There can be multiple causal forces, or drivers, that influence a trend, and multiple trends can be influenced by the same causal force.

    Identify signals of change in the present and their potential future impacts.

    1.3 Trend-Analysis

    Identify macro trends

    Macro trends capture a global shift that can change the market and the industry. Here are examples of macro-trends to consider when scanning the horizon for your own organization:

    Talent Availability

    Customer Expectations

    Emerging Technologies

    Regulatory System

    Supply Chain Continuity

    Decentralized workforce

    Hybrid workforce

    Diverse workforce

    Skills gap

    Digital workforce

    Multigenerational workforce

    Personalization

    Digital experience

    Data ownership

    Transparency

    Accessibility

    On-demand

    Mobility

    AI & robotics

    Virtual world

    Ubiquitous connectivity

    Genomics (nano, bio, smart….)

    Big data

    Market control

    Economic shifts

    Digital regulation

    Consumer protection

    Global green

    Resource scarcity

    Sustainability

    Supply chain digitization

    Circular supply chains

    Agility

    Outsource

    1.3 Trend-Analysis

    Determine impact and relevance of trends

    Understand which trends create opportunities or risks for your organization.

    Key Concepts:

    Once an organization has uncovered a set of trends that are of potential importance, a judgment must be made on which of the trends should be prioritized to understand their impact on your market and ultimately, the implications for your business or organization. Consider the following criteria to help you prioritize your trends.

    Impact to Industry: The degree of impact the trend will have on your industry and market to create possibilities or risks for your business. Will this trend create opportunities for the business? Or does it pose a risk that we need to mitigate?

    Relevance to Organization. The relevance of the trend to your organization. Does the trend align with the mission, vision, and business objectives of your organization?

    Activity: 2-4hours

    In order to determine which trends will have an impact on your industry and are relevant to your organization, you need to use a gating approach to short-list those that may create opportunities to capitalize on while you need to manage the ones that pose risk.

    Impact

    What does this trend mean for my industry and market?

    • Degree – how broad or narrow is the impact
    • Likelihood – the reality of disrupting an industry or market
    • Timing – when do we expect disruption?

    Relevance

    What opportunity or risk does it pose to my business/organization?

    • Significance – depth and breadth across the enterprise
    • Duration – how long is the anticipated impact?

    1.3 Trend-Analysis

    Prioritize Trends for Exploration

    The image contains a screenshot of a table to demonstrate the trends.The image contains a graph that demonstrates the trends from the table on a graph to show how to prioritze them based on relevance and impact.

    Info-Tech Insight

    While the scorecard may produce a ranking based on weighted metrics, you need to leverage the group discussion to help contextualize and challenge assumptions when validating the priority. The room for debate is important to truly understand whether a trend is a fad or a fact that needs to be addressed.

    1.3 Trend-Analysis

    Discuss the driver(s) behind the trend

    Determining the root cause(s) of a trend is an important precursor to understanding the how, why, and to what extent a trend will impact your industry and market.

    Trend analysis can be a valuable approach to reduce uncertainties about the future and an opportunity to understand the underlying drivers (forces) that may be contributing to a shift in pattern. Understanding the drivers is important to help determine implication on your organization and potential opportunities.

    The image contains a screenshot of a driver diagram.

    1.3 Trend-Analysis

    Examples of driver(s)

    INDUSTRY

    Healthcare Exemplar

    Macro Trends

    (Transformative change)

    Industry Trend

    (A pattern of change…)

    Drivers

    (“Why”….)

    Accessibility

    Increase in wait times

    Aging population leading to global workforce shortage

    New models of care e.g., diversify scope of practice

    Address capacity issues

    Understanding the drivers is not about predicting the future. Don’t get stuck in “analysis paralysis.” The key objective is to determine what opportunities and risks the trend and its underlying driver pose to your business. This will help elicit leapfrog opportunities that can be funneled into actionable initiatives.

    Other examples…

    Dimensions

    Macro-Trends

    Industry Trend

    Driver

    Social

    Demographic shift

    Global shortage of healthcare workers

    Workforce age

    Customer expectations

    Patients as partners

    Customer demographics

    Technology

    AI and robotics

    Early detection of cancer

    Patient outcomes

    Ubiquitous connectivity

    Virtual health

    Capacity

    Economic

    Recession

    Cost-savings

    Sustainability

    Consumer spending

    Value-for-money

    Prioritization

    Environment

    Climate change

    Shift in manufacturers

    ESG compliant vendors

    Pandemic

    Supply chain disruption

    Local production

    Political

    Regulatory

    Consolidation of professional colleges

    Operational efficiency

    De-regulation

    New models of care

    New service (business) model

    1.3 Trend-Analysis

    Case Study

    Industry

    Healthcare

    Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Precision Medicine (Genomics)

    Precision Medicine has become very popular over the recent years fueled by research but also political and patient demands to focus more on better outcomes vs. profits. A cancer care center in Canada wanted to look at what was driving this popularity but more importantly, what this potentially meant to their current service delivery model and operations and what opportunities and risks they needed to address in the foreseeable future. They determined the following drivers:

    • Improve patient outcomes
    • Earlier detection of cancer
    • Better patient experience
    • Ability to compute vast amounts of data to reduce manual effort and errors
    • Accelerate from research to clinical trials to delivery

    The image contains a screenshot of AI in Genomics.

    1.3 Trend-Analysis

    INDUSTRY

    Healthcare Exemplar

    Category

    Macro-Trends

    Industry Trends

    (Use-Case)

    Drivers

    Impact to Industry

    Impact to Business

    Talent Availability

    Diverse workforce

    Aboriginal health

    Systemic inequities

    Brand and legal

    Policies in place

    Hybrid workforce

    Virtual care

    COVID-19 and infectious disease

    New models of care

    New digital talent

    Customer Expectation

    Personalization

    On-demand care

    Patient experience

    Patients as consumers

    New operating model

    Digital experience

    Patient portals

    Democratization of data

    Privacy and security

    Capacity

    Emerging Technologies

    Internet of Things (IoT)

    Smart glucometers

    Greater mobility

    System redesign

    Shift from hospital to home care

    Quantum computing

    Genomic sequencing

    Accelerate analysis

    Improve quality of data analysis

    Faster to clinical trial and delivery

    Regulatory System

    Consumer protection

    Protect access to sensitive patient data

    HIPPA legislation

    Restrict access to health record

    Electronic health records

    Global green

    Green certification for redev. projects

    Political optics

    Higher costs

    Contract management

    Supply Chain

    Supply chain disruptions

    Surgical strategic sourcing

    Preference cards

    Quality

    Organizational change management

    New pharma entrants

    Telco’s move into healthcare

    Demand/supply

    Funding model

    Resource competition

    Sample Output From Trend Analysis

    1.3 Elicit New Opportunities

    Leapfrog into the future

    Turn trends into growth opportunities.

    To thrive in the digital age, organizations must innovate big, leverage internal creativity, and prepare for flexibility.

    In this digital era, organizations are often playing catch up to a rapidly evolving technological landscape and following a strict linear approach to innovation. However, this linear catch-up approach does not help companies get ahead of competitors. Instead, organizations must identify avenues to skip one or several stages of technological development to leapfrog ahead of their competitors.

    “The best way to predict the future is to invent it.”

    – Alan Kay

    Leapfrogging takes place when an organization introduces disruptive innovation into the market and sidesteps competitors, who are unable to mobilize to respond to the opportunities.

    1.3 Elicit New Opportunities

    Funnel trends into leapfrog ideas

    Go from trend insights into ideas for opportunities

    Brainstorm ways to generate leapfrog ideas from trend insights.

    Dealing with trends is one of the most important tasks for innovation. It provides the basis of developing the future orientation of the organization. However, being aware of a trend is one thing, to develop strategies for response is another.

    To identify the impact the trend has on the organization, consider the four areas of growth for the organization:

    1. New Customers: Leverage the trend to target new customers for existing products or services.
    2. New Business Models: Adjust the business model to capture a change in how the organization delivers value.
    3. New Markets: Enter or create new markets by applying existing products or services to different problems.
    4. New Product or Service Offerings: Introduce new products or services to the existing market.

    1.3 Elicit New Opportunities

    INDUSTRY: Healthcare

    SOURCE: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

    Case Study

    Machine Learning Sensor to Sniff Out Cancer

    Challenge

    Solution

    Results

    Timely access to diagnostic services is a key indicator of a cancer patient’s prognosis i.e., outcome. Early detection of cancer means the difference between life and death for cancer patients.

    Typically, cancer biomarkers need to be present to detect cancer. Often the presence of these biomarkers is late in the disease state when the cancer cells have likely spread, resulting in suspicions of cancer only when the patient does not feel well or suspects something is wrong.

    Researchers in partnership with IBM Watson at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) have created a tool that can sniff for and identify cancer in a blood sample using machine learning.

    Originally, MSK worked with IBM Watson to identify machine learning as an emerging technology that could drive early cancer detection without the use of cancer biomarkers. But they needed to find specific use cases. After a series of concept prototypes, they were able to use machine learning to detect patterns in blood cells vs. cancer biomarkers to detect cancer disease.

    Machine learning was an emerging trend that researchers at MSK felt held great promise. They needed to turn the trend into tangible opportunities by identifying some key use cases that could be prototyped.

    Computational tools in oncology have the ability to greatly reduce clinician labor, improve the consistency of variant classification, and help accelerate the analytics of vast amounts of clinical data that would be prone to errors and delays when done manually.

    From trends to leapfrog ideas

    Additional Examples in the Appendix

    Example of leapfrog ideas that can generate opportunities for consideration

    Trend

    New Customer

    New Market

    New Business or Operating Model

    New Service Offering

    What trend(s) pose a significant impact on your business?

    New stakeholder segment

    Enter or create new markets

    Adjust the business or operating model to capture change in how the business creates and delivers value

    Introduce new digital products, services and experiences

    Virtualize Registration

    Empower patients as consumers of healthcare partners

    Direct B2C to close gap between providers and patients by removing middle administrative overhead.

    24/7 On-Demand Patient Portal

    Leverage AI to develop chatbots and on-demand

    Phase 1: Deliverable

    Phase 1 Deliverable

    Example of output from phase 1 ideation session

    Business Objectives

    New Customers

    (Customer Experience)

    New Markets

    (Health Outcomes)

    New Business or

    Operating Models

    (Operational Excellence)

    New Service Offering

    (Value for Money)

    Description:

    Focus on improving experiences for patients and providers

    Improve quality and standards of care to continually drive better health outcomes

    Deliver care better, faster, and more efficiently

    Reduce cost per capital of delivery care and increase value for services

    Trends:

    • Global workforce shortage due to ageing demographics
    • Clinicians are burnt-out and unable to practice at the top of their profession
    • On-demand care/mobile/wearables
    • Virtual care
    • Faster access to quality service
    • Help navigating complex medical ecosystem from primary to acute to community
    • Standardize care across regions
    • New models of care to expand capacity
    • Improve medication errors
    • Opportunities to use genomics to design personalized medicine
    • Automate tasks
    • Leverage AI and robotics more effectively
    • Regulatory colleges consolidation mandate
    • Use data and analytics to forecast capacity and health outcomes
    • Upskill vs. virtualize workforce
    • Payment reform i.e., move to value-based care vs. fee-for-service
    • Consolidation of back-office functions like HR, supply chain, IT, etc. to reduce cost i.e., shared services model

    Digital Opportunities:

    1. Virtual health command center
    2. Self-scheduling patient portal
    3. Patient way-finder
    4. Smart glucometer for diabetes
    1. Machine learning for early detection of cancer
    2. Visualization tools for capacity planning and forecasting
    3. Contact tracing apps for public health
    1. Build advanced analytics capabilities with new skills and business intelligence tools
    2. Pharmacy robotics
    3. Automate registration
    1. Automate provider billing solution
    2. Payment gateways – supplier portal in the cloud

    Phase 2

    Evaluate Opportunities and Business Capabilities

    Build a better understanding of the opportunities and their impact on your business.

    Phase 1Phase 2Phase 3

    Identify New Digitally Enabled Opportunities

    Evaluate Opportunities and Business Capabilities

    Transform Stakeholder Journeys

    Phase 2

    Evaluate Opportunities and Business Capabilities

    2.1

    CREATE OPPORTUNITY PROFILES

    Evaluate each opportunity

    Some opportunities will have an immediate and significant impact on your business. Some may have a significant impact but on a longer time scale or some may be unlikely to have a significant impact at all. Understanding these trends is an important context for your digital business strategy.

    Consider:

    • Does this opportunity conform with your guiding principles?
    • Can this opportunity feasibly deliver the anticipated benefits?
    • Is this opportunity desired by your stakeholders?

    Avoid:

    • Overly vague language. Opportunities need to be specific enough to evaluate what impact they will have.
    • Simply following what competitors are doing. Be ambitious and tailor your digital strategy to your organizational values, goals, and priorities.
    2.2

    UNDERSTAND THE IMPACT OF OPPORTUNITIES ON BUSINESS CAPABILITIES

    Understand the impact across your value chains

    Each opportunity has the potential to impact multiple areas of your business. Prioritize where to start acting on new opportunities based on your business objectives and capabilities. You need to assess their impacts across value chains. Does the opportunity impact existing value chain(s) or create a new value chain?

    Consider:

    • How well does this opportunity align with your digital vision, mission, and goals?
    • What will be the overall impact of this opportunity?
    • How urgently must you act?

    Avoid:

    • Guessing. Validate assumptions and use clear, unbiased information to make decisions. Info-Tech has extensive resources to assist in evaluating trends, opportunities, and solutions.
    • Making everything a high priority. Most organizations can only prioritize one to two initiatives at a time.

    2.1 Build an opportunity profile

    Evaluate each opportunity

    Discussion Framework:

    In your discussion, evaluate each opportunity to assess assumptions, value drivers, and benefits.

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

    Design Thinking

    Leverage the guiding principles as the guardrails to limit the scope of your new digital opportunities. You may want to consider taking a design-thinking approach to innovation by discussing the merits of each opportunity based on:

    • DesirabilityDesirability: People want it. Does the solution enable the organization to meet the expectations of stakeholders?
    • Feasibility
    • Feasibility: Able to Execute. Do we have the capabilities to deliver e.g., the right skills, partners, technology, and leadership?

    • Viability
    • Viability: Delivers Value. Will this idea meet business goals e.g., cost, revenue, and benefits?

    Source: Adapted from IDEO

    Transform the Business

    Must Prioritize

    Should Plan

    Drive Digital Experiences

    Build Digital Capabilities

    High Value/Low Complexity

    • stakeholders want it
    • easy to implement
    • capabilities exist to deliver
    • creates significant value
    • strategic growth = competitive advantage

    High Value/High Complexity

    • customers want it
    • not easy to implement without carefully planning
    • need to invest in developing capabilities
    • Competitive differentiator

    Low Value/Low Complexity

    • stakeholders don’t want it
    • easy to implement but takes resources away from priority
    • some capabilities exist
    • creates marginal value
    • minimal growth

    Low Value/High Complexity

    • stakeholders don’t want it
    • difficult to implement
    • need to invest in developing capabilities
    • no real strategic growth

    Could Have

    Don’t Need

    Transform Operations

    IMPACT

    COMPLEXITY

    Source: Adapted from MoSCoW prioritization model

    Exemplar: Opportunity Profile

    Example:

    An example of a template to capture the output of discussion.

    Automate the Registration Process Around Admission, Discharge, and Transfer (ADT)

    Description of Opportunity:

    ADT is a critical function of registration that triggers patient identification to support services and billing. Currently, ADT is a heavily manual process with a high degree of errors as a result of human intervention. There is an opportunity to leverage intelligent automation by using RPA and AI.

    Alignment With Business Objectives

    Improve patient outcome

    Drive operational efficiency and effectiveness

    Better experiences for patients

    Business Architecture

    This opportunity may impact the following business capabilities:

    • Referral evaluation
    • Admission, discharge, and transfer management
    • Scheduling management
    • Patient registry management
    • Provider registry management
    • Patient billing
    • Provider billing
    • Finance management
    • EHR/EMR integration management
    • Enterprise data warehouse for reporting
    • Provincial/state quality reporting

    Benefits & Outcomes

    • Reduce errors by manual registration
    • Improve turnaround time for registration
    • Create a consistent customer experience
    • Improve capacity
    • Virtualize low-value work

    Key Risks & Assumptions

    • Need to add skills & knowledge to maintain systems
    • Perception of job loss or change by unions
    • assume documentation of standard work for automation vs. non-standard

    Opportunity Owner

    VP, Health Information Management (HIM)

    Incremental Value

    Reduce errors in patient identity

    • Next Steps
    • Investigate use cases for RPA and AI in registration
    • Build business case for funding

    2.2 Business capabilities impact

    Understand the impact on your business capabilities

    Each opportunity has the potential to impact multiple areas of your business. Prioritize where to start acting on new opportunities based on your business objectives and capabilities.

    You will need:

    Industry Reference Architecture.Industry Reference Architecture

    Activity: 1-2 hours

    1. Using your industry reference architecture, highlight the business capabilities that may be impacted by the opportunity. Use a value chain analysis approach to help with this exercise.
    2. Referring to your Prioritized Opportunities for Transformation, prioritize areas to transform. Priority should be given to low maturity areas that are highly or urgently relevant to your overall strategic goals.
    +
    Prioritized Opportunities for Transformation.Prioritized Opportunities for TransformationPrioritized Business Capability Map.

    2.2 Business capabilities impact

    Start with a value chain analysis

    This will help identify the impact on your business capabilities.

    As we identify and prioritize the opportunities available to us, we need to assess impacts on value chains. Does the opportunity directly impact an existing value chain? Or does it open us to the creation of a new value chain?

    The image contains a screenshot of the value chain analysis.

    The value chain perspective allows an organization to identify how to best minimize or enhance impacts and generate value.

    As we move from opportunity to impact, it is important to break down opportunities into the relevant pieces so we can see a holistic picture of the sources of differentiation.

    Exemplar: Prioritized Business Capability Map

    The image contains a screenshot of the exemplar prioritized business capability map.

    In this example, intelligent automation for referral and admission would create opportunity to virtualize repeatable tasks.

    Phase 3

    ETransform Stakeholder Journeys

    Understand the impact of opportunities across the value chain and possibilities of new or better stakeholder experiences.

    Phase 1Phase 2Phase 3

    Identify New Digitally Enabled Opportunities

    Evaluate Opportunities and Business Capabilities

    Transform Stakeholder Journeys

    Phase 3

    Identify opportunities to transform stakeholder experiences

    3.1 IDENTIFY STAKEHOLDER PERSONA

    Understand WHO gains value from the value chain

    To define a stakeholder scenario, you need to understand whom we are mapping for. Developing stakeholder personas is a great way to understand their needs through a lens of empathy.

    Consider:

    • Keep your stakeholder persona groupings to the core clusters typical of your industry.
    • See it from their perspective not the business’s.

    Avoid:

    • Don’t create a multitude of personas based on discrete nuances.
    3.2 BUILD A STAKEHOLDER JOURNEY

    Identify opportunities to transform the stakeholder experience

    A stakeholder or customer journey helps teams visualize the impact of a given opportunity through a value chain. This exercise uncovers the specific initiatives and features that should be considered in the evolution of the digital strategy.

    Consider:

    • Which stakeholders may be most affected by this opportunity?
    • How might stakeholders feel about a given solution as they move through the journey? What pain points can be solved?

    Avoid:

    • Simply listing steps in a process. Put yourself in the shoes of whoever’s journey you are mapping. What do they care about?
    • Choosing a stakeholder with limited involvement in the process.
    3.3 BREAKDOWN OPPORTUNITIES INTO INITIATIVES ALIGNED TO BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

    Unlock key initiatives to deliver value

    Opportunities need to be broken down into actionable initiatives that can be turned into business cases with clear goals, benefits realization, scope, work plans, and investment ask.

    Consider:

    • Multiple initiatives can be grouped into one opportunity that is similar or in phases.
    • Ensure the initiatives support and enable the business goals.

    Avoid:

    • Creating a laundry list of initiatives.
    • Initiatives that don’t align with business goals.

    Map Stakeholder Journey

    Conduct a journey mapping exercise to further refine and identify value streams to transform.

    Stakeholder Journey Mapping

    Digital Business Strategy Blueprint

    Activity: 4-6 hours

    Our analysts can guide and support you, where needed.

    1. First download the Define Your Digital Business Strategy blueprint to review the Stakeholder Journey Mapping exercise.
    2. Identify a stakeholder persona and a one-journey scenario.
    3. Map a stakeholder journey using a single persona across one-journey scenarios to identify pain points and opportunities to improve experiences and generate value.
    4. Consolidate a list of opportunities for business case prioritization.

    Key Concepts:

    Value Stream: a set of activities to create and capture value for and from the end consumer.

    Value Chain: a string of end-to-end processes that creates value for the consumer.

    Journey Scenario: a specific use case across a value chain (s).

    Members Engaged

    • CIO
    • Business Executives

    Info-Tech

    • Industry Analyst
    • Executive Advisor

    Stakeholder Persona.Stakeholder Persona

    1-Journey Use Case.1-Journey Use Case

    Map Stakeholder Journey 
Map Stakeholder Journey

    Content Leveraged

    • Stakeholder Persona
    • Journey Use Case
    • Map Stakeholder Journey

    Deliverable:

    1. Guiding principles
    2. Strategic growth opportunities

    Download the Define Your Digital Business Strategy blueprint for Customer Journey Mapping Activities

    3.1 Persona identification

    Identify a stakeholder persona and journey scenario

    From value chain to journey scenario.

    Stakeholder personas and scenarios help us build empathy towards our customers. It helps put us into the shoes of a stakeholder and relate to their experience to solve problems or understand how they experience the steps or processes required to accomplish a goal. A user persona is a valuable basis for stakeholder journey mapping.

    A stakeholder persona is a fictitious profile to represent a customer or a user segment. Creating this persona helps us understand who your customers really are and why they are using your service or product.

    A stakeholder scenario describes the situation the journey map addresses. Scenarios can be real (for existing products and services) or anticipated.

    Learn more about applying design thinking methodologies

    3.1 Persona identification

    Identify a stakeholder persona

    Who are you transforming for?

    To define a stakeholder scenario, we need to understand who we are mapping for. In each value chain, we identified a stakeholder who gains value from that value chain. We now need to develop a stakeholder persona: a representation of the end user to gain a strong understanding of who they are, what they need, and their pains and gains.

    One of the best ways to flesh out your stakeholder persona is to engage with the stakeholders directly or to gather the input of those who may engage with them within the organization.

    For example, if we want to define a journey map for a student, we might want to gather the input of students or teaching faculty that have firsthand encounters with different student types and are able to define a common student type.

    Info-Tech Insight

    Run a survey to understand your end users and develop a stronger picture of who they are and what they are seeking to gain from your organization.

    3.1 Persona identification

    Identify stakeholder scenarios to map

    For your digital strategy, leverage the existing and opportunity value chains identified in phases 1 and 2 for journey mapping.

    Identify two existing value chains to be transformed.

    In section 1, we identified existing value chains to be transformed. For example, your stakeholder persona is a registration clerk who is part of the Health Information Management team responsible for registering and adjudicating patient identity.

    The image contains a screenshot example of two existing value chains to be transformed.

    Identify one new value chain.

    In section 2, we identified a new value chain. However, for a new opportunity, the scenario is more complex as it may capture many different areas of a value chain. Subsequently, a journey map for a new opportunity may require mapping all parts of the value chain.

    The image contains a screenshot of one value chain.

    3.1 Persona identification

    Example Stakeholder Persona

    Stakeholder demographics

    Name: Anne

    Age: 35

    Occupation: HIM Clerk

    Location: Unity Hospital System

    Pains

    What are their frustrations, fears, and anxieties?

    • Volume of patients to schedule
    • Too many applications to access
    • Data quality is an error
    • Extensive manual entry of data prone to errors
    • Disruptions with calls from patients, doctors, and FOI requests

    What do they need to do?

    What do they want to get done? How will they know they are successful?

    • Automate some non-valuable tasks that can also reduce human errors. Allow patients to self-schedule online or answer FAQs via a chatbox. Would love to have a virtual triage to alleviate volume of calls and redirects.

    Gains

    What are their wants, needs, hopes, and dreams?

    • Reduce errors in data entry for patient identity (reduce manual look-ups).
    • Have standard requests go through a chatbot.
    • Have physicians automate billing through front-end speech recognition software.

    3.1 Persona identification

    Define a journey statement for mapping

    Now that we understand who we are mapping for, we need to define a journey statement to capture the stakeholder journey.

    Leverage the following format to define the journey statement.

    “As a [stakeholder], I need to [prioritized value chain task], so that I can [desired result or overall goal].”

    The image contains a screenshot of a journey statement for mapping.

    3.2 Stakeholder Journey-Map

    Leverage customer journey mapping to capture value chains to be transformed

    Conduct a journey mapping exercise to identify opportunities for innovation or automation.

    A journey-based approach helps an organization understand how a stakeholder moves through a process and interacts with the organization in the form of touch points, channels, and supporting characters. By identifying pain points in the journey and the activity types, we can identify opportunities for innovation and automation along the journey.

    The image contains a screenshot of an example of journey mapping.

    Embrace design-thinking methodologies to elevate the stakeholder journey and build a competitive advantage for your organization.

    3.2 Stakeholder Journey-Map

    Key Concepts

    0. Name: Annie Smith

    Age: 35

    Occupation: HIM Registration Clerk for Unity Hospital System

    Key Concepts.0.Stakeholder Persona

    A fictitious profile of a representative stakeholder group that shares a common yet discrete set of characteristics that embodies how they think, feel, and act.

    1. Journey (Value Chain)

    Describes the end-to-end steps or processes that a customer takes across the value chain that groups a set of activities, interactions, touch-points, and experiences.

    2. Persona’s Goals

    Exemplifies what the persona is thinking and wanting across each specific step of their journey.

    3. Nature of Activity (see detailed definition in this section)

    This section captures two key components: 1) the description of the action or interaction between the personas to achieve their goals, and 2) the classification of the activity to determine the feasibility for automation. The type is based on four main characteristics: 1) routine cognitive, 2) non-routine cognitive , 3) routine manual, and 4) non-routine manual.

    4. Type of Touch-Point

    The channel by which a persona interacts or touches products, services, the organization, or information.

    5. Key Moments & Pain Points

    Captures the emotional experience and value of the persona across each step and interaction.

    6. Metrics

    This section captures the KPIs used to measure the experience, process or activity today. Future KPIs will need to be developed to measure the opportunities.

    7. Opportunities refer to both the possible initiatives to address the persona’s pain points, and the ability to enable business goals.

    3.2 Stakeholder Journey-Map

    Opportunities for Automation: Nature of Activity

    Example
    We identified opportunities for automation

    Categorize the activity type to identify opportunities for automation. While there is no perfect framework for automation, this 4x4 matrix provides a general guide to identifying automation opportunities for consideration.

    Automation example list.Automation Quadrant Analysis

    Info-Tech Insight

    Automation is more than a 1:1 relationship between the defined task or job and automation. When considering automation, look for opportunities to: 1) streamline across multiple processes, 2) utilize artificial intelligence to augment or virtualize manual tasks, and 3) create more structured data to allow for improved data quality over the long-term.

    3.2 Stakeholder Journey-Map

    Example of stakeholder journey output: Healthcare

    Stakeholder: HIM Clerks

    Journey: Follow-up visit of 80-year-old diabetes patient at diabetic clinic outpatient

    Journey

    (Value Chain)

    AppointmentRegistrationIdentity ReconciliationEligibility VerificationTreatment Consult

    Persona’s Goals

    • Confirm appointment
    • Verify referral through provider registry
    • Request medical insurance or care card
    • Enroll patient into CIS
    • Patient registry validation
    • Secondary identification request
    • Verify eligibility through the patient registry
    • Schedule follow referrals & appointments
    • Coding for billing

    Nature of Activity

    Priority

    Priority

    Investigate – ROI

    Investigate – ROI

    Defer

    Type of Touchpoint

    • Telephone (land/mobile)
    • Email
    • CIS Application
    • Verbal
    • Patient registry system
    • Telephone
    • Patient and provider registry
    • CIS
    • Email, call, verbal
    • Physician billing
    • Hospital ERP
    • CIS
    • Paper appointments

    Pain Points & Gains

    • Volume of calls
    • Manual scheduling
    • Too many applications
    • Data entry errors
    • Limited languages
    • Too many applications
    • Data entry errors
    • Too many applications
    • Limited languages
    • Ask patients to repeat info
    • Data entry errors
    • Too many applications
    • Limited languages
    • Ask patients to repeat info
    • Patient identity not linked to physician billing
    • Manual coding entry

    Metrics

    Time to appointment

    Time to enrollment

    Patient mis-match

    Provider mis-match

    Percentage of errors in billing codes

    Opportunities

    • Patient scheduling portal (24/7)
    • Use of AI and chatbots
    • Automate patient matching index digitalization and integration
    • Automate provider matching index digitalization and integration
    • Natural language processing using front-end speech recognition software for billing

    Break opportunities into a series of initiatives aligned to business objectives

    Opportunity 1

    Virtual Registration

    »

    Business Goals

    Initiatives

    Health Outcomes

    Stakeholder Experience

    New Models of Care

    Operational Efficiency

    • Enterprise master patient index integration with patient registry
    • Intelligent automation for outpatient department
    • Customer service chat box for triage FOI1
    • Front-end speech recognition for billing (FESR)

    Opportunity 2

    Machine Learning Pre-Cancer Diagnosis

    »

    Business Goals

    Initiatives

    Health Outcomes

    Stakeholder Experience

    New Models of Care

    Operational Efficiency

    • Enterprise Datawarehouse architecture (build data lake)
    • Build genomics analytics capabilities e.g., recruitment, data-quality review
    • Implementation of machine learning software
    • Supply chain integration with ERP for medical and research supplies
    FOI = Freedom of Information

    Info-Tech Insight

    Evaluate if an opportunity will require a series of discrete activities to execute and/or if they can be a stand-alone initiative.

    Now you are ready to select and prioritize digital initiatives for business case development

    After completing all three phases of activities in this blueprint, you will have compiled a list of new and planned digital initiatives for prioritization and business case development in the next phase.

    Consolidated List of Digital Initiatives.

    Example: Consolidated List of Digital Initiatives

    The next step will focus on prioritizing and building a business case for your top digital initiatives.

    IT Roadmap for your Digital Business Strategy.

    Appendix: Additional Examples

    From trend to leapfrog ideas

    Every idea is a good one, unless you need one that works.

    Additional Examples
    Examples of leapfrog ideas that can generate opportunities for consideration

    Example 1 Finance

    Trend

    New Customer

    New Market

    New Business or Operating Model

    New Service Offering

    What trend(s) pose a significant impact on your business?

    New customer segments

    Enter or create new markets

    Adjust the business or operating model to capture change in how the business creates and delivers value

    Introduce new digital products, services, and experiences

    Open banking

    Account integrators (AISPs)

    Payment integrators
    (PISPs)

    Data monetization

    Social payments

    Example 2: Retail

    Trend

    New Customer

    New Market

    New Business or Operating Model

    New Service Offering

    What trend(s) pose a significant impact on your business?

    New customer segments

    Enter or create new markets

    Adjust the business or operating model to capture change in how the business creates and delivers value

    Introduce new digital products, services, and experiences

    Virtual cashier

    (RFID Enablement)

    Big-box retailers

    Brick & mortar stores

    Automated stores driving new customer experiences

    Digital cart

    From trend to leapfrog ideas

    Every idea is a good one, unless you need one that works.

    Additional Exemplars in Appendix

    Examples of leapfrog ideas that can generate opportunities for consideration

    Example 3:

    Manufacturing

    Trend

    New Customer

    New Market

    New Business or

    Operating Model

    New Service Offering

    What trend(s) pose a significant impact on your business?

    New customer segments

    Enter or create new markets

    Adjust the business or operating model to capture change in how the business creates and delivers value

    Introduce new digital products, services, and experiences

    IT/OT convergence

    Value-added resellers

    New geographies

    Train quality-control algorithms and sell as a service to other manufacturers

    Quality control as a service

    Case Study: International Airport

    Persona Journey Map: International/Domestic Departure

    Persona: Super Traveler

    Name: Annie Smith

    Age: 35

    Occupation: Engineer, Global Consultant

    Journey Activity Name: Inspired to Travel

    Persona’s Goals

    What Am I Thinking?

    • I am planning on traveling to Copenhagen, Denmark for work.
    • It’s my first time and I need to gather information about the destination, accommodation, costs, departure information, bag weight, etc..

    Nature of Activity

    What Am I Doing?

    • Logging onto airline website
    • Confirming departure gates

    Type of Touchpoint

    • Airport rewards program
    • Airport Website
    • Online hotel eCommerce
    • Social media
    • Transportation services on mobile

    Key moments & pain points

    How Am I Feeling?

    • Frustrated because the airport website is difficult to navigate to get information
    • Annoyed because there is no FAQ online and I have to call; there’s a long wait to speak to someone.
    • Stress & uncertainty (cancellation, logistics, insurance, etc..)

    Metrics

    • Travel dates
    • Trip price & budget

    Opportunities

    • Tailored communication based on search history
    • Specific messaging (e.g., alerts for COVID-19, changes in events, etc.)
    • Interactive VR experience that guides customers through the airport as a navigator

    Related Info-Tech Research

    Tech Trends and Priorities Research Center

    • Access Info-Tech’s Tech Trends reports and research center to learn about current industry trends, shifts in markets, and disruptions that are impacting your industry and sector. This is a great starting place to gain insights into how the ecosystem is changing your business and the impact of these changes on IT.

    Digital Business Strategy

    • Leverage Info-Tech’s Digital Business Strategy to identify opportunities to transform the customer experience.

    Industry Reference Architecture

    • Access Info-Tech’s Industry coverage to accelerate your understanding of your business capabilities and opportunities for automation.

    Contact Your Account Manager

    Research Contributors and Experts

    Joanne Lee

    Joanne Lee

    Principal, Research Director, CIO Strategy

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Kim Osborne-Rodgriguez

    Kim Osborne-Rodgriguez

    Research Director, CIO Strategy

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Joanne is an executive with over 25 years of in digital technology and management consulting across both public and private entities from solution delivery to organizational redesign across Canada and globally.

    Prior to joining Info-Tech Research Group, Joanne was a management consultant within KPMG’s CIO management consulting services and the Western Canada Digital Health Practice lead. She has held several executive roles in the industry with the most recent position as Chief Program Officer for a large $450M EHR implementation. Her expertise spans cloud strategy, organizational design, data and analytics, governance, process redesign, transformation, and PPM. She is passionate about connecting people, concepts, and capital.

    Joanne holds a Master’s in Business and Health Policy from the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Science (Nursing) from the University of British Columbia.

    Kim is a professional engineer and Registered Communications Distribution Designer (RCDD) with over a decade of experience in management and engineering consulting spanning healthcare, higher education, and commercial sectors. She has worked on some of the largest hospital construction projects in Canada, from early visioning and IT strategy through to design, specifications, and construction administration. She brings a practical and evidence-based approach to digital transformation, with a track record of supporting successful implementations.

    Kim holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mechatronics Engineering from University of Waterloo.

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    Vice President, Research

    Info-Tech Research Group

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    Charl Lombard

    President, Digital Transformation Consulting

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Jack has more than 25 years of technology and management consulting experience. He has served multi-billion dollar organizations in multiple industries including Financial Services and Telecommunications. Jack also served a number of large public sector institutions.

    Prior to joining the Info-Tech Research Group, he worked for leading consulting players such as Accenture, Deloitte, EY, and IBM.

    Jack led digital business strategy engagements as well as corporate strategy and M&A advisory services for clients across North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. He is a seasoned technology consultant who has developed IT strategies and technology roadmaps, led large business transformations, established data governance programs, and managed the deployment of mission-critical CRM and ERP applications.

    He is a frequent speaker and panelist at technology and innovation conferences and events and holds a Master’s degree in Computer Engineering as well as an MBA from the ESCP-EAP European School of Management.

    Charl has more than 20 years of professional services experience, “majoring” in digital transformation and strategic topics. He has led multiple successful Digital Transformation programs across a range of industries like Information technology, hospitality, Advanced Industries, High Tech, Entertainment, Travel and Transport, Insurance & Financial Services, Metals & Mining, Electric Power, Renewable Energy, Telecoms, Manufacturing) across different geographics (i.e., North America, EU, Africa) in both private and public sectors.

    Prior to joining Info-Tech Research Group, Charl was the Vice President of Global Product Management and Strategy (Saber Hospitality Solution), Associate President, McKinsey Transformation Practice, e-Business Practice for PwC, and tech start-up founder and investor.

    Charl is a frequent speaker at innovation and digital transformation conferences and holds an MBA from the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

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    Practice Lead, CIO Strategy

    Info-Tech Research Group

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    Vice President, Digital Transformation Consulting

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Mike Tweedie brings over 25 years of experience as a technology executive. He’s led several large transformation projects across core infrastructure, application, and IT services as the head of Technology at ADP Canada. He was also the Head of Engineering and Service Offerings for a large French IT services firm, focused on cloud adoption and complex ERP deployment and management.

    Mike holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Ryerson University.

    Michael is a leader in Info-Tech’s digital transformation consulting practice. He brings over 10 years of experience working with companies across a range of industries. His work experience includes ~4.5 years at McKinsey & Company where he led large-scale transformations for fortune 500 companies. Prior to joining Info-Tech, he worked for Sabre Corp., an SaaS platform provider for the travel and hospitality sector, leading Product Strategy & Operations. Michael holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and a B.S in Business Strategy from Brigham Young University.

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    Duane Cooney

    Duane Cooney

    Executive Counselor, Healthcare

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Denis Goulet

    Denis Goulet

    Senior Workshop Director

    Info-Tech Research Group

    Duane brings over 30 years of experiences a healthcare IT leader with a passion for the transformation of people, processes, and technology. He has led large-scale health technology transformation and operations across the enterprise. Before joining Info-Tech, Duane served as the Deputy CIO, Senior Information Technology Director, and Enterprise Architect for both public not-for-profit and private sectors. He has a Bachelors in Computer Science and is a graduate of EDS Operations. He holds certifications in EHR, LEAN/Agile, ITIL, and PMP.

    Denis is an IAF Certified Professional Facilitator who has helped organizations and technology executives develop IT strategies for small to large global enterprises. He firmly believes in a collaborative value-driven approach. Prior to joining Info-Tech Research Group, Denis held several industry positions as CIO, Chief Administrative Office (City Manager), General Manager, and Vice President of Engineering. Denis holds an MBA from Queen’s University and a Diploma in Technology Engineering and Executive Municipal Management.

    Jay Cappis.

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    Executive Advisor, Real-Estate

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    Christine Brick.

    Christine Brick

    Executive Advisor, Financial Services
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    Jay brings over 30 years of experience in management and technology across small and medium enterprises to large global enterprises including Exxon and Xerox. His cross-industry experience includes professional services, commercial real estate, oil and gas, digital start-ups, insurance, and aerospace. Jay has led business process improvements and change management and has expertise in software development lifecycle management and DevOps practices.

    Christine brings over 20 years in IT transformation across DevOps, infrastructure, operations, supply chain, IT Strategy, modernization, cost optimization, data management, and operational risk. She brings expertise in business transformation, mergers and acquisitions, vendor selection, and contract management.

    Bibliography

    Bhatia, AD. “Transforming through disruptions: A conversation with Dan Antonelli. Transformation Insights.” McKinsey & Company. January 31, 2022. Web
    Bertoletti, Antonella and Peter Eeles. “Use an IT Maturity Model.” IBM Garage Methodology. Web. accessed May 30, 2022.
    Catlin, Tanguy, Jay Scanlan, and Paul Willmott. “Raising your Digital Quotient.” McKinsey Quarterly. June 1, 2015. Article
    Custers, Heidi. “Digital Blueprint. Reference Architecture. Deloitte Digital.Accessed May 15, 2022.
    Coundouris, Anthony. “Reviewed: The Top 5 Digital Transformation Frameworks in 2020.” Run-frictionless Blog. Accessed May 15, 2022. Web.
    Daub, Matthias and Anna Wiesinger. “Acquiring the Capabilities you need to go digital.” Business Technology Office – McKinsey and Company. March 2015. Web.
    De La Boutetiere, Alberto Montagner and Angelika Reich. “Unlocking success in digital transformations.” McKinsey and Company. October 2018. Web.
    “Design Thinking Defined.” IDEO.com. November 21, 2022. Web.
    Dorner, Karle and David Edelman. “What ‘Digital’ really means.” McKinsey Digital. July 2015. Web
    “Everything Changed. Or Did it? Harvey Nash KPMG CIO Survey 2020.” KPMG, 2020
    Kane, Gerald C., Doug Palmer, Ahn Nguyen Phillips, David Kiron, Natasha Buckley. “Aligning the organization for its digital future.” Findings from the 2016 Digital Business Global Executive Study and Research Project. MIT Sloan Management Review. July 26, 2016. Web
    LaBerge, Laura, et al. “How COVID-19 has pushed companies over the technology tipping point—and transformed business forever.” McKinsey, 5 Oct. 2020. Accessed 14 June 2021
    Mindtools Content Team. “Cause and Effect Analysis.” Mindtools.com. November 21, 2022. Web.
    “Strategic Foresight.” OECD.org. November 21, 2022, Web
    Sall, Sherman, Dan Lichtenfeld. “The Digital ME Method. Turning digital opportunities into customer engagement and business growth.” Sygnific. 2017. Web.
    Scoblic, J. Peter. “Learning from the Future. How to make robust strategy in times of deep uncertainty.” Harvard Business Review, August 2020.
    Silva, Bernardo and Schoenwaelder, Tom. ‘Why Good Strategies fail. Addressing the three critical strategic tensions.” Deloitte Monitor Group. 2019.

    Reduce Shadow IT With a Service Request Catalog

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    • Parent Category Name: Asset Management
    • Parent Category Link: /asset-management
    • Shadow IT: The IT team is regularly surprised to discover new products within the organization, often when following up on help desk tickets or requests for renewals from business users or vendors.
    • Renewal Management: The contracts and asset teams need to be aware of upcoming renewals and have adequate time to review renewals.
    • Over-purchasing: Contracts may be renewed without a clear picture of usage, potentially renewing unused applications.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    There is a direct correlation between service delivery dissatisfaction and increases in shadow IT. Whether the goal is to reduce shadow IT or gain control, improved customer service and fast delivery are key to making lasting changes.

    Impact and Result

    Our blueprint will help you design a service that draws the business to use it. If it is easier for them to buy from IT than it is to find their own supplier, they will use IT.

    A heavy focus on customer service, design optimization, and automation will provide a means for the business to get what they need, when they need it, and provide visibility to IT and security to protect organizational interests.

    This blueprint will help you:

    • Design the request service
    • Design the request catalog
    • Build the request catalog
    • Market the service

    Reduce Shadow IT With a Service Request Catalog Research & Tools

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

    1. Reduce Shadow IT With a Service Request Catalog – A step-by-step document that walks you through creation of a request service management program.

    Use this blueprint to create a service request management program that provides immediate value.

    • Reduce Shadow IT With a Service Request Catalog Storyboard

    2. Nonstandard Request Assessment – A template for documenting requirements for vetting and onboarding new applications.

    Use this template to define what information is needed to vet and onboard applications into the IT environment.

    • Nonstandard Request Assessment

    3. Service Request Workflows – A library of workflows used as a starting point for creating and fulfilling requests for applications and equipment.

    Use this library of workflows as a starting point for creating and fulfilling requests for applications and equipment in a service catalog.

    • Service Request Workflows

    4. Application Portfolio – A template to organize applications requested by the business and identify which items are published in the catalog.

    Use this template as a starting point to create an application portfolio and request catalog.

    • Application Portfolio

    5. Reduce Shadow IT With a Service Request Catalog Communications Template – A presentation and communications plan to announce changes to the service and introduce a catalog.

    Use this template to create a presentation and communications plan for launching the new service and service request catalog.

    • Reduce Shadow IT with a Service Request Catalog Communications Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Reduce Shadow IT With a Service Request Catalog

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

    1 Design the Service

    The Purpose

    Collaborate with the business to determine service model.

    Collaborate with IT teams to build non-standard assessment process.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Designed a service for service requests, including new product intake.

    Activities

    1.1 Identify challenges and obstacles.

    1.2 Complete customer journey map.

    1.3 Design process for nonstandard assessments.

    Outputs

    Nonstandard process.

    2 Design the Catalog

    The Purpose

    Design the service request catalog management process.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Ensure the catalog is kept current and is integrated with IT service catalog if applicable.

    Activities

    2.1 Determine what will be listed in the catalog.

    2.2 Determine process to build and maintain the catalog, including roles, responsibilities, and workflows.

    2.3 Define success and determine metrics.

    Outputs

    Catalog scope.

    Catalog design and maintenance plan.

    Defined success metrics

    3 Build and Market the Catalog

    The Purpose

    Determine catalog contents and how requests will be fulfilled.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Catalog framework and service level agreements will be defined.

    Create communications documents.

    Activities

    3.1 Determine how catalog items will be displayed.

    3.2 Complete application categories for catalog.

    3.3 Create deployment categories and SLAs.

    3.4 Design catalog forms and deployment workflows.

    3.5 Create roadmap.

    3.6 Create communications plan.

    Outputs

    Catalog workflows and SLAs.

    Roadmap.

    Communications deck.

    4 Breakout Groups – Working Sessions

    The Purpose

    Create an applications portfolio.

    Prepare to populate the catalog.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Portfolio and catalog contents created.

    Activities

    4.1 Using existing application inventory, add applications to portfolio and categorize.

    4.2 Determine which applications should be in the catalog.

    4.3 Determine which applications are packaged and can be easily deployed.

    Outputs

    Application Portfolio.

    List of catalog items.

    Further reading

    Reduce Shadow IT With a Service Request Catalog

    Foster business partnerships with sourcing-as-a-service.

    Analyst Perspective

    Improve the request management process to reduce shadow IT.

    In July 2022, Ivanti conducted a study on the state of the digital employee experience, surveying 10,000 office workers, IT professionals, and C-suite executives. Results of this study indicated that 49% of employees are frustrated by their tools, and 26% of employees were considering quitting their jobs due to unsuitable tech. 42% spent their own money to gain technology to improve their productivity. Despite this, only 21% of IT leaders prioritized user experience when selecting new tools.

    Any organization’s workers are expected to be productive and contribute to operational improvements or customer experience. Yet those workers don’t always have the tools needed to do the job. One option is to give the business greater control, allowing them to choose and acquire the solutions that will make them more productive. Info-Tech's blueprint Embrace Business-Managed Applications takes you down this path.

    However, if the business doesn’t want to manage applications, but just wants have access to better ones, IT is positioned to provide services for application and equipment sourcing that will improve the employee experience while ensuring applications and equipment are fully managed by the asset, service, and security teams.

    Improving the request management and deployment practice can give the business what they need without forcing them to manage license agreements, renewals, and warranties.

    Photo of Sandi Conrad

    Sandi Conrad
    ITIL Managing Professional
    Principal Research Director, IT Infrastructure & Operations,
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Your challenge

    This research is designed to help organizations that are looking to improve request management processes and reduce shadow IT.

    Shadow IT: The IT team is regularly surprised to discover new products within the organization, often when following up on help desk tickets or requests for renewals from business users or vendors.

    Renewal management: The contracts and asset teams need to be aware of upcoming renewals and have adequate time to review renewals.

    Over-purchasing and over-spending: Contracts may be renewed without a clear picture of utilization, potentially renewing unused applications. Applications or equipment may be purchased at retail price where corporate, government, or educational discounts exist.

    Info-Tech Insight

    To increase the visibility of the IT environment, IT needs to transform the request management process to create a service that makes it easier for the business to access the tools they need rather than seeking them outside of the organization.

    609
    Average number of SaaS applications in large enterprises

    40%
    On average, only 60% of provisioned SaaS licenses are used, with the remaining 40% unused.

    — Source: Zylo, SaaS Trends for IT Leaders, 2022

    Common obstacles

    Too many layers of approvals and a lack of IT workers makes it difficult to rethink service request fulfillment.

    Delays: The business may not be getting the applications they need from IT to do their jobs or must wait too long to get the applications approved.

    Denials: Without IT’s support, the business is finding alternative options, including SaaS applications, as they can be bought and used without IT’s input or knowledge.

    Threats: Applications that have not been vetted by security or installed without their knowledge may present additional threats to the organization.

    Access: Self-serve isn’t mature enough to support an applications catalog.

    A diagram that shows the number of SaaS applications being acquired outside of IT is increasing year over year, and that business units are driving the majority of SaaS spend.

    8: average number of applications entering the organization every 30 days

    — Source: Zylo, SaaS Trends for Procurement, 2022

    Info-Tech’s approach

    Improve the request management process to create sourcing-as-a-service for the business.

    • Improve customer service
    • Reduce shadow IT
    • Gain control in a way that keeps the business happy

    1. Design the service

    Collaborate with the business

    Identify the challenges and obstacles

    Gain consensus on priorities

    Design the service

    2. Design the catalog

    Determine catalog scope

    Create a process to build and maintain the catalog

    Define metrics for the request management process

    3. Build the catalog

    Determine descriptions for catalog items

    Create definitions for license types, workflows, and SLAs

    Create application portfolio

    Design catalog forms and workflows

    4. Market the service

    Create a roadmap

    Determine messaging

    Build a communications plan

    Blueprint deliverables

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

    Communications Presentation

    Photo of Communications Presentation

    Application Portfolio

    Photo of Application Portfolio

    Visio Library

    Photo of Visio Library

    Nonstandard Request Assessment

    Photo of Nonstandard Request Assessment

    Create a request management process and service catalog to improve delivery of technology to the business

    Define Your Virtual and Hybrid Event Requirements

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    • Parent Category Name: End-User Computing Applications
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    Your organization is considering holding an event online, or has been, but:

    • The organization (both on the business and IT sides) may not have extensive experience hosting events online.
    • It is not immediately clear how your formerly in-person event’s activities translate to a virtual environment.
    • Like the work-from-home transformation, bringing events online instantly expands IT’s role and responsibilities.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    If you don't begin with strategy, you will fit your event to technology, instead of the other way around.

    Impact and Result

    To determine your requirements:

    • Determine the scope of the event.
    • Narrow down your list of technical requirements.
    • Use Info-Tech’s Rapid Application Selection Framework to select the right software solution.

    Define Your Virtual and Hybrid Event Requirements Research & Tools

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

    1. Define Your Virtual and Hybrid Event Requirements Storyboard – Use this storyboard to work through key decision points involved in creating digital events.

    This deck walks you through key decision points in creating virtual or hybrid events. Then, begin the process of selecting the right software by putting together the first draft of your requirements for a virtual event software solution.

    • Define Your Virtual and Hybrid Event Requirements Storyboard

    2. Virtual Events Requirements Tool – Use this tool to begin selecting your requirements for a digital event solution.

    The business should review the list of features and select which ones are mandatory and which are nice to have or optional. Add any features not included.

    • Virtual/Hybrid Event Software Feature Analysis Tool
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Define Your Virtual and Hybrid Event Requirements

    Accelerate your event scoping and software selection process.

    Analyst Perspective

    When events go virtual, IT needs to cover its bases.

    The COVID-19 pandemic imposed a dramatic digital transformation on the events industry. Though event ticket and registration software, mobile event apps, and onsite audio/visual technology were already important pieces of live events, the total transformation of events into online experiences presented major challenges to organizations whose regular business operations involve at least one annual mid-sized to large event (association meetings, conferences, trade shows, and more).

    Many organizations worked to shift to online, or virtual events, in order to maintain business continuity. As time went on, and public gatherings began to restart, a shift to “hybrid” events began to emerge—events that accommodate both in-person and virtual attendance. Regardless of event type, this pivot to using virtual event software, or digital event technology, brings events more closely into IT’s areas of responsibility. If you don't begin with strategy, you risk fitting your event to technology, instead of the other way around.

    If virtual and hybrid events are becoming standard forms of delivering content in your organization, use Info-Tech’s material to help define the scope of the event and your requirements, and to support your software selection process.

    Photo of Emily Sugerman
    Emily Sugerman
    Research Analyst, Infrastructure & Operations
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    The organization (both on the business and IT sides) may not have extensive experience hosting events online.

    It is not immediately clear how a formerly in-person event’s activities translate to a virtual environment.

    Like the work-from-home transformation, bringing events online expands IT’s role and responsibilities.

    Common Obstacles

    It is not clear what technological capabilities are needed for the event, which capabilities you already own, and what you may need to purchase.

    Though virtual events remove some barriers to attendance (distance, travel), it introduces new complications and considerations for planners.

    Hybrid events introduce another level of complexity.

    Info-Tech’s Approach

    In order to determine your requirements:

    Determine the scope of the event.

    Narrow down your list of technical requirements.

    Use Info-Tech’s Rapid Application Selection Framework to select the right software solution.

    Info-Tech Insight

    If you don't begin with strategy, you will fit your event to technology, instead of the other way around.

    Your challenge

    The solution you have been using for online events does not meet your needs.

    Though you do have some tools that support large meetings, it is not clear if you require a larger and more comprehensive virtual event solution. There is a need to determine what type of technology you might need to purchase versus leveraging what you already have.

    It is difficult to quickly and practically identify core event requirements and how they translate into technical capabilities.

    Maintaining or improving audience engagement is a perpetual challenge for virtual events.

    38%
    of event professionals consider virtual event technology “a tool for reaching a wider audience as part of a hybrid strategy.”

    21%
    consider it “a necessary platform for virtual events, which remain my go-to event strategy.”

    40%
    prioritize “mid-budget all-in-one event tech solution that will prevent remote attendees from feeling like second-class participants.”

    Source: Virtual Event Tech Guide, 2022

    Common obstacles

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

    Events with networking objectives are not always well served by webinars, which are traditionally more limited in their interactive elements.

    Events that include the conducting of organizational/association business (like voting) may have bylaws that make selecting a virtual solution more challenging.

    Maintaining attendee engagement is more challenging in a virtual environment.

    Prior to the pandemic, your organization may not have been as experienced in putting on fully virtual events, putting more responsibility in your corner as IT. Navigating virtual events can also require technological competencies that your attendee userbase may not universally possess.

    Technological limitations and barriers to access can exclude potential attendees just as much as bringing events online can open up attendance to new audiences.

    Opportunity: Virtual events can significantly increase an event’s reach

    Events held virtually during the pandemic noted significant increases in attendees.

    “We had 19,000 registrations from all over the world, almost 50 times the number of people we had expected to host in Amsterdam. . . . Most of this year’s [2020] attendees would not have been able to participate in a physical GrafanaCon in Amsterdam. That was a huge win.” – Raj Dutt, Grafana Labs CEO[5]

    Event In-person Online 2022
    Microsoft Build 2019: 6,000 attendees 2020: 230,000+ registrants[1] The 2022 conference was also held virtually[3]
    Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence A few hundred attendees expected for the original (cancelled) 2020 in-person conference 2020: 30,000 attendees attended the “COVID-19 and AI” virtual conference[2] The 2022 Spring Conference was a hybrid event[4]

    [1] Kelly, 2020; [2] Price, 2020; [3] Stanford Digital Economy Lab, 2022; [4] Warren, 2022; [5] Fast Company, 2020

    Info-Tech’s methodology for defining virtual/hybrid event requirements

    A diagram that shows defining event scope, creating list of requirements, and selecting software.

    Event planning phases

    Apply project management principles to your virtual/hybrid event planning process.

    Online event planning should follow the same established principles as in-person event planning.
    Align the event’s concept and objectives with organizational goals.

    A diagram of event planning phases
    Source: Adapted from Event Management Body of Knowledge, CC BY 4.0

    Gather inputs to the planning processes

    Acquire as much of this information as possible before you being the planning process.

    Budget: Determine your organization’s budget for this event to help decide the scope of the event and the purchasing decisions you make as you plan.

    Internal human resources: Identify who in your organization is usually involved in the organization of this event and if they are available to organize this one.

    List of communication and collaboration tools: Acquire the list of the existing communication and collaboration tools you are currently licensed for. Ensure you know the following information about each tool:

    • Type of license
    • License limitations (maximum number of users)
    • Internal or external-facing tool (or capable of both)
    • Level of internal training and competency on the tool

    Decision point: Relate event goals to organizational goals

    What is driving the event?

    Your organization may hold a variety of in-person events that you now wish, for various reasons, to hold fully or partially online. Each event likely has a slightly different set of goals.

    Before getting into the details of how to transition your event online, return to the business/organizational goals the event is serving.

    Ensure each event (and each component of each event) maps back to an organizational goal.

    If a component of the event does not align to an organizational goal, assess whether it should remain as part of the event.

    Common organizational goals

    • Increase revenue
    • Increase productivity
    • Attract and retain talent
    • Improve change management
    • Carry out organizational mission
    • Identify new markets
    • Increase market share
    • Improve customer service
    • Launch new product/service

    Common event goals

    • Education/training
    • Knowledge transfer
    • Decision making
    • Professional development
    • Sales/lead generation
    • Fundraising
    • Entertainment
    • Morale boosting
    • Recognition of achievement

    Decision point: Identify your organization’s digital event vision

    What do you want the outcome of this event to be?

    Attendee goals: Who are your attendees? Why do they attend this event? What attendee needs does your event serve? What is your event’s value proposition? Are they intrinsically or extrinsically motivated to attend?

    Event goals: From the organizer perspective, why do you usually hold this event? Who are your stakeholders?

    Organizational goals: How do the event goals map to your organizational goals? Is there a clear understanding of what the event’s larger strategic purpose is.

    Common attendee goals

    Education: our attendees need to learn something new that they cannot learn on their own.
    Networking: our attendees need to meet people and make new professional connections.
    Professional development: our attendees have certain obligations to keep credentials updated or to present their work publicly to advance their careers.
    Entertainment: our attendees need to have fun.
    Commerce: our attendees need to buy and sell things.

    Decision point: Level of external event production

    Will you be completely self-managed, reliant on external event production services, or somewhere in the middle?

    You can review this after working through the other decision points and the scope becomes clearer.

    A diagram that shows Level of external event production, comparing Completely self-managed vs Fully externally-managed.

    Decision point: Assign event planning roles

    Who will be involved in planning the event? Fill/combine these roles as needed.

    Planning roles Description
    Project manager Shepherd event planning until completion while ensuring project remains on schedule and on budget.
    Event manager Correspond with presenters during leadup to event, communicate how to use online event tools/platform, perform tests with presenters/exhibitors, coordinate digital event staff/volunteers.
    Program planner Select the topics, speakers, activity types, content, streams.
    Designer and copywriter Design the event graphics; compose copy for event website.
    Digital event technologist Determine event technology requirements; determine how event technology fits together; prepare RFP, if necessary, for new hardware/software.
    Platform administrator Set up registration system/integrate registrations into platform(s) of choice; upload video files and collateral; add livestream links; add/delete staff roles and set controls and permissions; collect statistics and recordings after event.
    Commercial partner liaison Recruit sponsors and exhibitors (offer sponsorship packages); facilitate agreement/contract between commercial partners and organization; train commercial partners on how to use event technology; retrieve lead data.
    Marketing/social media Plan and execute promotional campaigns (email, social media) in the lead up to, and during, the event. Post-event, send follow-up communications, recording files, and surveys.

    Decision point: Assign event production roles

    Who will be involved in running the event?

    Event production roles Description
    Hosts/MCs Address attendees at beginning and end of event, and in-between sessions
    Provide continuity throughout event
    Introduce sessions
    Producers Prepare presenters for performance
    Begin and end sessions
    Use controls to share screens, switch between feeds
    Send backchannel messages to presenters (e.g., "Up next," "Look into webcam")
    Moderators Admit attendees from waiting room
    Moderate incoming questions from attendees
    Manage slides
    Pass questions to host/panelists to answer
    Moderate chat
    IT support Manage event technology stack
    Respond to attendee technical issues
    Troubleshoot network connectivity problems
    Ensure audio and video operational
    Start and stop session recording
    Save session recordings and files (chat, Q&As)

    Decision point: Map attendee goals to event goals to organizational goals

    Input: List of attendee benefits, List of event goals, List of organizational goals
    Output: Ranked list of event goals as they relate to attendee needs and organizational goals
    Materials: Whiteboard/flip charts
    Participants: Planning team

    1. Define attendee benefits:
      1. List the attendee benefits derived from your event (as many as possible).
      2. Rank attendee benefits from most to least important.
    2. Define event goals:
      1. List your event goals (as many as possible).
      2. Draw a connecting line to your ranked list of attendee benefits.
      3. Identify if any event goals exist with no clear relationship to attendee benefits. Discuss whether this event goal needs to be re-envisioned. If it connects to no discernible attendee benefits, consider removing it. Otherwise, figure out what attendee benefits the event goal provides.
    3. Define organizational goals:
      1. Acquire a list of your organization’s main strategic goals.
      2. Draw a connecting line from each event goal to the organizational goal it supports.
      3. If most of your event goals do not immediately seem to support an organizational goal, discuss why this is. Try to find the connection. If you cannot, discuss whether the event should proceed or be rethought.

    Decision point: Break down your event into its constituent components

    Identify your event archetype

    Decompose the event into its component parts

    Identify technical requirements that help meet event goals

    Benefits:

    • Clarify how formerly in-person events map to virtual archetypes.
    • Ensure your virtual event planning is anchored to organizational goals from the outset.
    • Streamline your virtual event tech stack planning later.

    Decision point: Determine your event archetype

    Analyze your event’s:

    • Main goals.
    • The components and activities that support those goals.
    • How these components and activities fall into people- vs. content-centric activities, and real-time vs. asynchronous activities.
    1. Conference
    2. Trade show
    3. Annual general meeting
    4. Department meeting
    5. Town hall
    6. Workshop

    A diagram that shows people- vs. content-centric activities, and real-time vs. asynchronous activities

    Info-Tech Insight

    Begin the digital event planning process by understanding how your event’s content is typically consumed. This will help you make decisions later about how best to deliver the content virtually.

    Conference

    Goals: Education/knowledge transfer; professional advancement; networking.

    Major content

    • Call for proposals/circulation of abstracts
    • Keynotes or plenary address: key talk addressed to large audience
    • Panel sessions: multiple panelists deliver address on common theme
    • Poster sessions: staffed/unstaffed booths demonstrate visualization of major research on a poster
    • Association meetings (see also AGM archetype): professional associations hold AGM as one part of a larger conference agenda

    Community

    • Formal networking (happy hours, social outings)
    • Informal networking (hallway track, peer introductions)
    • Business card exchange
    • Pre- and post-event correspondence

    Commercial Partners

    • Booth reps: Publishing or industry representatives exhibit products/discuss collaboration

    A quadrants matrix of conference

    Trade show

    Objectives: Information transfer; sales; lead generation.

    Major content

    • Live booth reps answer questions
    • Product information displayed
    • Promotional/information material distributed
    • Product demonstrations at booths or onstage
    • Product samples distributed to attendees

    Community interactions

    • Statements of intent to buy
    • Lead generation (badge scanning) of booth visitors
    • Business card exchange
    • Pre- and post-event correspondence

    A quadrants matrix of Trade show

    Annual general meeting

    Objectives: Transparently update members; establish governance and alignment.

    Meeting events

    • Updates provided to members on organization’s activities/finances
    • Decisions made regarding organization’s direction
    • Governance over organization established (elections)
    • Speakers addressing large audience from stage
    • In-camera sessions
    • Translation of proceedings
    • Real-time weighted voting
    • Minutes taken during meeting

    Administration

    • Notice given of meeting within mandated time period
    • Agenda circulated prior to meeting
    • Distribution of proxy material
    • Minutes distributed

    A quadrants matrix of Annual general meeting

    Department meeting

    Objectives: Information transfer of company agenda/initiatives; group decision making.

    Major content

    • Agenda circulated prior to meeting
    • Updates provided from senior management/leadership to employees on organization’s initiatives and direction
    • Employee questions and feedback addressed
    • Group decision making
    • Minutes taken during meeting
    • Minutes or follow-up circulated

    A quadrants matrix of department meeting

    Town hall meeting

    Objectives: Update public; answer questions; solicit feedback.

    Major content

    • Public notice of meeting announced
    • Agenda circulated prior to meeting
    • Speakers addressing large audience from stage
    • Presentation of information pertinent to public interest
    • Audience members line up to ask questions/provide feedback
    • Translation of proceedings
    • Recording of meeting archived

    A quadrants matrix of Town hall meeting

    Workshop

    Objectives: Make progress on objective; achieve consensus; knowledge transfer.

    Major content

    • Scheduling of workshop
    • Agenda circulated prior to meeting
    • Facilitator leads group activities
    • Participants develop alignment on project
    • Progress achieved on workshop project
    • Feedback on workshop shared with facilitator

    A quadrants matrix of Workshop

    Decision point: Analyze your event’s purpose and value

    Use the event archetypes to help you identify your event’s core components and value proposition.

    1. Attendee types: Who typically attends your event? Exclusively internal participants? External participants? A mix of the two?
    2. Communication: How do participants usually communicate with each other during this event? How do they communicate with the event organizers? Include both formal types of communication (listening to panel sessions) and informal (serendipitous conversations in the hallway).
    3. Connection: What types of connections do your attendees need to experience? (networking with peers; interactions with booth reps; consensus building with colleagues).
    4. Exchange of material: What kind of material is usually exchanged at this event and between whom? (Pamphlets, brochures, business cards, booth swag).
    5. Engagement: How do you usually retain attendees' attention and make sure they remain engaged throughout the event?
    6. Length: How long does the event typically last?
    7. Location and setup: Where does the event usually take place and who is involved in its setup?
    8. Success metrics: How do you usually measure your event's success?

    Info-Tech Insight

    Avoid trying to exactly reproduce the formerly in-person event online. Instead, identify the value proposition of each event component, then determine what its virtual expression could be.

    Example: Trade show

    Goals: Information transfer; sales; lead generation.

    1. Identify event component(s)
    2. Document its face-to-face expression(s)
    3. Identify the expression’s value proposition
    4. Translate the value proposition to a virtual component that facilitates overall event goal

    Event component

    Face-to-face expression

    Value proposition of component

    Virtual expression

    Attendee types Paying attendees Revenue for event organizer; sales and lead generation for booth rep Access to virtual event space
    Attendee types Booth rep Revenue for event organizer; information source for paying attendees Access to virtual event space
    Communication/connection Conversation between booth rep and attendee Lead generation for booth rep; information to inform decision making for attendee Ability to enter open video breakout session staffed by booth reps OR

    Ability to schedule meeting times with booth rep

    Multiple booth reps on hand to monitor different elements of the booth (one person to facilitate the discussion over video, another to monitor chat and Q&A)
    Communication/connection Serendipitous conversation between attendees Increased attendee contacts; fun Multiple attendees can attend the booth’s breakout session simultaneously and participate in web conferencing, meeting chat, or submit questions to Q&A
    Communication/connection Badges scanned at booth/email sign-up sheets filled out at table Lead generation for exhibitors List of visitors to booth shared with exhibitor (if consent given by attendees)

    Ability for attendees to request to be contacted for more information
    Exchange of material Catering (complimentary coffee, pastries) Obviate the need for attendees to leave the event for refreshments N/A: not included in virtual event
    Exchange of material Pamphlets, product literature, swag Portable information for attendee decision making Downloadable files (pdf)
    Location Responsibility of both the organizers (tables, chairs, venue) and booth reps (posters, handouts) Booth reps need a dedicated space where they can be easily found by attendees and advertise themselves Booth reps need access to virtual platform to upload files, images, provide booth description
    Engagement Attendees able to visit all booths by strolling through space Event organizers have a captive audience who is present in the immediacy of the event site Attendees motivated to stay in the event space and attend booths through gamification strategies (points awarded for number of booths visited or appointments booked)
    Length of event 2 full days Attendees travel to event site and spend the entire 2 days at the event, allowing them to be immersed in the event and absorb as much information in as little time as possible Exhibitors’ visiting hours will be scheduled so they work for both attendees attending in Eastern Standard Time and Pacific Time
    Metrics for success -Positive word of mouth
    -Number of registrations
    These metrics can be used to advertise to future exhibitors and attendees Number of virtual booths visited

    Number of file downloads

    Survey sent to attendees after event (favorite booths, preferred way to interact with exhibitors, suggestions for improvement, most valuable part of experience)

    Plan your metrics

    Use the analytics and reporting features available in your event technology toolset to capture the data you want to measure. Decide how each metric will impact your planning process for the next event.

    Examples of metrics:

    • Number of overall participants/registrants: Did you have more or fewer registrants/attendees than previous iterations of the event? What is the difference between number of registrants and number of real attendees?
    • Locations of participants: Where are people participating from? How many are attending for the first time? Are there new audiences you can pursue next time?
    • Most/least popular sessions: How long did people stay in the sessions and the event overall?
    • Most/least popular breakout rooms and discussion boards: Which topics should be repeated/skipped next time?
    • Social media mentions: Which topics received the most engagement on social media?
    • Surveys: What do participants report enjoying most? Least?
    • Technical failures: Can your software report on failures? Identify what technical problems arose and prepare a plan to mitigate them next time.

    Ensure the data you capture feeds into better planning for the next event

    Determine compliance requirements

    A greater event reach also means new data privacy considerations, depending on the location of your guests.

    General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

    Concerns over the collection of personal electronic data may not have previously been a part of your event planning considerations. However, now that your event is online, it’s wise to explore which data protection regulations apply to you. Remember, even if your organization is not located in the EU, if any of your attendees are European data subjects you may still be required to comply with GDPR, which involves the notification of data collected, allowing for opt-out options and the right to have data purged. The data must be collected for a specific purpose; if that purpose is expired, it can no longer be retained. You also have an obligation to report any breaches.

    Accessibility requirements

    What kind of accessibility laws are you subject to (AODA, WCAG2)? Regardless of compliance requirements, it is a good idea to ensure the online event follows accessibility best practices.

    Decision point: Set event policies

    What event policies need to be documented?
    How will you communicate them to attendees?

    Code of conduct

    One trend in the large event and conference space in recent years has been the development of codes of conduct that attendees are required to abide by to continue participating in the event.
    Now that your event is online, consider whether your code of conduct requires updating. Are there new types of appropriate/inappropriate online behavior that you need to define for your attendees?

    Harassment reporting

    If your organization has an event harassment reporting process, determine how this process will transfer over to the digital event.
    Ensure the reporting process has an owner and a clear methodology to follow to deal with complaints, as well as a digital reporting channel (a dedicated email or form) that is only accessed by approved staff to protect sensitive information.

    Develop a risk management plan

    Plan for how you will mitigate technical risks during your virtual event
    Provide presenters with a process to follow if technical problems arise.

    • Presenter’s internet connection cuts out
    • Attendees cannot log in to event platform
    • Attendees cannot hear/see video feed
    • What process will be followed when technical problems occur: ticketing system; chatbot; generic email accessible by all IT support assigned

    Testing/Rehearsal

    Test audio hardware: Ensure speakers use headphones/earbuds and mics (they do not have to be fancy/expensive). Relying on the computer/laptop mic can lead to more ambient noise and potential feedback problems.

    Check lighting: Avoid backlighting. Reposition speakers so they are not behind windows. Ask them to open/close shades. Add lamps as needed.

    Prevent interruptions: Before the event, ask panelists to turn phone and computer notifications to silent. Put a sign on the door saying Do not Disturb.

    Control audience view of screenshare: If your presenters will be sharing their screens, teach them how this works on the platform they are using. Advise them to exit out of any other application that is not part of their presentation, so they do not share the wrong screen unintentionally. Advise them to remove anything from the desktop that they do not want the audience to see, in case their desktop becomes visible at any point.

    Control audience view of physical environment: Before the event, advise participants to turn their cameras on and examine their backgrounds. Remove anything the audience should not be able to see.

    Test network connectivity: Send the presenters a link to a speed test and check their internet speed.

    Emergency contact: Exchange cell phone numbers for emergency backchannel conversations if problems arise on the day of the event.

    Set expectations: Presenting to an online audience feels very different to a live crowd. Prepare presenters for a lack of applause and lack of ability to see their audience, and that this does not mean the presentation was unsuccessful.

    Identify requirements

    To determine what kind of technical requirements you need to build the virtual expression of your event, consult the Virtual Event Platform Requirements Tool.

    1. If you have determined that the requirements you wish to use for the event exceed the capabilities of your existing communication and collaboration toolset, identify whether these gaps tip the scale toward purchasing a new tool. Use the requirement gaps to make the business case for purchasing a new tool.
    2. Use the Virtual Event Platform Requirements Tool to create a list of requirements.
    3. Consult the Software Reviews category for Virtual Event Platform Data Quadrant and Emotional Footprint reports.
    4. Assemble your documentation for approvals and the Rapid Application Selection Process.

    A photo of Detailed Feature Analysis Worksheet.

    Download the Virtual/Hybrid Event Software Feature Analysis Tool

    Rapid Application Selection Framework and Contract Review

    A photo of Rapid Application Selection Framework
    Launch Info-Tech’s Rapid Application Selection Framework.

    Using the requirements you’ve just gathered as a base, use Info-Tech’s complete framework to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of software selection.

    Once you’ve selected a vendor(s), review the contract. Does it define an exit strategy? Does it define when your data will be deleted? Does it set service-level agreements that you find acceptable? Leverage Info-Tech’s contract review service once you have selected the virtual event solution and have received a contract from the vendor.

    Further research

    Photo of Run Better Meetings
    Run Better Meetings

    Bibliography

    Dutt, Raj. “7 Lessons from This Company’s First-Ever Virtual Conference.” Fast Company, 29 Jul 2020. Web.

    Kelly, Samantha Murphy. “Microsoft Build Proves Splashy Tech Events Can Thrive Online.” CNN, 21 May 2020. Web.

    “Phases.” Event Management Body of Knowledge (EMBOK), n.d. Web.

    Price, Michael. “As COVID-19 Forces Conferences Online, Scientists Discover Upsides of Virtual Format.” Science, 28 Apr 2020. Web.

    “Stanford HAI Spring Conference - Key Advances in Artificial Intelligence.” Stanford Digital Economy Lab, 2022. Web.

    “Virtual Event Tech Guide 2022.” Skift Meetings, April 2022. Web.

    Warren, Tom. “Microsoft Build 2022 Will Take Place May 24th–26th.” The Verge, 30 March 2022. Web.

    Contributors

    6 anonymous contributors

    Cost-Reduction Planning for IT Vendors

    • Buy Link or Shortcode: {j2store}73|cart{/j2store}
    • member rating overall impact: 8.0/10 Overall Impact
    • member rating average dollars saved: $12,733 Average $ Saved
    • member rating average days saved: 5 Average Days Saved
    • Parent Category Name: Cost & Budget Management
    • Parent Category Link: /cost-and-budget-management
    • Unprecedented health and economic conditions are putting extreme pressure and controls on expense management.
    • IT needs to implement proactive measures to reduce costs with immediate results.
    • IT must sustain these reductions beyond the near term since no one knows how long the current conditions will last.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Proactively initiating a “War on Waste” (WoW) to reduce the expenses and costs in areas that do not impact operational capabilities of IT is an easy way to reduce IT expenditures.
    • This is accomplished by following the principle “Stop Doing Stupid Stuff” (SDSS), which many organizations deemphasize or overlook during times of growth and prosperity.
    • Initiating a WoW and SDSS program with passion, creativity, and urgency will deliver short-term cost reductions.

    Impact and Result

    • Pinpoint and implement tactical countermeasures and savings opportunities to reduce costs immediately (Reactive: <3 months).
    • Identify and deploy proven practices to capture and sustain expense reduction throughout the mid-term (Proactive: 3-12months).
    • Create a long-term strategy to improve flexibility, make changes more swiftly, and quickly generate cost-cutting opportunities (Strategic: >12 months).
    • Use Info-Tech’s 4 R’s Framework (Required, Removed, Rescheduled, and Reduced) and guiding principles to develop your cost-reduction roadmap.

    Cost-Reduction Planning for IT Vendors Research & Tools

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

    1. Start here – read the Storyboard

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out how you can reduce your IT cost in the short term while establishing a foundation for long-term sustainment of IT cost containment.

    • Cost-Reduction Planning for IT Vendors Storyboard
    • Cost-Cutting Classification and Prioritization Tool
    [infographic]

    Establish a Foresight Capability

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    • Parent Category Name: Innovation
    • Parent Category Link: /innovation
    • To be recognized and validated as a forward-thinking CIO, you must establish a structured approach to innovation that considers external trends as well as internal processes.
    • The CEO is expecting an investment in IT innovation to yield either cost reduction or revenue growth, but growth cannot happen without opportunity identification.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Technological innovation is disrupting business models – and it’s happening faster than organizations can react.
    • Smaller, more agile organizations have an advantage because they have less resources tied to existing operations and can move faster.

    Impact and Result

    • Be the disruptor, not the disrupted. This blueprint will help you plan proactively and identify opportunities before your competitors.
    • Strategic foresight gives you the tools you need to effectively process the signals in your environment, build an understanding of relevant trends, and turn this understanding into action.

    Establish a Foresight Capability Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out how to effectively apply strategic foresight, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Signal gathering

    Develop a better understanding of your external environment and build a database of signals.

    • Establish a Foresight Capability – Phase 1: Signal Gathering
    • Foresight Process Tool

    2. Trends and drivers

    Select and analyze trends to uncover drivers.

    • Establish a Foresight Capability – Phase 2: Trends and Drivers

    3. Scenario building

    Use trends and drivers to build plausible scenarios and brainstorm strategic initiatives.

    • Establish a Foresight Capability – Phase 3: Scenario Building

    4. Idea selection

    Apply the wind tunneling technique to assess strategic initiatives and determine which are most likely to succeed in the face of uncertainty.

    • Establish a Foresight Capability – Phase 4: Idea Selection
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Establish a Foresight Capability

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

    1 Pre-workshop – Gather Signals and Build a Repository

    The Purpose

    Note: this is preparation for the workshop and is not offered onsite.

    Gather relevant signals that will inform your organization about what is happening in the external competitive environment.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A better understanding of the competitive landscape.

    Activities

    1.1 Gather relevant signals.

    1.2 Store signals in a repository for quick and easy recall during the workshop.

    Outputs

    A set of signal items ready for analysis

    2 Identify Trends and Uncover Drivers

    The Purpose

    Uncover trends in your environment and assess their potential impact.

    Determine the causal forces behind relevant trends to inform strategic decisions.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    An understanding of the underlying causal forces that are influencing a trend that is affecting your organization.

    Activities

    2.1 Cluster signals into trends.

    2.2 Analyze trend impact and select a key trend.

    2.3 Perform causal analysis.

    2.4 Select drivers.

    Outputs

    A collection of relevant trends with a key trend selected

    A set of drivers influencing the key trend with primary drivers selected

    3 Build Scenarios and Ideate

    The Purpose

    Leverage your understanding of trends and drivers to build plausible scenarios and apply them as a canvas for ideation.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A set of potential responses or reactions to trends that are affecting your organization.

    Activities

    3.1 Build scenarios.

    3.2 Brainstorm potential strategic initiatives (ideation).

    Outputs

    Four plausible scenarios for ideation purposes

    A potential strategic initiative that addresses each scenario

    4 Apply Wind Tunneling and Select Ideas

    The Purpose

    Assess the various ideas based on which are most likely to succeed in the face of uncertainty.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    An idea that you have tested in terms of risk and uncertainty.

    An idea that can be developed and pitched to the business or stored for later use. 

    Activities

    4.1 Assign probabilities to scenarios.

    4.2 Apply wind tunneling.

    4.3 Select ideas.

    4.4 Discuss next steps and prototyping.

    Outputs

    A strategic initiative (idea) that is ready to move into prototyping

    Break Open Your DAM With Intuitive Metadata

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    • Parent Category Name: Data Management
    • Parent Category Link: /data-management
    • Organizations are facing challenges from explosive information growth in both volume and complexity, as well as the need to use more new sources of information for social media just to remain in business.
    • A lot of content can be created quickly, but managing those digital assets properly through metadata tagging that will be used consistently and effectively requires processes to be in place to create standardized and informational metadata at the source of content creation.
    • Putting these processes in place changes the way the organization handles its information, which may generate pushback, and requires socialization and proper management of the metadata strategy.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Metadata is an imperative part of the organizations broader information management strategy. Some may believe that metadata is not needed anymore; Google search is not a magic act – it relies on information tagging that reflects cultural sentiment.
    • Metadata should be pliable. It needs to grow with the changing cultural and corporate vernacular and knowledge, and adapt to changing needs.
    • Build a map for your metadata before you dig for buried treasure. Implement metadata standards and processes for current digital assets before chasing after your treasure troves of existing artifacts.

    Impact and Result

    • Create a sustainable and effective digital asset management (DAM) program by understanding Info-Tech’s DAM framework and how the framework fits within your organization for better management of key digital assets.
    • Create an enterprise-wide metadata design principles handbook to keep track of metadata schemas and standards, as well as communicate the standards to the entire organization.
    • Gather requirements for your DAM program, as well as the DAM system and roles, by interviewing key stakeholders and identifying prevalent pains and opportunities. Understand where digital assets are created, used, and stored throughout the enterprise to gain a high-level perspective of DAM requirements.
    • Identify the organization’s current state of metadata management along with the target state, identify the gaps, and then define solutions to fill those gaps. Ensure business initiatives are woven into the mix.
    • Create a comprehensive roadmap to prioritize initiatives and delineate responsibilities.

    Break Open Your DAM With Intuitive Metadata Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should develop a digital asset management program focused on metadata, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Build a foundation for your DAM project

    Gain an in-depth understanding of what digital asset management is as well as how it is supported by Info-Tech’s DAM framework.

    • Break Open Your DAM With Intuitive Metadata – Phase 1: Build a Foundation for Your DAM Project
    • DAM Design Principles Handbook
    • Where in the World Is My Digital Asset? Tool
    • Digital Asset Inventory Tool
    • DAM Requirements Gathering Tool

    2. Dive into the DAM strategy

    Create a metadata program execution strategy and assess current and target states for the organization’s DAM.

    • Break Open Your DAM With Intuitive Metadata – Phase 2: Dive Into the DAM Strategy
    • DAM Roadmap Tool
    • DAM Metadata Execution Strategy Document

    3. Create intuitive metadata for your DAM

    Design a governance plan for ongoing DAM and metadata management.

    • Break Open Your DAM With Intuitive Metadata – Phase 3: Create Intuitive Metadata for Your Digital Assets
    • Metadata Manager Tool
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Break Open Your DAM With Intuitive Metadata

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

    1 Structure the Metadata Project

    The Purpose

    Develop a foundation of knowledge regarding DAM and metadata, as well as the best practices for organizing the organization’s information and digital assets for ideal findability.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Design standardized processes for metadata creation and digital asset management to help to improve findability of key assets.

    Gain knowledge of how DAM can benefit both IT and the business.

    Activities

    1.1 Build a DAM and metadata knowledge foundation.

    1.2 Kick-start creation of the organization’s DAM design principles handbook.

    1.3 Interview key business units to understand drivers for the program.

    1.4 Develop a DAM framework.

    Outputs

    DAM Design Principles Handbook

    DAM Execution Strategy Document

    2 Assess Requirements for the DAM Program

    The Purpose

    Inventory the organization’s key digital assets and their repositories.

    Gather the organization’s requirements for a full-time digital asset librarian, as well as the DAM system.  

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Determine clear and specific requirements for the organization from the DAM system and the people involved.

    Activities

    2.1 Conduct a digital asset inventory to identify key assets to include in DAM.

    2.2 Prioritize digital assets to determine their risk and value to ensure appropriate support through the information lifecycle.

    2.3 Determine the requirements of the business and IT for the DAM system and its metadata.

    Outputs

    Digital Asset Inventory Tool

    DAM Requirements Gathering Tool

    3 Design Roadmap and Plan Implementation

    The Purpose

    Determine strategic initiatives and create a roadmap outlining key steps required to get the organization to start enabling data-driven insights.

    Determine timing of the initiatives. 

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Establish a clear direction for the DAM program.

    Build a step-by-step outline of how to create effective metadata with true business-IT collaboration.

    Have prioritized initiatives with dependencies mapped out.

    Activities

    3.1 Assess current and target states of DAM in the organization.

    3.2 Brainstorm and document practical initiatives to close the gap.

    3.3 Discuss strategies rooted in business requirements to execute the metadata management program to improve findability of digital assets.

    Outputs

    DAM Roadmap Tool

    4 Establish Metadata Governance

    The Purpose

    Identify the roles required for effective DAM and metadata management.

    Create sample metadata according to established guiding principles and implement a feedback method to create intuitive metadata in the organization. 

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Metadata management is an ongoing project. Implementing it requires user input and feedback, which governance will help to support.

    By integrating metadata governance with larger information or data governance bodies, DAM and metadata management will gain sustainability. 

    Activities

    4.1 Discuss and assign roles and responsibilities for initiatives identified in the roadmap.

    4.2 Review policy requirements for the information assets in the organization and strategies to address enforcement.

    4.3 Integrate the governance of metadata into larger governance committees.

    Outputs

    DAM Execution Strategy

    Maximize Your American Rescue Plan Funding

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    • Parent Category Name: Cost & Budget Management
    • Parent Category Link: /cost-and-budget-management
    • Will funding from COVID-19 stimulus opportunities mean more human and financial resources for IT?
    • Are there governance processes in place to successfully execute large projects?
    • What does a large, one-time influx of capital mean for keeping-the-lights-on budgets?
    • How will ARP funding impact your internal resourcing?
    • How can you ensure that IT is not left behind or an afterthought?

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Seek a one-to-many relationship between IT solutions and business problems. Use the central and overarching nature of IT to identify one solution to multiple business problems that span multiple programs, departments, and agencies.
    • Lack of specific guidance should not be a roadblock to starting. Be proactive by initiating the planning process so that you are ready to act as soon as details are clear.
    • IT involvement is the lynchpin for success. The pandemic has made this theme self-evident, and it needs to stay that way.
    • The fact that this funding is called COVID-19 relief might make you think you should only use it for recovery, but actually it should be viewed as an opportunity to help the organization thrive post-pandemic.

    Impact and Result

    • Shift IT’s role from service provider to innovator. Take ARP funding as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create future enterprise capabilities by thinking big to consider IT innovation that can transform the business and its initiatives for the post-pandemic world.
    • Whether your organization is eligible for a direct or an indirect transfer, be sure you understand the requirements to apply for funding internally through a business case or externally through a grant application.
    • Gain the skills to execute the project with confidence by developing a comprehensive statement of work and managing your projects and vendor relationships effectively.

    Maximize Your American Rescue Plan Funding Research & Tools

    Use our research to help maximize ARP funding.

    Follow Info-Tech's approach to think big, align with the business, analyze budget and staffing, execute with confidence, and ensure compliance and reporting.

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

    [infographic]

    Workshop: Maximize Your American Rescue Plan Funding

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

    1 Think Big

    The Purpose

    Push the boundaries of conventional thinking and consider IT innovations that truly transform the business.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    A list of innovative IT opportunities that your IT department can use to transform the business

    Activities

    1.1 Discuss the objectives of ARP and what they mean to IT departments.

    1.2 Identify drivers for change.

    1.3 Review IT strategy.

    1.4 Augment your IT opportunities list.

    Outputs

    Revised IT vision

    List of innovative IT opportunities that can transform the business

    2 Align With the Business

    The Purpose

    Partner with the business to reprioritize projects and initiatives for the post-pandemic world.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Assessment of the organization’s new and existing IT opportunities and alignment with business objectives

    Activities

    2.1 Assess alignment of current and new IT initiatives with business objectives.

    2.2 Review and update prioritization criteria for IT projects.

    Outputs

    Preliminary list of IT initiatives

    Revised project prioritization criteria

    3 Analyze IT Budget and Staffing

    The Purpose

    Identify IT budget deficits resulting from pandemic response and discover opportunities to support innovation through new staff and training.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Prioritized shortlist of business-aligned IT initiative and projects

    Activities

    3.1 Classify initiatives into project categories using ROM estimates.

    3.2 Identify IT budget needs for projects and ongoing services.

    3.3 Identify needs for new staff and skills training.

    3.4 Determine business benefits of proposed projects.

    3.5 Prioritize your organization’s projects.

    Outputs

    Prioritized shortlist of business-aligned IT initiatives and projects

    4 Plan Next Steps

    The Purpose

    Tie IT expenditures to direct transfers or link them to ARP grant opportunities.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Action plan to obtain ARP funding

    Activities

    4.1 Tie projects to direct transfers, where applicable.

    4.2 Align list of projects to indirect ARP grant opportunities.

    4.3 Develop an action plan to obtain ARP funding.

    4.4 Discuss required approach to project governance.

    Outputs

    Action plan to obtain ARP funding

    Project governance gaps

    Build a Roadmap for Service Management Agility

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    • Parent Category Name: Service Management
    • Parent Category Link: /service-management
    • Business is moving faster than ever and IT is getting more demands at a faster pace.
    • Many IT organizations have traditional structures and approaches that have served them well in the past. However, these frameworks and approaches alone are no longer sufficient for today’s challenges and rapidly changing environment.
    • The inability to adaptively design and deliver services as requirements change has led to diminishing service quality and an increase in shadow IT.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Being Agile is a mindset. It is not meant to be prescriptive, but to encourage you to leverage the best approaches, frameworks, and tools to meet your needs and get the job done now.
    • The goal of service management is to enable and drive value for the business. Service management practices have to be flexible and adaptable enough to manage and deliver the right service value at the right time at the right level of quality.

    Impact and Result

    • Understand Agile principles, how they align with service management principles, and what the optimal states for agility look like.
    • Use Info-Tech’s advice and tools to perform an assessment of your organization’s state of agility, identify the gaps, and create a custom roadmap to incorporate agility into your service management practice.
    • Increase business satisfaction. The ultimate outcome of having agility in your service delivery is satisfied customers.

    Build a Roadmap for Service Management Agility Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should create a roadmap for service management agility, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

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

    1. Understand the optimal state for agility

    Understand the components of agility and what the optimal states are for service management agility.

    • Build a Roadmap for Service Management Agility – Phase 1: Understand the Optimal States for Agility

    2. Assess your current state of agility

    Determine the current state of agility in the service management practice.

    • Build a Roadmap for Service Management Agility – Phase 2: Assess Your Current State of Agility
    • Service Management Agility Assessment Tool

    3. Build the roadmap

    Create a roadmap for service management agility and present it to key stakeholders to obtain their support.

    • Build a Roadmap for Service Management Agility – Phase 3: Build the Roadmap for Service Management Agility
    • Service Management Agility Roadmap Template
    • Building Agility Into Our Service Management Practice Stakeholders Presentation Template
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Build a Roadmap for Service Management Agility

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

    1 Define the Optimal States for Agility in Service Management

    The Purpose

    Understand agility and how it can complement service management.

    Understand how the components of culture, structure, processes, and resources enable agility in service management.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Clear understanding of Agile principles.

    Identifying opportunities for agility.

    Understanding of how Agile principles align with service management.

    Activities

    1.1 Understand agility.

    1.2 Understand how Agile methodologies can complement service management through culture, structure, processes, and resources.

    Outputs

    Summary of Agile principles.

    Summary of optimal components in culture, structure, processes, and resources that enable agility.

    2 Assess Your Current State of Agility in Service Management

    The Purpose

    Assess your current organizational agility with respect to culture, structure, processes, and resources.

    Identify your agility strengths and weaknesses with the agility score.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understand your organization’s current enablers and constraints for agility.

    Have metrics to identify strengths or weaknesses in culture, structure, processes, and resources.

    Activities

    2.1 Complete an agility assessment.

    Outputs

    Assessment score of current state of agility.

    3 Build the Roadmap for Service Management Agility

    The Purpose

    Determine the gaps between the current and optimal states for agility.

    Create a roadmap for service management agility.

    Create a stakeholders presentation.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Have a completed custom roadmap that will help build sustainable agility into your service management practice.

    Present the roadmap to key stakeholders to communicate your plans and get organizational buy-in.

    Activities

    3.1 Create a custom roadmap for service management agility.

    3.2 Create a stakeholders presentation on service management agility.

    Outputs

    Completed roadmap for service management agility.

    Completed stakeholders presentation on service management agility.

    Get really good at resilience

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    Why be resilient?

    Well, your clients demand it. And it makes business sense; it is much cheaper to retain a client than to acquire new ones. By all means, always expand your client base; just don't make it a zero-sum game by losing clients because you cannot provide decent service. 

    Although the term has existed since the 17th century, it has only received legal attention since 2020. Now, several years later, the EU and the US require companies to prove their resilience.

    To understand what resilience is, please read our article on resilience

    What does it take to become really good at IT resilience?

    IT Resilience is a mindset, a collection of techniques, and people management focused on providing consistent service to clients, all rolled into one discipline. While we discuss IT resilience, it takes more than IT staff or IT processes to become a truly resilient business.

    Here are 10 themes relevant the (IT) resilient organization:

    Transparent culture

    A transparent company culture empowers its people to act confidently, respond swiftly to challenges, and continuously learn and improve. This builds a strong foundation for resilience, enabling the organization to navigate disruption or adversity much more easily.

    At its core, transparency is about open communication, sharing information, and fostering a culture of honesty and trust. These traits directly influence the various aspects of resilience.

    Client service focus

    A client service focus isn't just about customer satisfaction; it's an integral part of a company's resilience strategy. Service stability and continuous value delivery are the elements that retain existing clients and attract new ones through reputation.  System outages, slowdowns, and errors lead to client frustration and erode confidence. In other words, client service focuses on making sure you are available. Once you have that, then you can look at enhancing and expanding services and products. 

    Resilient systems and processes often also include tools and capabilities for proactive communication with clients. This can include automated notifications during system maintenance or updates, providing transparency and minimizing inconvenience. A proactive approach to communication creates a sense of partnership, and it demonstrates that you value your clients' time and business.

    Adaptability

    Adaptable systems and processes give you the flexibility for rapid incident response and easy workarounds, bringing your service back to the level it is supposed to be at.

    In the bigger picture, when you design your systems for flexibility and modification, you can rapidly adjust to new market conditions, evolving customer demands, and technological advancements. This agility allows you to pivot swiftly, seizing opportunities while mitigating risks.

    In the same vein, adaptable processes, fostered by a culture of continuous improvement and open communication, empower teams to innovate and refine workflows in response to challenges. This constant evolution ensures the company remains competitive and aligned with its ever-changing environment.

    Robust change management

    When you establish standardized procedures for planning, testing, and implementing changes, IT change management ensures that every modification, no matter how seemingly small, is carefully considered and assessed for its impact on the broader IT ecosystem. This structured approach significantly reduces the risk of unexpected side effects, unforeseen conflicts, and costly downtime, protecting the company's operations and its reputation.

    It does not have to be a burdensome bureaucratic process. Modern processes and tools take the sting out of these controls. Many actions within change management can be automated without losing oversight by both the IT custodians and the business process owners.

    Redundancy and fault tolerance

    By having duplicates of essential components or systems in place, you ensure that even if one part fails, another is ready to take over. This helps you minimize the impact of unexpected events like hardware issues, software glitches, or other unforeseen problems. This might mean replicating critical policy data across multiple servers or data centers in different locations.

    Fault tolerance is all about your systems and processes being able to keep working even when facing challenges. By designing your software and systems architecture with fault tolerance in mind, you are sure it can gracefully handle errors and failures, preventing those small problems from causing bigger issues, outages, and unhappy clients.

    Security

    Clients entrust you with valuable information. Demonstrating a commitment to data security through resilient systems builds trust and provides reassurance that their data is safeguarded against breaches and unauthorized access.

    Monitoring and alerting

    Trusting that all working is good. making sure is better.  When you observe your systems and receive timely notifications when something seems off, you'll be able to address issues before they snowball into real problems. 

    In any industry, monitoring helps you keep an eye on crucial performance metrics, resource usage, and system health. You'll get insights into how your systems behave, allowing you to identify bottlenecks or potential points of failure before they cause serious problems. And with a well-tuned alerting system, you'll get those critical notifications when something requires immediate attention. This gives you the chance to respond quickly, minimize downtime, and keep things running smoothly for your customers.

    Monitoring is also all about business metrics. Keep your service chains running smoothly and understand the ebb and flow of when clients access your services. Then update and enhance in line with what you see happening. 

    Incident response processes

    Well-thought-out plans and processes are key. Work with your incident managers, developers, suppliers, business staff and product owners and build an embedded method for reacting to incidents. 

    The key is to limit the time of the service interruption. Not everything needs to be handled immediately, so your plan must be clear on how to react to important vs lower-priority incidents. Making the plan and process well-known in the company helps everybody and keeps the calm.

    Embedded business continuity

    Business continuity planning anticipates and prepares for various scenarios, allowing your company to adapt and maintain essential functions even in the face of unexpected disruptions.

    When you proactively address these non-IT aspects of recovery, you build resilience that goes beyond simply restoring technology. It enables you to maintain customer relationships, meet contractual obligations, and safeguard your reputation, even in the face of significant challenges.

    Business continuity is not about prevention; it is about knowing what to do when bad things happen that may threaten your company in a more existential way or when you face issues like a power outage in your building, a pandemic, major road works rendering your business unreachable and such events.

    Effective disaster recovery  

    Disaster recovery is your lifeline when the worst happens. Whether it's a major cyberattack, a natural disaster, or a catastrophic hardware failure, a solid disaster recovery plan ensures your business doesn't sink. It's your strategy to get those critical systems back online and your data restored as quickly as possible.

    Think of it this way: disaster recovery, just like business continuity, isn't about preventing bad things from happening; it's about being prepared to bounce back when they do. It's like having a spare tire in your car - you hope you never need it, but if you get a flat, you're not stranded. With a well-tested disaster recovery plan, you can minimize downtime, reduce data loss, and keep your operations running even in the face of the unexpected. That translates to happier customers, protected revenue, and a reputation for reliability even amidst chaos.

    Conclusion

    Resilience is the result of a well-conducted orchestra. Many disciplines come together to help you service your clients in a consistent way.

    The operational lifeline of your company and the reason it exists in the first place is to provide your clients with what they need, when they need it, and be able to command a good price for it. And that will keep your shareholders happy as well.

    Time Study

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    • Parent Category Name: Governance, Risk & Compliance
    • Parent Category Link: /governance-risk-compliance
    • In ESG’s 2018 report “The Life of Cybersecurity Professionals,” 36% of participants expressed the overwhelming workload was a stressful aspect of their job.
    • Organizations expect a lot from their security specialists. From monitoring the threat environment, protecting business assets, and learning new tools, to keeping up with IT initiatives, cybersecurity teams struggle to balance their responsibilities with the constant emergencies and disruptions that take them away from their primary tasks.
    • Businesses fail to recognize the challenges associated with task prioritization and the time management practices of a security professional.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • The majority of scheduled calendar meetings include employees and peers.
      • Our research indicates cybersecurity professionals spent the majority of their meetings with employees (28%) and peers (24%). Other stakeholders involved in meetings included by myself (15%), boss (13%), customers (10%), vendors (8%), and board of directors (2%).
    • Calendar meetings are focused on project work, management, and operations.
      • When asked to categorize calendar meetings, the focus was on project work (26%), management (23%), and operations (22%). Other scheduled meetings included ones focused on strategy (15%), innovation (9%), and personal time (5%).
    • Time management scores were influenced by the percentage of time spent with employees and peers.
      • When participants were divided into good and poor time managers, we found good time managers spent less time with their peers and more time with their employees. This may be due to the nature of employee meetings being more directly tied to the project outputs of the manager than their peer meetings. Managers who spend more time in meetings with their employees feel a sense of accomplishment, and hence rate themselves higher in time management.

    Impact and Result

    • Understand how cybersecurity professionals allocate their time.
    • Gain insight on whether perceived time management skills are associated with calendar maintenance factors.
    • Identify common time management pain points among cybersecurity professionals.
    • Identify current strategies cybersecurity professionals use to manage their time.

    Time Study Research & Tools

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

    1. Read our Time Study

    Read our Time Study to understand how cybersecurity professionals allocate their time, what pain points they endure, and tactics that can be leveraged to better manage time.

    • Time Study Storyboard
    [infographic]

    Create a Game Plan to Implement Cloud Backup the Right Way

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    • member rating average dollars saved: $2,000 Average $ Saved
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    • Parent Category Name: Storage & Backup Optimization
    • Parent Category Link: /storage-and-backup-optimization
    • Cloud adoption is frequently driven by hype rather than careful consideration of the best-fit solution.
    • IT is frequently rushed into cloud adoption without appropriate planning.
    • Organizations frequently lack appropriate strategies to deal with cloud-specific backup challenges.
    • Insufficient planning for cloud backup can exacerbate problems rather than solving them, leading to poor estimates of the cost and effort involved, budget overruns, and failure to meet requirements.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

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

    Impact and Result

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    • Cloud Backup Implementation Game Plan Tool

    3. Mitigate the Challenges of Backing Up to the Cloud

    Build a cloud challenge contingency plan.

    4. Build a Cloud Backup Implementation Roadmap

    Perform a gap analysis to determine cloud backup implementation initiatives.

    Infographic

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

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

    1 Evaluate the business case for targeting backup at the cloud

    The Purpose

    Understand how cloud backup will affect backup and recovery processes

    Determine backup and recovery objectives

    Assess the value proposition of cloud backup

    Key Benefits Achieved

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

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

    Activities

    1.1 Document stakeholder goals for cloud backup

    1.2 Document present backup processes

    1.3 Document ideal backup processes

    1.4 Review typical benefits of cloud backup

    Outputs

    Documented stakeholder goals

    Current backup process diagrams

    Ideal backup process diagram

    2 Identify candidate data sets and assess opportunities and readiness

    The Purpose

    Identify candidate data sets for cloud-based backup

    Determine RPOs and RTOs for candidate data sets

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

    Evaluate organizational readiness for targeting backup at the cloud

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Documented recovery objectives

    Recommendations for cloud backup based on actual organizational needs and readiness

    Activities

    2.1 Document candidate data sets

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

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

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

    2.5 Evaluate organizational readiness for cloud backup

    2.6 Identify data sets to move to the cloud

    Outputs

    Validated list of candidate data sets

    Specific RPOs and RTOs for core data sets

    An assessment of the value of cloud backup for data sets

    A tool-based recommendation for moving backups to the cloud

    3 Mitigate the challenges of backing up to the cloud

    The Purpose

    Understand different cloud provider models and their specific risks

    Identification of how cloud backup will affect IT infrastructure and personnel

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

    Understand the client/vendor relationship in cloud backup

    Understand the affect of cloud backup on data security

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Verified best-fit cloud provider model for organizational needs

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

    A strong understanding of how cloud backup will change IT

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

    Activities

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

    3.2 Create a cloud backup risk contingency plan

    3.3 Document compliance and security regulations

    3.4 Identify client and vendor responsibilities for cloud backup

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

    3.6 Compile a list of implementation intiatives

    3.7 Evaluate the financial case for cloud backup

    Outputs

    Cloud risk assessment

    Documented contingency strategies for probabe risks

    Negotiation strategies for dealing with vendors

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

    4 Build a cloud backup implementation roadmap

    The Purpose

    Create a road map for implementing cloud backup

    Key Benefits Achieved

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

    Understand the steps and time frame for implementing cloud backup

    Allocate roles and responsibilities for the implementation intitiative

    A validated implementation road map

    Activities

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

    4.2 Prioritize cloud backup initiatives

    4.3 Assess risks and dependencies for critical implementation initiatives

    4.4 Assign ownership over implementation tasks

    4.5 Determine road map time frame and structure

    4.6 Populate the roadmap with cloud backup initiatives

    Outputs

    A validated gap analysis

    A prioritized list of cloud backup initiatives

    Documented dependencies and risks associated with implementation tasks

    A roadmap for targeting backups at the cloud

    Service Management Integration With Agile Practices

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    • Parent Category Name: Service Management
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    • Work efficiently and in harmony with Agile and service management to deliver business value.
    • Optimize the value stream of services and products.
    • Leverage the benefits of each practice.
    • Create a culture of collaboration to support a rapidly changing business.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    Agile and Service Management are not necessarily at odds; find the integration points to solve specific problems.

    Impact and Result

    • Optimize the value stream of services and products.
    • Work efficiently and in harmony with Agile and service management to deliver business value.
    • Create a culture of collaboration to support a rapidly changing business.

    Service Management Integration With Agile Practices Research & Tools

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

    1. Service Management Integration With Agile Practices Storyboard – Use this deck to understand the integration points and how to overcome common challenges.

    Understand how service management integrates with Agile software development practices, and how to solve the most common challenges to work efficiently and deliver business value.

    • Service Management Integration With Agile Practices Storyboard

    2. Service Management Stakeholder Register Template – Use this tool to identify and document Service Management stakeholders.

    Use this tool to identify your stakeholders to engage when working on the service management integration.

    • ITSM Stakeholder Register Template

    3. Service Management Integration With Agile Practices Assessment Tool – Use this tool to identify key challenging integration points in your organization.

    Use this tool to identify which of your current practices might already be aligned with Agile mindset and which might need adjustment. Identify integration challenges with the current service management practices.

    • Service Management Integration With Agile Practices Assessment Tool
    [infographic]

    Further reading

    Service Management Integration With Agile Practices

    Understand how Agile transformation affects service management

    Analyst Perspective

    Don't forget about operations

    Many organizations believe that once they have implemented Agile that they no longer need any service management framework, like ITIL. They see service management as "old" and a roadblock to deliver products and services quickly. The culture clash is obvious, and it is the most common challenge people face when trying to integrate Agile and service management. However, it is not the only challenge. Agile methodologies are focused on optimized delivery. However, what happens after delivery is often overlooked. Operations may not receive proper communication or documentation, and processes are cumbersome or non-existent. This is a huge paradox if an organization is trying to become nimbler. You need to find ways to integrate your Agile practices with your existing Service Management processes.

    This is a picture of Renata Lopes

    Renata Lopes
    Senior Research Analyst
    Organizational Transformation Practice
    Info-Tech Research Group

    Executive Summary

    Your Challenge

    • Work efficiently and in harmony with Agile and service management to deliver business value.
    • Optimize the value stream of services and products.
    • Leverage the benefits of each practice.
    • Create a culture of collaboration to support a rapidly changing business.

    Common Obstacles

    • Culture clashes.
    • Inefficient or inexistent processes.
    • Lack of understanding of what Agile and service management mean.
    • Leadership doesn't understand the integration points of practices.
    • Development overlooks the operations requirement.

    Info-Tech's Approach

    • When integrating Agile and service management practices start by understanding the key integration points:
    • Processes
    • People and resources
    • Governance and org structure

    Info-Tech Insight

    Agile and Service Management are not necessarily at odds Find the integration points to solve specific problems.

    Your challenge

    Deliver seamless business value by integrating service management and Agile development.

    • Understand how Agile development impacts service management.
    • Identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies when integrating with service management.
    • Connect teams across the organization to collaborate toward the organizational goals.
    • Ensure operational requirements are considered while developing products in an Agile way.
    • Stay in alignment when designing and delivering services.

    The most significant Agile adoption barriers

    46% of respondents identified inconsistent processes and practices across teams as a challenge.
    Source: Digital.ai, 2021

    43% of respondents identified Culture clashes as a challenge.
    Source: Digital.ai, 2021

    What is Agile?

    Agile development is an umbrella term for several iterative and incremental development methodologies to develop products.

    In order to achieve Agile development, organizations will adopt frameworks and methodologies like Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Scrum, Large Scaled Scrum (LeSS), DevOps, Spotify Way of Working (WoW), etc.

    • DevOps
    • WoW
    • SAFe
    • Scrum
    • LeSS

    Get Started With IT Project Portfolio Management

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    • Parent Category Name: Portfolio Management
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    • Most companies are struggling to get their project work done. This is due in part to the fact that many prescribed remedies are confusing, disruptive, costly, or ineffective.
    • While struggling to find a solution, within the organization, project requests never stop and all projects continue to all be treated the same. Resources are requested for multiple projects without any visibility into their project capacity. Projects lack proper handoffs from closure to ongoing operational work. And the benefits are never tracked.
    • If you have too many projects, limited resources, ineffective communications, or low post-project adoption, keep reading. Perhaps you should spend a bit more on project, portfolio, and organizational change management.

    Our Advice

    Critical Insight

    • Successful project outcomes are not built by rigorous project processes: Projects may be the problem, but project management rigor is not the solution.
    • Don’t fall into the common trap of thinking high-rigor project management should be every organization’s end goal.
    • Instead, understand that it is better to spend time assessing the portfolio to determine what projects should be prioritized.

    Impact and Result

    Begin by establishing a few foundational practices that will work to drive project throughput.

    • Capacity Estimation: Understand what your capacity is to do projects by determining how much time is allocated to doing other things.
    • Book of Record: Establish a basic but sustainable book of record so there is an official list of projects in flight and those waiting in a backlog or funnel.
    • Simple Project Management Processes: Align the rigor of your project management process with what is required, not what is prescribed by the PMP designation.
    • Impact Assessment: Address the impact of change at the beginning of the project and prepare stakeholders with the right level of communication.

    Get Started With IT Project Portfolio Management Research & Tools

    Start here – read the Executive Brief

    Begin by establishing a few foundational practices that will work to drive project throughput. Most project management problems are resolved with portfolio level solutions. This blueprint will address the eco-system of project, portfolio, and organizational change management.

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

    1. Project portfolio management

    Estimate project capacity, determine what needs to be tracked on an ongoing basis, and determine what criteria is necessary for prioritizing projects.

    • Project Portfolio Supply-Demand Analysis Tool
    • Project Value Scorecard Development Tool
    • Project Portfolio Book of Record

    2. Project management

    Develop a process to inform the portfolio of the project status, create a plan that can be maintained throughout the project lifecycle, and manage the scope through a change request process.

    • Light Project Change Request Form Template

    3. Organizational change management

    Perform a change impact assessment and identify the obvious and non-obvious stakeholders to develop a message canvas accordingly.

    • Organizational Change Management Triage Tool

    4. Develop an action plan

    Develop a roadmap for how to move from the current state to the target state.

    • PPM Wireframe
    • Project Portfolio Management Foundations Stakeholder Communication Deck
    [infographic]

    Workshop: Get Started With IT Project Portfolio Management

    Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

    1 Project Portfolio Management

    The Purpose

    Establish the current state of the portfolio.

    Organize the portfolio requirements.

    Determine how projects are prioritized.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Understand project capacity supply-demand.

    Build a portfolio book of record.

    Create a project value scorecard.

    Activities

    1.1 Conduct capacity supply-demand estimation.

    1.2 Determine requirements for portfolio book of record.

    1.3 Develop project value criteria.

    Outputs

    Clear project capacity

    Draft portfolio book of record

    Project value scorecard

    2 Project Management

    The Purpose

    Feed the portfolio with the project status.

    Plan the project work with a sustainable level of granularity.

    Manage the project as conditions change.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Develop a process to inform the portfolio of the project status.

    Create a plan that can be maintained throughout the project lifecycle and manage the scope through a change request process.

    Activities

    2.1 Determine necessary reporting metrics.

    2.2 Create a work structure breakdown.

    2.3 Document your project change request process.

    Outputs

    Feed the portfolio with the project status

    Plan the project work with a sustainable level of granularity

    Manage the project as conditions change

    3 Organizational Change Management

    The Purpose

    Discuss change accountability.

    Complete a change impact assessment.

    Create a communication plan for stakeholders.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Complete a change impact assessment.

    Identify the obvious and non-obvious stakeholders and develop a message canvas accordingly.

    Activities

    3.1 Discuss change accountability.

    3.2 Complete a change impact assessment.

    3.3 Create a communication plan for stakeholders.

    Outputs

    Assign accountability for the change

    Assess the change impact

    Communicate the change

    4 Develop an Action Plan

    The Purpose

    Summarize current state.

    Determine target state.

    Create a roadmap.

    Key Benefits Achieved

    Develop a roadmap for how to move from the current state to the target state.

    Activities

    4.1 Summarize current state and target state.

    4.2 Create a roadmap.

    Outputs

    Stakeholder Communication Deck

    MS Project Wireframe